More big action: welding & q-deck

We were out late last night, celebrating our 11th anniversary. Fittingly, the real estate developer who bought DW's first building, providing the cash to undertake this project, surprised us with tickets to the US Open. That's the site of our first date and the place we traditionally celebrate. Nonetheless, today was a really busy day: I was out from 9 am – 8 pm, so DW took the pictures. He was meeting with JG and DMD and the Israeli steel guy, and then with CG and the one of the landscape bidders, from 8 am – afternoon. Obviously, the crew stayed very busy too.

They took out more of the back wall, then wrestled the second lintel into place. It was not easy because it is on the interior side of the first one. They had to remove one of the new beams they had installed yesterday to maneuver it up into place. Those handy lifts demonstrated a new trick – the top cab can shift forward and back from the base (using a highly sophisticated system of counterweights).

A new character arrived: the Brazilian welder. He attached two cross-braces between each pair of beams, and welded the beams to the steel plates that had been inlaid in the slots in the brick side walls.

Then the crew started setting q-deck – galvanized sheet metal that will hold the concrete that will be poured on top to form the roof. Now it is easier to see that the beams are set at different levels. They are pitched moderately from the street to the last beam that is shown with q-deck in this photo. The next two in the foreground are pitched sharply down - this area will ultimately have three wide steps, separating an arbored, paved dining patio from the mostly planted garden. The kitchen is at the patio level, so we will be looking out into the garden plants rather than looking down on them.