Definitely a White Christmas

Well, not unexpectedly, we did not quite manage to move in before the end of 2018.  Instead, winter arrived (rather early!) and kept us busy, which meant that work on the new house slowed down once again.  In fact just a couple of days after I posted the last blog entry, a solid winter storm hit here.  We had a feeling that it was the kind of snowfall that wasn't going away anytime soon, and it turns out we were right.  So we shoveled and plowed, and cleared the solar panels, and talked about the fact that we didn't quite get all the tasks done outdoors as planned, and how now it was possibly too late.  And then the temperatures plummeted, with lows in the minus 20's (yes - MINUS!) and we were kept busy loading firewood into the wood stoves, and wondering just how bad a winter was in store for us.  By November 21st, Rob had plowed four times already, and there was more snow in the forecast.  My circadian rhythm was all out of kilter.  My brain couldn't seem to fathom why it was minus 20, with bitterly cold winds that made it feel more like January than November.  Not only that, but just the week before, we'd been planting some native trees and bushes along the river's edge. We'd been given them by a group that promotes biodiversity along shorelines, and they had told us it was a perfect time to plant them.  It didn't seem possible we'd been digging in the still somewhat soft earth such a short time ago.

On the "plus" side though, the snow cover was exceptionally pretty, and somewhat brightened what is usually the long dark month of November.

By November 21st, we weren't feeling quite so thrilled by it all. Below normal temperatures, wind chill factors, and constant snow squalls were wearing us out somewhat.  I think too, we had conveniently forgotten about those short pre-winter days, the limited sunshine, and the myriad of tasks that winter brings.  Even stepping out the door takes longer, as we first have to don a pile of winter clothing!

Despite all the firewood we had cut, split, and stacked to dry for future years earlier in the fall, we actually didn't have all that much dry wood for burning this winter.  We had tried cutting up some wood that we had left in long lengths all summer, but they turned out not to be all that dry either. We realized we should have prepared more "swing season" wood; lots of poplar and spruce that would give out heat, but aren't really suitable for sustained heat during the really cold months. That would have enabled us to save the good dry hardwood for the middle of winter.  We did gather up all the scraps of pine that we had left over from the timber making process and used it for a short while, and then we turned to some of the short oak short scraps we had left in an open trailer to dry. These were a bit drier but not great. By November 21 we were breaking into our "winter wood", and recalculating how long it might last if the unusually cold weather persisted.

Snow days are cloudy days too, and we found ourselves having to run the generator occasionally to boost the power in the solar powered batteries.  There sure were a lot of cloudy days in November.  Plus the constant snow would cover the solar panels, so not much power was generated on those days either, at least until we could get the snow cleared off of them, or until the snow slid off.

I think if we weren't trying so hard to get things finished in the new house, none of this would have mattered very much, but every minute Rob was pulled away from working in the new house, felt like time lost.  We were both a little disappointed too, to see time slipping away, knowing that it truly meant we would not be in the house before the end of the year.  Fortunately most days we could generally cheer each other up, and remind ourselves that it's all part of the building process.

And as always, there is nothing like a good long walk in the woods, or along the river, with my camera in hand, to cheer me up a little.  The sight of a lone mink one stormy day, loping along the icy edge, diving into the river, coming out of the frigid water, shaking off the icy droplets, then repeating the process again, took all my thoughts away from house building and self imposed deadlines. I tucked myself in next to a pine tree to steady my hand and hoped for a better shot.  Imagine my surprise when the mink caught wind of me, stood up on it's hind legs sniffing the air, then trotted up the shoreline towards me.  I was definitely holding my breath when I took this shot!

And I was happy one evening to run down to the river's edge and catch the last rays of a rather spectacular sunset.

In between the snow days, Rob would continue to sort through his lengths of cherry, maple and oak and get them stored in the workshop to acclimatize while he got everything in place for the cabinetry work.

My upstairs studio was going to be the "test" site for the first cabinet. Plus we needed to get a cabinet in place so that we could move the temporary double stainless steel sink out of our bathroom, but still have the sink available somewhere in the house. As it's final resting place was my studio, it seemed like a good time to get it in place.

We had a counter that we had pulled out of our Chilly Chiles kitchen when we closed the business, that was perfect for my studio, but it began to bow slightly after being pulled out of storage. Rob tried wetting it down daily to get it back in shape.

Towards the end of November, we had a small break in the weather.  We had been working on a means to get internet access and a working telephone at the new house, and had finally decided to try a Power over Ethernet (POE) box (that we now refer to as "Edgar Allan" or "Edgar" for short !! ) that would connect us to the system here at the cabin.  With the weather reprieve, Rob was able to hook up a box here in a tree, and one over at the new house, and test it out.

And it worked!  (Well, of course it did - why am I surprised?)  We had already purchased and tested out an internet phone service earlier in the year, so now have both telephone and internet services running in the new house.  It feels like progress indeed! And just in the nick of time, as then it snowed. And rained. And snowed, snowed, snowed.  So we were thankful that we had managed to get it up and running when it was at least a bit milder and drier out.

The constant snow somewhat delayed a necessary trip to Ottawa for some specialty cabinet hardware, but before the month of November ended we were finally able to make the trip.  We were lucky to have found a company in the west end of Ottawa that had exactly what we needed.  If we have to source products we try to do it locally, but our second choice is always Ottawa.  After that we have to resort to the internet, which usually means shipping costs and time delays.

Most nights at home would find Rob working on stair design and cabinetry details. The existing stairs were found to be off slightly in measurements due to varying concrete floor levels, and we realized we would have to lift them slightly.  Building codes dictate the depth of stairs too, and I learned that you don't want them to be off as you might misstep and fall. O.k., in actual fact I have learned more about stairs in the last couple of weeks than I cared to know.  Rob caught me out one night in mid-explanation when he realized I was totally not listening and was intent on some entirely different topic in my head.  Oops !!  Really though, I'm sure I was still paying attention..

December arrived and so did some sunshine!  We felt like moles coming out of our burrows that morning, squinting into the bright sun against the white snow.  CBC reported that Toronto had seen no sign of the sun for 88% of the time in November. We can only surmise that it was the same for us here.  So we enjoyed a gloriously sunny morning, complete with hoar frost in all the trees near the river, and some lovely light coming through the trees along the path.

Later in the day though, we saw rain, freezing rain, ice pellets, and more snow arrive.  We had more of the same the next day and I stayed home close to the wood stove, and wondered if it could possibly be any darker here in the cabin in the middle of the day.

Eventually I simply headed over to the new house where even on the darkest days, it is ever so much brighter inside.

One of the choices in building the kitchen cabinets was whether to put backs on the cabinets or not.  We keep trying to minimize costs, and think about maintenance and ease of cleaning, so initially thought it would be fine not to put backs on the cupboards.  But eventually Rob decided it just wasn't working, and we needed some backing materials.  Which of course, we didn't have.  We get by with only one vehicle, which I use to get to work, so as usual, this decision came about on a Friday when he was here without the truck.  So we had to wait until the following Monday, when the truck was available, and the weather promised to be nice and clear.  Which meant we would have a decent drive to Ottawa, as well as the materials staying nice and dry during the trip in the open bed of the truck.  Well.....we woke up to - you guessed it - snow!
But the forecast promised clear skies were on the way, so we agreed to set out.  Unfortunately we made the decision to hook up the trailer and use it to haul the materials, but 20 minutes into the trip realized the trailer was now completely covered in wet road slush and salt. This did not bode well for hauling materials.  So we returned home, and unhooked the trailer, and set out again. Of course it snowed the entire trip (both ways!) but thankfully when we picked up our order they allowed us to drive the truck right into the covered-in facility so we could strap our order into the bed of the truck while remaining warm and dry ourselves. They also gave us some protective covering for the products so they would stay relatively dry on the ride home. Things got a bit wet, but not too bad, and we made it home and unloaded everything with no problems.  So much for the weather forecasts!

Up until now, whenever we wanted to know what the solar panels and batteries were doing, we'd have to walk over to where the batteries are installed and check the readouts there.  Thanks to "Edgar" we were able to hook directly into the system and now can monitor it from wherever we are.  Which means in future, if I'm thinking of doing something like vacuuming in the new house, I can log onto the system and know whether it's a good time or not !! (i.e. do we have enough power?) How cool is that. Here's what the screen looks like. Kind of geeky maybe, but it works.

Coming into mid-December, our thoughts began to turn to Christmas, friends, and family.  When some friends invited us for an afternoon brunch, we gladly accepted, and headed over for a couple of hours of good food and conversation.  It's a pretty drive there and back, and we were glad of the outing.  As an added bonus, our hosts are ardent gardeners and they gifted us some butternut and acorn squash when we left.  Which I in turn roasted and turned into a delicious soup.

Unfortunately, that same weekend, our sweet cat GB, who at 17 years old had been having some health issues, (although still happily eating, drinking and purring) began to have problems breathing, and the vet advised us he had congenital heart failure.

He was our "wild boy", and up until the last year or so always game for a good romping play. He stole all of the other cat's food any chance he could get, and proudly held the title of  "the Cat of Perpetual Hunger". He chased his sister Sita somewhat mercilessly at times. He had the most wicked claws, and wasn't afraid to use them.  He didn't like to be picked up much, but he sure would enjoy a good petting and absolutely loved to be brushed.  After we lost Leon our tabby cat, who was the most vocal and loudest purring cat we'd ever had, GB rose to the challenge and developed an absolutely amazingly loud purr.  And so in the last year or so, as his health declined and he quieted down somewhat, he and I enjoyed a lot of quiet time together, as I gently rubbed his ears, and stroked his sides, with him purring all the while.  It's a quieter place here without him and I sure miss his sweet presence.  And I know our other two cats miss curling up with both him and Leon (who we lost over 2 years ago).  I love this picture of the four of them.... and still can't get used to only having two cats on the couch now.

By mid December we had a working sink and counter installed in the upstairs studio.  It looks great, and I am already beginning to think about fabrics and paints and projects again.  It's been too long since I've done anything creative with fabric.  With this sink installed, we once again have somewhere to clean up paint brushes etc. while we continue working on the house. And we can now get to work on getting a proper sink into the master bathroom.

The week before Christmas Rob began cutting wood for the cabinets.  I work a retail job so was putting in extra hours at the store, and planning and doing the shopping for some festive meals. When we received some warnings for a freezing rain and ice pellet storm we made a quick run to pick up extra gas for the generator, and diesel for the tractor.  We were planning a fairly quiet Christmas, and although Rob would happily stop working on the cabinets to enjoy some wine and good food, we were planning on getting those cabinets well on the way over the holiday period.  But then alas (because "alas" just seems like the most appropriate word here, although probably NOT the word Rob used at the time) Rob's table saw croaked.

(Note to non-woodworkers here - this is not a good time for the non-woodworking person to say to the woodworking person "can't you just use another one of your tools".  That is all I'm going to say on this.)

With the holiday season fast approaching, we didn't have much hope for a quick fix.  Once we figured out that it was indeed the motor that had failed, it took some time to shop around and decide whether we could find a suitable replacement motor, or would have to actually find a new saw.  With most companies closed until the New Year it was somewhat difficult to make any decisions.  So we decided we just had to wait until companies re-opened.  There are always plenty of other things that can be done (although I was surprised to learn that most of them required a table saw!  See earlier note. ) so we just continued as best we could.

On Christmas Eve Rob surprised me with a fresh Christmas tree inside the new house, and boxes of Christmas tree decorations stacked beside it.  We haven't had an indoor tree in a good many years so it was a truly lovely surprise.  It was our first Christmas without his sweet Mom and we were both really missing her.  Mom LOVED Christmas; the lights, the music, the Christmas Specials on TV, stockings, gifts, cards, Christmas trees and decorations ....the whole event.  She's made tons of decorations over the years, and we have a lot of them.  So it was somewhat bittersweet to open our box, and decorate our lovely tree, but we did it.  At the same time we decided to purge ourselves of some of our decorations, keeping only the ones we love, the ones with meaning, and the ones that make us smile (or occasionally tear up a little).  Some of them had totally disintegrated into a pile of rubble...we are still guessing what they might have once been!

We enjoyed walking over to the new house on several evenings, where we enjoyed sitting by our tree, sipping a beer, and dreaming of Christmases to come.  It sure was sweet to walk up to the new house at night and see some lights inside too.

Rob also surprised me before Christmas with a shelf for the master bathroom.  It's a live edge shelf that goes on two sides of the bathtub.  It isn't finished though and he made me promise not to post any photos until it is.  But I can say that it looks fantastic, and totally adds to the organic, zen look that I was hoping for.  Hopefully I'll be posting a photo in my next blog entry!

Christmas Day was a quiet one, with our traditional long walk, good food, lots of telephone conversations with friends and family, and a nice dinner at the end of the day.

Boxing Day was more of the same, and then we both got back to work.  As I was off for four days over New Year's we had asked a couple of friends to join us for a dinner on New Year's Day at the new house.  I had said I wasn't going to prepare another meal in the cabin and then run it down to the new house, but there you go.  It seemed like a good idea for the start of a New Year!

As we were in the process of working on kitchen cabinets, we had already pulled out the previously installed "temporary counter" that we had used the last time we served a meal there.  So Rob knocked another quick one together for me.

We tidied up the guest bathroom, and even added a couple of favourite Christmas themed decorations!  (With thanks to my super sis for the sweet little painting she did for us this year.  It will look even better in here once we get this room finished!)

And our funky temporary "scaffolding bed" was made ready for our friend Joe to be able to spend the night.

In the end though we had to cancel our dinner plans as storm warnings began to come in a couple of days before hand, and we didn't want anyone on the roads with a forecast of freezing rain, 50k winds and up to 20 cms of snow.   On New Year's Day, once we finished plowing, shoveling and clearing the snow off of the panels, we still managed to have a nice meal by ourselves, although not the festive one I had planned.

As the roads remained snow covered and somewhat icy for the next couple of days, I was glad our friends hadn't ventured out.  I was worried enough when I saw a truck swinging around the corner one morning when the local Mennonites were out with their horse and buggy!

And I enjoyed a few days off, with lots of good long walks, and evenings by the wood stove.

As soon as New Year's was over, Rob was able to pick up a replacement motor for his table saw, and another necessary part arrived in the mail.  With the saw working once again, we could get back to building cabinets and stairs.

On the whole, the first half of January seems to be promising somewhat milder temperatures than normal, and our wood usage has dropped a bit.  Fortunately too, we had a lot of rain in December, and that washed away a lot of the snow, or we'd have a few feet of it by now I think ! That said, we broke into the wood pile slated for January before December ended (to be used at the new house) and I have dipped into the "February" pile to use here at the cabin. We are trying to make do at the cabin with our electric baseboard heat, supplemented by the wood stove, and so far that seems to be working.  The sooner we can move into the new house and only heat one place the better though!

Well, I had a few more stories, but I think I will add those on to the next blog.  I was trying to get this posted close to the New Year so I could wish everyone all the best for 2019.  My mantra this year is "to see the world through the eyes of a child".  Rob has been working on his, but is leaning towards the infamous Calvin and Hobbs "what a lovely afternoon".  More on this later ... For now, wishing everyone much love, peace and joy. 

An Ending is Always a New Beginning

Well, it's been a strange few months as we try to adjust to no longer having Rob's Mom in our lives. As our dear friend Elizabeth says, it's like our world has shifted and a spark has gone out. The act of grieving is such an odd and complicated process; and so completely different for Rob and I on any given day. There are times when all we want to do is sit and ponder, and other times we want to run away.  Some days we figure if we just keep busy enough we can keep our thoughts at bay. There are days when we are sad, and days when we spend time reminiscing about the past. Regardless, we understand that this is a part of life, and it is a process. We have learned over time, to mostly let the days unfold as they will, at least as much as we can. And we are always entirely grateful for every bit of time that Mom was here in our lives. We sure do miss her though.

We made plans to hold a small ceremony here for her in late August. Not everyone was able to attend the Celebration of Life that was held in St. Catharines in May, so we thought it would be nice to invite those who couldn't make it, to come here. And it seemed like the right way to honour her connection to this beautiful area and the cabin that she loved so much. With some family members arriving and needing a place to stay, and others coming for the ceremony and a luncheon, Rob and I got just the motivation we needed to get back to working on the new house, and to spend some time figuring out some of the meals and logistics for the upcoming event.  I kept referring to it as "Mom's party", as we wanted the event to be a celebration.

Although Rob and I hadn't yet stayed in the new house, we knew that we could make it comfortable enough for his two brothers and a sister-in-law to stay there.  We told them it would be a bit like "glamping" (glamorous camping) but it was really much better than that.  Well, at least we hoped it would be by the time they arrived ! First Rob had to get back to working on the guest bathroom; putting in a sink and counter.  He made the counter out of maple, in a butcher block style, and installed a sink that we had bought second hand from a friend when he was renovating his bathroom some years earlier.  But the real coup was the sink tap, a perfectly good Moen tap that I had scooped for free at a nearby Reuse center.  (A place where you can drop off no-longer needed  household items, or pick up what has been dropped off - all for free. Not only is it a great way to divert items from landfill, but it was free! ) Oops, I  had already mentioned the "free" part. Anyone who knows me though, knows how much I appreciate something for nothing! A little bit of a clean up and the tap worked perfectly, and it looks great too.

Next on the "to-do" list was to empty out the master bedroom, which was full of tools, scaffolding, and tiles, not to mention the bathtub for the master bathroom.  So it was obviously time to get that tub installed.  In our drawing plans this tub has moved location several times. We have gone back and forth on whether to place it along the wall that is positioned under the window, or the wall to the left of it.  I'm pretty sure it's final resting place is likely where it was first drawn in the original plans!

We installed cement board around the tub frame, and prepared the wall for the tiles.  But we soon discovered the wall wasn't completely flat, (one of the wood studs had bowed and pushed the drywall out) so we had to cut out a piece of drywall, trim the stud and start over. If we had been using smaller tiles we probably would have been o.k., but with the large tiles we chose, it was more critical to have a flat surface to mount them on. On the plus side, this gave us a chance to do some additional work from the mudroom side (after cutting out a bit of drywall on the other side of the wall).  It sometimes seems like we do a lot of the proverbial "two steps forward, one step back" dance, but that seems to be a part of the building process.

Next up was the tiling job. It's hard on the knees, (notice I didn't say "old" knees !) so we are thankful for knee pads.  We puzzled over the best way to finish the area where the horizontal surface tiles around the bath met the vertical surface tiles at the side of the bath.  Eventually we found a great rounded corner bead product. Of course this involved multiple trips to hardware stores and tile stores before we found the right one. Then we balked at the price, but in the end, couldn't find anything else that would do it as neatly so went for it.  Although we had to order it, it fortunately arrived within a week or so.

Grouting was the next item on the list.  We really couldn't be sure that we had picked the right colour of grout until it was all applied and had time to dry.  We'd been looking at grout colour charts for quite a while, and my original choice was a somewhat lighter shade, but I'm glad we went with the darker one.  I had no idea there were even so many choices in grout colours until now. I'm guessing the last time we grouted around bathroom tiles there was no real choice!

I did a double take when I saw the photo below, as it looks like an Obi Wan Kenobi light sabre beaming in . On closer look, it's just the light coming in through the window. Still, it looks kind of cool!

Rob checks out the new taps!  There was a lot of discussion on tap placement, but in the end, there was only one choice. Funny how that works out.  The drain for this tub is in the center which seems unusual to me, but then I'm used to a pretty standard old fashioned tub.

Before I knew it, the walls were primed, painted, and the bathtub was permanently installed.  I swore I wasn't going to test out this tub until we actually moved in. But one day in September we had a day long power outage at the cabin, and had no running water there. Of course the new house, being solar powered, had plenty of running water! As we had plans to go out to a movie, and wanted to get cleaned up first, we agreed we would use the new tub that day.  Ahhhh...it is a very comfortable bathtub for sure. We need to install some grab bars though as it is a pretty deep tub, and they would be useful to hold onto when stepping in and out. Especially as we get ummmm.... "older".

The sink in the lower right hand side of the photo is a temporary one. (And yes - it's the one I also scooped for free at the Reuse Center.)   It's useful right now for when Rob is washing paint brushes etc., but it's almost time to put the permanent bathroom sink and counter top in, and then I believe, this one will go up in my studio.

As we began to clean up the house in preparation for people's arrival, Rob decided to give the main floor another treatment. We really weren't happy with the dull finish, and opted to try yet another product.  This one came out much better, although we can still see some streaking. We suspect that the wonderful amount of light that streams in through the windows makes us more aware of the streaking, as it doesn't seem as bad in areas that have less natural light pouring in.

One problem we did run into this summer though, was the issue of high humidity. Although I love a hot humid summer, there were a number of days when that heat and humidity made it so that almost nothing got done.  The floor finish wouldn't dry, nor would the drywall compound.  We set up fans in the hope that some extra air movement would help, but the humidity level in the house remained fairly high (we could actually run a dehumidifier since we have excess power in the summer). After such a long cold winter, neither one of us wanted to complain about it being too hot or too humid.  And I'm happy to say that I changed into a bathing suit and headed to the river to cool off more times this summer than I ever remember doing in previous summers.

We also found that the high humidity was also taking it's toll on our items in the storage shed, so whenever we had a chance we would pick up a few boxes and try to sort things out. We had done all of our boxes of books and most of our clothing earlier in the year.  We were pleased to find that most of the remaining items were fine, although some items such as my sewing fabrics didn't fare very well, and had to be thrown out. While we were going through the boxes, we managed to pull out a few items that we knew for certain were no longer required, and get them into a "to be donated" box. We also pulled out some kitchen items, as we thought it would be nice to have some real dishes and cutlery when people arrived in late August.  We've been living here in the cabin with pretty minimal kitchen ware!

Once the boxes of items were cleaned and sorted, we tucked them away in the upstairs of the new house. It felt a bit strange to be moving them in, long before we will actually move in ourselves. But we were happy to have them somewhere clean and dry.

With a luncheon for 10 planned, as well as a couple of lunches and dinners for our "house guests", we set to installing a temporary counter and cupboard in the kitchen.

We finished tidying up the house a bit more, stocked the fridge up with a few items, and the house was ready! We planned on cooking almost everything in the cabin, and then bringing it over to the new house. I must say that it made for a bit of running back and forth, but it worked perfectly.

It was wonderful for me to be able to spend some time with Rob's brothers Kit and Ryan, and Ryan's lovely partner Michelle.  It's been a while since I've seen my "in-laws" in person (thank goodness for Skype at least!) as in the last few years I have stayed behind to look after the cats and dog whenever Rob would make the trip to visit them. It was their first time seeing the new house, and it was fun to show them around. We had a nice meal together on the Saturday night, and had some time to sit and chat. Rob and I headed home before bedtime with the dirty dishes as it was easier to wash them in the cabin, and sort out what we needed for the next day.  In the morning, Rob went over and whipped up breakfast and coffee while I stayed home to get the rest of the luncheon organized. Then some of Rob's cousins, their spouses, and a second cousin arrived for the day, (with more food!) and it was absolutely delightful to all spend some time together. Rob and his two brothers scattered some of their Mom's ashes at the river, while the rest of us toasted her with a champagne tribute and then we headed to the house for lunch. Although we spread ourselves around the house during the lunch, for some reason we all ended up sitting in the overhang porch outside the workshop for the remainder of the afternoon!  It seemed to be the agreed upon gathering place. There, we reminisced about Rob's Mom, and the times we used to all get together with her and the other members of her family. We really wanted our time together to be a celebration and I think we all did a grand job of it. But every one one of us felt the absence of  Mom's presence, and wished she was still here with us.

I was a little bit sorry that I didn't take a single photo at "Mom's party", but sometimes it just feels right for me to be totally present for the moment without the distraction of my camera, and this was one of those times.

Before we knew it, our time with family was over. We were just a little surprised to go out on our walk shortly after everyone's departure and find a large pile of bear scat on our road.  We had been assuring everyone all weekend that we hadn't seen any signs of a bear in the area this year!

Because the house was in reasonable shape for guests, we invited one more friend to come up in September for an overnight visit. Our dear friend Joe arrived and we spent an afternoon together enjoying a short hike up at the beautiful Shaw Woods.

We came home, had a great dinner in the new house, and had a good evening of catching up with each other.   I only wish I had taken a photo of the marvelous bed we put together for Joe in the guest bedroom, using a futon, scaffolding and scaffolding platforms.  (We put the same bed together for Rob's brother and sister in law in August and I forgot to take a photo then too!) It was truly "industrial style" and I actually quite liked the look of it.  But I've looked through all my photos, and can't find a single shot of it. We spent the following morning sitting by the river, and then enjoyed a lunch together before he had to head home. By this time, I was getting pretty good at planning and preparing meals in the cabin and bringing them down to the new house! Not to mention hauling all the dishes back and forth!

I must say that Rob and I are really looking forward to being able to spend more time here with friends and family in the near future.  This off-grid house building thing has been quite the project, and it will be nice when we are able to offer guests some food and a place to stay a little more easily.

We try to balance out our hours spent working on the house, with having some "down" time. But, as much as we enjoyed some of our socialising, it was time to get back at it. We really are hoping to move in this year, and there are a lot of things that need to be done before we can do so.

Although we don't have much in the way of furniture, we did have a couple of items that we wanted to get out of storage before winter set in, both of them rather heavy and bulky to move.  After some debate we decided which of the upstairs studios they would go in. It was an interesting discussion as Rob tends to like having lots of storage, and I tend to like having lots of open space! After we had worked out a floor plan that would suit us both, we cleared out my studio area first to make room for the drafting table. While the space was empty, Rob decided to redo the wood floor.  It hadn't come out entirely to our liking, and we figured now was the time to fix it, so he re-sanded it and applied another few coats of finish.  This time it came out much smoother.   Don't worry when you look at the photo, there will be a cable railing to stop anyone from going over the edge!

We still had some finishing work on the walls in the second area to do before we piled too much more in there. I'm still not sure what to call this room. The studio/office/cat hang out room ? Regardless, we got it all mudded, sanded,  primed and painted.   Then we managed to move in the flat files, and pretty much left everything else in there in a heap. It will take a while to sort out this space, and see exactly what we use it for, and what it will require. It's such a beautiful room and I can't wait to get all the boxes out of there!

Although we did find some fun old memorabilia in some of the boxes. Like this little gem from Rob's days long, long ago when he managed a music store.

And Jet just had to check out his "baby" harness when we came across it and pulled it out.

September was a rather lovely month, but as the light began to change, and the nights started to get cooler, we found ourselves with a pretty long "to-do" list, and a lot of that list had to be completed before the snow arrived.

It was time to deal with our propane heater in the workshop and our "new" propane tanks needed to be moved to a permanent location. We had poured a concrete pad for two smaller tanks originally, but when we decided to go with bigger tanks, realized the pad  wasn't quite big enough. Rob had to mix up some concrete and extend the pad.  Then we arranged for the propane company to come in and complete the installation of the larger tanks.

One item that has been on our minds since the spring, was the tandem load of oak wood that was waiting to be chain sawed into shorter lengths, then split and stacked.  Summer isn't a good time for that kind of job, both because of the heat, and the mosquitoes and black flies. Even in early September some of the days were simply too warm, although the insect population had declined.  It's a quicker and easier job to do with two people, and a horrible job to do if it's raining (or snowing!). So on days when I wasn't working and the weather was decent, we began to grab a few hours here and there when we could, and started in on the pile. This wood is for future years, but it needs time to dry, especially as we will need some of it to be dry for next fall.

I learned to keep my back to the wood that needed splitting, so that I wouldn't dwell on how much had to be done, and instead looked at the growing pile of split and stacked wood to keep my spirits up.  Slowly and surely the split wood started to stack up!

We actually both enjoy the process, and it was fun to work together, taking breaks every now and then and watching the birds flocking in the nearby cornfields.

Judging by the number of corn cobs we keep finding on our road, there are some other animals feeding on the corn, and after finding some rather substantial piles of corn infused scat, we started putting our trail cam up to see what was in the area. Sure enough, in early November one night we caught film footage of not one, but two bears coming from the corn field direction. Yikes!

It took a bit of work, and just when it seemed we'd never get the fire wood done this fall, the pile suddenly diminished, and it was pretty much finished.

At the end of the day we were both ready to head down into the river, and enjoy some cool refreshments. And as long as the warmer weather lingered in September (and even on a few days in early October!) we made sure to grab any opportunity we could to spend a bit more time in the river, or at the river's edge at the end of a long day.

On the days when we weren't splitting wood, our chores varied between working on the new house, and taking care of pre-winter tasks here at the cabin.  We began with acid staining the floor of the master bedroom in the new house.

While the concrete floor was drying, we worked at repairing the trailer wiring harness that was installed on our truck (after discovering some odd flashing lights on our dashboard we finally figured out that it was due to the failing wiring harness!)

And then we did the servicing for the snow blower, and the tractor. With a little help from some manuals!

When our guests were here in August, we discovered a few glitches in our guest bathroom shower stall, so we also had to take a look at that design and fix a few areas there too. It appears that it is now all under control.

This is the time of year when I begin to sigh a lot.  Rob is used to it, and points out that I do it every year as summer comes to an end, and fall arrives.  I love all the seasons, but I guess summer is my favourite, and as the weather changes, and the evening sunset arrives earlier and earlier - well - I sigh a lot.

I do enjoy the soft light, the fog in the morning, and the colours of the leaves.

Still.... I sigh....

And then we get back to working on the house.  Which meant going back to a job we began way before summer began.  The job of installing more window frames!  After much debate whether to use Oak, Maple, Cherry or Ash,  we settled on Ash wood for the master bedroom frames.  We seem to have a bit of a collection of nice wood, collected over the years, (rather a lot of years actually) and it's time to use some of it up.  I like the grain and colour of the Ash, but then I pretty much liked any of our choices.

Maple was the choice for the guest bathroom window frame.

In the past, at this point in the blog, I would usually make sure that I included a photo of Rob and I doing something other than working on the house, so that Rob's Mom would know when she read it, that we also went out in the Fall and had some fun! So in her honour, here is how we spent Rob's birthday this year; a somewhat annual tradition of going for a walk in the beautiful Shaw Woods.

And we continued to head over to the point, to sit and relax and listen to the river at the end of the day, whenever we could.

In late October we tackled the finishing of the drywall in the master bedroom, a room that Rob assured me would be "no big deal" to do.  But of course, it was still a lot of work; with lots of corners and angles and closets to do.  In the past I believe we would have left the closets unfinished, but we are trying to finish everything that we can before we move in. We know from experience that unfinished drywall in a closet remains unfinished after you've piled all your clothes in it!

Mother Nature has a way of reminding you of the next season to come, so when it started snowing (really - in October ?) we rushed to finish off last minute outside jobs as soon as it melted.  Pulling out those turquoise chairs and tucking them away was really hard for me.  It's our favourite place to sit at the end of the day, and it was hard for me to admit that those days are over.  I left the wood bench though....just in case.

And then we continued working on the bedroom; mudding and sanding, and getting the hallway and mudroom in shape as well.

I couldn't wait to see the bedroom painted, as I was still not convinced that I really liked the colour we chose, but although it's not a colour we would usually use, I love it.  It has the right amount of lightness in the day, and warmth at night.  And I think it shows off the beautiful wood beams perfectly.

The mudroom and hallway are the last two areas in the house that need to be painted. Already Rob is working at night on the next big project which will be the cabinetry.

We've moved the melamine board into the house in preparation.  And I use the term "we" but I actually made sure I was working the day that these were moved into the house.  Each sheet had to be moved out of storage, cut in half, then moved into the house. And they are heavy and awkward to move.

We will make all of our own kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets, so we are now just figuring out all the hardware we'll need (hinges, drawer slides etc.) and finalising the kitchen cabinet design. The doors will be made out of wood, but we are considering painting some if not all of the doors.  On the advice of the local paint shop owner, we tossed our potential colours on the floor and then began the process of elimination. We eventually narrowed our choices down to two, which isn't bad.

We are still debating what to use for the back splash behind the stove.  We have found some tile that we like (at a price that we like!) and some tile that we really like (at a price that we really don't like!)  But then we found some rather cool squares made of metal behind an old shed on our property, and are considering sprucing them up, and using them instead.  I guess we'll see how that goes, but for now we will concentrate on the kitchen cabinets. The back splash may become a bit of a future project.

And that is where we are right now.  We are still hoping to move in before the end of this year.  Of course, in reality we could almost move in any time, but we have a lot of experience with living in unfinished spaces and know that we need just a few more areas to be finished first.  It is much better to allow Rob the time and space to plan and install the kitchen in particular, at least to a point that it is entirely usable. As well, we need to get those railings up, and the permanent staircase in too.  And there are a few logistics still to work out; things like telephone and internet. (Just to name two!) We sure are getting close though.  Maybe a little too close, as I pepper Rob with questions every morning until he makes motions that his head is exploding.  Obviously, there's still plenty to think about, and lots left to do. This is my 74th posting on this blog though, and it's hard to imagine that it may be the last one I write from here in the cabin, and that the next time I write we might actually be in the new house.  If not, that's fine too. I think we are both feeling that at some point soon however, we'll be walking down that road, and into our next adventure.