Winter Cometh

A few weeks ago I forecast that the months of October and November were going to witness a transformation in the external appearance of my cabin. That transformation is not yet complete but nevertheless it has been substantial. The roof is nearly finished and although I was hoping it would be completely done by now there is only a day's work left. There is still much work to do on the facias and suffits (eaves) and I am waiting for the mill to let me know when the materials for these two jobs are ready to be collected.  I also need to put in place the panelling on the sides of the dormers and the kitchen gable. Before I can do this, I want to stain the panelling which is sitting inside the cabin protected from the elements. To stain the panels I need to be able to heat the inside of the cabin and to that end I have had the wood burning stoves installed. They won't be able to do their job properly until the eaves have been sealed and the roof insulated, which is now my next major priority. To get this done I must first have the framing inspected and having put in place the steel brackets for the main beams and posts I am now ready to ask the inspector to come and do this.

To complete the exterior of the cabin I also need to finish building the decking and this is going to take longer. Much of the materials I need for this are already available but again I want to stain the railings and spindles before installing them and I will need help to build the three upper decks. I also have the lattice work to shield much of the underside of the lower decking but, this also needs to be stained before I install it.

The driveway needs to be finished and this will be done when the septic installation is complete and will be done by the same contractor, who is doing an excellent job for me and is proving to be one of the best contractors I have had working for me.

On Tuesday, the two wood burning stoves were installed. The larger of the two is in the centre of the cabin on the main floor and has its own ducted air intake drawing air from outside the cabin. The ducting is between the I beams under the flooring. The stoves don't yet really warm the house up because of the roof isn't yet sealed but, it is warm around them and a big difference from outside the cabin.

Before the stoves can take a full load it is necessary to bake the paint on to them by burning three small fires in them gradually increasing the size of each fire. This is nearly a full load and as you can see I brought in a pot of stew to test it's cooking potential which, I am pleased to report, is excellent. It brought the stew up to a simmer in about half an hour and kept it there all day.

If necessary you can take pot off the boil by moving the plates to the side.

Upstairs in the North Wing this little Norwegian baby is great. It puts out a phenomenal amount of heat for its size.

Apologies for the poor quality of this photograph, it really doesn't do the stove justice. I will try to get a better one next week. Again, note the cooking hot plate on top of the stove. This one gets really hot and is less easy to regulate - good for keeping a kettle on the go I guess.

Work on the septic system resumed in earnest this week starting with digging the trench that will take the outflow pipe from the cabin to the tanks.

Pipes and cabling laid and ready to be backfilled.

Pipes going down to the tanks…..

 … with electrical cabling for the pump and sensors.

From the tanks, where the solids decompose, the excess water is pumped up to the drainage field at the top of the property where it will be dispersed into sand and then will soak away.

Looking the other way towards the drainage trenches.

There will be three drainage trenches, which you can see are fairly substantial. Each will have 24 inches of sand in the bottom which will be covered by a dome tunnel covering perforated pipes carrying the water, which should be dispersed evenly throughout the field. 

Steve, the septic contractor, did a good job covering up all the excavations.

One of the six steel plates for the post and beam joints. 

Both garage doors are now in place and this means I can now lock the cabin up and make it secure. I now need to build the stairs from the basement to the main floor and then I can start to get my belongings out of storage and into the basement. Before I do that, I also want to put up some shelving in the basement to keep some of my stuff off the concrete floor - it is never straight forward.

The only parts of the roof to finish now are the covered deck on the south side of the cabin and the ridge cap. Work stopped on Friday due to heavy rain and discovering that the ridge cap that was supplied with the materials is too small to cover the ridge properly and so wider panels need to bought. I hope the roofers will be back Monday or Tuesday with the new ridge cap panels.

Not there yet but, it is beginning to look like the cabin I envisaged at the beginning.

I have made and stained the trim for the last of the prow windows. I am just waiting for some good weather to fit it.

The shed dormer was the last part of the main roof to be completed (mainly because it is easy to escape from) and proved more difficult than anticipated because it wasn't square but, the roofers shaped the panels so you can't notice it. Well done them.

With the landscaping done by Steve to cover the septic system, it is beginning to look OK around this side of the cabin.

I need to get the stove installers back to secure the chimney over the North Wing to complete the installation of the stoves. The beams you can see in front of the garage are for the deck outside the North Wing, which I hope will go up soon,

I have to admit to being exhausted at the moment. I have been building this place almost single handed for several months now without much of a break and I have acquired a number of repetitive stress injuries that are causing me problems sleeping at night and stopping me from doing a full day's work. On Thursday night I had to take twelve pain killer/anti inflammatory pills in order to get to sleep, which I know is not good for me. Friday night I was determined to stop my dependency on them and didn't take anything and consequently hardly slept at all. Saturday I really wasn't fit to work but, did so anyway and in the afternoon fell off the scaffolding on the inside of the cabin while putting up one the steel brackets and nearly went down the stair well into the basement. So, a few more bruises and sprains and a bit of a wake up call so, today (Sunday) I have taken a full day off, the first in many weeks.

No lectures or comments of sympathy please. I know it's silly and I know what I have to do. Now the place is secure and the roof is all but on I can slow down a bit, which I will. It is snowing hard outside but, this should not stop the final touches to the roof being done. Winter cometh.