Fall has arrived in Bryce and it is ablaze with beautiful colours... It's already dropping the temperatures, but the colours are spectacular! I snagged these first couple of pictures from our neighbour, but it all about looks the same.. Just amazing...I love the colours of the season... not the temperatures...
So, pretty... from inside the car - with the heat on...
Jim got to the cabin on Thursday about noon, all raring to get to work, and when he arrived, the power was out... He called me to find out from Garkane Power what the issue was, and when I talked to them, the lady on the phone said there was a tree that fell down on the power lines in the canyon... Ergo - no power. It took a couple of hours to restore power, and then it was full speed ahead.
Friday morning, Will, our ceramics guy, showed up with his son, and they got to work laying the floor. This guy is amazing. He's very quiet, but his work is exacting. I am sure glad he knows what he's doing because there is no way I would know what to do here...
The orange stuff on the floor is called Kerdi-Schluter. We had never heard of it before. When we were having so much problem water proofing the shower, a guy at work suggested this system... and, it is amazing. So, when Will showed up and started laying this stuff, it made sense. He said he has used this system on three other bathrooms, and thinks he is going to stick with it. It is kinda on the expensive side, but it works amazingly well.
I love watching the progression... Jim says I use too may pictures, but I really want to remember the excitement I felt just seeing these pictures...
Below is day end of day one! Will had to stop because he had to have a place to stand to complete the floor, and everything was still wet! He said it should dry overnight, so he'll continue tomorrow.
We were burning through wood in the stove something fierce so, we figured we had to find some hardwood to slow down the process. Jim was on his way home and on the next street over from us, an older lady had a tree cut down that had died. It's called a honey locust. I had never heard of this tree before, but, Jim talked to the lady and we snagged a few pieces.
This wood is SUPER heavy... just about killed us getting it in the back of the pick up! There were pieces from the base of the tree that we about 10 times bigger that these... Somebody else could figure out how to pick those up... There was no way.
So, they made it down to the cabin and Jim neatly stacked them beside the door. He burned it during the weekend, and does it ever burn slow... and puts off some major heat and lasts about 7 or 8 hours. He was loving it... The little wood burning stove is the only heat source we have right now, so we have to maximize burning potential in the wood.
Ben was back up on the Roof of Death on Sunday. I saw this first picture and felt a little better that he was sitting down and working, rather than.....
Jim sent me this picture and he was all excited about it... I looked at it, and really didn't see what he saw.. I think he was a little disappointed at my reaction, and then he pointed out that this was the top rail on the west deck, and it is INCREDIBLY STRAIGHT and 27 feet long... It was at that point I understood. I guess I just wasn't looking at it through engineering eyes... But, now I see it really is beautiful.
And, then he asked me about the next picture and asked what I thought... again, I was apparently not knowing what I was looking at... He then explained that he made this mitered corner with a super tight and accurate connection... I still don't know how he mitered the corner, but the corner is actually really amazing... I approve... (...just googled "miter box"... I now know what it looks like). I swear, I would be lost without Google.
And, again.. I have a toilet in my kitchen... sigh...Jim had to take the toilet and the sink and cabinet out of the bathroom to get the ceramics laid...I swear, I think I am going to spend the rest of my life having odd appliances or pieces of building materials in my kitchen!
I really love these accent pieces, but Jim has to have a little prep work done before installation and this was Jim's job. He had to cut the little protruding pieces off on two sides... The end pieces all fit into one another, but the top and bottom had to have the regular large ceramics touch up to them, so the little pieces had to be cut off! Jim was using his dad's saw.. Will kept telling him that Jim could use his big industrial ceramic saw, but, I think Jim enjoyed working on his dad's ceramics saw... When Jim's dad passed years ago, the saw was one of the things we brought back to Provo with us... in the now famous RV... trust me, it was a trip I will always remember... $1200.00 in gas, 3 days driving... crossing the border... driving across country... oh my...
I absolutely love this picture - I love the ceramics but I love the reflection of the stained glass on the wall. This is exactly what I had in mind when I was designing the patterns. I wanted the sun to shine through and just light up the bathroom with colour.. Mission accomplished.
Here's another one where you can see the windows and the colours on the wall...
Will put the window sills in as one of the last thing he did...
Well, Ben finally got off the Roof of Death and moved over to scaffolding on the other side of the cabin. I am sure he prefers the Roof of Death, but sorry, Ben... maybe next week!
Ben got a couple more rows of siding in... If you look to the right, that's as far as both sides of siding were, so he got another 7 rows in. It's comin' together!
This is Will, our amazing craftsman... Whenever I think of Will, I think of that story/poem "The Touch of the Master's Hand". He has worked magic with the hearth in the livingroom, and here, again, in this bathroom. I asked him where he learned this craft, and he said that he just kind of picked it up himself... Totally amazes me. He is in such high demand - But, I'm willing to wait just to have him back back and do more work on our cabin. We have the loft bathroom and the outside shower grotto downstairs (outside) for him to work his magic on... He said he is super busy until the snow flies, and we told him we are in no rush... And, he appreciates us working within his schedule. Amazing man.. He has 13 kids, and two of them were his helpers this weekend... If I had 13 kids I would probably be unable to drool and walk at the same time...!
And, this is where day three ended. I am not sure exactly when Will is going to come back. We are supposed to let him know when we are there on the weekends, so I am sure we'll keep in touch with him.
This is the road we take to go home.. Looks a little solemn at this time of the year, but it is lovely...
Jim has either travelled so much this summer on business, or on the weekends at the cabin, I'm starting to feel a weird depression crawling up on me... I was talking to Jim about this last night, and he expressed, he was feeling the same way... This traveling so much just has to stop, so I will be somewhat glad when it really snows, and the cabin will be shut down for the winter.... I'll have more time than just a couple of days a week for just me and my sweetheart....Call me selfish... I don't care.
As always, the adventure continues.... until next time,
Love, Cheri and Jim
She certainly does. Like you I absolutely love the fall colours.
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