Barry visits and gets a poem

I need to write in verse like Bill Shakespeare
A treat for B, who worked quite hard, I'm told.
Big tub upstairs; a ceiling slanted now.
For all the work, our thanks , my brother.

I have comic books to read so it does not rhyme. Now to the pics:

Barry was pretty pleased he got to use a bunch of Miked's toys, like this saw.

Barry stayed a day after a conference ended in order to help out on the house. They worked on recrafting the ceiling of the steam shower to make it slanted so the condensation would run off.

Here is one of the first fruits of our labors in November. I say "our" because I really helped plant these daffodils.

This is the big ole cast iron clawfoot tub that had to go upstairs.

Was Pete this excited after helping Miked and Chris carry the thing upstairs?

I wish they had let me help.

Miked says this proves he has the strength of two men. Like we didn't know that. I like to say I have the strength of 10 men, as long as those 10 men are really weak.

I am not sure what this is, but it looks bathroom-related.

Ash at the DTs

"Things were going great, and they're only getting better ... The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades." But then tragedy struck. Grampa Teddy and the big Ds check out the finished ash floor. Turns out, it was not finished. The floorers, on their last day, nicked a radiant heat tube, and it started leaking. Miked tracked down the area of the leak, then the floorers came back and pulled the floor up. The tube got fixed and they laid the floor down.

The repair of the floor freed me to go check it out. I hadn't wanted to go before it was fixed because what if the floorers repaired the floor with purple ash. Or maple. And Miked had not noticed. I needed to be able to see things for myself.

When I was inside, free to move around on our wizardly ash floor, I noticed the door hardware. Pretty awesome!

I went out on the front porch, too. WHOO!

Upstairs, Emily and Miked installed the kids' tub. That's right. They did it. Plumbers came this week and filled the tub with water. And it held!

Next big thing: Sheetrock or drywall in a week or so hopefully!

Aren't the ash floors lovely?

I considered another headline playing upon the word ash but did not want this blog to show up in nasty google searches.

The workers did most of the second floor today. These are not the workers.

They managed to use longer pieces in the rooms and smaller lengths in the closets.

How awesome is it?

You're jealous, aren't you?

They did not hit any of the radiant heat tubes when nailing in the floor, so Miked had to buy them lunch.

I bet this picture is on its side. All I know is that it shows some of Miked's freakin' awesome work.

You bet your ash the floor is here

The cool title was Emily's. I am just a secretary here.

Nevertheless, the flooring did come Friday.

Mom and Dad both sent me emails to tell me and Dad went out and took photos.

Here is Mom with an up-close look at the floorboards. It looks great, but I am a little disappointed because if there is extra, I hoped to make a bitchin' wizard's staff. But that will be too thin. One could not send torrents of magical energy through something that thin without the staff breaking up.

They start installing the floor Monday.

Today the big D's were installing floor sensors. When I heard that, I thought of something Star Trek-y that would alert us to any intruders. Or perhaps something that would allow us to track an alien through the house ala Aliens.

Actually they keep the floor temperature and room temperature similar. This is cool, too.