Jules Pees on Heavy Equipment

Yes, that's a picture of Jules peeing on the heavy construction equipment up the road. On our walk the other day, Jules and I heard some terrible crashing and creaking and general large engine complaints. We turned back as it was way to noisy for our tastes. (We like peace and quiet so that we can pursue contemplative internal thoughts... that is until I sing (radically off tune) for Jules, to encourage him forward and to ward off bears, mountain lions and the like.) But I promised Jules that we'd investigate just what was going on over the weekend when the equipment was silent.
I actually remembered to bring my camera! And this is the first thing we saw:

A large pile of rocks, extricated from the ravine near the Plaster House (it's really made of stucco). There's a stream at the bottom, but they had this big honkin' bucket scoop type thing cantilevered out over the gorge.

That's the machine in repose. It's big and sort of intimidating, but I suppose that why Jules peed on it, to assert dominion over it.

Yeah, he's also peeing on that bulldozer. What a dog! I still can't figure out what they were doing besides rearranging large piles of rocks, but I tried taking a picture of the ravine...

Hard to gauge, but that's really steep. I enjoyed the skimpy piece of thin plastic hazard tape. Now there's something to grab ahold of if you chose to fall over the edge! I think the road was in danger of collapsing or something equally dramatic.

Here's my handsome dog looking up the road, ignoring the gigantic jaws of death hovering only a couple of feet away. I think he was entertaining the idea of peeing on this, too but I pulled him back in the other direction, I'll have to go back this week and see if they're finished with the project.

Two Walls Are Better Than One!

It actually looks like a building! I'm so excited... no turning back now.
I'm speed writing this as we leave in 25 minutes for Bob's opening in Danbury at Jim Felice's Trailer Box Gallery. Bob and Dave Gesualdi (whose work couldn't be more different than Bob's!) are showing, completing a week of three shows between Bob and I and working on the studio.
Joe came over today and helped finish up the second wall- and raise it. Bob and I had completed much of the framing on Thursday and then had an intermission day when we both had to do our jobs.
Today we started early and by 3:00, we had two walls.
Another view:

I even have a door hole. And a corner. And a view... and it seems to be standing.
There is a bit of a gap near the house because (funny enough) the house wall sways inwards. Bob and Joe are constructing a shim.

This is where the house and studio wall tie together. I say fll it in with silly putty and cardboard and packing tape, but Joe and Bob will do it right. Tomorrow, we do the last wall. It will really look like a studio then.

Another Stage Complete

Bob and I got the sill installed on the block. That was a big accomplishment. We had to get the wood- in sixteen and twenty foot lengths, no less- and then cover the underneath of the pressure treated wood with this sort of cheesy yellow foam stuff that comes in rolls. It provides a barrier between the concrete block and the wood so that the wood won't rot. But it's one of those products that just doesn't seem like it would do anything, but what on earth could you use in place of it? It would take days to make some kind of barrier. It was cheap, so I guess I shouldn't question it's existence! (I have left over piece of it and will probably use it in an art project).
Anyway, Bob taught me a neat trick for marking where the bolt holes were to be drilled. We lined the board up on the sill, with the bolts sticking up from the concrete, and wham! Bob bashed the wood with a sledge hammer. It created a dent in the board and that's where you drill your hole. Clever.
Then we had to lift the board back on the block and bolt it down. We dodged rain all afternoon, but we finished and it looks nice: ready for the framing to appear.
I was tired last night, what with all the sill-iness (hahaha) of the day,but of course woke up after only an hour or so of sleep and couldn't fall back to sleep. I tossed and turned all night, finally falling asleep somewhere around five this morning. Just in time for the alarm to ring and send me off to work.
So my brain is fried and I am ready to crawl off to bed. Here's what Bob did this evening:

No, he wasn't grilling us some wonderful organic repast. He was burning squash vines that had been harboring these nasty worms. I think I blogged earlier about those awful worms that bored holes into the squash vines, causing the whole plant to wilt and die. You can't compost pestilence like that; you have to burn them. But that led to Bob and I musing on how we haven't cooked out doors even once this season. And the summer seems to be advancing too rapidly to fall...

Honey, Where's the Carport?

I actually gasped as I turned into our driveway the other day. The carport was gone! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!
This means we are one giant step closer to my studio construction and that the first major stage is done.
According to Bob and Joe, the roofing came off easily and even the beams came down in a straight forward manner. I know it was a lot of work, but it went pretty well. The particle board is now stacked up awaiting my pulling out the nails.

It's entertaining to think this tawdry little pile of particle board, with a think skin of roofing, was strong enough to withstand the rigors of winter. See those saw horses behind the pile? Bob and I spent about ten minutes this sweltering morning, transferring all the stacked beams (in the earlier photo) over to these saw horses so that there'd be a clear work area. Three minutes after we carefully piled the boards, there was a tremendous crash! as the sawhorses collapsed and the beams spilled to the ground. Fortunately, we were well out of the way and no intentional plant life was crushed (we do have Japanese maples and caster beans planted in that strip of poison ivy infested No-Man (or Woman's) Land).
So the next stage is to locate the septic tank cover and mark it and do a bit of excavation to assemble a foundation. Two sides of the foundation will be the blacktop that is previously existing and the house will be the fourth side. Interestingly, we thought for sure there must be some footing under the beams that held up the roof. But apparently when Joe and Bob had all the rafters off, Joe leaned up against the vertical and it started to fall over: they were simply sitting on the blacktop, sort of "friction fit" construction!
On a hotter and hazier note, it is really hot and hazy. The neighbors's have obviously taken leave of their senses as they are out MOWING their lawn. We stacked the ill-fated wood pile and then retreated to the air conditioned bedroom, where we had a matinee. Bob and I and Jules hunkered down and ate raspberries, plucked fresh from our garden (thank you Beatrice and John for the plants!). I'm signing off, though, as the room with the computer is not air conditioned and almost unbearable!

Studio Phase Two!

I drove up the driveway and was delighted to see Phase Two of the great studio project well underway. Despite the rain that began several minutes after they started work this morning, Bob and Joe managed to remove one course of tar paper and particle board from the old carport roof. Remarkably, the stuff is all coming off quite a bit easier than we could ever have hoped. The fear was that the tar paper was glued down  terminally to the particle board and that the particle board was nailed every few inches with nails shot by a nail gun. In other words, it would all have to be chopped up with a saws-all and it would be majorly labor intensive. Instead, Joe stood underneath and used a post (the first upright leaning against the wall in the above picture) to jam up against the ceiling and Bob pried it from above. It popped apart nicely!

It was oddly gratifying to see light coming in through the roof- the reverse of what is typically desired. If it hadn't rained, Bob and Joe would have easily completed the removal. They'll resume work tomorrow, hopefully with more cooperative weather.
This was a piece of luck in terms of recycling materials, too. The particle board, while not the highest quality stuff, can be reused for other projects around the ranch. Bob has wanted to construct a roof over the fire wood pile (instead of the billowing tarp) and these sheets of particle board just might do the trick. It's surprising that the particle board (which is the building material equivalent of scrapple) held up so well and as long as it did. After all, it is made of wood bits and loads of glue. We're going to re-construct the studio roof using heavier, exterior grade ply wood.

The Sophistry of Soffits

As with most projects undertaken, there is often more underneath than meets the eye on the surface. So it is with the beginning stages of Studio 2013. Bob and Joe, the extraordinary team that fashioned a chimney (with a bit of assist from me-especially the lower stages...) are back at it, finding corruption and rot. Just like politics!
Smart men that they are, they aren't going "too far". I mean, the idea here is to fabricate a studio out of a carport for me, that will last (the rest of) our lifetimes. Therefore, the agreement is to shore up what is there and move on. Joe maintained that if it were his house, he'd take the whole wall apart and rebuild. I hastened to admit that that was impossible, as I don't have enough money to do that and the studio. So my studio may help hold up the house wall. We knew there was water damage of long standing happening on that side of the house; remember the wooden cabinet zip screwed to the upstairs wall, hiding serious water damage? This is the outside of it! On Thursday and Friday, they repaired the soffit; or what could be repaired. Today, the started on the beam that will support the roof.

This is the 20 foot long beam that will be the cross member in the above slot that Bob and Joe carved out. They screwed the joist hangers on today and then are hoisting it up to the carport roof and attaching it. I was surprised when I returned from visiting Mommy today, to find Joe and Bob hard at it, zipping and screwing and saws-alling. Surprised and thrilled! Every bit done gets me closer to a new studio.

This is the first day (Bob's wearing a different sweatshirt). Can't you just feel the constructivist enthusiasm? (And you will remark that I have my feet safely on terra firma. They will stay that way!) I love a good project underway.