Restart Button

This is where we left off on in last post.  A couple days went by and...

 then the restart button did what a restart button does, and we were off to a fresh start.

 With three guys on the job, the project was in third gear.

The decking boards came off and insulation and plywood went down in it's place.

Scaffolding was set for the next phase.

Framing of the south wall was secured in place and the window openings approved.

That was a Friday, so here we are waiting in place for Monday to arrive.


Monday turned into a half day because of rain overnight.

The roof got some extra support.

All those cross pieces on the pergola...

ended up on the ground.

The roof was ready for plywood.

As you can see here, the roof is now covered and the east wall has been framed.  Going into a six day wait for available crew to proceed.

Dan moved forward on his own as the six day wait for a crew turned into a 14 day wait.

He framed the opening and installed the door.  Yay!  No more plywood blocking the opening.

In the meantime I started thinking about how the exposed portion of the porch ceiling should look.  It's really the first thing you see when you look up from ground level and the thing most people see walking or driving by the house.  I felt it deserved a little something extra.  Still have to run this by Dan to see if there are any reasons why this can't be done.

GOOD WEATHER report for Monday.  Can't wait.

Yes, good weather for a trip to the dump.  Dan loaded his pickup truck to the max and we got rid of the large pile of lumber in the yard.  The rest of the crew got tied up on an emergency job so it was a short day.  Sad to let the beautiful weather slide by but it is what it is.

Tuesday Dan showed up with a suggestion for that porch ceiling shown above and a pile of kitchen cabinet doors.

I spent  a little time making another drawing and then laying it out on my dining room floor.
I think we have decided to give it a try.

Each door had one screw hole that had to be filled and they all needed to be sanded. A beautiful Sunday afternoon allowed me to get that completed.  And...

washed and primed too.

I also spend two days chasing from one big box store to another in search of composite decking boards and vinyl flooring, I checked out 4 different Home Depot locations only to come away empty handed. 
I did find something I liked at Outdoor Living.  I will find out tomorrow how long it will take to actually get it.  Seems like the company is moving their business from one state to another and there might be some delay.  I haven't given up on miracles and could really use one.  No decking means another slowdown and November can be rather unpredictable weather wise, so...not good.

ONE WEEK LATER:
A lot has happened since that remark about November weather being unpredictable.  By that I don't mean a lot was accomplished on the job.  Remember Mercury is in Retrograde from Oct. 31 to Nov. 20th which explains some of the confusion but not all of the craziness. I did find out the decking boards would take two weeks. However that is of little consequence at the moment.  On Nov. 7th my brother was setting up a narrow scaffold to fit in the space between my porch and the fence between my property and my neighbor on the west.  He fell from the top of the scaffold into the neighbor's yard and cracked two ribs falling onto an urn in their yard.  We are all very grateful it was not something worse, but cracked ribs are extremely painful and the recovery takes a long time.

My nephew and his workers will be able to get the siding up so that the structure is enclosed for the winter.  In fact that was the plan for yesterday until...

we went from 66 degrees on Sunday to freezing rain and 2 inches of snow on Monday.  Top that with frigid temperatures and here we are on Tues. morning at about 19 degrees.  I'm signing off until there is good news to report.