Sunday, December 28, 2008

Ba humbug and all that.

The good news:  the rain washed the snow away.  The bad news:  x-mas week is a slooooow week for everything.   Nevertheless,  I had a few good workdays on my own,  and we're getting to the level of being over the windows on the second floor.  

THis coming week we'll pour concrete that far and all that will be left for blocks are the two gable ends of the second floor.  At that point all my hard won expertise laying faswall blocks is useless and I'll move on to impersonating a carpenter and roofer!   

Perhaps you've noticed the title picture of a spyhop?  THose whales are passing the coast about 60 miles west of here right now,  heading back south where we saw them last year.   Sure wish we could meet them there!  The coming week is supposed to be wet but not cold, so we'll see how we do.  

Sunday, December 21, 2008

No go, too much snow!

This was a week of computer work as we were snowed in.  Rare for these parts to get a quantity of snow quite like this, and for it to stick around,  but it did.  Snowbound we were.  It's raining now, and almost all the white stuff is gone,  so let's hope for some work this coming week, short and holiday pocked though it will be!   Here are some scenes from spyhop in the snow:  

Now that the freezing pipe issue is handled,  the mobile is plenty comfy.

But the house is going to be a lot better in future storms.  Need a roof though: 

Lots of beautiful light in the storms.     ENjoy whatever you're celebrating this coming week. 

 

Sunday, December 14, 2008

The weeks are blurring together now. Until recently I would write these entries on Sunday evening with pretty complete recall of what we had accomplished in the week immediately prior.  No longer.  Now I need to consult last week's post myself,  to recall when what happened.  

 Very memorable about this week is that I built a staircase for us to get up  to the second floor.   Of course,  this followed putting plywood decking down up there. But the stair is much more memorable because of the  incredible difference between having it,  and working up and down a ladder all the time.  Whew. 

 

Once the subfloor was done and the stairs in we were able to get moving with the second floor walls.  In short order we were up to the window bucks again -- these boxes that hold open the spaces where windows will go.  Some were able to be removed from downstairs and others had to be cut and reassembled anew (from the lumber that was in the downstairs ones, of course),  but we made quick work of gettin them in so that now the second floor is taking shape.  To the left and below is the corner of the bedroom.

(Notice that the first floor window opening in this shot are now without the wood framing)

These pictures are from this weekend.  As you can see, we had a little snow up here.  Although snow was predicted for all of Eugene, in only fell in the higher elevations.  We're at 900 ft, so we got some.  THere was none in town, and barely any once you got down off our hill. 

Earlier in the week Jennifer was inspired to photograph the sunrise -- which she watches from her stairmaster in the mornings:

The weather changes on a dime up here.  We went outside to take some pictures and the snow started to fall so heavily that the photos were a mess:  

   

After some chores we went inside for warming up and within minutes the sun came out and streamed through the trees on our western ridge.  I don't know if any phtograph could capture what I love about watching the light stream through up there,  and surelyI"m not enough of a phtographer to do it justice,  but until you get a chance to come and see for yourselves,  I ran out and made an effort.   

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Second floor begins

Took this nice picture yesterday,  as Jennifer came up through the newly framed second floor: As promised,  back on schedule with the postings this week,  and what's more things are moving along nicely on the job too! 

We've had tremendous luck with the weather.  The rainfall to date has been a little less than half of what it usually is by this time,  and it's still been warming up pretty well most days.  The mornings are hard on the fingers and toes,  but so far we've gotten through it.   The days are very short here now --  44th parallel style.   No light at 7am,  and fully dark by 5.   Only a few more weeks and the tide will turn with that,  so I'm not complaining.

Keep meaning to share a few non-building observations about life on Spyhop.  The wildlife is a real pleasure.  Fred -- the fellow who poured our slab and who I hire to help handle the pouring of concrete is a great guide in this regard.  He recently identified a huge bird that flew right over us as a Golden Eagle.  It was a beautiful sight.  

Then there's this:   Looks like not much of anything,  right?  

Eagle eye fred pointed it out to me from far away -- it just looked like a dark patch on the base of the decidous tree farthest right in the scraggly bunch.  But he was right on:  

It's the bobcat's scratching post! 

Turn around 180 degrees and here's what the bobcat sees:  

Poor fella.  It'll get better, I promise!

We got the floor trusses for the second floor in this week.  

So,   the top floor starts to get its definition,  

and with the addition of a "top" the first floor rooms start to take shape too:  

In fact,  we looked things over on Saturday and in addition to taking some pics of ourselves creeping around on the trusses,  Jennifer came up with a new window configuration for the bedroom that we'll be running with.  

I've lamented how messy concrete can be -- and it sure is -- but the house is feeling very solid,  and the material lends itself to some suprises here and there that I quite enjoy.  To wit the footing for a post that will hold the roof overhang in the entryway:  

=; -) Have a good week!  

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Blog Schmog

T'was time for a few days off, so off to the coast we went for T'kg'g with one of J's family's clan.  It was mind altering to not work on this for a few days, for me.

So,  the week I am reporting on was a short week -- 3 days.  We got ready for another mini-pour that we did this monday.  Even my most dedicated followers would find the detail of this discovery overwhelming, so I'll leave it at this:  Following the last pour I found a problem that worried me a lot,  but turned out to be very small and easily solved.  However,  it warned me of a a more disastrous version of itself that was yet to come.  Little problem got solved, and big problem got averted with the mini pour we had monday.   It all had to do with these tricky and previosuly mentioned lintels: 

Pours are too demanding and messy to allow for picture taking.  But before things got going,  I photographed the set up.  DOesn't really convey it... 

Still out of the habit of a full days work, today was a half day because of dentists and such. 

Second floor trusses were delivered in the pm, though: 

So if all goes well there should be some progress to show at the end of this week,  when my discipline about work and blogging shall have returned!