Welcome aboard all to another addition of the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog!
So much to talk about so little time….and the Jets are playing at 4:30. That’s a good thing. Actually, I’m not getting a warm fuzzy feeling about the Jets playing Phil Rivers and the Chargers. But hey, you never know!
So the editor wants me to set the blog up so her father can find it easier. I guess I know what I’m getting him for Christmas. “How to use the Internet Mouse in 5 Easy Lessons”. He needs something to read anyway. Man. I thought I was bad with a computer.
Just getting back to the title. We went up to Siena College this weekend to see Jude for “Parents Weekend”. It pretty much rained the whole day. Miserable weather but we had a really good time! Jude took us on a tour of the campus and then we took a drive and got some lunch. Went to Jimmy Johns…..sort of like a cheap version of Subway. You know a sandwich place. Except there was like one slice of meat in our sandwich. It really wasn’t even like a sandwich if you ask me. It was more like a loaf of bread with a side order of lettuce. It was weird because Jude and I wanted a burger originally and when we got to the burger place the editor didn’t like the menu. She wanted a wrap. So we left that place and went to Jimmy Johns. She got the wrap and I had a head of lettuce. It was fun….and good eatin’ too! Jude was recovering from playing the video game “Shadow of Mordor” into the wee hours of the morning so he actually thought he was eating a burger.
Okay, so I know we talked about Jude and his problem with mixing breakfast cereals. It turns out he has a fear. A nameless fear. The fear of the dreaded freshman 15. You know when you go off to college and you start to put on weight? He’s not going to have a problem though. He’s too disciplined. He’s always watching what he eats and working out like a mad man. (and mixing his breakfast cereals…it’s all part of his plan)I, on the other hand, kicked it up a notch and hit the freshman 30 when I went to college. I came home looking like a woodchuck. It was bad, really bad. It was the daily morning doughnut. It’s kind of like when you ask the mountain climber why he wants to climb the mountain. “Because it’s there.” Well that’s how I am when it comes to doughnuts….and the chocolate milk didn’t help much either. I struggle with snacking every single day.
It’s time to move on Jim. College was a long time ago.
So I know your thinking I didn’t get much done this weekend and you would be correct. I worked a bit Saturday morning before we left for Siena and a little bit during the week after work. Oh yeah, and I was able to finish what I started Sunday at noon. I was able to get some interesting pictures too. I would say I’m a little more than half way though stripping the ceiling. It’s really starting to look good. Hopefully I’ll be able to hit it hard next Saturday and really put a dent in it. Terence’s football game is Friday night so we won’t have to go anywhere Saturday.
So let’s take a look and see what we uncovered this week shall we?
So here’s a picture of the plywood being held up by the poly coated BX cable. Each sheet of plywood comes off a little bit differently. Sometimes you can rip it off with relative ease. Other times, depending on what got nailed to it, it can be a workout getting it down. Especially when there are high hats attached to it.
So in this situation I just brought the 8 foot ladder over and fed the wires through the holes we had drilled in the plywood. Once you start feeding the last wire through the plywood hole it starts to go down. No big deal.
Here’s a shot of a little concrete juice that got in underneath a high hat. It looks bad but there’s really no damage. Just tap it with a hammer and it comes right out. The only real danger is if you do a poor job securing the high hat to the plywood deck and the high hat really gets filled with concrete. That’s a problem. So far I haven’t come across that yet.
I had forgotten about this. It looks like it came out okay! A few more pictures.
So this is part of the vision here if you will. The ultimate open floor plan. I know the view of the dumpster isn’t what we are going for but you can really see that this type of structure can really give you a view and a half.
A few years ago I had asked a window guy what it might cost to make a window wall that fits something like this. I think he said it would be on the order of 30 thousand or more. Well, we won’t be putting anything like that in this Hobbit house but it really gets the creative juices flowing if you will. I have some sketches of designs I came up with that include a great room with huge oversized windows. Pretty cool.
Hang in there people we’re getting close. Hoping to finish stripping the ceiling next weekend. That would be terrific.
Enjoy your week!
Jim