Are You Kidding Me!?!?!?!?…..What’s that Doing on the Front Porch?

Welcome friends of Middle earth. Or Earth if you’re not getting the whole Hobbit aspect of the blog. I mean it’s the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog right? Gotta have a little bit of both in there or it would just be your run of the mill blog. Who wants to read that?

So as I was saying last week it was as if I had just battled a Balrog of Morgoth at work. You know, a demon from the ancient world. Okay, I know half of you are not getting it but a Balrog is a foe that cannot be taken lightly. In the Silmarillion there was only one instance where an Elf King defeated a Balrog. I’m not saying I could go up against a Balrog mind you. I’m just reminding you work has been this exhausting battle as of late. It never ceases to amaze me what can and will go wrong on a concrete high rise. Like the other day a guy got hurt on the job and we had to call the Fire Department to bring him down. On the way up to get him a guy from the fire department got hurt and had to go out on a stretcher. You’ve got to be kidding me right? I mean what are the chances of that happening. It really turned into a circus once the guy from FDNY got hurt. What a day.

Anyhow. By the time Saturday rolled around I had had all I could take of just about everything. I went over to the house around 11 took a few pictures went home and took a nap. Nothing like a good nap people. I woke with an unexpected surge of energy and headed over to the house to prepare the other bedroom window opening. I had kind of forgotten how much work I still had to do to prep it. I hadn’t finished framing it.

Anyway I got set up and had at it. It was nice getting a few things done. Let me show you what I did quickly.

Installing the sill of the second bedroom.
Installing the sill of the second bedroom.

I thought that I was going to bang this installation out one, two, three but looked up to realize that the whole top framing had not been completed. This is pretty tedious but we went about our business and got that done as well.

Top framing finished.
Top framing finished.

Putting the top sheathing on the framing is a little tricky when you are working by yourself. I had trouble aligning the sheathing with the framing and used my friendly neighborhood banding wire and a hammer to help me align it. While holding it in place with the hammer I used the nail gun to nail it home once I had it where I wanted it. Hmmm. A little confusing and I don’t know if this picture is going to help either.

Using banding wire and a hammer to align the plywood with the sheathing.
Using banding wire and a hammer to align the plywood with the sheathing.

I know. It didn’t help did it? Yeah it’s one of those things where you have to be there. Maybe I’ll have to introduce a video here and there to help explain things.

I finished up and completely forgot to take a picture of the prepped window. Well I still have to air seal it and waterproof it. Hopefully next weekend I’ll be able to get Terence and one of his  friends to help install the window. That would be great.

Like I was saying at the start I went over to the house earlier and took a couple of pictures for my instagram account. I like it. Let me show you a couple of the shots I took this week.

Look at the cattails!
Look at the cattails!
Living room ceiling.
Living room ceiling.
One world Trade Center. 15 years later.
One world Trade Center. 15 years later.

Empire State Building on the far left.

What is that???
What is that???

I guess you”re wondering what a Jets duffle bag is doing on my front porch. Guess what? I’m wondering why it’s out there, too!! That duffle bag has been sitting out on that porch since we came back from Mexico. It’s evolution people. Over time that duffle bag will grow legs and eventually walk and or crawl to where it’s supposed to be stored in our little dwelling here in Pawling. Only thing is I might not be alive by the time that happens. But happen it will according to my sons. Yeah they took a college course on it. Darwinian Theory: Inanimate Objects and the People Who Get Fooled Most of the Time.

I’m not moving that duffle bag. I’ll walk over it the rest of my life if I have to.

How about them Mets! We have a chance people.

…….and hope remains. While company is true.

Enjoy your work week! See you next time!

Jim

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