Carn Brae

The objective this fortnight was to get the North Wing floor boards down and stained so that, after taking a short break at the beginning of June, I could set to work on putting the finishing touches in place and then making the furniture for it. The higher intent being that, once the North Wing is complete there are only a few things, that I have by-passed along the way on the main floor, to do before the cabin will be more or less complete.

This does not include the basement. In my original designs for the cabin I did not have a basement but, I headed good advice from friends and included it in the final drawings. I therefore have no pre-conceived ideas about how the basement should be developed and take the view that it would be best to finish the main cabin as planned and then think about what to do in the basement. All that is down there at the moment is a storage room, which acts as an attic and the mechanical room where the furnace, water heater and water softener are installed. There remains about 1000 sq ft of open space with four windows and therefore there is plenty of scope for some imaginative ideas.

Having put large mirrors in the main bathroom, I thought I should do the same in the en suite and followed the example of hanging a couple of pictures as well.

The effect has been to make the room feel much more homely and lived in.

I then turned my attention to the North Wing. You will recall that an acquaintance, Ron Cavers, very kindly gave me a hand with installing the floor boards on the cabin main level floor. Ron is, amongst many other things, a professional floor installer and not only has considerably more experience than me but, he also has the specialist tools required to do a first class job. The additional pair of hands also more than halved the huge task of doing the main cabin floor and although the North Wing is not as large, it is still a significant size.

I therefore asked Ron if he would lend me a hand again and being the man that he his, he did not hesitate in saying yes. I eventually picked him and all his tools up on the first Wednesday of this fortnight and brought him back to the cabin ready to start work after a light lunch.

Ron, as some of you may have gathered, has had his difficulties over the last couple of years fighting a courageous battle against alcoholism. Although he has managed to defeat the addiction he has not yet recovered from the devastating physiological and neurological effects and suffers from seizures and black outs as well as uncontrollable shacking on occasions. When he was here last, we worked for short periods and took breaks for refreshment ending the day's work early in order not to over stress Ron. This worked well and the activity acted in part as good therapy for him, in particular, the human contact in an otherwise lonely and abandoned life.

On this occasion however, it became evident to me shortly after we started that Ron's condition had deteriorated considerably and after only a very short time it was not safe to allow Ron to continue. I therefore took him home, made sure he was safe and checked on him that evening. In the meantime I got on with the task myself gratefully using Ron's tools.

It took me four days to lay the floor boards in the three rooms that make up the North Wing;

The bonus room and ….

…. Bedrooms 3 ….

…. and 4.

It then took another three days to put two coats of stain on all the walls and four coats on the floor. The Wing is now ready for the base boards, trim and doors etc, which I will do after taking a short break.

Browsing back over the Blog, it seems that it has been almost 12 months since I last posted any photos of the outside of the cabin and therefore I took a stroll around the cabin with the camera.

Starting with the view from the road ….

…. coming down the drive and then …..

…. going around the cabin anti-clockwise.

As I draw closer to a point where I can say the cabin is more or less finished, (bearing in mind that in some ways it will never be "finished" because there will always be work of some sort or other to do) I am astonished at what I have achieved.

I find it difficult to comprehend the scale and difficulty of some of the things that I have done here, often with little or no help.

Putting up this deck single handed and most of the heavy roof beams with only one other man to help, makes me shudder now at the challenges involved. At the time it was all just something that had to be done and I had to work out a way to do it.

The land around the cabin is also starting to recover from the effects of building but, it will be next year before I properly get around to giving it the attention it deserves. This year I am content to allow the wild grass to seed again in order to over power some of the less sightly weeds that have appeared in the wake of disturbing the ground. 

I will also be pleased when there is less wood in the garage and I can at least get my car under cover this coming winter.

Not quite sure why I have included this shot but here it is.

My grape vines are doing well and I already have about 15 tiny bunches of grapes. I don't know how long they will last but this year I don't really care. The idea is for the vines to grow up the deck posts this year and next and then I will be concerned about the survival of the grapes.

Eggs in the robins' nest have hatched and mum and dad have been busy providing food for their chicks. The weather has been warm and dry and everyone is in shorts. There is still a little snow on the tops of the mountains, which makes for very picturesque scenery and there has been yet another sighting of the cougar and her cubs, which probably explains why there are only a few deer about at the moment.

I have also decided on a name for the cabin. From now on it will be known as "Carn Brae" (sounds like Cambrai) named after the village and castle near Redruth in Cornwall. Both have links to my old regiment, 3rd Royal Tank Regiment, and therefore is a fitting name. Carn Brae means 'rocky hill' which is also fitting as there is just such a thing in front of the cabin. The prize for suggesting it goes to my old friend and colleague from 3 RTR, Tony Broom. Thanks for the suggestion Tony, and for all the support you have given me over the last nearly three years. Come and get your prize.

I hinted earlier that I am going to take a break now, which will be for a couple of weeks and so my next posting may be delayed. I may decide however to post something not related to this project, just to keep the link going. So check just in case.

Fifty Shades of Grey

I started this fortnight with putting some finishing touches to the black and white bathroom. There are still a couple of things to do such as the shower door and some better light fittings but it is now useable.

I decided that I had to christen the loo - well you've got to, haven't you? Anyway, while I was sitting there contemplating all my handy work, it dawned on me that precious little in the room was actually either jet black or pure virgin white and that the tiles and pebbles in particular were all various shades of grey. So, I have decided to rename the room '50 Shades of Grey'. All I need now is the book to go with it, which I can leave by the bath for bath time reading for the ladies.

I also ordered the glass doors for the shower, which will be ready on 1 July. I almost fell over when told the cost and thought a nice set of plastic curtains would do just fine. Sadly, I couldn't find any in black, white or grey so I'll have to have the glass doors.

The next task on the project Gantt chart is to get the North Wing up to the same level as the rest of the cabin (above the basement). The panelling had to be finished off and, where it was not dependant on the floor boards being in place, I also put most of the trim in place.

The aim of the first phase is to get it all ready for putting down the same larch floor boards that are on the floor of the ground/first floor.

I decided to split it up into three areas. The living space and the two bedrooms - 3 and 4.

The living space is over half the total area of the North Wing and it took me six days to get it straight. I brought the mitre saw up from the garage, which I used out on the deck and that saved a lot of time going up and down the stairs with pieces of panelling and trim. The contrasting colours and the proximity of the beams give these rooms a cosy feel and I can't wait to see them with the floor boards down.

The bedrooms are much smaller and by the time I had got around to them I had perfected a few techniques for speeding the process up and it took me only 2 days to complete each of them.

Bedroom 4 first and …. 

…. Bedroom 3 last.

After which, I gave the place a good vacuum cleaning ready for the floor boards sometime next week.

I then did a quick estimate to see if I had enough wood left over from the flooring of the Great Room and it was a mild relief to find that I have, with a little to spare.

With all my sawing and staining (of trim pieces) on the North Wing deck the robins decided to move from their nest and built a new one under the main deck outside the Great Room. By the looks of things I think they are now sitting on eggs. I haven't taken a closer look for fear of frightening them away and so don't know how many eggs there are.

I have been plagued by thigh muscle cramps at night this week which is probably a sign that I need a rest so I'm going to take tomorrow off and try to resist the temptation to do anything. Fat chance but, at least I'll try.

With the North Wing now ready to floor board, I have been able to get the last piece of scaffolding out of the house and I hope never to have to bring it back in. I will now return it to its owners with grateful thanks.

Today I threw away my last pair of old army green jeans. They had served me well. With the other pair, which I threw in the bin a couple of weeks ago, I've worn them nearly every day for the past nearly three years. They had worn so thin in parts they were almost see-threw and covered with appalling stitches holding them together and glue, stain and paint stains. Maybe I should have kept them as a memento of all the work I've done here - maybe not. I think the cabin can stand for that.

That is it for this fortnight. I hope next time to be able to show you the North Wing with all the floor boards down.