Now with 50% more slab!

Last week, the house construction took a big step forward with the placement of the first floor radiant slab which will be acid stained. Below are a couple of pics of the slab during placement and after the control joints.

Eventually, she'll be a sparkling gem in the house that is toasty underfoot.

What's in a Picture

The other day, while out for a trailer ride with B, I took a few pics of a giant fisherman statue that sits at the entrance of a coastal hotel just down the road from our current residence.

At first glance, everything seems pretty normal but as you drive/ride past things get a bit more interesting...

Didn't see it? Well, how 'bout now?

Now, before you start saying that I'm just a dirty perv (I am) and that no one other than me would see this, you should know that this was pointed out to me by a friend of ours, Jen (another dirty perv by the way). I've got to say, that was totally a ballsy (pun totally intended) move by the artist responsible for the statue.

Dancing machines

This past weekend, the Russillo's came by for a visit. It would have been fun if a certain 3 1/2 year old didn't have love for the two boys in her eyes. As the father of a girl, I knew that at some point I'd have to accept the fact that she's interested in boys. I knew it would happen, but I just figured it wouldn't happen til she was in her early thirties. At some point during the night, B put the gooey eyes away long enough to dance with Michael and Enzo to Madagascar's "I like to move it move it".

For the record, those two boys enjoy dancing WAY too much to be straight. The father in me is just sayin'.

as visions of radiant tubing danced through his head

A sure fire way to tell that I'm stressed is when the day's trials creep in and disrupt my sleep. I've always been a sleepwalker of sorts. I don't usually wander around the house at night but I do occasionally do weird shit (usually in the bedroom) in the middle of the night while I slowly come out of my dream state. Sometimes I figure it out on my own, sometimes Marcy snarls at me through gritted teeth to get back in bed. On a side note, never, ever wake your wife in the middle of the night. Not for anything. I don't care if the house is on fire, if you want to survive the ordeal, I suggest you carefully wrap her in a blanket and carry her out Fabio style. Anyway, I used to have my sleepwalking episodes much more often, like the time when I was a kid that my mother awoke one night to me peeing right next to her head. Or about 10 years ago when Marcy awoke to me crawling around on the floor, from window to window, searching for the person who was shooting at us.

Anyway, back to the story. Super stress seems to make me sleepwalk and yesterday was one of those days. I was frantically preparing for a client meeting to happen today and that, in and of itself, would typically be enough but I had the added "fun" of needing to prep the first floor radiant tubing for today's concrete pour. Before encasing radiant tubing it's important to pressure test it for leaks because no-one wants to cut into a concrete slab to find a pinhole leak. I had borrowed the fittings and tools that I needed to do the job. Unfortunately, once to the house I realized that the crimper that I had been given was the wrong size. Several frantic phone calls later I was able to find another to borrow from another mechanical contractor (it pays to run in those circles I guess) and was able to get the job done just as it was getting to dark to work.

Apparently, I took that stress with me to bed because on several occasions last night I awoke to find myself checking the tubing. Another side note here, how great of a pick up line would that be? "Hey baby, how would you like to come back to my place and pressure test my tubing?" That's a double slap, guaranteed. I may try it this weekend and find out.

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Also, after re-reading monday's post I should revise something. Even though I took credit for laying the radiant tubing and gave Marcy none, the reality is that Marcy and my parents did the lions share of the tubing while I "kept myself busy" in the basement.

work continues

Work chugs along at Sonne Ledge (that's our property's name, how hoity-toity) with rough-ins commencing. Over the weekend, Marcy's brother got the second floor and part of the first floor electrical roughed in while my parents and I prepped the first floor for the slab by laying all of the insulation and radiant tubing.

Radiant tubing, when chance scoots his butt across this floor it's going to be so soothing on his swollen ass glands.

To top it off, Don and I we able to get most of the "unfinished" basement walls framed. Hopefully, if all goes well, we'll be getting the first floor slab, well and power poles in this week. Fingers crossed.

I took a brief break from not working to snap this pic.

Holy shit

Daddy gets to color for a living. J-E-A-L-O-U-S

now THAT'S an icicle!

Windows Part Deux!

Looking a little too comfortable on that lift - not for long...

Human scaffolding.

South corner of the livingroom.

The crew at the end of a looong day - minus Mimi back at the house with the spud.

Windows!!!

Last Saturday we surprised ourselves and managed to install 18 window assemblies (~25 windows). We had a great 5 man and 2 woman crew and temps near 50. It was definitely a day of show. Seven of the assemblies averaged ~5 1/2 by 7 feet with the largest window coming in at 6' by 8'!

The first window!

Grampy being Grampy - it's strange to watch a snowball coming at you through a camera lens. I made sure they didn't forget how vulnerable they were on that lift...shakey shakey!

Letting them know whose boss...one of the upstairs bedroom window units.

North side of the house ... getting there!

More Snowshoeing

Last Friday we decided to take the entire day off. With the constant demand of house construction, Marcy and I have had little opportunity to spend any time together. We decided to spend the morning snowshoeing at Sherman Marsh preserve - across the road from our future home. The windows were being delivered for the house in the afternoon.

No time for wit - just photos.

Climbing back up the steep slope after retrieving Chancey-pants who decided to make a detour to the water.

The "gradual" part of the slope and view of Sherman Marsh.

Woodpeckers?

A Visit with The Galvins

A couple of weekends ago the Galvins made the trek up to Boothbay - Jeff to help Rick on the house and Alaina and Elsa to hang with B-girl and me. We had a great day. The dynamic between the girls was so cute - lots of hugs and giggling and chasing each other across the footbridge. FYI - trying to hug while on the run ends in a pile of toddler legs and, thankfully, laughter.

Brynna at times was right in her glory. With Elsa being a little over a year younger B's mothering tendencies kicked in. To Elsa's credit she has a keen ability to tune out the naggings of a 3-year old. She even patiently let Brynna dress her in her snowsuit for our walk/run across the footbridge.

The Mantra

Throughout the course of the house construction there has been one underlying theme: either do the job right or else f' it up enough to make a good blog post. Last Sunday, my bro Darren did just that. While using the pneumatic framing nailer he managed to sink a nail 1/2" into the meaty flesh of his thumb. Mission complete Darren, mission complete.

I'm happy to report that while the whole episode was a bit scary, Darren is healing well and he'll be back to the PS2 soon enough.

for you mary poppins fans

B's current obsession is the classic "Mary Poppins" it's actually a pretty good movie with lots of singing and dancing (which Brynna totally loves). She's seen the movie enough to have the dancing and choreography pretty much down pat as you can see in the video below.