After a restless night, I woke up, made bread and stew, and headed out at 9:15 for a mom's coffee with some friends. I almost turned around as I drove up our road: Phil had a busy day scheduled, and I felt nervous about abandoning him. The number of things that could go wrong kept adding up.
But I drove on, and spent about two hours visiting with all the ladies and then stayed another five and a half hours just sitting around talking and relaxing. The difference between the tension I felt on the way and my relaxed state on the way back could not have been more striking.
And I got home to find that all my prayers had been answered. The weather could not have been more perfect: 70 and sunny. Jadon had turned the stew on and it had cooked well (and though the burner was still on low nine hours later, it had not burned!).
Two young ladies had offered to come to help with parge-coating (which we realized on Thursday, after we had scheduled them, has become critical path. We need that done before we do the next step). They were planning to arrive between 9 and 10, and my prayer was that they would arrive in time that they could get set on that before the next group arrived. They must have turned down our road just minutes after I left, because they came at 9:30, right as Phil was done getting everything ready, and they had just started work when the next thing happened. Perfect timing!
We had four guys come out to help Phil lift the windows in place. The first two came and helped Phil move a window bank out. Then came the third and his young son.
The boys were set to entertain the son with train track and blocks down in the building, and they all had a good time.
Then the fourth guy showed up, and they got the windows in place in the hour and a half before some guys had to leave, and they set the French doors roughly in place, too. Perfect timing again!
A bank of windows in one room.
And a second bank of windows, with French doors adjacent, with the other room. And although it looks like a long block right now, when the drywall subdivides, the overall effect will diminish.
Phil was gratified because one of the guys is an architect, and he gave Phil major kudos for the design.
One guy stayed to help with the French doors for several more hours. I don't think it went perfectly, as Phil was still wrestling with them when I got home about 6pm, but they are more or less in place, and hopefully the internet will yield some simple steps to help sticking doors sit better in the framing.
And the girls stayed until almost five, and made excellent progress on the parge-coating. In a few more hours, we should have all the critical path parging done.
So Phil had an excellent day. He made good progress, and was blessed with help. I had an excellent day. I was blessed with a relaxing visit with friends. The boys were helpful and kind, and they had an excellent day. So we watched the happy movie Strictly Ballroom and ate chocolate as a family as a happy end of day celebration.
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