Happy Near Year.

So 2011 ended well. The dog wasn’t too strung out from the fireworks. The drugs sure helped that.

sleeping dog

Yesterday I finally finished the replacement of the condensation gutter in the living room. Previously it was sheet steel with a rope wick hung by strings. In November I started the repair of the water damage from 30 years of condensation drips running down regular clear coat and stain. I stripped the most damaged side down to the bare wood and coated it with Marine Spar Varnish. If it does decide to ever drip again, it isn’t going to ruin the finish on the beam and will be easy to wipe off.

Spar Varnish Beam

I removed the old caulk and replaced it with a stretchier silicone based one. There shouldn’t be any issues since I’ve re-sealed and vapor barriored the crawl space as well as super insulated it like a basement, instead of venting it (which up here causes all kinds of condensation & mold issues.)

Crawl Space insulation

So in a nutshell, we fixed the roof/ceiling condensation issue at the source, but are paranoid so we kept the gutter. But sheet steel is kind of horrible to look at. So we came up with a better look. It was initially going to be a bamboo Japanese garden type item, but wood has gotten so expensive here and we wanted to keep costs down so we used Trim grade hemlock. in a simpler V style design.  Rather than one long piece, we opted for multiple 4ft sections so that we can easily remove it. Last week we had the Epiphany of using outdoor christmas lights on the underside of the beam (LED of Course) So it now serves dual function of emergency gutter and lighting fixture.

Wooden Gutter  2011-12-31_18-32-29_278

You may have noticed that I also have painted the ceiling, the loft area, the living room and dining room.

blue wall

Still need to do the other part of the room.

Living Room Blue wall

Have some wiring to do in the Closet and need to paint the rear section. Once we find a color.

more living room blue wall

Still need to mount the quilt on the forward wall.

Dining room grey wall

and hang pictures.

dining to kitchen grey wall

and paint the rear walls of this section and redo the kitchen some and rewire the in-wall speaker…

Plus there is a shitload of trim work and drywall to be done. and a bedroom to be painted. All before (hopefully well before) the end of the summer.

Then it’s off to WA!

after we filter through all our crap. :-)

Boy do I love my Zoloft.