...One More Bathroom!!!

I received the cutest little message from my son, Brad this past week.  He and his family recently moved to Alaska - sad grandma face inserted here...  But, he called and said that when he and the family got home the other night, they found a welcome party of three moose waiting for them.  I thought it was so cool just in itself, and then he said that he had sent me a picture.... And, this is the picture he sent - the three moose were the three rocking mooses that Jim had made years ago, for the grandkids.  Apparently, the shipping container with all their belongings showed up, and when they opened it, the three moose were waiting.  The kids were thrilled, and this grandma was thrilled also! (For each grandchild's 1st Christmas, Jim made a rocking moose...something about our and their Canadian heritage coming through here... only one moose has a name, and that's Ben's moose, and the moose's name is... Henry... Henry must weight about 75 pounds and is made of walnut wood... Even if you put all the mooses together, each grandchild seems to know exactly which moose is their moose...  smiles.)

...  we'll come back from Memory Lane now, and start with the cabin...  After one very uncomfortable night on the couch, we moved the Queen sized bed from the main floor up to the loft, and purchased a King sized bed for the main level bedroom.. Poor Jim had the job of moving the Queen bed upstairs, and it wasn't particularly pleasant.  

But, after persevering, and a few eye opening words, the job was completed, and the new bed in it's new home.

I bought this spread with the pillow shams and a small accent pillow to make it look "cabiny"... You know how I love mooses... and, I couldn't resist this...

But after one night with this particular spread and pillows, Jim and I came to the same conclusion that, I must have bought a Queen spread instead of a King because... JIM HOGS THE COVERS... and I spent a lot of the night with just a sheet over me...  Jim has this idea that he has to roll up in the covers like a burrito, which leaves one of us with no blankets...  BUT, the bed size is perfect and we won't be sleeping on the couch any longer.. unless one of us falls asleep while watching tv... seems this is the way it goes more often than not... (Jim insert, she hogs the pillows.  We had three and she needs a minimum of, you guessed it, THREE!)

I did have a spare spread in the cupboard, and I double checked, it is a King sized spread, so I switched the spreads out...  Jim told me that this week, we need to purchase more pillows (thank goodness he has finally seen the light on this one!!!)...  The pillows that were there, were a little on the weak side of life.  But, the spread now fits perfectly!

And, the big, big, big news for the week - the main floor toilet was installed!  Jim initially connected the commode and the bathtub in the basement - it was the logical choice due to proximity to where the water came into the cabin.. BUT, in the middle of the night, if you have to get up, you have to go down the stairs to the basement, and then walk you way through this maze of building materials to get to the bathroom...  wasn't working for this cowgirl... So, Jim said his first project for the weekend was to install the 2nd toilet on the main floor.. and he did, and it works...  Coy christened the 1st toilet, and I christened the 2nd toilet.. so, it's a done deal!

Look... water in the bowl!!  I was telling Brianne today that I feel that my life has been severely reduced... I now talk about installing toilets and using the toilet and how exciting that part of my life is... I seriously have no pride left...  Giggle.

A couple of weeks ago, my bathroom (her bathroom!) at the house in Provo, was out of bathroom tissue.  So, I asked Jim to bring me a package...  He came down with a package of about 20 rolls... Now, my bathroom is a really small bathroom..  But, he wanted to make sure that I don't run out any time soon...  There was absolutely no room to store 19 rolls...  so, I put the bag in the sink...  The next morning, I was getting ready for work, and opened the cabinet under the sink, and out fell.... 19 rolls of bathroom tissue...  So, in honour of all those rolls under my bathroom sink, I bought a 10 pack for the cabin and stored it under the sink to be...... (the grocery store didn't have a 20 pack..)

With all the wild fires in California, our air quality is in the gutter.  It's kind of weird, but the smoke layer doesn't smell like fire in the least... but, it sure is messing with seeing the mountains and it's actually covering up the sun...  So, here's the mountains and the sun at Bryce Canyon...

Being this was my first official weekend sleep over at the cabin, I decided to cook an amazing dinner.  But, we didn't have any pots and pans, so everything went on a very small BBQ grill.. But, it worked.   When I was at the store buying all the stuff, Jim wasn't quite sure what I was going for... 

But, when it was all done, he was thrilled...

..check out that cheeky smile...  He was thrilled... We had our little feast on the deck of the cabin, at sunset...  it was lovely...

This is something that I never noticed, until this weekend...  There are two shower heads in this shower stall...  And, they are on the ceiling...  And there are two sets of hot and cold valves... How cool is that!!

And, here's a 2nd little thing I didn't notice in this bathroom...  When I was building the window, I used more opaque pieces...  But, about halfway through the building process, I switched the glass on the leaves to a clearer type, that was a prettier colour...  The windows have been installed for a couple of years now, but this was the first time that I was on the deck, and the lights were on in the bedroom, across the hall from the bathroom... Jim was in the bedroom, and when I looked through the window, I could clearly see him... through the window...  um... so, when someone is in the shower, or in the bathroom, anyone on the deck can see into the bathroom... ya...  wasn't supposed to happen like that... so, I've got to think of a solution... Maybe a white shower curtain across the window when the shower is being used.

Because bathrooms are being finished, we put in the cabinets and started to pull out the sinks for the various bathrooms...  We realized that we have three glass sinks, and several porcelain sinks...  I  chose one particular sink for upstairs in the loft, but then it was decision making time between the other two glass sinks... I chose the one on the right for the main floor bathroom... And, we chose a white porcelain sink for the downstairs bathroom.  They are all sinks that are mounted above the counter..  I love them.

And, we are slowly but surely cleaning out all the stuff out of the storage building..  This week, we took out this trim wood and hand rails, and dropped it off at the cabin..  Little by little...

And, Jim worked a little bit on the siding, this past weekend...  It's been so hot outside, that working on siding and such is difficult... So, late afternoon, Sunday afternoon... a few more pieces went up, and it's looking beautiful.

It's not going to be forever, but the adventure continues. . . .

Jim & Cheri

..it's getting exciting!

 Lots of things are beginning to happen, and I am thrilled.  As I said last week, I won't believe anything until I see it.. and guess what... I see it!

To start off with, we were driving to the cabin, and Jim pointed out it has rained so much in the past weeks that the fields are so green and then I made a joke.  I said, "Those cows in the field are... underlie tickled"...  Kind of a Dad joke... groan... But, it made Jim laugh, so go with it!

About 2 minutes up the road, we came across cowboys - herding the cows.  I don't think I've seen anything like this in years, and it really was impressive.  This is a dad, or at least I'm assuming this is a dad, and his son.  Really was nice.  There are probably 100 or so cows in the field.

Jim and I both took Friday off work and had decided to drive to the cabin on the Thursday night.  It was going to be really late that we got into town and we got a hotel room.  The bed was super hard, in my opinion, but, the room was nice....  We slept in a little bit on Friday morning, so we kind of took our time getting to the cabin.  

The first thing that I do when I get there, is always check for some lifeform that is no longer a live form...   sort of like, mice or birds, or chipmunks - some of the other intruders that we have found.  I looked around and Jim looked around, and nope... no creatures... but, as I sat down on the couch, I saw this bird.. dead... behind my glass table.... seriously?  We still can't figure out where these birds are getting in.  We thought we had sealed everything up!!  Apparently, they know better than we do, and they aren't spilling the beans... I still don't know what kind of bird this is... but, she is really pretty... Maybe they come in during the day when we have the doors open?

(On Saturday night, we were downstairs, and there was this little flutter of black wings fly past my face...Jim and I both saw it, so I wasn't hallucinating... We looked around and couldn't find it afterwards.. I think it was a bat.... Jim thinks it was a moth... I'm almost afraid to go looking any further.)

Outside the first thing I noticed was that the trench to the front of the cabin is covered up, and only the plastic pipe and cable/wire was hanging out a bit.  Progress!  Jim had to do a little work on the water line - I think he said he had to get a crimper to crimp the buried line to the house pipe, and then it would be ready to bring the water into the bathroom downstairs...

Jim borrowed a crimper from a friend, and, we thought it was going to be a straight forward job to bring the line into the cabin.. BUT, no, he found that what he told would be a quick job, was a little more complicated... He was told that the buried pipe coming in from the road was a 3/4"... but, it was bigger than that.. So, we had to drive to Orderville which is about 25 minutes away, to get a one inch size fitting.  We got back on site, and found that, it didn't fit either.  Not 3/4" but something between 3/4" and 1"... So, Jim used his spidey powers to figure out what to do, and decided to use a hot air blower gun to soften buried hose, slide it onto the receiving new brass fitting, and then crimping it with a one inch crimp ring.  That's exactly why I married this guy... He's like McGuyver in disguise.

And, sooner than later, WE HAD RUNNING WATER AND FLUSH TOILETS!!!

It's not every day that I would post a picture of our toilet, with water in it, but this is truly memorable! 

Lowell, Brianne and Coy were working with us this weekend, and Coy was the first to christen the potty.  When he was finished, he came running up to Jim and hugged him and thanked him profusely for making a toilet... He was so excited that there was a flush toilet!!  It was very real, and very heartfelt.... and, I thought I was the only one excited for a flush toilet.

On the way back into town on Friday night, there were so many deer just grazing.. absolutely not phased by the cars driving by.  It was really pretty to see... so calm, so serene, so relaxing...  And look at the racks on them.  I'm not quite over those stupid deer eating all my flower bulbs, but, I've calmed down enough years later, to appreciate how pretty they are.

As I said, the Thursday night, we stayed in a hotel, and, because we were having problems getting the water into the cabin, we decided to stay the 2nd night in a hotel also. Different room, same rock hard bed, same terrible night's sleep... They must have moved the bed knowing I was coming back.  But, Saturday night, was going to be my first night sleeping in the cabin...  We've had one bedroom set up, complete with beds and sheets, and a closet and really basics for Jim...  So, I felt reasonably comfortable it would be ok for the both of us...

Another of the big projects this visit was attaching the sewer plumbing in the cabin, to the septic tank   We realized that the pipe was still a little high at one end, and it needed to be dug down because as we all know... "S**t runs downhill".  Lowell did all the digging work on this project... and, to add insult to injury, it rained on and off all weekend.  So, Lowell was outside, in the rain, digging.  Then, repositioned the piping, and covering it up...

As he started filling in the trench it started raining and he took a break.  Here's what he had when he came back.

I still don't think that Coy knows exactly where he's sitting.... Giggle.  We are so grateful that Lowell helped us out.  Since the beginning of this project, 10 years ago, neither Jim or I, are are strong as we used to be.  Thank goodness, we have an amazing helper.

Saturday night came, and Lowell and Brianne and Coy went to their hotel room.  Jim and I stayed at the cabin.  It was about at that point, that two of us realized we don't fit comfortably in a queen sized bed.  AND, Jim sleeps in the middle of the bed!  (No he doesn't. edit by Jim) We have a California King at the house in Provo and it's very comfortable, even though Jim always complains that I have too many pillows on the bed, and I hog the blankets... This is a lie (No it's not - Jim edit) ... Jim and I have separate blankets.  He's still sleeping under a quilt and a blanket because he says I have the air conditioning too low and he's freezing his butt off.  I have a very light blanket because the bedroom always feel hot.  I even turn on the ceiling fan (You can imagine Jim freezing - edit by Jim).  And, I do have several pillows on the bed... Since having my knee problem, I always sleep with a pillow under my knee, and a pillow under my shoulder and I like two pillows under my head.. makes sense to me...  BUT, that bed was waaay too small.  So, I decided to sleep on the couch at the last minute. I'm still trying to decide which was worse... the bed in the hotel or the couch in the cabin...  Sooooo, on Monday night, we went bed shopping, and purchased a king sized bed for the cabin.  We are going to take it down this weekend.. We've decided to take the queen sized bed, and put it in the loft, for now.  Jim thinks that Coy would love having a big bed and the whole loft to himself!  I agree.

Sunday was set aside to finish off the plumbing, and to start putting in the furnace.  Though the men aren't quite sure how to put a furnace in, they're learning a whole lot.  They placed the main furnace and the air conditioning unit, and then the plenum over top of that... and, even had enough time to put a few feet of duct work in.. I am absolutely thrilled.

We still have a 2nd, smaller furnace to install for the basement apartment, but that's going to be a "in the future" project.  The main focus, is to get the big furnace and the air conditioner installed.

We are many steps closer to getting our four-way inspection completed... I saw this project get worked on with my own eyes, so I believe, and it's a fact that they are being worked on!  Giggle.

During one of the rain storms, Jim realized that the majority of the group wanted a change of plans on the placement of the jacuzzi and that area even though the project manager didn't....The Jacuzzi is supposed to be delivered in about a month, so we are going to have this area completed soon... or at least, the pad for the jacuzzi needs to be poured and the underground electricity in place.  That's on the horizon...

So, except for a really uncomfortable bed situation, a lot of work got completed... Tons and tons of thanks to Lowell and Jim for a job well done.

As always, the adventure continues.

Jim and Cheri

 

 

"As I say, I don't believe zip until I see it with my own eyes" Cheri Streeter

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.

...finally... good things are happening!

 

Well, the heat is still going strong here in Provo valley, but at the cabin, there was a beautiful few minutes of rain, that cooled the mountain down, and made it oh so comfortable.  Jim was driving up to the cabin and this is the little slice of heaven that he saw... so beautiful.  I usually don't like rain, but in this instance, it was so welcomed..  This picture was taken as the rain clouds moved off to the right.

The road to the cabin was a little mucky - maybe one day, the roads will be paved...

Jim sent me these pictures this past week... this was outside his work... four adolescent male deer showed up to graze on tasty Boeing grass.  Check out the racks in velvet.  The deer can't see into the building because the windows are tinted and mirrored, but the windows allow the employees to see out... so, the deer couldn't see Jim, but they could apparently hear things going on inside the building.. They couldn't see anyone, or anything, so they weren't inquisitive... and just enjoyed their picnic.

Jim didn't see Rudolph, but maybe this was a millennial Bambi...  He's kinda cute.

Meanwhile at the cabin on the weekend, Jim continued digging the trench out to the road.

And once the digging was done, he drilled the hole through the concrete wall in the basement for the water pipe to come into the house.

He said the drill got hot and he had to stop and wait for it to cool down a few times.

Victory!

Jim was talking to the water guy, and he says that we should have water by the end of this next week... It would be amazing, but, I am at the point to where when I see it, I'll believe it...  Until then, I'm still skeptical...

Now while he was making all this great headway a little boo boo happened.  He hit the house with the backhoe!  Here's Jim's take on it.... (actually, this happened a week ago, but Jim asked me NOT to put a picture on the blog... giggle..)

OK, I hit the house with the backhoe bucket.  There I said it.  And I felt like a total loser.  When men screw up doing "manly" things they don't want to admit it.  Especially to other men.  It's kinda like the asking directions thing. . .  But when the Bryce Woodlands water company guy, Eric came by he made me feel a lot more human.  He said he's hit his house three times with his backhoe!  So I am allowing Cheri to post the picture of my mistake.

Later that day the house was repaired.  Now no one will ever know what happened.  Well everyone except those who read the Blog. . . .

And finally, we picked up a canopy tent that we had stored at Brad's house last week.  Jim carried the box into the cabin this weekend and in one minute responded to a significant allergic reaction.  He carried the box under his arm and where the box touched his skin he broke out in bumps, red bumps.  Painful red bumps.  All we can think is that Jim is allergic to Brad's cat Daisy.  When Brad first got the cat, we were over visiting, and Jim picked up the cat.. Within about 5 minutes, Jim's eyes swelled shut, and he had a problem breathing... it was terrible.. So, we figure, the cat had sat on this box or around the box, and her hair, or dander or something stayed behind. This went away in about an hour... Poor Jim...

And that about wraps it up for another week as the adventure continues. . .

Cheri & Jim