NEW DUNBURY

No way! Way. We had morning and afternoon visits from the floor guys, who said they have applied the top, final coat. Woo Hoo.

In the AM, I repainted the exterior window trim bits on the “ground floor” windows, making them the color that we had wanted in the first place and not what communication issues had left us with. I didn’t have a ladder that I could manipulate that would let me reach the “upper” windows.

Why the quotation marks? Because, in this case, ground floor windows means the windows I could reach from the ground, which is lower behind the house than in front. So that’s basement windows in back and main floor windows in front and on the front half of the east side. Had I been able to go inside, I could have taken care of the most of the other windows by leaning out of them, but with the floor guys doing their thing, that wasn’t an option. Maybe later. What I did get done finally looks “right.”

In the PM, I worked in the garage and cut window and fixture holes in the plywood I trimmed yesterday for the workshop (still need two more sheets). I also cut pieces for the rest of the storage room’s north wall (still need to do its east wall) and trimmed a couple of pieces of sheetrock scrap for the loft’s north wall (to fit under the sloped ceiling.)

All that cutting sent excessive vibration through my arms and shoulders, resulting in one sore and tired fella.

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So, I go over to the house this morning and, taking advantage of the expected late arrival of the floor guys and the theoretically dry stain on the floor, putter about putting a extender bar/stop on Liz’s special window, uncoupling the hoses on the washing machine so I can install the uninstalled cover for the plumbing connections and assessing the situation in the garage regarding covering the insulation on the exterior walls. All this was done while waiting for the flooring guys to show. Lunch time comes, the floor guys do not.

I go back to the rental house and call our project manager, leaving a message. He calls back to say they are over there now. Cool, says I, when he says we’re still on for only the one day delay on getting back in. After lunch, I return to the house. No one is there. Hmmm.

About 1:45 floor guys show up. By 4 PM they are gone. It looks like they finished the staining and did a first coat of finish, although it’s hard to be sure about the last.

I spent the afternoon shifting plywood and OSB sheets in service of covering those exterior walls. This is all leftover and salvaged stuff of varying sizes and thicknesses. It’s not high quality, but it’s paid for already.

I got plywood for the north and south walls of the workshop cut and cutout (for window and receptacle boxes.) I cut all seven of the thinner sheets of plywood to size for the west wall of the workshop. It’s not quite enough. We’ll need another full sheet and some of the offcuts to finish the wall. Tomorrow I’ll work on the cutouts.

It looks like we have enough OSB for the north wall of the storage area. We’ll need two more sheets of it, or something else, for the east wall of that space.

The rest of the exterior walls will get sheetrock, some installed by the sheetrock guys (as I couldn’t really figure out a good way to get the high gable end and install it myself) and some by me. The wall separating the storage area from the main area will also need to be dealt with, and that will involve shifting the timbers stacked a little too close to the studs to let sheetrock slip in behind them.

When I was wrapping up, the countertop guy shows up, wanting to make final measurements for the last pieces of stone (on the measure thrice, cut once theory). The (theoretically) wet floors mean that no one should be walking around in the house, so he can’t get to the bathroom. If I hadn’t been there to wave him off, he might have tromped through to the detriment of the floor finish. It’s a good thing I had taken advantage of the lovely weather to wander a bit and assess some landscaping thoughts after closing down for the day rather than going straight back for a hot shower.

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’cause he’s not there today. The work is not advanced from our chance encounter with him on Saturday morning. I hope this doesn’t mean pushing the move-in day back more.

In other news, we now have a mailbox emplaced (though the ritual placing of the numbers remains to be done) and I have my Home Business permit and county business license, so as soon as I move in I can get right to work. Right. After a lot more house work.

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… on Thursday, and he, being a day late, says he won’t be done for an extra day. That would be the day the carpenters are expecting to come and “finish up inside the house.” Conflict of schedules, it looks like to me. Bottom line: I expect Move-In Date must, perforce, move by a day.

They did finish the sanding and were preparing to stain when I left yesterday. He said the stain would take 24 hours to dry, so we might be able to sneak in and check it out Sunday if we get back early enough.

I started my day cleaning sticky labels off more windows and taking tape and packing stuff out of kitchen appliances. Then, to get out of the way of the airborne sanding particles, I moved outside to the lovely weather.

More rock shifting was on the agenda. I attacked the Big Pile o’ Big Rocks (TM), shifting many with much application of leverage and not a little bit of brute strength. Dirt-covered rocks is just not a look I like. Bones-of-the-earth-sticking-up-through-the-dirt rocks, on the other hand, are cool. So, dirt has to go and rocks have to get moved. Maybe a third of the pile got moved. I broke my 2×4 lever, but kept using the stub. The big accomplishment was raising a standing stone to mark one edge of the intended rock pile. It would have been easier with a helper, but I managed; I can lift or brace, but apparently not both at once very well. Rocks and levers and a little dirt digging and a fair bit of muscle and patience for incremental movements is where it’s at; just like those guys on Salisbury Plain, I didn’t need any extraterrestrials in flying saucers to provide the engineering oomph. Muchly sore afterwards.

It was also ornithology day on the grounds. As I pulled up, a hawk was lofting over the property. Two egretty-birds (with possibly a third in the far distance) sailed southwest to their feeding grounds. A pileated woodpecker spent some time working a tree next to the house. A pair of titmice, after being indignant with me for standing at the French doors when they wanted to land on the west deck, cruised the clearing and spent some time checking out the inside of the garage. There were a few other, unidentified birds. The last sighting came when I was dead tired from shifting rock. I looked up to see a buzzard circling directly overhead. I think he was riding the thermal form the rocky area, but maybe he was just being hopeful. I went back to a late lunch and left him without his.

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A day late, but they came and started the sanding. They showed me a sample of the stain they will be using. I hope it will look like the sample when all is done.

Me, I ran some errands and played with some rocks.

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