Our shower got framed in today as well. What you see through the door is the bench. The will be a steam unit for the shower and you need to be able to lie down to really enjoy the steam.

I am a huge proponent of steam. You can use it to stave off or cure a cold, relieve achy muscles and joints, relax you, warm you up on a cold day, etc. I feel about steam like a lot of people feel about a hot bath and can’t wait to use it.

Looking through the linen closet walls, here it is from the side. I hope they haven’t slanted the bench too much, I don’t want to feel like I am rolling off it!

Notice that they have used pressure-treated lumber to frame in the shower. They must not have had enough to complete the bench, but it will be covered with a waterproof membrane and hardy-board and tile, so I am not too worried about that.

I still don’t see why we couldn’t cut the bottom off that stud in the middle of the bench and tuck the steam unit under it, although I was told it wasn’t possible. I will bring it up in next week’s meeting.

This pile of plastic is actually a huge pile of boxes of nails covered with plastic to protect them against the storm.

We are all worried about the roof and framing in the coming weather, but there is not much we can do. Todd had wanted Janver to have the building tarped, but it really isn’t possible. In my first improvement to the property, I had a 2500 gallon water tank hooked up at the well by the house so I could start irrigating. The well company (NOT my current one) left it sitting empty until they could get electricity hooked up to fill it. A huge storm came through and the water tank blew away, ending hung up below on a fence. Any tarp would be ripped to shreds by the end of a storm like this, so we will just have to count on the wind to dry everything out afterwards.

I took one last picture of my cardboard with jute cloth on top. This should really go on the gardening page, but I am so anxious about this. If it comes through this storm, I will know it will weather anything.

My assistant spent the day sorting sheets of cardboard left over from the construction and then bundled them in a tarp tied down tight in a sheltered area. Once it dries out, we will use those sheets before I buy some more rolls. The sheet cardboard is better than the rolled because it is thicker, but it is very labor-intensive. You must break down the boxes, then remove tape, staples and plastic label covers. Usually you end up tossing out debris such as packing material and plastic bags, so the money saved on the free cardboard is spent on labor to clean it up.

I like the look of the back door from the foyer, although when I was looking at these pictures, I wondered why we didn’t bring that door out to the level of the back of the closet, which is that little jog near the chimney.

We have decided on using Cor-ten for the top of the chimney. Cor-ten is specially treated steel which has a top layer that rusts almost immediately. The top of the utility shed is corrugated Cor-ten. I would like to use it for the walkway and veranda roofs as well, but it would just be too costly. Those roofs and the carport as well, will be galvanized with a wash of something to make them look old and brown—a requirement of the County.

Here is the storm-coming sky from the dining room window. This is as close to a sunset as we got today. By the time of the actual sunset, the sky was so gray with mist and haze, that you couldn’t really tell when the sun went down.

I can see that once we move, I will probably spend a lot of time watching the weather.

As promised, here is the bathroom with the wrapping paper I put up for a window shade. It looks pretty good and gives me a better idea what I want for a real shade.

The light fixture I derided so much, although ugly, gives good light. I am going to have to rethink the light fixture in here because the one I have on order has only one light bulb and will not be as bright.