The 2020 roller coaster!
- My part time consulting contract ramped up significantly in March, most months approaching and occasionally exceeding the 100 hours per month I had hoped for but never received in the previous year, and that has kept me fully occupied for at least 6 hours a day, four days per week.
- The neck pain issues and associated occipital neuralgia continue to take up much time, with visits to my local physiotherapy and massage therapist, plus every 4 – 6 weeks a 3½-4 hour drive each way to a pain specialist in Nelson for trigger point therapy, and early September a 6½ hour drive to a neurologist in Kelowna for an initial nerve block.
- Covid-19 disruptions to the normal process of life and getting anything done.
In spite of all that, I have still had spare time to enjoy life out here in the mountains and my grand abode, time to do all that has to be done domestically to keep this place clean, plus trips into town to use the gym four times a week. But not much time left to get on with what remains to be done to finish the house. i.e. the trimming out the doors, windows and baseboards (skirting boards) downstairs in the daylight walkout basement, entrance lobby, stairwell and laundry, let alone external landscaping. I even still have to sort through and hang all my pictures that remain stacked against walls downstairs. The sum of all that is that by start of September there really wasn't much house finishing progress to report on in a blog update.
In spite of Covid-19, summer here was a good one, with plenty of outdoor six foot distanced G&T’s and beers with some of my Calgary neighbours who had moved out of the city to their holiday homes at the start of the initial lockdown and schools closure, remaining here in our own bubble until September. Weather was typically excellent for this semi arid region, and we had a below average year for wildfires, which after the records set in 2017 and 2018 was a welcome relief from the additional worries re Covid. Nevertheless wildfires raged and hit records in the USA states south and south west of me, particularly in Washington, Oregon and California, and this side of Canada endured ten days early September shrouded in stifling thick smoke from the USA fires, totally obscuring my view of the lake and mountains.



However, I did make an initial start on landscaping. The choice had to be whether to start at the front or back of the house, and I ultimately decided that the builders’ near junkyard status at the back would be my priority. The following two photographs make my point about the mess – one of weeds, a cut away into the hill to ensure a flat area behind the house, lots of building detritus, and fir cones.
The first component is the building of a loose drystone rock facing and retaining wall against that bank, using the rough shaped boulders that I had initially tried to use two years earlier on the front patio wall. This provided me with plenty of hard physical work, both moving those rocks from the pile I had dumped at the front of the house two years ago and up the hill at the side of the house by wheelbarrow, plus numerous wheelbarrow loads of one inch drain rock ...
... then lifting the rocks into place, removing them, trying another position, all to achieve the best fit, plus shovelling in drain rock behind the rocks. The drain rock ensures rain or melt water can drain away without saturating the earth behind and ultimately pushing the wall over. Further mitigation against such a risk was to gradually slope the wall into the hill and place every fourth or fifth rock at 90 degrees into the ground behind as “dead man” anchors. Thank you UTube and Pinterest. Having seen the Muley Deer, who frequently hide from the summer heat behind the house, take fright if I come out and disturb them, jump up the wall without mishap, I am fairly confident my wall is stable.
With work and the other distractions I mentioned earlier, I have only had the time to commit at best a day a week to this task, not helped by the fact that it was often just too hot. As an example, on one afternoon, having finished paid work around 2 PM I turned to the rock wall task. It was 36 deg C and a very dry heat. Despite forcing myself to drink water every 10-15 minutes, I wasn’t obviously sweating and therefore wasn't aware of how much fluid I was losing, and within 1½ hours had a dizzy spell and realised it might be best if I stopped.
The second component was to pour a concrete slab patio extending 10 feet from the rear wall and sloped or graded so as to take any precipitation away, and also to provide a clean walk area behind the house so I am not traipsing mud and snow into the house in winter with my firewood. The precipitation problem became obvious the year before, both from snow melt on the hill behind, and with those almost tropical strength deluges we sometimes get late spring and early summer. In the latter case the volume of water sometimes pouring down the rear roof valley is so large that it overshoots the eaves trough and drain and pours out like a waterfall, pooling about four to five feet from the back of house, and thereafter leaving a long term damp patch as that area is mainly in shade. That is not wise near a basement wall, as if the waterproofing membrane fails or the concrete wall cracks I could end up with damp ingress downstairs.
The scale of this work was such that in September I contracted out much of this work. I got Dwight Hulbert to do the initial ground work excavation, compacting and forms ...
... Jocommo of Cen-Con to do the concrete pour and broom brush finish (the option of a stamped slate finish like on my front patio was too expensive), and Zip Line Pumping to pump the concrete from the concrete truck at the front of the house up the hill to the back.



The third component is that separate 12 ft wide by 8 ft deep concrete slab you can see in the photographs. I have two possible plans still developing here. Either to put a post and beam roof over that as a winter firewood store and rock paving slabs embedded in gravel as a walk way from the patio, or alternatively build an outdoor wood fired oven on that pad with either an open pergola or a covered roof. In trying to decide which, I am also considering the alternative of just buying a Komodo Big Green Egg smoker https://biggreenegg.ca that I would then put on the main over garage covered concrete deck next to my gas BBQ. DC and Holly, as the experts on such matters, standby for my seeking your input and steer ahead of your visit.
https://www.mannafromdevon.com/cookery-courses/woodfired/
The fourth component is a tentative plan to fence this area in. As some know, I have been considering getting a dog for a long time, but I won’t do that until the house is properly finished and I therefore have more time to appreciate a dog. Nor until I have a fenced area behind the house to let it out into first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening, so that it can't then tear off on an errant night-time chase after the elk, deer or wild turkeys, let alone picking a fight with a bear or cougar.
Work on the backyard project has inevitably stopped for the winter, but my intentions from next spring are to first complete the build of the stacked rock wall and whichever I decide on in terms of a wood fired oven or wood shed, then get Dwight to install a perforated drain tube buried in gravel along that patio edge which will take any moisture away and out to the hill beyond the side of the house, and finally place and grade a gravel dressing as a finishing to the non concreted area between the rock wall to the patio slab.
So that outdoor work is about all I have achieved on house finishing this year.
Part of late August and through September was also taken up with the annual forage on crown land for dead wood to chop and split as my winter firewood, and some essential external maintenance before winter, especially on my front wood deck guard rails which were peeling and cracking in the intense sun, otherwise I’d be replacing them in the next two years.
I also had to make two gable vents for the front porch dormer roof and get Dwight to fit these, as evidence last winter of some frosting around the lower vents indicated the venting in this particular roof section was insufficient. A long story but one of three contractors involved in building that particular part of my roof had failed to mention that the hidden ridge beam on that section precluded the option for the ridge venting, as is fitted elsewhere to the main roof sections, and therefore left me with a problem to find out! Roof venting allows any condensing moisture to escape, and is essential in all climates, unless you have a "hot roof" (a complete misnomer) such as in the design of my loft shed dormer, otherwise long term moisture could lead to structural damage. This venting is especially important in extreme sub zero winter climates.

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Departing Tofino in a major Pacific gale dumping 100mm plus of rain in 12 hours, I spent a day driving back east across the island to get the ferry back to the mainland, then two days leisurely driving 1000 km back across BC, through five mountain passes, the Similkameen Valley ...
I am, in spite of the quiet and unusually socially restricted life Covid-19 has imposed, content. Most of my Calgary neighbours have decided to yet again escape the city while the cases there surge exponentially. I have in the last 10 days managed to have two outdoor slightly chilly drinkex socials with two sets but I have declined so far to socialise indoors, and won't until I am very sure they are not having other visitors from Calgary and therefore adhering to a small social bubble. So, entirely cheerful in these strange times, rest assured, there is no danger of me being seen walking through the ranch doing a Black Adder WW 1 impersonation with two pencils stuffed up my nose and my underpants on my head, shouting “wibble” at the wildlife.
I know most readers in UK, Canada and Australia will know who Blackadder is or was, but this link provides an explanation for those elsewhere in the world. http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/blackadder/episodes/four/four_goodbyee.shtml
That is all until my next update in April where I aim to show you the finished downstairs suite and main floor laundry. Stay safe. I wish you all seasonal greetings and a rather better 2021 than we had in 2020.
love this update. See you soon I hope. Happy 2021! Lance & Wendy
ReplyDeleteLikewise hope that some semblance of normality returns for travelling in 2021. As you probably know, I chatted with Keith two to three days ago. Hope to see you all four sometime this year if I can get back to UK. Keith and I talking about doing the West Coast Trail in 2022.
DeleteBeautiful photos and more detail that we can handle as usual Darroch. For the kamado oven you'll need to buy charcoal or make your own; either way a large investment when you have more wood than your can shake a stick at. Just get a woodfired oven. Stay safe and hope to see you in 2021 DC and Hol.
ReplyDeleteNice to see it all coming together Darroch, looks lovely.
ReplyDeleteThe only photo missing at the end of your update was one of your 80ft Christmas tree in situ with all the associated giant baubles, tinsel and lights, come on man! What excuse could you possibly have?! The cherry picker was there and ready to go!
Happy New Year matey.
TC
I somehow guessed that by putting a final photo in with gaudy Christmas lights running along my deck guardrails, somebody would say something about an 80ft Christmas tree. Maybe next time I need to hire a cherry picker in years to come I'll decorate a big tree out front.
DeleteBravo, Darroch! How we miss B.C...
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year from us in Ottawa!
Roll on May/September/May 2022/September 2022.....................................this visit has been delayed so many times now: many more and I shall be arriving in a wheelchair or hanging on to a zimmer! Never mind, everything comes to him (or her) who waits. M
ReplyDeleteWell old Buddy long time no see, I can see that you have blend it in the Canadiana wilderness. BZ on your career and accomplishments. Beautiful home and view indeed. Hope to see you around one day. If you ever come by Quebec City give me a ring. Take care.
ReplyDeleteYour favorite French Canadian Josh