Only the howl of the timber wolf

Today is the first full day off that I have had since I moved in and, true to form, it has really been forced on me. My muscles have been getting more and more tired and an accumulation of minor knocks, cuts, sprains and repetitive stress injuries have forced me to listen to my body and take some down time. The good news is that I have plenty of time today to devote to the blog.

All of the above has meant that I haven't quite managed to achieve everything I would have liked to do this last fortnight but, even so, it hasn't been a bad couple of weeks. I started last week with panelling the stairwell and that went pretty smoothly and this week got the second closet on the landing done and made a start on the railings on the landing balcony and the banisters for the stairs.

I started panelling from the basement upwards ….

…. and covered the ICF blocks on the first landing.

I continued on up to the second landing …..

…. where I also joined the logs to the ceiling and finished the trim work around the beam and panel/drywall interface.

I then set about the walk-in closet for the second bedroom which, along with the one for the main bedroom, is on the landing .…

…. in which I put some shelves as well has hanging bars .…

…. and finished it off with hanging the doors and applying the trim.

So ended the first week.

The easiest part of the next task was always going to be the railings for the main landing balcony. The only thing that was going to make this difficult was the size of the spans. At over twelve feet long, the railings would be too heavy to manoeuvre to put in place and so the first decision was to decided whether or not to spit each side into two smaller, more manageable, sections. As this would also involve putting in additional posts, I decided in the end to stick with single spans and build the banisters in place. Fortunately, all the materials were already prepared. The railings (above) have been in the house since August waiting to be used and getting in the way ….

 ….  and there were more than the 38 spindles I needed, that I had prepared in the summer with the ones for the North Wing deck.

In the event they all went it remarkably easily and, once I had got all the drilling done, quite quickly.

The same was true for this smaller railing on the stairs side of the landing.

At the end of it, I was pleased with the result .…

…. and it has transformed the landing balcony ….

…. which now looks much more in keeping with the rest of the cabin.

The stair banisters were always going to be a much more difficult kettle of fish to handle. The length of the runs and the heights of the posts meant that they could not be symmetrical, therefore each rail and spindle would have to be made bespoke. In addition, I would have to find the rails from the wood pile and strip and prepare them. So some outside work with my trustee old chain saw, which I have nicknamed the 'goblin slayer' (from the Hobbit). It hadn't been used for months but started first time, which was a bit of a relief.

This time I decided to start at the top and work downwards. This was mainly because I wanted to get the parts I use the most done first, so as to make going up and down the stairs, especially at night, safer.

The first flight took me a whole day but ….

once I had learned a few ways to make it easier and faster the second flight took just over half a day, including all the staining.

So, the Great Room has a different feel to it now. I still have some staining to do in the stair well and some caulking to do but, after that I have to decide what to do next. I am minded at the moment to get on with the second bedroom because, when that is done, I will then have somewhere for guests to stay and I am expecting my first sometime in the new year. I am managing quite well without a full kitchen at the moment with the wood burning stove and BBQ to cook on proving to be more than adequate.

My first winter stew has been on the go for over a week now and I have discovered that I can make toast on the wood burner as well. What more do you want?

The main cause of most of my woes this week has been the power tool on the left in this picture, which I call the 'wrist breaker' and to which Alan Barbone can fully testify. It has thrown more than one person off the scaffolding and this week it damn near broke my wrist while I was cutting holes for the spindles on the stair rails.

The ski slopes opened this weekend and a few friends came down from Calgary for the occasion. There is still no snow here though, which I am not complaining about as it has warmed up again. There have been plenty of mule deer and elk about and the rut has started, even in my back yard would you believe. The silence of the nights is broken only by the howl of the timber wolf and there have been plenty of eagles circling above the lake and the cabin looking for prey.

So, a few Skype calls to make now and then, as it is poring with rain outside, I think I'll watch a movie.