It's getting closer to being real

[gwyn]

Here's some more garage pics for the few who are following the saga.

	This is the the shell of the garage with roof, finally. A door and a window. All the mod cons!
	Then they came and wrapped the house with... well, house wrap. I love how prosaic the name is. This was called Tru Wrap or something, on the other side they actually had stuff called House Wrap. Sort of like Snakes on a Plane -- you know what you're getting.
	The siding finally goes up. It's a mix of concrete and recycled wood, already primed for painting. Since I was going to paint myself, this was a good thing.
	The garage doors go in. Oddly enough, the color of the garage is almost the same shade of blue as this protective film. They didn't understand which doors I'd requested so they gave me the standard average door, but I didn't care enough to gripe. Stuff like that is largely meaningless to me.
	Cherry trees carpet my lawn and sidewalk with pink. People keep stopping to talk to me about it -- it's like walking in a pink snowstorm.
	Doors! And the go up and down! When we get electricity, they will go up and down with the click of a button. The guy handed me my clickers and manual with almost ceremonious decorum.
	It almost looks real, doesn't it?
	One Saturday morning, the fence guy came and put up the new fence in like three hours. At long last, after 15 years, I have a back gate that works.
	My friend Keith came the same day. I wanted a pic of him in front of the spankin' new gate, and he was being all stiff and formal like when he poses for head shots for all the speaking engagements he does. I complained and so he went Mr. Roboto.
	Insulation! It was amazing -- we went from echoey to silent in about an hour. I love that insulation is pink.
	The garden is ablaze. I wish I could find the time to get out and treat it better.
	Drywall! It's starting to feel real now.
	The Beetle, she really, really wants in. She's tired of being parked in the blazing sun or the pouring rain or the lashing wind.
	Dad designed my garage (I may not have mentioned that) since he's a qualified architect. He built me a little hidey entrance to the attic part, and there will be a pulldown ladder that I will be afraid to use. (I have no sense of balance left after severe ear infections when I was a teen and ladders are a really scary proposition for me.)
	The golden chain tree is busy. Bees are everywhere, it's like a little hive out there. I love it (non-scary bees, just lovely little bumbles and masons and honeybees, doing their thing).

Comments

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Cool, I didn't know your dad designed it! No wonder he was so into the building part. And yeah, the ladder would scare me too. I helped my grandparents with fetching things out of their attic once, and I needed verbal help getting down the ladder. This was only a couple of years ago.

The garden pictures are gorgeous. I love spring/summer.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

When Jo and I were painting the south wall of the house, I would just start swaying backwards for no reason. A couple times she had to catch me from falling off. It's very scary.

[dine.livejournal.com]

it's looking great! so, when can I move in?

I love the shots of your garden - they really make me long for a bit of green space for my own.

how did they ever sort out the sloping floor/water thing? I don't remember hearing the resolution on that.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I'm actually seriously thinking of having a fan bash in the garage. Sandy has joked before about how much I hate people trashing my house at get togethers, and if I could put everyone in the garage, I'd probably be happier... and while that's true, I want to have it out there this time more to show off and because it's going to be nicer out there than in here!

[barkley.livejournal.com]

Wow, it's all so bright and shiny new and stuff is growing! (The insulation scares me though. One of the odd phobias I forget I have. *g*) I love your beetle! How cute.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

What's the phobia about insulation? Enquiring minds want to know!

[barkley.livejournal.com]

My dad used to build houses in the summers. I was small, and at one point, I was playing with the insulation because it was pink and fluffy. He told me not to because it was made of fiberglass. And from then on, it's freaked me out. It lines our crawlspace and I hate going in there because I might touch it and if I do I am sure that I will immediately get tiny slivers of glass under my skin and it will be painful forever and ever and ever. And if I come within ten feet of it, it will probably just jump onto me and make me itch. So I avoid it because fiberflass freaks me out.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah, I get that. I confess, it's not something I ever really want to get near. I love that it's pink, but I was always afraid of slivers and things, too.

Final Don tonight! Augh! No more tight jeans and standup hair for a long time.

[keerawa.livejournal.com]

ME TOO! I recall there was some house project when I was ... maybe 4? I thought the insulation was cotton candy. My mother, rather tired of Mr. Yuck by that point, informed me that if I ate it, it would kill me.

For some odd reason I interpreted that to mean that it would come ripping off the wall and GET me if I even tried to eat it. I had a series of very creative little nightmare fantasies about it, and have been scared of insulation ever since.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

Fancy schmancy! :) I really like it, it looks fantastic. Nice to have this great weather this week so they can finish it up. The fence looks really nice, too.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I know -- it's been spectacular, and I doubt they could have painted outside without this great weather. They called today to see when I was going to paint and were rather stunned to find out it was already done. ;-)

Of course, I washed the car last night, so now it looks all cloudy and like it's doing to rain. I just adore that icon.

[minim_calibre]

Oh, it looks fabulous!

And your garden looks wonderful.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm very anxious to use it, but I have also kind of enjoyed watching it. My whole life, it's always been DIY stuff done sort of half-assed, so it's been really cool to watch a professional builder put this up. I've actually learned quite a lot.

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

I'd be afraid, not of the ladder, but of finding rats or something similar in the attic! Mine seem to be gone, but I'm not game to go up and check things out.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh god, no kidding, after everything you've been through. One of the cooler things about this is that all the new codes and stuff will make it a lot harder for vermin to get it. I will probably be way less afraid to poke my head in this attic than I have ever been in the house -- it's just a small space with insulation that I've had to stow my Christmas stuff and boxes in, and I'm constantly afraid when I have to get that stuff out. Not that I will want to climb that ladder, though!

There were quite a lot of rats and mice in the old crumbling garage -- I used to see their droppings all the time. I think there were other animals, too, but with the deadly spiders and the rat poo, I just hated to be out there more than I had to!

[cy-girl.livejournal.com]

Your garage, to quote Wallace, is just spanking!

I dread going into my attic, too. It has the rickety pull-down stairs. I can get up them just fine but coming down fills me with dread.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

It really is! I'm really looking forward to the chance to put up shelves and organize stuff. I'm broke now, but... at some point, I will definitely be all organizey. Whee.

[keiko-kirin.livejournal.com]

Oooooo! Pretty! When you want to become a slumlord, put indoor/outdoor carpet down, and rent out the garage at market rates for studio apartments (as folks typically do in San Francisco), I'll be first in line to become your illegal tenant! *g* But seriously, I bet the Beetle can't wait to get indoors. It looks so nice in there!

The garden is gorgeous! With a nice new fence. I love your bees in the tree. After you demonstrated to me that they are not like evil East Coast bees, I totally fell in love with your tree bees. And cherry blossoms always make me happy, so thank you for the photo of your tree.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I sooo wish you guys could have seen the pink carpet -- it was all over the sidewalk, my lawn and parking strip, and even the street. It was just amazing because we had a wind and rain-storm for about a day that left petals everywhere.

You know, Nikita lived in an apt. in 4th season where she actually had her car in the living space. I wonder if someone would want to do that? Hell, maybe I will!

The bees really are cool -- my whole yard right now is like BeeFest 2006. Of course, the yellowjackets and wasps are trying to get in on the action, and they're a lot scarier, but they don't seem to look for the same things, thank god.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

I take it then that you got the problem with the huge puddle solved?

Your garage looks really quite nice and the idea of a "garage warming party" made me laugh.

[talking-sock.livejournal.com]

Gosh, your flowers are seriously awesome. The garage too. :-)