Blog Has Moved

I have run out of storage space for photos on this site so I have had to start a second site that I have titled 'The Bruised Man - Part 2' and it can be found at:

http://walchy-damagedbutnotbrokenpart2.blogspot.ca/

In case you are wondering, this site will remain open as an archive but all new material will be on the new site.

Before Winter

Apologies for not posting last weekend. I am continuing to work seven days a week in an effort to get as much done as possible before winter hits. Today has been no different with a five hour round trip to Kalispell to pick up the final sidelight for the front door and some lattice work to cover the deck foundations. Then back up to the cabin to take advantage of the mild temperatures to stain the wood I put on the garage door panels during the week and to fit the sidelight. There were the usual delays to speak to visitors down from Calgary for the weekend but, I did manage to do most of what I wanted to get done today.

I am afraid it is going to be a bit of a photo shop this week but I am sure you don't mind. The shots are more or less in chronological order rather than by subject so if it all seems a bit disjointed please forgive me.

Two weekends ago I went down to pick up the new prow windows that I have had to buy to replace the ones ordered by my contractor that turned out to be 10 inches too short. My friend Ron gave me a hand putting them in (thank you Ron) but the trim will have to wait until other, higher priority, stuff is done. Now don't you think that looks much better than having a 10 inch log on the bottom of each centre window on the second level.

I suspended myself with a rope from the overhanging beam and put up the underlay on the Kitchen Gable - lots of fun doing that! The two windows are for Bedroom 2 and the main bathroom.

A significant part of the last two weeks has been trying to coordinate sub-contractors for the roof and the digging for the septic and the electrical connection, which should be going in on Monday and Tuesday of this coming week. In preparation for that I spent a few hard hours digging to find the take ups for the telephone and the electrical cables. I managed to find the telephone cable pipeline and hope that the electricity one is close by.

I thought I would give you a better idea of how the trailer fits into  the workshop end of the garage. All my tools are still in the trailer and will remain in there until I can secure the garage and house. Getting the garage doors on is my next priority after the roof, septic and electrical connection.

I also had to correct some errors in the framing done earlier in the year as I am getting close to asking the inspector to come out and do the framing inspection, which will leave me free to get on with other internal stuff like insulating the roof, plumbing and wiring.

The first of the two septic tanks. I was hoping these would go in during the week before last but, my sub-contractor was delayed by his previous job and personal problems.

By close of play Friday both tanks were in. Next week I hope they will be connected up and the soak away field will be dug and laid. I suspect it will be more that a week before he is finished.

I want wooden garage doors but, solid wood ones were far too expensive so, I have bought cheaper standard metal insulated doors and am putting a wood front on them. Each door is 8' x 12' and has four panels.

Today the temperature was unexpectedly mild and so I raced back from Kalispell to put a coat of stain on the garage door panels I prepared during the week. I thought I was going to have to wait to do this until I have the wood burning stoves in to warm the house up.

I managed to get all four panels of one door done and so I am now ready to install the first door. I hope that Dwayne will be available sometime this week to help me with that. In the background you can see the planks ready to be cut for the second door.

Now, what you have all been waiting for. The roofers have been working for two weeks and have quite a lot of the roof done. It has been slow work because the low temperatures have made the roof icy first thing in the mornings and we have had to wait until mid morning, or even later, for it to be safe to go on the roof.

Most of the tricky bits, such as the dormers and valleys have been done and I expect things to go much quicker this week.

The dodgy valley (you can also just make out the main outflow vent tube below the bathroom window), shed dormer and ... 

... most of the front of the house have yet to be done.

Finally, today I managed to put in the second sidelight, which my contractor told me would not fit in. As you can see, it does.

That's it folks for this week. An early night now for me and an early start for another busy week starting tomorrow. Nothing significant comes without hard work.

Sometimes you win …...

Well, a week when more was done than there is to show for it. Quite a few of those over the last few months. Bottom line up front is that I managed to get the water line connected up to the house. What a palaver that all turned out to be. We had to dig a seven feet deep trench, three feet wide, just to bury a 3/4"plastic pipe and at the bottom of it we had to lay 12 inches of sand to protect the pipe from rocks. But it was worth it in the end and I can now cross that little job off the list of things to do.

We started digging at the road end of the line. The place to dig was easily identified because the water pipe was sticking out of the ground so it was just a case of trying to avoid damaging it.

I also cut a smaller trench in the bottom of the main one in order to reduce the amount of sand used. It was easily done using a rake over the rubble in the bottom of the trench loosened by the excavator.

A man sized excavator for the job - honestly I've seen smaller Soviet trench systems than this.

The only real casualties were one tree and some minor damage to the plastic ICF protection, which was easily patched up the next day with some spare protection we still had at the cabins in Galloway.

The pipe was then laid and the sand poured on top. The pipe was then lifted to ensure there was sufficient sand underneath it and backfilling was started before it was all laid, in order to allow the excavator to straddle the trench and get sand into the last bit nearest to the house.

This shot gives you a closer look at things.

By the end of the second day it was all filled in and patched up and ...

… in some parts you would never know we had just dug it all up.

From the road, it just looked like it had been raked over. Note the tree by the log pile that had to be taken out. Fortunately, it was the only one and I cut it up the next day and burned the bows and stump.

I also had two trips down to the States. The first was on Friday to collect the four prow replacement windows and the second was on Saturday to collect the garage doors. Luck would have it that when I came back across the border on Saturday the credit card machine connection was down and so I didn't have to pay any tax on the garage doors. I guess sometimes you win one.

Having cut up the tree that we had to take down I set about trying to find the electricity and phone lines to the lot. I managed to find the phone line pipe but, have not yet found the electricity pipe. I did find the manhole however and so the pipe shouldn't be that difficult.

Next week I am expecting both the roofers and the septic team to come in and do their bits and the following week I hope the electrical connection will be done and the driveway finished. I have also engaged an insulation company to come and put insulation in the roof and garage ceiling and if I can get the last remaining windows in and the garage doors on, that will see me sealed up ready for winter. The fireplace people are on call to install the wood burning stoves as soon as the roof in finished and the insulation is in.