3-Ring Circus

Lots of garage-related stuff happened last week -- all on the same day! On Friday, everyone converged to put the finishing touches on the garage. Rob and John were there to finish the roof tile.
The concrete guys showed up to build the forms to extend our runners along the driveway to the garage.
The electrician installed the exterior and interior light fixtures.
And the painters painted the doors and trim.
I was working from home, and also had a dentist appointment and a haircut scheduled that day, so it was insanely busy. I was called outside several times to consult on the driveway. It was a bit complicated, because if we extended the existing runners, they would have run right into the window well for the basement window. So we decided to fill in the space between the existing runners to make a solid pad, and start new runners that go straight up the driveway to a pad in front of the garage. That should make it a little easier to get in and out of the garage, although we may have to take down some of the little trees along the driveway. Bummer.
Last weekend, Josh and I went to Community Forklift in search of a work table, shelving, and/or a tool cabinet for the garage. We struck gold in the work table department -- a 8' x 4' solid wood table for just $75. The only hitch -- there was no way we could get it home in our Prius, and they don't deliver. They said they'd hold on to it for 2 weeks, so this morning we enlisted the generous help of Rob and his big pickup truck and our friend Patrick to help get the table home. We also donated some closet doors, window blinds, and the leftover roof tile.
Now that Josh has a nice big work surface, electricity, and light in the garage, I'll probably never see him again. In fact, he's been out there all afternoon, with the exception of two trips to the hardware store. It's no longer a garage. It's a man cave.

Mind in the Gutter/Bringing Down the House

Can you tell what's new with our garage this week?
Gutters! The gutter people came on Wednesday and Thursday to install gutters on the garage.
They also directed the downspout on one side to one of our nifty new rain barrels. We've been getting lots of compliments on these rain barrels, mostly because they go so nicely with our house, I think. These barrels hold 65 gallons of water, which we can use to water the plants and save some money on our water bills, I hope!
It was a rather unexciting week, garage-wise, but I do have a couple related stories to share that are far more entertaining. Some good friends of ours are building a new house about 2 blocks from ours, where they found a great lot with a terrible house. The previous owner had made few improvements and had many cats -- the smell was atrocious! So they didn't feel too bad about tearing down the existing house and building a new, 'green' house -- using our same builders (SAI). The demolition started on the 17th, so Josh and I walked over to check it out. The house still looked the same from the front...
But not so much from the back!
Since our friends were out of town on the following Monday, I went back over at lunchtime to take some progress photos for them. All that was left standing were the exterior brick walls. I chatted briefly with the guy operating the excavator (I had to look that one up!) while he was taking a break to refuel, and he explained that they recycle the bricks, so he has to wait until he clears away all the other debris before knocking the walls down. They also recycle all the metal, and it was pretty impressive to watch him pick out plumbing pipes and radiators with the giant claw and put them in a separate pile.
He told me he could probably pick up a dime with this thing, and then asked me if I wanted to give it a try. At first, I thought he was joking, but he said he showed his 5-year-old son how to operate it, so he was sure I could do it, too. I was still pretty hesitant, so he said, "What could go wrong? We're tearing down a house? It's not like you're going to break anything!" It was challenging enough just to climb into the thing, since the floor of the cabin was about 5 feet off the ground -- and I was wearing sandals -- but once I hoisted myself in, I was ready to wield some power. Most of the controls are in two joysticks, so he just held his hands out and showed me which way to move them to rotate the machine and operate the claw. I just moved a big claw-full of debris from one pile to another, but it was pretty darn cool. (And Josh was extremely jealous when I told him about it.) I sent this photo to my friends to show them that I was helping to demolish their house, but I had to follow up with the full story before they got that I wasn't just posing for a photo.
Yesterday was Clarendon Day, which is an annual street festival celebrating the local businesses in our neighborhood. This is a popular tradition in the DC area -- lots of neighborhoods have similar events at this time of year -- and since this one happens 2 blocks from our house, it's hard NOT to go. They have music and dance performances on several different stages, food from nearby restaurants, a crafts fair, kid-oriented stuff like face painting and a moonbounce, and various local businesses promoting their services. As Josh and I were scouting out the food options yesterday afternoon, something caught our eye.
It was a poster with photos of our house! It turns out our architect, had decided to reserve a booth to promote her business. She said many people commented that they recognized our house, which wasn't too surprising since it was literally 3 blocks away from their booth. It's a little odd to see your house on someone's promotional materials, but kind of cool.
We popped back later in the afternoon and gathered with all the dudes in brown flip-flops to watch a performance by rapper GoRemy, who became a local celebrity after releasing Arlington: The Rap on YouTube last year. He apparently lives in a condo right down the street from us, and most of the video was filmed in our neighborhood. He recently did a similarly funny rap video about the Metro, but like the Arlington rap, you won't get most of the jokes unless you live in the area.

Coming up this week: a driveway! And maybe even: electricity! Stay tuned...

The Roof!

Our roof tile finally arrived on Thursday morning, more than 2 weeks behind schedule. It came on a big flatbed truck, and was dropped off in our driveway with this little forklift.
This much tile hardly seems worth transporting on a giant flatbed truck, but I imagine it's pretty heavy, and it looked like they had a bunch of other stuff on the truck to deliver elsewhere.
John and Steve W got pretty good start installing the roof tile on Thursday, and then came back Friday to finish it up -- with Rob's supervision.
It's hard to get a good photo of it without taking it through a window screen, but here's the view of the roof from the family room.
Unfortunately, they didn't deliver the curved pieces that go along the front face of the roof, so it's not entirely finished yet, but hopefully they'll get the missing tile soon.
Inside, they have installed fire-resistant drywall along the south side of the garage and managed to hoist the little sailboat up
We stopped at Home Depot last night and picked up some fluorescent light fixtures and hooks for hanging bikes, boats, and garden equipment. Yes, it's kind of sad that we spent our Saturday night at Home Depot, but at least we were on our way home from a party. OK, it was a kid's birthday party, but it still counts -- the food and drink were decidedly adult-oriented.

Someone will be coming later this week to install the gutters, and then the only parts remaining will be installing the electrical fixtures and extending the driveway. If all goes well, it should be done in the next couple weeks.

Recent Events

A lot has happened in the past couple weeks -- but very little of it was garage-related...

On Monday, August 30, Steve W rigged up a pulley system in the garage for Josh's little sailboat. He and John managed to get the boat through the side door to test it out.
Unfortunately, the boat was quite a bit heavier than anticipated, so it's back to the drawing board...
There's very little lawn left in the back yard, what with the construction around the garage, the trench for the electrical connection, and the area under where the boats were stored. We'll have to re-seed -- or re-sod -- when it's all done.
Meanwhile, the stucco crew finished the second coat on the exterior of the garage. It's been dry and sunny here for the past few weeks, so they've been able to work much more quickly than they could on the house.
On Thursday, Sept 2, Rob and John suited up to install insulation along the south wall of the garage. Because it is close to the property line, the building code requires that it be a 1-hour fire-rated wall. Basically, if there were a fire in our garage, it would take an hour for it to burn through that wall and spread to our neighbor's property -- which should allow enough time for the fire department to put it out.

I can assure you that both Rob and John were smiling when they posed for this photo.
Here's what the interior of the garage looked like when they were finished.
They also installed a ventilation fan just under the roof. It is attached to a thermostat, so when the temperature reaches a pre-set level (100 degrees), it automatically turns on and blows the hot air out of the garage. That will definitely come in handy in the summertime.
Over Labor Day weekend, the stucco crew returned and applied the final layer of stucco to match the house. Here's what the garage looks like now.
OK, so that's what's happened garage-wise since my last post. What was the other stuff I was referring to?

Well, I think I've mentioned that I work at Discovery. On Wednesday, September 1, a deranged activist named James Lee walked into the lobby of our building and held three people hostage for nearly 4 hours. He was ultimately shot to death by the police, and everyone escaped from the building unharmed, but it was a terrifying afternoon for everyone who works there, including myself. We're all still a little shell-shocked from the experience, and it certainly didn't help to see a man walking up and down the street outside our building a week later with a big sign that said, "JAMES LEE WAS RIGHT." I'm all for freedom of speech, but that crossed a line.

We also spent Labor Day weekend up in Chatham, MA with some of Josh's cousins. Unfortunately, it was looking like Hurricane Earl had the same idea. We closely monitored the tracking and weather forecasts, and it looked like Earl was going to hit Cape Cod that Friday night, right when we were scheduled to arrive. Because I had been given Friday off, we were able to switch to an earlier flight, and got in well before Earl. Josh's cousins had already put up the storm windows, brought in the outdoor furniture, and stocked up on candles, batteries, and bottled water, so we were pretty well prepared. We did get some heavy rain and strong winds, but it was no worse than a big thunderstorm. I think everyone was a but disappointed when we woke up the next morning to a beautiful, sunny day with no signs of any hurricane damage.

It was a fun visit, but it was bittersweet as it was our last opportunity to stay at the family's summer home there. It's been in the family since 1925, but it was sold earlier this year and is slated to be torn down next fall. Josh and I have been there nearly every summer since 1996, and have many fond memories from our time on the cape. It's like losing a member of the family. Goodbye, Starboard Light. We'll miss you...

Now We're Cookin'!

Lots of new developments, garage-wise, since I last posted. Wednesday morning we found Rob hard at work -- Blackberry in one hand, laptop in the other -- in what has become an outdoor office space: our patio table.
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.