Paradise ponders, baseboard matching edition...

Paradise ponders, baseboard matching edition...  It was slightly calmer here yesterday.  But only slightly. :)

I did a walk-around inspection in the morning, looking for any little bits of trim that might not be ready for the painters (who are scheduled to show up on Monday).  I discovered a missing bit, about 9" long (at right) – and we don't have any spare pieces lying about.  Home Depot and Lowe's have nothing even remotely like this.  What to do?  Our builder recommended trying Burton Lumber (the source of all the lumber we used in construction), so I ran up there to see if they could match it.  They did!  Given that the baseboard we were trying to match was installed 22 years ago, I think that's pretty amazing!

Speaking of the builders ... they've finished all they can do until I get the electrical wiring for the deck finished.  Below left shows what our deck looks like now, looking out from our kitchen doorway to the northwest.  The photo at right shows what the inside of the deck roof looks like at the moment – not so beautiful! :)  My wiring will be installed inside that mess, and then when I'm finished the builders will return and put a “skin” of tongue-and-groove floorboards over the bottom of what you see there.  All the interior framing will be hidden.  Our builder was absolutely delighted that (for the first time in the entire project) he wasn't the long pole – it was me instead. :)

Later in the day we got a call from SSL shipping, telling us that they had a delivery to make.  We were expecting this; it's a piece of furniture for our bedroom (more on that in a later post).  He was driving a big rig, so I made arrangements to meet him out on the road with my tractor in ten minutes or so.  I went out, got the forks mounted on the tractor, and drove out to the highway to meet him.  As I arrived, a Corlett shipping truck (which we were not expecting) drove up and pulled over.  He had a delivery, too – Debbie's office chair that we weren't expecting for another week or so.  What a weird coincidence!  The SSL truck showed up about 3 minutes after the Corlett truck left.  That was very convenient – which it happened more often!

The delivery from SSL (the bedroom furniture) was in the crate at right.  The truck driver told me he'd never seen furniture delivered in such a nice crate.  The crate was entirely constructed from 5/8" plywood mounted on top of a standard pallet.  Inside were pine 2x2s for a frame, and all screwed together.  Amazing!  The furniture inside was in perfect condition, having been protected on its journey with that beautiful crate.