..the good, the bad, the ugly, and the REALLY bad and ugly....

 

I decided to work this blog backwards... starting with the beautiful sunset....Lowell snapped this picture on Saturday night, and I am so glad he caught the beautiful colours of Bryce Canyon and the peace and serene atmosphere..  We arrived Friday night and were all outside and watched the millions of stars against the ink black sky... it was amazing.  And, it always looks like the stars are so close you can touch them.. But, the sunsets are always one of my favourites...

Saturday came, and Jim and I had to make a trip into town to get some plumbing supplies, and while we were gone, Lowell worked a bit of magic.. fixing the path to the bridge.  The first step onto the bridge was really a killer - it wasn't especially high, but for someone with a knee issue, I had serious issues... So, while we were gone, Lowell worked his tail off and put in a 2nd step, and did a little landscaping around.  When we got back, it looked fantastic and I so appreciate it.

Lowell said he was trying to divert the run off when it rains.  There was a constant drainage problem that was taking away the sandy soil and exposing the rocks.

The scrap wood collection needs to be hauled off, next week.

By the end of Sunday, Jim had started to work on railings on the bridge.  He got two poles up by the time we were about time to leave.  It's looking amazing.

This past weekend, Lowell came with Coy, so we all tried to pitch in and make it interesting for him.  Lowell told Coy that if he picked up the little bits of wood in the area where he was going to be working with the backhoe, and cleaned up that area, he would give Coy $5.00.  So, the wheel barrow got brought out, and Coy started to work... Papa was helping Coy maneuver the wheelbarrow around, and giving him tips on what to pick up...  Coy did great... I don't know if he ever got his pay, but he sure worked for it..  Here's a shot of Papa killing a spider in the wheel barrow for Coy.

...Coy... hard at work!

Coy's Mama was adamant about having Coy brush his teeth.. which is a little tricky because there are no faucets and no sinks set up inside the cabin yet... So, whenever you brush you teeth or wash your hands, it's over the side of the deck, with a bottle of water.  Once we have the sinks and faucets, this kid is still going to want to brush his teeth over the side of the deck... amongst other things... hmmmm...

The shower stall and the bathroom continue to be a problem.  We had the guy come out on Saturday to fix a smaller leak in the shower and this is what it looked like AFTER the explosion... and yes, I mean, explosion.  The guy fixed the shower, Jim and he plugged the drain, and then filled it with water.  They waited a little bit and it didn't leak, so they started to drain... that's when they found out that the water in the shower, didn't drain... but it was filling up the toilet... hmmmm... Jim snaked the toilet thinking there was something weird plugging it way down the line, and the clog didn't move but Jim ran out of snake on the line about 20 feet down.  It was then, that they wanted to see the pictures from this blog, to see how the plumbing was put in under the cement back several years ago... Thank goodness I take a million pictures from the blog because I did find them from several years ago, and it gave the two a little insight.  It was draining from the downstairs toilet to the septic tank outside, but it was not draining from the upstairs bathroom out to the septic... Jim figured it out... When we had the inspection on the plumbing, there was a tee plug ball/balloon thing that was put into the line to plug it up it before the test was done... The ball/balloon was never removed and it clogged the system...  Jim thought that if he just move the plug a little bit, that it would allow drainage behind it and everything would flow into the septic... Well, it sort of happened... that is, after the air filled plug was depressurized it didn't move until Jim tried to move it just a little and then the explosion occurred...  Um... I'm going to put this really delicately... it wasn't pretty... Actually, it was absolutely disgusting.....With all the back pressure from "water" filling the pipe up from the main floor toilet above, the plug came out rather violently... actually, it was an explosion covering everything in it's path... After hosing Jim down outside on the deck and cleaning up, the clog was finally dislodged and everything from the line drained into the septic... really, really ugly.

This is what the balloon/plug looks like...  yep... here's the offending party...

And, this is the shower after it was resealed... It doesn't leaks now...  Inspection is on Friday...

The big push right now is to clean up and grade the courtyard area where the jacuzzi and the pizza oven and all that good stuff is going to be put... the ground has to be levelled, and the retaining wall blocks started around before we set the antique brick pavers in place.  It's a ton of work...

And, as much as big boys like to play with big toys, little boys are fascinated just watching.

I was kind of in charge of keeping Coy amused and out from underfoot for a couple of days, and I had activities planned.  The first was decorating Hallowe'en bags...

Next, we made pumpkins out of toilet paper rolls...You can never have too many rolls of toilet paper...  I told Coy to go outside and get some sticks, that is before we even got started, and he just didn't understand why we needed them...  But, he obliged..  When I showed him how they are made, and how easy it was, he had to make several.

..super simple 5 minute activity for kids... He said that he wanted to show his class at school how to make these pumpkins...

and, of course, we had to make a pumpkin with cats on it.

Brianne told me that as soon as he got home, he pulled the pumpkins out and then did a demonstration for Brianne how to make them.  I don't know if he will show his class, but he had so much fun making them.

The next on the list was making some jam... peach and strawberry.  Coy has made jam with me before, and it's always a treat.. He likes cutting the strawberries and squishing the peaches...

Here's the first two jars that were made poised on our vintage looking stove....

And, here's all of the jars after they were processed.  It was a great activity for the cabin...  I told Coy that he was going to be "jammin'" and he walked around all afternoon saying that, "Coy's Jammin'".. super cute.

And, the last major activity was making a fall tree for outside his house.  This is that craft where you invert a tomato cage and then wind the leaves around it.. super easy... I think after Coy wove the garlands around a hundred times, he was a little tired of it.. but, thought it was going to be fun for his Mum... 

Brianne said that the kittens that they have, Thunder and Lightening and Tinkerbell, really, really like this tree and had moved the greenery aside and were using the bottom of the tree as a teepee...  Before they could put it outside, they had to rework it, and fight with the cats at the same time... they had the idea the tree was truly there's, and didn't want it moved or changed.  But, they finally got it reworked, and got the lights on it, and put it on display outside their front door...  Coy is so proud of his handiwork.

This is a little out of order, but the stakes were placed to mark where the retaining blocks are going.  This is going to be a HUGE job, that I think is going to happen this coming weekend.  Dig out, make square, compact the dirt and place the huge retaining wall blocks.

And, I convinced Jim that if he works a little bit every weekend on the siding, it's going to get done.  There is always so many projects that had to be completed, that it doesn't seem there is much time for the siding.  So, he's got a little more work done...

Saturday night, we had carne asada for dinner... cooked on the barbecue.  I thought it was super tasty.  We paired it with tortillas and all the vegetables.  Was super tasty.

And, I found this plant stand a week or so ago.  It looks pretty rough now, but I am planning on painting it black, so it will go with all the wrought iron in the place.  Jim was not a fan - he's only interested in building materials right now, but I really like it, and so does Lowell... So, we keep it.

And in the same vain, I bought this chair.  I love it... Jim hates it.. I think it's interesting.. Jim still hates it...  

                                                    

When we got home on Sunday evening,  Jim developed a rash, like really bad. He didn't have a problem breathing or anything more than just a rash.  I demanded we go to the emergency room...  Talk about resistance... At the emergency room, they took blood draws and couldn't find out what the problem was... Turned out to be hives, but we can't figure out what he's become allergic to.  Maybe the jam?  No, but he had fresh peaches Saturday, a little on Sunday and then a peach shake too!  I know he's allergic to pistachios, passion fruit and penicillin,  It just makes sense to me that peaches start with the letter "P" also... I think he's allergic to... p's... I made an appointment with a dermatologist for Thursday, so, maybe we'll start getting some answers.  They gave him a steroid in the hospital, which brought the hives and itch/burning under control, but really freaks out his glucose... It was super hot over the weekend, and I am thinking that he is having some kind of reaction to sweat...  who knows?  Hopefully, we get some answers.  I'll keep you posted.

Update:  Jim just got back from the dermatologist... he was told that he needs to stop taking the steroids because of the havoc they are causing to his glucose...  We tried to get a hold of his endocrinologist who specializes in diabetes yesterday, and, (big shocker here...) the guy apparently doesn't have the time or inclination to get back with us... with this in mind, we are in the process of changing endocrinologists because this guy is a putz... moving forward.... the dermatologist says that he didn't ingest something because his throat would have been swollen, and it wasn't... but, he has just developed some kind of allergy like an autoimmune issue... he also said that a lot of these cases, they never figure out the why it happened... so, we're still up in the air...  But, it's all but disappeared now...  Strange...( Jim just thinks it's because he's getting old... sigh....) With all the blood tests that were done, he has no infection in his system, nothing biological growing... absolutely nothing out of the ordinary... blood pressure was a little high, but nothing outrageous... and I figure that is because of the stress of it all...  We are going to watch this one closely...

                                                  

So, not so much as usual, but the title of this blog, as you have read, is very, very appropriate.... it was a couple of days of good, bad, ugly and really, really bad and ugly... 

The Adventure continues. . .

Jim and Cheri

..still moving forward.... in a wet sort of way . . .

 Along with building, we are also moving  things, little by little, from the house in Provo, to the cabin in Bryce Canyon... This weekend, it was the headboard from our spare room.  Jim said he was sick of his pillows, (and let me re-iterate, there are now 6 pillows on the bed)... falling behind the bed... So, hopefully, the headboard stops that issue.  I think the headboard looks so pretty in this room.

And, we also got a headboard for the queen sized bed up in the loft.... little things like this, make the cabin feel a little more homey...  The headboard is pretty plain, but I like it...

The main floor shower that was "yellow boarded" last week, was covered in red guard this week... I don't know much about this, but Jim says that this stuff makes sure that water doesn't leak through the seams...  There's a mesh stuff underneath the red stuff, and then the process is repeated... But, you don't repeat and wash....  (ok, that was like a dad joke there... lame...) but, there are several layers of the red guard and the mesh... and again, you let it dry...  It doesn't look too pretty, but it's going to be all covered with the tile, so, we're good.

The inspection from Kane County is tomorrow (Monday), so, I'll have to let you know how it goes in the next blog..  Apparently, we fill the bottom of the shower with water, and then let it sit for a while and the inspector hangs around to see if it leaks out... If the water level remains up the whole time, we pass.. if not, we start again...

UPDATE!  Needless to say, the inspection on the shower failed....  Jim put less than the required amount of water into the bottom of the shower, and within 2 minutes, it ran out onto the floor, into the bedroom, into the kitchen and flooded out the bathtub in the basement... sigh... "Into every life a little rain must fall..."  Jim called the contractor and he's waiting for the guy to call him back...  

Update:   The contractor is coming back to fix the problem with the shower on Saturday... Jim also talked to Kane County inspection department... Jim was going to make an appointment for them to come back, but they suggested we get the problem fixed, fill it with water, and if it doesn't leak, to call them and make the appointment.  The inspector also said that a whole lot of these showers fail inspection - so, I guess we're not alone.  We don't know where it is leaking from, but, from the pictures, you can tell, it really is!

And, I found out today, that the construction industry is not making green board for bathrooms any longer.. it's all being transitioned over to yellow board... Apparently, they have a better alternative to green board...  Still, it's all gyprock  in my brain...

Jim has been working like crazy to get the area for the Jacuzzi dug out and ready for delivery.  This next weekend, we are planning on putting in the retaining walls around "Galt's Gulch" - that's the space right next to the cabin.  It's going to be a huge and difficult job... But, the retaining wall has to go in before we can put in the bricks that we have been collecting for years.

This is where the jacuzzi is going to go...  Jim had to take out one more tree this weekend, but it was in really bad shape - half of it was dead, so he did not transplant it... But, the tree that we transplanted last week, seems to be doing well.

Below, is where the retaining wall is going and the bricks..

And, on Friday night we went to the store to pick up the tile for the failed bathroom, and Jim had some plumbing questions for the guy working there....  As I was hanging around, I saw these Allen & Roth faucets... there were 5 of them on an endcap but there were no prices on any of them... So, we took it to customer service, and we were told that they were discontinued, and they gave us 30% off the price... We were stoked.  This is going into the downstairs kitchen... We have a couple of other Allen & Roth pieces in the cabin - primarily cabinets for bathrooms... they're really pretty...

And, in my travels over the weekend, I found this clock... something about it appealed to me..I didn't know how Jim was going to feel about it.. But, when he got home on Monday night, I showed him, and he really likes it.  I am thinking that I am going to put this into the mainfloor bathroom...  I really have this issue with always knowing what time it is... and, this will add to the collection.

And, I bought a walking stick for this cutie face..  I believe it was hand made, and I like the eagle on the top of it the most.  Jim agreed with me - it's his kind of item...  If you didn't notice, Jim is smiling in this picture... or, at least, as he says, he's smiling on the inside...  Giggle..  (this guy truly and totally makes me smile... and, after all these year, I still love him something stupid...)

Jim is a little depressed over the shower situation, but the adventure continues and we're moving forward.  We'll get it fixed.  

Jim and Cheri

LOTS AND LOTS OF STUFF HAPPENING!

 We are so moving forward on so many levels!  The big announcement this week is that the main level bathroom is in the process of being finished.  The toilet went in a week or so ago, and this past weekend, the shower stall was started.  It's not finished yet because we have to have an inspection by the Kane County Building Permits people, but that is scheduled for this coming Monday.  After that, we can have the tile installed!  I picked out the tile this past week... actually, I went through three different styles, until I found one that I LOVED instead of just liked.  Thank goodness Jim puts up with this lady changing her mind on a regular basis...  But, we found it, loved it, and started to buy quantities!  When I went to buy the horizontal accent tile, I found out that it is being discontinued, and we had to go to two different stores to get enough.. But, we got it, and now, it's a waiting game for the inspection.

So, here it is!  The small crisscross looking pieces are the middle horizontal accent section at shoulder height.. and the tile piece above it in the picture will go everywhere else in the bathroom area... including the shower ceiling... I really like the two together.  I really love that there is that orange colour, similar to Bryce Canyon.. It's warm and looks amazing.

AND, this is the 2nd set of tile that we picked out... I liked it, but, I didn't LOVE it... and, I really wanted to LOVE it...

I had absolutely no clue how this happens, but Jim did...  Actually, under this cement is this rubber membrane that runs up the walls about a foot... I have absolutely no idea what it's for, but, it's there, and then it's covered with concrete about 2 inches thick.  There's a special drain that goes together to seal everything.

And before you put up the walls, part of the process is to insulate....

..and then cover it in "Yellow Board"...

...and, that's the special sheet rock that goes in bathrooms in America... I thought there was just regular sheetrock and then greenboard for bathrooms, but I learned that there is yellow board...it's used when you have tile to go on the walls.. It's a concrete based wall board and there's a finish on the one side that has a texture to it, that the tiles sticks to..  Very cool.. I had absolutely no idea.  (And, I'm doing really well writing this part of the blog)...  I usually call sheetrock, Gyprock... I think it's a Canadian trademarked term...I just remember my Dad purchasing Gyprock when we were building our house in Brampton...  I keep calling it Gyprock, and thank goodness Jim is Canadian also - he understands me, most of the time.... See, it's yellow!

One thing that I figured out from sleeping in the cabin, is that I don't sleep very well without a little bit of noise around...  It's so freakin' quiet, that I can't sleep... I know that sounds a little weird, but, it's really true.  So, my sweetheart installed a ceiling fan to make a little noise and, magically, I can sleep.  Without the sound of the ceiling fan,  I was hearing every creak all night long and it was keeping me awake...  I am so used to Provo noise from trees moving outside our bedroom window, to fire trucks and just "sounds" that makes the incredible silence deafening.  Jim says that he loves it, and sleeps like a rock... Me, on the otherhand... not so much..

Ok, isn't this about the cutest set of fan blades ever?  I love them...

One of the creatures that is really, really in abundance at the cabin is birds.. apart from the dead ones that seem to appear on my great room floor on a regular basis, there are lots and lots of bluejays, and woodpeckers, red tailed hawks, and squirrels who identify as birds... I am sure they think they are birds, because they raid the bird feeders on a regular basis...  But getting back on subject, I bought a couple of humming bird feeders, and amazingly, a whole swarm of different kinds of humming birds showed up in one day.. They must talk among themselves.  And, there's some snarky red ones that chase all the other humming birds away...  Every once in a while, the other humming birds get a turn at the feeder and it's amazing to watch...  I had to take about 20 pictures of these guys to get a good shot of ONE... they move, like really fast!

We tried our hand at transplanting a tree this past weekend.  Between where the jacuzzi is going to go and the road, there is a patch with no trees.  We have tried to grow little saplings, but, they don't seem to survive.  I am told that with the high elevation, only certain trees will grow.  We have a whole lot of desert oak, and this one pictured below, is in the way of where the jacuzzi is going to get placed, so we moved it up the hill to cover in that space from peering eyes coming up the road.  We have more to go. . .

Here's Jim digging the hole for the transplanted tree's new home!

And, this shows the tree getting a ride in the bucket of the backhoe.  I don't think this tree expected a ride this weekend... But, I guess there's a first for everything.

...and, here's the new home.

It was a little scary for Jim to dig the tree out... it's on an angle next to the driveway and backhoes don't much like to work on angles.  I stood outside while Jim was digging because it looked like he was going to tip over.. I was having a freak.  I had my cell phone with me, with 911 dialed in ready to go... I figured that I would be ready if anything major happened... And, just as it got scary, my phone ran out of battery and turned off.. I was freaking...  But, thank goodness, everything worked out as planned, the backhoe didn't tip over, and the tree was transplanted.  We gave it a really good watering, and it's been raining a little bit this week, so I hope the roots will take hold and the tree will survive.

And, you know that little booboo we had with rain water coming through the basement wall?  Well, it got cleaned up this weekend...  I had to purchase a metal scraper to get all the mud broken up and scraped, and then Jim vacuumed the mess up...  I finally washed all the floor tile and wiped down the ones that were already installed, and it's looking better.  I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but trust me, it's nice and clean..

We have running water in the cabin, but no sinks hooked up yet.... so, this is how I washed the tiles that were covered in red dirt/mud!  One for washing, one for rinsing, and then I put them on a chair to dry in the sunshine.  And, if you notice, my washing stand is set up on the BBQ grill...  ingenious!

And, yes, I bought four more pillows...  They're a little on the fluffy side of life, BUT, they'll work... I told Jim that I needed to purchase a bed skirt, and he just looked at me with THE look, and the pursed lips...  I think he thinks I'm overdoing it...

With all that, the adventure continues...

Love, Jim and Cheri

...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