Mess

We really are getting close to moving in. The kids and I have driven many van loads of stuff over and unloaded it--including all the doors! I have bruses on my arms, each side, just where the big boxes of books hit-- as if David has grabbed me and forcibly restrained me.(so I tease him about abuse.) The fridge and cooker, standing in the middle of the room, are our kitchen-- pretty scary if you ask me.(We still need a sink before we move in.) James has taken over our sittingroom with his Rokenbok. He loves the space! Claire demonstrates the size of the windows in that room by stretching out. She is at least five foot two now. The big stack of boxes are in the basement where we plan to live when we first move in. It will be really messy, dusty, and we will live in boxes for ages! But we will be on site to actually get the work done.

Mud

This is a small portion of the mud we have to deal with. This is what I find the most daunting in the whole building project. This is clay--nothing will grow on it. (It is brought up from the geothermal work, the septic tank and the foundation.) I need to bring in top soil at further expense and plant it up with native growth which will only be swallowed by bramble out here. sigh! To avoid the bramble you need shade from huge trees or grass that you constantly mow.

Insulation

This is the ongoing insulation work that David has heroically taken on. The bottom picture is the tenting that he has done over the f--ing sprinkler system that cost $6,000 PLUS $2,000 in DDES inspection fees-- that we don't want in the first place! The second picture is the insulation in the upstairs walls.

Tile Work

For some reason these pictures have gone every other one. The dark tiles are the slate(with a lot of lovely red iron ore in them) on the deck and the lighter tiles are the bathroom.

The bathroom tiles are small travertine-- cream and coffee coloured. We had to put them in before we could put in the toilet. We have half a toilet at the moment, because I was trying to put in antique toilets from the salvage shop. (two reasons-- they are nicer toilets and they use more water.) This is not an environmental issue in our neck of the woods. We haven't solved the issue of the pipe from the wall hanging cistrene to the toilet bowl. So to use this toilet, at the moment-- you have to fill a bucket of water and pour it down the bowl when you are finished. We hope this is not a permanant solution, but even half a toilet is a great improvement on no toilet!

It took me a little more than a week to tile the bathroom and more that three weeks to do the deck. It was either raining or so blaring hot that I had to kneel on cardboard to work on the black surface of the deck. I still have to seal the tiles on the deck.

house

The stucco is done and this is all four sides of the house for the first time.(The snow took down the silt fence, so I could get over it at the back and get pictures.) It is really green, but we love it.

door and balcony

This is a picture standing on the balcony off the master bedroom. I tried to get some pictures of creek and mountain from balcony, but light wasn't good and will add those later. we look right at the side of the mountain rising up behind the house. It is very pretty. This is the door to the balcony. After I stripped the door-- under the paint and stuff, it was stained badly, so I had to paint this side of it. David worries it is a bit hippyish-- not his favourite thing I have done to the house!

weather vane

It is a bit small way up there, but we still like it. I wasn't sure a dragon was the right thing for our house-- but it was my absolute favourite one on all the sites. Kate says that, this is the raggedy edge and on the edge of medieval maps there are dragons!

underfloor heat

This is the underfloor heating for the bedrooms-- isn't it cool? They will pour gypcrete over this as soon as the septic tank is in and we have water to mix in it. I am so excited about this type of heating. I was talking to someone just the other day who has the same heating and he says he has never raised his themometor gage above 68F. (The geothermal heats the water to 64F!) The top picture is the manifold-- this is the place all the pipes come out of the floor and hook up to the pump.

stucco

House as a ghost. The house looked like this for weeks while the stucco dried!

creek

None of the pictures of the creek show quite how wonderful it is. These are pretty good so I wanted to post them. What I would really like to get posted is the big rock just below this water fall. It is about six or seven feet long and easily five feet high. It is mossy and lovely-- a big pool of water forms behind it and two water falls fall on each side of it. Every time I photo it, it just disappears in the picture. I can't get one which shows its sheer size and loveliness. The back wall of the house (those three big floor to ceiling windows) and the balcony look down on this!

cob

Cob is not suppose to sprout-- seeds from the strawbale!