Starting to come together

Well, I am beginning to feel that it is all starting to come together. I have at last managed to get the larger of the two scaffolding apparatus out of the house and I hope that I won't have to bring it back in. The glass for the internal windows in bedroom 2 arrived (a little late but, I am not complaining) and today I fitted them and put on the trim. There is no other reason now why I need the scaffolding in the Great Room and having it out of the way has opened the room up again.

The window didn't go in quite as smoothly as I had hoped because the frame proved not to be square but, ….

…. it went in well enough.

I spent most of the last fortnight working on the front entrance to the cabin, which is now finished. As you will all appreciate, there is no rushing finishing work. Coats of paint have to be left to dry as does tile mortar and grout so, to fill in the gaps, I also finished all the high areas of the ceiling above the landing and stair well.

To be perfectly honest this was a pain in the arse. I couldn't get any scaffolding on the landing and so I had to use a ladder to get to most of the beams and dry wall. But, it is done now ….

…. and so I should only have to use the ladder a minimal amount to fit the last pieces of trim on this side, once I have got the panelling finished which I hope to do over the next fortnight.

The main entrance is now done and I have panelled the outer wall of the stairwell on the opposite side as well. 

I started with panelling the closet and drywalling the inside, which wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be and I was very pleased with my 'mudding' (got to know the jargin if you are going to do this stuff) 

The other side of the stairwell was fairly straight forward and last week I had dinner three times with one of my neighbours and one of the other guests is a great fan of Canadian Rugby so, I dug out my print of the Rugby Match, by W H Wollen, to show him and he was as pleased as punch.

I also had to box in the area where the log walls meet the roof both here and …. 

…. above the front door.

I then focused on the hall way putting Log Jam chinking in all the log cracks and joints; getting the trim on the door and side panels; tiling the floor and finishing off the closet. 

I even dug out some things to go in the hall way. At a later date, I'll probably add a chair or two or even a bench and maybe a table or shelf. For now though, my 4.5 inch shell cases and a mirror will suffice. 

Another closet to pass muster with Lady Catherine de Bourgh …. 

…. complete with some outdoor clothing and ….. 

plenty of shelving for hats, gloves, scarves and the like. NB the outstanding drywalling - you can't see the joins.

I was also particularly pleased (seriously) with the tiling, the colours of which match the beetle kill wood colours - you can't say I'm not colour coordinated.

Altogether it was a pretty successful couple of weeks. The wood burning stove has kept me warm and I have not yet had to deploy the backup systems (furness and baseboard heaters) although they are on standby as a quick reaction reserve in case they are needed. It will be interesting to see how the wood burner copes when it starts to get really cold. I'll keep you posted on that one.

The snow came and went almost as quickly as it arrived .…

…. and in spectacular fashion in some areas.

There has been an abundance of wildlife about, including mule deer, elk, wolves, eagles and osprey and  - me.

Next week I am going to make a start on panelling the stairwell from the basement all the way up to the ceiling of the main cabin. With that happy thought I'll sign off for another fortnight.

Not David Bailey

It's Sunday evening, the clocks have gone back and I was just about to settle down and watch a movie when I realised that I have been living here for a fortnight now and I am due to update this blog. So I have just had a nice hot shower and here I am at the computer. It's snowing hard outside, it has been for a few hours, and there is about five inches of wet snow on the ground. I don't think it will last that long but, who knows.

The big news this fortnight is that I have found my little digital camera which isn't great and doesn't turn me into David Bailey but, it is better than my iPone camera that I have been using for the last two years for the blog. So I'll start by showing you some better photos of my bedroom and en-suite bathroom and then I'll show you what I have been up to these last two weeks.

Most mornings the sun wakes me up by shining straight through the french window onto my bed, …..

…. which as you can see I had already made by the time the sun came out on this occasion.

This camera has a slightly wider field of view than the iPhone and therefore you can gauge the room size better.

I am afraid that I haven't had time to put any pictures up or to get any rugs for the floors yet but, they will eventually make the place a bit more homely.

So far the wood burning stove in the Great Room has managed to keep the house nice and warm and therefore the furness and baseboard heaters (one of which you can see here) have not been put to use yet. 

A better view of the vanity in the en-suite …..

and the shower, which has proven a great success. No problems with moisture for the wood in the shower area. The extractor fan takes all the steam out almost instantly and the dry atmosphere in the cabin absorbs any residual moisture very quickly. I also gave the beams a couple of extra coats of external wood stain just for good measure.

My main effort this fortnight has been finishing all the high areas of the Great Room, which included painting the white wall boards, staining the beams and then putting on the trim to cover the gap between the two. I also managed to put this fan up - sorry about the specks of dust on the camera lens.

I have also put the trim on the prow windows and doors which wasn't as straight forward as at first I thought it was going to be but, the end result is good.

I have also removed the plastic protection from the windows and that has brightened the place up considerably. 

I had to wait until it was dark outside to take these photos as all my attempts during daylight didn't show any of the detail because it was too bright outside. You can see my neighbours house in the distance through the windows.

I also put up the panelling on the other side of the Great Room (top left of the photo), by the second bedroom and once the window is in (you can see one on the floor here) I will be able to get the scaffolding out of the house.

The next task is to do the panelling at the entrance and on the stairwell. I'll make a start on this tomorrow after I have finished making the internal windows for the second bedroom, which I will then have to take into town to have the glass made for them.

The only negative thing this fortnight was that I dislocated the middle joint of my little finger on my left hand. I managed to do it climbing up the scaffolding would you believe. I put it back in place without any pain at all but, I should then have put a splint on it, which I didn't. So now I have a permanently thickened joint and I cannot straighten the bloody thing. Well, at least it isn't my trigger finger. Hey ho!