Gimme Shelter

Enough with the snow already!
Remember that parody about the 12 days of Christmas? Well that's how I am feeling about the snow. Thank God I don't live someplace like Minnesota.
The first 6" of snow was a treat.. very beautiful, and a welcome sight.
The next 3" made me a little concerned about an elderly neighbor, so I went to check on her and used the only clear day (December 19th) to do another grocery run before the real storm hit.
At 18" I thought my 4x4 Jeep would just go out the garage and through the snow. Wrong. A neighbor came down, beat the snow down along the driveway a bit and backed my jeep into the garage so I would only have to go forward, as that is easier than going backward.
My 4x4 John Deere Gator also doesn't clear 18" of snow, and once I got it stuck, it took two hours to dig it free so I could back it the 5' I made forward , back into the barn.
Saturday afternoon Ed was supposed to fly home as per usual. Both Alaska Air and Southwest Air apparently felt that Portland Airport was a no-go , and cancelled all their flights, leaving thousands of holiday travellers stranded. After Ed waited all day at the airport, hoping for a make-up flight, Sunday was also a no-go.
Monday morning, with 4" more, I thought I'd better keep that driveway clear, so I tried to drive the jeep back and forth, like my neighbor did, to clear it. I don't back up well under normal circumstances, and I failed to factor that into the equation. After re-evaluating the situation, I thought I'd just park the jeep out near the road instead.Trees were breaking and falling everywhere, and it sounded like cannonfire. After watching several tree limbs drop like soldiers at Gettysburg, I reconsidered, and backed up (!) far enough to clear most of the trees, and left the rest to luck.
Ten more inches of snow for Christmas.
By Christmas day, I'd gone past the point of reasonableness, and called Ed in tears, which is not my norm. He managed to get some emergency time off, and thank goodness, the airlines were finally flying again.
Friday morning Ed flew home with my daughter and granddaughter. Thank goodness, because I wouldn't have been able to get out of the driveway. It started to rain Friday night.
Now, four days later, the snow is down by about half, the driveway is marginally passable, and it's supposed to rain quite a bit in the next week. I can hardly wait.
Ed spent his entire days off using the tractor to clear snow out of the driveway. He goes back to work tomorrow morning...if I let him leave. We learned several things:
1. 4x4 isn't the end all and be all of traction.
2. We need different tires on the truck and the jeep.
3. I need to learn to drive the tractor, even if it's scary.
4. I'm not as independent as I thought I was.
5. Snow is really pretty on postcards, or from inside the ski lodge.
It goes without saying that Ed didn't get as much done as he would have liked on the building project. He is still working on rough plumbing.

There's Snow Business

Ed has been working on the plumbing for the last two weeks. I've decided that being a plumber is an underappreciated job, and for several reasons.

1. We all need it, but nobody wants to admit it.

2. It's really boring work.

3. It doesn't photograph well.

Ed was getting pretty frustrated because the waste lines had to go into the ceiling of the garage area (or under the floor of the apartment, depending on perspective). Cue in Paul Simon's "One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor". Well it's not like the garage is empty. There are piles of lumber, tools, tool buckets, firewood, loose coils of extension cords, not to mention a freezer and a 71 Boss 302 Mustang silently waiting to be restored. Try setting a ladder over that! A stack of can lights, the bedroom ceiling fan, a wall heater..on and on. Now drop the temperature to about 30 F just to add icing (sorry couldn't stop myself) to the irritation cake. Finally, he had to stop. We cleared out some stuff, and things went much more smoothly.

Finally he was to the point that he had to know where the drain line for the bathtub was going to go, so off to town for a tub. We were pretty sure we wanted a porcelain over cast iron tub, but we thought we'd look at all of them. The fiberglass is much less expensive. The deciding factor was weight. Can Big Ed haul a six gazillion pound cast iron tub up 15' in the air and through a window by himself using only a rope? The answer? Well of course he can! I'm a believer. But why should he? We got the fiberglass tub.

He finished up the rough plumbing for the kitchen and bath sinks, bath/shower, toilet and washing machine. It's all hooked up to the septic lines, and that's a very good thing.

This last weekend, we had snow. Don't you roll your eyes at me in that tone of voice! It's as much snow as two people raised in the desert ever need to see. It was darned cold..(stop that!) and we found out that the plastic water supply pipe doesn't flex well when cold, so we brought it into the house to warm up. Not exactly a decorator item for the living room, but whatever..Did I mention the door to the pumphouse blew open and we had forgotten to turn the heater on for the winter? We caught the pipes just in time.

Tuesday morning we got up and it was 16 F. That's about as cold as it ever needs to get. We were expecting more snow during the week, so Ed finished up the door, and installed it. He also put a sheet of plywood over the front window opening to keep most of the snow out. Once we get the plumbing and wiring done and inspected, we can get sheetrock delivered and put that window in.

We've had about 7" of snow in two days, which for us is a lot. 7" of rain here is no big deal, but snow...well that's another ball game ..a snowball game.

I've taken this same shot off the balcony during the summer, fall, and early winter. So I took one of the snow in the pasture. In the spring, I'll take the last of the series and call it art!

OK..ok, just two more cause I'm goofy about the snow..

That's it. Thanks for not laughing out loud.

A Wasted Day

Sunday Ed worked all day installing the kitchen waste line, only to finish with that little nagging feeling....better check the book. Sure enough, he made a mistake. He'll have to cut some of it out and re-do it.

We still haven't had any serious rain, so Monday morning Ed finished the house wrap on the second floor. He taped the wrap around the windows and down the seams, and by afternoon the rain had begun.. not the 3"-per-day-wash-away-the-neighbors rain, but wet enough.

The whole time he's working..up the ladder, down the ladder, hammer tacks in for the wrap, pieces of wrap flapping in the wind, using the skilsaw, whatever, he has company. Momma and the twins are chomping on the grass between the chicken coop and the garage. We make a point to not friendly up the deer because they need to be wary of people. As close to coddling them as we get is to teach the dog not to chase them. She started grooming one of the twins up one side and down the other, always aware but unconcerned with the entire construction process.

By Tuesday morning we'd had an inch of rain. We drove into town to get more ABS fittings and other supplies. He re-did the kitchen waste plumbing, and installed the vent pipe as well.

Meanwhile I've been turned loose with a paintbrush, always a risky endeavor. I painted the door frame to match the exterior trim, and stained the other side of the front door. A couple coats of spar varnish, and it should be good to go!

A Flush Is Better Than A Full House

The week of the 17th, I went to see my kids for a few days, so Ed was alone, except for pet duty. My guess is, he gets more done when I'm gone, but the meals are worse.

There was a reason we went to college. It was so we wouldn't have to dig ditches for a living. Now Ed does it for fun! He had to dig a trench for the new sewer line to go out to the septic tank. The good news is..we have a good sized tractor with a backhoe. The bad news is..because of how the garage is situated, and the slope adjacent to it, we can't get it back there to help. So out came the shovel, and Ed went to work.

After hand digging a 40' trench, 4' deep, he figured he had his back and bicep workout in for the week. In went the ABS pipe.

He finished framing in the front and rear soffits, and the returns, and put the plywood up on them. It's amazing what a difference it makes. Then he started wrapping the house. That last window is still out because it is the only easy (a relative term) access we have to bring in the sheetrock.

The fireplace and the exposed plywood are wrapped. We've been pretty lucky so far in that the weather has held off. But any minute it could all change.

If you look at last month's entry, I added a picture of the valley dressed in her fall finery. Now most of the leaves have fallen. Usually hidden by foliage, we can see the creek in the middle pasture, and the west pasture is looking pretty bare.

But that's ok. It all has it's own beauty. In December we usually get a few days of snow, and the pasture is transformed. That little duckling turns into a beautiful swan!

This last week Ed took out the laser level to check the slope on that sewer line and decided to increase the drop. As we all know from poker night, a flush beats a full house.

My job was to do something with the fiberglass door. We bought fiberglass because the west side of the building takes a beating from the weather. In the summer the sun doesn't set until 8:30 pm, often hotter than one would expect. In the winter, the storms roar up the river gorge and the west side takes all the rain and wind. I saw a youtube video by Zar stains http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rSZHQkfUFw&feature=related that said the textured fiberglass would take a wood stain, so I thought I'd try it. Actually the first half of the video is about faux graining a steel door, but in about the middle is the part about the fiberglass textured doors. So I figured if it didn't work out, I could always just paint it. Well I'll be darned if it didn't look pretty nice! You have to use a stain quite a bit darker than you would expect though. This is one coat of stain, and we'll apply two coats of sealer. We debated trying to put on a second coat of stain, but we were worried that it would dissolve the first, since the fiberglass doesn't absorb stain in the same way that wood does. I was just excited that the cats hadn't jumped up to take a look while it was drying!

An Electric Personality

The Genie garage door sensor replacement part came very promptly in the mail. Sunday as I headed off to church, Ed says "When you get home, I should have the garage door opener ready to go." OK! Two hours later, I come home and the garage door is up, so I think "Cool!"

It was raining too hard to work on the windows, and Ed was upstairs starting on the electrical wiring. This time of year, the sun sets at 4:30, and on cloudy days starts getting dark before that, so work days are short.

Monday morning Ed went out to start working, hit the button to open the garage door...nothing. So he goes over to the breaker box, and darned if the breaker had been thrown. So he flips it over and look out! Fireworks everywhere out of the master unit on the garage door opener. By the amount of smoke and stuff, we can pretty much assume the thing is fried. Thank goodness for modern electrical equipment, because short (little electrical joke) of a little smoke and sparks, everything is fine. No buildings were lost in the making of this episode.

For me, Monday was Theresa Goes Shopping Day. I pretty much bought out Lowe's. Ed gave me a list. We need 16 can lights, a wall heater for the bathroom, look at faucets, etc. etc. No problem! Silly me. I get to Lowes...who knew that can lights could be so confusing. 4" 5" 6" , black, white, 1" rims, 2" rims, fisheye, recessed, flush, kits, pieces. My brain felt like leftover jello. So I took the bit between my teeth, and started putting stuff in the cart. Then over to the faucets. Same thing..chrome, brushed nickel, bronze, 3" on center, 4" on center, 3 holes, 4, 5 holes. I'm starting to get a headache. I mean, it's exciting, but it's scary, sort of like when you're older sister teases you into taking that first roller coaster ride, and you get locked in your seat but nothing's moving yet..like that. But choose I did. Then on to Sherwin Williams for paint. More parts at the plumbing supply store. The jeep was full.

Monday afternoon and Tuesday Ed worked on putting in the wiring and outlet boxes. The local building inspectors, Mittens and Midnight, were helping at every turn. You can really have a lot of fun with the end of a wire if you're a cat.

All that work doesn't show up very well in the photo, but he got a lot of wiring up and boxes in. Tuesday it really started clouding up and raining. We were expecting quite a storm, and in fact in the 48 hours beginning Tuesday morning, we got 5.25 inches of rain. Rains here all the time...just another day in heaven.

Santa Drives an Econoline Van

Sunday Ed worked all day trying to re-install the garage door opener, which had to come out last spring when the roof came off the garage. How come they never go back together as easily as they come out? Apparently the sensor eyes aren't working and we had to order a new one. Thank goodness for the internet! It'll come in the mail.

Monday morning we were waiting for windows like kids waiting for Santa. Although this isn't a huge house, somehow I was expecting a truck slightly larger than an Econoline van. Whatever works..

Eleven windows, a patio door, and the entry door. Those doors are heavy!

It started to rain (rains here all the time) so we decided to go into town to talk to the plumbing and electrical supply folks. That pretty much ate up the rest of the day. We got home in the dark..too late to take the cats down to the barn. Lucky them..they got to sleep in the house.

Tuesday Ed pulled all the windows and the sliding glass door up to the second story with a rope sling. I don't have a picture of that. I was too busy biting my nails, and besides Ed was really straining to pull that sliding door unit up by himself. Far be it from me to diminish that..it was darned hard. I got to help with the easy stuff. Ed built a temporary platform out where the balcony will be and we put the south windows in first.

The north windows went in much faster, mostly because there was a relatively secure place to stand while Ed was working (I got the inside part). Ed wants to keep the big central window open until after sheetrock is delivered. We'll probably order that next week.

It's Not Cramped, It's Cozy!

Ed finished the interior framing this weekend. Man, that bedroom is tiny! It's about 10'x10', more or less, which is about the same size as our guest bedrooms now. It will be livable, but only just. We had friends that lived in a cab-over camper for a year while their place was being built, and they had a toddler! We only have a dog and three cats. We can do this.

This is the kitchen. The refrigerator will be first along the left wall, then counter space. The double sink will be under the double window, then the counter will run to the right to the wall (bedroom wall) , turning into desk under the large window. We'll have an island, about 4'x6' that will have the stovetop and oven, and an eating counter. Can you see it?

Ed spent most of Tuesday morning finishing up and cleaning up for the rough framing inspection. The building department here has been pleasant, helpful and easy to work with. But having an inspection is like having your teeth cleaned. They don't hurt you, but you hate it anyway. All went well, of course. Ed is pretty precise about his projects. It was a milestone though. One baby step down, 150 baby steps to go!

Windows and exterior doors come Monday. Of course, it's supposed to start raining this week, and we won't see the sun for a while.