Day Eleven: On the Microlam

Stone from a Parapet Wall above our Roof
My day began, after a fashion, when I let my three dogs outside and noticed a significant rock on the back porch. It's interesting that this stone decided to fall off the parapet wall of our house the day after we examined the area for damage. Now, I have to call a mason to fix this, along the other repointing of the house and the garage. And I'll have to call a roofer to fix the flashing. Otherwise, the house will continue to grow rotten wood. We were looking forward to spending a little more money on this project, so this is good news.

For most of the day, Dave and John worked on building support for the landing for the stairs to the second floor (along with much of the rest of that corner of the house. They received a microlam--a board consisting of multitudinous thin layers of wood laminated together--in the morning. They cut this in half and jacked it in place to hold this weight. Unfortunately, it popped out of its perch while being jacked in place, and it hit John on the elbow. But, eventually, they got the lam in place, and then the rest of the framing went quickly.


The Doubled Microlams Holding up One Quarter of Our Home
Here is one view of the microlams. These don't look impressive at all here, but it took enormous amounts of work to get these in place, and they are stabilizing the second-floor landing. It is a more solid surface to walk on now.


The New Framing for the Kitchen
Here is the framing, which reminded Nancy of a kitchen, since all of this Austrian and Czech wood is so bright and clean. It's not quite clear from this picture, but this framing has been extended into the hallway by the staircase. Dave and John needed to do this so that the kitchen would be wide enough to hold the cabinets we have for them. The unsquareness of the kitchen meant that the original measurements of the kitchen were not absolutely accurate. They good news, I suppose, is that that kitchen will probably be a very tiny bit wider than it is now.


Three New Pipes to Remove
Of course, moving the kitchen wall causes its own set of problems. One of these (and maybe the only one) is that these old pipes are no longer sequestered within the kitchen wall, causing no-one any grief. They are now clearly in the way and need to be removed so that the kitchen can be put in place. Tom will probably have to do this the next time he's here.


Comparing the New and Old Framing of the Kitchen Walls
To get a good sense of the difference between the old framing and the new, take a look at this picture: smooth blond wood versus rough brown wood. Eventually this outside wall (but just in this corner) will need to be replaced as well.


Gate Wilder Squid in the Kitchen Playing Curious Cat
While I was photographing the picture, our cat Gate decided to go for a walk there and see what was what. He stays far away from here when the work is going on. The good news about Gate is that he has also figured out that we moved his litter box into the living room yesterday morning.

Andy, the kitchen guy, came here today to solve another kitchen problem: The fact that the cabinets were going to cover up one of the kitchen windows. However, Dave seem to have solved it himself this morning by deciding to keep the back wall shallow enough that the cabinets would fit.

George, the contractor, called me today, and we talked in detail about all the issues in play--except that I forgot to remind him that we want clear windows in the bathroom and I want to make sure we have a solution in place for the water coming into the house through the backyard skylight. We have lots of change orders in place right now, so George is going to write those up soon. They include the slop sink in the basement, which I told him we will need soon, since we will soon enough have no sink in the basement (since it's been taken away), none on the first floor (since it's about to go), and none on the second (since its time is almost here). That would mean climbing three flights of stairs from the basement to retrieve water for cooking. The latest change order is to replace and upgrade the electrical service to the house, since it has to be moved anyway and its in need of improvement. This will cost "only a thousand dollars and what's a thousand dollars?" (to use Nancy's phraseology). This upgrade of the service will take place on Wednesday.

Tomorrow will, no doubt, be another fun day. Tom will be coming for a short while to figure out how the plumbing will work in the renovated space, and George will be visiting briefly to check on progress.

honi soit qui mal y pense