Job Dog

Remodeling opens up more than walls. It's also opened an opportunity for at least one of our dogs, Dash. We've long joked that he had a not-so-secret desire to be a Job Dog. Today, he got to try his paws at the position.

When Dash came to us, we promised to try showing him. That led to Bell and Riley joining us as well. In less than four years, we went from one pet dog and a few leashes, to three show dogs and enough gear to fill a minivan (really)!

As we got serious about the remodel, one pressing design goal was to have the day to day dog gear (aka "tack," the same noun used for horse equipment) out of the dining/family room. The catalytic goal of the remodel was getting the laundry out of the dark garage and inside to better lighting. We combined the two and got a super large laundry room, almost 9 ft x 15 ft. That space was as big as our former kitchen, and we've begun to refer to it as the "tack room," which, just like "Our Summer Place" helps put us in a delicious frame of mind. Once we came up with the room size and placed it in the floor plan, all the other rooms fell into place.

Having our own remodel going, the opportunity for Dash to play Job Dog fell into place as well. Laura brought him along for this week's meeting with John & Lynn. Dash did great. He intrepidly inspected the site. He learned it's better to walk where there are floorboards, rather than where there's just insulation. Lynn noted he was a natural at picking spots and angles to lie down and supervise activity. And he seemed particularly frisky for his photo-op on the tool chest.

Visible progress this week came in part as new plywood sheeting on the existing roof and shear walls on most of the existing structure. One neat but eventually invisible element of the roof is a thermal barrier under the plywood. This feature helps to maintain the house temperature in both hot and cool weather. In less visible but still significant progress, our underfloor inspection passed. And insulation is now down between the floor joists in the new sections of the house. With that in place, next week should bring subfloor to the new section, as well as framing of the walls.


In offsite progress, we refined our tile selections for the master bath as well as the backsplash in the kitchen. We also finalized (cross your fingers) our selections for plumbing fixtures. Finalizing lighting fixtures is our next task.

Oh. It's only fitting that the week where the blog is about Job Dog also saw the purchase of the dog door. The number of choices in pet doors is astounding. I found internet sites with hundreds of different models across about a dozen manufacturers. Picking one was baffling. I got unstuck when I found one of the sites had a good guide on sizing a door. Following those hints, I made a simulator out of a shipping box to check door size. Amongst our dogs, I was most concerned about Dash's adaptation. We'd had a pet door in the former structure for our cat. And our girls readily stuck their head through it regularly to greet us. Dash didn't.

So, with the simulator in one hand and a treat in the other, I tested. Dash went through it willingly as soon as he saw the treat on the other side. Bell was just as fast. Both began to offer the behavior hoping for another treat. Riley wanted to take the easy way and go around the simulator. To get Riley through, I had to bring out the ultimate treat: Laura with a biscuit. But then, who could resist that?