My Own Private Idaho: Hot and Tired

The Inland Northwest is going through the same drought as the rest of the country, though the spring rains have kept the grazing fields greener longer than they might otherwise be. But, it's hot, and I'm tired after spending a couple of hours cutting and stacking some hawthorn brush that the excavator tore out when clearing a path for our house modules to climb from the county road to our home site. The Stihl chainsaw is still running well, but I've had to clear it a couple of times from flooding. Unfortunately, that kept me out in the sun longer than I'd have liked. It must be a lot tougher on the crew from Town Craft, who have spent the week framing the garage, nailing up the house and garage rafters, building the balcony and porch, and nailing up siding. But, they're young and fit, and seem to be handling it pretty well.

Every day, I've been walking Pepper the Wonder Dog up to the house site to see the progress. In just more than a week, the progress has been phenomenal, and I think that is largely the result of Stratford picking good subcontractors. This morning, the carpenters were hard at work, as was the HVAC crew from Erco, putting in the duct work for the heat pump and the floor vents. Last night, as I was catching up on a few minutes of the Olympics, the drywall finisher was coming down from the house, seeing his way down our half-mile driveway with his headlights.

Stratford worked closely with me on our audio/video area, building in shelves and running all the wires through the wall behind, which also is where the fireplace vent passes. Later today, Mike Tinsley, our Stratford designer will swing by to drill access ports for the component connectors, preparing for Town Craft to shore up the wall framing to support the weight of a large flat-screen TV and a fully articulating mounting bracket. Here are a few pix from the past couple of days.