It's nice to finish something

The second floor now has a ceiling.


The second floor needs drywall, trim around the windows, the 4" floating floor and we're good to go. On the inside, at least.

Tomorrow we'll try to get the ceiling in the stairwell done. We'll spend more time setting up the scaffolding than actually installing the T&G. Then it's on to the entryway and the south side of the house.

We had 370 16 ft pieces of tongue and groove pine delivered and so far 80 of them have been culled due to poor quality. Once we go through the pile, we'll send the culls back and get prettier ones. There's a limit to how many knot-holes a person should have to see in a day.

According to everyone, all the good wood goes "south of the line". Everyone, except those who believe all the good wood is long gone.

Ceiling Hootenany!

Dancing on the Ceiling! Just like Lionel Ritchie!

Yes, well, more of this kind of thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day and the next day.

All night long, even!

Tea and Gee

We thought it best to start on the ceiling upstairs so that by the time we get downstairs where everyone will see it, we'll be experts. Experts!


Our buddies at Solum Builders loaned us The Best Table Saw in The World. Now when we have to rip a 16 foot long piece of 1x6 pine tongue and groove into a thinner width, we can do so with the safety, comfort and relative silence afforded by the Craftsman brand.
This saw was made in the USA out of steel, not plastic and aluminum.



Making the transition from the flat part of the ceiling to the sloped part is a bit tricky, but once that's out of the way, it's just one piece after another.



If Turbo would just learn how to use the saw we could go so much faster.

WE'VE GOT THE POWER

Not everyone can have their next door neighbour hook their house up to the power grid, but not everyone can live next door to the God of Thunder as we do.



Can't you just feel the juice coursing through that wire?
It's going to be pretty hard to resist the urge to buy a portable cd player now.

The insulators are finally done, but they'll be back next week with scraps from their next rock wool insulation job so we can keep sound proofing the house with trash. Thanks McKinney Insulation!



We cleaned the back yard, tomorrow is a dump day!

Step by Step

Neighbour Jim came over today with a batch of freshly bored brackets for the stair treads.



Turbo's condominium will be under the landing. Now that it's warming up, we'll be able to install the glass block that goes behind the landing without fear of the mortar freezing.




The treads went in lickety-split. They might not get us in Fine Homebuilding, but they made good use of the short waler boards.



Monsieur wants to paint the steps red, yellow and green



There was a lot of waste left over from insulation and vapour barrier upstairs.
We're going to put the insulation scraps in the joists between the two storeys. The scraps of 6 millimeter polyethlene plastic are going to our friend the electrician for those times when he needs pieces to go behind his beloved recessed lighting. We're going to save the insulation bags for use as heavy duty trash bags for all the alleged construction waste we're going to have. We paid good money for that garbage, let's use it.
It's hard to think about how much usually ends up at that beautiful landfill.



The insulation guys don't like sloping ceilings. They swear they will be done tomorrow. We've taken control of their stereo, so it's in their interest to hurry.

It got real quiet all of a sudden

We didn't have all our paperwork ready for the building inspector to conduct the framing inspection, so the inspector took his truck to the brake shop. Five minutes later we had all our paperwork ready, but the inspector didn't have his truck.

We went to Penticton to pick up angle iron for our stair treads...


...and salvage some steel from the Honda dealership. (They often have steel pallets that are used for shipping ATVs. Neighbour Jim has welded some very fetching railings and security bars with this steel so it's in the common interest to stay well-stocked.)

We were supposed to hook up with the inspector around the end of business, Friday.

The insulation crew hasn't worked in two weeks as their bookings keep getting postponed.
They were quite anxious to work this weekend, so they took it upon themselves to pick up the building inspector and make him do the inspection while we were in Penticton. We passed.

That's small town economics in action.



We came home to find the downstairs completely stuffed with bales of insulation.



Hate to think what this pile would look like if we had to insulate the downstairs too.


One minute it looked like this...



...the next minute it looked like this.



Those insulation fellows sure do drink a lot of coffee, which as Neighbour Jim says "is OK because they do good work." They also listen to some pretty paltry nu metal. One song we heard more than once was "The Diary of Jane." In said song, there is a lyric that goes

I still try to find my place in the diary of Jane

which through the 'boom box,' sounded an awful lot like "I still try to find my place in the diarrhea chain." It makes us miss our 52 year old electrician singing "Don't Cha."

The upstairs is insulated. Downstairs should be done on Monday, but we're betting on Tuesday.
It's going to be quite a thing to compare the difference in sound and temperature.

The nice folks from Sataray Stables in Osoyoos dropped by to tell us they had salvaged items we might find interesting. They could not believe how quiet the upstairs sounded with the rock wool insulation and they can't wait for us to come pick up some more horse poop!



We're pretty sure the cold weather is over, now that we have the stove and the insulation. Ever since Imbolc things have been warming up. They keep the seasons on a pretty strict timetable here.

Totally Wired

Our neighbour really thinks we're rich now that he's had a look at our electrical system.


Most of the house is on the panel on the left. A few things we'd like to leave on for safety and convenience are on the other panel.
When we go to bed, we will be able to turn off the electricity to most of the outlets and fixtures in the house and bask in a non-charged atmosphere. It's easier for your body to rest and recuperate when not in the presence of electrical fields.
While this might not matter much to most folks, to cutting-edge eco-pessimists, fretting about EMF and EMR is the very vanguard of worry. Some folks concern themselves with smelly paint and insulation and be done with it. Not us.



If you forget to put an outlet in your rammed earth wall, but you have stick frame under the windows you can still run conduit beside the window and install the outlet below it.



This is another way to avoid having to run conduit through your walls, if you aren't concerned with having every single thing in your home constructed of rammed earth.

Another reason for the stick frame at the front of the house is one never knows how zoning may change over the next five hundred years and it leaves a little flexibility at the front of the structure. Not every one wants their front door as far back as we do, but not every one lived with their front door opening directly onto the Urban Tapestry as we did.



Nowadays there are different creatures lurking around our home.

Like this plump fellow.

We should get power in the house next week. The insulation squad shows up tomorrow. I wonder what radio station they listen to?

The ... Rooof... Is.....DONE!?

It took a month and a half, but we got 'er done.
The Carpenter got 'er done actually, while we handed him stuff.
The plumbers finished the rough plumbing and it passed inspection.
This is what they used to plug the main drain to do the "vent test". Guess who insisted I take a photo?
We went to Penticton to buy more things we'll probably return, but it's always worth the drive when we see these guys....

We spent most of the week avoiding the electricians and plumbers, and the rest of the time wiping up their beverage spills before they froze to the floor.
This week we used the wood stove to: thaw lubricant for electric wiring, soften electrical conduit, melt ice out of the plumber's hose, bicycle pump and compressor gauges.
Once the electricians are done we can start insulating the attic and upstairs. Until then, thank the Lord for silk long johns and cashmere pants.