Just Chilling Out!

It has been a while since my last update on 21st December, posted just after I flew to UK for what was planned to be a two-week catch up with my parents, sister’s family and some friends in London. My father had gone back into hospital some three weeks before I flew over, and on seeing him I cancelled the London plans in order to have more time to visit him while also giving morale support to my Mother. Dad passed away on the 29th December. I had watched from afar along with annual visits, how a once so very capable man had progressively deteriorated over his last five years to a point where in his last two he had no real quality of life. While inevitably his departure leaves a big gap, particularly for my Mother after 58 years of marriage, he was clearly in a lot of distress with his various ailments.  Whatever one’s religious convictions, he is now at long last free of his suffering and at rest in a better place. Inevitably my stay in UK became extended and I finally flew back to Canada on the 18th January.

As readers will appreciate from my last update, I had left Dwight Hulbert and his assistant, Wes, to complete what was left of their work on the external siding, trims and fascia, as and when the weather allowed. In addition I had asked Dwight to undertake another small task. i.e. to complete the garage openings and backing timbers ready for subsequent installation of my garage doors. Dwight took the Christmas and New Year break, plus a little further down time while the North American continent was in the grip of a polar vortex wintry blast, with much north of Texas at -20C. Having spoken to Dwight by phone when I extended my UK stay, it was clear that with my delayed return he would need more materials to be able to finish the job. While on my side not urgent, he clearly wanted to finish and move on, so offered to purchase and collect the extra materials and at no cost mark up. On my return my faith in the high quality of his work was again fully justified. Further, in spite of the fact the job had inevitably taken longer than he anticipated with a number of unexpected problems, his final bill reflected exactly what we had agreed at start plus the additional materials he purchased at cost, without so much as a murmur, mutter or plea about additional costs. By comparison, some other contractors have whined away. Both Dwight and Dale Bryant (ground excavation and septic system) have proven themselves so far as my best two contractors for quality of work, reliability, consistency, fairness and business manner.

Here is a quick circuit look around the house of Dwight’s finished work. First at the front ...

... you can see not only is the siding work complete (it was almost in mid December when I went away) but all the fascia boards are now in place directly under the metal roof overhang – what might seem a relatively easy job until one appreciates the height of scaffolding required while also working in sub zero conditions. You’ll also see that Dwight fitted the timber fascia that runs just under the concrete deck edge. (I have got to clean up the concrete drips and stain the piece that was already in place over on the left side). The rest of that wall that you still see is exposed ICF blocks will be finished in a stone veneer by another contractor sometime in the Spring/early Summer. In addition, you’ll note from the overall photo that the 45 degree porch dormer is now finished. Previously an open cavity as shown in this mid December photo …..

… it is now finished in a combination of oil stained cedar shingles on the vertical face in-between the visual structural truss, and on the underside the same clear stain pine tongue and groove as used throughout the underside of my roof system (so much nicer than the nasty plastic stuff I see on so many undersides of open roofs).

Both scaffolding access and the finicky nature of how this dormer had been originally framed made the finishing quite a big challenge for Dwight. The only thing to be tidied up there later on by my electrician is the wiring for the valley heat loops (in place to mitigate the risk of ice damage where snow will tend to collect).

Below is a view of the rear of the house. Again, most of the remaining work here was getting the fascia boards up into place under the lip of the metal roof, plus the timber fascia that runs just under the concrete deck edge. The area below that timber is also going to be finished by a stonemason sometime in the Spring/early Summer.

Next is a view from the side of the garage deck. A job for me in the Spring will be a little bit of land profiling to bring the ground level up to cover but slope away from the blue waterproof tarpaulin. You’ll also note the metal plate fitted at the junction of the timbers on the far wall – not structural, just for aesthetics so it makes the main structural column and two horizontal bands look like a truss. As for the blackened trapezoid windows, I am not quite sure what my new camera did there (I treated myself to a new one at London Heathrow as my old one had a bad scratch on the lens that was becoming increasingly apparent in some of the previous photos).

So, with Dwight’s work complete, readers will be wondering what I have done on the house between my return on the 18th January and today 9th February. The answer is very little, other than perhaps a couple more days inside progressively soundproofing internal walls in readiness for the drywall team coming in late March / early April, fitting weather strips to the kitchen and loft bedroom rear external doors, and today spray foam sealing around the 12 ft wide sliding glass doors in the prow wall, plus a bit of tidying up contractors trash. While the weather has been generally mild (hovering just below 0 deg C) the site is difficult to work around outside due to the amount of snow that has slid off my roof and then repeatedly thawed and frozen into hard pack ice. Such conditions reduce one’s work rate to 50%. (Once living in the house I will have the equipment in terms of a snow blower and all terrain vehicle (ATV) with a small snow plow on the front to clear the snow before it becomes an encumbrance, but at present I have no such equipment as nowhere to store). As for inside, there is no great rush as I had agreed in mid December with my intended drywall contractor that his materials won’t come on site until the weather has improved sufficiently to guarantee access for a delivery truck up that steep drive. In this photo below you’ll note it is clear of snow, but timing between snowstorms and when I can get it cleared and gritted is such a gamble that it would be difficult to plan with any certainty for delivery of heavy materials.

Consequently, other than a trip down to RBM Lumber in Montana earlier this week to discuss costs of some internal trim finishing materials, (plus an overnight stay and a couple of beers in the lovely town of Whitefish), some work compiling records for both my engineer for his structural sign off and the local building inspectors, plus some forward planning on the forthcoming internal turnkey finishing, my time has been spent on more personal matters.  i.e. sorting out overdue appointments with both my Doctor and Dentist, and taking the Doctors advice quite literally,  just “chilling out,” (not a pun on the weather), sleeping and reading in front of a log fire in the apartment I am currently living in above Chris Walch’s garage, getting myself back in the gym, and planning a month away.

This Sunday 11th I fly back to UK for a week to catch up with some friends either side of Portsmouth and around London, plus my Mother. That is followed by 18 days doing one of my three to four yearly revisits to the Sultanate of Oman. (For those readers unaware, I spent nearly 3 years on Loan Service from the UK Royal Navy to the Royal Navy of Oman in 2005-2008, running their operational diving team and diving school). A long way to fly, but once there I have the kind offer of free accommodation and time to enjoy a stunning country, with its gracious and welcoming people, and reminiscing over some of the good memories of my time there, while also at this time of the year enjoying their winter with daytime dry heat temperatures in the mid 20’s C – just perfect (unlike their 44C humid summers). Oman is followed by a couple of days stop over in London on the return trip, to get back here on the 13th March. 

From then on, recharged and with Spring around the corner, I will be refocussed on the house. Initial tasks to complete the rest of the internal sound insulation, undertake the construction of three “schluter system” showers, and the small 4’ x 30’ deck at the back of my loft bedroom, prior to the drywall team coming in. I anticipate my next post being published at the end of March.

Until then, just to demonstrate the winter views, three perspectives of the house looking up from the ranch road below …

… and from that front deck three views panning left to right across the lake bed below and the Rockies beyond. These views still leave me with a strong sense of contentment and well being - what this is all about.

So, until after my forthcoming trip to Oman and my next update at the end of March …

maʿ al-salāmah
مَع السَلامة