Spring Doldrums

Partially Covered Floors and New Footprints on the Left

Nice Booties!

Concrete Backer Board for the Tile

Inside of Backer Board up close

The white dots are stryofoam cells

Covered with a smoothing coat of Mud

Shelves for the Master Bath Shower

Laying out the tile before setting it

Master Bath Layout for Approval

Easter Sunrise Service. 

That's an Osprey Nest with a Whaleboat and Rowers in the background

I must have jinxed us. Last time I wrote, which was weeks ago, I said there was light at the end of the tunnel. Well, somebody turned out the lights.

Building a house can be a test of patience and an exercise in frustration interspersed with short periods of joy and excitement. And like the stories we read in Junior High School (now renamed to Middle School so I guess kids won’t feel subservient as “Juniors”…) about sailors taking their ships into vast doldrums, our house is sitting smack dab in the middle of one of the biggest doldrums ever seen.

I think what makes it even more difficult is that we are so close. So very close. But not quite there. We’re waiting for subs to show up and finish their final role in this great performance. It’s become agonizingly slow.

After the first coat of poly went down and they laid the Rosen paper to protect the floors and left booties to be worn over shoes, I swear everyone in Town walked through the house without the booties on and made a point of avoiding the paper like an OCD person avoiding cracks (apparently called Trypophobia but I also saw a reference to Plumberphobia). So somebody came in to clean up. Somebody that had never handled a broom in their life. Ever. Most of the dust and dirt was moved from one side of the rooms to the other. The rest was left in curvy patterns of broom bristles on the floor. How clever. Argh! Does it ever end? The only good thing is knowing that before the next coat of poly goes down, they are really going to have to clean.

Fortunately the tile folks came in and started on the bathrooms and laundry room. I wish I could have been around to watch and ask questions. However, that’s the reason they do their work when the owner’s not around. So they can get their work done. Setting tile may look easy on all of those do it yourself shows. But just think; you’re taking this large, square, heavy, flat rock and dropping it onto a layer of wet mud. And you have to make sure that its level, at the same height and lined up with the others. And then you have to repeat that fifty times. Well, being linear (PC for anal) I know I could never do it. Just making sure all of those lines were straight would send me to the Med Farm.

Today, it’s raining here. That dreary, cold kind of rain that makes it seem proper that I’m writing a poor, woe is me blog entry about the house. I can’t do anything. It will be a good day to read, watch a movie and make some popcorn.

I hate it when I’m forced to relax.