Pain is Temporary; The Cabin Is Forever......

When I start putting this blog together each week, I always follow a pattern... I start by adding all the pictures to a blank page, then I start adding the print, and then I send it to Jim to add the more technical details and his final approval.  This week, he sent me this first picture with the caption that "pain is temporary, the cabin is forever"...  I about had a stroke.  He explained that he caught his arm on a Simpson hanger when he was working on the deck, and this is what ensued... I think you can tell he was leaning against the wall, and didn't realize he was bleeding...  Poor thing... much worse than little cuts that I get from stained glass....

Our week started out, as usual, at the Home Depot, picking out redwood for the deck.  We are really picky with the wood we choose - too much of it has tons of knots, or the boards are cracked and split or they are warped.  Sometimes, they are just ugly pieces of redwood. But, the price goes up, and it takes us forever to pick out wood... And, each time we get a load of lumber, it costs right around $400.00... sigh... All this for a beautiful cabin... I think it's worth it.

And, here's what the deck looks like at this point.  We had some redwood in the Conex from last year, and the quality of that wood as compared to this year, is vastly different.  

Here's a shot from the underside...

The big news this week is the main level furnace, the basement furnace and the water heater are one step closer to being functional.  Jim and Ben installed them, and then built the propane pipes in the basement to connect to them.  We have to have Garkane Propane come out and inspect the lines before we turn turn on the gas, but it's close.  soooo close...

It rained on Sunday, so this full day was dedicated to working in the basement.

There was a whole lot of overhead work completed with a pipe to each furnace and the water heater, AND a pipe thru the building out to the BBQ, and finally a pipe to the kitchen cooktop.

The vertical line in this picture goes to the BBQ, and the horizontal line is the main line coming thru the cabin.

And, this is the pipe out where the propane comes into the house.  There's a safety shutoff valve on every pipe.  Garkane will inspect on Monday and give us approval to move forward...

Before we were leaving, we were unloading another load of brick from the back of the pickup... Because I've been waiting for the rain to stop and the road base to be smoothed out, Jim took the time to smooth out a little bit of the road base around the jacuzzi.....

...and then, arrange a few of the bricks around the jacuzzi just so I can see how it will look.. Hopefully, it's going to stop raining, and we'll be able to get some brick laid this coming weekend..  This is how it's going to look around the jacuzzi and in the patio area.  I love this design...

The design is very straight forward, but, it's a pattern that I really love... I believe the area is going to look beautiful.

And, if you remember from last week, the story of the chipmunk who had surgery by my hand... Well, we found out this week, that he had a roommate that still resides with us.  Jim and Ben saw him running up the loft stairs... We put a trap out, with an apple and peanut butter inside, BUT, no chipmunk caught... So, we don't know if he has found a way in AND a way out, but he is gone.  I purchased a smaller trap and we'll put them out this week and see if he is tempted.  I was reading there is a problem with mice and chipmunks up in Duck Creek this year, which is pretty close to us.  We don't have a mouse problem, but the chipmunks are driving me crazy!

And, the 2021 Me and Manzanita blog book has been put into book form!!  It took a little longer than usual this time, but this is our 10th edition, I believe.  It's nice working for a printing company - they have the ability to print dreams!  I was talking to a friend at work a couple of weeks ago and explained that these books are going to give future generations insight into the building of the cabin... if anything goes wrong, it's all documented!

As always, the adventure continues...

Love, Jim and Cheri

...Let's start with calm and relaxing trees....

 

When I was living in  Colorado, I was absolutely intrigued by Quaking Aspens and have always wanted them at the cabin..  those, along with blue spruce.  Well, I was at Home Depot last week and I saw the aspens, so I bought three of them!! It was raining so hard over the weekend that I couldn't plant them, but hopefully, next weekend, we'll see a little sunshine and that job can be realized... I'm still waiting for my Blue Spruce to come down in price, and I might make the investment... But, spending $199.00 on a single small tree, is not my idea of a smart purchase...  So, we wait!  Also, at Home Depot, they had pallets of flagstone on sale for $300.00.... Remember, a couple of weeks ago, I bought a pallet of flagstone from a guy in Payson... paid $80.00...  I think I did ok..

But, Jim and I did find a rock shop in Orderville (about 15 miles away from the cabin) and we stopped in.  I am looking for flagstone for the grotto in the outside shower.  We didn't find any flagstone, but I did find pieces of stone with fish fossils...  I think they'll look cool.  We are going to set them in cement to make them a little stronger.  I think they will be a welcome addition to the leaves!

There were all shapes and sized that totally intrigued me!

While we were in the rock shop, I saw these pieces of glass and I just had to get a couple of pieces for my grotto... Not quite sure where I am going to put them, but definitely on the waterfall side... It reminded me of the movie, "Shawshank Redemption" - one of my all time favourite movies...Andy and Red are the two main characters and Andy escapes, but tells Red about meeting him in Mexico... In their conversation, he is told to look for a long wall in the middle of a hayfield in Buxton... and in that wall, there is a piece of black volcanic glass and that piece of glass has no business being in that field or that wall... And, under that piece of glass, there is a box ... And, the message said, "And, if you've come this far, maybe you'd come a bit further".  I love that line... So, I told Jim that I wanted to get a piece of black glass like rock to also put into the grotto.. He told me that he has a piece of black obsidian that I could use... I am so stoked...  It is going to look amazing... and always remind me that just maybe, I can come a bit further... (If you haven't seen the movie, find it and check it out!)

Here's the two piece of glass I picked out from the rock shop... They are Japanese made glass, primarily used in making beer bottles...  I really love the vibrant colours...

And, I was all excited about getting the balusters started on the deck. We have half the deck completed but, I was dying to see how the balusters would look.  We had the dimensions that we had to follow, so Jim made little spacers to put between each piece just to make sure I was on track.  I got it all laid out on the island, put the little spacers in, and then realized that I needed to add two more pieces to have the correct width.  So, I added double knuckles one on each side of the "S" shape, and now it works perfectly.  BUT...

... it started to rain, so the baluster project was delayed.  We have had rain for the last couple of weekends and I am hoping that this next weekend, there will be no more rain.  Everyone keeps telling me that we need rain, but I need balusters and railings!

So here's the propane pipe that comes from the big white tank leaning up against our cabin with the regulator on the end.  But the big news is, next to it is the pipe that runs through our cabin to fuel up the barbeque, the cook top, the hot water heater, and the furnace!

Going out to the barbeque.

Headed over to the cooktop in the island.

And being distributed to the big furnace, the downstairs furnace and the hot water heater. 

And, the shut off valve for the barbeque in the basement.

And, here's the visitor we had on Friday and Saturday night.  We knew, from the week before, that we had a chipmunk in the house, but couldn't find him... He came in through the downstairs sliding doors and then was sleuth and we couldn't find him... So, Jim and I are sitting on the couch on Friday night, watching tv, and out pops this little body... looking at us like, "Hey, what are y'all doing here?" He didn't get the idea that we owned the place and he was a squatter.  It took us the next two nights to serve him eviction papers... we tried all kinds of different efforts... and, they all failed.  Until, Jim had the idea that if he squished the couch cushions together to stop his escape, we could block him in and then just reach in and pull him out... Well, in theory that works... While Jim blocked him in, and I reached in with gloved hand, I got educated on squirrels and chipmunks...  Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia..."TAILS DETACH TO ESCAPE PREDATORS".... I reached in, and pulled my gloved hand out, just holding his furry little tail... I about freaked... I have been called a lot of things in my lifetime, but never, ever predator... I think Alvin the Chipmunk was as freaked as I was and he just sat there shaking... I reached back in, and picked him up, and put him outside... far away outside...  Was disgusting.

Apparently, squirrels and chipmunks can regrow their tails... I don't want to stay in contact to see how the recovery is going... not happening in my world.

This chipmunk issue is not the kind of adventure I want to be a part of again.... But, the adventures continue....

Love, Jim and Cheri

..Leaps and Bounds...

Our adventure this week starts with.... mud. We left Provo a little later than usual on Friday, heading south to the cabin.... little did we anticipate, the amount of rain that was going to mess up the roads... We got to the cabin at about 11:00 PM and proceeded to get stuck in front of the driveway, to the point that we couldn't get into the driveway... So, we had to park on the road until the next day...  We kinda messed up the road... We had to walk through this slop to get to the deck... Jim was wearing shoes, but I was wearing sandals... all that squishy didn't feel so nice between my toes...  Thank goodness Utah is reasonably dry, and all the mud on our footwear dried up over night...  so messy... At one point the trailer wheels weren't spinning when we were moving around.

The construction on the deck continues, but this week, we made pretty intense progress... It was going along really well, until it started to pour rain... again.

I know it won't stay this color, but it is so pretty.

Here's Ben drilling and screwing down the deck planks.

This thing is built like a commercial building!  Steel and all.

Jim and Ben had a pretty decent system going on...  Ben would screw the boards down with deck screws, and Jim carried in the boards in and cut them to the correct size and angle and placed them... Ben's work on the deck has been exceptional.  Jim's work, well I'm used to it. LOL (Jim is an engineer, so his work is always.... precise... and efficient.... very efficient... I don't have a clue how we got together because efficiency is not my middle name... organization isn't in my vocabulary either...)  He's a very patient man..

Jim and Ben brought up this saw thing from the basement and the work got faster and more accurate.

And, this week, Ben got first hand experience of how the boom/bucket truck works... I don't think he was incredibly impressed at first, but I think he got used to it.  He had to get into the bucket to cut off the ends of the deck joist boards... couldn't reach them without it.  It's like a ride at the fair!!  By the end of the day he was an expert and loving it.... at least, he didn't complain...

I must admit, this is a really pretty deck, and the surrounding area is amazing...Can't wait till it's finished.

This is the first half almost completed... If you look to the top left, that is what is left... before it started to rain.. for the third or fourth time....and I don't think working with power tools in the pouring rain is a good idea.  But the thunder and lightening was incredible.  So close.

It's so pretty... the guys are doing an amazing job.  On Saturday morning, Jim took a chair out on the deck and drank orange juice..... he said it was amazing to look out and admire the scenery... made me smile...

And, how do we get all that beautiful redwood to the cabin.... on a trailer of course!  These boards are 16' long, and the bed of the truck is only 6' long, so even though there's feet hanging out the back of the trailer, highway patrol just has to deal with it.  They never saw us!  Jim is just that sleuth..

And, the experiment with casting leaves continues... We tried casting with the coloured dye just put on top of the cement...  We had some success, but I would like the colours to be a little more vivid.  So, we are going to try mixing the colours into the cement and see how that works.  But, this is now some of the leaves turned out.  We tried making one casting with four leaves in it, and it broke down the middle... But, individual leaves and two leaves together seems to work well.

I love the leaf details that cast into the cement.  This is exactly what I wanted.  This leaf shows a mix of several colours that I really like.

Here's one of the individual leaves and it turned out perfectly...  So, the next experiment is going to be adding colour to the cement before it sets and seeing how that turns out.  A friend of mine sent me a link talking about adding a little vermiculite to the mix and I'm going to try that also.   It's supposed to make them lighter.  These stones are super heavy, so in the next little bit, we'll have to see how that works out.  I'll update when I try the next experiment.  I am looking for some maple leaves to cast individually....I know, I know... it's the Canadian in me coming out... Wanna see how that turns out... (I wish I could cast some trilliums, but I don't think that flower would work well... sad face.

And, this is what our kitchen sink looked like after this project.  I didn't think I would like a black sink and appliances when we put them in, but in instances like this, I am soooo glad...  I try to keep my heart rate down at first glance.  But, a good scrubbing seems to get rid of all the dye.  This first picture is the right hand sink....

And, the left hand sink faired a little better... Still messy, but a little more bearable...

So, Jim calls me out on the deck in the middle of the afternoon, and I see the 2nd picture... this first one explains everything BEFORE anyone is grossed out!!!  I walk outside and I do the.."Jim! What the freak are you doing?"  And, he has this silly little grin on his face.  He thinks he's funny....

I get a little closer and he innocently looks at me and says, "Filling the water jug... what do think I'm doing?"  Um...And, he thinks he has a sense of humour...  (He actually makes me smile, so I guess it's all ok...) 

Moving on...  With the deck going up, we are just about at the point of needing to put the railings and balusters up...  Jim talked to the people at Kane County, and code says that when the inspectors come to look at the railings, they test the spaces by putting a 4 inch ball between the balusters - and, if there is more than the 4" we get to pull it down and start again...  And the rails can only be 6 inches or less from the floor to the lower rail... That's do-able.. We found that with the pattern I had decided on before, it needed to be expanded to fit between the support poles on the deck... and, we're going to have to be really careful with spacing between that S looking part in the middle...  This is going to be tricky..  So we figured we had to add two additional of the double knuckles on either side to made it a little wider... and, attack the other problems as we are installing... Jim figured that we needed 11 pieces per section to stay within the required code dimensions...

And, we are about to start laying the antique brick around the jacuzzi... The beginning phase is to add a layer of road base around and then level it out...  Brianne and her family are coming over the Labour Day weekend, so I am hoping to get help from Bri, Chance and Coy on this project...  I'm excited to get it started..

So many things are starting to come together it is truly exciting...  The deck is the major part... When the deck is done, we can finish the Tyvek and the siding on the front of the cabin... one step closer to getting the four-way out of the way...

Such an adventure... and it continues.

Jim and Cheri

Deck/Deck Goose?

Progress on the deck continues every week.. But, I think this week is has had the greatest progress.  

It started with the boards attached to the house, so that the support structure for the deck can be attached and stable. This was across the whole width of the cabin.  Watch out for the first step, it's a big one!

Then the Simpson hangers are attached so that the 2 x 10's had a nice little resting place.  And, there's, of course, a little story behind them.  Jim went to Sunroc Building Supply to get these hangers.. they don't sell the ones we needed at Home Depot, so he had to go to an industrial kind of place.. We already had an account at Sunroc from when we did the framing, so Jim placed the order the day before, and was picking them up the day after.

He gets to the store, and the guy at the front asks Jim his last name, so he could pull up our account.  Jim says, "Streeter - S.T.R.E.E.T.E.R", and the guy repeats back... "STREATRE".  Jim says no, and spells it again.  And, once again, the guy repeats it back incorrectly.  This goes on a couple of times until the guy called Jim a jerk and an a-hole...  All Jim is trying to do is get the stuff he ordered... Jim then just tells the guy he wants to close out our account and refund our money and he wants to speak to the manager. The customer service guy goes to put the hangers in the back of the truck and the manager comes up.. he knows Jim well..  Jim tells him the situation outside, and all the manager says is..."He's not very good with people"..... Really, ya think?

Well, I was telling this story to my boss at work and we were having a giggle over it, and my boss asks if we still needed the hangers.  He said that he was building a deck on his house last year, and he had about 30 of these left over.  I asked Jim, Jim said yes, and the boss went home and brought a box of about 30 and put them in my car!  They were exactly what we needed... saved us about $150.00...  With everyone complaining about their bosses, I actually have a really decent boss...  He lets me do my work, doesn't micro-manage, and is quirky, but fun...  

This picture is looking down from the main level, but the little squares on the wall that look green, (they're actually silver) - that's the hangers!

Jim and Ben put vinyl roofing on top of the gluelam to protect it from the weather.

Then came the deck joists.  These babies cost $49.95 each.

And then the redwood started appearing amongst the noise.

So, now that you have been educated about deck building.....  we move forward!

And, I was in the grocery store on Saturday and was talking to the produce lady... I am still on a quest to find leaves... She gave my name and number to a lady who has a greenhouse, in Panguitch... We stopped by on the way home on Sunday, and oh my goodness..... she has an amazing greenhouse... and, I am going to be casting cement leaves for the next week!  A couple of the leaves were a little too wilty on the way home, but 95% of them survived and look amazing!  I am so excited to start the process.  Our shower grotto is going to look amazing!!! So, thank you for the leaves, new friend...(I hesitate to use names in the blog without a prior ok....)  I know that I got squash leaves, and pumpkin and rhubarb, and I flat can't remember what other plants were... some are scratchy and some aren't... but, they are all beautiful!  Thanks again.

And, this is an ongoing issue with my washing machine.  I would be happier if Jim kept a whole lot of cash in his pockets, but when his work jeans show up in the laundry, there's always a handful of either screws or nails, or drill bits in the bottom of one pocket.  I'm kind of used to it by now...  Sort, or like car part cleaning in my dishwasher.... Giggle.... Thank goodness I love Jim, or else...  could be dangerous...

...still moving forward.... and the adventure continues...

Jim and Cheri