Mostly Constructive Construction

This is a Brooklyn rain gauge. It looks like we got three joints of rain on Thursday.

Yesterday was a good day for construction. Work let out right on time, it wasn't raining, and it wasn't too cold (and it was Friday). I headed over to Emily's backyard and started working without too much dilly-dally. The tarp had filled up with water again and was leaking into the house. This was no good. The floor had some standing water in a localized spot. I mopped a little of it up and put the space heater on it. By the end of the night, it was dry-ish on top, but there is plenty of moisture between my plywood and foam. Zoot alors! It doesn't seem like something to worry about now, there are bigger fish to fry.

After a few rafters went up, Will fed me a really good peppers, rice and beans dish. It was the perfect spiciness. Emily and John came back from a walk and we smoked in the living room while looking at coasters, cats and each other.

Rafters in progress. I cut these channels because I wanted an over-sized eave to protect the old wall. It will also be a place to sit in the rain and snow and hang pretty things from. I'll probably add some braces later, and a running board on the face to support the roof while it goes up.

Getting back to work was difficult. When I accelerate in any direction, it requires buckets of energy. Energy expenditure behind, I done got oriented and almost hung the whole roof.

working at night went well. I blew a fuse early in the evening with both lights plugged in with the space heater and the music going. Someone turned something on in the house and that was all she wrote. Electric is now at the top to the priority list along with everything else. Sloane NYC is going to loan some light cans for the project which will be awesome, but I'll need my own power line as to not compete with the house.

The circular saw needed a blade change. The speed and ease of the new blade was immediately noticeable. Getting extra blades is completely necessary for any job like this, do not attempt building a structure without sharp tools. I will look into getting my old ones sharpened.

Hung beams. I mostly worked under the tarp the whole night. The interior didn't provide space to do things assembly-line style, so I cut one beam at a time, put up the brackets, cut out a channel in the outer wall, step-by-step for each beam. There are two left. My place felt like a house working with the door closed. The big lamp also kept the place just warm and comfortable enough so my fingers didn't get cold.

Being stoned had its advantages- the music sounded great coming out of the little cassette player, many ideas for construction and interior design sublimed from the sawdust, and I wasn't cold a bit. On the opposite side of that coin was devoting a lot of time to staring at things, immobile and rapt for minutes at a time.

Good news- "Staring at things for minutes" has been also filed into the "PRO" pile, because these forays into the shallow subconscious were just the kind of breaks my body and mind needed. By the time I had packed everything up, it was 1:30 a.m. and time to go to the city for "sleep". "Sleep" usually consists of going to the store and drinking, or going to Bowery and drinking and internet-ing.

Piles of Ibuprofen were also on the menu (my knee is "okay", but should probably be getting more rest).

A misty decision was made to use some twine i found under the floor to tie up some of the old house. I think I'll leave it like that. This is the kind of place where doing things right meets doing things right now.

Music Machine. Last night I listened to The Clash, The Cure, Sleeping in the Aviary, Nouvelle Vague, Bob Dylan, The Ponys, and Television.