The Throne in Cair Paravel

Tags

Cair Paravel Library, Narnia, Permits, The Lodge

This post is dedicated to my college Roomie, Pat.  We have more fun (and more pun) together than two giggling college freshmen!

“When life hands you lemons, make lemondade,” says an old adage.  I had a chance to do that today, although everything started out great:  I felt well enough to be up for the first time in three weeks, and the plumber came!  Yes, Phil, the boss himself!

While Phil got to work in the bathroom, I started pre-coating the switch plates for the Dawn Treader berths with my fail-proof Charles Neil product.

Phil couldn’t believe how heavy the stone sink was!  I think he was sorry he came instead of sending his employees!  He drilled a couple holes and spent quite awhile under the sink with his head smashed up against the wall, but he finally got it done.

I am SO thrilled!  It’s exactly the way I pictured it!  And I must say, I’m pretty proud of the tung oil job I did on the Brazilian cherry countertop that Ben made out of 2 stair steps.  The technique was: evenly wipe a thin coat of tung oil on to the wood and let dry for 12 hours.  Buff lightly with fine steel wool, and repeat.  There are at least 7 coats on there so hopefully the wood will be adequately protected from water.  Phil said he recently built an entire floating dock out of Brazilian cherry–about $200,000 worth!  Well, I guess it will stand up to water, then!

Next came the shower.  (Each photo looks a bit different in color because of the camera settings I have to use depending on the angle.)  You can’t see the oil-rubbed bronze hardware in this photo, but trust me, it looks great!

Next it was time for my marvelous, one-piece, comfort height, easy-to-clean toilet.  As you can guess, “one piece” translates into as “heavy as all get out!”  Luckily, Herb was home so he helped Phil haul it up the stairs.  By the time they got it into the bathroom, they were panting and flushed.  (Okay, I’m going to point that one out to make sure you get it; now you’re on your own!)

That’s when I got the lemons!  There was N.O.  W.A.Y. that toilet could fit in that spot.  Nohow, no way!  What I wanted to say was, “CRAP!”  (And something else completely apropos that was definitely running through my mind!)  What I actually said was, “Bad word!  Bad word!”  It tends to shock contractors when homeowners say “crap” no matter how appropriate to the occasion.  I will say here that part of the blame lies with me for changing from 1×4’s to D-log siding, but I LOVE my logs WAY more than any toilet!  So it’s partly my fault this whole lovely toilet thing is circling the drain.  (Oh, sorry, that’s a tub pun.)

Okay, so let’s make lemondade:  Let’s put the toilet in our master bathroom!  No, have some more lemons:  It won’t fit!

Forget the lemonade; I made a desperate call to Stuart:  “What do I do with a $348 special order toilet that won’t fit in any of our bathrooms and that I can’t return to Home Depot?”  Stuart asked me to describe the toilet which I did with all my enthusiastic longing to own it, and he said he had just the place for it and will take it!  Wow!  Just like that!  You make great lemonade, Stuart!

With instructions from Phil that I need a toilet with a 10″ rough-in (I know, you construction guys are already laughing!), I dragged myself out to Lowe’s.  I told the helpful clerk I wasn’t picky, but I’d prefer a flat top and fewer filth-collecting curlicues underneath.  No problem, Kohler has just the thing, and it’s only $275.  Yikes!  It’s not even a fancy toilet, and there’s less material in it than in a 12″ size.  Yep, but if you’re dumb enough (I’m saying that, the clerk didn’t!) to need a 10″ rough-in, they’re going to take you for all you’re worth.  Okay, let’s make lemonade:  I’ll take it!  Well, no, you knew there had to be more lemons, right?  They can’t deliver it till Dec. 24?!!!  And when do they think I’ll get a plumber?  January, maybe?  And what about our final inspection and the family here at Christmas with no toilet upstairs?  And the stinky odor coming up from the drain?

So I’ll go to Home Depot and make lemonade.  After several tries to find someone who actually knew what 10″ rough-in meant, I ended up back with the lady who sold me the first toilet (and didn’t bother to mention the bizarre specs!)  Like we were in an outhouse, she thumbed through page after page in a catalog.  (Lowe’s has computers for this stuff!)  At least she assured me that they ship in 5 days.  Finally, she found two toilets, but it was pretty bitter lemonade:  One was $312 and one was $330.  I picked the “cheap” one.  Before she ordered it, I asked if she could confirm the delivery date online.  No, she said, they don’t do that, but I assure you it will ship in 5-10 days.  Wait a minute!  Did 5 just become 10?  “Uh, that’s 10 business days,” I told her.  “That’s two weeks.  That’s Christmas!”  Thank you, goodbye.

There’s one last chance to make lemonade:  The guy at Lowe’s told me that Ferguson, a private plumbing company ‘way across town, has 10″ toilets.  So I commandeered HD’s phone book and looked up the number since they would close before I could get home.  I sat in the truck with its toilet-free bed and called Ferguson’s.  Finally!  We’re making lemonade!  Yes, I was told, we have one in stock, but if someone comes in this afternoon and buys it, we will order you one.  “Oh, no!”  I exclaimed.  “I’m paying for it right now with a credit card!”  So I did!  So tomorrow I have to drive across town and get my very expensive, ordinary-looking, very sour lemonade toilet, BUT I WILL HAVE A TOILET BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

By that time I was totally wiped out.  In fact, I was pooped!  So I picked up some take-out Thai curry and headed home to relax (writing this post in my head with some help from Pat-inspiration.)

By the way, I saved the best for last.  Before he left, Phil asked where I wanted the toilet to go.  I think he agreed with Herb that since Stuart was taking it, his guys could huff the thing downstairs.  “All right,” I agreed, “but in case they need to come finish the floor, let’s put it on a piece of carpet out in the hall.”  And that’s what they did.

So there sits (Ta! Da! wait for it . . .) The Throne in Cair Paravel!  Please don’t choke on your lemonade!

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A Screeching Halt

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Aslan's Tent, Cair Paravel Library, Colors & Paint, Construction, Dawn Treader, Decor, Kara, Mimi's Cave, Narnia, Permits, Spare Oom, The Lodge

During the week of Nov. 5-9,  I ran myself ragged trying to stain and poly the wood for the beam in Cair Paravel and the baseboards and berth trim in Narnia before Ben was ready to install it all.  In addition I was trying to stain the bathroom walls and door before he put the river rock tile down.

When I learned at the end of that week that the river rock tile (paid for and supposedly ordered more than two weeks earlier) had not arrived, it seemed at first like a blessing.  It meant I was able to finish the bathroom walls without trying to keep the stain off the river rock tile.  In fact, those pretty little pebbles caused a glitch that gummed up the whole works.

On Monday, November 12, I got a call that the tile had arrived.  Jon was here to finish painting, and I thought Ben would arrive soon to finish the trim (so Jon could finish caulking and painting) and install the tile.  Unfortunately, Stuart called to say he had picked up the river rock, but they was busy elsewhere and couldn’t make it back.  No trim, no tile, no plumbing, no final inspection, no Jon finishing painting.  Everything came to a screeching halt.

Jon’s daughter Becky put a coat of yellow over most of the primer in Mimi’s Cave while Jon glazed the ceiling in Cair Paravel, but he wasn’t at all happy with it.  Even mixed half-and-half with clear glaze to slow the drying time, the Valspar Metal & Patina Glaze rolled onto the ceiling very patchily.  I should have taken a photo, but I had gotten sick on Sunday and was so miserable I couldn’t be bothered.  THAT is pretty sick, when I can’t summon the energy to care about Narnia!

Finally Jon suggested he try wiping the glaze off.  Although some of it had dried a bit more than others, I liked the look better.  I know Jon still wasn’t satisfied, but Kara and I think that touching up a few areas will make it look perfect, especially with the way the leafy pattern of the light hits it.

In going back to read the directions for the glaze, I realize it is never suggested to simply roll it on.  This seems to be one place where my “sample board system” failed.  It rolled on fine on a 2′ x 2′ sample board, but it was a different matter trying to roll repeated sections on a large surface–especially overhead on (I hate to say it) not the best sheetrock job I’ve ever seen on a ceiling.   All Valspar’s suggested techniques are either additive or subtractive; in other words, wipe on or wipe off.  I’m sure that will be the clue to making the walls look great.

Our Toemi Island Rock in Taipei Green

Unable to finish Cair Paravel because of the unfinished trim, Jon and Becky left sometime on Monday; I was flat in bed feeling ghastly.  Antibiotics rallied me enough to go to Stone Source on Wednesday and pick a grout color–which, of course, had to be ordered!  It seems I can’t do anything the easy way!  Then I collapsed into bed and was miserable for the rest of the week.  (Here is a link for our Taipei Green river rock showing what it will look like enhanced.)

I had expressed to Stuart my concern that by not getting tile and plumbing, we weren’t able to use our space at all due to restrictions in the Building Permit that forbid putting any furniture in or using the space at all until after the Final Inspection.  On Friday Stuart called with some good news:  He had talked to the building inspector and received a “temporary, provisional, verbal approval” for us to use the space, assuming we trust Stuart to come back and finish it.  Yes, of course we do!  So that was the good news . . .

The bad news was that the future guest bedroom (Aslan’s Tent) looked like this PLUS, covering any green carpet that showed, a box spring, numerous cans of paint and bags of supplies from Lowe’s and Ace.  In short, it looked like a hoarder’s house with absolutely no passage through!

Kara has been sick, too, but with company arriving Sunday night, we rallied our befuddled heads and wobbly limbs and set to work.  Herb furnished the manpower to move furniture, but Kara and I made every single object disappear into an appropriate and somewhat less visible space.  A heroic effort, if I do say so, myself!

We stacked craft supplies and Narnia decor in the closet of Mimi’s Cave which Kara has nicknamed “Spare Oom” as being a more Narnian name!  Several plastic bins of fabric and two air mattresses got tucked into what’s left of the attic.

Everything paint and stain-related went into the shower because it can stay there till after the floor is done–accessible, but out of the way.

You can tell we got tired at the end and stuffed a few hard-to-place items in the bathroom corner!  No wonder we were tired, such busy sick little rodents!

By late afternoon, Spare Oom was actually functional.

All it lacks is the daybed and some more storage pieces (that’s on my Christmas list, Herb!)

By Saturday evening, Aslan’s Tent was functional.

Just ignore the stained glass door leaning there for safe-keeping and think of it as a large decoration!

It’s not quite up to our usual guest room standards, but at least it’s clean!

Guests still have to go downstairs for the bathroom, but The Lodge hints at what it will offer once our works get un-gummed-up and everything gets finished.

Thanks to Herb’s cleaning and more organizing on my part, by Sunday afternoon we had the kitchen devoid of every sign it had ever been an atelier.

The living room was free of construction dust for the first time in a couple of weeks, inviting us to sit and enjoy a rerun of “Breaking Dawn, Part I” on Netflix before we go see Part II tonight.

The bad news (wait, didn’t we already have that?) is that Stuart is highly doubtful they will be back here to work at all this week, either.  I guess the silver lining to that is, I have another whole week to make up for being sick.  Once all the Thanksgiving cooking is done, there’s plenty of poly-ing to do on the Dawn Treader berths and a throne waiting in Spare Oom for it’s upholstery to be finished.

So I guess the Red Carpet for our guests will have to be Drop Cloth Carpet for a little while longer.  At any rate, something’s looking up:  When Kara told me today that she thinks I need a curtain for each of the Dawn Treader berths, I said, “Hmm, we could cut up drop cloths.  They’re kind of like sail canvas!”  My Narnia-Sense is working again–I must be getting better!

Ready, Aim, Insulate!

Tags

Construction, Permits

Friday while we were at our daughter Jenny’s graduation from Commissioned Officers’ Training in the Air Force, Kara held down the fort at home.  Thanks to her doing that, the inspector was able to come and pass us for our rough-in inspection.  That means the framing, plumbing and electric are fine, and we’re ready to go with insulation and sheetrock.

So the foam insulation guys arrived this morning in the pouring rain.  Luckily they had 300 feet of hose, so they didn’t have to drive this heavy trailer onto the soaking wet ground.

They did have to climb up a ladder in the rain, hauling the hose through the window into the attic.

Ready to go.

When I saw the white coveralls and gas masks, I asked if the insulation is toxic.  The guys said no, but it comes out in a mist and would get on your clothes and into your lungs.

So they taped plastic over the windows, shower, plumbing drains, etc.  And that meant I couldn’t get in there to take pictures.  😦  Not wanting to be covered in insulation, I didn’t complain!

When they were done, the slanted ceilings were covered by a layer of dense foam insulation.  It’s an expensive way to insulate, but in order to get R30 or R35 as required by code, Stuart would have had to double all the ceiling rafters with 2 x 12s at great cost and greatly reducing the ceiling height.  So this was the best option.

If you’ve ever tried that spray insulation in a can, you know it tends to expand and end up places where you don’t want it.  The guys had a special tool for that, to scrape the excess insulation off the joists.

When you see how hard they had to work at it, you get an idea how tough that stuff is. This is the apprentice, so he gets this job.

This is the guy who’s sprayed over 4,000 ceilings, so he gets to sweep up what the apprentice saws off!

Per Stuart’s clever instructions, they sprayed the shower stall.  The insulation acts as a sound barrier to keep the sound of water running in the shower from disturbing anyone who might be trying to sleep nearby.  Now that’s a feature our kids will love since their little ones will be sleeping just on the other side of the shower!

The crew is coming back tomorrow because the boss man saw some spots where he wants to add more insulation, and he wants to bring a saw to remove the excess.  I guess the apprentice wore out his scraping arm!  We’re always glad when someone wants to come back to make double-sure the job is done right. The boss likes working for Stuart, and he wants to keep Stuart happy.  And that makes me happy!

 

Onward and Upward!

Tags

Attic, Construction, Permits

Construction started today!  Stuart, Ben and Todd arrived bright and early.  The first thing they did was lay down a red carpet (I mean a drop cloth) up the stairs to the attic.

  Next they laid some plywood decking to walk on–so much easier than balancing on the tightrope of ceiling joists.  (Once, in another house with another builder, we actually had a guy miss the joists and partially fall through into the room below!  He caught himself with his arms, but his legs were dangling into the study.)

 Here’s a shot after the guys installed some extra lighting and went downstairs for more plywood–which they are carrying up the stairs SO carefully!  Not a nick in the wall!

Some of my bilingual readers have had a hard time figuring out what we’re doing in the attic (google translation isn’t always very accurate), so I thought I would try to explain with pictures.  As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words!  Here’s a shot coming up the steps.  The portion of the stairwell wall that has the photos on it will be cut away to make a more open feeling at the top of the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, you turn left to enter the attic.  The door that opens into the attic will be removed, leaving an open area at the top of the stairs.

Just inside the door, if you turn to the left you will see the HVAC.  It’s going to be moved (out of sight to the other side of the attic), and the rafters behind it will be removed to build the parents’ bedroom in the gable over our bedroom.

If you look to your right along the wall, the area between the dangling vent and the window will be the boys’ side of Narnia with two berths under the slanted ceiling.

Looking on towards your right past the window, this area will have two berths for the girls.  You can see the door in the photo, but soon it will be gone.

Here’s the area behind that door.  You can see part of the plumbing drains that were put in when the house was built, ready to expand the attic.  The bathroom will go here, saving us a lot of money as we avoid installing new plumbing.  The rest of that little corner will be unused–a good place to stuff all the loose insulation the guys are having to remove from the rest of the attic (because they need to see what’s under it.)

Now you’ve made almost a complete circle, and you are looking at the door where we started.  To the left is the corner where the insulation is getting piled up.  The wall to the right of the door (where the light switch is and the plugs are) will be cut down to a half wall.  Beyond the door you can see my craft room.  Zephyr is looking down the stairs.

If you keep looking to the right of the door, you will see the HVAC again–full circle.

So that’s what we’ve got and what we plan to do with it.  As I post pictures of the construction, I’ll try to include shots that show BEFORE as well as AFTER.

It will probably be at least a few weeks before we get to the fun part where you can actually see Narnia unfolding.  Today was exciting, though–a day I’ve been awaiting for four years!  To make it even better, the county inspector came at Stuart’s request for a pre-construction inspection.  He commended us for having an architect’s drawing and an engineer’s input; he approved Stuart’s plan for getting R-30 (or better) insulation in the ceiling; and he didn’t find any problems that would need to be addressed.  I’d call that a GREEN LIGHT!

Onward and upward!

To Narnia and the North!

Tags

Narnia, Permits

Houston, prepare for lift-off!  I think I’m mixing my metaphors, but you get the idea!

We’re Pumped!

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Permits

Since the Environmental Protection Department couldn’t find any records on file about our septic system, we had to have a 2′ x 2′ section of the tank uncovered for their inspection before we could get a Building Permit. They want to be sure we’re not using an old fridge or freezer–or as some “tanks” they’ve found, a tarp-lined hole.  Blech!  

A tank needs to be pumped about every five years.  We’ve lived here for four years and the man before us lived here for three and didn’t know when it was last pumped.  So we figured it was high time. 

The guys from Blevins arrived bright and early.  The first order of business was to find the tank.  We told them where we thought it was.  The young guy rammed his rebar tool into the ground and hit pay dirt–I mean concrete.

The older man driving the little track-hoe was so good that he barely left a mark on the wet ground when the job was all done.  He said he waited years for his turn at the track-hoe; first Mr. Blevins, Sr. drove it, then his son, and now it’s this guy’s turn.  He agreed with my guess that it’s the best part of his job!

With the finesse of a surgeon, he scraped dirt away from the  tank lid.

Then they attached chains to the track-hoe, hooked them on to special rings set into the septic tank lid, and lifted off the lid.  

I backed away!  The guy in charge was eager to explain everything, though, so I eventually moved in closer to see.  I took plenty of photos, too.  

To show you any more photos, however, would be “TMI” (as my youngest sister would say.  Actually, she would certainly say, “Too late!”)

There were a few “bobbles” with the suction on the hose, but everything went quite smoothly until they got to the bottom.  What the men euphemistically referred to as “sludge” on the bottom of the tank indicated that this elderly tank had not been pumped in many a long year!

So out came the invention of the older man .  He saw a $1500 tool like this in a trade catalog and told his boss he was sure he could make one.  He got a metal pipe and a boat propeller and connected them to what sounds like a chain saw.  With water being squirted in, it basically acts like a soup blender–and I’ll stop there.  TMI again!

These guys take pride in their work, and they are amazingly cheerful.  Their work has its humorous side, and they enjoy it.  

Right after they lifted the lid off, I moved in close to see what the older man was showing me, and I ended up straddling the green pipe.  Out of sight back at the truck, the younger man turned on the air suction to the hose, just as I was thinking “Thar she blows!”–and a loud sucking sound erupted between my feet.  I erupted backwards into the air with a shriek, and they had a good laugh!

I took their word for it that the truck has a transparent window on the tank so they can tell when it’s full.  Apparently we were the last load of the morning, then they were heading off to the local sewage treatment plant to empty their tank.  In fact, I learned that a septic tank IS a miniature sewage treatment plant.  I learned a lot today!  Of course, most of it can’t be discussed in polite company!

This all took about an hour and a half, and the environmental inspector turned up right on time at 10 a.m.  He glanced into the clean (well, by septic standards) tank, said, “It’s fine” and prepared to leave.  Shocked, I asked, “Is that all?”  And it was.  He said his report would be ready in the afternoon.

Herb came out right after he left–that’s how quick it all happened.  “What did he say?” he asked.  I replied, “He said the tank is too old, and we have to replace it with a new one.  It’s going to cost $5000.”  As I said this, I winked at the guys, and they played right along, commiserating with Herb.  As he sighed, we all burst out laughing and gave him the good news.  Herb wasn’t surprised at my teasing him, but he was quite impressed at the two guys who never missed a beat.  I bet they’re good at Poker!

When I saw the work involved in digging the tank up and learnied it needed to be done every five years, I asked why no one had invented a lid with a port that would stick up above the soil for easy access without digging.  In fact, it turns out that someone has!  So we have one on order.  It’s not expensive, and it will certainly make pumping cheaper because of not needing to dig.  

Our tank was closed and neatly covered over with dirt by the track-hoe and a rake (to the chagrin of the younger guy who couldn’t see why they have to dig twice).  In a few days they’ll come back and install our new lid, and the port will hide under the bushes.

So this inspection that I have been dreading was such a non-event that it was almost funny!  I hope it’s a harbinger of things to come . . .

The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men: Conclusion

Tags

Attic, Floor Plan, Kara, Permits

In my last post about the plans for Narnia, our best-laid plans had, indeed, to quote Robert Burns “gang aft agley.”  (wiki-translation: gone often awry)  Well, they’d twice gone awry, and so we asked Stuart Bickley, our contractor, to come meet with us one more time on Thursday afternoon.

He wasn’t put out because, as he pointed out, it’s much better to confer about what we should do on this end than in the middle of construction!

We went over his figures together, and what finally became clear was that Plan Two was going to come very close in cost to Plan One.  Yes, the LVLs in Plan One cost more, but the skylights in Plan Two ended up costing almost as much by the time installation and labor were included.

We then trooped upstairs, along with Kara, to take a look at the attic.  As we discussed pros and cons of the two plans, Kara put her two cents in.  She told Stuart her idea of combining the two plans, and he instantly caught on to the advantages of it.  A huge one was not having to install the tricky LVLs in the middle of a bathroom with plumbing and shower height to consider.

And here I must confess that Kara was right all along!  Of course, my objection to her idea originally was that we would still have to cut rafters and install LVLs, but now that we knew that wasn’t more costly, my objection evaporated.

We all got on board with The Plan and began to get excited.  Houston, we have ignition!  

I spent the rest of the evening cutting, pasting, whiting out, measuring and re-drawing lines until FINALLY we had a Plan!

Here it is:

The office will become my craft room.  In fact, we spent Saturday moving most of my stuff in.  I’ll be working at it bit by bit, but I’m excited to have a place where I can go make a creative mess and not bother anyone!  Zephyr has already adopted it and loves to follow me up there.

The rest of the plan is pretty self-explanatory except perhaps the shelves in the open area of the hall.  What we actually end up building in will depend on how the head room works out there.  We all agreed there are just some things we’ll have to wait and see about . . .

Friday I went to the county Planning Office and began the Permit process.  I was then sent a few steps down the hall to the state Environmental Office where they could not find a plan on file for our septic system.  (Mr. Blevins, our septic expert, says that’s no surprise!)  When I stabbed my finger in the Yellow Pages (actually, I looked to see who had the biggest ad), I lucked out by choosing Blevins Septic because they know and like him at Environmental, and that’s going to make things much easier.

So bright and early Tuesday morning, Blevins will be here to uncover the tank for the Environmental inspector later that morning; they’ll pump the tank at the same time.  We’ve lived here four years, and the guy that lived here for three years before had no idea when it was last pumped.  Seeing as it should be done every five years according to Mr. Blevins, I’d say it’s about time!

And if all goes well, Stuart could be here to begin work by late next week. 

Houston, prepare for lift-off!