Little House on the Hillside: March 2007

There is a product called ‘Great Stuff.’ It is an expanding foam that comes out of the can with the consistency of very lathery shaving cream, and within an hour expands to roughly twice its size. It is awesome for insulating purposes. It fills in cracks and joints like nothing else and creates a seal that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. But, MAN, do NOT get this stuff on your hands! It looks like I have some advanced form of leprosy! And once it’s on your hands, it is on everything else—ladders, hammers, pita chips, you name it. I sought to remove it, and the directions on the can were: “Must be removed from skin by mechanical purposes or allowed to wear off with time.” Mechanical purposes? Like a random-orbital disc sander? As for time, trust me, I am looking forward to the day when my hands don’t have a flaky orange covering on them. I feel like ‘The Thing’ from The Fantastic Four. I figure late spring, early summer the latest. The best solution I came up with was to rub my hands in a big pile of sawdust repeatedly until the tackiness disappeared. Not a bad solution, but sawdust makes a poor topping for pita chips.

I spent Monday and Tuesday doing a lot of random stuff on the hillside. I finished insulating the east side, so now the entire house is insulated, very exciting. I ‘Great Stuffed’ a lot of the cracks between the insulation boards (see above). I shoveled the snow off of the north side of the roof, in the process designing and building a home-made roof rake out of scrap lumber. (My pride in the creation of this rake is completely out of proportion with reality. A visitor stopped by to look at the house, and was very impressed, but I replied with something to the effect of: “Yeah, yeah, the house is great, but check out this roof rake I made!) All of this was in prep for Wednesday, which was forecast to be beautiful, and Anne was taking time off from work so we could once again attack the roof.
Luckily the day turned out to be as advertised—sunny, warm, no wind. Perfect roofing weather. We motored onward, and came within a stone’s throw of finishing. Another couple of hours and we would have nailed it, but I am not getting greedy. I am just happy that we are actually getting it done, and that it is turning out relatively well. A bit crooked, but good enough. There will be some creative trim work in our future to cover the slightly undulating roof overhang, but I am sure we will figure out something.

Day2roof

Anneshadows

Longview

A roof as a rug
     March is always a bit hectic for me. My schedule gets turned upside down
as the band gets busier and busier, leading up to the high holy day
(that’s St. Patrick’s Day for the uninitiated among you). This year had the
added twist of Shilelagh Law being the house band for ‘The Morning Show
with Mike and Juliet’ on the Fox network. If you ever get the idea that
your job is the most stressful and disorganized one in the world, go to a taping of a live
morning show and just stand back and watch. It is barely controlled chaos.
We arrived at 5am for a 9am start time and were able to witness the
madness first hand. All in all, it was a very interesting experience, and
well worth the loss of sleep. You can check out a video of the performance
here: http://www.mandjshow.com/videos/shilelagh-law
     All of this music playin’ means not as much house buildin’, as I was gone
for extended weekends all month long. Luckily, it coincided with some
frigid weather, and then a thaw, and then some more frigid weather, and
now we are in a thaw again, which optimists might call spring, but I won’t
be fooled again.
     I am happy to report, in spite of freezing temps, prolonged absences, and
excessive exposure to bagpipes, the roof is complete! Anne and I finished
it on Wednesday, March 21st. Jubilation! I must say that the roof has
proved to be the most trying aspect of this whole endeavor so far. It
wasn’t only climbing on the roof, straddling the peak, hauling up panels,
and wielding a cordless drill for hours on end that was difficult. Just
getting it to go on in a semblance of straight and square proved to be
just about impossible for us. We tried a number of methods and came up
with a pretty cool invention to ensure our success, and still the panels
are not perfect. It was incredibly humbling. But it reminded me of a story
I heard from a friend who had lived in India.
     He had a rug that was weaved in the traditional manner in a village in
India. I can’t remember exactly what it depicted—animals of some sort, and
shapes and abstract designs. The craftsmanship was superb, the colors
vibrant—truly a piece of art. But then he showed me a tiny area where
there were two mistakes, two tiny stitches that were obviously the wrong
size and color. What’s the deal, I asked? It seems traditional weavers
will never make a perfect piece, they will always incoporate a slight
imperfection, so as not to offend the gods. Only the gods can make
something perfect. For us to think we, as fallible humans, can achieve
perfection, is folly. So they make their errors deliberately, so they will
not be tempted to offend the gods by striving for perfection.
     Our roof, of which the gods have a wonderful view, should be safe. I think
it must be the most inoffensive roof around. Sure, it could have been
straighter, and more even, and square to the building. But why tempt fate?
So it is how it is, and the most important thing to me is that it is done.
In other house news, the two outside doors are installed and working just
fine. They actually went in without too much drama, besides being really
heavy for one guy to lift into place. They close with a very satisfying
‘whoosh,’ daring any air to attempt to make it past the weatherstripping.
I have never lived in a house where the doors actually create a
respectable seal when closed. I can get used to it.
     Let’s see…all the ‘Great Stuff’ has been deployed and the cracks and gaps
in our insulation are filled. The stair hole to the second floor has
finally been cut, so we can access it with a stepladder from the inside
instead of climbing through the window hole from the outside. Speaking of
windows, they will be all installed by tomorrow, thus completely sealing
the house. Amazing. Then I have no more excuses and have to start building
the stairs. I can feel the migraine already.