I have rough hands.

After a week back at work on the house, my hands are dry, cracked, and scratched to bits. But if that is what it takes to get this thing done, I can deal with it.

This week we put the addition on that will be the entrance/bathroom/mud room. Of course, we started it on Tuesday and then it proceeded to rain for 2 days. I might add that it hadn't rained for probably 2 weeks and as soon as we put up framing it rains. Go figure. By Friday, Kent had put up the last of the floor joists.

Here is the work we did on Tuesday. A few studs up , top and bottom plates.

Then the rains came and we couldn't get back to it until Friday. Notice the ceiling joists up in this photo.


Rainy weather did make it easy to work inside. We finished installing the floor which is big news. We've had this flooring since January 3. Kent was putting it up little by little, but cold weather and darkness made it hard. Once I had free time, we could work together and really bang it out. It looks great. It still needs to be sanded (though not much) and coated with a protection layer, but that will be done once we get the second floor done.

This is Kent cutting holes in the T-111 so we can extend the flooring outside the main part of the garage. I hope you can tell in this picture that the roof trusses are really low. We had about a foot and half between the floor and the truss, so maneuvering around this stuff was a pain.

Here is Kent peeking out of his newly created opening.
Stay tuned...

daffodil mystique

The daffodils have been up for about a week or so now propelling Athens into spring. The yellow wonders are so ubiquitous and ever lasting that sometimes they indicate where a house once stood. A new highway razes all structures in the way, but the buried treasures don't give away their location until March and go into hiding by June. 

The mystique came as I walked around town yesterday. How does a daffodil know which way to point its golden head. The likely answer is toward the sun, but I have some on the north side of my house that point north. Maybe the shadow of the house gives an indication and the flowers point toward what it thinks is the sun, the unshaded north. In my unscientific, limited observations, it seems that most flowers, if planted near a house will point away from the house, as if it knows where the observer will stand. But one planted in an open field could face any direction but most likely south. I wonder if I dig them up and turn them around will they point the same way or the way I turned them? 

Grow on.

The quarter is over...

Spring is here... and it is time to get busy on the house. 

I finished up my exams this week so I am free until September. So expect more updates. At least I hope to post more. One downfall, our little camera broke (Jeff, maybe you can look at it when you're home) so we only have the big dslr. It takes great photos, don't get me wrong, but it has many professional settings and sometimes I forget to put it on auto mode. Then photos come back out of focus and I don't realize it until I download it, blah blah blah. I came to rely on the dummy mode of point and shoot. One setting, no thinking. 

Also, spring means garden time and I already have my peas, lettuces, and kale in. Apparently, you're supposed to put in potatoes on St. Patty's day. But that may have to wait. I need to get the onions in too. This weekend we are working with our neighbors to establish a joint garden between our homes. More and more people are getting into the "victory garden" mode. I've just always been too cheap to pay for something I enjoy growing. The only thing I consistently buy is carrots because I can't grow those suckers in my lousy clay soil. Maybe in a few years after a bed is established with tons of compost. 

Other announcements, Kent's sister had a baby girl on Tuesday. So congratulations goes out to her and Ethan! In other news, I got a GA position at OU in the office of sustainability. This means I get a tuition waiver and stipend for the year. I will have to leave Hillel though, since I won't be able to work 2 20 hour a week jobs and go to school full time. I am not that ambitious. So starting next year, I will be a student again. Oh boy.