As most of you know, the saga with the water lines has been ongoing for the last - I don't want to say how many months. We've gone from the start of this story last December, and so many cancellations and problems including everyone on the mountain's water being shut off because water lines frozen in the winter months, to contractors quitting, to not enough time... it's been exhausting. When ever we have been given a timeline, I have told Jim that it's a bunch of BS because I don't believe zip until I walk up and see proof with my own eyes... Jim tells me that I've become a pessimist, but really... What do you expect.
Well, the water guy that was putting in the hot tap (the connection into the waterline in the street) said that he was going to be at the cabin on Saturday to put the line in. I was going to go with Jim this weekend, but changed my mind... why?... because, I don't believe anything any longer.... Jim was going to go up early Saturday morning to work with the guy. Jim had dug the trench from the house to the road last week, and this guy needed to dig across the road and install the underground water line.. Jim would be there for moral support... or whatever.. I don't know... Jim had just gotten home from Seattle on Friday morning, and was really wiped out, so Saturday would work perfectly after a good night's sleep. We were having dinner at The Strap Tank restaurant in Springville on Friday night, and we got a call from the guy who said that he decided to put the water in that day, so it was a done deal.... Um... WHAT? Hello? Did I hear it was done.... Still couldn't believe it...
Jim shows up on Saturday, and sure enough... we have water!! I haven't seen it with my bare, naked eyes, but, I somehow have to believe Jim when he says we have water... And, he proved it with pictures! Jim said the guy did an amazing job, and he was thrilled.
That's water falling onto our dirt!
And we have a water meter!
The dirt piles are gone except one that will fill in the hole at the edge of the basement. All the trenchs to the road are gone.
And, on top of that, the project was coordinated with the Cable company and the conduit for the wire for the TV and security system was laid at the same time. So, I was absolutely thrilled.
As I mentioned before, Jim was in Seattle on business, and while he was there, he met up with the grandkids, Mahayla, Brea and Ben, and their mama, Melody. Jim had a choice of having dinner with Boeing engineers, or the grandkids... hmmm... tough decision (not), and the bunch of them went to dinner...
And then, ice cream afterwards... I think they all had a blast!
What I thought was the cutest... Melody sent me a picture when she told the kids they were meeting Papa for dinner, and this was the reaction... I think they liked the idea...
15 years ago, when Jim and I got together, Jim and I and my son, Brad went to Toronto one Christmas, and it was at that time, I realized that Jim's father, Bob, was interested in stained glass. He told me that he learned how to do stained glass in Florida, where he and his wife Margaret stayed during the winters... (they had a mobile home that they escaped the cold weather in Bracebridge for the winter months every year). He got hooked doing stained glass. He did foil work (I prefer lead) but, he really had a creative mind and the projects he completed, were things he could envision. His cutting tool really was antique and with a little arthritis coming on, he struggled. I found him a couple of different updated tools, and he was thrilled he could continue to work. 9 years ago, before he passed, he told me he wanted me to have a cathedral piece that I had already admired... It was a huge piece, very dark... really intrigued me... After he passed, Jim's brother, Rick, boxed up the cathedral piece and when I was in Toronto visiting, I picked up three boxes.. But, it was too heavy to take on the plane, and it has sat in the rafters of my brother Duane's garage for the last 9 years. Finally, since the Canadian/American border is open, Duane took the boxes to UPS in Buffalo and had them shipped to me.. (Let me tell you, if you ever want to ship anything fragile, take it to UPS and let them pack it...They're amazing). Took about a week and it arrived in perfect condition... absolutely nothing broken... a few of the pieces are cracked due to age, but, apart from that, it's in beautiful condition. The funny thing with this piece, I was expecting the dark mystical cathedral piece, but when I opened the boxes, I started seeing trees and water, which was NOT in the piece I thought was shipped. This is a piece that is definitely Muskoka, Ontario. The piece is not finished, and Jim thinks this is a piece that was in his workshop. So, I'm going to finish it... I am thrilled.. So, a HUGE thank you to Duane for babysitting this glass for so many years, and shipping it... Much appreciated.
Jim has a plan of building me a glass studio and I have told him that I wanted the walls to be all panels of stained glass... This piece will be a part of that studio.
In my quest for all things interesting and different and quirky, (Me quirky?) - I found this rug that I think is going to be perfect for the loft bathroom... these colours match the glass windows, and the green marble countertop of the sink. I think it's perfect.. as well as different.
As I entered work on Friday, while I was walking to my office, I was passing by the samples area, and a certain book caught my eye. It was a copy of our blog book from 2018 and I am so honored that it was being shown to others as an example of what our company can print. The only thing that makes me a little weirded out, is that Jim's and my pictures are featured on the cover...
Now Jim's plan for the weekend was to connect the water that is right up to the cabin, to the plumbing inside the cabin, and then hook up the toilet, the bathtub and the sink downstairs... You can see the blue pipe at the bottom of the picture below the ladder and a mud at the bottom of the hole... He was doing a little work on Friday night, but it started to rain, so he quit and went inside for the night. This photo was taken the next morning, he emptied the muddy hole and found the hole thru the concrete with a dummy pipe coming out of the cabin, and then went downstairs to start removing the dummy pipe and installing a pipe to the cabin plumbing hooking everything up..
When he got downstairs, he realized that with the rain the night before, water didn't come through the dummy blue pipe, but in the tiny little space AROUND that pipe.. and with that water, came dirt until it all plugged up around the dummy pipe... so, there was a couple of buckets of mud on the bathroom floor in the basement... So, the plans to finish off the basement were replaced by shoveling mud. I swear, it's always something. You can see the drool down the concrete.
So, Jim shoveled it out, put a fan in the area, and hopefully, it dries, so next week, we can finish the tile job... Apparently, you just can't install tile, when the floor is... wet..... giggle.
Looks like Jim turned into a little boy playing in a mud puddle... I don't think he quite enjoyed it, however.
Here's the basement drying up.
Before Jim came home, he made sure that the little space between the wall and the blue piping was sealed up... and, hopefully, it won't leak again.
So, here's the real pipe coming out of the cabin and spray foam insulation around it to seal it up from potential leakage. Jim foamed the entire length of the hole in the concrete. Ignore the pipe that sweeps over to the right, that's the TV/Internet conduit. We'll get to that later.
And, my new word for the week is.. splines...Before Jim left he had a drill bit that he was going to use to make the little hole that the blue pipe goes through, a little bigger.. BUT, he didn't have a drill, that fit the drill bit - and this drill bit had... "splines" - apparently, this particular kind of drill bit is very industrial and expensive, and he was going to rent a drill that fit the splines.. BUT, here in Utah, it was Pioneer Day, and all the rental stores and hardware stores were closed. So, he took the bit out to the garage, and modified the bit with his lathe, taking off the "splines" and now it worked just fine in his regular 1/2 inch hammer drill. So, what are splines, you ask?
" a rectangular key fitting into grooves in the hub and shaft of a wheel, especially one formed integrally with the shaft which allows movement of the wheel on the shaft."
And, Jim told me that he hadn't taken a picture of the cabin lately, so before he left, he snapped one... we've come a long, long way... I think it's amazing..
So, there ya go..... Jim is home from traveling, at least for a while, we have water at the cabin, I got stained glass and life is pretty darn good...
The adventure continues.
Love, Jim and Cheri
PS:
When Jim was coming home, he called and said that traffic was backed up and they were detoured off I-15 northbound down I-70 towards Denver. He asked me to go online and see what the problem was. This was the problem. Apparently, there was a sandstorm that suddenly cut visibility at 0% and it was a domino effect on the interstate. Jim's trip home was extended an extra hour and a half, but, thank goodness, he made it home safe and sound.... Others were not so lucky.
KANOSH, Millard County — Children were among the eight people killed in Sunday's series of crashes in Millard County, troopers said as they released new details Monday morning.
Five of the eight people who died were in the same vehicle, two were in another vehicle, and one fatality was from a third vehicle, the Utah Highway Patrol said in a statement. Four of the people who were killed were adults and four were under age 15.
A total of 22 vehicles were involved in the pile-up after high winds caused a sandstorm or dust storm that impaired visibility on the roadway, troopers said. The crash occurred in the southbound lanes between Fillmore and Kanosh around 4:30 p.m.
