Gone are the nights of flannel-wrapped sleep in Jim & Johanna's guest room, though Rebus & Sadie shared a snooze on the couch here on Ruth's Ridge the other afternoon. Looking at the picture of R, R 'n S reminds me that we seem to have identified the cause of Rebus' sometimes grouchy demeanor at bedtime; it appears that his ten years may have brought with them some arthritic aches. We began giving him some coated baby aspirin a few days ago, and he seemed almost immediately to become happier, more spry. His getting up on the couch with Sadie happened within 12 hours of getting his first dosage.
We actually did have a bit of a first Christmas on the Ridge on the 25th. Jill, Lee, Claire & Thomas all braved the slick driving conditions that descended on Manitoba for the Yule holiday. They brought snacks of all kinds, which were largely consumed before Ruth served up the slow cooker of beef stew. This feast was topped off with a competitive game of Blokus, which I mostly slept through.
Finally, on the morning of the 29th, Steve Hintz showed up with the satellite dish that had gone missing in UPS's holiday warehouse. By early afternoon Ruth's Ridge had a functioning internet connection.
On the 30th, I began working on the most important room in the house... the water closet. This task was made all the more critical given that I'd finally been hit with the stomach flu Ruth had contracted some days earlier. By Ruth's return from work, I had managed to install the sub-floor, lay the tiles, modify the drain lines, install the toilet flange and mount the toilet. We finally had achieved rudimentary indoor plumbing... using a pail of water as the mode of flushing.
New Year's Eve was a momentous day for Ruth & I. Though we were both still suffering with a bout of stomach flu, we soldiered on with what tasks we could. Happily, we'd been able to get a well water sample in for analysis just before Christmas. We got the results by email shortly after lunch on the 30th. I called Filtrex, a water conditioning supplier in Winnipeg, with the analysis. Doug called me back 30 minutes later with a cost, which we accepted, and then promised to have our unit ready for pick-up the following morning.
I returned to the Ridge with the water conditioner and a number of other items by mid-morning. It had occurred to me that a working toilet would mean starting to load the septic tank, so I first got the pump wired into the panel and confirmed that it was fully functional. Then I plumbed in the conditioner, the hot water tank and the toilet water supply, then wired up the hot water tank and the conditioner.
Our New Year's celebration on Ruth's Ridge consisted of Ruth executing the first official flush in the throne room at 9 p.m. That done, we were ready for bed.
Another advance in creature comfort occurred this past Thursday. We managed to find many high-end plumbing pieces and appliances at ridiculous prices on Kijiji prior to and during the build. One such purchase was a Kohler bathroom suite with Price Pfister fittings. In an ideal world, our loft bathroom would have housed this suite except for a small, but major oversight on my part. The first oversight was not checking the dimensions of the jet tub prior to the walls being erected. The second oversight was not checking those same dimensions prior to my roughing in the main vent stack. Long story short, the space for the tub was too short.
Short addendum to long story short, I installed the Price Pfister tub fittings on a new tub after some considerable modification and cobbling. Once again, around 9 p.m. we had added another basic household function to Ruth's Ridge. No more snow baths or outhouses. It's astounding how much one appreciates these common conveniences when faced with the amount of work required to bring each of them to completion.
Today, after many time-saving hours of using Dave & Carmen Matthews' airless paint sprayer, Ruth & I began the task of applying the supposedly final coat of ceiling paint to the kitchen, dining room and great room. While I had learned how to run the sprayer quite well, we came to the realization that the finish we desired would require going the slower route of rolling the paint on and well as out.
Suffice to say, by mid-afternoon, Ruth & I both had seriously cramped necks after painting said three ceilings, nominally 800 sq.ft., with 2.5 gallons of paint. It was time for a short walk off a long driveway with our two lovely pooches. The light was, as always, breathtaking. So was Ruth and the dogs.
Perhaps I'll post again soon. Off tomorrow for a long-overdue visit with my parents down in Winkler.
