RootsRain

I know I’ve been a terrible absentee blogger for the past two weeks (and to the one person following this blog, I deeply apologize), but I’ve been somewhat out of commission after having had knee surgery. You see, I broke my knee 12 years ago and now a little unnoticed piece of floating cartilege has come back to haunt me (image of a chunk of cartilege with a sheet draped over it hovering menacingly above my knee… oooooo… OOOOOOO… scary…).

But in the Lord’s perfect timing, since my knee surgery has kept me out of the attic (and kept this blog free of the verbal dust from my excursions into said attic) I’ve had a ton of extra freelance that I’ve been spending between 3-5 hours a night on. It’s been good. (insert the beginning of the O’Jays “For the Love of Money” here)

I’ve also been spending some of my free time entering my collection of books, CDs, and DVDs into my brand new copy of Delicious Library. Mmmmmm… It’s helped me rediscover a bunch of books I’d forgotten I own—books that I really want to read! Yippee!

I’ve been intending to post something interesting (I’m afraid my 666 BJU sticker wasn’t the blogosphere smash hit that I’d hoped), especially since I’ve been reading (and have finished) so many good books lately. Here’s a short list of books I’d like to review/comment on in the upcoming week:

• Symphonic Theology, by Vern Poythress
• The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas Stanley & William Danko
• Heaven, by Randy Alcorn

Hopefully life will get back to normal pretty soon… although the oxycodone I’m on from the surgery will be sorely missed.

On the up side—sans-medication—my posts may regain a measure of sanity.

Okay, so I promised something rousingly interesting this week in light of my never-ending stream of attic postings. So here it is. A picture of my BJU parking sticker. Seriously. No Photoshopping on this one.

I know, I know, this is turning into the Attic-O-Matic Blog, and for that I apologize. I’ll try to post something terribly interesting in the coming days, but for now all my news centers on how an attic may go a’progress through the guts of a house.

I’ve managed to get pretty much all the framing done (just need to finish a few things which aren’t needed for the rough framing inspection). I’ve also gotten in all the electrical, from the breaker all the way over to the various outlets, lights, and switches. I’ll be calling the electrical inspection on Monday. You can see the Romex cable (the yellow wire thingies) strung around the room in the picture to your left. You can also see the outlet boxes and the recessed lights wired in. Also note the 2×4s I put on the ceiling rafters. I had to increase the space between the roof OSB and the (eventual) sheetrock because I’ll need to put in extra thick insulation (plus the air channel spacer) in the ceiling. So I had to nail on 2×4s down the length of each rafter to give the necessary depth.

And since I’m always posting pictures of rows of boards and piles of tools or insulation, I thought I’d add some human interest to one of this week’s pictures. Voila. Human interest.

I went home a bit early this afternoon to try to get the attic stairs “finished” before the weekend. Yes, I know I have several days until the weekend, but my evenings will be filled with freelance, so it was today or nothing.

I routered down the edges on some 2×10s and cut them down to length for use as steps. Then I took the stringers, squirted glue into the dado grooves I’d made, then just started sandwiching the whole schlamiel together, screwing in the steps as I went.

I still have to put on railings, paint the stringers (to match the room), and put matching carpet on the actual steps (to provide a code-worthy non-slip surface and to keep the noise down), but those projects will come much later. Right now, I’m just glad to have an alternate entry into the attic so that I can finish framing in the room (since I couldn’t frame in the final wall because it would have blocked my entry and exit into the attic from the pull-down attic stairs).

And here’s a fun picture of what it’s like to walk down these funky steps. If you’re afraid of heights, you might not feel very secure (especially since there aren’t any handrails yet!). It’s really not that bad. It only took me a couple walks up and down before I felt comfortable with it. It’s probably not the best thing for small children, but…

See the other posts in this series for more information on alternating tread stairs. You can also visit daveosborne.com, which is how I got some of my ideas and information about alternating tread stairs.