Words&Dirt

I am not a funny person, but I sometimes try to imagine what being funny would be like.  Does making an entire room or theater full of people laugh hysterically feel as great as in my daydreams?  Is telling a poorly received joke as terrible and paralyzing as I think it would be?

The question about funny people that I find most intriguing is: Do they think they are funny, or do they just discover that the world finds their particular way of seeing things amusing?  One American writer who is almost unanimously considered funny is David Sedaris.  I haven’t read any of his books, but I’ve heard lots of his radio stories and have especially enjoyed his contributions to This American Life over the years.  Sedaris is the kind of guy who doesn’t seem like he’s trying to be funny, but just has an outlook on life that the rest of us find unusual and often hilarious.  He has strange interests, and notices details about people and places that are often overlooked by others.  But he also appears to encounter more than his fair share of bizarre people and situations; it’s unclear to me how much he alters real life experience for the sake of comedy (if at all).

All this is a convoluted way of trying to explain that, for whatever reason, I found myself wondering how a Sedaris-esque telling of the week after Dan’s departure from our building site would go.

It was the Monday after Dan traveled south for knee surgery that I discovered Sean’s drinking problem.  He would slip off to Central Station tavern during his lunch hour and breaks, a fact I learned from a friend who happened to be driving by and see Sean leaving the bar, walking unsteadily and accompanied by a short man wearing leather pants and a fedora with an ostrich feather in it.   I guess this explains why he takes so long to go “get more screws,” and also his unpredictable temper, which Dan is no longer around to keep in check.

Meanwhile, Matt has become fascinated by an ant hill on site.  He spends more and more time staring at it and following the paths taken by worker ants to collect food.  When I ask him what he’s up to, he tells me he is “mapping the future.”  It’s increasingly hard to get him to focus on work, and the threat of his wandering off to the ant hill is always imminent.  Also, his accuracy with a nail gun is down 27%.

For my part, I’ve become disillusioned with this whole “house building” thing.  As soon as we’ve finished, we’ll probably have the “big one” earthquake California has been waiting for.  My nihilism grows with each new nail fired home.  No matter how sturdy we build this thing, it can all be gone in a moment.  What are we even doing with ourselves?  To cope, I’ve started sneaking into the house while Matt and Sean are busy to eat M&Ms and watch Trailer Park Boys.  Bubbles’ adoration of kitties has come to embody my last hope for a meaningful existence.  I need to find something I care about that much. 

Okay, so I’m clearly no Sedaris.  I told you I wasn’t funny.  Still, I wanted to conjure up these absurd scenarios to highlight a reality for which I’m profoundly thankful: the overwhelming majority of people in my life, including my coworkers, are comfortingly stable.  Comedy is almost always predicated on things going wrong, so it’s hard for someone surrounded by competence to be funny.  I won’t be selling any books with “Corduroy and Denim” in the title, but I’m relieved on a daily basis for the consistency of those around me.

Though we miss Dan––especially his cheerful attitude––work has continued at a reliable and productive pace.  Our first task this week was to trim out the windows and doors.

Back door trimmed

Front windows trimmed

Trimming might look like simple work, but it actually takes a lot of careful measuring and cutting.  This is especially true of the sills underneath windows and doors (the un-primed strip of cedar in the above pictures).  For proper drainage, the sills have to be cut to butt into the siding at a slight downward angle (9 degrees).  This also means that any trim pieces that butt into the sill must also be cut to be flush with that angle.

There are also occasional pieces that require custom cuts:

Took us a few times to get this one just right

After the trim and corners were set, we got to work on the bats.

Bats along east wall

The bats cover up siding nails and also give the house a finished look.  Setting them is relatively simple, but we had to be careful about staying plumb and double checking to make sure the bats are all equidistant from one another.

Back door area

North walls with all bats in place

I spent my usual Wednesday at Tule Fog Farm, so Sean and Matt finished the bats by themselves.

Next, we started to get ready for painting the house exterior.  The first step was to caulk any and all small gaps between windows and trim, trim and trim, bats and trim, bats and bats, as well as the entirety of each bay of roof overhang.

Matt showing me how to smooth out caulking

Caulking makes quite a mess, so it’s important to clean up as you go so as not to leave streaks or globs of caulk that will harden and cause the paint to look uneven.  It takes a lot of time and attention to do it right, and I’ll admit it hasn’t been one of my favorite parts of the building process.  Still, it’s satisfying to do a thorough job, especially considering that good caulking is really important for keeping bugs and moisture out of the house.

Window and trim fully caulked and cleaned

Caulking these overhangs was the most difficult

After caulking was done, we also had to tape off the windows to protect them from being sprayed with primer and paint.

Window ready for primer and paint

Another job Sean and I tackled this week was cutting our three new solar tubes into roof.  This was a fun and relatively easy job, and provided welcome relief from the tediousness of caulking.  First, we used the nails that Dan and I put in the roof to mark out out where our holes needed to go.  Then I used the Sawzall to cut the holes while Sean positioned the domes.

Sean installing the first solar tube dome

Almost done on top

After the domes were done, I went inside and cut out some of the 2″x12″ we’d screwed into the ceiling joists so the tubes could come straight down to the ceiling.  We will finish putting them in after the sheet rock is installed.

New bay cut for solar tube

You can see in the above picture that the reflective interior of the tube is excellent for capturing and concentrating light, especially given that the domes are on the northern side of the roof and not angled toward the sun.  I could barely stand to look into the tube for more than a second or two.  I’m really look forward to seeing how much these contribute to natural lighting in our new living space.

Our last two projects for the week were getting started with primer and building a new step up to our old deck by the east wall.  While Sean got started priming, Matt and I followed his instructions to put the step together.  This was a great opportunity to utilize our deck-building knowledge from last week in a slightly new context.

We had to set a couple of pier blocks in the ground so the step would have a firm, level surface to sit on

While we waited for the concrete to dry around the pier blocks, Matt and I built the box base for the step.

Border screwed together

Joists added

Box in place

Redwood boards added to border

Deck boards cut and installed

This is still a work in progress, but getting the deck boards set provided a good stopping point.  As we wrapped things up, Matt and I discovered that Sean had managed to spray primer on a significant portion of the house exterior, including almost the entire north wall.

Almost ready for paint!

Painting should begin early next week, hopefully on Monday.  Rain is expected for a few days starting Tuesday, so we may be delayed if we can’t get it all done Monday.

We are closer and closer to completion with each passing day.  Now that we’re getting into the detail work, I feel a combination of relief and increased responsibility, given how visible the finish work is compared to sections of the house that are removed from sight entirely once completed.  I’m close to exhaustion by the end of each week, but it’s an exhaustion born of progress and excitement.  Thanks to Sean and Matt’s dedication and companionship, my tiredness is not compounded by frustration or anxiety.