Farewell to 2017

I think that if I decide to make any New Year's Resolutions for 2018, the top one on my list should be to keep the blog updated a bit more often!  The last post was in August, so the task of looking back over the past four months worth of photos and diary entries and then trying to write something just doesn't work all that well for me, and I obviously should have kept up with it better. That said, I'll do my best to put a little something together although it may seem to be a bit of a choppy read at times.

Recent temperatures have been around minus 33 degrees C, and with the biting cold and a thick blanket of snow on the ground from the December snow storms, I must say it's quite lovely to be looking back to photos I took in August and and to remember a time when it was warmer, with a land covered in greenery. Funny too, to think that back then I complained that it was an unusually cool summer!

The end of August saw us getting ready for the concrete pour at the entrance of the workshop:

And a small porch area at the front entrance of the new house:

Rob prepared both areas, and then decided to prepare an extra pad next to the workshop as well; one that would serve to hold our propane tanks, in case there was enough concrete left over to do so.

Alas, due to a slight miscalculation, there was quite a bit of concrete left over! On the plus side, we definitely had enough for the propane tank "pad" but there was still had an awful lot of concrete leftover. Unfortunately, concrete trucks hate waiting while you try to build something to contain the excess, so with only minutes to decide what to do, he hastily plopped down some 6x6 timbers and had them pour a quick pad next to an existing one elsewhere on the property.  And this is where it will sit, possibly forever, as a constant reminder that when calculating cubic yards, 3x3x3 feet does not equal nine. Another useful fact is that concrete flows downhill as evidenced by the wonky corner. Again, on the plus side, the slab has excellent drainage. I'm thinking maybe we could build a little goat shed on it in future. Goats won't mind that it isn't perfect will they? Or maybe it will work for a small pony! (More likely though it will end up as a base for a wood shed. Still, it was fun to dream.)

As soon as we got over the "concrete thing" (note from Rob: I'm not over it yet!) we moved on and got back to work.  It was time to finish the back roof on the workshop, as we had run out of time the previous fall and didn't want it to go another winter without the roofing and ridge cover.  I don't think Rob was eager to get at it, but if it's any consolation, we think it may be the last roof he has to do (not true of course - see later in blog)!

I think it came out looking pretty good, and it was a relief to see it get done this year.

The September long weekend was rainy and cool and probably not a surprising ending to the "summer that wasn't".  With morning temperatures of only 3 degrees, and imminent frost warnings, we decided we'd better service the tractor and generator while the weather was still reasonable, as neither are tasks you want to do when it's cold or snowing!

With some of the outdoor tasks done, Rob got back to constructing the interior window frames.  Our bathroom frame was made of lovely cherry wood, and is truly beautiful, but it certainly was a bit of a job getting it installed behind the timber brace (it looked so easy in the drawings)!

Next came  the kitchen window frame. It has a sweet accent line of maple on the sill - which, as it turns out, is due to another mistake Rob made, but no one will ever know that (Rob's note: until now!) I think it looks perfect (he shouldn't have told me as I would never have guessed).

As always in September, we began to feel a bit of pressure due to the change of seasons. Rob was anxious to get at acid staining the concrete floors while it was still warm enough inside the house. He was going to have to move out the wood stove, so there would be no source of heat while he was doing the floors.  We had to clear all of the floors of building supplies and stuff, and move everything into our bedroom (which will have it's floor done later) and started doing some test areas on the concrete.

We did our tests in the guest bathroom, as this floor has to be tiled anyway because of the shower, so our test areas will be nicely covered up.  But before doing these, we placed a few of the floor tiles down just to confirm that we liked the choice of tile we'd made - and we did. We picked tiles that look like weathered wood with a bit of old blue paint on them and I love them.  It's a small bathroom, so we could splurge a bit on a nice tile, and Rob had picked them up earlier last year.

The first week of September saw a whole new project enter into the scheme of things. Our friend Bob who has always come to help when we needed a second pair of hands, had asked Rob to help teach him how to build a timber frame structure.  He wanted to build a small one on his own property to use for wood storage.   Rob was more than happy to oblige, as it would be a small way to thank Bob for all his effort and help.  So a deal was made to help Bob on the days that the weather was good, and on the rainy days Rob could continue working on the interior of our house. The timbers were brought to our place as we had all the tools here that would be needed, as well as a perfect setup for working on them.

Amazingly, in mid September our summer suddenly arrived! We had big beautiful blue skies, endless sunshine, and warm temperatures. It was great to be able to work comfortably outside wearing T-shirts although the mosquitoes and no-see-ums were back out in full force too, which seemed strange given the time of year.

If I had a day off work and they were busy working on the timbers, I would help prepare something for our lunch together.  Sometimes Bob would bring a nice homemade soup for us, and I was delighted when Rob set me up in the new house with a bit of work space and a hot plate, and I "cooked" our first lunch there.  Although I was technically cooking in what will eventually be my sink area, it was a total joy to be in our light filled space, window open, looking outside at the lovely river, and imagining the times to come. When the guys showed up for lunch I couldn't help grinning and exclaiming "I'm cooking lunch in my new house!".

Once they finished with the timber preparations, we moved them all over to Bob's place, where he could finish up some of  the remaining work on his own, such as making the braces.  When he was ready, Rob would go back and help with getting the frame up.

The September weather was incredible, and for the first time all year we found ourselves spending time in the evenings relaxing down at the river's edge, and we even went in for a swim a couple of times!

Some evenings, as we sat in our favourite place at a point above the river, we would see the Osprey fly by.  A short time later we would hear the telltale splash as it hit the river, in search of a fish for dinner.  I still haven't actually watched one do that, but I hope to someday.

As the end of September approached we knew that these warm summer-like days were about to end so we made the most of them.  I would rush home from work each day to grab a bit of that warmth and sunshine while I could. The birds were beginning to migrate, and we knew this weather couldn't last. But with promises of the weather holding for a little while longer, we decided to make a trip out and pick up some timbers for our entrance ways, as it seemed like we might have time to get them ready and installed.

During the first week of October, Rob and Bob got Bob's frame up. Well, it took two tries, as they discovered a few adjustments that needed to be made!.  But they didn't lose too much time, and Bob hoped he would still have enough time to get his roof up and on before the snow arrived.

We were glad we could do a little something in return for Bob's efforts, but now it was time to get back at our own project again.  Rob began cleaning our concrete floors in preparation for the acid stain.

He also had a design in mind for the baseboards, and needed to cut the drywall off a bit where it met the floor.

He taped cardboard between the floor and the drywall before applying the stain, so the drywall wouldn't get sprayed (it did anyway!) and then sprayed 2 coats of the acid stain on using a standard pressurized hand sprayer.  After the stain dried he had to neutralize, wash and scrub off the residue, using the shop vac to remove any excess water.

We loved the way it turned out, but knew it might change a bit after we put on a finishing coat to protect the concrete surface.   This is how the guest room looked before the protective coating:

A view of the kitchen while the acid stain was drying:

 The front entrance:

The kitchen and dining room:

I loved the turquoise colour running through the kitchen!

So the colours worked great but when we put the finishing coat on - ugghhhh.... it was too shiny! It was supposed to be a matte finish and it just didn't come out that way at all. It was also really "patchy" looking, with varying glossiness and although we loved the depth of colour, it just wasn't what we wanted.  Rob did some research and came up with a new product to try that was guaranteed to be "matte".

While we waited for delivery of the new floor finish, Rob's birthday arrived, and we took the afternoon to go for a glorious walk in the very beautiful Shaw Woods.

We've seen snow here on Rob's birthday in the past, so we really appreciated how lovely it was to be out in the woods enjoying warm weather and brilliant sunshine, with all the truly golden colours of fall all around us.

It was also great to have a visit from our wonderful friend Marilyn just before Rob's birthday - no photos (unfortunately) but a perfect day. Several years ago Marilyn gave Rob a ceramic geodesic bird house that has graced our driveway ever since we started building. At least she got to see it - a few days after her visit a branch came down in a windstorm and destroyed it. It must have been waiting to see her before leaving!

With November fast approaching, we still had more than a few tasks that needed completing before the weather changed. Rob was still hoping to get the exterior timber structures up in the porch areas where we had poured the concrete, so each day he would work putting a layer of the new finish on the floor, then while it was drying he'd go up and work on the timbers.

He first had to sand down the glossy finish on all the floors,  and then applied the new product. We lost a bit of the depth of colour in the process, but we were both really happy with the results.

As soon as the timbers were ready, Rob moved them down to the new house, and was even able to get a protective coating of Cetol on them.

The weather was beginning to change and I started pulling out the garden, gathering wood and kindling to store on the porch, moving my summer clothing out and back into storage, bringing winter clothing in, and getting the cabin sorted out.

We moved the wood stove back into place in the new house, serviced the snow plow, and got the truck ready for winter.

We still had more than a few cords of firewood to split, so stopped everything else and took a couple of days to get it done together.  Then we had to move what we hoped would be enough of the dry split wood down closer to the cabin, and got it neatly stacked and covered.

We also took some over to the new house and stacked it under the shelter of the workshop roof.

Rob made one more trip over to our friend Bob's to help him get his roof on, although they had to wait until a snow squall passed before they could finish it. Bob is at a higher altitude than us, so often gets snow when we don't.

We didn't quite get our entrance way timbers up in time, as then it snowed here too. And got much colder!

It sure was pretty though.

Our long time friends, Gary and Liz decided to come up from Florida for a visit.  While we were really looking forward to seeing them, we couldn't help but wonder why anyone would leave Florida in November to come to Ontario!  We can only guess that they missed the snow and crisp cold air! Luckily we were able to provide them with plenty of both.

Rob decided to move a few things into the new house so that we could have a more comfortable visit with them, so moved in our fridge, dining table and chairs, two living room chairs and our stereo and speakers.  While we still couldn't offer them a comfortable place to stay, we could at least gather easily around the wood stove, and provide some snacks and such.  With a hot plate and a bit of planning, we even managed to provide a hot soup for lunch, and a simple dinner of veggie burgers and salad for a quick dinner!

Here I am (slightly blurry...) cooking our first dinner in the house!

And with our friends in our dining room:

We even managed to get out for a drive and showed them Bob's new (finished) timber frame.

After they left, it warmed up very slightly and Rob decided it was a good time to get the generator hook up installed while he had a chance. This will allow us to start up the generator and plug it into our off grid system if we need to charge the batteries, or simply run off of the generator at any point. He also decided to try to get the timber frame structure up under the roof overhang of the shop and new house front entrance.

We managed to get them up, but not totally installed, when it snowed again, and our temperatures plummeted. They will probably have to remain in this state until spring.

We always look forward to winter, and the changes it brings, but we always forget that it brings some new challenges with it.  The shorter hours of daylight result in Rob stopping early in the afternoon in order to get Jet out for one last walk before darkness falls. With an unusually cold December, we went through a lot more fire wood than normal, and it was a bit more effort to keep both the cabin and the new house warm.  When it warms up a bit we get snow, and then we spend a day plowing and clearing, which is how we spent Christmas Day!  Not to mention having to keep the solar panels clear of snow.

Still, it's nice in the winter to curl up in a warm house and have a game of scrabble with Jet but he was complaining that I used the "O" he wanted to use and put it on his triple letter space.   (O.k. - it might have been a staged photo as I was trying to get one of my PhotoCoach challenge entries completed - but I had fun doing it, and Jet's always willing to help out).

We also tried to take a bit of time to sit by the wood stove in the new house, while we still had the chairs and stereo there to enjoy.  It's nice to sit and listen to some of the many CD's we have that have been tucked away in storage all this time - not to mention enjoying the sound of real speakers! We've been listening to a limited number of CD's through a Walkman plugged into a docking station for far too long...

All this will end though, as we are about to move that little bit of furniture back out, so that Rob can begin the task of taping drywall, sanding, and painting. The house is about to go through some real changes!

He's spent the last week or so trying to get his workshop organized so that he has room to build the cabinets and things that will fill the new house.  Wisely, he decided not to rent a floor sander over Christmas to do the upper floors!  Instead, we curled up on Christmas Eve, with our little tree outside all lit up, and toasted each other with hopes that Christmas next year will truly be celebrated in the new house.

New Year's Eve came and went, with severe cold warnings, and bright blue skies.  We stayed pretty close to the wood stove for the most part, although I couldn't resist bundling up and going down to see the changes in the river.  This time last year the river was wide open, but this year there was a small narrow channel here and there, and for the most part it was mostly ice.  While there are lots of animal footprints along the edges, you won't see mine as I am pretty cautious not to get too close to the edge, which still changes almost daily.

And so, as 2018 begins, we continue to dream and plan and design the house interior, and look forward to the coming months as everything (hopefully) comes together. Our time here in the cabin has been sweet, and I know there are things I will surely miss, but at the same time I am looking forward to the change.  We are anxious to pull out our boxes of "stuff" to see what has survived, to rediscover some of the art work we have missed seeing on our walls, and to listen to more of the music we have missed all this time.

My mantra this year is simple, yet complex. It is "Community".  For while this project has gone on, it is something we have had in some ways, but not in others.  I hope that the finishing of this house will bring more community back into our lives somehow, whether through more frequent visits with friends, or the bringing together somehow of more like minded people.  I'm not sure yet where it will begin, but I know this word is for me this year, so I will remember it, sing it, chant it, and see what happens.

Wishing all the very best for 2018, and peace, love and joy to all.

Sweet July

Pink foam, pink foam, tra-la-la.... I should write a poem....

Or not.

Because - the foam is finished!  The last of it went on this week. We would have held a small celebration, but Rob was just a tad tired and technically he still has plenty of roof work left, putting in strapping and eaves and plywood and underlay, so we decided to wait until those jobs are done. I think though, that we will have a major celebration when the metal roof finally goes on in the fall!  (Although, as Rob pointed out - he still has to build the workshop and a whole new roofing job will begin).

Still - the foam job on the house is done. And what a job that was!  Two 3" layers on the walls and three 3" layers on the roof. Rob did a very small time lapse video of how many times he went up and down the scaffolding in just a couple of hours one day.  Multiply that by the number of days and weeks he's been working on this - and well - it's no wonder he's dropped a few more pounds!

I hope the number of photos I included aren't too boring for everyone. We see the changes daily but one part of the house looks like another and if you are not looking carefully you might not see much progress (OK - there were days when I came home from work and even I couldn't tell whether there had been much progress!  But there always was....sometimes I just had to look a little harder for it!)

The wood strapping on the walls and roof basically float on the foam and are attached to the inner structure using long (13" for the roof) screws. In the photo above, the lattice structure is to allow air movement under the valley. (Can you tell that Rob has hopped onto the blog and added some details here ??)(Yes)

The area of the roof in the photo below took an extra long time as it was really tricky.  Not just because of the double valley where the three roof lines meet, but also because of the roof structure coming over the "front" door to the house. I still say that no one is going to use this door since everyone will generally enter through the mud room on the other side! This is especially so for the builder and his dog ....with their muddy feet and paws. Still, it will be a nice entrance and I can just see some nice potted herbs or funky art under that overhang (plus there is a timber structure to be added that will support the roof extension).

We did a happy dance when Rob was able to start on the next side (the east side) of the roof! Of course there is another valley on that side, so Rob wasn't as enthusiastic a dancer as I was.  Perhaps this was also due to the fact that he had to move a lot of scaffolding. Again.

Rob kept working on the east side, and slowly made his way across the roof - safety harness in place of course! Despite the harness, there are still times when I don't really like to watch him up there. My own fear of heights doesn't help.

As he neared completion of this side, we both felt like he was moving into the "home stretch". There would be only one more side to go! (Little did we know that the last side, the north side, was going to be equally tricky to do...)

Sometime during all this roof work, we had a lovely visit from Rob's cousin and her partner. They brought an incredible lunch and kind offers of help. We had to decline the offers of help though. Rob isn't keen on having others up on the scaffolding, ladders and roof. But we gladly accepted the awesome lunch! It was nice to sit with them both too, and catch up on some family news.

Whenever someone visits, we get a whole new perspective on the house.  It's as if we can see it through their eyes instead of ours for a change. Rather than seeing what is being worked on at the moment, we can take time to look at what has been done so far. With that in mind I stepped back a bit and took a photo of the house from the laneway.  Rob and I noticed that the house suddenly got smaller again as the eaves went on. And started to look like a "real" house....much  more cozier and less of a giant foam block!

A bit of a site cleanup was called for, so Rob rigged up a container that we could use to toss in all the wood off cuts. These make for great kindling in the winter!  We had done our best to contain the bits of foam that flew around during each windstorm but we still had a bit of cleaning up to do. We also have a powerful magnet on wheels that we roll around the site as well, to pick up any screws that we may have dropped. Best to find them before the tractor does. Unfortunately the magnet didn't find Rob's (many pairs) of lost glasses.

July 5th, we took a brief break for my birthday.  We went for a stroll in the river and I was treated to a very nice breakfast (farm fresh local eggs and local bacon!), a good lunch and an awesome dinner of blackened shrimp. Yumm! (Whoops, not doing so well with the vegetarian thing....) We ate dinner on the porch,  with a view of the river. What could be better? (Well, maybe being in the new house - but maybe next year!)

Rob will remember the day this next photo was taken. He says that I should have noticed when I took the photo that this piece was cut a few inches short on the right hand side. But I didn't!  He sure did though.... after it was all nicely nailed in place.

I of course, was too busy admiring the fine fit at the top!

And actually, from my angle, it looked good at the other end too.

Oh well, just another minor fix - not much I could do so I went off for a nice long walk where I came across some sweet ducks in the river and had fun trying to get a photo of them before they heard me and swam off.

Later on I ventured out into the river with my camera (gulp) and took some shots of the house from there. I really don't like walking in the river with my camera, but I try to be careful and keep in the shallower water, where the rock bottom is most stable.  A week or so later I slipped on the rocks and fell in, and was glad I didn't have my camera that time! You can't really see much of the house, which is nice for our neighbours across the river. I love the shoreline here, as we see all sorts of birds who burrow in and nest here, as well as lots of frogs, dragonflies, and damselflies. It's a pretty sweet spot.

The north side of the roof took a little longer than expected.  The chimney for the wood stove exits through this side of the roof, and Rob took the time to make sure he was running the chimney exactly where it should go. This was no time to be cutting holes in the wrong spot! As well, we will be required to have an inspection of the wood stove installation, so he contacted the stove and chimney manufacturers as well as the inspector to make sure that all the correct clearance requirements were being met.  He then built the chimney support accordingly, and cut a hole in the roof and installed it (the support is air sealed to the shell and is specially designed to be insulated).

During this time, I ended up working extra days at the funky good karma store so I missed some of the day to day building progress. I love the drive to work and back, along the back roads.  I really should try to get some photos early in the morning when the light is so soft and pretty. But here's a little taste of some of the sweet views I get. A large part of my drive is through farmland and I love the gentle hills with a view of the "mountains" behind. These are not like BC mountains of course, but they are referred to as mountains by the locals nonetheless!

I always know I'm almost home when I come around one of the corners, and first catch sight of the river!

We have a large group of Mennonites who have moved into the area, and many of them sell fresh produce, and farm fresh eggs from stands at their farms. We are able to pick up lots of fresh vegetables this time of year.  I love driving by their farms, it's always a delight to see their pretty and hard working horses in the fields. They travel only by horse and buggy, so the township has put up signs to let us know they are on the roads. For the most part, drivers do seem to slow down and pass carefully when they see the buggies on the road.

Some days when I arrive home, Rob is looking a little wild... when it is really hot out he wisely wets a piece of cloth and tucks it under his hat to help keep him cool and keep the sun off the back of his neck. Sunglasses, knee pads and safety harness are a must, along with a cordless drill and impact driver! Those flashy shoes have non slip soles on them too which helps when he is on the roof. (Note added by Rob: I always try to look my best. Dressing appropriate to the occasion is obviously a very high priority on this job)

Despite the arrival of some hot summer days and an increase in the humidity, which slowed the work down a little, Rob was able to finish the north side.... well, almost.  After I took this shot he worked on the fascia and this job did not go so well. There is a dip in the concrete pad on this side which threw the timber frame out of plumb a little and together with some other factors - everything was slightly "off" i.e. "difficult to deal with". Then he had to drill another 5" hole through the roof and foam to run the plumbing "stack" - which would have been a much easier job if it had been done before the foam and strapping was put on (another note from Rob: A small moment of forgetfulness - I had a lot on my mind :).  But he did manage to get everything finished!

Fortunately, there is some relief from the sun on the north side and this will be where we will eventually build a small screened-in porch. In the meantime, Rob sits here to cool off during the day, and there is almost always a nice cool breeze coming off the river. In the photo below you can see Rob preparing some of the strapping, and yes - those are the awesomely long screws he mentioned earlier!

And so our summer days are progressing. The long term forecast for the summer was for below average temperatures, with normal precipitation. We've quite enjoyed the cooler days and nights - not ideal for cottage goers perhaps, but rather good for building, and for sleeping comfortably at night! We've had a few ultra hot days though too - mid 30's with high humidex values and they've been brutal for working on the roof.  Our days usually begin at 6:30, with a nice homemade granola breakfast, and some time to sit on the porch and enjoy our morning coffee. Hummingbirds swoop around the feeder, and the young mergansers are busy learning the art of fishing in the river. Mom Merganser doesn't let me get very close though before she shoos her brood off the rock.

Rob usually gets Jet out for his first walk of the day and some play time, before heading off to work.

The days wind down around 7 or 7:30 p.m., usually with a cold beer on the porch and a discussion of the day's work. Jet gets fed, the cats get fed and  then we enjoy a late dinner on the porch, and before we know it, it's time for bed. Both of us sleep really well!

We always take time during the week to spend some time together. Whether it's walking in the river, or with Jet in the woods, a trip to the local lumber yard, or a drive to one of the nearest towns for supplies (or the very occasional run to the most excellent chip van.)  Summer is short, and despite the amount of work that needs to be done, we make sure we take some time together to enjoy these lovely days. It's three years this month since we arrived here, and we know how fast the time flies!

The next job will be to get the plywood up on the roof. We are really looking forward to having that job finished. With the plywood and wrap on - it will finally be waterproof again!  Timbers for the workshop have been ordered and should arrive soon; Rob will be glad to be doing some work with his feet on the ground again, at least for a little while.