I keep a short daily journal, and so I turned back the pages to this time last year and read out loud the daily goings on, and of course, he was right. This time last year, we had three weeks to vacate our home of 35 years as we had sold it, and Rob was busy packing up the entire house, driving back and forth, and getting all of our belongings into storage.
In the year since then we finished sealing off the pole barn where Rob would be carving the timbers. We got the last of the gravel down onto the roads into the cabin and the new house site. We spent the winter planning and designing the new house, while keeping the wood stove going and the cabin warm. We did some work on the inside of the cabin, and we both took time to visit our families. We ordered our lumber, had the excitement of seeing our timbers arrive, and got a good number of them carved and ready. We cleared the lot, removed much of the brush from the clearing, and installed the well and septic system. We levelled and filled the building site, prepared the forms for both the house and the workshop, installed the plumbing pipes, filled areas with gravel, put down the mesh and rebar ... well, I will let the photos from the latest endeavours tell some of that story. In between we took a bit of time with old friends, made new friends, tried our hands at snowshoeing, berry and apple picking, and kayaking. I started a new part time job, and a volunteer job. I've been practising yoga and learning how to make bread. We have indeed managed to do quite a lot!
At the end of last month's blog, Rob had just finished laying down and bracing the forms in preparation for the concrete pour for the house, and installed the plumbing pipes. He then had to do the same for the workshop, (which will hold our solar panels on the roof once it is completed). Once the forms were in place for the house and workshop, and the plumbing pipes all put into place, and inspected, Rob was able to lay down a layer of plastic and installed 3 " pink foam board in the bases. He filled the interiors with gravel, in small incremental layers so that each layer could be compacted properly each time. He left a "moat" all around that will allow for deeper concrete to be filled at all of the edges.
There was a lot of manual work done with adding the gravel, raking it flat, measuring levels, compacting, measuring levels, topping up the gravel.... I was around to help a bit with that part!
The house also has 5 holes hollowed out that will hold extra concrete for supports for the timbers.
Oops, there are only four here. Rob discovered that his plans actually contained five, but the drawing program only printed off four, so he had to go back and do a fifth one.
After compacting everything down, and measuring the levels again to make sure everything was where it should be, our dear friend Bob came over and helped to move and bend and install the rebar and wire mesh. Some jobs just go WAY better when there are more people. We were very grateful for his help.
We tried different methods of bending the rebar. It worked well enough when we tried to bend it by using the tractor, but in the end we did it by hand using a metal pipe. We measured where the bend needed to be, and then Bob and I stood on the rebar, while Rob slipped the metal pipe over, and torqued it up by hand. No photos of that process as all three of us were involved with the bending !
The tractor was also used to pick up the wire mesh, and store it until we were ready for it.
Not everybody finds a photo of rebar to be that exciting, but I found the whole process to be pretty interesting as we tried to fit it in according to building code, which dictates the spacing, the overlaps, etc.!
The large format mesh was not easy to move around. Once it was laid down, each piece had to be attached to the next one by wire, and then plastic "chairs" were inserted below the rebar and mesh to raise them up a little, so that when the concrete is poured, the rebar and mesh is at the correct height.
Pink foam board had to be installed on the insides of all the edges, and then trimmed to the correct height. Then Rob sprayed foam into a lot of the cracks to make sure everything would be well sealed.
We had another inspection and learned we needed a bit more rebar in the corners, but everything else was just fine. Rob then installed the Pex tubing that will run the hydronic heat, later crimping the edges, and running a pressure test to make sure there were no leaks. Installing the Pex wasn't easy due to the cold weather, and he rigged up a gizmo that would help it to unwind without kinking.
There was a lot of time spent looking at drawings, and making changes, and thinking a lot about things like not having the hydronic heat running under the kitchen cupboards, but making sure it was running in the areas where the water pipes come in. Rob thinks a lot about the details in the middle of the night ! And there were lots of details to think about - once that concrete is poured it's pretty hard to make changes.
He called the concrete pouring team to say we were ready - and we learned that everyone here pretty much goes hunting during the first week of deer hunting season, and there would be no work done until they returned. In the end, this proved to be a good thing, as there were lots of adjustments to be made to the site, and it gave Rob a bit more time to do it and to think about everything a bit more. However, the weather was getting colder, and we were beginning to worry about it being too cold. Rob tried dropping a thermometer probe down some of the pipes to see what the temperature was sitting at, and we bought black plastic to put over the site to try warm things up if needed.
It didn't help when Rob was in the middle of laying the Pex and the first snow arrived either!
The second snowfall wasn't much better.
Not to mention the heavy wind storms, and two power outages.
The heavy winds brought down a number of trees and they needed to be dealt with. They rarely blow down and land in a convenient location - more often than not they hang somewhere up high and provide us with some difficulty in getting them down safely! We've dealt with some of the more urgent ones, the rest will have to wait.
This post seems a bit different from my past ones. I think there is an edge to it, a tinge of worry, or a touch of tiredness. The "concrete slab" building has been a tad stressful, and stretched out perhaps a bit longer than planned. I feel like we have both been living it and breathing it for the past several weeks. However, I still try to take some time out each day for a good long walk, and take my camera.
We play with Jet three times a day and take him for good long walks as well. Sometimes, I just sit - either at the building site, or at the edge of the river and enjoy the view.
The concrete pour should happen later this week. (Weather permitting and fingers crossed!) Then I think we will relax a little, and take a good deep breath, and settle in for the winter. Our firewood is stacked, our winter coats and boots have been pulled from storage and are piled in the cabin. We are both ready for some quiet walks in the woods, and some time to think about the next step of this building adventure.
