The background: When we had the patio done last summer, they did exactly what they were supposed to do – they graded it so that rain wouldn’t pool against the house.  It drops about 4″ across the 12′ width of the patio.

This isn’t a problem, unless of course you plan to put a large container of water on it.  You know, like a hot tub.  Yeah.  Our hot tub has been tilted ever since it was delivered last June.  It meant that we couldn’t fill it quite properly – the uphill side was just barely to the neck jets while the downhill side was overflowing.  This weekend, though, that was remedied!

Kris and I spent Saturday afternoon building two 4′x8′ platforms and draining the hot tub, and on Sunday our very very dear friends Mary, Rich, Roy and Billy helped us get them under the hot tub.

I wish we had an extra person there with a videocamera, because it was an interesting process, to say the least.  There were several moments that we thought we might not get it to work.  Happily, thanks to some creative thinking and a lot of sweat from our friends, it’s in there.

(T’ain’t glamorous, but it works!)

We did have a little panicky moment Sunday night when we couldn’t get the second pump running, but it started working yesterday morning (probably just a little air in the pipes from moving it – it happened when it was first installed, too).  We tested it out in the afternoon, and then again with Mary and Rich last night, and it works like a champ.  And now that we can fill it all the way, it’s possible to be submerged right up to your chin, which is heavenly.

In happier news, we did get work done on the porch on Monday, although not without our usual snafus.  We got the asphalt felt all rolled out and stapled down, juuuuuuust short on one corner, of course. We needed a third roll to cover the last (I kid you not) three feet.  Then Kris hauled the tarpaper/shingle stuff up onto the roof.  (Yes, I was up there too.  I stayed away from the edge, but I did it.)  We rolled it out along the bottom edge, and that was when he realized his mistake.  He miscalculated a bit on how much a roll would cover.  We bought one roll.  It got us this far:

(It’s hard to get a good angle on it, but it’s the lighter stripe at the bottom edge of the roof)

Yeah.  Not so much with the “enough”.  So, while he went to Home Depot to pick up four (!) more rolls, plus more asphalt felt, I worked on getting one of the yard lights up.  I got partway through that before he got back, at which point, it was back to the roof.  I’m pretty proud of myself – I nailed most of the tarpaper up there myself while Kris was hauling the rolls up the steps and laying them out.

Once the tarpaper was all in place, we finished up hanging the first light.  (Please ignore the crap strewn about the yard)

We would have done both, but it gets dark too early, so we ran out of time.  So, this coming weekend, we tar the edges of the tarpaper (I keep calling it that, but I’m not sure that’s right.  It’s like one big shingle, instead of individual ones) so that it doesn’t get caught by the wind if we have a storm, we hang the other light, and hopefully we start tackling the screens.

If we keep this up, we might actually have a porch by winter! 

The boys, hard at work (JMac had to leave before I had the camera out)

Look! It’s a ROOF!

Funny guy, that Scott, eh?

Today was… less successful. We went to Home Depot to get the rest of what we needed to do the following:

1. Put 2x4s along the side edges of the roof
2. Put flashing along all sides of the roof
3. Put asphalt felt on the roof
4. Put tarpaper on the roof
5. Mount the new ceiling fan over the table
6. Mount the two motion-sensor lights on the outside of the porch for the yard

How did that go?

1. Got the 2×4′s up
2. Got the flashing up
3. The staple gun we bought for the felt?  Was on a rack with the WRONG size staples.  So, we had no staples
4. Since we couldn’t put the felt down, we couldn’t do the tar paper
5. Finished this at 9PM
6. Have to put up soffits on the side and front of the porch so we can mount the lights

So, yeah. Long, irritating, frustrating day. Got a couple of pictures, though.

Flashin… UR doin it wrong. (Sorry for the lolspeak. It’s been one of those days.)

The new fan.  Note the difference in the available light from the previous picture…

The fan, with the table.

We are hoping that we can get the felt and the tarpaper up tomorrow afternoon when Kris gets home from work, so the roof is watertight.  If we don’t make some progress on it, I may brave the height just to throw myself from it.  *sigh*

Since Hanna and Ike are making their way toward us this weekend, Kris and I decided we’d better get a move on and get the rest of the rafters up.  Wednesday and last night we finished up the wall panels, and then tonight we put up the last 8 rafters.

If the weather passes fairly quickly, this is what awaits us on Sunday:

The plywood that will form the roof.  Anyone feel like coming over to help haul it up there? 

Oh, and in bloggy news, you may notice that all posts now have a comment timeout on them.  This was a suggestion from EvilScienceChick, and since I installed the plugin, I have had ONE spam comment.  ONE.  ESC RULES.  And as I told her the other day, I am officially nominating her for sainthood, because the anti-spam options were making me nuts.  So, she is now to be known as Saint EvilScienceChick, Patron Saint of Spam-Hating-Bloggers.    I got to meet her at SAFF last year, and she’s TOTALLY cool, and another transplanted Pittsburgher, so I’d love her to death even if she hadn’t saved me from the evil spammers.  But she did, so now she’s St. ESC.

As of lunchtime, we were here:

(Tell me why it is that in four-ish hours with five people on Sunday, we managed to get exactly 4 joists rafters up, but the two of us managed to get up TEN of them in about 3 hours today, just us.  Bizarre.)

And as of 5:00 (Quitting time, don’t ya know) we were here:

Well, ok, in the interest of full disclosure, we were really here:

We got 6 of the 11 bottom panels done (and yes, for those who have asked, the top half of the walls will be screens.  Keep those dang mosquitoes away from me while I’m in my hot tub!), and then we sorta ran out of the screws we were using.  Plus, 5:00, pooped, and need to get showered before trivia.

We did make enough progress that we could move the table and chairs back out of the yard, though:

(Please ignore the stains on that far right panel.  This is what happens when you leave T1-11 out under a tree and you have crazy squirrels in your yard who throw walnuts from your neighbor’s tree onto the wood.  Guess we now know what color stain we’ll be using…

One final shot from the side.  You can kind of pretend it looks done, if we were doing a pergola instead of a roof. 

Obviously, the ends of the joists rafters will be considerably shorter once the roof is on. It’s about a 4′ overhang right now, and we’re going to cut them off at about 18-24″.

I’m so psyched at how this is looking!  Plus, there are significantly smaller piles of lumber in my backyard now.  Yay!

ETA:  Apparently, although the metal brackets are “joist hangers”, what we have are in fact rafters.  I have been informed that “Joists hold up the floor, rafters hold up the roof.”  Duly noted, smartypants.

Anyway, I just came across this post on Serious Eats (one of my new favorite food blogs – lots of fun stuff, including some really fab-looking recipes), and so, in honor of the 50th birthday of instant ramen noodles (basic nutrition of college students everywhere), I am sharing my aunt’s mother’s* recipe for Oriental Cabbage & Noodle Salad

1 small head cabbage, chopped in small pieces (or, be like me and buy a bag of coleslaw mix)
6 green onions, or 1 medium onion, chopped
2 pkgs chicken flavored ramen noodles, uncooked and broken up
1-1/4 cups vegetable oil
5 T sugar
2-1/2 t vinegar (I use either apple cider or rice wine, personally)
1-1/4 t salt
1-1/4 t pepper
2-1/2 t Accent (I usually skip this because MSG gives Kris migraines)
4 T toasted sesame seeds
2 cups toasted slivered (or sliced) almonds

Mix cabbage, onion, noodles, and one flavor packet. Set aside.

Mix the oil, sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper, Accent (if using), sesame seeds, almonds, and the other flavor packet.

Combine the two mixtures together at least 2 hours before serving.

It’s quite yummy, and the dressing softens the noodles (which are pre-cooked, if you weren’t aware – I wasn’t for a long time) just enough without making them squishy.  Also, I get untoasted seeds and nuts, toss them all in a dry skillet and toast them at the same time, and then set them aside to cool for a bit while I’m measuring everything else out.

OK, well, Kris is off the phone, so it’s back to construction world for me.  I’ll take pictures of where we are at the end of the day so you can all ooh and aah at our handiwork some more.  Have a fab day!

*No, she’s not my grandmother. She’s my mom’s brother’s wife’s mother. We just call her Mimi. It’s much shorter.

And you may remember why it was that we had guests this past weekend – this was the porch-raising party. Unfortunately, due to some redesigning-on-the-fly, we didn’t get anywhere near as far as I had hoped, so we still have no roof. Kris and I are working our way through hanging the joists, and I am hoping that we can get them all up in the next week or so. At that point, I’m going to beg/bribe/whatever it takes our friends to help us get the plywood up onto the roof so we can place it, because that is NOT a job he and I can do by ourselves. The joists, and the paneling for the lower parts of the walls, totally.

A couple of highlights from the weekend – the rest of the pictures are in the Flickr set, starting here.

Kris and Scott, putting up the first corner post:

Starting to look like walls!

Kris, with his new tool belt (Please insert Captain Hammer joke here…)

And where we stand, as of the end of the weekend (OK, we really have one more joist and a couple more hangers, but it doesn’t look substantially different)

My folks will be arriving this Wednesday for a few days, so we’ll see what all we get done.

And big, BIG thanks to Steve, Mindy, Jason, Amanda, Carrie, Scott, JAM, and Drew for being WAY too awesome and helping us. We could NOT have done this without you guys, and we really owe you big for all of your hard work. (Oh, and Scott – you need to let me know what I owe you for those donuts)

*Next time I say I’m going to make a project that involves lots of little pieces that have to then be put together, someone slap some sense back into me, ok? I don’t like doing it, I get halfway through, and I want to stab my eyes out. And yet, I continue to do it.  And no, sweater pieces don’t count.

(Apologies to the delivery dude who chose a poor position at the moment I snapped the picture…)

It fits right where we wanted it, and the base matches the walls nicely, which we were hoping.

We started filling it. (That would be Kris trying to wish it into filling faster.)

I perused the manual, prepping myself for the chemistry lesson to come. I seriously thought I was done with chem a long time ago…

Is full! Is hooked up and working! Is also really damn cold water, and is late (as you can see from the dark sky behind the cover there), so no christening of the tub last night. I’m even being good and waiting for Kris to get home from work before I jump in.  And never fear – I will not be subjecting all of you to pictures of me in a bikini.  I mean, I am getting in better shape, but I’m still no Cristi. 

Last Thursday night, Carrie, Maryanne and I went into Annapolis to say goodbye to our friend Lizzy. I had the awesome luck to meet her while working backstage at Colonial Players, and she very quickly became a dear friend. She was also learning to knit, so Carol and I sucked her into our group at Barnes and Noble. You may remember her as the one who theme-song-ed my Palette Cardi. Sady, Lizzy’s engagement ended recently (because her ex-fiance is a cheating scumball who’d better hope I never see him…), so she decided to go back home. Unfortunately for those of us in this area who have grown to love her dearly, “home” is in England. I know it’s best for her right now, and she knows she’s always got a place to crash if she wants to visit, but I’m going to miss the hell out of her.

Love you to pieces, sweetie!! Be healthy and happy, ok?

This weekend, while he wasn’t stuck at work (1 pm Sunday to 8am Monday…) or on the phone with work (Friday night… Sunday morning… Monday afternoon…), Kris and I worked on the next step with the patio – the back wall is once again covered!

And big thanks to our friend JMac for lending a helping hand. What is on the wall there is the same as what will be the bottom half of the patio walls as well. Rumor has it that the hot tub will be here early next week, so we may even get started on the walls and roof next weekend.

And now for the current WIPs, since it is Wednesday…

Like so many others, I have been sucked into the adorableness that is FlintKnits‘ February Lady Sweater. As I am sure will shock you all, mine is being done in (wait for it…) Lion Cotton Ease. What can I say – I’ve still got a ton of it, and I love the stuff. This shade is “Orangeade”, and I think it’s going to make a great cardi for cooler summer evenings and into the fall.

I’m also making some progress on the Twisted Float Shrug that we started at the Annie Modesitt class last week. I’m trying not to move too fast on it, because Marie didn’t have quite enough stock in my colors (“Bucks Bar” and “Pewter”), so I have to wait for her Lorna’s order to come in to finish it. I don’t want to run out of what I have before then.

And finally, I am working on a pair of toe-up socks in C*Eye*Ber Fiber in “Aurora Borealis”. This was in our goodie bags on Sea Socks.

I made up the cable/lace pattern by fiddling around on graph paper. It’s working out pretty well, I think.

Oh and you may notice my fabulous Julip Bags there with the shrug and the socks. You saw one of the project bags before, and the spindle bag, but Amby is a terrible, terrible temptress and made me a custom Hannah Knitting Tote in the sushi print, which I got at the same time as the sushi project bag up there. I’ve been carrying the tote everywhere, and I’ve gotten TONS of compliments on it. You know you want to check out her site… (Personally, I’m talking myself down from a Lily Tote. I DON’T need another bag. Really. I don’t…)

So, Yorkie, am I forgiven? I’ll try not to be silent for quite so long next time, I promise. Besides, I have a blog award to pass along.

Ta da!

Yeah, we’ve got to put the tools away, but still. Progress!  And there will be grass seed there, so that the lawn just goes up to the fence.  I spend a lot of time pulling up the old weed block fabric, so it should be fine.

We got rid of the pile of branches in front of the big tree:

Let’s not discuss how long they had been there…

I decided that until I get that fountain/shrine of Yorkie commissioned and built, the bench can sit on the concrete pad as a Testicle Toss-watching perch.

Side story about that bench – back in the 70′s, my grandfather was the borough manager for their town. They replaced the benches in one of the parks in town, and he was able to rescue two of the old ones that were being discarded. They sat on the back porch at my grandparents’ house though my whole childhood and until he died in 1997. This one went to Mom and Dad’s house in Pittsburgh, then to their house in Maryland. From there, it went to our house in Richmond, and is now here in our backyard. I’m planning to strip and repaint it (possibly back to the yellow it used to be), and get a new plaque made for it. My uncle had one made that said “Walt’s Bench”, but it has gotten all rusty. I’m also going to put planters on either side of it and fill them with violas – my grandmother’s name was Viola. That way, they can both still be here with me, just a little bit. (She’s been gone almost 20 years, and he’s been gone 10. I still miss them both.)

Here are a few of the plants we pulled out – a friend asked if we could save them for him, so here they sit, waiting patiently for him to come get them…

Don’t they look lonely and forlorn?  I bet they would really like someone to COME GET THEM.  (Just kidding, man.  You know it’s totally cool.)

And if you are wondering what happened to all of the wood next to the concrete pad, it got moved.

Yes, it looks like crap, but it’s back in the corner behind a rhododendron where it really can’t be seen from the house or the patio, and is hopefully going to turn into a compost pile.

And since we got so far on the yard, Kris was itching for a little demolition work.

Look ma! No siding!  The electrician has to run conduit for the power for the hot tub, so we figured that it was better to get the wall done before he does that, so we don’t have to work around the conduit.  So, bye-bye siding!  The paneling will go up sometime this week.  For now, Kris is sacked out in his chair.  Can’t say as I blame him.

As for me, tomorrow I am off to Stitch DC for a class with one of the most kick-ass knitters around.  Confessions of a Knitting Heretic was one of the first knitting books I ever bought, and I am in love with most of the designs in Romantic Hand Knits, so I can’t wait to meet her!