Weather or Not?

Locals may have noticed that my Friday's weather prediction turned out to be 100% wrong. ("The forecast calls for a 60% chance of poopiness with mostly gross skies and temperatures low in the depths of the sweater drawer.") It was actually sunny, hot, and beautiful out for the majority of the weekend.

In fact, Sunday I sat out for nearly 3 hours in my lawn chair where the porch will soon be, soaking in the rays. (Proving at long last that yes, I do in fact know how to relax.)

But I have to admit, I was still feeling pretty down for the majority of the weekend. You all know that I've been concerned about funds... and I got yet another unexpected bill in the mail on Saturday for $300 something that just made things even worse. Plus, Mike was out of fuel - diesel fuel... another $100 to keep his truck going. And we continued to spend bookoo bucks for more building materials - right on that DeepHo card, which has now crested the $1,000 mark.

I know I shouldn't complain - I can still eat and drive and make house progress, all while paying my bills. It's just a tight squeeze is all. And tight squeezes make me nervous. It helps to blog it out. I know there are so many people out there in worse situations. So don't think I'm not thankful! Please. I am. I'm just nervous is all.

We began work on the house just after the mail came on Saturday. I was trying my best to keep my chin up and focus on the project at hand. Our goal was to install the ledger - the big PT boards that go across the front of the house and help hold up the decking.

We had purchased all the boards and 40 big ass bolts complete with washers and some 1" PVC that we would install behind the bolts to space the boards away from the wall. (That way, water can pass through without getting between the board and the house and rotting the plywood.)

Although we had Tyvek'd the entire front of the house, we were advised to put up an additional, waterproof barrier (Ice & Water) at the bottom of the exterior plywood. Turns out, you don't put on the siding before the porch - so this bottom part of the house remains exposed, sans siding. The ice & water will protect it from the elements. So we lifted up the Tyvek, stuck on the ice & water, then pulled down the Tyvek and re-stapled.

Then we began attaching the boards. It was tough work, even though we had an impact gun to help drive in the bolts - it took the better part of the day to get everything up.


Next step - framing and decking. I'm not sure if we'll be able to start that this weekend or not. I hope so. If not... we'll be stuck in limbo, since I can't spend money on anything else.

Sunday - after my relaxing sun afternoon, Mike put up the window trim in the kitchen for me. It turned out awesome, and I couldn't stop staring at it for the rest of the night. Such a nice end to the weekend.