I know, I know -- it's been 3 months since I posted anything on this blog. In my defense, not much has been going on house-wise. I've also been pretty busy with work, including writing my
other blog. But since we have just broken ground on our new garage -- just after the 1-year anniversary of moving back into our house -- I will have some new information to add.
But first, here's a quick rundown of the past 3 months...
In mid-May, we had two solid weeks of
houseguests. No, not the same
houseguests for 2 weeks, but 12 different people who stayed with us over the course of 2 weeks -- some overlapping. That included my cousin
Nirmita, her sister
Purvi and her 2 children, and her parents who were all in town for
Nirmita's graduation from The George Washington University.
We attended the ceremony, where Michelle Obama was the commencement speaker.
Then our old buddy John
Pali came back to repair our balcony.
The tile we had used on it turned out to be unsuitable for outdoor use, and with all the snow and ice we had over the winter, it cracked in several places. We also had some sort of fungus growing on the face of the balcony -- perhaps as a result of water infiltration from the cracked tile. John took off the railing, which he had to store in the bedroom as it was too heavy to lift down to the ground, cleaned off the fungus, and
retiled the surface with an outdoor-rated tile.
Over Memorial Day weekend, we went down to Richmond, VA to see the Tiffany exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I couldn't take any photos in the exhibit, but the historic Jefferson Hotel, where we stayed, has several windows that are believed to have been made by Tiffany Studios, including the ceiling in the lobby.
On June 6, we participated in the Arlington Green Home & Garden Tour. There was a luncheon and awards ceremony at one of the homes beforehand, where we were presented with our Arlington County Green Home Choice certificate by County Board member Barbara
Favola.
Then our house was open to the public for 4 hours. We had the house professionally cleaned and the yard tidied up beforehand, and managed to enlist several people to help us give tours and answer questions: our builders Rob and Steve B, our architect Marta, her husband
Amalio, and her assistant Pedro, who was in charge of greeting people at the door, signing them in, and collecting donations for
Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment (one of the tour's co-sponsors. We probably had over 100 people come through our house that afternoon, and collected more donations than any other house on the tour -- probably because Pedro was shaking people down at the door.
On June 12, Josh and Rob participated in a charity bike ride in
Middleburg, VA. The ride was 60 miles, and since Rob is 10 years younger and 6 inches taller than Josh, he pushed himself pretty hard training for it so he could keep up. A couple weeks before the event, I suggested he go on a training ride with Rob so he'd have a better sense of what to expect. Turns out Rob -- who only rides a few times a year -- had a tough time keeping up with Josh, who bikes to work every day. After that, Josh relaxed and just had fun with it. Although now he's got the bug for long-distance bike rides. Let's hope he wears a little more sunscreen next time...
At the end of June, we spent a long weekend in the Bay Area, turning a business trip (for Josh) into a mini-vacation. We visited several friends and family members, and had a nice birthday dinner for Josh at the Slanted Door, a
nouveau Vietnamese restaurant in the Ferry Building with a spectacular view of the Bay Bridge.
When we got home -- on Josh's actual birthday -- the house was thoroughly covered with birthday decorations. That's what happens when you leave a key with my friend Ann...
In July, we celebrated the Fourth with our neighborhood parade and picnic, which is very cute. All the kids dress in red, white, and blue and decorate their bikes, scooters, and wagons.
In the afternoon, we went to a BBQ at a neighbor's house, and then took the Metro to
Rosslyn to watch the fireworks from the hill by the
Iwo Jima Memorial -- our old front yard. The Metro was so crowded afterwards that we ended up walking all the way home, which is only about 2 miles, but it did make me nostalgic for the days when we lived right across the street.
Most recently, we spent a week at Josh's family's house in
Chatham, MA -- right on the elbow of Cape Cod. This is our last summer there, as the house has been sold to the neighbor directly behind it -- he rented it back to us for the summer as he has to wait 18 months before he can tear it down, which he is planning to do. So that's our little house, Starboard Light, in the front, and the neighbor's house looming above it. As you can see, it's right on the water. (I took this photo from a boat.)
Despite the bittersweet undertone, we had a lovely time. We were joined at the beginning of the week by our friend Patrick, and during the latter half by Josh's friend John and his family as well as Josh's brother Ben and his younger daughter, Larissa. A good time was had by all, and we were especially glad to have missed one of the hottest weeks of the year in DC. It never got above 85 degrees in
Chatham, which is good because the house has no A/C. We're looking forward to going back up over Labor Day weekend for one last hurrah with some of Josh's cousins.
OK, now we're caught up on the past 3 months. Let's hope I can find some time to post some updates on the garage...
The electrician had also arrived, and was digging a trench around the perimeter of the patio in order to run a conduit from the house to the garage. Rob had initially thought they'd be able to run it directly to the house along the driveway, but the electrician didn't think it would pass inspection because of the risk of compaction. We knew the yard would get trashed during construction, so I wasn't too upset by this unexpected development, and Rob said he'd try to reseed the grass once they were done.
Before I left for work, we went over where the light fixtures, exterior outlet, and switches should go. Rob made a template the approximate size of the light over the garage doors so we could get a sense of where to install it. It seemed plenty large enough when I ordered it, but the space is much larger than I envisioned, so I hope the lantern isn't dwarfed by it.
When I got home, we had doors! We decided to go with old-fashioned carriage doors, both to go with the period look of the house, and because Josh wants to hang boats from the ceiling, which wouldn't work well with an overhead door. These doors are HUGE -- 5' wide by 8' tall and quite thick, but they are made of AZEK (plastic) rather than wood, so they aren't quite as heavy and are more durable and low-maintenance.
We also had a port-a-john. Right next to the front porch. It was supposed to go closer to where I was standing when I took this photo, but I'd much rather have one in front of the house than not at all, if you know what I mean...
The electrical conduit was installed, along with a box for an exterior outlet.
SAI can't seem to help leaving their mark somewhere on their work. Fortunately, it's always in a spot that will get covered over, or, in this case, in the dust on the window.
Thursday morning, Steve W was manning the outdoor office space. He and Josh spent some time devising a plan for hanging our canoe and small boat from the rafters of the garage.
The garage has 10-foot ceilings, so there's plenty of room to hang stuff. No worries about bumping your head!
One small snafu -- the ground in front of the garage slopes upward, so this is as far as the garage doors will open right now. Makes it kind of tricky to get anything sizable in or out. They will have to regrade that area when they put in the driveway.
The current opening is about as wide as a standard doorway. The doors look very different from the back, but they'll eventually be painted white so they won't look strange when they're open.
The south wall of the garage is required by code to be a 1-hour fire-rated wall because of it's proximity to the property line, so it has a different kind of sheathing from the rest of the garage. You won't notice the difference when it's done.
Thankfully, they moved the port-a-john a little further down the driveway and did their best to disguise it from the street with some lumber scraps
Friday, the stucco crew showed up and got to work installing all the layers of material, starting with a waterproof housewrap.
When they were done, they put up scaffolding around the garage.
They came back Saturday morning with the stucco mixer a big pile of sand...
And got started on the first layer of stucco.
The finished the entire first coat by mid-afternoon.
Now our backyard looks like the place where ladders go to die. If you have small children and wonder why we haven't invited you over for a cookout recently, here's why
It's been warm, sunny, and relatively dry, so the stucco seemed to be drying nicely today.
Not sure how long it has to dry before they can start the next layer, but since there isn't any rain forecast for the foreseeable future, they should be able to get the job done relatively quickly.
