A friend asked me today if I was getting burned out from working on this house for so long. I answered that the energy came in waves and I was just coming out of a trough. This past fall's wave crested just before Christmas when we moved in. And then there was Christmas with its own seasonal pinnacle, and the emergent details of moving in. Once we were able to use the toilet I was about ready to take a break (which of course I didn't.) But this past week I was granted a vacation by the flu bug.
I'm only being slightly sarcastic, as this particular flu wasn't especially painful, and only forced me to lie around and fast for a couple days, during which time I missed a few phone calls (which seemed very important) because of our distance from any cellphone towers, and during which time it snowed continuously, allowing me to feel my weakness on many levels.
Even in this sorry state, my family coming around to entertain and otherwise care for me as well as having my own bed to lie in and look out at the snowy woods and an occasional song to sing made this an experience I found to be pleasant overall.
Sometimes I think the flu, and some other illnesses, are just some things we create for times when we forget to take a break. Somebody stop me from working, even eating, so I can just breathe for a while and appreciate the ability to do that.
Anyway today I feel like myself again, and going outside I remember why I love the winter. The snow is heavy on the trees but not stretching the boundaries of their what they're engineered to hold. It hushes all the nearby sounds so effectively that today snowshoeing with our chatting Seamus we scared up a rabbit who was just ten feet away.
It doesn't however hush the low drone of the mining drills. I hear them whenever things are quiet. I started hearing them several years ago when they started drilling core samples. Erica couldn't hear them then and I wondered sometimes if my hearing (or my mind) was going. But then I talked to some other neighbors who also heard it and we guessed like night dogs what it might be. The theory that gave me rest was that it was iron ore boat engines. It sounded to me like big diesels that were just running steady and I guess that's what those drills are. I guess I wish they were boat engines. Not that I rank those hard-working people out running a drill all night in 0º weather any lower than myself. But knowing the richness of the minerals in this area makes me nervous sometimes as those minerals inevitably become more valuable.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Cozy in the middle of winter
It's been about a month since we moved into to this house and it seems our collective brains are beginning to settle. Mine, anyway, has been a little wilder than usual this past few months. Striving for the goal of moving in by the holidays with all that had to be done (firewood, a spring box, the ceiling in the dance room, another chimney for an upstairs stove, sealing up a couple doors, etc.) meant living pretty lean as far as time management goes. Writing in this log was among the places to trim fat.
Now to be clear: having moved in by no means means the house is done! You may be able to see in the pictures that the drywall has no mud or paint on it. And the downstairs drywall is still mostly sitting stacked and waiting to be hung up among moving boxes waiting to be smiled upon.
Erica and I are sleeping up in the attic, the kids are sleeping in the dance room where we also eat and spend most of our indoor time. One of the bathrooms has been turned into a temporary kitchen, and the other has a toilet (yesssss) and some more boxes.
So far we've been getting all of our water from the creek, and filtering our drinking water through a countertop filter. It's a romantic notion to haul your water up from a wild stream, but the romance is tested as you walk up the hill. I've been taking strength thinking of people in dryer, poorer parts of the world. There is a video series at our library called Families of the World, which shows a day in the life of a child in all different kinds of places, and one of the things that strikes me about these videos is how many people haul water as a major part of every day, sometimes for miles. What happens when they get sick? Retire?...
The pink insulation in the foreground here surrounds our water source, a spring box. By this I mean it taps into the water flowing just a few feet beneath the surface. There's a line buried that runs up to the house, along side it lies an electrical line. Because the water is so close to the surface, we'll still run it through a filter to keep out bacteria and whatever weird stuff might be running off of our house and vehicles. But what an exciting thought to be able to wash hands and dishes in flowing water! And once we connect gas to the house, we'll be able to choose cold or hot! So far the only water outlet going is the kitchen sink.
The house has been keeping pretty warm, but it gets a little hard to heat when it gets down around 0º. It'll probably be a lot easier when we set up more permanent, efficient wood burners.
Now to be clear: having moved in by no means means the house is done! You may be able to see in the pictures that the drywall has no mud or paint on it. And the downstairs drywall is still mostly sitting stacked and waiting to be hung up among moving boxes waiting to be smiled upon.
Erica and I are sleeping up in the attic, the kids are sleeping in the dance room where we also eat and spend most of our indoor time. One of the bathrooms has been turned into a temporary kitchen, and the other has a toilet (yesssss) and some more boxes.
So far we've been getting all of our water from the creek, and filtering our drinking water through a countertop filter. It's a romantic notion to haul your water up from a wild stream, but the romance is tested as you walk up the hill. I've been taking strength thinking of people in dryer, poorer parts of the world. There is a video series at our library called Families of the World, which shows a day in the life of a child in all different kinds of places, and one of the things that strikes me about these videos is how many people haul water as a major part of every day, sometimes for miles. What happens when they get sick? Retire?...
The pink insulation in the foreground here surrounds our water source, a spring box. By this I mean it taps into the water flowing just a few feet beneath the surface. There's a line buried that runs up to the house, along side it lies an electrical line. Because the water is so close to the surface, we'll still run it through a filter to keep out bacteria and whatever weird stuff might be running off of our house and vehicles. But what an exciting thought to be able to wash hands and dishes in flowing water! And once we connect gas to the house, we'll be able to choose cold or hot! So far the only water outlet going is the kitchen sink.
The house has been keeping pretty warm, but it gets a little hard to heat when it gets down around 0º. It'll probably be a lot easier when we set up more permanent, efficient wood burners.
Idgy has been coming to visit a few times a day now. I think you can see why.
The goal for 2012 is to finish the downstairs enough to move into it and also build the porches. We plan to have a deck-building party sometime late this summer, maybe Labor Day.
So far we don't have a very good phone connection, but please text anytime, or use a texting website like txtdrop.com. Otherwise stop on by!Wednesday, January 4, 2012
We moved in
It's been a busy period since diving back into building this fall, and I apologize for not making time to write, but here are some photos that tell something about what's going on.
Happy new year!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Woodpile days
Well it's National Forest Products week, as you're probably aware. In case you didn't know, there's still time to put your inflatable Paul Bunyan out in the yard. The holiday comes at a good time for me as I'm done hanging drywall for a while, and on to gathering firewood. 
I had nothing to do with this photo other than nabbing it off of a sculptor's website because it inspires me. -link- I don't think I'll be making sculptures this year other than the usual rectangular shapes (which I always find attractive).
Yep the upstairs drywall is all hung up now and cleaned up. The joints aren't taped yet but we're going to put that off until the downstairs is finished so we can move in very soon (~1 month?). There will only be a very basic kitchen and other plumbing as it progresses.
This is the fourth year in a row now that we set out in Spring with the goal of moving into this place before Winter's snow. Everyone's getting excited as it seems really close this time.
Erica and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by staying the night out at the house without our children. And by taking a hike up 'Shattuck's hill.'
I had nothing to do with this photo other than nabbing it off of a sculptor's website because it inspires me. -link- I don't think I'll be making sculptures this year other than the usual rectangular shapes (which I always find attractive).
Yep the upstairs drywall is all hung up now and cleaned up. The joints aren't taped yet but we're going to put that off until the downstairs is finished so we can move in very soon (~1 month?). There will only be a very basic kitchen and other plumbing as it progresses.
This is the fourth year in a row now that we set out in Spring with the goal of moving into this place before Winter's snow. Everyone's getting excited as it seems really close this time.
Erica and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by staying the night out at the house without our children. And by taking a hike up 'Shattuck's hill.'
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Neighborhood place for sale.
Update: This cabin was recently acquired by some new friends as a family getaway. They're giving it a lot of love. It now has a second floor and roof and a finished bathroom. We're so grateful you're here!
Friday, October 7, 2011
How to bend drywall
A strong wind this weekend is stripping the trees and giving us the sky back. The colors, smells, and other sensations of this season have been fantastic as usual. The biggest news in the neighborhood lately is the birth of a baby girl to the couple next door. She was born healthy through a long labor and during a hurricane-strength wind storm. As for me, I've been hanging drywall.
We have a plan to get us moved in before the heavy snow which is to roughly finish the upstairs and move into there, and then work on the downstairs through the winter. The other significant part of the plan is that I've committed to working 40 hours on the place every week. This means only a half day on Tuesday and Wednesday and a full day every other day except Sunday. It's not different from what I've been doing except that now I'm counting the hours. It makes a huge difference, as it's very easy to stretch breakfast and checking email into the afternoon. Now if I do that I have to stay at work until after the kids are in bed.
Breaking news: The attic room now has a staircase.
Now to the drywall bending. After experimenting with long scraps over the course of the last couple months using the various tips I learned from people I talked to or read about online, I've come to an understanding of how this is not difficult at all.
The materials you are dealing with are gypsum mud and paper. The two materials have different strengths and work to support each, similar to the way concrete and steel work together. Gypsum becomes flexible when moistened, but paper becomes very weak when wet. Gypsum's special safety power is that it loves to hold water, so it has the ability to put out fires, and, relevant to the bending process, it sucks water out of whatever it can.
So:
1. Cut the width of your piece as it's much easier to cut a straight piece.
2. Lean the piece against a wall at about 45º and come back later! I bet you can find other things to do.
3. In hot, humid weather this may be enough to get the bend you want. If it doesn't bend much over the course of an hour or two, you can loosen up the gypsum by wiping the top side only with a wet (but not dripping wet) sponge or dampening it with a spray bottle.
Add a little water and wait an hour to see if you need more.
Be sure not to get the paper on the lower side of the sheet wet, because this will cause the sheet to break. Also be sure both sides of the paper have dried before handling the stuff. It dries pretty quickly as the gypsum soaks up the water. You may also want to wait until the mud dries inside before handling the piece so it's not too floppy.
You can then handle the bent piece just like a regular sheet. It's unlikely that it will be exactly the same shape as your framing, but if it's close you should be able to screw it into place, or else slowly use clamps as in this post.
Some people will tell you to slice the paper sheathing many times but I had no luck with this. The sheet would just break where it was cut.
We have a few curved drywall surfaces in this house, and although there have been moments of impatient regret in the process of their construction, when it's all done I love the curves. For finishing of curved drywall allow for a lot more time than flat surfaces, from 2X to 10X as much time, no exaggeration.
And then there’s baseboard and other trim that may cause you some frustration. But if you really like curved walls, you can do it. The sill for this opening in a 2x4 curved wall was cut from a 2 1/4" x 14" slab in order to get the curve, for example, and this baseboard is three 1/4" boards laminated together.
We have a plan to get us moved in before the heavy snow which is to roughly finish the upstairs and move into there, and then work on the downstairs through the winter. The other significant part of the plan is that I've committed to working 40 hours on the place every week. This means only a half day on Tuesday and Wednesday and a full day every other day except Sunday. It's not different from what I've been doing except that now I'm counting the hours. It makes a huge difference, as it's very easy to stretch breakfast and checking email into the afternoon. Now if I do that I have to stay at work until after the kids are in bed.
Breaking news: The attic room now has a staircase.
Now to the drywall bending. After experimenting with long scraps over the course of the last couple months using the various tips I learned from people I talked to or read about online, I've come to an understanding of how this is not difficult at all.
The materials you are dealing with are gypsum mud and paper. The two materials have different strengths and work to support each, similar to the way concrete and steel work together. Gypsum becomes flexible when moistened, but paper becomes very weak when wet. Gypsum's special safety power is that it loves to hold water, so it has the ability to put out fires, and, relevant to the bending process, it sucks water out of whatever it can.
So:
1. Cut the width of your piece as it's much easier to cut a straight piece.
2. Lean the piece against a wall at about 45º and come back later! I bet you can find other things to do.
3. In hot, humid weather this may be enough to get the bend you want. If it doesn't bend much over the course of an hour or two, you can loosen up the gypsum by wiping the top side only with a wet (but not dripping wet) sponge or dampening it with a spray bottle.
Add a little water and wait an hour to see if you need more.Be sure not to get the paper on the lower side of the sheet wet, because this will cause the sheet to break. Also be sure both sides of the paper have dried before handling the stuff. It dries pretty quickly as the gypsum soaks up the water. You may also want to wait until the mud dries inside before handling the piece so it's not too floppy.
You can then handle the bent piece just like a regular sheet. It's unlikely that it will be exactly the same shape as your framing, but if it's close you should be able to screw it into place, or else slowly use clamps as in this post.Some people will tell you to slice the paper sheathing many times but I had no luck with this. The sheet would just break where it was cut.
We have a few curved drywall surfaces in this house, and although there have been moments of impatient regret in the process of their construction, when it's all done I love the curves. For finishing of curved drywall allow for a lot more time than flat surfaces, from 2X to 10X as much time, no exaggeration.
And then there’s baseboard and other trim that may cause you some frustration. But if you really like curved walls, you can do it. The sill for this opening in a 2x4 curved wall was cut from a 2 1/4" x 14" slab in order to get the curve, for example, and this baseboard is three 1/4" boards laminated together.
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