Devil in the details

All the little bits that make the project special...

Stef on a hot asphalt roof

The weather has got stinking hot just in time for Stef's longest days up on the roof with black asphalt shingles under him... fun!

Here's progress as of 26 August.

Raise the roof

Roofing has begun! The asphalt tiles have arrived, and the scaffolding, and Stef is up on the roof with our friend Oni hammering it on. It should only take... a while. I guess 2 months. Stef says less than one. Any bets?

Whale of a time

We have just come back from the most ridiculously good holiday -- 10 days kayaking in the Johnstone Strait and Broughton Archipeligo. I can highly, highly recommend it.

We were sung to sleep one night by humpback whales, foraged a dinner of kelp and fish and sea asparagus, nearly had lunch on an island with a bear on it, nearly camped on an island with a bear on it, paddled past an island with an unseen but very loud cougar on it, frolicked with seals and otters and dolphins and dall's porpoises and minke whales, and saw so many eagles we got bored of pointing them out. We had cloud in the mornings to keep us cool, and sun in the afternoons to dry out our kit. One day of rain to make the rest of it seem that much better. And a frightening, awe-enspiring encounter with killer whales -- twice. I know you're suposed to stay 100 metres away, but there's little you can do when a whale decides to visit you. At 5km/hr I really cannot out-run a whale. At one point a whale swam under the back of our boats, turning sideways to check us out underwater... seriously. Another time a juvenile actually came inside a kelp bed (where it is very, very shallow) to say hello. We are told the first batch at least were resident whales (A4 pod, apparently), and they only eat fish, so that's reassuring.


Random note: the grand old matriarch of the A1 pod, one of the first whales named in the area, was called... Nicola.

Parental supervision

Mom and Dad at the site, telling us what we're doing wrong (just kidding).

Cedar planks

So Stef made dinner last night, and it was awesome: new potatoes, curly kale, mange-tout, and salmon. As I'm doing dishes, I realize the salmon was BBQ'd on a cedar plank -- from the lot. What a fantastic use of spare lumber. Highly recommended.

Change of plans

A funny thing about the build that I hadn't expected -- things change. All the time. We have plans, and the builders are following the plans, and yet one closet is smaller than expected, one wall is further back. Fascinating.

Some niggles have caused problems -- a post on the back deck that didn't fit. A window where the deck railing overlapped with the glass. A roof-supporting beam that doesn't quite meet up with the roof. Some of these things are framing mistakes. Some mistakes with the building of the roof-bits. Some even with the plans themselves. None, Stef promises me, will make the building fall down. And none, to be honest, are really noticable to a non-builder like me.

One thing that has happened for the better is that the landing on the top floor became much bigger. Since this space doesn't have a window, it seemed a waste to have it languishing in as a landing. So Stef suggested we move the walls around and make the master suite bigger. So we did. As a result, there are now TWO walk-in closets (both a bit smaller than the original one, but still plenty big enough), a fractionally smaller bathroom, but a much bigger bedroom, with space for a 'sitting area' AND a place for me to do yoga. Score.