Frustratingly, I don't have very much news this month. We're in that miserable stage of construction wherein we mostly wait. We wait for the engineer to get drawings back to us and we wait for PG&E to answer basic questions. Until those things happen, I've been keeping busy closing up the wall that we can close (i.e. putting up sheetrock and patching), but even that process has had some waiting because the next step, "Tape and Mud", has to wait 'til it gets a bit warmer, since there's no heat hooked up yet.
(An aside: "tape and mud" is the process in which we use paper tape to close the seams where pieces of sheetrock meet. That tape in held in place and covered by joint compound, ("mud"), which is mostly gypsum dust mixed with water. Since water is the solvent, it takes time to dry and contracts when it does. If the temperature is too low, it takes forever to dry and, worse, cracks more. So, we need some days that are mostly over 55 degrees, and we haven't had many of those. There are other compounds that I could use, but they are a pain in the butt to work with compared to regular mud.)
On the bright side, the volunteers that I'm working with are great, and they've been learning a lot. Last Sunday I realized that I'm basically training a framing crew from the ground up. It's taking a little time (and some mis-cut lumber), but they're smart folks, willing to work hard, and are learning really fast. I expect that, by the time we're building walls in earnest, they'll be pretty darn good. So it's a great investment for the future. Most of the hard-core are already getting up to speed with nailguns and compound miter saws. All that aside, everyone who's come to help has been lovely and has worked their asses off. It's been heartwarming to see that kind of support and I'm grateful to every one of them.
If the current weather holds, I hope to start the tape and mud this weekend along with doing the framing for the supply closet. And, based on some email exchanges today, we might have the engineering drawings by the end of this week. Which would be a very, very fine thing.
If you're curious about how the place looks, you'll have a chance this month to come check it out. I'll be holding the place open for visits on Saturday, the 24th, from noon until six pm. Feel free to stop by anytime in that window and I'll give you the ten-cent tour.
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