Day Two Hundred and Forty Seven

The interior walls and ceiling have been twice spackled and sanded and are now ready to be painted. The interior trim has been fitted, adjusted and re-fitted. But, all of the photos I took of those areas today are out of focus...so here's some other stuff. Pretty boring stuff, but hell, it's only Tuesday and it already feels like Friday.

Par 20 and Par 38. That's how light bulbs are sized. Did you know that? I didn't know that. Perhaps that's why I'm forever buying and returning light bulbs. Not again. Oh no.

In a week's time this will be something of great beauty.

Day Two Hundred and Forty Six

Good things.

Like hinges and internal doors...

And beer for Matt (below, back in February), who worked through an horrendous winter putting the foundations together, but who left today to live in Texas. Good luck Matt.

Very cold winter. Nothing like Chicago, which is transcendentally cold - I'm sure I used to hallucinate a little on the walk home from work through the weekly blizzard - but cold enough.

The bamboo flooring arrived.

And Geoff and Emily watching Jerseylicious on Saturday morning.

Day Two Hundred and Forty Two

It's almost too much.

It's the renovation equivalent of being served a dozen Chesapeake Bay oysters, followed by a whole Maine lobster with drawn butter, then Vermont apple pie with Wisconsin cream. All of it with a couple of glasses of Oregon Pinot Noir.

The bamboo floor is being delivered tomorrow afternoon, the spackling was finished, the internal doors were hung today and, give me strength, the parking area will be graded next week.

I think I fainted for a moment.

Some miscellany.

Landscaping is all important.

So are numbers.

And a rather friendly, chest puffingly proud duck in Huntington Beach, Orange County.

Day Two Hundred and Forty One

If I wore a hat I would take it off and chew a small piece of the woolen edge in admiration.

These are the CAD plans for the railing. The company making this for us are on Bainbridge Island in Washington - they speak English and I speak English, but our accents are so different it takes a minute or two on a project of this complexity for us to be sure we agree. We have agreed. It's good to go.

And this is finally about to be delivered.

The first thing ordered, the last thing needed.
A lesson in learning on the job.

Day Two Hundred and Thirty Three

Dimensions and photographs for the railing makers.

The shadow of a fool.

Emily, this is the window trim you chose.

Day Two Hundred and Twenty Seven

The land around Tax Parcel: 46-3-51 has to be surveyed and graded perfectly; to channel the rain correctly we need to calibrate the land with NASA precision.

This is the piece of equipment that emits a spinning red light and then beeps when all is good with the grading and leveling - Tom tells me that is all the technical terminology I need to know...

Other stuff. On the ground.

Emily and Tom calibrating.

Day Two Hundred and Twenty Four

For the first time in over 3 years I wanted to be in London yesterday - wearing a silly hat, waving the Jack flag and sipping warm India Pale Ale (why is every beer in America mouth numbingly ice cold?).
I'm not sure why everyone assumes I'm an anti-royalist, but I'm not, never have been; I'm a staunch royalist, especially when the glorious pomp and pageantry is in full flow - how can anyone not be moved by the entire congregation of Westminster Abbey singing Jerusalem?
Emily is not a believer in monarchy. But then she was born and raised in the land of the free and thinks they're an anachronism. That's a fair opinion, but me, I like being a loyal subject of the Queen - even if I'm stretching the loyalty bit by living in Delaware, the first state; Liz won't mind - we'll take it back inch by inch your majesty.

They're not very exciting are they? The wedding interrupted serious photography.

This thing was on the grass yesterday afternoon. Emily and I stared at it for a while but failed to work out what it is.

And this is a wheelbarrow of stones. Truly dreadful James.