Finally. Summer made it. After January returned last Thursday, after a solid week of downpour that held up projects in May, after chilly, overcast weeks between, Summer decided to show up today. Reportedly it’s even going to stick around.<\/p>\n
I spent the day outdoors, trimming brush and burning a heap of construction rubble (only one of several, but it sure felt good). The wood was so rain-saturated it took an hour to get the fire going, but once it caught, the whole neighborhood knew it.<\/p>\n
As you can imagine from the way the early stages of the Great Foundation and Screen Porch project went<\/a>, we ran over budget. Not as much as you might expect, but still over. We left the job partially finished when I traipsed off to the monastery, with one foundation beam to go, not to mention wall and floor repair, porch framing, electrical, re-setting a now-crooked window, new siding, skirting, final ground grading, and various related works. <\/p>\n This project even has a plumbing component. Not that there’s any legitimate reason for it to involve plumbing. Of course there isn’t. But you know this house. Don’t ask me why, but plumbing pipes rise through the bedroom floor, travel along the inner wall, then turn and go outside through little round holes. In the bedroom wall. There used to be a water heater outside there, but why they ran the pipes through the bedroom rather than under the house is yet another mystery that only the drunken ghosts of this house’s past know.<\/p>\n So much to do to get the house fully solid and sound. So little to do it with.<\/p>\n I despaired even of getting the foundation finished. I really, really, really, really wanted<\/em> to have all<\/em> structural and drainage work on the house complete this summer. Especially because I’m sick to death of living in half a house. Especially because the Wandering Monk is making noises about that boat again<\/a>, even though this time his plans for it are more modest. And without the Monk, nothing happens. The Monk is the most blessed combination of affordable and competent. If he wanders off, there’s no one to replace him.<\/p>\n So I took a deep breath and asked a longtime friend for a loan. My friend responded … with both a loan and a gift. <\/p>\n Now, between my high-financing friend and other Friends of the Blog (you know who you are), I have enough. Not to finish the house of course. “Finishing” still seems as distant as the heat death of the universe. But I have enough that by the end of this summer all the rot should be gone, all the bad drainage corrected, all the leveling (that’s going to get done) done. And everything that we did this summer will, by fall, be securely covered and protected against winter weather to come. If I then get hustling on interior finishing, I have high hopes of moving into the bedroom by January.<\/p>\n I dislike being in debt. And this spring I’ve indebted myself more than I have for many a year. But right now it doesn’t feel terrible. On the contrary. It feels as if a roaring train of progress is about to leave the station instead of idling on a siding. It feels like the house’s back wing is finally about to become something other than a free hotel for carpenter ants and pillbugs. It feels JUST GRAND.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Finally. Summer made it. After January returned last Thursday, after a solid week of downpour that held up projects in May, after chilly, overcast weeks between, Summer decided to show up today. Reportedly it’s even going to stick around. I spent the day outdoors, trimming brush and burning a heap of construction rubble (only one of several, but it sure felt good). The wood was so rain-saturated it took an hour to get the fire going, but once it caught, the whole neighborhood knew it. As you can imagine from the way the early stages of the Great Foundation and…<\/p>\n