AND, the ceiling is complete!!!

Well, here we go!  Jim and I, once again, did our civic duty and were poll watchers for the midterm elections at the Provo Library.  It was pretty intense...  There are strict rules and cameras to make sure you abide with these rules, and this year was no different... except the patrons were a little high strung this year.  So, many people were turned away because they wanted to vote AFTER the polls closed.  Where the polling box is located, there are three streets to the entrance, and we had lineups at all three roads... so, it was a little tense. At one point, we had Provo Police come back us up, and a Sheriff's Deputy... People were not happy with us.  This is, I believe, the 5th time we have worked the elections - it's kinda our thing.  Giggle.

We were having a problem with the cutlery draw at the cabin - too many things and not enough spaces.  Jim saw this organizer and picked it up... and, it fits all the cutlery a whole lot better!

Usually when Jim goes to the cabin, he packs the truck with boxes... lots of boxes... this trip was no exception... except, there were boxes not just in the back seat, but up beside him... I don't think he likes doing this, but, I'm really trying to downsize... and this is stuff I just want to keep...

The work on the ceiling continues.  The boys didn't get it totally completed last time, but this week is going to be different.  This is really a tricky place to get the last piece of wood... not just with height, but with fitting a small piece...

And, tada!!!  The great room ceiling is completed!  It looks beautiful.

And, the repair work on the water line is just about completed.  Our contractor has had a whole lot of family responsibilities, so we got put off until this coming Monday.  He got a little dirt put over the repaired line just to make sure it doesn't freeze, but needs to come back and put in a covering of rock and then more dirt.  

Jim found this clock - kinda old school, but it fits with the cabin... kind of rustic and woodsie... It was put above the main doors going into the great room.  (And, no, I didn't make the stained glass on the door... It's a plastic covering so nobody can peer into the cabin when we aren't there...)

I am really not sure what to call this... I'll have to ask Jim, but I think it's a support for a corbel...  I'll ask... Well, I asked, and he says, "It's actually the transition from the loft bathroom roof to the roofline of the cabin.  The loft has a dormer, not a corbel..."  My bad...

And, with the ceiling being completed, the work on the sheetrock on the prow has started... Here's the left side of the room....

And, here's the right side of the window....  Little by little, it will all get done.

And, here's one more piece...

And, I don't know what got into Jim this past week... But, he was buying different things for the cabin.  This seat going into the main level shower...  I think it's great...  Thank goodness Jim is getting into the shopping mode.  Warms my heart.

Again, we're making amazing progress and I am ready for Jim to come home for a couple of days. Our schedules are evolving and Jim is staying away for less time, and spending a little more time at home.  In our almost 20 years of marriage, he travelled a whole lot with work, (the Dubai trip was the longest and the worst) and I missed him terribly.  Now, neither one of us really wants to be apart... I kinda like him being home.  So, Jim has been going to the cabin for a week to ten days, and then coming home for  a little bit.  It's a better plan.

I read the most beautiful little blurb the other day... I sent this to Jim.. it's a little long, but it makes me smile.... Here goes:

In English, they say, "I'm lucky to have you".

In Poetry they say, "Of all the people the world has created

With all the roads I could have taken

And all the lives I could have lived

Some impossible miracle of timing

Allowed my story to cross paths with yours

And if I spend the rest of my life

Searching for a word greater than lucky

I still don't think it is enough to explain

What you are to me."

Sigh..... I guess I like poetry....

With that, the adventure continues,

Love, Jim and Cheri

It's getting more and more exciting.

 With all the work being completed at the cabin, Jim took time out to work on the bay window.  The sheetrock has been put up, the mudding and taping has been completed, and the first part of the floor was installed so that the little bench can be built.  The wood for the bench was delivered to our house in Provo, so, the bench building project was stalled for just a little bit.

Along with building a little bench in front of the bay window, I asked Jim if he could build me some book shelves on both sides of the main window.  Here's he template that was made for those two shelves.  We had to make a little adjustment on this template because of the curve of the window, but the book shelves are now in the process of being completed!

There still a little work on the ceiling in the great room that needs to be completed, but this work is soooo close it's incredible.

This is a work in progress... In this picture you can still see the can lights have not had the wood installed beside them, and.... as these picture progress you'll see what is left.

I am always so impressed with this ceiling.  I love the colours of the different boards.

Jim ran out of the ceiling wood that needed to be Varithaned, (Varithane is a polyurethan coating if you didn't know) so this was his project one late afternoon... when it was not raining.... We've been having terrible rainy weather here in southern Utah... lots of flooding...

I love this picture because it shows the slope of the ceiling and the height...  Personally, I'm not climbing up that scaffolding for nuthin...

Here... you can see the can lights are just about covered....... and....

...the wood now surrounds the can lights....

And, these are the finished board about to be installed... I love this look...

Jim, the sweetie, purchased two more pieces of my Manhattan depression glass to go with my collection.  I have been collecting Manhattan dinnerware for probably 25 years and I have quite a wonderful set . I believe I have a setting for 8 people. (Anchor Hocking made this pattern only from 1938 to 1943.)  Many years after WW2, (also known as WW11 giggle) there was a huge demand for the pattern.  Anchor Hocking made a 2nd pattern, similar to Manhattan, but called Park Avenue.  They kinda look the same... sort of... It's new home is going to be the cabin.. I have used these pieces only once.  They are absolutely beautiful and precious to me.  Thank you, Jim... You are amazing.

Here's another shot of the can lights....

...and, now you can actually see the progress... The can lights have been passed. If you look to the right of this picture, you can see the ridge beam that signifies the top of the ceiling... With that, the ceiling will be completed.... So, we are 7 - 8 rows left and the whole ceiling is complete!

We have a small pizza oven out on the deck right now, and we are planning on building a bricked in pizza oven out by the jacuzzi... so, Jim bought me a pizza lifter thingie... I just looked it up.. it's called a pizza peel... So, I'm ready for the big pizza oven to be built!!!

With that, this edition comes to a close... and, the adventure continues... Thanks to Jim for having me along for this journey... sometimes it's been kicking and screaming, but over all, thank you.

Love, Jim and Cheri

"Don't be shocked when good things start happening for you... You deserve it!"

Amazing progress!

 Well, it was this guy's birthday this past week and his parents took him to a  Boston Bruins game to celebrate... I couldn't be more thrilled for him (even though he's not wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey....) but, honouring his birthday is pretty good....  Happy Birthday, Ben!!!

Unbelievable night at the Boston Bruins game tonight! For Ben's birthday he wanted to see his favorite goalie, fellow Alaska boy, Jeremy Swayman. During warmups he held up his signs and some amazing girls helped him and they were rewarded with a warmup puck! It was amazing. I cried. Watched the game on the edge of our seats and were so excited for the win! As the team was getting off the ice, Swayman handed his stick over, pointed at Ben and made sure he got it!!! I ugly cried again. The people around us were amazing and so excited for him. Walking back to the hotel, Ben let everyone know that he got Swayman's stick and everyone was just so excited for him. I am still in shock and just can't believe it. I don't think we'll ever be able to top this birthday. Sometimes it's pretty amazing to "ugly cry".

Jim was working on the pantry at the end of last week, and over the weekend, he got all the sheetrock installed and the mudding and taping... It hasn't been painted yet, but with the can organizer in there, it's pretty amazing.  I am thrilled at how many times I know I have a certain product, but can't find it in the cupboards... This is going to keep me a little more organized...  Organization is not my strong suit...  Giggle.

We've been having a little problem with our water, or should I say, the pipes carrying the water into our house.  The pipes were installed years ago, but it was just this year that we started having issues - we could hear the water running constantly.  So, we hired a guy to look into the problem.  First, code for Kane County says that lines need to be put 4 feet under ground on a bed of gravel... These lines were put in 24 inches in the ground and there was no gravel.  During the winter at some point, the lines broke.  The guy who actually installed the lines said that he thought it was just a crack.. nope... totally exploded.

We hired a guy to come help fix the issue - not the original guy.  He checked what was left and said that it was the cheapest, crappiest product available.. and, small wonder it exploded.  

So, we had the whole thing dug up and even further checked the line going into the house... same problem exists.... not buried far enough down, no gravel, crappy product.  So, with all we have to do in the next couple of weeks, we are going to have to totally drain the system for the winter, and do a complete repair in the spring... sigh....

My supervisor jokes with me about not buying a dog... he says with all that has gone wrong this past year between hospital stays and surgeries, house issues and cabin issues... to make sure we don't ever buy a dog... because it would probably add to the problems and die.... So, just to let you know - we're not buying a dog.... or a cat.

And, the septic system is being revamped. We had a guy come out last year to finish the septic system... the tank went in a couple of years ago, but the lines were not put in... Well, the guy last year kind of walked away from the job... We didn't know why... This year, we found out why.... The lines that he put in were all going uphill from the house... and, the reason was because there is a layer of rock that they didn't want to spent the extra time breaking through so they could lay the lines... Uhuh... Jim and I were talking and we would have gladly paid the extra money to have the job done properly instead of just having them walk away... Anyways, this guy has dug deeper into the ground and is busting up the rock beneath, and laying the pipes so they actually run DOWNHILL instead of uphill... (I'm not an engineer, but even I know... stuff flows downhill... )  (There... wasn't I being nice?)  Giggle

Actually, I would messed my pants if I saw Jim balancing our backhoe between two ditches...

But, this guy apparently is a pro... I can barely parallel park my car let alone balance heavy machinery...

We are coming down to the final rows of the ceiling in the great room... Little by little, it's getting finished...  and then, we can pull the scaffolding out of the great room.

They're getting closer and closer and closer to the ridge beam!!!

And, the work continues on the septic system.  It looks like the trenches were dug to about 6 or 7 feet and amazingly, they are running in the right direction....

This would make an amazing maze for Hallowe'en... the only problem is... I don't want to be the person to dig it and pay for it.... Giggle.

And, the guys ran out of finished planks for the ceiling, so they had to revert to planing more wood....

..and then coating it with Varathane...

...and letting it dry.... ready for installation.

And, it's coming along nicely...

As you can see, we are really close to completely finishing the roof...

...and closer...

The guys had to take a break from installing ceiling planks to refill the insulation after it has settled down... this is kind of time consuming and annoying... but, we want to make sure there are no cold spots in the place.

..down to the last little bit....

..and this is where the installation had to stop... So little left to finish... We hope in the next week or so, the weather will be nice enough to work.  The rainy weather stopped the septic from being finished because everything got so muddy.  Hopefully, that will get finished this next week also.

Jim decided to do a little finish work on the floor in the kitchen.  Because it's raw wood, there are always little imperfections and anomalies so, a little cosmetic work needs to be completed.  Here's the before....

...and, here's the after.  It looks lovely....

And, here's the reason the work at the cabin had to stop...  Ben has a side gig as a dj and he had a wedding to work on Sunday afternoon.... With the cold weather, (like in the high 20 and 30's at night) it was freezing cold for an outside wedding.  Personally, I would have planned an inside venue, but different strokes I guess.  Ben had to brave the wet and cold conditions with a blanket or a towel or something over his head and shoulders just to survive.... Not this cowgirl...

With that, this edition has concluded, we've made amazing progress this week, and of course, the adventure continues.

Love, Jim and Cheri

"Anyone can love you in the sunlight; it's who loves you in the storm that you should be choosing."