The View From The Room

Apologies for not posting last weekend but, on the spur of the moment, I decided to go up to Calgary on Sunday to collect a friend (Elizabeth), who had come over from Vancouver Island and wanted to see the cabin. Elizabeth was staying with Jeanette who, you will recall, has very kindly put me up on my way through Calgary on a number of occasions and with whom Elizabeth and I spent Christmas 2011. Jeanette visited me here in the Autumn 2011 but, she wasn't able to come down with us to see the cabin this time. I drove up to Calgary on Sunday afternoon, after doing a morning's work out at the cabin and stayed overnight with the ladies in Jeanette's house in Chestermere just outside Calgary. Elizabeth and I drove back down here on Monday. On route, we paid a short visit to the specialist tool vendor Lee Valley, where I bought a couple of tools for making furniture in the future and Elizabeth bought me wonderful book on furniture making. We arrived here at about 3.30 pm and I shamelessly showed off the cabin to Elizabeth.

It was interesting to see the reaction of someone who has been following the blog but, who has not actually seen the cabin in real life. Elizabeth remarked that the photos in the blog do not do justice to either the location or the cabin and I guess, on reflection, I have to agree. My little iPhone photos don't really give one a sense or a feel for the cabin in its environment, be it the plot, the development, the local countryside or, its location in relation to the village of Wardner and the nearest town, Cranbrook. Nor do the blog photos give a real sense of the cabin itself, the feel of the logs, their aroma, the sense of balanced energy (feng shui) that I have tried to achieve with the design and the use of natural local materials, which keep it in harmony with the forest and mountains. It is going to be a place where visitors will very quickly feel comfortable and be able to shed the stresses of modern life and Elizabeth's visit inspired me to try to take better photographs of it for the blog and I wish I had a better camera to do it justice.

On Tuesday, Elizabeth and I did a morning's work stripping logs and cutting them to size for the railings for the North Wing Deck. With two of us working we achieved in a morning what it would have taken me two days to do by myself. We made one hell of a mess in the great room but, we got it all cleaned up in about an hour and after lunch on the balcony of the master bedroom, I took Elizabeth on a tour of the development on the back of the quad. We went down to the water's edge to inspect the dock and beach area and then went up onto the hill above my cabin for a look at the cabin up there (the only other log cabin on the development), which also belongs to an Englishman, and a look at the view down the lake.

On Wednesday I drove Elizabeth into Cranbrook where she caught the morning Greyhound back to Calgary. I went straight back out to cabin and put my nose back to the grind stone.

This is the view from 'the room with a view', which I should have posted last time but, didn't manage to download the photo from my iPhone in time. Best double click it to get a better look at the panorama.

Same for this one, which is the view from the other bedroom balcony.

With a little help from Tex and Keith I got the framing for the North Wing deck finished and ….

…. got rid of all the struts and straps that were holding it up until it was all in place.

I then got to work laying the deck boards and was relieved to have a few left over for finishing off other parts of decking now that most of the railings are in place.

It was quite straightforward just a question of making the most out of each plank. 

When it was done, it showed what a great asset this deck will be for the cabin in general and for the North Wing in particular.

The views from here are great and it will be a wonderful private space for whoever is lucky enough to be in this part of the cabin.

The next task it to put the railing on it and I started with staining the spindles and then putting some UV protection on them. 

This work was interrupted by the arrival of the propane gas tank, which will provide gas for heating and cooking.

The building guidelines for the Development state that gas tanks have to be screened from sight from the road and so I spent a couple of days designing, resourcing and building this screen …..

…. which I then stained.

It will eventually have a screen on the fourth side, with a gate, but I need to dig a trench for the gas pipeline to the house before I put that in place.

I have also done one more section of fascia and soffit. My main contractor has promised to get me some help with this and I wanted to have another example for people to follow.

I have also started work on getting the steps off the main deck, at the kitchen and the south side, in place. First step is to put in concrete pads where the steps will land.

One for the kitchen steps and …..

…. one for the other side of the main deck.

I have made the first runner (for the kitchen steps) and happily it fits perfectly.

As there is only 1/8th of inch difference in the height of the two sets of steps I tried the runner on the other side and although it fits pretty well I will still remeasure and make the runners for this side bespokely.

And finally, I have now got all the railings for the North Wing deck made up and ready to put in place. By trial and error I have discovered that the best way to put them together is to lay them down flat on the floor. It helps to have the holes slightly larger than the spindle tenons as well.

There are nine sections in all, using 18 rails and 92 spindles. I hope that these will all go up next week.

During a wet spell I also got some staining done for the beams in the North Wing. A second coat is still required.

The same pair of robins have adopted me again this year and ….

.… despite what I said in my last posting, they have built two nests and they are sitting on eggs in one of them. I am sorry the quality of the photograph is so poor. The wildlife is another reason for having a better camera. The eagles' nests are all occupied and I will endeavour to take a photo of one of them for you all.

The second robin's nest is over the steps by the kitchen but, I haven't seen any birds sitting here yet. Maybe it is just ready for a second litter.

With each new task completed the cabin changes, never to be the same again and the end game draws a little closer. Each week I see real progress as the cabin slowly materialises and transforms into the image in my minds eye of what I originally conceived. It has been a long time in the making and there is much yet to do but, I am getting there.

After my little mishap a couple of weeks ago I have been a bit more conscientious about pacing myself and eating better. In the end I slept for 32 out of 36 hours and that just showed how exhausted I was. I took a day off on the Sunday after that episode and went up and had a day soaking in the hot water and sun at Fairmont. It did me the world of good and if the weather had been suitable I would have done it again this weekend. Sadly, it is raining but if it is sunny next weekend I may go back again.