Archive for March, 2007
Date Night
Saw Music & Lyrics tonight. Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore in a movie only they could have starred in. Imagine classic Hugh and classic Drew and make him a has-been songwriter and her a plant waterer and then go from there. It practically writes itself!
Seriously, though, it’s a great date movie, and I was chuckling most of the time. Definitely recommended.
Second Foundation
No, not the Isaac Asimov title. Our new home’s structure has an outline now. With the footings in place, forms were put up. Once the inspector came by to verify that the right amount of steel rebar was inside, the walls were poured. After 24 hour, the forms came off, and we have walls!
Next, the foundation will be waterproofed and gravel will be poured around the outside. Then the dirt can be backfilled around the foundation and that big pile of dirt in the front will go away. Also, the old foundation slab will have insulation put on top of it and a new slab will be poured on top. The new slab will contain pipes for our radiant floor heating system. And all that is going to happen next week?
Well, that’s what the schedule says. 
Before the foundation: Sewar & Footings
Before the foundation can be expanded, we had to remove some of the existing slab to pour new footings to handle the house load and to make room for new drains. Fresh water supply, which is delivered under pressure, doesn’t go into the foundation generally, but because sewage flow depends on gravity, it does go into the ground through the foundation.
Next we pour concrete footings for the new foundation walls. The footings are wider and spread the foundation wall load over a larger area.
Politics and the English Language (by George Orwell)
Guy Kawasaki quotes the entire text of “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell on his website. I recommend going and reading the entire thing. It’s brilliant. Here’s the smallest sample:
Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent, and our language — so the argument runs — must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes…
It [the English language] becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.
So go read it already!
It’s gone!
So the garage is left, but there’s no house there now. You can see the excavation out to the sides. Next, forms will be put in place and new footings and walls will be poured. This is good, apparently, as our contractor found no steel in the existing foundation. The new house design has been adapted to put almost all the house load onto the parts of the foundation that will be new.
Boom!
No, not a Steve Jobs style “Boom,” but rather a real, literal BOOM! Our house in Kirkland is being demolished today. Well, most of it is. We’re keeping the garage.