“It’s Christmas Time”

Seasonal Greetings as the 1984 lyrics of Band Aid’s “Do they know its Christmas” echo in my head, which they have always seemed to at this time of year.  Out here in BC's East Kootenays it has so far been milder with less snow than in the previous two winters, but standing on my front deck, as shown in the photos below, it now looks very like Christmas.

Work on completing the house has continued but at my much more sedate and measured pace. Readers will recall that in my last update (29^thOctober – “Taking It Easy”) that I was trying to build the facing and retaining wall for my future walkout basement concrete patio and front entrance.  As said then, I had struggled to build this having tried to go with the cheaper rock option and had eventually admitted defeat.  After writing, I subsequently spent a day tearing down that irregular wall and dumping the rocks to the side of the house for use in other landscaping projects next year.   With the rather more uniform but far more expensive rectangular rocks I had just had delivered by Golden Rock Products, I started the rebuild.  Not as heavy work, but the weather was getting progressively ever more painfully cold, and quite often I would have to wait until early afternoon for the temperatures to be bearable, only to be defeated by the early nightfall.  Nervous of having sufficient materials, I hauled a further 3,000 lb pallet of the rock on my own trailer from Golden Rock Products quarry before they shut down for winter, and then decided to also call it a day and leave it until next Spring, as it was by then too cold to work, and certainly was becoming too cold for my concreting contractor to pour the patio and do the slate look finish I want.  Below is the work so far, which you might see is much better than the earlier effort with the cheaper but rather irregular shaped rocks …

… and here, stacked for next year is the rest of the stone for completing that task.

Moving back inside to a very comfortably heated house, I have started some initial work on the open plan main floor, trimming the entrance from the main landing area out in Fir, and starting to fit baseboards (skirting boards for my UK readers). What with the delivery of my two new leather sofas on 8 November, and my occasional weekend neighbour in the log cabin directly below me helping me move a few heavy furniture items up from where they had been crammed downstairs at one end of the family room, the main floor Great Room, while still a little bare, is beginning to look more like a home.  I will have to make some decisions on re-allocation of rugs from the family room downstairs and/or new purchases.  Neil Johnson, my electrician also came back in to fit the three floor plugs that you can just see beyond the sofas.  

I’ve also realised that my beautiful teak dining table that I brought for my Ottawa town house is too small in the dining area of this large open plan space.  While an unplanned expense, RBM Lumber in Montana, who made my front door and kitchen counter tops have some nice rustic dining table examples in their showroom, and I might get them to make me a much bigger one next Spring, subject to my getting some income (more on that later). But having started fitting baseboards up here, my attention then got diverted to other tasks.  I shall return to the trim work on the main floor sometime in the New Year.

I’d said in my last update that I had been pleased with the contractor (a Mark Gray) that fitted my wood floor on the main floor, but I spoke too soon.  I think in my last update I mentioned that under the advise of my Home Hardware flooring salesman I'd allowed for a 5% wastage overrun, but for whatever reason I was short, which left an unfinished area of approximately 3ft x 7ft by the door that goes from the main floor landing out onto the concrete deck.  Normally a good judge of character, I’d agreed to pay him in total for the job on the understanding that when I got an extra box of flooring, he’d come back to finish the job 3-4 weeks later - and he'd accordingly left some quite expensive tools on sight to complete that work.  Mark Gray had also been recommended by my Home Hardware flooring salesman as one of only two that was capable of doing a glued down system without leaving blotches of glue everywhere, but after he left it became apparent on a sunny day that two areas had significant glue marks – one where he had got one his assistants to do the actual gluing, and the other being the landing area, where, having taken five days to do this job as opposed to his predicted three, and being under self induced pressure to get away with his family to visit relatives a 1000 km away in Saskatchewan, he had rushed the last day. Ten phone calls, four voice emails, and several texts, but no response.  My liaison with the Home Hardware salesman who had recommended him and knows the family, indicated he was getting no response either.  Short of being unconscious and on life support (which we know for other reasons is not the case), absolutely nothing excuses such a reversal of his agreement to return and subsequent rude behaviour. Ultimately I have completed the small remaining area myself so I could get on with the next task …

… and cleaned up the glue blotches myself using acetone.  It will be no surprise that I will now be retracting my recommendation for Mark Gray that I had given to two forthcoming 2019 owner builders, will never give him a recommend elsewhere (and explain in detail exactly why), nor can he expect to recover his tools left on my site.  

That final area of wood floor completed, with some help from Chris Walch, we built the frame of my office desk and cabinet on the main floor 12ft x 10ft landing over two days, using some of the 2 inch thick pine tongue and groove material that was left over from the build of my roof. 

After the Christmas and New Year break I will to trim out all the edges and fit the door and undertake the staining, as well as trimming out that window directly above.  I am yet to decide on a removable panel to hide the main floor in-floor manifold system that you can see on the left under the desk, and possibly some shelves either side under the desk.  I may also build a small ornaments display shelf that will go behind that wall lamp on the left side of the window, in order to bring some symmetry with the tall cabinet.    

Downstairs in the entrance lobby I have now managed to sort out the initial moving in clutter that was stacked in and outside both closets …

… and fit doors to both, trim out the join to the drywall inside and outside, and fit baseboards inside … 

… and then stain the wood trims and doors.  Things are much more presentable down there now as a result.  Pride of place in the lobby on the right you can see a small 1997 Hong Kong memento – an umbrella from "Mad Dogs" - one of my younger day watering holes.

Turning 180 degrees I have now moved all my still cardboard packed pictures out of the small under stairs washroom (putting them elsewhere for the time being) …

… and fitted the door.  

That washroom is now accessible and usable but who knows when I will get around to trimming it all out.  Likewise I’ll probably not get round to doing the baseboards or trimming out the other doors in the lobby (family room, garage and front door) until at least next Spring as other work on the main floor and the loft master suite is a much higher priority.  

My readers may recall with amusement from my last two updates (21 Aug 18 “I’m in - but it ain’t over until the fat lady sings” and 29 Oct 18 “Take It Easy”) the protracted saga of Whirlpool’s delayed and mislaid double ovens, and then finding out that the cabinet was the wrong size for that oven - in spite of the Home Depot saleswoman’s assurance on ordering the oven that it would fit the cabinet she had previously supplied.  That led to Home Depot ordering a bespoke build cabinet replacement at significant additional cost to them as, amazingly, the manufacturer (Thomasville Nouveau) did not make a cabinet in my kitchen range that would take what is probably the most popular fitted double oven in the North American market (notwithstanding that this style of European fitting is a luxury rather than the norm over here).  The replacement was due for delivery by Thomasville Nouveau week of 17 October, but at the time of my last writing had slipped without explanation to the week of 5 November.  

Précis of those events over, we move on to the next disaster that ensued after my last update.  Prior to Home Depot ordering the new cabinet the management of the local Cranbrook Home Depot store, themselves as distrusting as me with both Whirlpool (after the oven delivery saga) and Thomasville, had asked me to personally check, and then re-check the oven dimensions, notwithstanding that they are given in Whirlpool’s installation manual. What I measured and emailed back to them was, of course exact and "surprisingly" actually matched the dimensions given in the Whirlpool installation manual.  I also decided to cut and paste into my email from the Whirlpool installation manual a very clear statement that this oven was designed to fit in a 30” wide cabinet, not the 33” wide cabinet that the saleswoman had so incorrectly insisted (at the time of designing and ordering the kitchen) all North American sized double ovens require – and I now know, having had to dig deep into this matter, is complete b.....cks!  

I understand Home Depot passed on my bullet point notes on dimensions to Thomasville Nouveau.  Call me old fashioned, but it would seem entirely reasonable to expect Thomasville Nouveau to read and build the new cabinet exactly to those. But not so!  They got just one thing right by building the oven cavity so it would now take the oven and without the instrument panel obstructing the doors of the cupboard above. But everything else the did was a list of sheer incompetence. First, immediately on delivery I could see that the new cabinet was about 4 inches taller (as might be apparent in the photo below) and therefore would not line up with the microwave and fridge tall cabinets – what an obvious eyesore. Next problem - the new cabinet was not the 30” wide that had been specified in my emailed measurements, not the original cabinets 33" wide, but an inexplicable 32¾” wide, and was then supplied with a trim fairing to hide the gap that would otherwise exist between the oven and cabinet sides – the botch I had earlier agreed was simply not acceptable.  Clearly some idiot did not read the information provided, or perhaps thought he or she knew better.  To add insult, where each affixing bracket was screwed into that trim, the trim was split – clearly quality control before dispatch was lacking.  

Not surprisingly I went straight back to the local Home Depot manager and his deputy. Amongst other things I emphasised that I would be disappointed if they paid Thomasville a cent for this latest mess.  Within the week the deputy manager visited my house, bringing along a local retired professional cabinet maker that has helped them out from time to time with such quagmires. A week later the cabinet maker spent two days on site ripping apart the original cabinet and rebuilding it to the size to take my oven.  My electrician then wired the oven up and we slid the oven into the cabinet.  I then at last, after five months, had an oven that no longer sat in the middle of my floor but I could actually use.  But we still had to wait 4 weeks more for Thomasville Nouveau to deliver a new set of overhead cabinet doors and lower drawer that would fit the remodel, as the cabinet maker could not guarantee he could rebuild those to look as new. Third week of December, some six months after the first oven was delivered but returned due to the big dent, I now have my oven installed and my kitchen finished, other than the fact I have to fit a vent trim below the oven myself.  BUT there is no margin for subtlety here in terms of my supplier and manufacturer recommends – don’t go where I went. Only Home Depot’s local manager and his deputy worked hard to resolve such a mess, while constrained by other incompetents, most outside their control.  As such Home Depot remains a supplier I continue to recommend in other areas. 

By comparison, the build of my loft master suite shower was seamless.  I had considered doing this myself, but the truth is, having dealt with the two small en-suites downstairs, I knew the size and complex nature of working around the roof beams and up to the tongue and groove wood roof, plus my amateur ability to tile would make this too great a challenge to perfect, and probably take me three to four times as long as a professional. Notwithstanding that, before Stephen Cory (a local Cranbrook based self employed tiler and flooring professional) started his work I had to seal the beams and roof from the future shower water vapour with a further six layers of clear marine varnish. I also had to fur out the thick 14”x14” Fir beam that runs along the back wall and acts as a cantilever support for the small deck and roof that extends four feet out at the back of the loft.  The issue here, as with any of the post and beam structure is that, unlike standard lumber user in framing internal walls and sub floors kiln dried to less than 19% moisture content, these rough beams will move slightly with the seasons and may check (checking is narrow splits or cracks at the edges), so any waterproofing membranes and tiling on such a beam is at risk of also moving and cracking.  Not a good idea when you are seeking watertight structural integrity! Taking Steve’s advice when we negotiated our deal, I furred this beam out using normal kiln dried building lumber attached to the same framing lumber within the walls and sub floor and taking care that everything was spaced a small gap way from that beam.  

Stephen Cory then spent 6 days on site.  In the following pictures you can see he initially applied the Schluter waterproofing membrane system that readers may recall Chris Walch and I installing last Spring in the shower downstairs …

… and applied the very critical pre-tile waterproofing Schluter Kerdi seal around the internal window, …

 … and then built the 5ft x 6ft shower basin, prior to tiling, up to the roof line.  You’ll see that under the right hand of the two showers I have a small seating bench for when I get old and decrepit.  He was also fastidious in his sealing of the join between tiles and the tongue and groove roof line and heavy beams against any vapour ingress. 

Underneath the floor tiling, both where I will subsequently step out of the shower and in the adjacent sink vanity area and separate toilet is an in-floor Ditra-Heat system.   

Six days on job complete, but what with other work I have to do over the next two months in the loft, it will be a while before I get my plumber back to fit the plumbing fixtures, but I am sure you will agree from the photos below the “wow factor” result is worth the not insignificant expense of Steve’s labour and my material. Stephen Cory came with a very strong recommend that was fully justified.  Meeting his predicted time line accurately (unusual in the building trade) his work from initial waterproofing to finished tiling was thorough and extremely neat.  Also untypical of builders, his clear up of his own mess was excellent – he actually left the space even tidier than I had supplied it at the start.  Below is a quick guided tour: first, entering the bathroom area behind the separating pony wall from what will be the bedroom ...  

... then turning left (the area beyond under the low end of the valley beam will be wood floored and used as a store area) ...

... then turning left into the wet room shower area ...

 ... then looking right you can just see the valley beam overhead ...

... and finally here is the separate toilet which will have a door separating it from the wash basin vanities.  

Meanwhile outside the winter has brought new seasonal wildlife visitors, particularly in the early morning with Elk grazing near to the house.  Somewhat larger than the resident “muley” deer, they are also rather more wary of my appearance than the deer and tend to move away once I am up and about - at which stage the deer return and don’t generally care two hoots about me being outside and within 20 feet of them.   

Sadly we also had a problem in the area with a young cougar (mountain lion).  It has been known long before I bought my plot that there is as cougar den up on the big hill immediately behind Koocanusa Ranch, and indeed there have been rare sightings, but large animal though it is, generally they are wary, and keep clear of human habitation.  The mother is known to have had two cubs in the Spring of 2017, and unfortunately, perhaps with the onset of winter and gradual move away from its mother, one of these maturing cubs was seen on various houses CCTV being too inquisitive and sniffing around external doors, and in the local village of Wardner it even cornered one of my ex contractors domestic cats on his deck adjacent to his door.  As a result a decision was made in discussion with the local conservation officer to track it with dogs and either catch it and relocate or shoot.  The latter was the end result.

Sad, but if the animal is that bold, it might be a threat to an adult, and certainly to a small child.

Both the loft suite shower build and the final fitting of my oven were completed literally three days before I flew to UK for two weeks, spending a few days catching up with a few friends in and around London, my sisters family in Plymouth and old friends in Dartmouth, plus a week with my Mother for Christmas and the year on from my Father passing away after his five year illness.  Having intended to write this blog update before I flew to UK on the 17^th, inevitably I have been preoccupied with travel and socialising, so this is rather later than intended.  I fly back to Canada on the 1^stJanuary.  Meanwhile adjacent neighbours are keeping a close eye on my palace while away.

It's clear to me that I am unlikely to have finished all the internal work plus landscaping (at least at the front of the house) by this summer, and therefore won't be in a position to do the planned AirBnB letting of the daylight walkout basement suite as a supplement to my RN pension this year.  So I have been looking around for some part time or short term contract consulting opportunities that I can primarily do from home.  While not yet in writing, I have a good option maturing and am hoping, and financially rather need (especially if the UK falls out of the EU with no deal and the £ consequently crashes, devaluing my RN pension) to pick that up mid January. If it materialises that is going to probably be about 100 hours a month for 5 months, thus taking take up about half of my available week that would otherwise be committed to house finishing – and also delay subsequent landscaping this summer.  But needs must.  

I anticipate I will write my next update early March, with hopefully something significant to show my readers in terms of progress on the loft master suite but not much elsewhere.  Until then, may I wish all my readers, wherever you are in the world, a very happy and prosperous 2019 – and to my friends and family reading this in UK a rather more positive end to this most horrid and divisive national debate on Brexit.