We're So Exsided

Yeah, the juvenile punning never stops, I know. It's a pity that a year's hard work can't make an aging man adopt a more circumspect, honourable approach to the Queen's English, but you are... and here I am on the other side of siding.
Thomas and I wrapped up – both literally and figuratively – the siding of the house this Wednesday. Admittedly, I still have a whack of work to do with a caulking gun and touch-up paint roller, but the work of leveling, establishing starting lines, transferring starting lines, nailing up trim and siding, sweating on the roof, teetering on the ladders... that's done. Thomas still has all his digits and the equally important nails on his right hand, so his classical guitar practice should continue without interruption.
Frankly, I'll miss having the beer and snack stealing offspring around. He demonstrated a propensity to learn quickly and, over the five or six weeks he worked with me, we developed the ability to work both independently and intuitively to keep the projects moving forward. Thanks much, Tom.

Back on July 21st, after many calls to MTS, I was stunned to see their contractors actually trenching in the line two weeks earlier than the date suggested in conversation with them the day before. As of this coming Monday, we should see our cell phone bill plummet.
What else has been happening? Ruth took the last week of July as holidays and painted hundreds of feet of siding trim, baseboards and door & window casing. She also stained and finished the three main entry doors.
The pantry, linen closet and loft closet shelving will be installed in a couple of days. And, as of Monday, we'll have a land-line phone, after which I can get on my bike and head to Montana for a rally.

And, by way of looking forward, we had John Morgan of Prairie Habitats up to assess Ruth's Ridge on Wednesday evening. He was excited to find that we have the best stand of hair grass (a native tallgrass prairie species) he's seen. He'll be harvesting some of it for our shared uses, and he has given us a report upon which we can start to rebuild a more original habitat.

Last weekend, I finally pulled everything out of the workshop, cleaned up the two BMWs, set up shelving, unpacked the shop supplies, and actually got both bikes started and out for a warm-up ride. My, my, but I've missed riding.

Last Sunday, Cole came up for our first father/son photo shoot in a long time. I think of it as the unofficial start of my upcoming 30-year photo project, "Within Walking Distance." Thanks, Cole.

And thanks, too, to Ruth for her unflagging enthusiasm about this project. Though I am immensely tired, we both see that we're into the last few months of hard work to get the deficiency list pared down in anticipation of a thank-you party for our suppliers, family, friends and new neighbours. With a little luck, that will still happen before the snow flies.

Well, I'm off to pack and prep the bike.

After a Pair of Visitors Last Night, Ruth an'da Dawgs went Walkies Tonight

Last Night's Visitors after the Storm


A Walk after the Non-Storm

Closing in on One Year

As of today, it's one year and counting since we started the build on Ruth's Ridge. On July 13, 2009 Delaeno & Davis built the pad forms, I built the outhouse, and the well was drilled. Then, on the 16th, we were issued the building permit. With so much yet left to do, it's often difficult to take note of how much has been done.Thanks to Delaeno's efforts, all of the loft railings and banisters are installed. He's also fabricated and installed a set of permanent stairs to the bonus room above the garage which, at some near-future point, he will also close in.
Meanwhile, Ruth & I managed to finish the master bathroom shower grouting, after which Thomas and I installed the glass wall/door and I finished the plumbing fixture install. There have now been some four showers on Ruth's Ridge that we didn't curse... the rain having also taken a bit of a blessed break for the past week or so. That said, thunderstorms are threatened again today.
Thomas and I have also finished the verandah and most of the railing thereon. Today, in lieu of a second installing exterior trim (a precursor to installing siding), we prepped and oiled the loft stair treads.
The transfer switch for our new (barely used) replacement generator has arrived and the rest of the bits are stacked with it in the basement awaiting installation. Ruth has over half of the interior doors painted.

I was also able to apply another coat of Duraseal to the loft and MBR floors with the result being that Ruth & I have now actually taken up nocturnal residence in our bedroom... complete with bureaus, side tables and such. Oh the modern decadence.

The siding will be a protracted effort and I, for one, am not particularly looking forward to some of the second-storey work. Heights are like banks were to Stephen Leacock... rattling.
Oh, and I had some time to grow a beard, and an absolutely lovable 1 1/2 y-o male cat showed up that I would love to have kept but was sent to the Humane Society instead, and the outhouse I built a year ago today is half overgrown.
Well, there we go; a posting just under one month are the last.

Until next time.

It's Been a Wild Ride on Ruth's Ark

A lot has transpired since the last blog entry back in late May.

I've been able to finally feel that my head's generally above water on the house project and, after six months of feeling that the to-do list was not shrinking, this is a very good thing. Then, too, Delaeno Rempel returned for a few days last week and expects to be back for perhaps a couple more short stints. And, as of this past Friday, I have an assistant – my son, Thomas, for a few weeks. Finally, speaking of heads above water, we had a deluge last week Tuesday.
Delaeno & I were returning from a buying junket to Winnipeg last Tuesday afternoon. The skies out toward Balmoral were the most amazing shade of purple. Light rain began falling about 10 minutes from home, but the bladder of heaven absolutely ruptured as we pulled onto the yard. It only took a couple of minutes to unload the trailer, but we were both drenched by then. We learned the next day that our area got up to 5 inches of rain within an hour, making the week's tally over 8 inches.

By nightfall, Greg of the RM of Rockwood was at the end of our drive setting up "Road Closed" signs because the Jackfish Creek one mile east of us was flowing over the road. In addition, water was running over the road half a mile west of us, and the intersection of our road and Road 6E one and a half miles east of us was completely submerged. An hour later, the water was running over our drive, and so it continued for almost 36 hours. Our sump pump kicked in every three minutes for almost a week thereafter, spewing out 30 gallons every cycle.

On more pleasantly exciting fronts, Delaeno spent two and a half days installing our bi-fold doors and our loft stair treads, and also working with me to plan our railing system. We're looking forward to his return in the next short while to coordinate the installation of our railings and, possibly to get me started with building a stairway to our bonus room above the garage.

Meanwhile, Thomas started his employ here by restacking the 4-5 cords of wood I cut last year. After that, we got busy wrapping the verandah posts with pre-finished material and installed the lighting. Today, we managed to get the entire verandah perimeter framing done. With luck, we will have this particular project completed well before week's end.

On the weekend, I managed to get most of the last four wiring circuits done. We should be able to call for final electrical inspection within the week.

Oh, and our shower should be functional within a week or so. Can't imagine what having showers instead of baths will be like. Much to be thrilled about in here. Meanwhile, the light outside continues to amaze now that the heavy rainclouds have departed.

I Think I Can See the End...

... and it looks like Rudolph's butt – way up ahead, catapulting through the black ether of mid-winter; a winking star-burst of exhaustive potential. Yep, the list is shorter, more definitive, but I see Christmas 2010 as the likely terminus for the work of essentially completing this little task I set for myself.
That said, the shell that, for nearly six months, served as a heated campsite is now beginning to manifest evidence in many corners that a real house is in the offing here. Recently, Bruce Oughten and his assistant, Fred, came by for two days of work to get the eavestroughs and gutters installed.Then, much to my astonishment, a Ditch Witch showed up on the driveway late last week. Murray Klassen, the operator for Wiebe's Trenching (Morden) advised me that we are slated to finally get a phone land line in early June. MTS seemed unwilling or unable to share this tidbit with us.

What else? Costco sent a recall notice for my prized Cummins Onan generator. "No, Cummins will not endeavour to repair the unit. No, we won't be carrying Cummins for the foreseeable future." So I found a nearly-new genset over three times more generative that will allow us to run even our air-source heat pump/AC unit and a bunch of other stuff.Oh, and Paula from Manitoba Hydro's Stonewall office phoned with a friendly reminder that my wiring has to be complete by mid-July. And the verandah wood package from Parkside Home Hardware (Winkler) is featured front-and-centre of the house awaiting installation. And McMunn & Yates should be delivering the last of my siding supplies in the next few days.

The inside story is that the tiling David & Dale did looks fabulous. Since they finished that (for me) monumental task, I have finished installing all the pre-hung doors, the dishwasher, the kitchen kickplates, the kitchen cupboard trim, two more toilets, the loft vanity/sink, three medicine cabinets, the master bath lighting, tidy the garage and basement a bit....
Oh, and I managed to swap the snowblower for the lawnmower on the John Deere. What a prize that owner's manual is: cryptic, poorly illustrated and, mostly, pretty useless.
As of tomorrow, I'm switching priorities to three things: the cladding of the verandah beams, completing all electrical installation, and starting the construction of the back porch and the verandah. To add a little pressure to an otherwise leisurely completion backwards principle (decades-old musical allusion there), we are having a birthday celebration for Thomas & Claire in early June, are hosting the choir wrap-up party on June 26th, and the hosting granddaughter, Kate's, first b'day at the end of June.

Hey, the grass and trees are green, the temperatures are pleasant, the flies and mosquitoes are no-existent, and the ticks are few and lackadaisical. What more could a BMW riding photographer ask for, I ask you.

Oh, a post script. The three cats are showing the first signs of getting along.

Der letzte Teil von Fussboden

There's a pun in the title, which translates roughly as, "the last part (installment) on flooring." We're talking tile flooring here.

Ruth had surgery on April 29th to correct the triggering of her fingers on her right hand. On the following Tuesday, daughter Allison drove Ruth and grand-daughter, Kate, to Minneapolis to visit Ruth's sister, Sharon, and her family. It had always been Ruth's plan to do the tiling of our shower and floors, but the diminished hand function overruled that intention. So I was set to learn how to do this particular task while she was gone.

Just as they were crossing the U.S. border, my cell phone rang. It was David Ives. He and his nephew, Dale, had done our taping and plastering and, a few weeks earlier, I had called to see if they might have a few days to do the tile floors. Both of them have done and, more particularly, enjoy, tiling. I, on the other hand, have never done tiling (other than vinyl) and, after the 1,300 sq. ft. of hardwood, was loath to get back down on my knees again. But, back to the Tuesday call from David.
Turns out, they now had some uncommitted time on their hands and David wanted to know how I was getting on with the tiling. I was thrilled to say I could have the place in readiness for first thing Wednesday morning. I hooked up the trailer and headed off to pick up the sub-flooring and other supplies then, upon returning to Ruth's Ridge, cleared the bathrooms, kitchen and mudroom floors.

By Wednesday evening, the sub-flooring was installed. By Thursday evening, the two bathrooms and most of the kitchen tiles were laid. By Friday, the majority of the mudroom was tiled. On Sunday evening, Ruth returned from Minneapolis. It's fair to say she enjoyed her Mother's Day surprise.David & Dale returned on Monday to complete the mudroom tiling which, because this house has more angles than a Federal politician (and most politicians seem to enjoy hanging out in the mudroom) posed a major challenge for measuring and cutting. On Tuesday, they returned for the grouting and, voila, the living-space floors on Ruth's Ridge were completed. What remains is to paint the basement and garage floors to eliminate perpetual concrete dust.

The five days D&D spent have saved me/us a couple of weeks, I'm sure. I can now get to tasks with which I'm more familiar: installing sinks, toilets, dishwashers, etc. I've already hung about half of the interior doors (the first one taking a day; the next, less than 2 hours).
Pictures of the completed floors next post. Thanks so much, D&D, for the great Ruth-surprise and the marvelous Gord-relief intervention.

Yesterday, the verandah wood package showed up. Can't wait to finally get to some outside work after being confined to quarters for the past 6 months.