a long a rocky road

This has not been a quick project. Tonight, we set the first wall. In the morning, I'll update this post.

the weather this weekend was clear

But the forecast called for rain today, so even though John and I spent the bulk of our 'end walking in the woods, I carved out some time to inventory tools in the shed on Sunday. This seems to be an appropriate context for labeling theory. We'll see if IMPCT DRILL conforms to the construction I've set up for it. There's still more work to do, obviously.

a brief construction of context in the midst of disorganization

It's the middle of October. My name, as well as Ivy's is on the county rolls and while it only showed up online a couple weeks ago, that ink has been dry over a month. The trail to the escrow office meandered through the long days of the months before that last one, too. Here's my version of brevity with each underscore to eventually be supported by additional annotation. Summer 2007_a few of us continue a conversation about connection to place and the opportunity for proximate communities to reach across an entire neighborhood. After that_Syria. Winter 2008_I return to the house at 7044 where Donnelly and I have been living since the previous spring; we decide to up the occupancy and find another housemate. Spring 2008_John Nixon joins the house; Donnelly & I have dinner with a friend of a friend of a friend who recently moved to Portland. Her name is Ivy. June 2008_Sushi with Ivy who we find out, is also interested in shared living spaces and is looking to buy a house. July 2008_Ivy forges my signature as part of an offer on a 1892 Victorian fixer a few blocks from here; our offer is countered; we hold. August 2008_Our landlord calls to say that she wants to list our house for sale. Two unannounced showings later, I know this will not work and begin to assemble an offer of our own. September 11, 2008_Closing.

This house is not perfect. It is not static. It is a dynamic, mess of an under-built, well-used, occasionally neglected, often frustrating, but good house. It has room to grow, that is evolve. We are like this house.

Beginning this blog has been a challenge. As evidenced by the cloud of dust and bits above, there is so much that I want to document and relate, not the least of which are the myriad improvements, adjustments, alterations, renovations, repairs and restorations (and as the building inspector will tell you, those are all unique undertakings) that I hope to participate in at this, the Vernacular. The challenge is to strike a balance between discussing/defining a vision and then acting on it. This, a halting, ambiguous post is a good step.

jolly friends, all right

Last summer while browsing the_list, Donnelly found a source for rain barrels. A simple, often impersonal discovery, no doubt like riding a train, visiting the farmer's market, or browsing the bulk-foods aisle at Freddy's—provided you are not her. While her days may be filled with activities similar to yours and mine, the characters that join her for the journey exceed expectation, as evidenced by the obsessive-compulsive-affected manager of production-scale liquid food stuffs. This guy met us after work in front of a plain warehouse in Milwaukie to complete what might have been a ten minute transaction, assuming he didn't say a word. He did. An hour later, we left with two 50-gallon food-grade plastic barrels, plenty of anecdoctal instruction and at least one story about hunting in northern Minnesota. If the amount of time which elapsed between the moment we got home that evening and the afternoon two weeks ago when I finally properly plumbed those barrels is correlative to the duration of that gentleman's story time, it would have been better for everyone if we hadn't heard the one about the big buck. However, the barrels are finally working properly. Just in time for the rain, too, but using today's storm as a measure for the season, we're going to need a bigger boat.
Here's what you need to get one going (one of everything!):
(1) 50-60 gal. poly barrel: ~$25
(1) 2"x3"x3" polystyrene downspout adapter: $2.27
(1) 1/2" hose bib quarter turn (full turn works too, but the quarter fit our application best and as your uncle Rex says, we prefer ball valves): $7.73
(1) 2" pipe/thread adapter: $1.23
(1) 3"x2" flexible coupling: $5.97
(1) sock or pantyhose or similar to act as filter if you roof has lots of friends (ours doesn't): unknown
assorted stones for newtonian assistance: free from the crawlspace (see previous episode)
Total: $42.20
I would consider this an expensive installation—your_P probably would have done it for less—but considering these puppies retail for one or two bills (I've learned from my neighbors that this is short hand for $100-$200), I guess we're doing alright.

crawlspace: from the bottom up, indeed

Here's how it begins—at the bottom, or rather the foundation. If you hadn't heard, and most haven't, we bought a house. More specifically, we bought the house that some of us already called home. One of the contingencies of the sale was the immediate treatment of what our lender referred to as "issues" in the Pest and Dry-rot Report authored by our gregarious home inspector Toby Deming. Toby spent the afternoon here back in August having a look around as it were. His report was pages long and despite his recommendation that we focus first on the bathroom, the lender was concerned with the crawlspace. Any assurance of footing and safety in general whilst bathing was to take second priority to the repair of our foundation. So I'll spend the next week crawling around in this space, resetting the piers, girders and an occasional joist and generally tidying up. It's going to be dirty.