Sittingroom

The first picture isn't our sittingroom. It is Claire with my brother's Christmas present-- Tosho, the Akita puppy. Claire loves to babysit him.

Thanksgiving day the kids spent the night with Lee and Delores at Grandma Phyllis's. We slept in and thought,"no kids! We can get a project done." We had just started sorting the schoolroom shelves and I thought, I bet, we can put our big shelf up. We had all the pieces even the screws (and it was neatly labeled.) David made this beautiful shelf for me years ago from old church floor, wood we bought in Sussex. We thought, a couple of hours this shelf will be bolted to the wall and we can go to Phyllis's for Thanksgiving dinner. (My pies were done, because I had no functional oven and made them at Sean's earlier in the week.) That wretched shelf took all weekend! It was THE holiday project. I have never seen David be so frustrated at something engineered square-- the new house walls are actually straight. Yeah! The bookshelf wasn't. It was made to fit a Victorian house wall that sloped slightly and then modified to fit the curve of the Oasthouse! Of course, we added to the problem by switching the sides around so the little shelf was on the left and the big on the right-- just opposite of how David originally designed it.

Unpacking EVERY box of books, was like Christmas! We had not unpacked our boxes since moving-- just the kid's books. David says the house looks much more cozy in these pictures then in reality, so I have to point out the styrofoam walls, the unfinished gypcrete floors, and the wires everywhere.

Inside the house--

This is the kitchen and the homeschool room.

The kitchen has our one functional sink from June 2009 to Feb 2010! In the project as it progresses, we are learning to really appreciate the simple things in life-- a sink with running water or a sink with a mirror over it so you can see to shave! We reached a melt-down point with all the boxes. Claire NEEDED a dictionary and I could not think which box it was in. ( I could not stop to help her, because I was in the middle of a tiling batch with fast drying goop.) We had tears of frustration, so we decided walls or no walls we could not stand the 40 plus boxes of books any more. We set up all the shelves-- even found another one for ten dollars in a junk shop. Now we have access to EVERY reference book we own without scrabbling through tons of boxes. We burned the pile of boxes in great celebration! (better than Guy Fawkes.)

outside: winter scenes-- the frozen creek and deck.

We've had a mild winter with one very cold spell early in the year. We had record cold and the creek actually partially froze. Claire took the camera down and made some great shots.

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.