Dear Bob, Patty, et al.
Perhaps I should start to make these missives brief, as there are those who only look at the pictures, but then again........ We had nearly a week in Vermont....the stuff of epics! Well the stuff of tiny towers at the end of screened porch wannabes. Got the queen-sized matress upstairs by pulling the plywood off from over the stairwell, and the light into the livingroom from the stairwell clerestory balances out the light in the whole first floor. Still dont have a clue on how far we want to compromise an opportuinity for an 18 foot high wall of windows in order to increase the space in the second floor. Perhaps we will convince the architect to visit while we pull up the east ply on the second floor and do what back at Environment East we called a mockery (mockup, Jason).
Rain in Vermont on Monday, and no delivery from Taconic Lumber in the morning, so we did tarp magic over the porch for a cutting startion and gave the camp the distinct air of Appalachia, which the lack of a dumpster also helps create. Got all the ply on the first floor of the framing, by which time the lumber truck arrived. Nailed off the 3/4 ply in the second floor and got out the drawing with my trig calculatioins and the cutting list, and Louise cut the whole of the second floor walls. While she started the weeks kitchen duties, I nailed together the South wall. That was monday.
Tuesday we had Barak, Jenn and Baeden arriving in the afternoon, so Louise and I framed like people driven to a frenzy. Barak arrived in time to assemble and hoist the trusses into place. I had the pieces cut before they arrived, and the trig calculations were right on the money.
The rest of the week blurrs into a trance of construction monomania (for me at least, Louise kept us fueled with culinary delights, retreating into the kitchen as a place of cooking joy). Wednesday I put in cats at four foot intervals on the roof, and got most of the bumpout done. Thursday was glorious weather, and we decided we would be fools not to get the roof on, so we hoisted the 7 sheets of ply and managed to get ice and snow membrane on. Louise would like some music suitable for a Wagnerian epic opera to be playing in your mind as you reread the last sentance. Friday we had torrential rain again and used the day to put on the wall ply. Its nice to change into dry clothes and sit in a dry living room once in awhile in the midst of such monomania.
Our friends Ken and Espe arrived in Saturday, and we packed up the tools on their arrival (a promise I made to Louise) Went for a hike to the top of the mountain (the first time this year) and into town for a concert at Mass MoCA in the evening....a six hour marathon with Bang On A Can, special guest Terry Riley, minimalist. Interesting show. Today we packed out, and employed the witchcraft of Esperanza to bless the whole structure with a smudge ritual of burning herbs. Swung by the Vermont Country store, and Yankee Candle and made a cell phone reservation for the 6:00 pm ferry, which was just in time to watch the Tall Ships leave the New London harbor.`
Was it a week of epics......dunno, but it feels like a full week. It makes a difference to have shelter. Once the ply goes on the gables and the windows and door are in, we have another dry structure!!!!!
Was I going to make this shorter??????
love to all of you...BSB
Posted by Bennett
at 8:26 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 29 July 2004 12:32 PM EDT
