Wood Tells Us

Natural things are better. Our house is brick and cedar. I've noticed that the cedar by the roof (Facia) had been looking pretty rough in spots lately. After investigating, I determined that moisture had been getting in from under the bottom row of shingles, and keeping the cedar wet. No real leaks, but definitely a requirement for replacing some rotted wood. I also wanted to prevent the same problem in the future, so I bought a membrane-type flashing like ice shield, and installed it all along the roof.
So back to the lead-in, I'm thinking about how vinyl fascia and siding doesn't rot or wear. Which is good, until you think about how rotting and wearing is a sign. So vinyl siding leaves no sign. And without a sign, I fear the problem would grow into a mold/mildew problem.
Maybe I'm just anti-new construction.
But thinking about it, all natural things show signs. Wear. Rot. Problems. But that doesn't make them bad, it helps prevent bigger problems. And tying it back to Alison, if your body is showing you a sign, either pain, changes, or wear, prevent a bigger problem by acting on it. Last year Alison and I potentially saved her life by insisting that there was something wrong with her neck. The nurses thought she'd bumped it, or was bruising, but we knew something was wrong. As it turned out, her port created a blood clot in her internal jugular. Left untreated, it could have created an aneurysm or even death.
I'm not sure of my point, but I'm compelled to encourage you to listen to the signals.

Duty and Chemo, mixed with Carpet

Alison's doing chemotherapy again this week. Her news was hard to bear, but the realization hit me that I had unfair expectations. We learned that it's still the same threat. The same bear. I was hoping that since we'd shrank it some, it'd be a teddy. And to not use an analogy, we learned more about what was frequent enough and not frequent enough to hold her true. 2 rounds in 12 weeks is too infrequent.

I had duty yesterday, and the carpet was being installed. The installers were supposed to move the furniture out and put it back afterwards, but as I was there when they removed everything, I realized that they would make the bed, replace clothes in the closet, etc. Thankful for that, too, I am. Don't want some hubba bubba touching my skivvies.

Anyways, with duty I was forced to go back to work and remain there. But two guys have come for two hours each to hold down the fort for me. So I was able to come make the beds and tidy the house, so Alison would be comfortable and the burden would not fall on her. That's brotherhood I tell you. I'm very thankful for friends, but more significantly, I think that's what Marines do: we take care of each other.

Staging and Painting Parking Spots

Ali and I have been busy preparing the house for rent. One thing I've noticed is that it's really hard to analyze your own rooms during staging. The most objective I've found I could be was through taking a picture of the room and looking at it on the computer. So our house is for rent now. Here are some pictures...

And I painted this parking spot at work this week. Who knew that in the Marines you could sit on your duff and paint all day...

Lost Arts

I knew Geometry back in school. I know I did. I retained the basics, I suppose, as well. But last week Colin emailed me a book he thought would interest me,The Carpenter's Cyclopedia by Fred Hodgson (published 1902), and now I question whether I retained anything at all. Sure my hands know how to build some furniture, install doors with a plumline, etc, but the science behind it is scattered.

And in house-hunting this week, I've realized I'm not alone. We looked at a Victorian house built in 1900. The details and character were stunning. You just didn't see the same curves and decorative details in the new ones. Noone wants to pay for it. And probably, noone knows how to build it anymore either.

So needless to say I bought the book. An original copy. I bought it as a science project for myself. I bet Grandpa knew some of it, but my guess is that the knowledge had passed away with Grandpa's Grandpa's generation.

House Hunting

Yesterday we saw three houses we liked. Well, four, but the fourth was more like the idea of a house, and would need gutted and 40k knocked off the asking price. I guess what we've been finding is that nice houses are expensive no matter where one goes.

More to follow today.

::Picture of Tom, as he sees the house for the first time, while trudging through ice and sleet and rain and thunder::