April 28th

On Monday, Mike and I started on the "post-foundation" phase of our house construction. Amazing progress has been made. The first photo shows all the floor joists in place at the end of day 2. Today (day 4) we completed installing the plywood sub-floor. We would have had it done yesterday but "rain stopped play" as they say in the world of cricket. The issue was how well the PL400 construction adhesive would work if the wood was wet, which it definitely was. Because this is probably the only house I will ever build I wanted to get it right so I made an executive decision to stop work because of the rain. Mike was a bit scornful, saying "it never stopped me before in the 90 other houses I have built." But I was firm... until this morning when it was still raining, so I made another executive decision, "what the f_ _ _, let's do it." So we started laying down the plywood in the rain. It was shard to get the glue to stick to the joists, but we managed. Then the rain stopped, the sun came out and life felt a whole lot better! By the end of the day we had the entire main floor covered in plywood.

The bottom pic is the view from the house site towards the trailer where I am now sitting having my supper and writing this. A glass of Malbec at hand....

April 25th

This feels in some ways like Day 1. Although we've been working on the perimeter drainage for several days, today we started banging nails. As you can see Quadra Builders delivered a large load of lumber and there's more to come on Wednesday. Mike started work and quickly got organized installing the sill plates that get bolted to the foundation walls and on which the house structure gets built. Elgin put in a good day shoveling and raking sand and rock for the foundation and perimeter drainage.

At the end of "day 1" significant progress!

Yeah.

April 18th

On Sunday, John Vosper delivered two loads of sand for the foundation floor. Nice truck!



Today I got myself out of bed at 5:30am to catch the first ferry to Quadra/Campbell River. I had located both a fridge and lawn mower on Craigslist and needed to stock up on groceries and few other items. I got to CR around 9:30am and headed out to Willow Point to look at the lawn mower. While on my way I got a call from Marty, the seller, to tell me he could not get it started so I might not want to bother coming. I told him I'd come and take a look anyway. When I got there he told me he's going through a divorce and has sold his house so he's unloading stuff he doesn't need. I took a look at the lawn mower, checked that there was a spark, tested the compression by pulling the cord and figured it was probably a gas problem. Anyway he agreed to drop his price due to the fact that it was not running. So I bought it. When I unloaded it at my workshop here on Cortes I thought, oh well I'll give a it try. I put new gas in it, primed it and gave the cord a pull... away she roared! First pull! I'm still grinning...

Then I went topick up the fridge from Rick. He finds used appliances, fixes them up and sells them out of his home. Like Marty, I liked him immediately we shook hands. The fridge is spotless and runs nice and quiet. I had already paid the $100 he was asking via PayPal so we loaded it onto my truck. As I was leaving he reminded me that he gives a 30 day warranty. My only worry was how I was going to unload it on Cortes. David is off island and I could not think of anyone close by I could ask for help. Anyway, when I got to the trailer I backed the truck right up to the deck, lowered the tailgate and was able to "walk" the fridge to the edge of the tailgate, tip it a bit and lower it gently onto the deck, all on my own without risking bodily injury! Here you see it sitting neatly between the trailer windows and conveniently right outside the door. It's shaded by the sun roof and the noise (what little there is) is outside the trailer. I've altready got a few items in it.



And finally... a full moon shot taken last night looking south towards the lights of Powell River. My hand was not quite "tripod steady" so you get this artistic blurred effect;)

Click on any pic to view it larger.

PROJECTS...

Having got my workshop somewhat organized I decided to try it out by building this little collapsible meditation bench out of scrap plywood. It's an idea I've been thinking about for a few weeks and came out of our last trip to Quebec City when I wanted to take along my meditation bench but it was too bulky to fit in my suitcase. I'm quite happy with this prototype and plan on building more, maybe out of local Cortes maple wood (or walnut if we have to cut down our lovely but sick walnut trees). Anyway I tried out the bench and can attest to its very satisfactory "bliss factor":)

On a much more ambitious do-it-yourself scale, the bottom pic is the sweet little sailboat built by my friend Bernie Anderson. He did it without using any powertools right on the beach where she now sits. If any of you wooden boat fans would like to see some more pics of her, please email me at andyvine@telus.net.

BTW just click on any photo to view it larger.

April 13th 2011

The adventure begins in earnest. After five months in the city, I am back on Cortes Island to begin building our new house. Last year we (me and some very competent local helpers) built a workshop, had the septic system installed, upgraded the electrical service, buried water and electrical lines, built an outhouse and fenced the garden. The trailer I bought last spring has provided a comfortable, if slightly cramped living space with water, electricity and phone/internet all connected.  Our dear friend David Rousseau has designed a very sweet little house for us and last fall, Mike, the carpenter who helped me build the workshop, took charge of building the forms for the foundations and doing the concrete work.

So we are almost ready to start the framing. A load of good Cortes Island fir lumber is stacked and waiting for us and more construction materials are to be delivered later this week.  Next Tuesday, April 19^th, Mike  starts work and together we will start creating the floor over the crawl space on which the walls will be framed.

How am I feeling about all this? Hmmm… nervous, excited and yet quietly confident that the project is good shape and with Mike and David’s expertise, we will end up with a very nice little house. 

Top photo: Getting organized in the workshop

Bottom: Spring!

Thought for the day: Compassion brings intelligence to trouble

Lumber Delivered

A nice new pile of Cortes Island fir lumber milled and delivered by Bruce Ellingsen. This will provide the framing for the exterior walls of the house, plus the various posts and beams we need.

Snug under the white tarp it awaits the attentions of Mike and me to start cutting and nailing it to build the house. Work is scheduled to start mid April.

January 2011

Last week I made a quick trip to Cortes to check on progress and see how my trailer, boat etc are surviving the winter. The trailer was fine and cosy with the space heater on its lowest setting.

Here's a shot of the foundation viewed from the south. The living room will be on the left and the kitchen on the right. At the back are (l to r) the master bedroom, bathroom, office and entry/mudroom.

While there I had a good meeting with David Rousseau and Mike Malek to discuss the construction process and what materials will be needed. I have placed an order for the framing lumber with a local island sawmill.

Our plan is to get started on the conctruction mid April.



The big open space under the trees is where the huge burn pile used to be. We got it moved while the excavation work was being done for the foundations. To the right you can see our pile of alder logs under the trees, waiting to be bucked up and split for firewood.




I also took a row out to Gwyneth to seee how she's faring at her new mooring. All was well except for a bit of rainwater that found its way in through a leak in the forehatch. Other than she seems very content in her new home.

I don't plan on being back on Cortes until the end of March when I'll do a trip to bring my pick up truck back to town so I can take some tools and other stuff up with me when I head back to start work on the house.