Things seem to slow down. We received the manufacturer's sign off on the beam penetrations. Our engineer wasn't satisfied with the calculations so they went back to the manufacturer. The manufacturer explained their methodology, apparently to the satisfaction of the engineer, and everything was sent to the City for approval. This all took about a week after we received word of the manufacturer's sign off, delaying sheet rock by another week, sigh.
Things seem to slow down. Cedar siding work continues. It is beautiful! Stained with two coats (both sides) of Benjamin Moore semi-transparent in Fairview Taupe, it is exactly the color we wanted. But weather, sick-time, project challenges and general fussiness (which we appreciate) has made the cedar siding take much longer than Brian had planned. So close, sigh.
Things seem to slow down. Beth was supposed to meet with Brian and the tile installer on a Tuesday at 8 am, then Wednesday at 9 am. Finally on Thursday, sans Brian, Rueben and Beth went over the layout of the primary bath tile, made a bit more complicated due to shear walls, sheet rock meeting up with tile and tile baseboards while trying to keep everything on the same plane. Rueben hoped to start prep-work last week before sheet rock - install the Schluter edging, cement board, etc. Demands from a job he is finishing in Manzanita kept him busy and it just didn't happen, sigh.
Things seem to slow down. When Hank isn't on site Rob can't wrangle the large cedar siding planks by himself, so he looks for other tasks to complete. Including the door to the crawlspace on the north side of the foundation. Really nice, right? The vent was required by the city as a condition for the foundation inspection approval. "Need vents in crawl space door due to not have a foundation vent within 3ft of the corner. Special consideration made due to height of foundation walls." Who knew?
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| Stairwell looking north |
Things seem to speed up! We received final framing inspection approval from the City. Foam insulation was applied in the overhang under the kitchen and bat insulation installed the next day. On Thursday the sheet rock guys showed up. We had expected they would take several days to level the wall planes and shim. And they did the work. But because Brian and his crew worked hard to make sure everything was plumb as they were building the house there was very little the sheet rock crew had to contend with. They were able to sheet rock the entire house in two days!
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Living room looking east
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| Living room looking north from the kitchen |
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| Butler's pantry (Beth's cubicle) left, refrigerator and pantry, right |
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Stairwell looking west from living room
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| Primary bedroom looking north |
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| Primary bath shower looking west |
Things seem to speed up! In order for the tile installer to install the linear drain in the shower Brian had to take the drain system off test (finally). That meant draining the entire system without benefit of a sewer connection. The plumbers stopped by before sheet rock to provide a connection to the drain system for the shower drain. While they were there Brian had them install the hose bibs on the second floor balcony and in front of the house.
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| First floor bedroom (Scott's den) looking south |
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| First floor bedroom looking north |
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| Entry way with brackets for floating bench |
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| Laundry looking north |
Things seem to slow down. Our new contractor for the water main we are generously (if under protest) installing on the 400 block of Jerome met with the City Public Works department on site to go over the plan and discuss "potholing" and whatever engineers and contractors discuss to make things happen. The Public Works guys were all thumbs up. The contractor started this last week potholing to make sure the lines were where they expected them to be. By 11:30 the City Building Department sent a cease and desist email insisting that no work, including potholing, be commenced before right of way permits were in place and a sub-meeting was completed. Brian was not happy, sigh.
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| January 2024 ice storm |
Things seem to slow down. On Saturday, with temps in the 20's Astoria had a full-on ice storm. With continued daytime freezing temps the city and county have now been shut down, streets impassable, for three days. Today the sheet rock guy was to pick up all the excess sheet rock and his taping crew was supposed to start. Nobody was going up the hill today. Tomorrow we are supposed to meet with the painter at 2 pm. We'll see what happens, sigh.
