June 6, 2007—Getting ready for the Tyvek inspection

I actually took this picture on Tuesday when I came up to the site with new cans of paint for the shed and water tank. But today, Kai explained the reason he did not finish the sheathing on the barn yet. Tomorrow, they will be bringing a crane to lift the drywall up to the second floor and wanted the window gaps to bring it in through. Since they need to install the windows before the Tyvek and siding, it was all left until after the drywall arrives.

They will install the final two windows and the last of the siding as soon as the drywall is inside, because tomorrow afternoon, the rep from Tyvek will come to inspect the Tyvek installation. Once the Tyvek passes inspection, the company assumes the liability for failure.

Here was the state of the guest cottage when I arrived today. Some of the windows and part of the Tyvek had been installed.

Kai and his helper worked all day to finish installing the windows on the guest cottage and put up the Tyvek for the inspection on Thursday. Having Tyvek inspect insures that the installation is done properly according to their specifications, then they assume the guarantee that the product will function properly in the future.

This is a huge burden of liability lifted from the contractor, but the homeowner benefits as well because the company has tested and refined the product and know that if it is installed correctly, it won’ t fail. More and more companies are using this system now, because they end up being sited in a suit if their product fails whether it is installed correctly or not.

Here they are getting ready to install the front window. Because of costs, we are using double-hung windows in the guest cottage, which creates a line in the middle of your view when you look out. But for comfort, it was important that they be operable windows instead of a picture window, and I think the 3 double-hung windows in a row are kind of cute—very old fashioned looking.

If you look closely at this picture, you can see Kai up on the ladder installing Tyvek up at the roof peak.

Today, I had an interesting experience. I was deadheading the roses we had put in along the fence and kept hearing a clicking noise. At first I thought that it was some sort of insect, but the noise came from different places each time. I suddenly realized that the noise was the wild oats shooting their seeds out of the little seed pods! Evidently, the oats were at the optimum dryness and just a few more minutes of drying would open the leaf-like outer part of the seed and the inner part, which is sort of folded inside, shoots out.

I have been around wild oats—which, by the way, are not native to California, but are fairly ubiquitous—all my life and never knew that they shot their seeds before!

Here is our vastly improved water tank, now stained a beautiful brown—Benjamin Moore HC-73 - Plymouth Brown—to be exact. The barn will be stained the same color and the guest cottage stucco will be colored to match.

I never thought I would have such affection for BROWN nor want a brown house, but it looks so natural there and dirt-like. I am very happy with it.

The shed will soon be brown as well, although, sad to say, the brown does not look as good with the beautiful the corrugated steel roof with the special coating which rusts—for which I paid a lot. Oh well, it will look a lot better anyway.

Here is the guest cottage, completely wrapped in Tyvek, windows in, and ready for inspection. Kai says he will install the T & G on the pop-out next. That is shorthand for the 1 X 6 tongue and groove rough-sawn cedar which will be installed on the bay window and the porch soffit. The rest of the exterior will be brown stucco.

Here is another view of the new front windows installed. You can see how the cottage is coming together.

Also today, Brian Eby, the cabinet maker I have hired to build the tiny kitchen counters in the guest cottage, came and did field measurements. He will build the cabinets, then Jim and I will pick them up and transport them to the site and finish them ourselves to save money. We will use an oil finish, which, although it needs to be renewed fairly frequently, can be done on-site. Janver’ s crew will install the cabinets. We would not do this in a complex kitchen, but for our little cottage with its simple kitchen, it will work fine.

Here is the view through the living room window. (Those squares you see in the corners are labels.) I looked at the logo for these windows—which is very Escher-esque—and made a wild guess that the owner of the company is someone about my age who started as hippy in the late sixties or early seventies and has developed this business into a pretty good one. I wonder if I can find out whether that is true or not?

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