Liam's Birthday

Looks like it's time to clean the camera lens.

The Electrician is still threading his way through the house, singing along to Beyonce and Nickelback.

Neighbour Jim picked up another piece of cedar for us while he was in Penticton today.
Thanks Jim! We'll use it for the last little bit of fascia on The Tu-Tu.

We took advantage of a day off from carpentry to clean up the site a little and take a drive to the most beautiful dump in the world.

It feels BAD to leave any kind of waste in this place. Fortunately they recycle wood waste for free so the majority of our garbage gets ground into bedding for these lucky fellows......

We keep reading about all the tons and tonnes of waste generated in construction. Between the regular weekly domestic trash collection and the occasional dump trip we've spent about $15 in waste management. That tune will probably change once we get invaded by sheet-rockers.

Next we drove past a new winery to have a look at a stucco job.



How about this texture?


Check out this crazy soffit.

We're jealous of the copper gutters.
Tomorrow we get the whole site to ourselves, to punch away at The Punch List.

Heating Up!

We lit the first fire in our wood stove today. We still have a few too many openings in our envelope to really heat up the house but the flames are a morale booster. The installer said it takes a few weeks for the paint smell to burn off so it's just as well we have abundant ventilation.

More plumber/electrician gang warfare today.

The Tu-Tu

Here's the extra bit of roof mentioned previously.


This will be covered to look just like the rest of the metal roof.


There was a little bit of this action today as well.
It's possible that the rough plumbing and electric will finally be complete at the end of the week.
Tonight is the first night in months that will be above freezing. Hurray!

Hey ! What's that plumber doing in the air?

The plumber and his helper made an appearance today and installed as much venting as they could with the pipe they had. If he wants to keep ahead of the electrician, the plumber better come back tomorrow to finish up. The electrician is an artist and he needs his space.

the one hundredth blog entry January 18th 2007

Can you believe it snowed again?



It wasn't the best weather to install another skylight, so we gave our carpenter a well-deserved day off.


We went shopping in Penticton. Some windows, lumber, nails, a few fish heads, the usual.


These are going in the stairway to the second floor.

You never know when you're gonna need more of this stuff.

A nice cheap source of protein!

The Big Frame Up

The interior framing is essentially complete. We'll probably run some more stringers between the studs to keep those 12' pieces of lumber from vibrating at the same frequency. This will make the house even quieter.


That's my breath in the photo. Yep, it's cold.
Here's a view looking west from the kitchen to the family room.


We spent the rest of the day putting some finishing touches on the roof and installing two of the three skylights.


Tomorrow another skylight and some last minute touches to the framing.


The electrician decided where to put everything and told us to get our crap out of his way. He will be back on Monday.

The plumber SWEARS he's coming on Friday.

It's starting to look like something...

...but there's still a long way to go.

Tomorrow the plumber and the electrician are coming. Well, we're pretty sure the electrician is, anyways.
Weather permitting we will be able to install the skylights and that one final piece of ridge cap.
Since it was so much fun installing the trusses we decided to order more.
These new trusses will only be two feet long, basically a fancy drip cap to protect the rammed earth walls from rain that might slide down from the second story.
We're in the desert all right, but the new millennium brings new weather, and we're a belt and suspenders type of family.

Getting 12' High On The Job

In the presence of that so-called 'dust', interior framing began in earnest.


The next thing you know, there's 12' walls. That's high! How's that for "God Space?"
Here is a dark picture looking towards the back of the first floor.


And here is a dark picture looking at the kitchen and parents room. Someone once said "when your house gets dark, you're about 1/3 of the way done." 1/3rd you say?


The doors were put in. In so doing, one of two storage spaces were closed. Here is the 'front' door. Do you dig the crazy shapes?


What is that burning ball in the sky? It certainly isn't anything that brings warmth. The carpenter said 'no thank you' to -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) this morning. It wasn't that cold at the site though--it was closer to -12 Celsius (10 Fahrenheit). Anyhow, if you look hard enough, you can see the 'back' door and the 'patio' door. You can choose which one is which.



Weather permitting, next week is plumbing, electric and more interior framing.

Well There You Go

The roof. Almost done. There's just a teensy bit more of the ridge cap and sidewall flashing ( between the first floor roof and the second floor exterior on the north side) install then the roof will be on. Skylights and gutters will complete the look.


Here it is looking from the other direction. The less blue colored direction.


The windows arrived today. We installed the 'big ones'.
Our carpenter said,"Those are nice windows."


If eyes are the windows of the soul are windows the eyes of a house?


The chimney got set up as well. Do notice the orbs in the upper left hand corner and just above the pipe. Some say the orbs are just dust. Some say they are a paranormal phenomena. I think they appear after an excessive amount of swearing.

An Intermission from Precipitation

Is it really true what they say about putting your tongue to cold metal? That it's a lot of fun?


While it is a little hair- raising on the top of the house


there is a delightful cloud show to be had and stunning winter vistas. What kind of monster doesn't love a stunning winter vista?


We're on the roof to put on the 'ridge cap.' It is from underneath the ridge cap that hot air accumulated in the attic will escape. While it doesn't look like much, the square footage is equal to a 2ft hole in the roof.


While there, enjoy a stunning vista!


Weather permitting, the last of the ridge cap and roofing will be installed tomorrow.