2014-05-20 - Tuesday - Decking and salt kiln firing

Tuesday the deck was built and the Trex was installed.  Things are starting to look good.

I think the stars were aligned in my favor today.  Several things happened at once where timing was everything.

First, some background info:

1. The builder needed the information on the shingles that were installed on the house in 2007, so I called our roofer.
2. The pressure washing people were coming today and they were also going to clean our dryer vent.
3. We need an inspection before we can finish the footings.

Stay with me on this...

We decide that the building crew will go to lunch when the pressure washing people arrive and we should start washing the house on the corner where the deck is located.

The pressure washer arrived and the building crew left.

While the pressure washer gets started out back, I talk to my neighbor for a few minutes in the front yard about her new drip irrigation system.  Two more of the pressure washing people arrive.  It turns out they are the dryer vent people so I let them in and escort them to the dryer.

Just then my cell phone rings and it's our roofer.  He's in the front yard, so I go out to meet him.  He tells me that our shingles are GAF Timberline Charcoal Gray Natural Shadow style.  He points out that my neighbor has the other charcoal gray style, High Definition.  Good, now we can match our original shingles.

He mentions to me that while the pressure washing is going great on the soffits, there are a lot of catkins from our willow oak trees on the roof and he recommends that we get them removed.  I ask the pressure washer if he can get that stuff off the roof and he says no, but the dryer vent guy has a blower.  The roofer asks the pressure washer about getting his daughter's house washed and I notice a guy with a clipboard walking down the driveway.

I go inside and ask the dryer vent guy about cleaning the roof.  He says sure, gives me a reasonable price and I give him the go-ahead.

Now there is a guy on the roof with a leaf blower, a guy pressure washing the house, two guys building the deck, and my head is spinning.

I walk down the driveway and the building crew is filling in the footing holes since they passed inspection (ah, the guy with the clipboard!).  Progress.

All this happened in less than 30 minutes.  It was insane.

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The day got even better since we fired the brand new salt kiln at Clayworks that night.  There were some tense moments when one of the burners wouldn't stay lit because of a thermocouple failure, but Adrienne and Rich figured it out and the heat continued to climb.  Soon we were pushing salt "burritos" made of newspaper into the ports, dumping salt into the flame channel from a piece of angle iron, then spraying soda ash.

It was hot work, but it was fun and there was a high level of excitement for our first firing.

We should be able to unload it on Thursday.

Screen under the decking.
The Trex is installed using hidden fasteners.

A close-up of the fasteners.

Inspection permit.

Forced air burners on the salt kiln.

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