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.