Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Another busy and very hot fortnight with temperatures last week, after the storms and flooding the previous week, reaching 47c in the sun. A ridge extending from the High over southern USA, which caused soaring temperatures down there, was responsible and it also played havoc with the mobile phone network frequencies.

I started the fortnight, where I finished off the previous one, getting the soffits and fascia on the front of the house finished.  This involved constructing a platform to stand on to get at the en suite bathroom dormer, which is over the covered deck. It was much more stable than perhaps it looks in the photo. 

Job done. Just forgot to take the film off the window but, I can do this from the inside later.

Before going around the lake side, I thought I might show you the detail of the porch, which turned out quite well.

I started on the backside with the bedroom dormers which went quite smoothly although, the roof metal reached scorching hot temperatures and had me dancing about like a cat on a hot tin roof and I needed two layers of clothing to protect myself from getting burned while doing the sides.

Then on to the Prow, which was fun and as it is such a prominent feature of the cabin it was good to get it finished and …. I remembered to take the film off the outside glass from the higher windows so, I don't have to climb up there again.

Well, not until they need cleaning at any rate. I had to remove 6 (small) wasp nests in the process which I managed without getting stung.

The sides of the Prow were pretty straight forward and when finished I put the permanent light fittings in and the down pipes for the guttering so I can now remove the dustbins from the deck which were catching the water.

I was glad to get this done because now the pipes take the rain water off the roof well away from the basement and foundations

I even dug some small trenches to take the run off  away from the deck posts and out into the yard.

Of course, now I have got this done it won't ever rain again

Looks quite smart too .…

…. on both sides.

It was then back around to the front to work on the steps to the porch and with help from Kevin I got the posts in place including ….

…. this neat little feature to position one of the top posts correctly.

I finished the fortnight off with staining the last remaining step posts which had dried out sufficiently to take the stain ….

…. and doing some final touches to odd places around the cabin, ..…

…. including the fascia on this part of the roof on the NW deck and …..

…. putting the permanent light fitting on the same deck.

So this is where I am now. The front of the house is almost done. Only the railings and spindles to fit on the porch steps and some very minor titivations. 

The lake side of the cabin is completely done and that only leaves ….

…. the three gable ends, one of which you can just see here on the left, which are going to be a challenge because of their height and the fact that two of them are above covered decks. I'll start with the garage gable as that does not have any obstructions other that the steps up to the NW deck and I hope they will be a help rather than a hinderance.

So, getting there slowly still and the sense of achievement getting stronger with each small step. I have lots of plans for the back yard but, all these will have to wait until next year. The Rhododendron experiment I tried last year ended in failure unfortunately, although I am uncertain as to why. Did I kill it with too much water? Was the water contaminated by the bucket I used or, did it just not like the soil? I may try again next year as I think they would really make the yard look nice.

One of the pair of robins that hatched chicks earlier have rebuilt their nest I removed after the first chicks flew the nest and they are again sitting on eggs. Their nest is right outside the kitchen door and so I can't use the BBQ and as often as I can, I take the long walk around the house to avoid disturbing them.

We have a mosquito season which normally lasts about three weeks and it is here now a week later than last year but, thankfully, not nearly as bad. I haven't had to apply any repellent yet but have some just in case. There aren't as many as there were last year and I think the heat wave, which is predicted to continue for at least another ten days, is going to kill them off quite quickly. Some people have an enclosed section of their deck and it is something I may consider doing in the future.

I have had a minor problem with flying ants nesting in the roof insulation but, some ant killer insecticide soon put paid to them and every other bug and fly that was squatting in the cabin. It has taught me to keep the doors closed though and when I am living in the house I will fit all the window fly screens which are sitting in the basement at the moment. In the meantime the windows remain closed as well.

My neighbours continue to look after me far better than ever I deserve for which I am eternally grateful. There is much talk about the Calgary Stampede this year which has gone off well despite the flooding just before the event. The only events that haven't been able to go ahead are the concert gigs that are normally held in the ice rink dome which was flooded up to ten or eleven rows above the ice floor. Apparently, all the electronics were destroyed by the water and couldn't be replaced in time. People made up for it though in other ways and a good time has been had by all.

One piece of sad news was the death of a local young man 20 years of age who was the son of the owner of the First Perk Café here in Jaffray, where I sometimes have breakfast or a burger if I am working really late. His vehicle went into the Bull River, which was in flood after the storms, on the Bull River Forestry Road late at night. It is a sad loss in a small and close community and many lives have been touched.

The body is holding up well although I am in need of a day's rest which I am taking today. Saying that, this afternoon I might peel a couple of spindles which Kevin has given to me. They have got some neat features on them and will look cool on the porch steps. I hope you will see them in my next posting.

Yours aye.

And God said unto Noah, who was Canadian. "Hey, buddy, you better build an ark I think there's a storm acomin'."

The same storm system that hit Calgary and Southern Alberta last week hit us in SE BC as well. We didn't have it as bad as the Albertans but, people are still talking about it. We had three inches of rain in less than 24 hours and I watched the bank down to the lake from the cabin and the basement quite closely. I am happy to report that both the cabin and the bank came through it all without any damage which, was a bit of a relief.

Unlike some in the path of the storm we have flood controls here that prevented serious damage on the scale that they had in Alberta but, nevertheless a few unfortunate souls were unlucky enough to have their homes either flooded or, worse, washed away. Mud slides closed several roads including major arteries and at one point the whole area of SE BC looked like it might be isolated, at least from the rest of Canada if not the United States.

The lake rose about 6 - 10 feet in 48 hours and we now have a full lake adjacent to the Development with the prospect of it rising to record levels again this year. The water is still very murky and I suspect it will be a week or two before the silt settles. Still, that hasn't stopped people taking to the water, albeit in wet suits.

Murky waters

The rain interrupted work on the outside of the cabin and I took the opportunity to get a few things done on the inside, including making a start on some plumbing. But, the fortnight started with getting the gas line put in and I made it by the skin of my teeth.

The trench that I had prepared the previous week would have collapsed into itself if it had not been filled in before the storm hit. I would have lost all my sand and it would have been expensive to re-dig the trench.

Bob, the plumber and heating technician, arrived mid morning on Monday and set straight to work on getting the gas line into the trench which I had bedded with sand. 

As he went along I followed, putting another layer of sand on top of the pipe and then ….

…. filling in the trench by hand.

By the end of the first day I had got most of it covered but, I was completely exhausted and so left the last 5 or six feet until the following day.

A couple of hours the next morning saw it all done and ….

…. I had even got the forth side on the tank screen done and put the gate on it. That night the storm hit .…

…. and forced me inside for the next three or four days. With advice from Bob I set about doing some planning for roughing in the outflow side of the plumbing and ….

…. Bob bought the materials at a cheaper rate than I could get them. 

I also built some stud walls in my bedroom and the en suite bathroom to help position the shower, toilet and hand basins.

This will be a cupboard for towels etc in the en suite.

Meanwhile, Bob got on with finishing the gas lines. 

He put in the regulator and feeds up to the main deck outside the kitchen door and onto the North Wing Deck, both for BBQs - of which more later.

He also installed the gas fired water tank and …. 

…. the furness for heating the main floor. In case you are wondering, the Building Code in BC, if not for the whole of Canada, requires two heating systems in case one fails during the winter and wood burning stoves are not allowed to be classified as the main heating system, only a back up system. In practice it will actually be the other way around, only we aren't allowed to say that.

When the storm finally abated I was able to get back outside and continue the work of finishing off the deck steps.

about a dozen more spindles had to be made in addition to the 93 made the previous week because I had failed to take into account the fact that I had stretched the distance between the upper railings to match those on the deck and a few proved a little too short.

Apart front taking the sticky stuff off the windows and getting the fascia and soffits done the lake side of the house won't change much now. I still want the step posts to dry a little more before staining them and I may put an angled cut on them to match the slope of the steps.

The North Wing steps are also now complete and there are only a couple of small jobs on the deck itself to do before this whole area is finished. 

With the step spindles in place, I continued work on the soffits and fascia, although this particular dormer was actually completed a couple of weeks ago.

I have now completed it to the end of the garage and ….  

…. around to the front porch, ….

…. which I have now also finished, bar the railings and spindles. I am really pleased with how the porch is developing and hope to have the railings and spindles all in place by the time of the next posting.

The front of the house is now beginning to look quite special and I hope to have it done within two weeks.

With some gas now on tap, I thought it might be a good idea to invest in a small BBQ.

So today, instead of working on the cabin, I put it all together .…

…. and then put it out on the deck by the kitchen door.

It has been eventful couple of weeks and we are forecast to be on the tail end of the heat wave currently sweeping through the US. Temperatures as high as 38c are forecast for the coming week. I shall soldier on and as much as I am defining this house, it is defining me. Working on it has become a lifestyle for me and one that I am not uncomfortable with for the time being.

No rest on Father's Day

Oh yes, it was Father's Day today, those of you who forgot.

Another busy fortnight inside and out at the cabin. I concentrated my efforts on the outside steps, fascia and soffits while the dry wallers were busy inside. I'm not going to post any photos of their work until they have finished. At the moment the inside of the cabin is covered in white dust and I am glad that their work is being done now and not later when I have more things done on the inside. Despite the fact that they will clean up pretty well after themselves, I think it is going to take me a week of cleaning to get rid of all the dust. Hey ho!

More posts, rails and spindles have had to be fetched from the forest, stripped, turned, stained and UV protected. This has been hard work but the results are well worth all the effort and I am grateful for the help Kevin, Keith, Tex and Will who have all given a hand to get this accomplished.

My neighbours, Rod and Candy Phipps, had some landscaping done last week and for a small fee, that avoided transport costs for me for the mechanical equipment, their contractor kindly did some work for me. He spread the excavated top soil from Rod's landscaping over areas of my yard where, as a result of the ground work done by my contractors there is no top soil. This meant he didn't have to cart it all away and dispose of it and he dug the trench for the gas pipeline for me with his mechanical hoe. It runs from the propane tank beside the garage ….

…. around and under the North Wing deck to enter the cabin under the utility area by the kitchen.

The mechanical hoe couldn't reach under the deck because of the lattice work so, I had to dig the last two or three feet by hand.

The operator of the hoe dug the trench far too close for my liking to one of the post foundations supporting the North Wing deck and stairs. I didn't have his confidence that it would all be 'fine', particularly if there was a heavy down pour. So, I bought 10 feet of 4 inch diameter ABS plumbing pipe that I put at the bottom of the trench by the post foundation and filled in the trench by hand. I feel much better about that now.

The building code requires the same grade of sand as needed in the electrical trench to protect the gas pipe. It cost twice as much to deliver the sand than the value of the stuff itself.

I've put six inches in the trench ….

…. by hand and a gas fitter is coming tomorrow to put the line in. It is not rocket science to put a gas line in but I need a certificate from a qualified gas fitter in order to be able to order gas so, I am having to have this work done by a properly certified professional.

There is plenty of sand left to cover the pipe and then I'll back fill by hand, that will be fun!

Posts, some newly collected and prepared, were put in place on the rear decks' stairs.

More disturbance for the nesting robins but, it couldn't be helped. The noise and our presence doesn't seem to disturb them unduly. All the eggs have hatched and although I found one dead chick on the deck, there are still four (two in each nest) who all seem to be doing pretty well. It had obviously crawled a few feet before succumbing. It occurred to me that it may have been turfed out of the nest by one of its parents or its siblings. The nests are quite small for three large chicks and two chicks are easier to feed than three.

Railings have all been put in place on the stair cases and stained. 

Actually, it was the other way around but who's counting. 

I'm waiting for the posts to dry out a little more before I stain them. 

I shouldn't have to wait long, maybe another week or so.

Just 93 spindles to put in now. That'll take a couple or three days. 

 If that wasn't enough I have been fitting some fascia and soffits in between all this other work.

I have now completed both North Wing Dormers on the front of the house as well as the space between them

I am quite pleased with the result 

I have also managed to finish the large shed dormer on the other side .…

…. save for the corner piece, which is ready waiting to be put in place.

This was the most difficult section because I couldn't get the ladder far enough away from the wall to relieve the cramped space. But, it is done now.

I was going to take today off but, the dry wallers wanted to work so how could I refuse. Anyway, I put in the last of the panelling in the basement ready for roughing in the plumbing, put the UV coat on the spindles and then left the dry wallers to it while I went in to town for some much needed groceries and a few supplies to complete the electrical work.