Mysteries of the Deep

We've had to wait a week or so for the demo of the roof to make way for the dormer. The good news is, I have the most fastidious contractor EVER. She not only taped down masonite to protect the fir floors downstairs, she also set up a zippered tarp rig suitable for Ebola decontamination to keep the demo dust contained:



In the course of ripping out the drywall that stands between me and a stair-free middle-of-the-night pee, Barb apparently made some... discoveries:



A bizarre time capsule? Possibly. Since my next door neighbor is the one who converted the attic to bedrooms, I suppose I could ask him about the doll. The other item, though?



I really don't want to know.

New Roof! Kinda.

So they did, literally, tear the roof off this mother. At 8AM on a Saturday in a torrential downpour, no less. Gotta hand it to those roofers. They may be the equivalent of dishwashers in the construction hierarchy, but when they decide to do something, they certainly do it. Here's the old roof:



Here's the new roof:



You may be wondering, "Hey, what's up with all the extra shingles?". Well, they're for the rest of the roof, which has yet to be completed:



Now, we expected to find some dry rot on the south side of the house. What I wasn't prepared for was exactly HOW MUCH dry rot the roofers would find:







400 lineal feet of dry rot under the eaves, to be precise. That nice, pretty new wood you see there is cedar lap. Not cheap, my friends. Not cheap at all.

Add this additional cost to the existing SNAFU that almost got my neighbor across the street a new roof (an object lesson in rechecking addresses on bids), and we're inching further and further upward in cost for this tear-off. And the plumber's not even here yet.

Retroonline.com

Everyone loves mid-century modern right now. But how many can justify spending $250 on a George Nelson ball clock or $5400 for a freakin' artichoke lamp?

While their site design may remind you uncomfortably of your first c. 1997 web page (blue links on a black background?!), Retroonline.com has knock-out knock-offs for those of us who still shop at Ikea.

The Nelson-style ball clock:


at $35.99 and artichoke lamp knockoff:



are particular stand-outs when it comes to getting more mod bang for your hard-earned buck. And don't forget their awesome selection of beaded curtains, which, frighteningly enough, the Grey Lady seems to think are just ginchy.