The drywallers did their thing Thursday and are scheduled to continue Friday and next week. Through the window, Shane can be seen working on installing the decking.

Shane and John work Wednesday on the deck joists, which are "12 on center" rather than 16 on center. This means the joists are 4 inches closer than on a deck with wood decking. Trex, which is 50 percent wood and 50 percent plastic, is more flexible than lumber, so it needs more support.

The goal of bringing morning light into the back of the house has been achieved. Now we're dreaming about morning coffee on the deck.

Karen's house project

Walled in,
decked out

Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003

Apologies for the delay in any housing reports. I've been overwhelmed with noise, details to decide, job applications, oh, and printing out that final dissertation copy and getting my page formatting OK'd. I'll be depositing on Wednesday the 19th and an official doctor of philosophy by Aug. 22. The party is Saturday, Sept. 27. Stay tuned for details.

The drywallers arrived today and transformed the space. Their task will continue into next week, after which I furiously prime and paint before the floor installers arrive Aug. 25 or 26.

Inside, windows and doors are installed. The arches are made. The joists are up for the deck, and Shane is installing the decking, which is made of Trex, a plastic-wood composite. Neb the Trex representative drove up from Chicago to talk with Kevin and Shane about the installion.

The heating and cooling folks were here for six days. The house posed a few challenges, but they succeeded in their efforts to run new air supplies to the second floor and switch the old supplies to returns.

To run ducts into the new basement, more of the old concrete wall had to be removed. To avoid dropping the duct lower than other paraphernalia running along the ceiling, we decided to reroute the plumbing for the washer and water softener. Jeff and his gang came Thursday night to start hooking that back up, selling me on a new washtub in the process.

The electricians took about three days. In the process of cutting a hole for the half-bath exhaust fan they cut the exterior phone line, which SBC/ Ameritech kindly repaired for free, since it was outside the house.