Corpulent Cloisters

Odd weekend. But aren't they all. The weekdays seemed to crawl by; days of mixed enthusiasm and...trying. I had spent the week nights at the lodge, as usual, trying to finish up the west fascias. Because of the importance of getting them installed razor-straight, the actual "putting up" and adjusting was reserved for the weekend when there was plenty of light. Though I decided to head into work an hour or more early on Thursday so I could capture a little afternoon sun to get part of the lower boards installed. Not all-together a bad thing; I find getting up unreasonably early every once in a while helps reset my ever-creeping internal clock. Friday afternoon couldn't come soon enough and I met up with Ben after work at The Library for a really great Cuban with coleslaw. From there, usual antics with him and Cam down at the PL. Not sure if it was our robust "discussions" or the pool playing chumps but something felt a bit off kilter by the end of the night.

 

Gorgeous temps and sun on Saturday. Of course the downside was melting snow and water getting blown in my face off the roof by the high winds. Perils of the bucket. Managed to get everything straightened out, routered and fastened. Metal flashing will complete the top. That leaves the front fascias (and soffits) which don't need to be finished _right now_. One of the greatest things you can take away from all of the soffit/fascia/roofing experiences on the lodge is that flat roof structures require great planning and/or great strength. Gabled roofs only reveal the bottom edge of their structure. Everything else hides under coarse shingles. With a flat roof with great overhangs, droop sticks out like a sore thumb. It's tough to venture around town now without noticing the tell-tale sags of time. Of course, this is a common phenomenon above double garage doors in the pre-LVL/truss days.

 

Continued with interior indecision and finished up some metal work with aligning (and installing) the intersecting railing upright upstairs as the sun went down. Thanks chop saw! Home for a warm shower and some design work. Calculated the needed VCT for the washer area and put the finishing touches on Cold Storage 2 concept. Oh, and a nice pizza and Goodfellas, which for some reason I thought was better than it was. Note: It's not.

 

Sunday, the standard bag of goodness- laundry and all that. And shopping. Hit the mall, spent some money, continued my pursuit of Leupold binoculars, shopped for mattresses, etc. etc. Cara about jumped out of her shoes when she saw Old Chicago was coming to fill the Texas Roadhouse void. By this time temps had dropped to some unreasonable number and we fought to get back to the car. Agreed on a mattress that wasn't offered in the showrooms (and much less than the overpriced junk they all seem to peddle).

 

Monday then, ordered the mattress. Picked up a mid 50's GE combination fridge, a Frigidaire flair wall oven, 200lbs of vinyl tile in the front seat, took care of some banking, dropped in on a UNI auction west of town at the old dairy, forgot to stop by an overhead door provider for track, unloaded the goods and made it home to change and head up to Waverly for a work xmas party. Not a bad time at that.

 

Update: Tuesday post work. Snow was really piling up and the plows couldn't keep the streets clean. All the idiots found their car keys. And the snow kept on coming. Probably the worst I've seen this year. Inspected fabrics at Hancock, worked out a deal at the local lighting store, went through all the grasscloth samples at the local wall-sheather and made a couple notes, then stopped in at Christie Door co and bewildered the staff. 

I'm ready for a break where I can actually spend some time at the lodge and tackle the big stuff.