Damped Down & Holding

Four nights ago, as I moaned about the weather (again), I checked back to the same day last year. Cold, windy & rainy this year compared with hot, sunny & roofing last year. Well, I'm happy not to be roofing, but I wouldn't mind a little more sun c/w heat units.

That said, today has been absolutely gorgeous, and visits from neighbours Ed James & Robert Dodd, builder extraordinaire Delaeno & friend Jim were all bonuses. I didn't bust chops to get things done; the weather was just too intoxicating. I did, however, get the garage sorted (after a couple of hours of help from Jim earlier this week) so that one car can now park inside and so that I can start cutting baseboards and casings when the weather turns – as I regret to predict will happen soon. Ruth was also home today and got a batch of soup together for Delaeno (who was here to say hi and to spec materials for closing up the Bonus Room stairs in the garage). She also got another batch of trim boards and trim detail painted.

I managed to surprise Ruth yesterday. When she came home, she found a newly shorn husband as a present for our upcoming anniversary. She's suffered my shagginess very well, but it was time to get back to presentable. The beard may be next, although she's in favour of my keeping it. In any event, I won't shave it until I can unearth the portrait of my dad's grandfather, who he pointed out I now closely resemble. That image to follow.

The pissy weather notwithstanding, we have had a couple of absolutely breathtaking mornings here this week, and they are the real reason for this particular post.

This coming week, I'll be calling for our first pre-final inspection by Deryl or David from the South Interlake Planning District. I say 'first' because they and I know the house is not quite ready to pass the interior inspection. Given that they've been exceedingly understanding of our living here through under some pretty rudimentary circumstances at the outset, I'm happy to have them check our progress and to have their input on some of our finishing steps inside.

The exterior (other than for staircases, final grade and landscaping) should be completed within the next week or two. I have a few more days of caulking on the siding and, with a little luck in finding a plasterer, getting 85' of parging done.

Can't stop thinking about the inevitable arrival of the stark season, though. ("God, let Gord be wrong.")

Hurry Sundown

It's hard to believe that the sun is gone from the sky by 8 p.m. these days. Despite the beautiful day we enjoyed here today, it's not been at all the kind of September we enjoyed last year. We've again had periods of heavy rain (over 107mm in three days), temperatures down to 5 degrees C., and lots of strong winds. Fall feels – and has felt – all too close at hand.

I'll be candid (still): I want this project done, but there's still another two or three months of hard work before that want is anywhere near satisfied. I set us on the path so I won't complain too loudly, but the need to find things, to know where they are, to experience once again the illusion of order and permanence, to get on with family, photography, reading, cooking, socializing, exercise of a purely recreational kind – these desires are making the interregnum all the more challenging.

Still, Jim Rodger mentioned a week or so ago that he'd gone back to my posts in August '09 and was amazed at what we'd done with this cow pasture over a one-year period. I, too, have made similar mental forays, and can say that I feel huge accomplishment at what we've achieved, and with how well we've weathered the period of much-reduced creature comfort.

Since Thomas & I completed the siding installation a month ago, I have worked on: completing the railing on the verandah, re-oiling the main floor hardwood, outfitting more of our master bath, closing in the loft tub, building and fitting shelving into the pantry, loft closet and linen closet, building a wine rack into the kitchen cabinets, installing a myriad number of vintage coat hooks in our mudroom closet, and cladding the exterior chimney in faux stone. Then, last week, began the job of caulking all of the joins on the exterior siding and trim.

Meanwhile, Ruth has painted hundreds of board feet of casing and baseboard material.

With the season's change, the pressure to get ready for snow adds urgency to everything. The driveway has been raked (most of the 515 ft. of it) to level out the crushed limestone. The interior of the house needs to be moved along (casings, baseboards, etc.) so that the remainder of the boxes and furniture can be moved in to make room for garaging the cars again. With a whole lot of luck, we would love to get more lot-grade profiling done around the house so that earth and grass seed could go down before the snow flies.

Another significant item that needs to get done is the wiring-in of the power transfer switch so that we can plug our emergency generator into the house grid in case of winter power outages.

Then, too, the good folks at the South Interlake Planning District would love to see Ruth's Ridge receive its pre-final inspection and approval: that's the inspection that okays the house for occupancy. Hmmm. Working on that. I think I want that approval more than they do.

I did get away for my first motorcycle ride in two years. On August 16th we finally got a phone land-line and, the following day, I loaded up the newer BMW and headed off for the Beartooth Beemers Rendezvous just south of Red Lodge, MT. I managed to put 595 miles between me and Ruth's Ridge within 12 hours, arriving in Red Lodge around noon on Wednesday. Had a wonderful time with the other 150 riders, watched the bike tick over 50,000 miles, managed to challenge my acrophobia by traversing the 10,948 ft. summit on the Beartooth Highway, and cleared my head of all concerns for a week.

So, tomorrow (thanks to a benevolent forecast) I should be back up and down the ladder caulking the siding, with baseboards and casings a fallback task when/if the rain again descends. Onward, upward and, hopefully, not sideways.

Oh, yes, and the beard & hair grow apace. Bushman, Grizzley Adams, whatever. According to my dad, I now am the spitting image of my great-grandfather. As soon as we unearth our wall art from my daughter, Jill's, basement, I'll post a photo of me holding the photo of my great-grandfather.