Rob loves being in the new house during a storm. The inside is snug and warm, and incredibly quiet, despite the howling winds outside, and the blowing snow that is visible from so many directions through the windows. "Snow days" are also plow days for Rob though, so once the storm passes it pulls him away from working on the inside of the house and back out into that winter wonderland.
For me, a snow day is a great time to go for a walk, with my camera tucked away in a waterproof bag (although it does little good once I pull it out to take some photos). I like to check the road conditions just to confirm that I made the right choice in not driving to work. This is the main road at the beginning of one of the storms, so I definitely made the right choice that day!
In the photo below there is a lone wild turkey making it's way to the tree line. I'm sure there were more turkeys already sheltered there as they usually seem to travel in groups.
Along with snow days, we also had some pretty mild weather, and were surprised one day to see the temperature go up well above zero.
Rob and I make good use of such beautiful days to refill the wood boxes with firewood, clean up the snow that slides off the various roofs and piles up near doorways and walkways, and enjoy a few good walks, especially by the river. What a difference a warm sunny day makes! My favourite place to sit in the winter is on this log, at the edge of the river. It's sheltered from the wind, close to the river (but not too close!) and I can happily sit there, watching the occasional bird, listening to the cracking sounds of the ice, and the soft sound of the river flowing by. I can almost - almost - imagine that in a few months we'll be splashing around in that river to cool off from the summer's heat!
February is also the month that Rob and I celebrate our anniversaries - of our first date, and moving in together, and of course there is also Valentine's Day. Our friends Gary and Liz commented that we never post photos of ourselves on the blog so here's one for them. It's a photo of Rob and I when we first bought this property, some 25 plus years ago, sitting near the river in one of our favourite spots, (which is just a few feet away from the log in the photo above!)
Work has, of course, been progressing in the new house. I've lost track of how many feet of electrical wire Rob has run, but it seems to be a lot. I've already gone back to the store twice for additional rolls of wire. (Rob knows exactly how much he has run I'm sure!) I liked how he rigged up two pieces of extra eave extension to accommodate the spools of wire, which made it easier to unwind them as the wire got pulled through the house.
There is a certain thrill in looking at the electrical panel too!
There is also a little story about that perfectly nice timber tucked in to the right of the panel. Rob carefully chose the placements for all the timbers in the house, knowing that some would crack more than others as they dried. He placed this timber in the corner where it wouldn't be very visible as he was sure this one would crack a lot. Well, it hasn't cracked at all. In fact it's just a beautiful and perfect timber. The highly visible timbers? Yup, cracking away .... I think the cracks just add to the beauty and character of the timbers though. And it's entirely normal.
After Rob spends a long day pulling electrical wire, and wiring up electrical boxes, each evening we've been discussing lighting and lighting fixtures.
There is a certain thrill in looking at the electrical panel too!
There is also a little story about that perfectly nice timber tucked in to the right of the panel. Rob carefully chose the placements for all the timbers in the house, knowing that some would crack more than others as they dried. He placed this timber in the corner where it wouldn't be very visible as he was sure this one would crack a lot. Well, it hasn't cracked at all. In fact it's just a beautiful and perfect timber. The highly visible timbers? Yup, cracking away .... I think the cracks just add to the beauty and character of the timbers though. And it's entirely normal.
After Rob spends a long day pulling electrical wire, and wiring up electrical boxes, each evening we've been discussing lighting and lighting fixtures.
Now, I said I wouldn't write about getting the truck stuck on the ice one day, and the wood ashes someone put down on the ice to help get some traction, that had dozens of nails in it, so I won't. (Whoops!) But I will write about the fact that Rob is a bit of a collector of things - you know - those things that you keep and never throw out? Ever? Bits of this and bobs of that... spare parts, used parts, (not to mention several parts from scanning electron microscopes... ) And there are times, when I might perhaps suggest that he has collected a bit too much "stuff". Well, I will gladly admit that this has turned out to be a good thing more times lately than I can count, but it has proved to be really, really good in terms of lighting. Having built three stores, a workshop, a log cabin, and the dome, we (?) seem to have collected quite a bit of lighting over the years, and it looks like now we are going to be able to put a lot of it to good use. And having spent some time on the web looking at the cost of fixtures, not having to buy some is definitely going to help with our limited budget. We've also been looking at fixtures that we like, and trying to figure out whether we can somehow make something similar ourselves. But that is a long term plan, and in the short term, we will have to get some lighting in place throughout the house.
While working on the electrical, Rob had to put up some drywall sheets here and there in the house. What a difference it makes to see drywall up. This is the entrance to our bedroom. We both started envisioning a nice piece of artwork on that wall, but of course when the door swings open, it will largely cover that up.
This is a small closet in our bathroom. We think it will be an open closet, with maybe some shelves up top and a closed unit below. It would be a good place for extra towels and such. I guess this is more exciting to us right now, as we have been making do with having three towels since we came here. We don't have a lot of space in the cabin, so most of our linens are in storage. On the other hand, we haven't needed more than three towels, so I'm not sure that we really need more now, or a place to put them! Having lived happily with "less" all this time, I am pretty sure there are some things, where I don't want "more". So maybe these will be empty shelves ! Or a place for some of our funky fun pottery pieces and artwork.
Of course, that said, as much as I don't want more "stuff", I do wish for more "space". Especially in the kitchen. On a recent day off, while our banana/carrot bread cooled on a rack (balanced somewhat precariously on top of the toaster), I cleaned up the counter and made some room for the bowls I needed to make granola. So imagine my surprise when I returned to the kitchen and found my little bit of space, occupied by a bunch of tools !!
Nice...
I have to admit, I couldn't stop laughing when I took a photo of it.
I decided not to include photo after photo of electrical boxes, and wiring. While it is exciting to see progress, when you've seen one electrical box, you probably don't need to see another one. I will say though, that there was a lot more to it than I thought. While we didn't need to know what exact fixture we would be using, and where, we did need to decide what kind of fixture (LED lighting, or regular fixture with LED bulb) and at least approximately where we thought we might install them, in order to ensure there was something to connect to later on. All the wiring has to be run before the insulation and drywall is put in. The floor is solid concrete and there is no basement, so unlike a lot of houses, it's difficult to add wiring later on. And of course, we had to meet all the electrical code requirements for ground fault interrupters and arc fault interrupters, using the appropriate wire where required, and the correct sized boxes etc., etc. etc..... Today we even had to think about where we be will running speaker wires, so had to decide where the speakers will be mounted. I think both of us could do with some sort of more mindless task for a bit, as it feels like things have been pretty intense the last few weeks. Every night Rob would check and update his wiring diagrams (see below) and make sure he had everything he needed for the next day's task.
As soon as we finished up with the "rough" electrical wiring, we arranged for the first electrical inspection and yay!- it passed!. Of course then we began to think about the next series of jobs. Within minutes of the inspection, Rob was talking about running the plumbing that will bring hot and cold water to the various parts of the house. And we still need to decide on how we will actually get hot water. (More on that in a later blog I think!)
Once the plumbing is complete, we can schedule another building inspection, and then we can begin to put in the interior insulation and get that drywall up.
Now the weather is beginning it's pre-spring tease though. This weekend the temperatures rose above normal, and the birds began to stir. It's hard to stay indoors when it's sunny and "warm" out! There's a part of me though, that feels like I'm not quite ready for winter to be over - I lamented today that we didn't go snowshoeing once, and I never curled up by the wood stove with a good book on a snowy day... Oh well, I can save it all for next winter I'm sure (and I'm not quite convinced that we won't see a bit more winter weather yet!) Only a few days ago I might also have been whining just the tiniest bit about having to bundle up in so many layers, so many times in one day. So today, with the milder weather, we tried to balance some indoor work, and web research, with a couple of nice walks in the woods and along the river (wearing no wool hat or mitts!). Listened to woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches, and admired the tracks of the wild turkeys all along the river edge. And of course Jet had some playtime in that lovely snow too - as before long it may all be gone.
While working on the electrical, Rob had to put up some drywall sheets here and there in the house. What a difference it makes to see drywall up. This is the entrance to our bedroom. We both started envisioning a nice piece of artwork on that wall, but of course when the door swings open, it will largely cover that up.
This is a small closet in our bathroom. We think it will be an open closet, with maybe some shelves up top and a closed unit below. It would be a good place for extra towels and such. I guess this is more exciting to us right now, as we have been making do with having three towels since we came here. We don't have a lot of space in the cabin, so most of our linens are in storage. On the other hand, we haven't needed more than three towels, so I'm not sure that we really need more now, or a place to put them! Having lived happily with "less" all this time, I am pretty sure there are some things, where I don't want "more". So maybe these will be empty shelves ! Or a place for some of our funky fun pottery pieces and artwork.
Of course, that said, as much as I don't want more "stuff", I do wish for more "space". Especially in the kitchen. On a recent day off, while our banana/carrot bread cooled on a rack (balanced somewhat precariously on top of the toaster), I cleaned up the counter and made some room for the bowls I needed to make granola. So imagine my surprise when I returned to the kitchen and found my little bit of space, occupied by a bunch of tools !!
Nice...
I have to admit, I couldn't stop laughing when I took a photo of it.
I decided not to include photo after photo of electrical boxes, and wiring. While it is exciting to see progress, when you've seen one electrical box, you probably don't need to see another one. I will say though, that there was a lot more to it than I thought. While we didn't need to know what exact fixture we would be using, and where, we did need to decide what kind of fixture (LED lighting, or regular fixture with LED bulb) and at least approximately where we thought we might install them, in order to ensure there was something to connect to later on. All the wiring has to be run before the insulation and drywall is put in. The floor is solid concrete and there is no basement, so unlike a lot of houses, it's difficult to add wiring later on. And of course, we had to meet all the electrical code requirements for ground fault interrupters and arc fault interrupters, using the appropriate wire where required, and the correct sized boxes etc., etc. etc..... Today we even had to think about where we be will running speaker wires, so had to decide where the speakers will be mounted. I think both of us could do with some sort of more mindless task for a bit, as it feels like things have been pretty intense the last few weeks. Every night Rob would check and update his wiring diagrams (see below) and make sure he had everything he needed for the next day's task.
As soon as we finished up with the "rough" electrical wiring, we arranged for the first electrical inspection and yay!- it passed!. Of course then we began to think about the next series of jobs. Within minutes of the inspection, Rob was talking about running the plumbing that will bring hot and cold water to the various parts of the house. And we still need to decide on how we will actually get hot water. (More on that in a later blog I think!)
Once the plumbing is complete, we can schedule another building inspection, and then we can begin to put in the interior insulation and get that drywall up.
Now the weather is beginning it's pre-spring tease though. This weekend the temperatures rose above normal, and the birds began to stir. It's hard to stay indoors when it's sunny and "warm" out! There's a part of me though, that feels like I'm not quite ready for winter to be over - I lamented today that we didn't go snowshoeing once, and I never curled up by the wood stove with a good book on a snowy day... Oh well, I can save it all for next winter I'm sure (and I'm not quite convinced that we won't see a bit more winter weather yet!) Only a few days ago I might also have been whining just the tiniest bit about having to bundle up in so many layers, so many times in one day. So today, with the milder weather, we tried to balance some indoor work, and web research, with a couple of nice walks in the woods and along the river (wearing no wool hat or mitts!). Listened to woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches, and admired the tracks of the wild turkeys all along the river edge. And of course Jet had some playtime in that lovely snow too - as before long it may all be gone.
