Matt is on his travels again.

It has been a slow fortnight getting to grips with some finishing, which is satisfying but slow work. I have now finished panelling the utility area including: the 2 piece bathroom, laundry area, fridge alcove and walk-in pantry. The rooms aren't finished yet because I need to complete some plumbing work in the bathroom above the laundry before I can finish the ceiling. I hope it won't be long before I can get this done.

This is the outside wall of the walk-in pantry. I have taken extra care to seal up all the logs so there are no hiding places for bugs. I have put the flooring in but haven't put the shelves in yet. I will probably stain the floor first, in order to protect it, before I put the shelving and clear coat the panelling. 

I  have made the door for the pantry, here lying on the floor of the garage while the glue dries. I'll be putting it up tomorrow. Don't you just love all those colours. Every visitor who comes to the house remarks on how nice this beetle kill pine panelling is and almost without exception they say that they want to get some. My neighbours Candy and Rod Phipps want to put some in two of their bedrooms. The last door I made I didn't square off properly before allowing the glue to dry and so it is a little off the square. It doesn't look too bad, actually it almost looks in place in a cabin  but, I will probably replace it at some later point. Anyway, it is a mistake I won't make again.

I have also started work on finishing my bedroom. I have painted the white board and stained the beams.

I have made and stained the trimming for the white board/beam interface and I hope to get this up next week along with the window and door trims.

I have also made the cabinets for the alcoves either side of the dormer.

I am very pleased with the results. I am getting better and better at this sort of work and the doors in particular look really good. I have put european kitchen door hinges on the doors so they close firmly without the need for additional fixings and of course they are adjustable, which means you can get them to hang squarely even if the cabinet isn't square.

I have also sealed the room by putting log jam in the log joints and chalked all the interfaces.

I have also trimmed out my first window, in the 2 piece bathroom.

It doesn't look like much for two weeks work but, I have been hard at it everyday. I have also been carrying out a few duties in my capacity as the President of the Strata, researching and planning for the next room to be tackled - the en suite bathroom and, I have nearly got the plumbing done.

Just a note of interest for those who followed Matt Sample's Blog of his travels around the world last year. He is off again on his travels. This time to North Korea, via a few watering holes in China. Watch out for new postings on his blog which, in case you have forgotten is: matthewsample.blogspot.com

There almost certainly isn't public access to the internet in the Peoples' Paradise so we may have to wait a while before we hear from him. In the meantime I guess we should start scoping out a rescue plan, Matt is bound to upset somebody.