Cooking on gas

It has been a mixed fortnight. Some good work achieved and some preparation in the form of planning and buying resources. There have also been a couple of distractions which have delayed me but, nothing serious.

I started off by finishing the floor on the ground level, which included sanding it all down and clear staining it. The same for the island top only I put a mahogany stain on before clear coating. I also made another four stools. I'll probably replace these later with something more elaborate but, they will do for now. At least I can now prepare and eat my food in the kitchen.

I also took the wraps off the Sofas that have been standing idle for several weeks and ……

….. pushed them into the middle of the room.

Having got the floor done, I then turned my attention to the kitchen and after a day or so of planning bought the cabinets (less doors which I will make myself) and went up to Ikea in Calgary to get the appliances. Nine hours driving there and back in a day and through all four seasons. People in shorts and T shirts in Calgary and snow in the mountain passes crossing the Rockies.

Fortunately, I had a hand with the appliances at both ends of the journey and now they are all sitting safely in the dining area waiting to be installed.

Bob, the gas man, came back and connected up the cook top and so now I am cooking on gas.

I have made a start putting the cabinets together and this evening I had friends around for drinks before going over to their place for dinner.

While in Ikea I spotted a grass rug and used a gift voucher they gave me to buy it and a couple of smaller ones for the bedrooms.

I also made a coffee table out of wood left over from the island and unpacked a couple of things to go on it. Actually, it is not a coffee table because I don't drink coffee. It is a foot table so you can put your feet up when sitting on the sofas and not be embarrassed because your feet don't touch the ground.

Trust me, I'm a doctor, these sofas are big

There are still a lot of animals around at the moment, deer, elk and mating eagles mostly. I was pointing out to a friend the tree on the hill behind the cabin where I watched a pair of eagles mating this time last year when, don't you know, probably the same pair appeared again and did the same thing. We were both dumb founded that I should be telling him the story when they came back. I don't know what it is about that tree, it must have some special meaning for them. The first grizzly is up, apparently, but I haven't seen him.

I have been busy socially as well, having friends around for drinks last weekend and this and have been in high demand for my wit and charm for diner parties. It has been nice, at last, to be able to return some of the warm hospitality that has been shown to me over the last couple of years, albeit only for drinks but, it won't be too long now however before I can invite people over for something to eat as well. OMG I'm going to have to sharpen up my culinary skills.

Living the Dream

I am pleased to report that the flooring of the main cabin ground level went very well. The start was delayed because I chose to wait until my friend, Ron Cavers, was available to help me and that gave me time to get all the wood prepared (squared off and best side selected). Ron is a professional floor installer and he very kindly offered to help me lay the floor. Being a professional, he has all the knowledge and specialist tools that I lack and therefore it all went pretty flawlessly (lol) and took much less time than it would have taken me to do it by myself.

I managed to get all the preparation stuff done before Ron arrived, so little time as wasted. We made a pretty slick team as I cut the lengths and handed them to Ron who nailed them to the floor. There were a few places where some jig-saw cuts were required, around the fire place and air vents etc, and this slowed things down a little but in the end it took us only three and a half days to actually lay the floor. The preparation took about the same time so all in all it took about a week worth's of work or 10 man days. I'm guessing but if I had had to do it all by myself I honestly believe it would have taken my at least four weeks. Thank you Ron.

The view of the Great Room from the landing.

Looking from the study area across the Great Room to the kitchen.

From the dining area to the Great Room ….

…. and back again.

From the prow into the kitchen.

And finally from the Bar into prow

I have already filled the small gaps that needed filling and tomorrow I plan to hire a floor sander to sand it all down and then I will clear stain it. I estimate that it will take me a week to get all that done.

I also finished constructing the Island top and cut out the opening for the gas (propane) cook top.

Note the prototype stool for the Island.

I am going to stain the top a mahogany colour to provide some contrast in the kitchen. If I don't like it, I can always darken it. 

I have trial fitted the cook top and it fits very snuggly into the hole. I'll get that connected up as soon as I have sanded, stained and finish coated the top

As concurrent activity I also managed it little more work in the main bathroom.

I have started work on constructing the vanity cabinet where the hand basin will be .…

and finished the ceiling, including …..

…. staining the beams, caulking the joints and installing the light/fan over the shower.

This weekend has been full of fun and games and it was our turn to have some flooding. Wednesday it decided to rain all day and all night when it was so heavy it woke me up and kept me awake for two hours. With the ground still frozen and snow still on the ground the water had nowhere to go but run off the mountain. It came down in cascades, flooded across the Development road in several places and onto some peoples' properties. Two owners had their basements flooded and two had their garages inundated. I had a tiny amount of water in my garage, which seeped under one of the doors but, I was able to sweep that out without difficulty. I also had to shovel some wet snow away from the garage apron and that stopped the water coming into the garage. I had more water in there from the snow on the quad tyres after bringing in another load of firewood.

I was very lucky but spent much of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday helping others and organising earth works to divert water away from peoples properties. We were very lucky to have Ryan Gillard, who ploughs our road on hand with his excavator to dig channels and build berms because without him others would have been flooded.

This is Lyle's front yard today. You can see the water mark on the trees that tells you the water level was more than a foot higher than it is here and flooded his basement and garage. Lyle was pretty philosophical about it and remarked 'so much for living the dream'.