Sleepover

We're invited to a Halloween party 3 doors down from the new build, so have decided this is the perfect time to spend a night under our new roof. We park the car in our driveway with sleeping mats and bags, then stumble over (as a witch and 1980s ski bum, guess who was who) to the party. Our hosts went all out -- a graveyard out front, spooky noises and dry ice fog. The dips were served out of cauliflower heads (looks remarkably like brains) and the punch held bobbing apples carved to look like skulls. Seriously. After energy ran low we wandered by foot back 'home' and spent the night curled up in winter bags, toasty warm. It's probably the last night we could have managed to do that -- it's just going to get colder now. Listening to the rain pour down on the roof was magic.

Wood, wood, and more wood

Stef has bought a trailer for the car and a chainsaw, and has been having fun playing lumberjack in the woods, collecting firewood for our soon-to-be-installed stove. He reckons he has gathered four 'cords' over about a month, and is very, very proud of his woodpile (as men tend to be). This photo was taken in November, but it gives you an idea of it... this is about half of the total I think.

Turns out that wood gathering is a fine art. You have to know where to go (Stef aimed for abandoned logging sites, where the companies have left logs lying on the ground or in piles), and what sort of wood to get (I think fir was best? I'll have to ask Stef to remind me). Green wood won't burn, wet wood will hiss. Some wood burns too fast, some too slow. Some of it coats your chimney with soot, so you have to burn a different sort afterwards to clean out the pipes. All unexpectedly complicated.

First window

The first window has been installed! Apparently this is a difficult thing to figure out how to do. BC has a new 'rain screening' rule and regulation, which requires that a house hold up to the rain a little better than previously required. But every company that sells products for rain screening has a different methods for doing it, and they only advise you to use their products (surprise), most of which you can't even buy in BC.

Stef decided in the end to (surprise) use common sense. He's refusing to tell me the details because he wants to relax... admitedly well deserved :) The important thing is that our suite's bathroom now has a window in it. Nice!

It will also shortly have a toilet... for obvious reasons, there's a desire by the workmen (aka Stef) to have a toilet on site.

Waterproof

The roof is finished! Well, I say it's finished. It looks finished. Stef says it isn't, but I suspect he'll keep saying that till we move in, and possibly afterwards. The tiles are on, the skylight installed, and when it rains it stays dry inside. So that's done :)

In this pic: Eric Jandciu visiting for the weekend.