wind storm

Last Thursday night, we had a big windstorm - made a bit of a mess ... couple of trees blown over, broken branches all over the place, several trees snapped off at the top like this one...




... yes, that's the roof over the earth oven. I'm thinking I'll just leave it and repair the roof around it - it would make a nice "natural" touch. I'm not sure I could dig it out anyway - that was a long ways to the ground for a big chunk of wood like that. The tree it came off has a history of breaking at the top. A large chunk broke off a couple of years ago. Near the top, the tree is forked from previous breaks (two since we've been here). This particular tree is our only grand fir - all our other evergreen are Douglas firs. Except for sending huge masses hurtling to the ground at high speed once in a while, it's really a beautiful tree.

Here's the area around the cabin - another tree top fell on the cherry tree and took off a chunk of that, too (just to the left rear of the shed):


... and that was just the wind. We've had a lot of rain, too. And I'm just talking about this month. Last month (November), we had record rainfall, snowfall and low temperatures. Good thing we live in a relatively mild climate!

When we built the house, we put it up in the open area where large projectiles can't fall on it every time there's a little wind!

We're in!

The mattress was delivered last Wednesday. That night, we slept in the cabin for the last time.

Thursday night, Betty slept in the house for the first time while I stayed overnight in Bothell for my current job. Since then, we've had to re-oriented ourselves to living full-time in a real house - which has been more work than you might think ... but we're catching on - and we like it.

The dogs seemed a little confused and upset staying in the house - I think they would rather stay in their den (the cabin). They're getting better, however. And once we get a fence around the house, they'll be all set.

This Friday, we'll have company for the first time. Carol is coming out from the east coast for a few days to visit her daughter, Kate, and they'll both be here for a couple days. Unfortunately, our 2nd bedroom is not set up for anyone to sleep in, but luckily, there is this great little cabin which has recently been vacated. Indoor plumbing will be totally accessible, however!

In July, Kelly will be here for a few weeks. She is going to work on getting the cabin ready to use as an artists' retreat. Near the end of her visit, Keith will be here for a few days. Kelly will drive him back to Bend on her way back to Chicago in early August.

Near the end of August, Betty's parents and sisters will be here for a visit. It'll be the first time here for Eileen and Donna.

So... it's looking like a pretty busy summer. Besides all the company, we're still busy with jobs and projects (new and old) around the place.

Our summer guests aren't going to get to experience the masonry woodstove, but our winter schedule is wide open, so start thinking about making your reservations now!

34 years

We were married 34 years ago today. We talked about going to Downrigger's in Port Angeles for an anniversary dinner, but decided we would rather have breakfast at Gwennie's.


I'm thinking about giving Betty a custom Gentoo Linux MythTV HDTV PVR for an anniversary present. But it's a little late to throw that together now. Maybe for our 35th.

And we'll probably go to Downrigger's anyway.

can't believe I just mailed 40 lbs of dirt

We got up kind of late this morning. I was pretty tired after getting home late the night before - I'm working over in Bothell these days and the Friday evening commute back to the world via the ferry is long and hard. (I could tell you about the Friday when the ferry left the dock with hardly any cars on board - they couldn't load it because the railroad crossing gate was stuck closed ...but that's another blog entry.)

We didn't make it to Gwennie's for breakfast until after 9. I got a newspaper and Betty brought her book, but we didn't read. We just talked about what's been going on the last couple of days and what all we need to do this weekend. We also couldn't linger, because Betty had to go to Legacy to help with a training class.

When we got home from breakfast, the floor finishing folks were already here. They were supposed to show up around noon, but I guess after working on this floor for almost 2 weeks, they were tired of explaining to us why they weren't done yet and when they might be if everything went ok.

I had paperwork to do, but before I got into a paperwork catch-up mode, I put my Linux "apartment server" to work updating itself. I really like this Gentoo distribution of Linux. You just type " emerge -uD world" and it downloads and installs updates for everything on the computer. While that was working, I did my bookkeeping, read the newspaper that I bought at Gwennie's and made a crossover ( i.e. PC-to-PC direct) network cable.

Before Betty got back home, I put the v-belt on the Toro. One of the mower belts broke a couple weeks or so ago. We actually ordered a replacement before it went (we saw it coming), but the order got lost. We re-ordered and when it finally came in, it was the other mower belt - not the one that broke. Meanwhile, the grass is really enjoying this warm weather and rain stuff. Before I left for my twice-weekly trip to Bothell last Wednesday, I gave Betty the part number for the v-belt along with a picture and she took it to the Toro place and they got her the correct belt within 24 hours. The rain has let up, so I knew Betty would be wanting to do some mowing.

The floor guys put on the third and last coat of urethane. They said that we would be able to walk on it after 5pm.

So, Betty comes home and gets on the mower. I've got no excuse to hang out in the office and surf the web, so I went out to take care of a little chore - digging up some clay soil and sending it to Kelly...

Kelly has a project that requires some raw clay ("Sequim Gold") from our place. If there's anything that we have a shortage of here, it's not clay soil. I didn't even have to dig for it. As you may have read from previous blog entries, we recently built a house. One of the side-effects of that is large mounds of dirt from excavations. It turns out that there were some great concentrations of clay in the soil from those excavations. All I had to do was go out to the berm with a bucket and look for those distinctly grey clumps of hard clay.

I collected about 40 lbs of it - pulverized most of it in my hands, but left a few of the better clumps whole so Kelly could have a few "nuggets" - maybe put them in a gallery or something.

This stuff wasn't even very wet - even though it's been raining a lot for about a week. Just to make sure it was the real thing, I took some of the pulverized clay, added water and mixed. Yup - pure gold.

I boxed it up into two Amazon boxes and took it to the Staples UPS store. I thought that they might want to look at the contents, so I brought in the boxes unsealed, but they didn't seem to care to see what was inside. Each box was almost 20 lbs. Good thing this stuff wasn't very wet.

I left Staples and went next door to QFC to buy some wine for dinner. I got a bottle of Australian Red Knot Syrah - it was $6 off for QFC members and it was still more than I usually spend, so it should be good. Betty says we're having shishkabobs for dinner.

On the way out of QFC, I tried to buy a lottery ticket, but they were having some kind of problem with the lottery machine - they were on the phone with tech support trying to figure out how to reboot the machine. I overheard them say that everybody was having the same problem and that it would take about a hour to fix - must be one of them lottery viruses that's been going around.

On Monday, the floor should be dry and hard enough for us to move some furniture in. There's not much - dining table, chairs, bed frame (but no mattress), dressers, some odds and ends. Should be easy.

we bought our house yesterday

Yesterday, we went to the bank and paid off our construction loan with a new home loan. It's a big relief to have that done. Now, we have just the usual homeowner things to do - landscaping, fences, garden, etc, etc, etc.

The floor finishing is still in progress. It's taken a lot longer than we expected - it was supposed to be done in about 3 days, but that was obviously a gross underestimation. Hand-scraping the floor is a lot of work. There is one guy working on it today (Saturday) and there will be more working on it tomorrow. I'd give it another week to have it all scraped, sanded and coated. Then, we can move furniture in.

our floor has been located!

Our floor went missing sometime mid-to-late last year. We figured it couldn't have gone very far - what with it being a floor and all. It turns out that it was right there underneath a thin-to-not-so-thin veneer of various substances which would fall under the general classification of "dirt".


All we had to do was hire some guys with a large reservoir of sweat to come and meticulously/painstakingly/time-consumingly scrape off that veneer. Man, this is hard work - I'm glad I didn't try to convince Betty that it was something I could do "when I had some time" (that's husband code for "slim chance I'd ever get around to it").

dirt work is done

Those huge mounds of dirt from the foundation and septic system excavations are gone. In their place, we have ground which is contoured such that water flows away from the house when it rains (not that it ever rains in Sequim). This wasn't particularly easy, since the house sits low on the landscape. We also have a berm which is intended to keep our dogs from seeing and barking at cars which drive along the lane (not that Bear or Sadie ever bark). Also, Mike (who did the dirt work) instinctively implemented pattern #126 "Something Roughly in the Middle" with the large rocks which were dug up during the excavations.



Although it's been contoured, the soil is very poor (i.e. mostly clay). There was some topsoil, but not very much. We'll probably buy some bales of hay from our neighbor and spread it all around so it will seed itself. In time, it will look like the rest of our field (foreground).

Betty is back on the scaffold

We rented a 10-foot scaffold so Betty could finish sanding and oiling the logs before the floor finishing happens. (It's shakier than it looks.)

no more inspections

We passed the final inspection today. As far as the county is concerned, we can move in. But Betty may have another opinion - something about finishing the floors, oiling the woodwork, cleaning the windows, putting up curtains, ...whatever.

We ate our first dinner in the house last Sunday evening - it was kind of nice... lasagna cooked in an electric oven, a nice French burgundy, real cloth place settings on a folding table in front of a small fire in the newly-finished woodstove. The occasion was the day before Betty's birthday.

called for final inspection

This morning, I called for a final inspection (i.e. permit to occupy).  I'm not sure we're really ready for it - I intended to build stairs for both entrances, but I got only one of them done.  But, I thought I'd get an inspection anyway to see what else I might have to do to pass it.  Anyway - the inspection will be on Wednesday.

woodstove 99.9% done

The woodstove is virtually complete. Here is Jim with his sons, Zeb and Jack, putting on the finishing touches.



The stove looks really great! We're anxious to start using it, but first I have to hook up the air intake to the exterior port (i.e. install some 6" duct work). Then, we have to make a series of small fires for 5 days to "cure" the stove (so as not to damage it by heating it too fast while there is still a lot of moisture in it).

Today, I was reading the owners' manual and one thing it said was that, in a mild climate (such as ours) or a time of year when it's not too cold, only one fire every two days would be enough to make it keep providing heat!

humidity is back on the scale

Last weekend, we used the sump pump to empty the tub (in the crawl space) which collects water from the dehumidifier 24 hours/day. While I was down there in the crawl space, I noticed that the dehumidifier indicated that the humidity was 80%. Up 'til that time, all it ever said was "Hi" - meaning that the humidity was off the scale. But, that was apparently only a transient indication, since it went back to "Hi" and seemed like that was where it was going to stay.

But today, I took a peek and the dehumidifier said "80%" steadily - so I guess we're really getting that crawl space dried out. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way. It'll take at least a complete year's worth of seasons before we can tell how the weather is going to change down there.

masonry woodstove almost done

fire box on the bottom, oven on top:


taller-than-most chimney for better draft:

woodstove kit assembled

Well, it finally happened - the woodstove core kit was assembled today! (Nice to have all those pieces not spread out around the floor and patio, too.) One picture shows the stove without the side channels and top. The other shows the complete kit (the bands of tape around it hold the sides against the stove until the stonework is built up around the core).

The little square at the bottom is the ash clean-out port for the stove itself (the chimney has its own clean-out port). The same port can be used to clean out both sides of the oven. According to the manufacturer, the ash needs to be cleaned out once every 6 or 7 years.

The arched opening in the top is the bake oven. While wood is burning, the bake oven is actually a secondary combustion chamber. After the fire goes out and the oven cools a little, the oven can be used for cooking.

The next step is to wrap the core with cardboard and build the outer stonework.

only the final inspection remains

This morning, we passed the floor insulation (ground insulation, actually), chimney clearance and chimney reinforcement (rebar) inspections. The only inspection left is the final. To get a final inspection - i.e. occupancy permit - we need the woodstove finished and outside steps to the front door and mud room door.

hole in the roof plugged

Yesterday, the chimney construction made it thru the roof. From this point, the chimney will be mostly brick with an occasional stone here and there just to keep it interesting. (It's a very tall chimney and would be very hard - not to mention expensive - to do it in stone all the way up.)


the view from the inside looking up:

gonna miss the outhouse and outdoor shower

This past weekend, we finished installing everything in the bathroom. Saturday, we installed the shower faucet and showerhead (really hated to drill holes in Malcolm's excellent tile work!). Sunday, we put the sauna back together, installed the toilet, put up the mirror and towel holders. Sunday evening, we took a sauna and showers - it was great!

the sauna as viewed from the bedroom:

the shower right across from the sauna:


check out the heated towel bar on the wall next to the shower (this view is looking back toward the bedroom - the sauna is on the left, but is not visible in this shot) ...that's a sliding pocket door between the sauna/shower area and the toilet/sink area:


ok, here you see the sauna and the shower and the bedroom in the background (there is another sliding pocket door between the bedroom and the bathroom):


vanity, mirror, glass shelf and reflection of the toilet (and my elbow) ...the door to the living room is also reflected in the mirror:


this is the entry from the living room (the other entry is from the bedroom):


You may have noticed that there was no mention of a bathtub - in fact, there is none ...we couldn't figure out how to fit it in the space, so we settled for a sauna and walk-in shower.

It was kind of a strange experience ... no cold wind blowing thru the shower, plenty of hot water, no radiant heater to stand in front of while getting dressed (that part I might miss), but no cold wind either. We could get use to this!

start of chimney

We finally got the rock that we've been waiting for. Here, Jim and his son, Zeb, are starting to build the chimney. Since the chimney is behind the stove, it's easier to build it before building the stove itself.

3-D woodstove puzzle

Today, Jim and his crew poured the cement slab (shiny-looking thing in the back with stuff sticking up out of it) which will be the base for the woodstove. All the blocks you see are (most of) the pieces for the woodstove core. They had been sitting outside on a pallet for several months - we took them off the pallet and brought them inside to make sure they were all there and were in good condition (they were).


The woodstove kit manufacturer (Temp-Cast) recommends doing a "dry assembly" to make sure you know how everything goes together before you start. I assembled the kit out on the patio as much as I could (the rest was too heavy/high). Besides what's shown below, there is a bake oven that goes on top and there are shallow "U"-shaped channels that go on the sides. (Exhaust gases actually travel from the top of the stove down the U-shaped channels, then out the bottom back of the stove to the chimney - the chimney stands alone on top of the slab and does not sit on top of the stove.)

the big hole - gone!

At long last, the huge hole that we've had in the floor for so long is being filled with a new woodstove! This picture shows Jim building the cinder block foundation for the stove.

Tomorrow, he'll pour the slab that rests on top of the cinder block foundation and on which the stove and chimney rest.

why your ankle hurts

Skip, you idiot, your ankle hurts because you hit it with the wood-splitting maul today (check the date of the posting), remember? So as not to be confused with the many other aches and pains you can't remember how you got, we're talking about the pain in the upper left side of the left ankle. You brought the splitter down on a chunk of log, but your aim was a little off and the log went flying in one direction and the maul was apparently attracted to your foot. Lucky for you the maul had lost most of its momentum by the time it got your foot and all you have is a little "reminder".

Then, tonight you got this, uh, brilliant idea for using the blog to remind yourself where all your aches and pains came from. Hey, having some body part hurt is one thing, but not remembering how you got it is really dumb. I mean, what good is the pain if it doesn't remind you what stupid thing you should not do?

You thought twice about cluttering up the blog with this stuff, but then you finally decided: "hey, it's my blog - I'll put whatever I feel like putting on it - and if either of our faithful readers don't like it, let 'em get their own blogs!".

Figured out yet why the underside of your left foot hurts? Maybe because you spent most of the day yesterday standing on a ladder cutting off the ends of girders which were sticking out past the roof line? Then why is it just your left foot and not your right foot? Putting your weight on your left leg while sawing with your right arm maybe? But, wait... wasn't it hurting before yesterday? So maybe you were shovelling (gutter drainage) wearing sneakers instead of boots and that was what set it off ... working on the ladder all day just aggravated it. ... but that's going to have to remain a mystery because you failed to 'blog it!

yourself

real close

As all both of our faithful readers have noted, we have not updated this blog for a couple of weeks. Truth is that we just don't have any time (or energy) left over after working on the house. So, if I can focus long enough, I'll try to bring you up-to-date...

The biggest thing that remains to be done is the fireplace. But we're next in the mason's queue. Yesterday, he came and dropped off some tools and after he takes about a week off, he'll start on our fireplace. I told him that the fireplace would make or break the house and he assured me that it would make it.

The shower has been almost done for a couple weeks now. It would have been done again today, but there was a slight mix-up with the tile. Frankly, the difference was so small that if Malcolm hadn't pointed it out, we probably never would have noticed ... but he's too conscientious about his work to let it slide. Anyway - one more week.

Betty has been sanding and oiling logs (rafters, girders and posts). It's messy work and is a bit precarious - she has to work standing on a ladder which is on top of a scaffold. (Today, the ladder slipped and she fell - luckily to the top of the scaffold and not all the way to the floor.)

Dale, our general contractor, has finished everything he personally needs to do. When he gets back from a little time off, he'll take care of any loose ends.

I've been installing lights and appliances - water softener, water heater, washer, dryer, dishwasher, range, kitchen sink (with garbage disposal and instant hot water dispenser), bathroom sink. The only fixture I have not installed is the throne (waiting for Betty to finish sanding and oiling in that part of the house).

A week ago, we passed the final inspection for the septic system and can now put it to use (just clothes washer and sinks so far).

I need to finish up all the electrical stuff so we can have the electrical final inspection. Mainly, all I have to do is install the ceiling fan and a ceiling light - that plus keep my fingers crossed that I've done everything correctly.

We also need a drywell/drainage inspection. Since the drywell is subterranean, all we really have to do is show pictures taken during installation. However, I still need to plumb the one remaining gutter as well as the water softener discharge (can't discharge into the septic system, since salt inhibits microbial activity, so the discharge from regeneration of the water softener has to go into the drywell).

Other than that, there is a bit of work to do with the steps leading to the entrances. Today, Betty and I agreed that as soon as we got a breather, she would tell me her thoughts on that and I would tell her how I'm going to do it anyway.

Oh, another thing that we need to do is to sand and seal the floor. The floor is 2x6 spruce tongue & groove - same as the ceiling, but unlike the ceiling, the floor took a real beating during construction. Actually, for all the abuse it's seen, it doesn't look all that bad - sort of like the way you would expect a nice old wood floor to look. A little cosmetic surgery should make it look great! Anyway, we don't need to do this to pass the final inspection, but we intend to do it before we move in.

So... we're very close to having a done house. Betty and I are very much looking forward to having this done. Not that we intend to move in right away - we do not - we just need to get back to some semblance of normalcy (i.e. get back to our day jobs). We've both declared that we would never do this again.

cold!

We seem to be in the middle of an unusual cold spell - coldest temperatures in about a decade, apparently.  Until now, it's actually been unusually warm - the pussy willows were even budding before the end of January.  Now, they're freezing their butts buds off!

cabinet installation

Dale is working on installing the cabinets which he built in his shop (see previous posting). Here are some shots of this work in progress...


Dale (this frame was taken with a very fast shutter speed, so he would not appear blurry):


sink goes in the corner:


Betty's "slide-out island / lower work surface for short person" design:


view from the living/dining area:


bird's eye view:

appliances moved in

The rest of the appliances were delivered today - washer, dryer, refrigerator and freezer. You know you're really getting close to being done when you own your own washer and dryer after using the laundromat for a couple of years. We're going to miss those weekend mornings when we ate breakfast out at Tarcisio's while we did laundry at the laundromat next door to the restaurant. (Still can't operate the washer until we get a final inspection of the septic system.)

Oh, if anybody has any idea why a washing machine would come with a CD, please let me know. I hope this doesn't mean that we're going to have to wait for the washer to boot up every time we want to use it. I'm wondering if the washer and dryer are networked so, for example, the washer knows that it can work at a leisurely pace because the clothes in the dryer are nowhere near dry.

let the oxidation begin!

We put up the rest of the copper rain chains today. The simpler chains (i.e. the ones without the cups) are still bright and shiny. When they grow up, they'll turn bluish-green. On the south side of the house, the rain chains have these cool cups which create sort of a cascading waterfall effect. I guess they make a pleasant sound, too - kind of like chimes. But since we just put them up and are in the middle of an uncharacteristic cold, dry spell, we won't really know what kind of performance they give until the weather returns to normal ...stay tuned.

everything including the kitchen sink

"Indiana Bones" 1991-2006

We took Indy to the vet yesterday. It seems that she had a tumor in her bladder and it had progressed too far to treat. She never came home.

So, now we have a small void in the pack - one less canine body on the floor of the cabin in front of the fire, an unused food dish on the deck, an empty space next to Max on the back seat of the Vanagon.

She had a lot of "personality". When she was a puppy, she had only two energy levels - she was either in constant motion or unconscious. If she was moving and you managed to hold her still for a few seconds, she would crash.

She was very "talkative" - she made all sorts of hard-to-describe sounds as if she were trying to tell you what she wanted from you - as if we didn't know: "biscuits", "chow", "chewstick" or "walk" (which, by the way, she would recognize if you tried to spell it so she wouldn't get too excited about going for one).

She loved to chase sticks - especially if you threw them in the water for her. After a few trips to the beach, she even recognized the phrase "high tide" and would start barking with anticipation.

She didn't particularly welcome the other pets. She eventually got used to Max and played with her and even slept next to her. She even let the cats come near her, although she might still growl if they got too close. She never really got use to Bear or Sadie, the two most recent additions to the pack.

I think Indy's idea of heaven is where she is the only pet in the family... They let her eat whenever she wants. They take her swimming and throw lots of sticks for her. She has the whole back seat of the van to herself. Whenever the car goes through a drive-thru, dog biscuits are forthcoming. All in all, she was a good dog and I hope that's the kind of doggie heaven she finds.