Truss me!

[gwyn]

Some more garage pics for the totally bored among you. Progress is being made.

	Last Thursday I took the day off from work. In the morning I woke up to a guy parked out in the alley with a lumber truck. Finally some other guys showed up and they started unloading it, but I had this long appointment to make, so I left. When I got home about four hours later, I had a structure, much to my shock.
	They put the door and the window in. Being the anal retentive idiot I am, I had to close the window because rain was looming. But having walls was such a hoot -- it had been over two weeks since they poured the concrete, and I was wondering if they'd forgotten about me.
	The guys didn't have the roof trusses on Thursday, so they didn't come back till this week. Monday was a gorgeous day, and in the morning the truck with the trusses came and I was so engrossed in watching them load them on top of the frame that the hot-cross bun I'd put in the toaster oven caught fire. I had the camera on and in hand, so I suppose I should have taken a picture, but I was a bit more concerned about the flames shooting off my bun. Those currants are dangerous! Still, the trusses were pretty cool.
	Within about an hour, I had part of a roof! Those guys work really fast.
	By the afternoon, I had a roof base on one side. My old garage had a caving-in roof put in by morons -- even I know that you put tar paper over the plywood before you shingle.
	Dad has to supervise. Mostly, it gives him something to do and he loves all that guy stuff. At first he'd hang around wherever but now he brings his little portable chair. On Monday I looked out the window to see a convention of old guys -- all the old men in the neighborhood came by to chat about The Big Garage Project, and he was having the time of his life, I could tell.
	I have a roof! it kind of almost reminds me of the inside of a covered bridge in this state.
	This is the back side view. You can see that my neighbor put wire fencing around his property in response to my request to let us roll back his wire fence so the concrete guys could get in and out with ease. "Guess that was a no," the main concrete guy said. Still, it's the highlight of the neighborhood. I get up in the morning and drink a glass of water, look out the window, and there are people standing there peering at the thing. It's really starting to freak me out. Sometimes people stop and talk to me, but it's the lurkers who give me the creeps.
	Right now my lilac and my cherry trees are ablaze with color. I couldn't resist this view, where it looks like the kwanzaa cherries are bursting up like a fireworks explosion.

Comments

[dine.livejournal.com]

the project is going swimmingly! I love that your dad is playing Old Guy Supervisor; it's especially fun that the neighborhood Old Guys joined in. you know they've all got opinions on just how things are going, and what could be improved!

I envy you your lilac and cherry trees - I was thinking earlier today that the main reason I'd love a place with a yard is so I could have a lilac.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Dad is pretty funny. Among his many degrees is one in architecture. Though he never pursued it as a line of work, he did work for his uncle's firm and is a qualified architect, and his uncle's fimr designed some of the most famous buildings in Seattle -- so there's good genes there! He's convinced the guys are going to do things wrong and this way he can always correct them. ;-)

A garden and a yard are hard, hard work, but it's a real payoff this time of year when things are blooming like mad.

[agentxpndble.livejournal.com]

Dad has to supervise.

:::grin::: Your Dad is adorable.

Yay, lilacs!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, you have a lilac icon! They are may favorites (okay, I say that about everything, but still). The good thing is that it keeps my dad active, and at 81, that's really important.

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

Heee. It looks lovely, the lilacs are blooming and your Dad is adorable supervising in his lawn chair.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I took a couple other garden pics I should probably post -- the forget-me-nots and the wallflowers look wonderful right now. The columbines are also getting ready to blossom.

I'm sure the guys would rather not have Dad watching their every move, but it's not going to stop him.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Eee, so cool!

I love your icon, but who are those guys?

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

That is Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons in Brideshead Revisited. Probably the best adaptation of a book ever on TV, and the apex of quality television, if you ask me. I have the DVDs, of course. ;-) Sebastian and Charles are amazing characters, and the cast is pitch perfect throughout -- Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, among many others.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Sounds awesome. Maybe someday I'll get around to seeing it. :)

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

Neat pictures. The inside of the roof does look kind of like a covered bridge. And the blossoms are gorgeous. And I love the idea of your dad at the center of an Old Guy Convention. :-)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

OMG, he just loves holding court. I'm glad it's keeping him busy, though -- at his age, new stuff is important to keep his mind from slipping, and I think it helps keep his mind off my sister, as well, and so that's good. I'm not sure what to keep him busy with when this is over, though!

[rainkatt.livejournal.com]

So cool! I love the pic of your dad, and I love it that he's got his own little Old Guy club to discuss and supervise.

Stupid lurkers

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Don't they know that they are supposed to support you in email, not creep you out?

Your new garage looks great. (Our lilacs don't even have *leaves* yet, let alone flowers.)

[keiko-kirin.livejournal.com]

Hey, at this point I want to live in your garage! It looks great! And there'd be lilacs and cherry blossoms!