Saturday, January 16, 2021

House to Home, Volume 14 - Elevated

A few things happened during the week our intrepid builders were off at a different job site.  On Friday, December 4th, just as I put Roxie in the car to take her to a vet appointment, an ENORMOUS trailer came down the road and sure enough, it stopped at my driveway.  This thing was the equivalent of an 18-wheeler (technically it was - I counted the wheels) and let me tell you, the driver was a wizard.  He BACKED into my driveway in one shot.  One.  It was soooo impressive.  My trusses have arrived in style.

I couldn't stay and watch him unload that pile, but here's how it added to the guest room window view on the 5th:

We did, of course, go outside to give them an up close and personal inspection.


Roxie is quite fashionable in her neck gaiter.  My little babushka.  Without it she looks like a war victim - her head and ears are wrapped up in a bandage to keep her ear from flopping around while the vet treats an aural hematoma that happened two days before Thanksgiving.  Side note:  this is the early stages of running a dog hospital in my living room, which is not optimal when only half your house is still standing.

Nothing happened on Monday the 7th and turns out that was the calm before the storm.  Tuesday the 8th I took Roxie back to the vet for a follow-up ear appointment and they discovered she also had a badly broken canine tooth that was actively bleeding, which I'm pretty sure happened in the morning while she was at work with me and was occupying herself with a bone.  When I took her home after the vet I discovered more materials had been delivered.

Yessirree, we've got ourselves a floor system, which is awesome.  We also have our water down to a trickle again, which is not awesome but will hopefully be resolved before I get home from work.  In the afternoon I emailed with Michelle at the garage door place and picked out my door, which is going to be awesome.  Then Michelle told me it won't be delivered until April, which is so very not awesome.  'Twas a day of major ups and downs, that ended with the dog hospital kicking into high gear.  There was lots of panic and blood and me sleeping on the living room floor with Roxie and a very confused StanLee, having sacrificed two bath towels, almost all of my kitchen towels, most of the dog blankets, a comforter and four couch pillows, not to mention the entire actual couch.  When they said "active bleeding" they were not kidding.  I went back and forth between lamenting the fact that we currently do not have on-site laundry facilities and questioning my ability to competently adult.  It was pretty rough.

Wednesday the 9th was the second time in a week there was a truck in my driveway that had one of those crane thingies on board, but this one was way smaller.  I stood on a chair to take a picture through the little tiny window in my dining room - it's the guy setting my new propane tank.

They can't trench the line until we're a little further along in the build and Jason, the plumber, decides where he wants to install the regulator.  Right now there's a temporary tank behind my house that's hooked up to the Rinnai in the living room.  Since the ground is frozen (and there's a pile of trusses in the way), the fuel company will probably end up delivering a couple more temporary 120 gallon tanks -  they call them snowmen - and hook up the permanent one in the spring.

Also today I found out my garage door will be arriving in six to eight weeks instead of in April.  That's a huge relief.  Here's what it will look like.

I've changed my mind so many times about exterior colors and finishes but now I've committed to a black garage door to match the black roof.  Although I told Bryan today that I can't afford the second floor since I'm giving all my money to the vet, so we may never get to the roof.

The next couple of days I was home with Roxie to make sure she didn't get worked up over the construction activity so I got to see progress in real time.  Here's the guest room window view at 9am and again at 12:20.



Whoa.  By 2:15 they had worked their way around to the other side - here's what I saw out the upstairs hallway window.

I feel like such a creeper taking pictures through the windows while they are working.  But crap - look what they got done in one day.





All the floor joists - super duper exciting.  Here's Friday the 11th at 8:45 from the guest room.

And just to keep it real, here's the view from my bathroom window.

Awkward.  Checking out the hallway window at 10:45 I saw this.

And guys guys guys, at the end of the work day Bryan asked if I wanted to check out the upstairs.  OF COURSE I DID!  Up the ladder I went and here's my first pictures of the new second floor.


HOW CRAZY IS THAT!?!  I have a second story.  I commemorated it with a sunset guest room view at 4pm, through a very dirty window.

I'm going to be up and down that ladder quite a few times, just because I can.  Here's what I posted on Instagram on Sunday, December 13th.

Sitting here in my new paint office at 3pm, still wearing my pajamas, soaking it all in (literally - it rained today and the floor is wet).  The view will change next week because *walls* but that afternoon light will stay the same.



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