Perry and I finished installing the soffits, then put two coats of latex enamel satin finish paint on the fascias, feature strips, and the soffits. The first two could be done standing up; the soffits had to be done lying down, scooting along on your back after every two feet was painted, which sounds a lot easier than it was. Tammy Walsh came over to give me her invoice for guiding the car turnaround area retaining wall construction. First bill I’ve gotten in months that was less than I had estimated. Unfortunately, the difference between estimate and actual isn’t going to keep me out of debtor’s prison, but it was a nice surprise anyway. After the painting was done, Perry and I applied 30# felt to the entire roof area, effectively waterproofing it (and the building beneath) forevermore.
In the morning Perry and I installed the feature strips (narrow boards nailed to the fascia to introduce an additional shadow line… a subtle but important Architectural Digest detail) and the soffit vents (3″ x 8 foot louvered metal strips that let air into the building just below the roof line). Then we began cutting and putting up the soffits. These are being made from ⅜″ PTS underlayment instead of AC plywood… far less costly and nearly the same quality. Unfortunately for our elderly bodies, the scaffolding is about three feet too tall for working on the soffits and it would not be worth the substantial effort to lower the working level to the right height. Therefore most of the soffit work has to be done sitting cross-legged with both hands holding lumber and/or tools over your head. Great exercise… for about five minutes. After that it’s just plain tiring. As Perry says, “Think of all the fitness club dues you’re saving by doing this kind of work!” By the end of the day about 75% of the soffits were nailed into place… and I was almost too tired to drink my after-work beer. Notice I said “almost”.
The only local “damage” from the hurricane was one fairly large oak branch that came down into the recently created shed turnaround area extension… where I was going to park the Ranger for the storm but didn’t due to tiredness. Obviously, if I’d done as planned, the Ranger would have suffered grave bodily damage. Delores and the shed came through just fine, with only the upper floor of the shed getting wet from water bouncing off the scaffolding and into the door openings. Elsewhere in Vermont there was much more severe damage, mostly from flooding. U.S. 7 (the main north/south highway on the west side of the state) is cut in Brandon and again south of Rutland; state routes 125, 73, and 103 (routes across the mountains from the east and southeast) likewise are closed; Otter Creek in Rutland was 8 feet above flood stage and still rising as of this morning. Perry finished installing the roof sheathing before lunch. Marty came up to take the commemorative picture for this major construction milestone. In between occasional moments helping Perry, I spent most of the day priming all of the fascia, feature strip, and soffit lumber… turning my hands completely white in the process. In the afternoon Perry cut, then we installed, all of the fascia boards.
Here’s a gender testing question for you: Does being low (not out, just low) on beer and honey roasted peanuts constitute an emergency sufficiently dire to go out into the teeth of a hurricane for resupply? Not that “Hurricane” Irene was worthy of her moniker – highest wind gusts were only 33 mph, though we did get 7 inches of rain… that immediately soaked into the gravel here at Fern Lake. After the run to Hannaford’s, spent the day reading, beating my brain into mush trying to solve a couple of Master Class sudokus, and trying to figure out how to stay out of debtor’s prison while still finishing the woodshed construction project this year. In a month or so you should be able to write to me care of cell 5733.
First thing in the morning I clambered atop Delores and liberally applied silicone sealant to several cracks in the bathroom skylight and over the forward cabin. Hopefully that will keep the 4 – 7 inches of rain that we’re supposed to get tomorrow outside where it belongs. Perry and I had a productive day, getting about ¾ of the ⅝″ Advantech tongue & groove roof sheathing cut, put up, and nailed down. Concentrated on the north, east, and west sides of the roof, as that is the direction from which the high winds associated with Hurricane Irene are expected. Perry thought we could have gotten the whole roof sheathed if I hadn’t insisted we stop that work in order to secure the worksite for heavy seas. After Perry left to attend to his own house, I moved all the patio furniture and associated paraphernalia on Kate & Dan’s outdoor porch into their indoor porch. Then I moved the campsite lawn furniture into the shed garage and made some attempt to secure all the stacks of wood scattered about the joint. Frankly, I was running out of steam by the time I got to that task... so if it all blows away I won’t be horribly surprised. Another 8:30 “dinner” straight out of the can… and too tired to even open a beer.
A totally dreary day with on-again, off-again showers. Perry and I worked steadily, up on the scaffolding when the rain abated putting on the sub-fascia (horizontal 2 x 6’s that are nailed to the ends of the roof rafters, onto which the fascia boards will be nailed), inside the almost totally dry shed setting up for the collar tie installation and putting in the rest of the hurricane ties when showers were upon us. Yes, you read that last sentence correctly… except for one minor pinhole leak that will be fixed with some duct tape tomorrow, the upper and lower levels of the shed are (finally!!!!) protected from water intrusion. At the end of the day the sub-fascia was attached to the rafter ends all the way around the building and that roof ain’t never coming off them walls, I don’t care how hard the wind blows.
Perry came over first thing to move the east and west wall braces so that I could put one of my worthless tarps over the shed floor to at least slow down the waterfall into the lower level from the forecast thunderstorms this afternoon. Perry then drove me back to his house so that Lynne and I could drive into Burlington together… she to do some shopping with Alverta and me to retrieve Delores. A delicious early lunch with Alverta, then she and Lynne took me over to Pete’s RV (located a mile from Alverta’s condo). Delores was there, looking completely out of place among her 2011 cousins. The driver’s window was down and the door unlocked (great security!), the keys were hidden where I was told they would be (better security), but the safety latch on the main cabin door was thrown, so we couldn’t get in that way (wonderful security). Uneventful trip back to Middlebury (cruise control, taillights, and steps working fine; new refrigerator humming away in back). Spent my last C-note at Hannaford’s, then discovered that the shelf and bin layout in the new refer is much less user-friendly than in the old model. Ended up just throwing everything in willy-nilly… which those of you who know me well know drove me more than slightly nuts. In the midst of moving all of my “stuff” out of Kate & Dan’s house and back into Delores, the power went out… while the sheets from the bed I had been using were still in the dryer. Pushed ahead with decamping and cleaning up. Got that done and still no power, so moved Delores back over to her usual resting spot on our property. Lo and behold, power was available at our electrical panel when I went to hook her back up. That’s strange, I thought, for Delores to have power when Kate & Dan don’t, ‘cause our feeds come off the same pole and transformer. Back over to the house I trudged, to discover that Kate & Dan also had power… and their security system was doing all sorts of strange and unusual things about which I had no idea. The phone rang, but, it not being my house, I ignored it. While I was upstairs remaking the bed, the front door opened and a man called, “Hello. Brandon Rescue.” Apparently, when the power came back on the security system called 911, whose operator called the house to ascertain whether or not there was an emergency, but receiving no answer had to assume there was, so dispatched the Brandon emergency response person (EMT), the State police, and an ambulance. A quick phone call from the EMT cancelled the police and ambulance response.
Chree and I left at the crack of dawn to take Delores to the RV doctor. The main cabin door steps, of course, continued to work perfectly. On the other hand, the cruise control was inoperative (worked fine last time I took the RV into Middlebury) and when we got to Pete’s RV in South Burlington, Chree said, “Did you know that your right taillight isn’t working at all… no brake light, no tail light, no turn signal?” One more thing to add to the list. We were back at Fern Lake by shortly after 10. Since it was raining, and forecast to continue doing so interminably, we decided to spend the day inside the comfort of Kate & Dan’s house, Chree writing Welcome to Kindergarten letters and I reviewing the shed upper level designs and associated engineering load calculations. And the first “tool” I needed was the pencil sharpener that is sitting in plain view on the RV driver’s console. Told you!!!! Perry came over after dinner for a couple of hours planning the shed upper level building campaign.
Doug’s Wonderful Omelets for breakfast (and you always thought DWO stood for Deck Watch Officer). Then Alex and I tacked the job of installing the 2 x 10 rim joist for the west wall of the shed, followed by properly securing (with ⅜″ x 4″ lag bolts) the previously installed (with deck screws) south wall rim joist. Alverta arrived mid-morning after a scenic tour of Vermont en route Fern Lake. Lynne and Jake (her son, whose only previous visit, alas, went unrecorded) came over for a brief look-see around noon. Chree, meanwhile, spent some time putting painter’s putty into the countersink holes for the finishing nails used to attach the trim to the garage door framework. We put Delores’ big blue tarp, folded into quarters, over the shed deck. Should have done that in April. (Dawn comes late over Marblehead!) Late lunch / early dinner was Chree’s Delicious Lasagna (and you always thought CDL stood for Commercial Drivers License). After Alverta and Katy & Alex headed out, I removed from the RV all but the one tool I will absolutely need this week, storing the collection in the Ranger. Then I drove the RV over to Kate & Dan’s, where it immediately started to rain as we unloaded all of our worldly goods (except for the things we will need most), including the entire contents of the refrigerator / freezer, into their house… which they have MOST GENEROUSLY allowed us to use while Delores is at the doctor. The dogs, of course, were most intrigued by the smells left behind by Kate & Dan’s dogs and cats.
Chree and I began the task of framing the garage door opening in the north end of the shed lower level. First task was to attach some 2 x 4 studs to the end concrete columns and the footers. To do that I had Perry’s Remington gun that uses 22 caliber blanks to fire 2½″ nails through the lumber and into the concrete. The first “shot” I took was a tad too close to the edge of the column, causing a fair-sized chunk of concrete to go flying off the corner, hitting Chree in two places and then bouncing off Shlomo. Ooops! After Chree and the dogs had taken refuge in the RV, the next ten shots went just fine… and those studs ain’t never coming off. The king studs took some adjusting to get them to form a square opening, but after three or four tries they were correctly positioned. Put the jack studs into position and all of a sudden the opening was a ¼″ too narrow. WTH,O!!!! After much head scratching, determined that the pressure treated lumber I was using was 1⅝″ thick vice the 1½″ it was supposed to be. Then found out that the project architect (his name is Doug) had miscalculated the header length by 1½″ too short, which probably is an accurate description of the architect himself. Chree came up with the brilliant idea of inserting a 3½″ square piece of ¾″ plywood at each end of the header (held in position by a slathering of Liquid Nails and 3″ screws), and presto chango, problem solved. By the end of the afternoon the basic framing was in place, formed a rough opening of approximately the right size and shape, the header was level, and we were still married. Can’t ask for much more than that!
The dogs, of course, wanted their usual 5:45 outdoor excursion and breakfast. They hadn’t been carousing until after midnight, unlike two tired humans. All in all a fairly slow day. Up to Lynne & Perry’s to do a couple of loads of laundry, then on to Middlebury for supplies at Goodro Lumber and Paris Farmers Union, with a stop at Taylor Rental to inquire about pneumatic siding guns (they don’t have). Then spent a few hours raking smoother the shed construction site and removing tree root fragments and too large rocks. Dan came over after dinner for a couple of relaxing hours chatting by the campfire… and roasting our share of marshmallows.
Took Delores up to Kampersville to dump the holding tanks… right in the middle of a bicycle and running race taking place the entire length of Lake Dunmore Road. Going north I was against the flow; coming back south I drafted behind one of the cyclists… which meant we went really slow up the hills and almost got up to the speed limit going down. The main cabin door steps worked perfectly and the propane gas gauge has finally inched below the half tank mark. Obviously Delores is trying to convince me she doesn’t really need to go to the RV doctor. Nice try but no cigar! Upon return to Fern Lake filled both holding tanks with water and added the chemical that will (hopefully) clean the tank level indicating sensors. Then set about making the building site ready for backfilling the shed cellar hole and building the house turnaround area retaining wall. Moved crushed stone, building rocks, extension ladder, and radial arm saw (which required Dan’s musculature) to where they won’t be in the way. Got everything done by 3:30, so went over to Dan’s to help him burn the slash from our chainsaw activities the other day. After sweating over the hot fire for an hour and a half, the lake felt REALLY, REALLY good.
Worked all day to get the first course of stone dry-laid on the underground roof ledge. The sad part of that exercise is that Steve Osmer had already selected a bunch of rocks and put them on the ledge, ready for my final positioning. As you enter the garage / storage area, your eye is immediately drawn to the wooden triangle, square, and circle that are inset into the face of the ledge… and consequently, the first rocks you notice are those just above those symbols. So positioning those rocks to achieve a creditable artistic presentation was fussy work… that took all day. Made arrangements to take Delores to the RV doctor (Pete’s RV Sales and Service in South Burlington) week after next. Dan and I were invited to dinner Chez Lapidus, with grilled salmon, Kingsley corn, and blueberry pie on the menu. Another delightful evening with our wonderful neighbors!
Spent the day over at Dan’s removing limbs (wooden, not human) and taking down trees to open up the view of the lake from his house. Jonsered difficult to start when fully warmed up. By quitting time we both were pretty well knackered and desperately in need of a cleansing, relaxing, cool-down swim. While we were in the thrall of refreshment, Perry stopped by to drop off another generous assortment of veggies from his garden plus some succulent blackberries. Fearing the worst ‘cause the refrigerator has completely defrosted itself over the past two days, stuck the thermometer in Delores’ refrigerator and freezer. Sure enough the refrigerator is at nearly ambient temperature and the freezer is hovering around 31 degrees, even with the thermostat set to maximum cool. Am also getting very suspicious about the propane tank level gauge… it’s been showing half a tank all week in spite of copious use of the stove, oven, and hot water. I look into the crystal ball and see $$$$ in my future. Dinner over at Dan’s: steaks on the gas grill, Kingsley corn, one of my better salads (most of whose ingredients were from Lynne’s & Perry’s garden), and a couple of slices of that wonderful blueberry pie. Night had fallen by the time dinner was done, so we decided to take Hopea Kanootti out for a spin. Had to cut the paddling short when I discovered the old fashioned painful way that, after a day of slinging a chainsaw around, my broken rib just wasn’t in the mood for any more exercise.
The wonder drugs were, indeed, wonderful, enabling an on-time transition from recumbent to vertical without the recent fuss and bother. Liam Powers arrived around 9 am and was here until 2 pm installing the florescent light fixtures and another electrical outlet (for the garage door opener) in the shed lower level. While he was stringing wires hither and yon, I got another course laid and cemented in three sections. Dan came over for burgers on the grill and Kingsley corn; he brought with him wonderful summer squash side dish and a homemade wild blueberry pie. Need to remember to invite him over for dinner again REAL soon!
Came very, very close to not being able to get out of bed this morning, which engendered a morning-long internal debate about four options: a masseuse, a chiropractor, a doctor, or a gun. After laying and cementing another course of rocks in one section (missing the mark by ½ inch… close enough for government work), I began an hours-long tussle with the military health care system, culminating in an early afternoon conversation with the nurse for my primary care provider at DeWitt Army Hospital in Virginia. She told me to get my rear-end to the nearest emergency room, pronto. Was in and out of Middlebury’s Porter Hospital in 45 minutes with, hopefully, the prescription to cure my ills. Better living through chemistry, that’s my motto! Upon return to Fern Lake, laid and cemented another course on two more sections of the between-columns rock walls.
