January 2, 2008—Battening down for the big storm

It was kind of a slow day at the site. Kai is still on vacation and Janver and I did a walk-through of the house rather than our usual meeting. Mostly we discussed battening down for the coming storm, which—depending on the radio station you listen to—will be the worst since 1992, or 1925, with 10" of rain expected.

I got to Costco and scored two more chairs, now all we need is a dining room table to go with them. I also went to the hardware store and bought wood to make a base for the couch. I paid for 2 X 6’s but when I went out the the yard, I made a mistake and took 2 X 8’s instead, but decided to keep them and paid the difference.

Thomas, the framing boss, said he would cut the wood up for me, so I came back into the cottage to double-check my measurements. (I have learned to double and triple-check any measurements I take because I have a habit of measuring incorrectly.)

I took the bolsters off the couch and tipped it on its side so I could get an accurate measurement of the distance between the little plastic feet on the couch. I noticed in passing that there was a zipper in the bottom of the couch and wondered what it was for. As I measured both sets of feet, something bulged out of the lining on the base of the couch, so I opened the zipper to see what it was. It was real wooden feet for the couch! Boy, did that make me laugh!

Here they are, installed.

I guess the plastic ones were shipping feet, put on to protect the bottom of the couch during shipping and keep the lining aligned with the holes for the screws. The real feet aren’t as tall as the base we had planned for the couch, but at least you can get up off it without having to get hauled up by someone else. I took them out to Thomas, and we both had a good laugh.

Jim visited the property this afternoon and I told him I had made them! I am still chuckling over this whole thing and thanking my lucky stars that I measured twice!

I forgot to show this before. This is a gorgeous Pendelton blanket that Jim got me for Christmas. The pattern is called Chinle, which is the town on the Navaho reservation at the base of Canyon de Chelly (pronounce deshay) which we have visited.

Once again, I am frustrated by the color reproduction of the camera. In real life, the browns in the blanket and the brown of the couch look much better together.

This a red pepper wreath which I bought in Santa Fe last fall on my house parts buying trip. I will hang it up somewhere in the cottage, but haven’t decided where yet. I wanted to put it up on the front door, but the door is only temporary.

When the new door—which will be a pine panel door—arrives, I will put a hook on it for holiday decorations, but I don’t want to put a hole in this door because Janver’s company will be taking it back.

Thomas put up the wood strips with the screws which I showed in last week’s page. I did not realize it, but the slanted cuts had already been made, they are just so gradual that they are hard to see.

If you look at the rafters on the front and back of the carport, you can see they are much thicker than the ones in the middle. The tops of each rafter is slanted slightly toward the middle.

 

When the corrugated steel roof is installed, it will be in two long pieces, one for the front and one for the back. Where they meet in the middle, there will be a metal tray running the width of the carport.

When it rains, the corrugated roof will drain into this tray and the water will flow to either end, where a rain chain will guide it to drainage pipes. This clever design will keep rain from pouring down onto the windshield of our vehicles as we drive into the carport.

Here is the house end of the carport with the rafter additions installed. Thomas will cut the ends off flush with the lower part of the rafter next week.
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