This Week's Cover of "Backyard Today"

Well, here's where we stand. We're just a few weeks away from moving in. The perimeter trim is finishing up this week (note all the primed gray trim boards around the windows, doors and wall edges). The roofing for the lower roof is just about done. The mudders are still working almost around the clock; they're somewhere between 2 and 2.5 coats of mud; they are pushing hard for a Friday completion, but it'll be tight. Meanwhile, the furnace is hot wired without a thermostat and is blasting hot air into the whole house so the mud dries faster.

This weekend we plan to put a dent in siding installation with our good friend Peter. Our painter, Chano, will be here with his crew over the weekend to get started on the interior. Next week we start laying floors with our good friend Dave, starting with soundproofing underlay and rubber carpet cushion. If we stay on schedule, we'll begin tiling next Friday with co-founder of Portland Cement Co. and professor of concrete arts and sciences, Dr. Rude Graves.

So, yeah, things are starting to heat up. Deep breath. We can do this!

100% Certified

To continue a previous train of thought (i.e., What's sustainable about your house anyway?!)...

This is a shot of some FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified lumber. This stamp assures us that the wood we use in our project conforms to FSC standards. To directly quote from the FSC website:

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC sets high standards that ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable way.

Landowners and companies that sell timber or forest products seek certification as a way to verify to consumers that they have practiced forestry consistent with FSC standards. Independent, certification organizations are accredited by FSC to carry out assessments of forest management to determine if standards have been met. These certifiers also verify that companies claiming to sell FSC certified products have tracked their supply back to FSC certified sources. This chain of custody certification assures that consumers can trust the FSC label.

Trusted environmental organizations including Greenpeace, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund all support and encourage FSC certification. Consumers wishing to support healthy forests and communities should look and ask for the FSC label when purchasing wood or paper products.

FSC-US, based in Washington, DC, is the U.S. “chapter” of FSC International, based in Bonn Germany. For more information about FSC at the International level, please visit http://www.fsc.org.

Possessed by Evil

Right about now you may be thinking, "Pazuzu!" Actually, it's only Satsuma trying to yawn and meow at the same time. Creepy, though. Really creepy.