..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