A windowsill and other weekend excitement

Last weekend we decided that we would no longer work (outside home) on Sundays.  Which is a good thing because no other day this past week had time for house work.  Bright and early Sunday afternoon Chad put on the last two boards on the exterior walls in the kitchen.  He did some of the caulking too until I realized I could be doing that.  A little learning curve, but I think I'm on track to do a bunch of the remaining caulking.  Which will give me hulk like forearms.  

We only made one trip to the store, to buy the rain cover, and two trips to the storage unit.  Err, three actually but the first one doesn't count because he forgot the toolbox keys.  Even though the ground was wet the tools and wood and man were dry.  

At one point Chad called me outside to show me something about the woodworking.  When I came out he looked up to talk to me and gasped at what he saw behind me.  Not at all disturbing!  It was a car on fire a couple blocks over.  Once the fire trucks arrived it was out pretty quick.  And we got to meet some neighbors.  

Frogcat is still large and in charge.  The great white supervisor.  He loves to hang out in the rain.  Unlike the dogs.

He had enough of my photo session when he realized I didn't have any food. 

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, the first board of the window sill gets tried out for size.  

The man and his tools.  After the sharpening box was located and the tools were sharpened.  I found one of his hats when I did a Friday evening belly crawl through the trailer looking for his running shoes so we could explore the woods with the dogs.  Who needs a 'boot camp' workout at the gym when you could just live like I do?

Too bad the whole shop won't fit under the canopy.  12x12 is a surprisingly large space.  And the wood shaving curls will be awesome fire starters.....

I did a lot of little things around the house while I was waiting for tasks that required my help.  I did laundry.  And vacuumed.  And did dishes.  And found creative places to dry the dishes.  And found the dish drying rack in a box.  I emptied several boxes in fact.  And found a place to stack them.  And I shopped around for a kitchen sink.  Very productive.  

And at the end of the day we had this to show for our efforts.  A window silled in saphele.  A southern hemisphere mahogany.  I get to oil it a couple times this week and he gets to finish shimming it out.  Two more kitchen windows to sill and trim.  Watch out world we are just flying along!  But we did decide on a kitchen sink.  I think.  

National S'mores Day

Monday was National S'mores Day.  We lit up the fire bowl and roasted away.  After the (soy) hot dogs of course.

Sunday house

Current view from the front door.  I feel like there is more light than there used to be. The wood stack is more in the living room than it used to be.  Probably not related.  At all.  

And a shelf that was temporarily staged in the studio has been moved to the arctic entry for seasonal gear storage.  Which mostly means my search stuff right now.   Though Chad has plans to put up a couple bike hooks on the other side of the arctic entry so we can hit the road after work.  Someday.  

The wood stack moved so the stove could be installed.  It's awesome.  I even cooked breakfast on it yesterday.   Which is amazing in more than one way.  Especially when I discovered I had no utensils beyond sharp knives and plastic forks.  The eggs prevailed.  So did the facon.  

Next to the stove is the next challenge.  That's where the sink goes.  We spent an hour or so at the local show room on Friday looking at sinks.  We found the perfect one.  But it's ridiculous expensive.  Reusing the wood that supported the chimney (where the washer and dryer are now located) for the sink base and counter is awesome.  We also had some storage epiphanies.  Which is good because the sink is not likely to appear immediately but the dishes will need somewhere to be.    

There's generally more stuff in the pantry now.  Some of it is human food.  Kind of a step up from total camping, but not by much.  Except for the fridge.  That's way better than a cooler.  

The cat is getting really good at supervising.  And getting the humans to open the back door.  He loves hanging outside.  Even when it's raining and the dogs come inside.  He sits in the grass and contemplates.  

No changes to the bathroom - it's still pretty basic.  Which is nice and kind of weird.  It's like a time capsule.  

No real changes to the office either.  Still serving as parking area for my mountain bike.  Ideas for the interior wall coverings are starting to surface.  Giant whiteboard is likely.  Maybe even magnetic.  Since the fridge isn't.  

Nothing more than box shuffling is going on in the studio at the moment.  Several Eureka moments this weekend when I found vessels for drinking out of, real forks, a wooden spoon, two bowls, and sharp knives.  After I bought new ones.  I also set up a donation box in there.  Which already has stuff in it (house purging success!).  

The stairs are....unchanged.  Imagine that wall not there.  Someday.  

The drums are still in the 'closet'.  Which I hope will be a bathroom.  Someday.  

And the rest of the upstairs...is being lived in.  We have some recycled materials that we recently acquired that we are pondering the use of.  Like a front door that may become a headboard.  And a garage door that may become ceiling tiles.  Bet you can't wait to see that.  

Looking forward to wall coverings.  So I can stop getting insulation in my hair.  Someday.  

I heard five

...how many did you hear? Those were gunshots, right?

My muffled words from bed sometime in the wee hours this morning.  Chad says he counted seven.  Three dog night. Three dogs barking.  No sirens. I am crushed by dogs and protective husband. He finally spots the broken back window of the SUV across the alley.  Tatonka and I fall back asleep. We sleep through the police showing up. Percy helps Chad keep watch.  

I still don't feel unsafe here. Which begs the question, is that gene not activated in me or do I believe what I read in the stats and police reports before we decided to buy here and the crimes are predominantly very targeted?  

After dog training this morning I got to watch the circus of the news van and building owner arrive from the comfort of my raspberry bushes. The residents of that building are the source of all the drama in our immediate neighborhood.  

Post Move and More House

Despite what it may seem like, I have not abandoned my blog.  It's just summer.  In Alaska.  And we have a lot of sunshine this year.  And we moved into the house, er, at least out of the other place and into...well...mostly into storage, but 'camping' at the new place.  Dad got my camping mat and staked out the stack of lumber in the kitchen.  I maintain it was so he had really good access to the fridge.  

Dad was here for a total of about 6 weeks.  He saw us through a bunch of the chaos and did all kinds of fun work, including helping put in the temporary shelves in the pantry.  Eventually they will face the other direction and slide out.  And have more food on them.  

Dad also whacked on the willows in the front yard - which are now growing back quickly - so we could actually get to the front of the house.  As per tradition, he also helped plant the garden.  And by helped I mean he did 95% of the work.  Mostly I espoused vague concepts and when I got home from work plants had appeared.  

I recall attempting to take a picture from just inside the front door as a standard at some point.  But I don't know where many of them are.  Several things of interest here - you can see a giant box on my right in the arctic entry, which is the stove; there is a stack of lumber in the living room and through the wall into the kitchen; Chad's smoker is in the living room; so is a giant trash can; the man looks very serious; and he's wearing my shirt (shhhh....).

Here's a better view of the front garden.  We get lots of comments on it.  Or Dad and Chad get the comments and I get to hear about them.  People seem excited to see positive activity at the house.  Most of the outside visible impact will not happen this year.  We are just doing enough outside to stay sane and learn where the sun is and is not so it can be better next year.  Plus there was a crazy discount on annuals at the evil box store and I couldn't stop the plants from jumping into my basket.  In fact, they went and got their own damn basket when I was just there for some gloves for work.  

Transformation of the upstairs is in process.  Here the walls have been spray foam insulated and the plywood has been installed over the cool floor boards which I was told we could not leave naked.  I'm sure that was a sound idea but I still miss the boards.  I will admit that it is a lot quieter now though.  None of the windows upstairs have been replaced yet.  

I still see this every morning when I wake up.  Unless Tatonka has pinned me to the bed staring at his eyeballs and nose.  What it means is that the ceiling is not insulated yet.  That's the number two priority.  

The office is currently harboring my mountain bike, some boxes, and the clothes drying rack.  It's not far from done since only one window is getting replaced and the flooring will stay as is (except for some sanding).  Some day in the not too distant future I will actually have to decide what to cover the interior walls with.  

See, helpful at all stages, like supervising Chad installing the plywood over the floor boards.  While I sat on the bed and worked.  I love our new high speed internet.  It was well worth waiting for and I delighted in cancelling my slow speed.  

And then...the ceiling got painted downstairs.  This is the point at which I say how wonderful he is and how much I appreciate all his hard work.  He's amazing.  Fabulous.  A wonder to behold.  But he finally got around to sealing up the house and painting on the day that I flew down to WA for nine days.  Which meant when I came home to pack and head out I could not get upstairs.  He sealed the cat up there and the fumes downstairs were amazing.  Walking from the front door to the back door made my eyes water.  Only the nasty primer would work on this house - we tested several but they all bled through.  So I hung out in the garden with Dad and we weeded.  In my office cloths.  It was an adventure.  And the ceiling looks awesome.  And only the top shelf in the bathroom had the plastic come off part way through the process.  Toothbrush isn't so bad with primer on it....

The kitchen....note the windows....

The kitchen...note the windows....

The garden is growing.  Dad did a great job at setting us up with sprinklers so watering wasn't so bad.  And the drip hose helped us discover the foundation needs to be sealed.  We hand water the plants next to the house now.  

View from the arctic entry after the ceiling paint.  I swear the stack of lumber is getting smaller.  We have some temporary light fixtures installed in select locations.  I had no idea that light fixtures came in so many varieties.  

Pretty soon after moving in we realized that it was time to go buy the washer and dryer.  So we spent a perfectly good and sunny weekend morning at the appliance store.  And are deliciously happy.  Some day we will find the safe place that we put the manual and will figure out what all the settings mean.  Installed while I was away and a delicious improvement to return home to.  

The dogs are soooo over the construction fun.  They would like us to get a couple more great dog beds.  We now need three on each floor.  Even though Tonka often lays on the floor.  

This also happened mostly while I was away.  The walls got covered up (see, I told you the lumber pile was getting smaller), and the range hood got installed.  We opted for running extra piping in the rafters and using an existing hole in the side of the house.  

View out the front door.  The work continues.  Much has been done since the last round of pics.  But Chad has also started working outside the home more too.  So progress will likely slow down a bit.  I will take some more pics this weekend.  And try to pry out of his hands those he took in my absence.  If I can pull myself away from the raspberry picking.