Evans’ Rag

Vol 6 Issue 4

Azalea flowers – photo by Jim Evans, CC BY-SA 4.0

Spring is coming in with lots of cold weather, but the azaleas and rhododendrons are thriving. Our volunteer cherry tree turned a corner of the yard white with blossoms. Even last year’s phlox is happy with the rain coming down. The yard has so little sun, it’s a challenge growing sun-loving flowers, so we’re cheering for the phlox.

Design work continues on the fictive beach house, mainly framing details to send to the structural engineer to review. Our house in Falls Church went through the same process, but the structural engineer who worked the details for it, made me far less stressed. I was supremely confident he knew what he was doing.

Randy Heist, to credit him, was also the lead structural engineer for the Silver Spring Library, a structural challenge with six foot diameter caisson going deep to reach rock so the full-story trusses could carry the cantilevered floors. A sweet bit of engineering, that.

If not on the same scale, the Lake Barcroft house wasn’t the easiest either. “The geotechnical engineers recommend helical piers? Sure, we’ll just span grade beams between the piers.” So we did.

North Dune Loop - with lots of wood joinery - rendering by the Author, © 2023

This beach house is more complicated—it has more framing connections and sits high on a ridge fully exposed to the wind—and salt air—so I’m going over the framing like it will be the last house I ever design. Randy’s retired now, and I’m finding it hard to replace him.

The Washington Post carried a disturbing article May 3, about coastal water levels rapidly rising since 2010. The article says ix inches in the Gulf and up and down the East Coast—including the Outer Banks. Our site won’t be under water until the islands are gone, though reaching it might become an issue.

Some folk just live in a world of their own.

Kill Devil’s first chapter was cast into the wild - it sorta tumbled out.

I’m writing on a new publication, Write and Review where they actually like posting stuff - even commenting on it. Unlike the previous publications, though I feel like I’m losing a friend in Linda Caroll. Dunno what happened and probably never will.