Construction Update

Wife is due to come back Sunday.  Yea!  She likes that I become so very appreciative of what she does when she's gone.  Just adding a fraction of the stuff she takes care of to my own normal work load usually means that the days are fulled to brimming with work and stuff.

Meanwhile the construction continues.  They got the roof on earlier than they thought.  They've put in the electrical.  Next week the sliding glass doors come in and the room will be closed off.  Then we move into the kitchen.  They will remove a large pantry cabinet that is being cut down some and our center island.  Then they will be start chipping out the old tile.

The new addition fully framed out

Roof on

Electrical in

Cuts in the concrete slab for the doors

Batching It

I took Wife to the airport this morning where she caught a flight to Washington DC to spend time helping daughter #2 and family with the new arrival.  This is all part of Wife's reason for being.  Not being with one of her daughters after they have given birth would be unthinkable.

So I'm on my own for the week.  I travel so much you'd think it wouldn't be a big deal but it's much different being the one who travels than the one who is home.  One would think that I'd get together with friends, go out and have a drink, etc. but that's not what happens.  I tend to go into full hermit mode and just do a lot of work.

How Dry Is It

We live in a very dry place - 10 inches of rain on average annually.  We have been far short of that the last five years as the massive drought affecting the Western US has tightened its grip.  We have had no measurable precipitation since Christmas. 

Dryness (plus altitude) has odd effects on ones cooking.  Like when making risotto for example.

Normally when you read a recipe for risotto (a rice dish that calls for you to add the cooking fluid gradually over the entire cooking process while stirring constantly) the proportions are 2 parts water to one part liquid.  I've learned that where we live that doesn't work and you may need 3 or 4 parts water to one part liquid.  I've theorized that this is because our dry climate evaporates whatever moisture there might be in the rice but I don't really know.

Last night we had Gaius Derf and Agent W over.  Risotto, in my opinion, is best made with people you know well as it requires constant attention and then should be consumed immediately when done.  So after our antipasti, we were talking and stirring the risotto.  I notice that the 5 cups of broth I had for the 1 cup of rice were gone and the risotto was still way too crunchy.  Fortunately I had more canned broth and started to use that.  By the time it was to the right consistency, we had put in 10 cups of broth!  That's 10 cups of broth for 1 cup of rice.  Amazing

The risotto was pretty damn good though :)

Construction Update

Nothing happening.  We're waiting for the roofer.  Evidently this is such a small job that the roofing guy keeps pushing us off and they can't move on to the rest of the project until the roof gets done.

Welcom # 7!

As in grandchild # 7.  This would be 2.4, fourth child and second son of Daughter # 2 and son-in-law 2B.  Born this afternoon 6 pounds and an indeterminate length.  Everyone healthy and smiling.  With the miracle of technology, we were able to FaceTime with our daughter and see the new addition within moments of the birth!  How cool is that.

Thought Concrete Curing Was Exciting! Get A Load of This!

We are on to the really neat stuff.

FRAMING!

 

All The Construction Action

Talking to one of the sons-in-law on Skype today, I was chided for not keeping the blog posts up about the latest construction project.  So I'm catching up with all the action since Thursday.

On Friday

Concrete slab curing

On Saturday

Concrete slab continues to cure

On Sunday

Concrete still in need of curing

Stay tuned for more thrilling action after this word from the Concrete Curing Association.

Construction Progress

They've been at work putting in the foundation for the new room.  Framing should be next week

Let The Construction Begin!

The long awaited "next phase" of the de-I/Wife empire building project has begun...the construction of the Crystal Palace.  This will be the conversion of our current outdoor patio, kitchen, and dining area into a single flowing, multi-use area, capable of supporting multiple cooks,  allowing us greater use of our backyard in all kinds of weather, with the ability to host a party of up to 50 people.

We begin - Outdoor Patio

Taken down

 Concrete goes on Monday

More Kudos for the Q

Or ABQ. Or Albuquerque.

Actually we get very few kudos.  As much as I love living here, this is a community in a state with lots of issues.  But one of the things we have right...real right is water conservation.

If you've not been paying attention for the last 10 years, but the lack of water in the Western third of the US is a major issue that is exacerbated by the persistent drought that various areas have had for five years now and has expanded in area the last couple of years.

So you've got to feel good when you see this.

Water usage in Albuquerque is at 20 year low.  That's absolute water usage not per capita.  Because over the same time period our population has grown 70%!  It speaks for a real change of attitude and awareness here that many of our brethren in the West would do well to adopt.

Now if we could just apply the same attitude to education and job creation!