23 June 2014

Sean and Ian pulled in at their usual ungodly (for us retired folk) hour.    While waiting for the Goodro’s truck to arrive with another umpteen-thousand dollar load of materials needed for the next construction phase, Sean did some heavy thinking about the layout of the Main Level exterior walls while Ian and I put the two steel / concrete posts in place under the long steel beam.  Then Ian got busy sawing notches in the between-joist braces to clear the way for me to drill four ¼″ holes through the lower flange of each beam so that the top plate of each post could be bolted to the flange.  Arduous work, which took all morning, even with brand new, top quality drill bits.  Sean says the main level floor looks flat (but did he have his eyes shut when he “looked”?), so maybe I did cut the posts to the correct lengths…  Sean and Ian, meanwhile, started tacking in place the sole plates for the exterior main level walls, checking to ensure that they formed perfectly square (so, okay, the long diagonals were ¹/₁₆″ different!) rectangles of the correct sizes.  Late afternoon, as we were finishing that work, Kevin Betourney and Brian Dunleavy, from Kevin's Roofing, came by to scope out the standing seam metal roofing jobs (house and sauna) that will need to be done later this summer.  Sean asked Kevin to give us two estimates: one to do the roofs like the woodshed was done and one to do the roofs like Kevin would normally do them.  Kevin mentioned in passing that we would need a cricket on the upslope side of the house chimney.  The architect (who at this point should be taken out and shot) said, no, the chimney was rotated 45°, causing all sorts of hate and discontent with the house design, specifically so that no cricket would be needed.  Whereupon Sean and Kevin showed why, if the chimney were in a “normal” position, water would flow away from it on all sides (so no cricket needed), but because it has been twisted, water could get trapped on the upslope side, which would necessitate putting in a cricket.  Chrip, chirp…  Early quitting time today so I could prepare another fabulous lasagna dinner for Marty & Merry… and start drinking.