Second Time Around

OK! We are set up to pour again Monday morning about 10:30 a.m. so keep your fingers crossed for me. I wish we could have gotten mud earlier but that was the best we could do; I just hope we have enough daylight to get a good slick finish on the slab. I could not arrange a finisher either so looks like me and Allen are going to be pulling double duty. I told him if he would run the troweling machine, I would be the one to get down on my knees and do the hand work. I was able to get everything back together and ready on Saturday so I had Sunday free to work on the inside. I mucked out all the soft stuff and put the plastic sheeting back down. You need to do this anytime you have a slab that is going to be in an enclosed area or you will have moisture wick it's way up through the slab and make the concrete sweat. That causes all kinds of problems. Always use at least 6 mil poly too for this. My rebar is laid out on a 2'x2' grid; all #4 bars. You could use that welded wire that has the 6"x6" grid but I had salvaged this rebar; it's easy to come by. You must put something in your slab though. What most people don't realize is that concrete is going to crack. I don't care what people tell you; it's going to crack and if there is not some kind of reinforcing in the slab, pieces can begin to float up or down and then you've got a mess.
This is the western edge of the slab that will one day (when the other half of the house is built) have a door here. There will be a block wall laid on this edge and since I don't have a footing for that, pouring this edge thick will take care of that. That is a 6" edge form there made of 2x4's ( the slab itself is 4") and we dug out from that form about 8-10" to form a horizontal flat area that slopes up to the normal 4". There are steel drive pins about every 4' behind the edge form to hold in but so much dirt washed behind it also, that thing ain't going anywhere.
We determined the top grade of the slab by measuring down off the bottom of the floor joints. The house is level (yea!) so this should give us a consistent measurement. We drove these rebar pins (at grade) about every 10 feet to give us something to screed to on the dirt bank side. On the concrete block side we just popped a chalk line.
I had to scrap in the rebar since it obviously was not made to order, so that means lots of filling in places and laps. Lap your rebar at least 16". I saved all of the drop from when Charles laid the concrete block and made all those cuts and that is what I am going to use to chair the rebar up with. Works great. Rocks work great too if you don't have anything else. The rebar should sit about in the center of the slab. It's best to leave the rebar laying on the ground and just have the little blocks nearby so you can roll a wheelbarrow over the steel, if you are going to have to do that and I think we will have to wheel just a little of this. The slab is just about 13'x 36' and 4" thick so that's about 5.75 yards of concrete. Hmmm, Allen said he just ordered 5 yards. Going to have to see what size he figured. Do you know how to figure concrete? It's not hard but you have to know how to convert inches to decimals for the slab thickness. Anyway, 5 yards is a piece of cake. The biggest pour I was ever on was only 700 yards. That's 70 full concrete trucks minimum. We worked 16 hours straight that day. Allen has poured upwards of 1,200 yards at one time, I think, when he worked on a cement factory.

There is something always kind of exciting about pouring concrete. On days of a big pour, most of the guys are always in a good, festive mood. I'm not sure why. It's almost like the same kind of excitement I feel when I am firing a big load of pottery. I think it's because you have spent all this time building these forms ( like giant molds) which can sometimes take weeks, and when you pour it's like you are casting your piece of art. We sometimes even have a special lunch or something if a big pour comes off well.

I'll try to have photos soon of the finished slab.

She's No Lady

Any Lyle Lovett fans out there might recognize that title. This is my Grendal cat; I've not shown many photos of her. I don't know why she sits like that. Just kind of plops there like a big sack of flour or something. Allen has many names for her: Toxicat, Grendal the Hut, etc. You might guess he does not like cats a lot.
Not much happening at the house this week. I did go ceiling fan shopping yesterday and then ended up finding a better deal online so I will probably order my fans Saturday. I think I am going to try to pour that slab under the house next Tuesday. My boss said it would be OK to take off from work. I am going to try to stub in the shower this weekend also and maybe do a little more painting. Every little bit helps. Oh, and work on the water system. Ugh.
Speaking of work though, we just had to go through our yearly evaluations for raises this past week and one of the carpenters had a funny story. This was on another job, some time ago. So, our carpenter was walking up to the job trailer to meet with the super about his evaluation, when another carpenter comes out of the office and seems to be a little upset. Our guy asks the other what was wrong. The other carpenter says, " That son of a ***** gave me a '1' on part of my work"! ( we are scored 1-4 on various things). He went on to rant about several things and the unfairness of it all until our guy asked him in which of the categories was this '1'. "My damn attitude! Can you believe that!", the other one replied.

Back On The Inside

With a little money back in my pocket I was able to afford to buy some material for the house since I need to start concentrating more on completing items that will get me moved into the house. So, I opted to get this wall at least closed up and partially finished. This is insulation that, as you might recall, I salvaged off a job last summer. All of the space above that horizontal top plate (2x4) is next to my attic and needed insulating against heat and cold. All the space below that (the actual wall area) I thought I would insulate against sound since I had the leftover insulation. I don't like the idea of standing in the kitchen and hearing the shower run or the toilet flush so maybe this will help. Also, it insulates the bedroom wall which may help some if someone is in there trying to sleep and someone else is up moving around.
We then completely sheathed the wall in 1/2" CDX. Let me stress, this is not finish! This wall will be covered once more in a thin but very nice grade plywood and stained. This finish layer will be run in a very defined, 4'x4' grid pattern so it was either place studs within the wall everywhere the edges of the finish plywood would fall or just put this under layer of plywood up and I could fasten over it anywhere. I think this was less trouble. Also, due to expense, it may be a while before I can afford the finish plywood and this allows me to close the wall up now. There is lots of plywood now everywhere and I'm not liking that much but I just keep telling myself most all of it will eventually cover up.
We also installed the smoke detectors; this is one in the bedroom with it's little shower cap on. You keep those on until construction is completely finished because dust can set these things off and it is really irritating. On the commercial jobs I work on they NEVER have these little covers and the detectors are forever going off until they allow us to tape plastic over them. We also finished filling in all of the water line trench. YEA!
I am having some issues with the house now that it is getting closer to the point that I could actually move in. The recent rains have resulted in a lot of runoff into the spring and really fouled the water system. I think part of this was my own fault for not having the water line trench filled in; the water ran straight to the spring. So, I must put up a silt fence in the next day or two for an immediate fix and then start work on a masonry wall of some sort around the spring to protect against future runoff. The problems with the water system are really bothering me. I have running water but half of the time I can't drink it. I have got to get all of this sorted out soon. How I am going to heat this winter is an issue also and something that must be resolved in the not so distant future. If I can just get the shower functioning, the porch built and the scaffolding out of the living room, I would be happier and I could actually move in. Sometimes it all seems so monumental and I only seem to be making baby steps. Of course, that's better than none at all, I guess.

One Of Those Days

I have been trying to pour this slab under the house for 2 or 3 weeks now. I really need to get it done so that I can move my pottery studio here and give all of the downtown studio back over to Fred for his antique store. This will save me money and hopefully make him some more money but things are not working out right now. It hasn't rained here in weeks and the day before I want to pour..... well, you guessed it. It comes a freaking flood. I had finally gotten a day that I could take off from work, had the concrete set up and was heading to the house yesterday after work to finish tying a little of the rebar etc. when it started raining, so I waited it out up at the apartment. I thought I had blocked or diverted all the areas where water could wash mud down under the house but I was wrong. So, I thought, I can muck all of this out and wash the poly off, get everything put back and still be able to pour. It had not rained so much that I didn't think we would not be able to get the truck up to the house. I worked until way after dark, after working all day mucking around in the mud building forms, and got everything cleaned up and ready to go. Then, I was awaken in the middle of the night by the sound of heavy rain and lightning flashes. We went down to survey the damage when the sun came up and it was just too muddy and sloppy to try it. I do not like getting a concrete truck stuck in the mud. It takes much effort to get them out, so Allen called the plant and cancelled the order; it was just on will-call anyway 'cause we thought this might happen. Then I went on in to work and made a few hours. I'm not doing crap tonight but going to bed early. I have to be at work at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow because we have a big pour scheduled for there. If I sound a little cranky I guess I am. But stuff happens and maybe for a reason. I was not able to schedule a finisher so it might be just as well that we did not pour. Maybe I can get one when we try again. Also, Fred has signed me and himself up for a pottery workshop September 22-23 and we have to take about a dozen pieces of unfired pottery with us to this thing. I don't have anything so I have got to get this area where I can work in it with enough time left to throw something. I'll get it one way or another but it just seems sometimes that it is just one thing after another.
Sometimes I just get so tired I feel like I can't do another thing. I'm telling you this in case any of you are wanting to build your own house. I am not trying to discourage anyone but there are times when you will think, "what the hell was I thinking". And I do this for a living! But then again, I look at some of the amazing things we build at work and think, "this is really a piece of cake, don't be a cry baby".

Big Things That I Used To Build

Excuse the horrible quality of the photo please. It's an old one I scanned and it came out crooked and I really don't have the patience to try for more than a few minutes to fix that. It's just a little token anyway to go along with a story I'm going to tell you. I have been working on the house but don't have all the photos I want to show etc. so I thought that I would answer a question or two that has been asked of me many, many times. FloridaCracker over at PureFlorida asked me this over on his blog but they are questions that are often posed to me by almost everyone who gets to know me at all.
First, "Where does my inspiration or artistic/creative talent come from and my ability for constructing things?" Now, I'm not saying that I have any, I'm just repeating the question.
Secondly, why in the world do I choose to work in the profession that I do since I have a college degree and should know better? This question I will answer in a later post.
Well, my mother is a very good artist and did study fashion design briefly before she got married. My father was an English major after he got back from Korea and enjoyed writing, however, both parents were raised in a time and place where such pursuits were considered frivolous and both abandoned their own talents to pursue more realistic employment. But it really goes back further and I tell you this because I look at the opportunity to meet and talk to other people as a great gift. I love to learn about people and their lives because what we each go through in our own lives is just a small fraction of the human experience. I know I'm telling you about me but I'm hoping that some of you may relate something back to me and we can share some of what makes us who we are. But back to my story.... as far back as I know, it (the artistic, constructive stuff) really came from my maternal grandfather. But he was not my grandmother's husband. That man died a couple of years before my mother was born. He suffered severe migraines and could not get any relief. The medical profession at that time really couldn't offer much, so he decided he could not bear it anymore and shot himself. Granny always told us, and everyone else I guess, that he died in the first World War. Southerners have always been very creative and absolute about covering up any impropriety in the family. My grandmother received some insurance money and used this to buy some land, where my mother lives now, and build a small house. She already had 5 almost grown sons and one daughter. Around this time my grandmother met a man who was a carpenter and became pregnant by him with my mother and her twin sister. I'm not sure about the details as no one in the family will say anything, but Mama's brothers then strongly suggested to the man that he leave the area for good. Everyone told my grandmother she should give up her babies so as not to be stuck with that stain of unwed motherhood but she refused and raised Mama and my aunt anyway. Years later, after a spiteful neighbor made an insinuating comment to my mother, my grandmother told Mama a little bit about the incident and said that the man, this carpenter, was also a very good artist; he would draw pictures of animals for my grandmother and that Mama must have inherited her ability from him. So...it apparently was then all passed to me. I have often wondered if the stigma of the man was also passed to me because I have always been the black sheep of the family, the one that everyone else tries to sort of keep quite about. I wonder, do I favor this man? Do I have any of his looks, personality? I do not even know what his first name was and the one uncle that might would have told me died this past Friday.
As a child I was always building stuff, elaborate dog houses and such,and my mother was good to buy all of us kids any kind of craft kits to make things with. I even had a little, teeny potter's wheel. Could not make anything with that stupid wheel. Anyway, we were all encouraged in the arts until we got up to college age and then you were supposed to study something you could make a living at! I thought about going into architecture but decided I had to do something more hands on so I decided just to get an art degree. This did not go over well and I was told if that's what I wanted, then I could pay for it myself. To be fair, my parents did not have much money to support any more children in school. I am the last of four. So, I just plowed ahead on my own which has become the way I do everything and received a BFA from the University of Montevallo. Now, I tell you all of that because everybody seems to have this opinion that art is something that you are just born with or not but I don't agree. Yes, you must be born with a certain inclination towards it but everything I do, someone taught me. I had to learn how to see just like how to weld and how to use tools etc. But I think one of the most important things I learned from a wonderful college professor, was how to ask myself, " What if....?"

Oh, I forgot, the photo is from my seior BFA exhibition that we were required to present right before we graduated. If I look wore out, I was. I don't think I had slept in about 3 days. I still have that particular sculpture. In fact, it was inspired by my grandmother. It's about overcoming adversity, you know.

Turtleshell!

Actually, this is the whole turtle but that title refers to something else that I'll tell you about in a minute. Neither I nor Allen had ever see a little baby box turtle before. I am guessing that is what this is. If you know better, please tell me. So, we were talking about that one day and then just a few days later, I found this baby in the water line trench. If you ever want to trap you some turtles, dig a long trench. But anyway, so I took some photos of the little guy to show Allen and prove to him that they do start out small. Oh, and this one was full of himself too; he hissed and carried on the whole time I had him.
Construction workers sometimes refer to the hardhats as "turtle shells"; as in, "Put your damn turtle shell on". And if you bend over at the same time as another worker near you and bump hardhats, one of you is supposed to yell a certain, slightly obscene phrase that refers to 2 amorous turtles. We have a lot of weird little rituals and things to pass the day.
The heat now is just staggering. No one can remember it being this hot for this long. As Karen says on her blog, Rurality; work, work, work, hot, hot, hot. Amen. We are in the desperation phase now at work. The boss has brought down 2 big, 55-gallon drums of cool water for us to kind of splash in to cool off. We have tried every kind of sunscreen on the market but we are all burnt to a crisp. We are having to tie our own rebar and drive lots of metal stakes so it's misery to pick anything up. Of course, we wear gloves but it's so hot that doesn't always help. If you work in a nice, cool office....be happy! We enjoy our work though.
When it gets miserable like this, we also tell stories and jokes to pass the day. Often times we work in pairs or small groups so it's easy to talk and work. Today's stories were "Humorous ways we almost cut our fingers off, set ourselves on fire or tore parts of our clothes off at work." I thought I topped them with a "Set myself on fire story" but one of the guys came back with an incident he witnessed on another job. I think it was a parking deck. So, this rodbuster is using a large impact drill on these rebar connectors and wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. Rodbusters are the guys that tie the reinforcing steel and are known for being rough, loudmouthed individuals. Well, something on the drill got caught in the leg of the guy's blue jeans and in the flash of just a couple of seconds, ripped his pants completely off his body. Anthony said all that the guy had left on was the waistband! I would have paid money to have seen that! Wait a minute, I think some people do pay money to see something like that. Anyway, the guy just duct taped his pants back together and kept on working. So.... always keep some duct tape handy and keep those drills away from your legs. The funny thing is, almost everyone I work with has done something similar to this.

Keep It Coming Up

Was that an old KC and the Sunshine Band song or someone else? Am I really showing my age here? Oh well, that song actually came on the radio while I was working and I've always liked it for just goofy, danceabililty stuff. This weekend I started on the rock wall that will enclose the underside of the house. Winter will be here before you know it and I have got to protect those water lines. Plus, I still have not collected enough paychecks yet to buy material for the interior of the house. These rocks are free. For now, I am just going to concentrate on closing up the "basement" and will do the stone planter beds that go in front of the concrete block at a later date after I move in. Got to get the essentials first.
I am sort of dry stacking the stones and trying to fit them as tight as possible. I am using a little mortar now towards the back of the stones so that it will not show on the face. I will go back later and put a parge coat of mortar on the interior side, filling in any voids with scrap rock. This is just a close up so that you can see that I am using anything from large stones down to very small. I really like the contrast of the sizes. I plan to repeat an occasional, very large stone throughout the height of the wall, not just on the bottom like in the first photo, so that the wall looks balanced.
Later on Sunday I mixed up 3 bags of Sackrete that we have had sitting around for a while and filled some of the block with it. I only need to fill the block in front of the columns where those metal ties are, so that's not so bad. Yes, I know, I needed to have had gloves on. Concrete can be very bad on the skin.
Allen spent the weekend filling in the water line trench. Not very exciting but another thing that must be done before cold weather. I have come to the conclusion also, that my filtration system is not working well enough. I am going to have to work on that some more and probably end up buying yet another filter. So far, I just have a spiral-down sediment filter (no cartridge, you just purge it) and one 6-stage filter for chemicals, organisms etc. but the sediment is still getting through. I don't understand it really. I think that the severe drought may be affecting things too.
I will try to post more. Work is pretty rough right now and I didn't do much last week after getting home. The heat just drains you so; I have pretty much let my garden go too. Stay cool!

Latest Buzz

Progress on the house is still going fairly slow so I thought I would just show some other stuff that I have been curious about. You know, they say that the European honey bee is on a fast decline and I have not seen a whole lot of them in my garden this year but I have seen tons of these bees. I have no idea what kind they are and thought some of you might know. These are about 2-3 times the size of a regular honey bee, notice the very large, green eyes, and they have very distinct, black stripes on their hinies that, due to my poor photos, you can't really see. They are very active and sometimes even seem to bully each other for a flower. Then at times, there might be 3 or 4 of them on (or in) a flower and seem to just be napping. I don't recall seeing these type before but that could just be due to my own inattention.
This is a view of the same bee from above so you can see that big, black spot too. They are not fat like a bumblebee; they have the streamline build of a honeybee, just bigger. Is this a mason or orchard bee?
I liked this spider because he just seemed to be melted and poured over that flower, it was so hot. His little legs just flopped over the edges of the petals. He did not seemed to be concerned about not being camouflaged on something green either because he stuck out like a sore thumb on that orange zinnia.
I think today was our 8th day in a row to be 100 degrees or hotter. They are forcasting Wed. and Thursday to be the hottest so far. We had a boy quit at work today; he just couldn't take it. We are setting concrete forms now and that means driving lots and lots of steel and wood stakes. I think this is going to be one of the rougher jobs that I have ever been on. I wish I could show photos of the job but.....
We are going to try to pour the slab at the house maybe Saturday if the plant is open. They are sometimes on the weekends if they have 80 yards or more scheduled. So, I've got to get that all ready in the next few days and I'll have photos of all the details on that. It will still be kinda slow until I accumulate enough money to start buying materials again though.

Update: OK, after getting off my duff and doing a miniscule amount of research, I think the bee is a leafcutter bee. You can go here, https://id408.van.ca.siteprotect.com/beediverse/catalog/gallery.php to see if you agree with me.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Hey! I'm back! I have not burst into a ball of flames and been reduced to nothing but ashes unlike a lot of other stuff around here. It is SO freaking hot. The past 4 days have all been 100 degrees or more and they keep forcasting more of the same for several more days. Everything is burnt up; my flowers, half of the garden etc. Well, I've gone back to work and that has been interesting, especially with the heat. It is just about unbearable at times. I think that it is even hotter where we are working because it is right in amongst all these trains. The locomotives put off so much heat and there is nothing around but gravel and metal. I have never experienced a job quite like this. We had one boy get sick Friday and I heard from a buddy who works for a subcontractor who said they had 2 men fall out on their jobs. One guy was OK and later went back to work but the other one was taken off in an ambulance and last I heard, he had still not regained consciousness. Hopefully, it will cool off some next week.
In the photo above you can see that we have about finished the grading under the house to pour that slab. Allen has to do a little plumbing tomorrow for the washing machine and then I can start putting the poly and rebar down. Not sure when I'm going to pour but I need it to be soon! I'm not really able to do much inside the house right now due to lack of funds. I have done a lot that did not require much money but most of the stuff now is big ticket items, especially the things that will help me get moved in the house like flooring, tile etc. After I get through a couple of paychecks I should be able to resume buying material though.
This is a really cool rock I found today while we were doing some digging and clean up. The fossil part there looks like it was made from a piece of wood. Up close, you can see the grain form the wood and all. I know nothing about this sort of thing though. There were some smaller, similar places on the other side of the rock.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to tell you; we were also swarmed by honey bees at work one day! That was really bizarre! Several of us were working on some forms in one spot and all of a sudden we heard this low, weird noise and looked up. We were completely engulfed in a swarm of bees. They did not go down close to the ground however, so it was just like from the shoulders up. They seemed to just be flying in every crazy direction but still maintaining a cloud formation. We just sort of stood still and watched when we realized they were not going to hurt us and the bees slowly drifted off in a cloud. They seemed to be moving in a definite, straight line also. It was very cool.

These Boots Were Made For Walking

Actually, I think these boots were made more for kicking the crap out of somebody or something. That old song always makes me laugh because when we were little, it had just come out and my sister would stomp around in Daddy's boots singing it. She still stomps around a lot.

If you read my updated last post you know that I am back to work tomorrow so I have been running around the past couple of days getting ready. We have to be drug tested, have a background check, get new steel-toed boots, find all my tools and get them back in order. I cannot say much about this new job other than it is for the railroad. Homeland Security now monitors all that stuff and thus the background check etc. in addition to all the strict requirements from the railroad. I especially cannot discuss much about the job over the Internet. And of course, I get to start back on the day that is forecast to be the hottest day this year. It was 100 degrees in parts of Birmingham today and tomorrow is supposed to be worse and we are working right amongst the trains; no shade anywhere! If I don't post again for a few days just bear with me. Not much has been happening at the house this week due to this and the pour (under the house) has been put off for a week or two. But I'll be making good money again and can buy all kinds of stuff for the house!

I am going to work for a superintendent that I started out with 13 years ago. He (Larry) was the first one to let me come on his job as a apprentice carpenter. It was a 6-story apartment building and I was petrified. The company only wanted me there because it was a government job and it looks really good for them to have minorities. No one thought I would last a week but I finished that job up and kept on. I have encountered a fair amount of prejudice and discrimination over the years in my work but a lot of the men have been very fair to me. Larry has always been good to work for even though I know I have aggravated the crap out of him. He was the super on the second job I was on and we were out in the field one day; I was nailing door block-outs together and Larry was standing very nearby talking to the foreman (my then husband). I zinged a 16-penny double head nail and hit him square in the chest with it. He slowly looked up at me as if I had spit in his face. Now, Larry is a big man; very imposing, especially to a little apprentice girl. I looked frantically around for a piece of plywood, a rock, anything that I could crawl under. I didn't know what to do. He just sighed and shook his head. He has done that a lot over the years around me. Like that other time I caught my pants on fire! But that's another story.....

Why You Should Have Completed Drawings Before....

So you don't have to come back and dig the dirt out by hand when you decide that you want a concrete slab under the house after all. They make these great machines called back hoes that are just wonderful for digging so you don't wake up in the middle of the night with your shoulder and elbow screaming at you for doing this to them. Well, I was in such a rush to get started on the house I wasn't thinking. I knew I wanted a studio at home; I just didn't give good thought to where. For now, this is going to be partially my pottery studio. The washer and dryer will also be down here, until the rest of the house is built and some storage. It's not that bad to dig out if you just don't think about it. You know what they say, just do it! I'm going to try to pour this Friday, or Saturday if the plant is open, so I have got to get on the ball.
Now, this might look bad; Allen sitting on his butt while I'm digging, but he had done most of this by himself while I worked on stuff inside the air conditioned house. This end is to grade and ready for the next step. As soon as I get the rest of it to grade, I'll put a layer of poly down and a rebar mat. This end is where my work area for my pottery and stained glass will be. I found out this past week I can get some free windows to go down here! That will make the area much nicer; being able to work and look out over my garden and flowers. More about the windows later.
OK!, all of you that have not voted on my light fixtures, I want to hear from you. If they look like hammered cat doo, please tell me that too. The BFA actually liked them OK, although he says they should not have any lines on them at all. Just plain globes. What do ya'll think? I thought about that but liked a little detail on them.
As of now, I go back to work on the 13th so it's now a frantic rush to get as much done as possible. Have to go get drug tested tomorrow in preparation as a matter of fact. Whoopee.

Update: I go back to work tomorrow! The 8th. Now, it's a frantic rush to find a pair of size 7 steel-toed boots. Not easy.

This Little Light Of Mine

Ok, here is the light fixtures that I'm thinking of. I took some wine bottles and cut the top and bottoms off so that I just have a cylinder. That was pretty cool; I had never cut glass bottles before. Fairly easy. A friend of mine is a fabulous glass artist and she said I could bring them over to her studio and sandblast them to give them a frosted look. That was fun also.
So then I wanted to add a little detail because I think the glass cylinder itself is a little plain. I took copper foil that you use to make stained glass windows with and ran it around in various designs. The copper is a peel and stick thing and then you go back and solder it to make it a little more substantial. I will then patina it a darker color; like a dark gunmetal color. Ok, so here is where you all come in. Which design do you like best? Going from left to right, far left being #1 etc. Of course, there is an infinite variety of things you could come up with but I'm trying to keep it simple. Keep in mind, I have to make 30 of these. So tell me what you think. Do I have preference? Yes, but I'm not saying.
This is just one I grabbed up and put in the fixture so to see it lit up. They look pretty good. the globe part is about 5 1/2" tall. The fixture itself is a cheap ($2.85) porch light fixture that I installed upside down. And yes, I am using the energy efficient, compact florescent bulbs; 60 watt.
Here it is a little further away so you can get a different feel. This has been taking most of my time yesterday and today so not much else going on at the house. I think I'm getting a little frustrated or burnt or something too. Needed something a little more creative than caulking and painting to concentrate on. This is a quick post today as we are going to Birmingham tonight to attend a gallery opening where some friends of ours exhibit their work.

Toot, Toot!!!

That's me blowing my own horn for a minute! All of you long-time readers of mine will remember back when I worked at the "Big House" in Birmingham. Well, during that job I inadvertently got roped into writing an article for a magazine about the restoration we were doing. They promised money and fame and glory if I would do it!! OK, they promised a little money and a few free copies of the magazine. Anyway, it has finally been published and is out in bookstores now. The magazine is Alabama Heritage and it is put out 4 times a year by the University of Alabama. You can go here, http://www.alabamaheritage.com/ to view the preview and such, just scroll down to "In This Issue" and I think mine is the second story down. There is just a small blurb about the article there, but lots of pictures. Some, you may recognize from here. I am quite excited; the people at the magazine did a wonderful job editing and adding photos. The article is mostly about the history of the house (very colorful) and the restoration process and who all was involved. Actually, the job is still going on; they have begun doing some interior work now I believe. I have actually been in this magazine once before about 4 years ago when I did the restoration on the Sybil Temple in Vestavia Hills, AL. It's a very interesting magazine and they do an outstanding job of presenting information on Alabama's historical places and events.
As far as house news, I don't feel as though I have gotten much done this week so far. Just a lot of touch up on paint and drywall. I am going to try to finish the light fixtures for the clerestory tomorrow. I really need to go back to work next week so that I can start purchasing more material. There are a few things that I can still do that don't require money but nothing that will help me get moved in the house and that is really what I am pushing for.

I found a one-legged frog under the house today. Poor thing, he seemed to be handling it well but it looked like something bit it off. I washed him off with some cool water and put him under a cucumber plant in the garden. I hope he is OK.

I have finally finished the clerestory wall! Wooohooo! I ran all the trim and installed the base of the light fixtures yesterday. Did some touch up on the trim; filling nail holes etc. Oh, I do need to touch up a little paint on the wall where I smeared it putting up one light fixture but other than that, it's done. Now, I just need to insulate the wall on the right (against the attic) and sheath it once and install the ceiling fans (which I don't have and can't afford right now) and I can get rid of the scaffold.
This is just a close up of the windows. I built the picture frame trim down on the ground and then just carried it up in one piece and installed it on the windows. This was easier, given the circumstances of the windows, than taking it up there and nailing it up a piece at a time. The inside trim has the linseed oil/beeswax finish on it. This is all a select pine that has been stained with Olympics new, custom-color premium stains. I really like them. You don't have to use a wood conditioner on soft woods with these stains. You can see in this photo the beginnings of my light fixtures. More about those later. I'm still working on the globes.
On the exterior of the windows I wanted a finish that would hold up to more strenuous conditions so I used a Spar varnish. This is the best type of clear exterior wood finish that looks really great too. This type was rated as an interior version also, so it had very little odor. I expect these windows to be open a lot so I extended the Spar inside on the sashes too. The large overhangs on these windows don't allow much rain to get on the windows but it can happen and during the winter, these windows will receive a lot of harsh sunlight as they are south facing and work to absorb heat for the house.
Allen installed a temporary kitchen sink that he had salvaged out of an old house he has been working on. He loves these old cast sinks but I hate them. It will do for now though. So, the water is working in all the house now; kitchen sink, toilet. No shower yet though. I imagine that the kitchen will be the very last thing to go in so it will be pretty rough for a while.
I think I need to add to my water filtration system too. I have one separate sediment filter now but I think I may need a finer one to help cut down on what goes into the last filter. The filter cartridges in the main one are $100.00 each so I must help extend it's life as much as possible. They said the cartridges should last 3 years but with these heavy rains lately we were getting a lot of sediment out of the spring. We raised the foot valve below the pump to about 4 feet off of the bottom of the spring and I think this helped also. I also need to shock the water system once before we really start drinking it to make sure and flush out any bacteria. At times, the water has sat in the system for a few days without new water being pulled in and it got a little smelly at one point. We try to run the water a good bit every day just to keep things fresh.

I will try to post again soon; it seems like I have been very unorganized lately but I think I am getting back on track. I am kind of running out of things to do that don't require a lot of money so I have been trying to assess things and see what can come next.

Edit: Allen says I have to correct myself about the sink. It is not a cast iron sink but enameled steel. So there.

We're Baaaaack!!

Hey! We are up and running again! We had a thunderstorm here about Monday, I guess, and it zapped the computer even though we have a surge protector and all that. I know I am a moron for not having hard copies of a lot of stuff and I lost most everything. Most of my house photos, files, documents, etc. Anyway, it took a couple of days to get our programs loaded back up after we got the computer back but I am posting again! Quite a bit has been happening at the house. I have finished painting the bedroom and clerestory wall after much touch up. This is a real sagey (sp.?) color. I like it and think it will look good with the natural wood trim. I will start running trim tomorrow as a matter of fact. It's some really nice pine I had leftover from a job so I won't have to buy any of that for a while.
We have set the toilet but have encountered a problem with that. Here, Allen is removing the center of the toilet flange. It's made to pop out like that; they make it in there so that debris does not get thrown down your drain during construction. The toilet is left over from one of Allen's jobs and it's practically brand new. It's been several years since that job and we both forgot why the owners didn't want it. Well, we found out after hooking it up. There is a slight crack in the upper part of the bowl, so it leaks! But, I have various products for repairing porcelain and ceramics so I drained the toilet, let it dry and then patched the crack with a glazing material that you don't have to fire. Should work fine but it has to cure for at least 10 hours so it will be tomorrow before I know if it is OK. But that's what you get when you use reclaimed material. Most of the time stuff is in great shape but sometimes you do have an issue to deal with like that. Some people won't accept anything but perfect stuff but it doesn't bother me. The crack is on the side away from the door and under the seat, so no one will probably see it anyway.
Here we have put the wax ring on, note the kind that has the little plastic ring built in. Allen thinks these are better than just the wax. I know this is just riveting information but I don't have photos of much else! If you have never installed a toilet before though, this might come in handy someday because you never know.......
Allen secured the brass bolts in the toilet flange and then placed the toilet carefully down over them. It helps here if you have someone (me!) guide the bolts up through the holes in the toilet bottom because he was mostly concerned with getting the wax ring in the right spot. Then you press down evenly on the toilet to squish the toilet down over the wax ring. Allen just sits on it backwards; that mashes it down pretty good. Then you put the washers and nuts on the bolts and carefully tighten to snug the toilet down. I grouted under the toilet instead of just caulking because the slate, being natural stone and therefore of varying thickness, left a little bigger gap between the toilet and floor than say, VCT or linoleum would.
Well, hopefully my next post will be a little more exciting or at least more aesthetically pleasing. I am about to start setting light fixtures on the clerestory wall and I am going to be making these myself so you all have to help me and tell me if they look stupid or not. I'll show you what I'm thinking of doing; it's one of the best recycling projects I've come up with. Anybody out there drink a lot of wine?

Houston, We Have A Problem....

Our computer has collapsed; not sure if it is fatal yet. So.... it may be a time before I am able to post again. I'll get back as soon as possible. Lots of stuff going on at the house. Toilet installation, painting, trim work etc. Still laid off from work also. Hope to see ya'll soon!

Crop Circle!

Okay, so mine is not as big and fancy as those other ones.... but they are laid down in the same direction, sorta. And it was real mysterious.....ooh, no footprints!!! and it was pretty muddy in the garden. Something (I suspect a raccoon) came in and just torn the crap out of these 2 cornstalks. Seriously, I couldn't find any prints or anything to indicate what did it. Fortunately it has not returned but I need to complete my fence soon.
Otherwise the garden is doing pretty good. The okra is way up and starting to bloom. Way too many squash. I knew better than to plant 6 hills of yellow and 5 zucchini. I hope to have some watermelons this year though! They are in the back next to the corn. I used composted cow manure and seaweed this year and it seems to be working well. The seaweed is supposed to help the soil retain moisture through very dry periods. Hhhmm,, maybe. I watered some during the drought but not excessively. I have also managed to grow eggplant this year too! I have never been successful at that before and am quite excited. Allen hates it but I love it. He said he never understood why I couldn't grow in in years past because he always watered it for me....if you know what I mean. He better have been joking. Here are a few things I just picked; yellow squash, of course, 8-ball zucchini (great stuffed), my eggplant! I have been getting loads of Lemon Boy tomatoes, a red tomato ( not sure what kind), green beans and my cucumbers are finally starting to go.
Hey, lots of you like puzzles and trying to identify strange objects so here's one for you. Can any of you tell me what these are? I love to collect them but don't think I'll be stringing any on a necklace to wear. They make some even bigger that I want!!

Since The Last Time

I've been quite busy on several projects since I last posted. I believe I mentioned that I completed the final finish on the living room rafters and ceiling. I'll try to get photos of that soon. I spent most of Monday trying to gather material for the house. I was partially successful. I did get enough to install the slate floor in the bathroom though and am very happy with the result. Please excuse the photos however; the color is way off. I have the window in here temporarily boarded up and so the bathroom doesn't get good light.
Well, first Allen installed the Durock over the plywood subfloor. It is 1/2" cement board and he glued it and screwed it down in about a 12" grid pattern. This gives you a very stable surface to adhere the tile to because with stone or ceramic tile ( anything you would grout), you don't want any movement in the floor when it's walked on. We kind of had to piece it as we were being real conservative in buying material so we put that area, in the upper left hand corner, where it will be under the sink.

For the remainder of the project I was on my own! Allen got me started and then went to mow but I wanted to do this myself anyway. I have never installed stone flooring before. So, I got all my slate together and found the pattern. Fortunately, I had presence of mind enough to save this diagram from 8 years ago that comes on all boxes of tile that call for a certain pattern. Now, most real stone setters would probably laugh their butt off at how I did this but I felt it was this easiest way for me. I have no idea of the "proper" way to set stone but that leaves you free to create your own system. Yeah. Ok.....
Next, I just laid out the whole pattern in the room, making sure to center it both ways. I was so lucky that it just worked out right. I had about 1 1/4" margin on either side (against the wall). It fit perfectly long ways. It was like the tile was just made for the room and I had just exactly enough! I drew a control line down one side to keep that straight and checked it for square every so often. There is some humoring in here and there with this. You want it square off your walls for the most part because that is where it will show up. I kept a 1/4" grout joint throughout.

Once I had the entire room laid out and situated like I wanted, I would remove a small section at a time and lay down my thin set with a 1/4" notched trowel, then reset the tiles. Once they are back in place you can float them around some to get them exactly where you want them and make sure that they are pressed down to about the same height. You don't want to press hard on the tiles, their weight will be enough to secure them to the thin set. Also, make sure your floor is very clean before you lay the tiles down because if there is even a small speck of rock or something under one and you step on it, you can break the tile. Obviously, when you set tile in sections like this you have to pay careful attention to which areas you have set and do not get on them!

I had to make several cuts around the toilet flange but that's easy. Make sure that at least some stone or tile is under the flange ( but don't get in the way of your screw holes) so that it is resting on top of the flooring.

I let this cure for almost 48 hours I guess before I grouted it. You could do it after 24 hours but that's just what worked out for me. I finally picked my grout color; what a pain, and mixed that up. I just flopped it out on the floor and then used a rubber grout float to squish it in the joints. Never use a metal float or something like that 'cause you will scratch the stone and drag it diagonally across the joints to screed off the excess. I let it sit for about 15 minutes and then went back with the first wipe down. With very clean water and a big sponge, wipe the excess grout off the tiles. I wiped it 3 times I think, letting it sit until it was starting to form a haze in between each time. At this point, it should be fairly clean but if you keep wiping you are just wiping grout out of your joints. It's going to form a haze but the grout has to cure. I'll go back tomorrow and clean it thoroughly. I thought it came out really well.

I got the paint for the bedroom today so I'll be working on that tomorrow and can soon start to trim out the windows there! Things are going great but I still haven't heard much about when I will go back to work. I love having this much time but I am anxious to start work also for the money. It won't be long that I will need some big bucks to buy material with.

Southern Rain

We are still getting a good bit of rain every day it seems like down here. Plants are going nuts everywhere. The title of this post is a old Cowboy Junkies song. If I were smart enough I could put a link in so that you could hear part of the song but as it is, you'll just have to Google them if you want to. Great band though. The song starts out with the husband saying, "looks like a storm cloud coming, honey, guess we'll have to stay in bed today". It goes on about other stuff and then she ends the song saying you'll never catch her complaining about too much southern rain. I wouldn't either.
I don't think I have shown a picture of the exterior of the house in a while. Not much has changed there. All of the block that is going to be laid is there though. Charles came this past week and finished that up. This photo looks kind of messy though; I need to do a good clean-up. Lots is happening on the inside of the house though. I finished the ceiling, hallelujah!!!! We are going to be installing the slate floor in the bathroom on Sunday. More walls are primed and ready for finish paint.

The pump house is much further along but not quite finished. I still need to roof it and put a door on. At some point it will get a floor too. I am going to build 2 small retaining walls on either side of the trail leading up to the door also and backfill all that so most of the concrete you see here will be covered up. The pump and tank continue to work great in this location. It is better we moved all this down here as it turns out because this equipment is louder than we thought it would be and if it stayed under the house you would definitely be hearing all that.

Hopefully, the slate floor will go well tomorrow and I'll try to get some more inside photos up.

A Slow Go

Man, this is taking forever to put this oil and beeswax finish on. You can see in the above photo the difference in the color of the wood after the application. Part of this has just been put on; it does seem to lighten somewhat after it cures for a couple of days. The rafter tails have been stained but you can see that better in the next photo. You have to keep the oil/beeswax fairly warm also for easier application so that has been a challenge. At first I just heated a small amount in the microwave and carried it up the scaffold with me but then I remembered that I had an old, mini crock pot that I got at the thrift store for when I thought I was going to make some candles. I took it up the scaffold and ran an extension cord up there and just keep it full of the mixture. That works really well. Even though I am trying to apply the oil very sparingly, some of it still drips on me. My hands and arms are getting really soft from having this stuff on them so much.

This is a closer view of the stained and waxed rafter tails/rafters. I wanted the tails to look more like they were just another type of wood rather than having a heavy stain on them. I think it looks good. We'll see what the BFA says; I sent him photos this afternoon. I think he will hate it.

I'm not sure if you can make out what this is or not; it's not the best photo. I was trying to show the entire rafter tail, inside and out. I have gotten a lot of hits on this site for people looking for adding tails to rafters. I thought this shot might make it more obvious what we did. This is taken as I was looking up through the window. The main rafter (and what's really bearing the weight) ends inside the wall. The exterior tail is sort of capped over the end of the rafter and extends inside the house also. Now, this made the cost of each rafter just about double but, I don't have fascia or soffit board to buy since my tails are decorative so I save there. I could have just scabbed a fake tail on one side of the rafter but that doesn't look very pretty or substantial and is why most people cover it up with soffit.

I'm hoping the ceiling here will be done by the weekend and we should start the bathroom floor in the next day or two. Not much else happening. It has rained almost every day here for the past week I guess. The spring is up and I have squash out the wazzoo.