Groundhog day again

Well, for the second week in succession there is nothing tangible to show you from the site. I have spent another week planning future work, rubbing down beams and joists and visiting the mill where my roof framing is being cut. The weather has been mixed with some good days and some not so good. When the weather has been good I have cleared the snow and sanded the beams supporting the top floor. When the weather has been bad I have stayed at the cabin where I am sleeping and done some design work.

The sanding is now more than half way complete but it is a real test of strength and stamina to hold the belt sander up at chest level, or higher, rocking it to and fro for hours on end trying to keep enough pressure on the wood to allow the sand belt to bite the wood. Within seconds of starting I am totally covered in a fine coat of red fir saw dust that, like the infamous bull dust in the Pilbara in Western Australia, just gets into every orifice and onto every surface within yards. I've been wearing eye protection, hearing protection and a mouth filter mask but it only slows the penetration process down. One of my eyes is blood red from rubbing it and my hair, ears, nose, mouth and lungs are full of the wretched stuff, even after a long and thorough shower to try to get it all off me. My shoulders, elbows and wrists are also suffering repetitive stress injuries that are keeping me awake at night but the work has to be done and there is more to do. Best get it done now before everything is enclosed and even more difficult to get at.

I have received two of the three quotes have I asked for the kitchen and they are both ridiculously high and I expect the third to be even higher. I am therefore left with two alternative options; source the materials in the USA, or; design and build it myself. I shall look carefully at the cost of sourcing in the USA but, I am slowly coming to the conclusion that the only realistic option is to do it myself, with the exception of the hard counter tops. I have done it before and I will have the benefit of drawing on that experience to improve on previous work and this time I have better tools, much better tools, including a bench saw, a chop saw, a router, a large planer capable of handling wood twelve inches wide by 6 inches thick and some good smaller tools as well. I have also found a good source for the materials. There is a timber yard in Cranbrook that specialises in cabinetry and has not only some of the wood that I will need but all the fixtures and fittings as well.

My main source of wood, however, will be the mill on the Indian Reserve down near the US Border. I visited it on Friday, principally to see how they were getting on with cutting my roof timbers, and I discovered that they can provide me with any locally grown wood at very competitive prices. I will have to cut and plane it but I now have all the tools I need to do just that. I believe I shall be able to build the kitchen for less than half the price it would cost me to buy it and there is no reason why I should not be able to build Shaker style doors for the cabinets and do the whole thing in solid wood.

I hitched a ride with Kevin to visit the saw mill and on the way we went into Indian Country to see the work that the boys had been doing for one of the local Bands.  (Kevin drove the horses and I rode shotgun). The boys have been renovating and extending two old cabins that the Indians rent out to hunters etc, mostly in the summer. I was very glad I took the time out to visit these projects because I was able to see first hand how the roof SIPs are put on and finished. It served to boost my confidence in both the system and the workmanship.

Contrary to appearances, the extension on this cabin is not made of logs. The corners make it seem that it is a log cabin but in reality only the corners are made of logs, the rest is timber frame with cladding that matches the log corners. This is how the dormers will look on my cabin. To the casual eye, you would not know that this is not solid logs.

From there we went on down to the mill - still in Injun Country. Again I was very pleasantly surprised at the professional and efficient team there, who were cutting my roof timbers when we arrived.

Here you can see the saw coming back on the return cut on one of my timbers

Once cut, it was then manhandled onto a couple of carriages on the rails running parallel to the saw line.

From here it was run out of the saw hut and taken and stacked in piles ready to be collected.

Here you can see one of the three piles of my roof timbers ...

... and this one (above) being the third. This time note the large timber in the foreground - 28ft long, the longest timber in the whole construction.

These piles will be moved up to the site early next week - starting Monday hopefully. It will probably take a couple of days to get it loaded, transported and unloaded. We then have to cut the timbers to fit where they need to go and get the sub-flooring on the top floor before we can start putting them in place, for which we will need a crane. The weather forecast is encouraging but, knowing weather forecasts as I do, I am not banking on it.

The windows and doors are ready to be collected from the supplier in the USA and so there should be no delays in installing them once the roof is on. I will go down with Owen when he goes down to collect them and I will check out the cost of bathroom cabinets and appliances while I am there. In the meantime I will continue to plan the stud-walling that will need to be framed in before wiring and plumbing can be installed.

I am resigned to living out of a suitcase for another few months and my stuff staying in storage - I just hope that the damp weather hasn't affected the stuff in storage too much. I hope to have more to show you next weekend.

One sorry eye.