2 steps forward...10 steps back...aaarrgh!

Meg and I have been working our buns off, as usual, getting the soffits installed and the boards and batten cladding on the outside of the unit. This project involves a lot of measuring, sawing, painting and tacking, with a little paint touch-up to finish each day. It's time-consuming but well worth the effort. We are getting the thumbs up from all the people who pass by...it's very refreshing and encouraging.

Due to a few questionable structural flaws from our infamous ex-builder, finishing the back porch was another exercise in frustration and ingenuity. As we encounter the construction hiccups, Meg and I discuss the options and come up with solutions that we feel work well. We added a 'glass-block'-patterned window to provide a little bit of privacy at the back door (it still needs to be trimmed out) and some shakes to dress up the gable. If you look closely you can see the 'M' in blue trim under the gable peak.

We also poured a concrete pad and installed the back stairs. It has taken a week to finish this side...with one day to tidy up the job site and the workshop. Meg can't do chaos!

On Saturady, as we were working outside, Meg noticed what looked like a roofer on our neighbour's roof. Since she had a niggling feeling that our roof job was sub-par, she called the fellow over to give us a quick inspection...which he did. We expected that there were a few obvious errors - uneven rows of shingles, uneven thickness of shingles, uneven edging, et al - but we didn't expect the final verdict which came today...our brand new 3000 square foot roof had to be redone completely. On Saturday, Hector, the new roofer, thought he could bandaid the roof to make it through any rough winter storms but on closer inspection he found more major errors. It became shockingly apparent that no one read the installation instructions on any of the 90-some bundles of shingles. The idiot with the nailer nailed in the thin section of each shingle rather than the thicker nailing portion. He stuffed in portions of shingle without nailing, installed the starter strip upside down and backwards, overhung the shingles on the edge so that a big gust of wind would rip them off, and to top it off, lined up the shingles instead of staggering them...a surefire ingress for water. The new roof job starts in a week. Aaargh!

Chores...

As Meg and I installed the first sheets of drywall we made the discovery that our incompetent ex-builder neglected a few things - following plans, measuring, using a square and setting studs to 16" centres. All of these deficits make it extremely difficult and frustrating to place heavy, awkward 4 x 8 foot sheets of drywall on a ceiling or wall and to find suitable framing to attach them. 16" centres are the standard for a reason, as are plumb studs. Oh well...it just makes our life a little more interesting...not!! Fortunately for us, Meg rented a drywall hoist - a nifty device on which a sheet of DW in positioned. Cranking the wheel coils a wire rope that raises the sheet upward on a extension post. It even tilted to accommodate our vaulted ceiling. What a godsend! We got both ceilings up in a day.

Another day for the OSB in the covered deck...not quite as much fun - major manipulation was required to fit wood to framing...sawzalling overhead, i.e. lots of sawdust and sweat. Did I mention that the temperature was ~40C?

Drywalling the walls could have been easier with straight studs but we accomplished it without too much stress. Again, the outside temperature was ~40C...but we were inside with the AC cranked up.

Meg had to head off to Victoria so I am tackling mudding the DW. I've tried it before in the house on Ash Street where Meg was around to supervise me. I would have to say that mudding drywall is not one of my favourite tasks. Maybe if precise smooth joints and squared corners were not the standard I could be a little more creative with the mud. I'm thinking that round corners could add a certain amount of charm to the room and who's to say that the joints/seams cannot be sculpted...hmmm? I'm not quite there yet... I have covered all the screw and nail heads and have got the first layer of mud on the tape. Tomorrow could be the creative day depending on how I manoeuvre the trowel :0)

To get away from drywall, today I headed outside - the temperature was reasonable at ~20C. Meg and I had picked up a colour palette at Rona which we thought would look good on the 'house'. After painting 80 sheets of plywood with 'Overboard' (the lighter blue) and nailing it in place, we came to the conclusion that it wasn't exactly the colour we wanted (the house kind of looked like a a rectangular robin's egg with a roof) and decided to go with the much darker 'Monsoon'. It's surprising to see the difference from the paint chip to the actual surface in daylight. So today, with roller, paint pole, tray, and 20 litres of Monsoon in hand, I headed outside to repaint the plywood siding.

It was great to be outside. Periodically, for my entertainment, jets and some other very loud aircraft from the Abbotsford Air Show blasted past. I caught a glimpse of the Snowbirds above the trees.

Neighbours stopped to shoot the breeze and to share their opinions on the colour choice (all favourable). I'm glad we switched colours...the darker grey-blue 'Monsoon' works really well with the chocolate trim and white windows. It's going to looks really sharp when complete.