Our so-called vacation so far

I can’t decide whether to appreciate the fact that the weather over the past four days has been perfect for staying inside and working, or bemoan the fact that August this year feels more like November. It’s been cold and rainy since Friday, and the few times it’s been warm, it’s been ridiculously muggy.

On the plus side, we’ve managed to get quite a bit done.

Friday night we made our weekly pilgrimage out to Rona in Langford and picked up some more wood along with the interior doors we had ordered a month ago. Of course, they’d been sitting in storage since the first of the month, but nobody had bothered to call us and let us know they were there – despite their claims to the contrary. (I dunno. I mean, I really like that store – it’s clean, it’s Canadian, it has lots of stuff at good prices – but the people there are just so useless. They’re all so friendly and earnest and they seem to really WANT to be helpful, but they don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing there, especially when it comes to their own systems.)

Saturday was something of a write-off, although not entirely. I think we were both just so relieved to finally make it to vacation that we spent most of the day ambling aimlessly around the house. Eventually we realized there was just no point in forcing it and called it a day after just a couple of hours of half-hearted effort. On the plus side, Shaun of the Dead was really funny.

Sunday was much better in terms of general productiveness. We finished framing the bathroom:



(looks almost like a room now, doesn’t it?) and started digging the hole for the cleanout on the west side of the house:



As much as I hate to admit it, digging that one wasn't all that bad. I didn't need to use the pick, thanks in large part to all the rain we've had. The relatively soft ground was a nice change - though, of course, I DID have to be careful not to hit the electrical cable we buried there last summer.

The War Department also started filling the crack in the rear wall with hydraulic cement:



That’s actually the accumulated effort of three days – she had to work up the wall in stages, putting in the cement for about a quarter of the crack, letting it dry, and then doing the next bit.

Monday was a bit of a catch-all. We made several trips out to various stores and suppliers, picking up yet more wood while we were at it. I did a little more digging, and Amy started trying to puzzle out the electrical situation. By the time we started working on framing the first wall of the Dread Wall of Pink, we were both pretty worn out and started to fray around the edges. And of course, the difficulties presented by the framing job didn't help one bit.

See, our house was built in 1946. That's 60 years of settling, shifting, and general wear and tear. The result is that the foundation walls aren't exactly true and plumb anymore - if in fact, they ever were. The floor is also not really level and, not to be left out, neither is the ceiling. What this means for our framing job is that we can't approach the task in the usual way: build the wall flat on the ground and then lift it into place - top plate, sill plate, studs, and all. Presenting an additional problem is the fact that we're trying to leave an air gap between the rigid foam insulation and the inside of the wall (which isn't plumb to begin with). And of course, there's a beam halfway down the length of the wall that we have to frame around, the wall isn't straight but we want the new wall to be, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Anyway, after about two hours of futzing about with this stinking thing, we called it a night. While I was having my traditional apres work beer, however, I had a brainstorm.

First thing Tuesday morning, I got up and went down to Rona and picked up one of these:



(Yay! New tool!) It was a little more expensive than I had planned, but as it turns out, it was exactly what we needed. Without further ado, the first studded wall against the Dread Wall of Pink:



Can't tell you how awesome it is to be doing constructive work...

Anyway, that's where we stand this morning. Sadly, errands will keep us from accomplishing much today (I gotta drive up Island), but we should be able to put in an hour or three after dinner.