March 26, 2008—Mold spray, bad news and a preview

On the drive to the site, it had dawned sunny, but as I got nearer, a blanket of fog covered the valley. At the property, once again we were above the fog . . .

Kai had some bad news waiting for me. Last week, the building inspector had asked for a letter from Todd Jersey’s office confirming that the utility wing floor plan was correct. The locations of some rooms in the utility wing were changed after the plans had been approved by the County, and evidently they need a written confirmation from the architect that this is correct. Now, although they received the letter at the beginning of the week, the Planner said that they could not review it until next week. We will have to halt construction until the inspection is approved.

The ghostly morning light of the fog shines through plastic covering the dining room windows.

The mold spray was done on Tuesday. This borate based spray will kill mold on the wood of the structure and also protect it against termites. It is completely inert and non-toxic.

We had it done on the barn and cottage last spring because of big mold issues and I decided to add it to the house contract too. And lucky I did, because, with framing during the winter rains, we have developed a little mold in this structure as well. The spraying requires that all the windows be protected from spray and that the floor protection be taken up.

The kitchen/family room looks ghostly as well with the windows covered with plastic. It almost seemed like my eyes were blurry. The floors were wet from the spray but since it was supposed to rain, Kai did not want to open the structure to dry out.
Here is a better picture of the range hood with its additional 2 x 4 added at the bottom.

I keep futilely trying to take a better picture of the bottom of the range hood. Here is the latest attempt. It looks quite coherent to me, but I already know what it is. If I didn’t, I might not guess. I hope it makes visual sense.

The goose-neck thing is the steam machine control. It had been placed closer to the door, but then we realized that the door swings in. Not only would the switch be inconveniently behind the door, it might also interfere with the swing of the door if it stuck out far enough, or damage the door. Kai moved it so now it is past the door swing.
Kai put a fan in the kitchen/family room to help dry it out. The fan is running in the picture, but my little camera stopped the blades.

Over the weekend, I had been on a hunt for a better wall color. I went to a store that sells “green” paint and one of the companies they carry will sell you a large sample of their actual paint on paper—at great expense of course. The colors were very nice, so I bought some of these samples.

The one you see here is probably too dark. It is much less pink than the wall test though, and you can see that even in this photo.

These two samples are the next two lighter colors than the previous one. I will get a quart of the color on the left and try it out on Friday.

This sample is a much lighter color than the previous ones, it just looks darker because the photo was taken with a flash in the dark hall. I also have another color that I want to try in this hall.

The color effect I want in the hall is a much lighter version of the color on the public rooms, but I may have to move to almost a cream.

Click here for page two and the preview  
Check out today’s garden pictures—click here Back to top