Kate’s allegedly a human (although increasingly right-wing bigots would say otherwise). She’s definitely not a vampire, despite what some other people claim. She’s also mostly built out of spite and overcoming oppositional-sexism, racism, and other random bullshit.
So she’s either a human or a lizard in disguise sent to destroy all of humanity.
Either way, she’s here to reassure that it’s all fine.
-
The unlaid plans of mice and women.
So, let’s start with the way things were ‘meant’ to work out. We had a plan that looked like this: Knock down high spots on filling Rough coat of plaster (with mesh embedded) Skim coat plaster (walls and ceilings) Simultaneously: Pour foundation for garage Arrange for garage to go up shortly after plaster is dry…
-
A Job is Complete!
It’s taken nearly 2 years of (intermittent) work. Every single piece has been planed by us, cut to length, drilled and hand nailed with stainless steel nails. But it is done. The cedar is on the house. And it looks fucking awesome. Now we just need to cut, paint and put up the battens. Then…
-
Well, it’s been a weird month
So, part of the long silence is that I went over to the UK with my Transport Evolved hat on, to attend Fully Charged Live. Which was very cool; and I got to see lots of fun things, which were made somewhat less fun by having a manky cold. Which reached it’s zenith right in…
-
Sort of a weekend off
So, we’re waiting to talk to…[drum roll please]…a possible plasterer. We got put in contact with a local person who works with lime plaster (and got a local source for a premixed product). We’re going to talk on the phone tomorrow (he’s in a low-signal area now). And then – assuming the price isn’t terrifying…
-
And back to the wall of a thousand nails.
So while we wait, optimistically, for someone from an eco-plaster place to contact us*, I’ve moved back outside. Well, for the most part. Inside we’ve given the main bathroom a coat (or three) of waterproofing. It is, of course, hideous and probably environment destroying (although the safety data sheet basically says it’s not really terrible…
-
Plumbing depths while we wait.
We’re still waiting on quotes. More accurately, we’re still waiting on finding a plasterer who’ll even consider us. We want smooth, natural plaster. Although we’ve tried to get quotes for regular smooth plaster, we’d prefer lime. Finally today we actually got a possible step forward, with a local guy who trains lime plasterers who’s passing…
-
On being quietly exhausted
Every day, pretty much, for the past year and a half I or We have gone to the house to work on it for some, or all of the day. If we don’t, it’s because we’re at work at our jobs. Or because we’re trying to keep our apartment fairly pleasant (and broadly succeeding, although…
-
The impossibility of walls
So things are gradually progressing. After a mere 5 coats (5!) our front door is adequately painted. I realised after about the 3rd coat with pathetic coverage that we really should have sprayed it. Of course, the challenge would have been getting a colour match for the colour we’d chosen… Or, I suppose we could…
-
Looooong drive
So, okay, by USian standards it wasn’t Long. And actually, even by UK standards it was a perfectly acceptable drive. However, the loading of all the offcuts of drywall from the house* into my father in law’s pick-up, having borrowed the pick-up from his house (the other side of Oly), then driving up to Tacoma…
-
It’s not really about how long it takes, but it’s about how long it takes.
There’s a sort of wilful battle going on. We want to finish the house, soon, really. It’s not cheap to rent a place and pay the mortgage on another. And I know we’re insanely lucky to be able to afford that (albeit not indefinitely). But the jobs we have left to do (beyond things like…