Sunshine from Clouds (Redut)

Every day seems to be a replay of the day before, or the day before that. Sunny start means rain after lunch... or rainy start means sun around 3 p.m.

Today was the latter. I finally screwed up my determination and tackled the sump pump backup installation, knowing that the rain outside would soon be in our weeping tiles. Sure enough, about 30 minutes into the project, the volume tripled as if someone had opened a tap. Now, if the main pump fails, a second pump set 12" higher will kick in. Now to cover off the eventualities of a power failure while we're gone, etc., etc. Nah!

Following on the interrupted start of the backdoor deck, I was out in the sun by 8:40 Saturday morning. By 7:30 p.m., this is what the final result looked like. Now for a little lattice around the base and that project is complete.The deck serves as a step onto the porch, as a place to enjoy the sunrise, a home for the barbeque and, most importantly, hides the lid of the septic tank. I've built a nifty little lift-out section to access the tank for yearly servicing.

Back to today. After the skies cleared, it seemed like a good idea to start in on cleaning up the detritus of Friday's mini-tornado (or whatever you call winds of 90+ kph). On an evening walk in the rain with Fercos yesterday, I did a rough count of snapped or felled trees in the lower half of our property. That number is now on the order of 75-80. This includes dead trees all the way up to healthy trees with trunk bases of up to 20".

This trailer-load represents the canopy of one Balsam Poplar that went down near the front of the yard. One done, 70-some to go.This trespasser identified himself as The Orange Stihler.

"I got sunshine on a cloudy day..."

First, the weather report. Manitoba had a slew of warnings for wind, thunder storms, etc. today. Road 88N, though, was a sunny paradise for the morning. By 1:30, however, the winds had started shifting around, purple clouds passed to the west of us, it began to spit, and I put aside my work on the back-door deck.

I needed to go to Stonewall on some business. On arriving in town, I asked the insurance agent about the flooded intersections. She stated that she hadn't been able to see across the street 30 minutes ago. As I turned north for home, I flogged myself for not having acted on my thought of bringing a camera. The low north sky featured a long (perhaps 5 miles), thin, low-hanging black cloud with a purple bottom, bright white underbelly and blue-white cap. Oh, and lightning bursting from all sides. I found out later that Teulon to the north of us had been pelted with hail.Road 88N, however, was virtually untouched by moisture. But this is what greeted me as I turned onto the driveway.
Earlier today, it fell to my friend, Perry Nodelman, to point out the correct attribution for "Who has seen the wind," a poem I recalled from Grade 1 days. The effects of the day, seen in these pictures, may have been the literary gods retribution for my flawed memory. If so, "I really done a baaad thing."


As I took photos, I toted up the casualties: at least 24 trees were toppled or snapped halfway up. The power was out and the sump pit was already full (again). Happily, the effort in wiring in a transfer switch was fully rewarded. With the generator connected and fired up, the sump pump started up, as did the fridge, freezer and other necessary utilities.By 5:15 the power was back up and the driveway was again passable. That's when Smokey Robinson broke into "My Girl" under a once-again clear blue sky. The rest of the yard awaits chainsaw massacre tomorrow.Well, I have been making steadier progress on the deficiency list for the past couple of weeks. The verandah steps need only the railings to call that task complete. The sump pit will have a back-up pump joining the main pump this weekend, the back porch deck will be completed as soon as the weather cooperates, the laundry area will be complete as soon as Ikea ships the right doors, and, and, and. I may finish this project yet.

Like Treacle through the Hourglass...

To the tenacious few and/or surfers who happen to stumble upon this little blog, my apologies for the span of time between posts these days. When you have nothing of note to pass on, best to keep your typing fingers to yourself.

Happily, unlike the folks along the Assiniboine, our waters have receded. These photos were as of April 12th. There's only a small stream now.

Progress, I am loath to say, has been painfully limited of late. On the downside, sleep apnea had pretty much robbed me of any ability to fuse will with focus. Hence, little progress. On the upside, I've been able to help Lee, my daughter Jill's husband, renovate their main floor bath (plumbing, tub install, tiling) and the rewiring of their now gutted living room, kitchen & dining room.

The other good news is that we've made some progress in addressing the affects of sleep apnea. Now for that Level One sleep study after I see the Sleep Disorder Centre in 5 weeks.

On the non-building front, the return of wildlife and the ongoing delight of Fercos, the new Corgi, have been bright spots in this dull spring. The Sandhill Cranes are back. So are the Gold Finches, Baltimore Orioles. Something new for us is the arrival of the Common Snipe. (For photos & info check out my new photo blog.) We have also seen fresh evidence of Moose crossings at the north boundary of our property.

On April 20th, Kenton Byle was again on-site applying a layer of quarter-down to our driveway. It looks much more finished and should allow me to set the snowblower for a more thorough clearing.

Our first minor disaster visited on May 3rd. I'd been wiring at Lee's all day. Ruth got home around 6:30 and went to the basement to turn on the water. Just before jumping into bed at 10:45, I went to the basement – for what I don't remember anymore, as I heard and saw water on the floor as I rounded the landing.

The sump pump, when I pulled it out of the pit, was steaming. Clearly, it had seized early in the day, allowing water to rise in the 12" fill below the concrete, then slowly start tracking all over the basement some time after Ruth's turning on the water.

What followed was a frantic hour or more as we worked to get boxes of books, artwork and other susceptible items out of harm's way. Sometime during this process, I got a 1/6 hp pump pushing water out the window via a garden hose. Once the boxes, etc. were raised, I began vacuuming up the water, then carrying it up the stairs and outside, two buckets at a time. Until 3 a.m., Ruth was able to stay awake and open doors for me. I carried on until 5 a.m., carrying a total of somewhere 80 and 120 pails up and out.

By this time, most of the water was off the floor and the pump was just barely keeping up. I slept for an hour, went down to vacuum up a few more pail-fulls, and was on the way to Home Depot by 6:22. By 8:26, I was back home, sloshing through a bit of overflow, and installing the new pump. Once hooked up, it ran for almost 2 hours before most of the catch-up was complete. Suffice to say, I am now in the process of installing a second new pump about 8" higher to act as a backup in case the primary pump ever fails.

The laundry area is the most current item slated for completion. Now feeling quite a bit better, I got the cupboards installed in fairly short order. Then, on the day I installed the drawers and doors (hoping to give Ruth something to smile about) she came in, looked, and said, "Those aren't the right doors."

Ikea somehow changed the order from one style to another. This laundry area is so nice because, as they say, I'll get to do it twice. Happily this will involve only the doors and side cover panels. Still, never fun to redo.

I expect I'll be able to move a number of projects along over the next month or so. Time will tell.

Tides Have Turned like the Seasons

It's just after 6 p.m. as I write. The day, which was cloudy until an hour or two ago, reached a temperature of 11º C. The sun, over the past couple of hours, has helped to turn much of the remaining snow-pack into water. The capacity of the culvert at the end of our driveway has finally been eclipsed and water is running over the drive as well.
(The topmost photo was taken about a week ago, and the photo immediately above this text, just a few days ago. All the snow is now gone from the ditch and the culvert is under about 12 inches of water.)


A mile to the east, the Jackfish Creek has steadily crept up to the crown of the roadway and should be overflowing there by nightfall.

All said, we've been very fortunate with the spring thaw. The field west of the house was about one-third covered in ice before the first snow. By the end of the winter, the blanket of snow in that field was typically 15- 30 inches deep. Rains over the past couple of weeks have been very limited and, this weekend, the predicted 30 mm rainfall did not materialize.

Something that did materialize, two weeks ago tomorrow, is a Corgi pup. Ruth had been urging me to consider another dog for the past month or so. I kept saying I wasn't ready, then allowed that the only dog I wanted if/as when, was a Corgi. This information only helped to focus her searches more precisely. She forwarded a Kijiji ad for a lovely sable-coloured female Corgi pup, which I passed on to Rebus' breeder, Irenne Bader. She suggested that it would be better to pass on that dog for various reasons, which was fine with me as she was planning to breed her female this summer. Two hours later, Irenne phoned again and told me to contact Barb Whymark in Alix, AB. Why, I asked. Just call, she said. I did, and found that Barb had a six-month old male Corgi available.

So, on Sunday morning at 6:35 a.m. two weeks ago, I jumped in the car and drove 1,400 km in 13.5 hours, stayed the night in Stettler, AB then, in the morning drove the short distance to Barb's home. Barb is delightful. She raised German Shepherds for 40 years, then switched to Corgis. She'd sent me pictures of the little fellow and, upon meeting him, the bond was sealed. I left Alix at 12:50 a.m. and, 14.5 hours and the same 1,400 km later, I arrived back at Ruth's Ridge at 3:15 a.m.

Fercos is already a fully incorporated member of our household. I'd wax poetic about the little fellow but, suffice to say, he is a much-loved addition to our home: a lovely reminder of the amazing Corgi that preceded him, but an absolutely wonderful dog in his own right. He is as soulful as Mr. Bean, but he is also a delightfully playful and cuddly pup. Ruth says that we are once again complete, and that I am coming back into my own.

Life is good.

If I didn't have enough excuses for working at a glacial pace before, Fercos gives me all the excuse I need. Tomorrow, though, a fellow is showing up to tape and plaster the garage to bring it into conformity with fire regulations. Baseboards & casings should be done before too long and, this week, I pick up the Ikea order for our laundry room cabinets. I'm looking forward to getting them in.

I've set a tentative date by which I'd like to have the pre-final inspection done, so that we can get on with our building trades appreciation open house. Maybe that can coincide with the two-year anniversary of the commencement of this build. Wouldn't be too early, would it?

Thinking about Digging Out

It's been nigh unto five weeks since the first post of 2011; what a far cry from the heady days back in the latter half of 2009. God, that feels like so long ago, yet it sounds like yesterday.

I will be the first to admit that progress has slowed dramatically over the past months. The causes? The need to take some time for activities that align more closely with my innate passions (see my two new photography blogs); a measure of boredom and frustration with working on my own for a year; helping my aging parents; helping my son-in-law, Lee, with a bathroom reno, and; more particularly, a return to profound sleep apnea. (I had been diagnosed with moderately severe sleep apnea back in the summer of 2001.)

For those who are not familiar with the ailment, the individual stops breathing sporadically throughout the night. When the body re-initiates breathing, the brain wakens, thereby interrupting restorative sleep. A wide range of physiological phenomena cascade from that situation, exacerbating the individual's plight. In addition to malaise and profound fatigue, my migraines returned with a vengeance. A few years with a dental device, followed by a CPAP machine, brought me back to health, vigour and happiness.

This past fall, the quality of my sleep began to suffer again. As time went on, I awoke less rested, more cotton-batten headed. I began napping – often twice a day for a couple of hours each. And all of this despite using my CPAP machine nightly. At my annual physical in early January, my doctor referred me back to the Sleep Disorder Centre and, much to my surprise, I received an appointment within two weeks. (The usual waiting time in Manitoba is up to three years.) I was issued an "smart" CPAP machine to record my sleep patterns for a month. In addition, the machine automatically adjusted air pressure into my airway to maintain breathing.

We were shocked to learn that the pressures required to keep my airway open were more than twice my machine setting.Despite the increased pressures, I experienced little improvement in energy or alertness. The two bright spots coming out of the month of monitoring were the recommendation that I undergo another Level 1 sleep study and the setting of my machine so that the pressures were correct, and that the pressure eased when I exhaled. Voilà, the first good night's sleep in over six months.

Enough of this long, self-pitying saga. I am feeling better overall, am now actually working regularly, and am particularly looking forward to improved therapy when my sleep study is done, likely prior to month's end.

So, what about Ruth's Ridge? Since the last post, Ruth & I have finished the tiling projects in the kitchen, powder room and loft bath area. The tiles are set (Ruth did all the setting, including hand-placing all the kitchen backsplash), the grouting done (and that's the last time I use epoxy grout, I hope), and sink and bathtub are again operational. We still have some caulking and finishing to complete.I have moved forward with some of the casings and baseboards, and hope to have installed the remainder within the next week or two. I have finally installed the transition strips in the MBR.And then there's the enlarged hole in the wall behind the MBR shower. I had to install the shower rough-in long before we had water pressure and, being a novice, I didn't rent a pressure-tester to ensure that all was watertight. Would you believe, it's the only water leak I had in the entire build? So, back in July I opened the wall to tighten the screw-in fittings (which hardly moved, but stopped the leaks). Then, a couple of months ago, I noticed a trickle of water down the tiles below the main shower control area – and then on the basement floor in the same area.

Turns out our volume/on-off control had developed a leak. This was fixed a couple of weeks ago thanks to Rubinet's fine customer service, in the person of Ken Xuereb, providing a replacement by courier. This fix brought to light the fact that the temperature control – just below – was also leaking. Yesterday, the couriered replacement was installed and we seem now to have a totally watertight shower plumbing situation.

I had further opened up the hole in the wall because it appeared that the hot water line had a leak. It now seems that the water leaking from the two defective pieces had somehow been tracking between the wall floor plate and sub-floor over to the hot water line and running down it into the basement.

Ah well, a little drywall patch and all will be forgotten.

Outside on Ruth's Ridge, spring is going to arrive one of these days. It was actually +4° C. yesterday. I went to a flood preparedness meeting in Balmoral a week ago, and they are projecting worse conditions than were experienced in 2009. That was the spring we monitored this site in anticipation of putting in an offer. We saw the road overrun at the west edge of the property and just to the east of where our driveway now is. The Jackfish Creek, a mile east, washed out the road, and the intersection 1.5 miles east of us was under water.

Happily, these "refugees from the flood plain," as our neighbour Carmen Matthews refers to us, don't expect any problem with water encroaching on the house site.

Yesterday, I took the big snow scoop and cleared both ends of the driveway culvert, then cleared the bottom of the swale leading into the ditch on the west side of the ridge. Of course, a blizzard hit last night at dinnertime and I'm sure that digging will have been in vain. Back at it today, I guess.

May the flood not be with us.

At Long Last, Blog

It's been almost six weeks since the last post of 2010 and, frankly, there's been little to relate over the intervening period.

That's changed as of this past weekend. With your humble nailbender as the tile cutter and mortar & grout mixer, Ruth completed the laying of tiles in the powder room, loft bath-surround and kitchen backsplash on Sunday.

Then, this past Thursday, Delaeno Rempel (builder and friend extraordinaire) returned with the loft bookshelf (ready for installation) and tools to complete the wall-in of the bonus room stairs in the garage. He also brought the plugs and trim pieces to complete the stair railings, so now I can get on with oiling same in the next few days.

On other fronts, I've been conducting some exceedingly frustrating exchanges with a company we'd like to install our woodstove. (They've done some very fine work for us in the past when they were a smaller company.) I've been in sales & marketing for decades, and it's always been my view that the job of marketing (first) and sales (second) is not only to remove barriers to sale, but to eliminate them in advance. You can imagine my surprise, then, that the individual with whom I've been communicating i) forgets who I am, ii) loses my information, iii) repeats queries already answered and, iv) continually finds new problems (created by me, the customer, apparently) that prevent moving to an installation schedule. This despite the fact that I have asked them to tell me what they need (i.e., how much more money than for materials & labour) to establish a suitable value proposition for their company. Most curious – and that's an understatement.

All of that said, I have established two new daily resolutions as of the New Year. These resolutions have led to two new blogs at my son, Cole's, insistence, namely: oneoldphotographperday.blogspot.com and onenewphotographperday.blogspot.com. Hence, the Ruth's Ridge deficiency list will have to compete with my photographic priorities and, come spring, my motorcycle riding priorities.

I'm sure I've reprised the D-list, but here it is again:
• mortar stone to the post behind the eventual woodstove chimney
• get the $%^&*((%^#$@$% woodstove installed and certified
• complete baseboard & casing installation
• install the lovely Italian outside water spigot Jill & Lee gave me for Christmas
• stain banisters & re-apply Duraseal to maple flooring
• build two sets of stairs on the front verandah
• build a small deck out from the back door porch
• spec, order & install laundry room cabinets
• build the stereo installation
• paint the basement floor
• build two guest bedrooms in the basement
• unpack
• decorate & organize furniture
• drink a really expensive bottle of wine.

Last Post of 2010

... all is [somewhat] calm, all is bright.

The sun has just passed over the proverbial yardarm on this Boxing Day 2010. Ruth & I are warmly ensconced at Ruth's Ridge with Sadie the Malti-chon and three cats: Chester, Jasper and guest, Naomi. The sun is shining, the temperatures are in the -12˚ C. range, and the winds are gently buffeting.

What a far cry from last Christmas, when Ruth was desperately ill and the first functioning indoor toilet was still five days away. We had two or three construction lights, some primed drywall and a monumental amount of finish work pending.

Today, the to-do list is much shorter, but its completion is still measured in months.

That said, our project is rapidly becoming a home and a place of comfort and joy. We had Christmas with our children and my parents on December 18th. Proper Christmas meals were prepared and eaten at table, not in lap. There is a fully decorated tree (sans the lights that could not be found). Yesterday morning, I gave Ruth gifts that spoke to my intent to spend high-quality recreational time with her in the New Year: DVDs, audio books, puzzles and a Lee Valley puzzle roll. She gave me a beautifully wrapped box of gifts that were backward and forward looking: a handmade kilt from Scotland (by way of a Texan who had outgrown it) to reflect the origins of my über-Scottish name – Gordon Ross (so curious for a son of fervent Mennonites), a gorgeous cashmere sweater and a gray wool shirt to wear with the kilt, patterns for dress socks and a couple tops to flesh out my Scottish attire. It was a wonderful day of reconnecting, with promise of enjoying the fruits of a very challenging – but rewarding – preceding 18 months.

On the 23rd, I picked up my brother, Ken, who flew in from China. This year's trip home has an extra measure of importance for our family in that our father turns 90 on Dec. 30th. Of course, special plans are in the offing.

This time of short days, long nights, cold and the impending end of the calender year invariably bring to mind passages and endings. I would be greatly blessed if this construction project were done for year's end, but we have accomplished much in the year that Ruth and I have occupied and worked on this place. Yet a few more months. By this time next year we should be truly unpacked and settled here.

The Advent Season has become a special time of remembrance for Orville Conner and the opportunity Ruth & I had to be with our friend and his wife, Muriel, as he laboured through his final hours two years ago. And we got a call from my motorcycling mentor and friend, Chas Peters, a few days ago to thank us for the Christmas card. December 16th was the first anniversary of his wife, Vi's, passing.

December 5th was the seventh anniversary of the advent of Rebus in our lives. While "only" (but not merely) a dog, his absence leaves a gaping void in my day-to-day life. One of my gifts from Jill & Lee was a lovely pocket watch. It contains a photo of The Beaner, so now I measure my days by virtual Rebus Time.

Since this is a house construction blog, I should provide a thumbnail summary of what's yet to be done:

Exterior
• Build stairs on the East and West sides of the verandah
• Install water taps
• Build a small deck off the back porch
• Build a patio and screened pergola (eventually)

Interior
• Complete baseboard and casing installation
• Clad woodstove chimney backer post with stone
• Convince the contractor to come out and install the woodstove
• Complete banister and stair finishing
• Complete tiling in two bathrooms and the kitchen
• Design, order & install the laundry area cabinets
• Complete the fire-rated enclosure of the stairs to the bonus room above the garage
• Install the stereo
• Build two guest bedrooms in the basement
• Complete final unpacking, organization, detailing and decoration

Oh yes. One really important objective is to receive our official occupancy permit. That should be possible as soon as the bonus room enclosure and the laundry cabinets are completed.

To all who have found it worthwhile to stop by and check this blog from time to time, my thanks. To date there have been over 1,700 visits. While posts have been more sporadic this year, I hope you continue to find some enjoyment in this project.

All the best for a wonderful Christmas season, and best wishes for the New Year.

Your humble nail bender.