Home Sweet Home

Well, today is the day. The day I actually move in. It took me three weeks in the end, as I suspected it would. Some things you just can’t rush and it was better to do it all right first time rather than try to cut corners and then either have to re-do it later or worse, live with it and regret not doing it properly for the sake of moving in a day or three earlier.

And, I had help. An old friend and colleague, Alan Barbone, known to some of you, who came over to Canada to participate in some training at the British Army Training Unit Suffield near Medicine Hat in Alberta. At the end of his sojourn at BATUS he delayed his return to the UK to come and see what I have been up to these last two years. Alan has a great deal of experience in this sort of thing, having renovated a beautiful cottage in Hampshire near Andover, and consequently he has many skills. He was here for only four days and they went quickly but, he worked hard and together we got my bedroom finished and most of the en-suite bathroom done.

Thanks Alan, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. It was great having you here and I am most grateful for all your help and advice. Good luck with all your own plans and I really hope that you and Cathy make it out here next year.

The day after I posted the last blog I went up to Calgary to visit the business of a neighbour, Don Burton who owns a stone business. The choice was bewildering but, in the end I settled on this quartz, which is quarried in India but actually bought by Don in Italy. It is called Rain Forest and resembles petrified tree roots which, we both (Don and I) correctly imagined would fit in very well with the style and character of the cabin. I have bought one whole slab with the intention of buying a second, enough to do the en-suite bathroom, the kitchen counter tops (not the island, which will be done in wood) and the bar.  

Don, who had already taken the measurements for the en-suite vanity top, had the slab cut and finished ('leather' finish) then brought it down from Calgary two weeks later on the back of his truck and he and his son Jaryd and I fitted it. It then had to pass the fashion test and Candy Phipps came by with her husband Rod and we all held our breath until Candy gave it her seal of approval and we could all relax again. It really does look fantastic and very in keeping with the natural wilderness ambiance of this cabin.

Meanwhile I got on with laying the floor boards in the master bedroom and en-suite and getting to grips with the shower. Then Alan arrived and he sanded the floor in the bedroom (I hired a large floor sander) and I did the floor in the bathroom. It really made a difference and once we had put four coats of stain down we were able to move in the bedroom furniture.

In future I will sand all the floors before staining them. I haven't sanded the floors in the utility rooms downstairs but, they are all very small and it is difficult to tell they are not sanded.

The bedroom was quickly put together with Alan's help and I was glad he was here to help me with the mattress, which would have been difficult to get up the thirty odd steps from the basement by myself.

Apart from the lights and maybe some pictures, the bedroom really is finished now, including the internal window, which I am very pleased with. It not only allows visibility of the Great Room below but, it greatly helps in regulating the temperature and humidity in the bedroom.

The vanity in the bathroom is also finished with all it's fixtures and fittings. The room needs a large mirror and I have my eye on one in a shop in Cranbrook, which I hope to show you in the next posting.

It took a while but, the shower is also done. Do you remember this rather awkward corner well, look at it now. The shower is 'walk-in' with no door to clean and Rod and Candy gave me the pieces of glass from one of their showers that they wanted to change and I have used some of it to make the entrance lighter.

Alan and I put the panel in just before we installed the lavatory and used 1 1/2" rod moulding to keep the light appearance.

Around the corner in the shower I have put a bench so you can sit down if you want to while you shower. So, apart from a large mirror the en-suite bathroom is also now done and I can now move in.

Although I move in today, tonight will not be the first time I have slept at the cabin. Last Saturday, after we fitted the vanity stone top, Don and his wife Phyllis very kindly invited me and Rod and Candy Phipps over to their cabin to celebrate Thanks Giving. It was a day or two early because several members of their wider family who were present had to leave on Sunday. I think there were 15 of us all together and Phyllis, Aimee and Phyliss’s two daughters put on the most delicious and amazing Thanks Giving dinner. I ate far too much and knowing I had somewhere to sleep I drank far too much as much. The only trouble was I didn’t sleep well. I don’t know what it was but, I just couldn’t settle and passed the night in a sort of twilight zone, half asleep and half awake. The night seemed interminable but, at least I was able to enjoy being in my own place.

So another significant landmark has been reached. It has taken over two years to get here and it seems a bit surreal to be moving in now. It seems like an exceptionally long operational tour with the Army, living out of a suitcase in temporary accommodation doing nothing but working, sleeping and eating. The only break I have really had is a week’s R&R in January of this year when I went back to England to see my family. Apart from that, I have rarely taken a day off from working on the cabin and so the first thing I am going to do is take a couple of days leave. I have some admin to catch up on and I think I am going to go up to the hot springs at Fairmont and soak my muscles and bones in the healing waters. I also need to adjust my routine and become accustomed to living in the cabin. Although I have been working there almost everyday for the last two years, I will still have to make it home. I will be comfortable enough and I will have things around me that have an, albeit it distant, familiarity and so I don’t think it will take me long settle in and feel at ease.

I don’t have a kitchen yet but, I do have a BBQ with a side burner and, of course, I have the wood burning stove to cook on as well. That, with the fridge and the sink in the laundry, is enough to prepare meals and clean up afterwards. I also have my little garden table and chairs for eating at so I will be comfortable enough. The autumn has been mild so far and now that I don’t have any commuting to do each day, life will be slightly easier and more pleasant.

My next task is to get the Great Room done. I want to get the scaffolding out of the house and I can’t do that until the rafters and the ceiling in the Great Room are decorated. So that will be the first priority. It is not going to be easy and I am guessing that it is going to take three weeks but, once it is done and the scaffolding is out of the way the cabin will feel a little bit less like a building site.

One uncertainty and a slight concern is internet connectivity at the cabin (I am writing this just before I move out of my temporary accommodation). The cellular network, on which I rely for my internet connection, is very poor out there and it may be some time before I can arrange for a more reliable connection. It may be a while therefore before I post again but keep checking anyway. For family and friends who need to contact me I will be able to check my emails on my iPhone when I go into town and occasionally out at the cabin when the signal from the cellular tower is strong enough. In emergency I suggest using iMessage as that seems to get through when emails and phone don't work.

There is much still to do and if anyone wants to come and see it and help they would be most welcome. I hope it won't be long before I post again. Until then, it is au revoir from the Rockies.