Sunday, June 22, 2008

Beyond Thunder(duck)dome!


Ev's gone to the store for more long-ass deck screws, so I'm taking this opportunity to post the updated project photos.


And they said it couldn't be done by two middle-aged lesbians of short stature! HA!

Well, okay. It couldn't have been done entirely by two middle-aged lesbians of short stature, but it could, by-god, be done by two middle-aged lesbians of short stature and one tall, agreeable, ex-husband! So there! Looks like a Tiki Hut, huh? Everyone but Ev thinks it would looks spiffy with a thatched roof. She's still holding out for shingles. Rob thinks it needs a bar ... the kind with the grass skirt around it ... and it certainly needs tiki torches. We all agree it's pretty fancy-schmancy for ducks!

Everything cooperated today. The weather is cooler, there's more shade and more breeze, the ladder gods smiled on us and we found a spiffy two-in-one step and extension ladder for a hundred bucks at Sears, and the girls couldn't go to Magic Mountain with their dad today as planned ... so he came here instead. Yay!



It turns out that a six-foot-tall ex-husband on an extension ladder is just the right height to get to the pinnacle of an 11-and-a-half-foot-tall roof ... if you leave little triangular openings for him to squeeze through with an electric screwdriver.

If we can't get him back out, we'll have to tell the ducks he's a pinata.








Now we have to cut and put up another row of bracing cross-pieces and cut little triangles (all slightly different -- don't ask) to cover the remaining Rob openings. I suspect we'll have to ply him with beer to convince him to climb the extension ladder and lay on the roof trusses to screw them in place.

Carrie helped out by whipping up a three-way-combo birthday and Father's Day feast of bacon wrapped steak and ginger-soy drizzle. It was oh-my-god delicious!

I've thrown in a picture of the lucky recipients of all this effort. Here they are, mindlessly dunking their heads in an afternoon mud puddle and dribbling on each other. They don't look like something that needs luxury accommodations, do they?

There is really nothing anyone could aspire to that would be a better deal than being a pet in this household. You don't see us building little Tiki huts in the yard for the children, do you??

4 comments:

SP said...

It looks fantastic. I want you all to build my house next. With a bar please. I'll waddle around sticking my head in puddles if that would help.

Ev said...

Well, Ms. Pants...we would be more than happy to build your house for you if you're aware up front that we tend to do a few hours of work, then sit on the porch drinking beer and trying to figure out the next engineering project. More beer, more figuring...you see?

In the meantime, you'd have to put us up, and since we work slow, that might turn into a several month committment...at the end of which you might be ready to be committed yourself.

However, we eventually do nice work.

SP said...

I'll buy the beer

DB said...

Hey! I haven't stopped by in a while. The duck dome looks great!