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.

I'm sure it will be warmer soon ....

As I read through the previous blog entry, I was once again surprised at just how much work was completed on the house in the past few weeks.  Lately, we have been living and breathing nothing but "windows" and I had totally forgotten that at the end of the last blog we still did not even have the house wrap on!

The weather has not been kind to us; the temperature kept dropping and there was little sign of any sunshine. As much as we kept hoping for a reprieve, it didn't happen and Rob kept working despite the cold and snow - he just bundled up in more and more layers of clothes and did his best. But nothing could keep his hands warm. Gloves just don't help much when you are handling metal scaffolding and whenever more dexterity was needed, the gloves had to came off.  Keep warm became a mantra. With Christmas approaching I was working more hours at the store and away from home more often, so I wasn't always there to keep him stoked with hot drinks and warm food while he worked.  I found myself stocking the freezer with numerous lunch-sized containers of hearty homemade soups and these helped to warm him up each lunchtime but he was also clearly burning up much more energy than he could possibly take in and his weight was actually dropping - and there wasn't a lot there to start with! Despite it all, the housewrap went on and the windows got flashed (a photo of Rob "flashing" the windows was not available)....

Rob put plastic around all the window openings in an attempt to keep the house a little less drafty and to keep it sheltered from the rain and snow. Each time he worked on a different window frame, he had to remove the plastic covering and then install the flexible flashing that protects the rough opening and wall. It was difficult to keep everything dry so that the flashing would stick. If it was cold then it was usually snowing and the snow slid off the roof and onto him and the window opening. If it was warmer, the water from the melting snow dripped onto him and onto the frame as well. He was unsure what to wish for and I could see his patience was wearing just a little thin (luckily, he has absorbed a little yoga through Elizabeth and I so all was calm)!

We had a few delays in the arrival of the finished windows and missed a little "window of opportunity" (no pun intended) when the weather warmed up briefly and the snow melted. It sure would have been a good time to get the windows in! But they didn't arrive and the weather turned colder. There were days when we began to wonder if we would ever get them in this year. Finally, the first delivery arrived - and we were pretty glad to see them!

We couldn't wait so I helped lift and fit the window on the east side of the bedroom (one that was manageable!). We were pretty excited to do this first one.

We worked together and hoisted it into place, just to test the fit. It quickly became clear that Rob would need a little more help with the larger ones when they arrived - these windows are heavy!

By now the sun was setting (i.e. it was dark) so we could not actually finish the installation and had to wait until the next day. Unfortunately, I had to work and missed all the excitement of seeing the first one truly installed - but I did get a photo of it later on!

We had another delay in receiving the second batch of windows - pretty normal for this type of thing. We can't thank our friend Bob enough for coming out on the cold, cold days and moving the scaffolding around, only to have to go back home when the delivery was cancelled.

Needless to say, it ended up being a cold day when they finally did arrive but Bob came back to help again.  In the end, all the frames were installed but some were missing the glass due to an ordering mix-up. These were temporarily filled with plywood to keep them square and the company will come back to install the glass later on.

It's quite something (for me at least) to go from seeing building plans on a computer screen, to seeing things actually in place.  For example, I couldn't really picture how the kitchen window would look once it was installed so I couldn't wait to see how it turned out! I have always admired the kitchen at my brother and sister in laws' mainly because I loved the big windows in front of their sink - I definitely wanted something similar in our house. Now, as I stand inside the new house and imagine prepping food or doing dishes, I look up and can see trees and sky and river.... it's perfect.

The dining room has two sets of windows. One faces south which allows all that lovely warm winter sunshine in (with the same view of the trees and sky and river that the kitchen has), and one faces west with a view of more trees and more river (the river actually flows around the corner of the house).

Below is a view of the dining room window - but from the outside!

The big living room window went in last. Rob had worked hard on the living room window designs. He changed the shapes, the layout, the size etc. so often that I could hardly remember what the finished design was. Rob wanted a seamless window above and below the beam with something to complement the timber scissor brace - and I think he got it right !!  We'll know for sure once the final pieces of glass are in - but so far everything looks wonderful.

The north corner window (the one on the right below) faces a rather special area that attracts a lot of wildlife. We are really looking forward to curling up in a chair and watching whatever goes by!

The bedroom (below) has less glass but we included the same type of upper peaked window as the living room (there will be glass in it eventually).

There are no interior walls yet but this shows the mudroom and the bathrooms - and an upstairs window.

As soon as the windows were installed Rob cleaned up, took the scaffolding down, tucked things away, and installed a temporary door at the entrance to the mud room. More snow was on the way and it was pretty clear that the house is as closed in as it is going to be for this year.

Despite the lack of insulation it already feels warmer inside (especially on a sunny day).  When the sun comes in to the dining room, I can feel myself basking in the light and watching the river flow (well it's flowing right now but that is only because we had a thaw at Christmas - normally at this time of year I would just watch the river ice!).

This November photo is more normal for this time of year - the river is slowing, filled with ice, and the hoar frost coats the trees at the river's edge.

But on Christmas Eve the fog arrived, a sure sign of warmer weather.

A few days of above normal temperatures, (seriously - it was much warmer than we had most of November!) and the river bank was clear of snow again with just a narrow band of ice at the edges.  Sadly this won't last though, as colder air will be arriving in time for New Year's.

December is always a reflective month for me. I'm not sure why - perhaps it's the absence of bird song, the stillness and quiet all around us. We spend more time in the cabin, as we ready ourselves for the winter ahead. As Christmas approached we reminisced about Christmases long past - the late night drives home while listening to Christmas stories and songs on the car radio and the times we had visiting family and friends - eating, drinking, gift exchanging..

This year we talked too about Christmas future - when we look forward to being in the new house, with room for a Christmas tree, and some of our old familiar Christmas ornaments strung up, and a place to put some of our Christmas-themed stuff. This was our third Christmas here in the cabin, and I suppose we are missing some of the things we used to do ... The first year we were here we pulled out some of our decorations and tried to tuck them here and there amongst the boxes and things we have piled here.  Packed them all back away a couple of weeks later. This year we opted to just wait until next year.... Unpacking in the new house will be like an entire Christmas in itself!

We are reflective too as we look back over the past year, and take time to think about all the work that went into the new house.   This time last year we had barely finished the concrete pads, and covered them all up with straw and plastic before they were buried in snow. And they remained that way for far longer than we had imagined!  We can't help but hope that spring arrives earlier in 2015 than it did in 2014.

But spring is still a bit of a ways off.  And we are pleased with our accomplishments, and trying not to wish that we had got more done.  We walk to the house several times a day, and go inside, walk around and talk.... plan....and dream.   We've been so close to the project that I think sometimes we forget just how special this place is.  When the two people delivering the windows arrived and one went into the house, I don't think I'll ever forget hearing his voice exclaim - "come see - you won't believe this place - it's incredible!"  And it is .... absolutely lovely and incredible indeed.....

For the next couple of months, the physical work on the new house will largely cease.  Rob is already busy looking at plans for building his own doors, and researching wood stoves, chimneys, concrete stain, types of gas stoves, wood boilers, solar designs (batteries, chargers and you-name-it) .  He's been redoing the workshop design, and finalizing the interior house designs.  I think it will be a busy few months!  But we are also taking some time to relax, read a little, and enjoy the warmth of the wood stove. Taking our cues from some of our four legged friends....like GB

and Jet (he of course is an expert at finding his own comfort wherever it may be)!