Howell Cabin

I had an hour to kill on a drive from Seattle to Yakima, so I stopped in to say hi to the cabin. I pulled off a too-eager sheet of drywall and started fitting the fold-up bunk bed into place. I also got to check out the excavation work, which is still coming along; our water service is all buried now.

Our septic tank went in today. Mike and Rob from Smith Excavating asked us to come up and discuss the plan for the drain field, so Eliot and I made a quick after-work trip up the hill. We saw this fine lady greet us on the gravel road.

Saturday's big accomplishment was getting our first (intentional) running water! That's the lede, so the post would have a better representative photo, but let's tell the story in order. :v) I arrived to the property to find that our excavator team (Smith Excavating from Ellensburg) had been hard at work, backfilling the foundation and the utility trench. I got started with a trip to the dump to clean out leftovers from forming the foundation. The next item was that the excavators had dropped sand along the easement, accidentally burying the property corner marker. How would I recover them? My first try was to look at my aerial drone photos that I had taken a year ago. I had taken them to try a 3D reconstruction; it didn't work. And when I went back to look for the photo with the property corner, I realized I had deleted all the images to save storage. Second try was: I realized that when we did the walk-around survey, we'd left a phone sit...

Our last day of preparation before backfilling the foundation and trench. Most of the day -- six hours -- were spent applying stucco to the top foot of styrofoam. The dirt will cover just up to the stucco, and the siding will drop down just over the top. This is the band that can stand being up against dirt, but isn't ugly to look at. We also finished off the french drain. We assembled another hundred feet of sleeve for the water pipe, and shoved both onto the flexible tubing from either end. We got our tools picked up and out of the way of the excavator. It was super smoky in Cle Elum.

The smoke is pretty awful, but the scenery gorgeous tonight. We left home at 1pm, made three shopping stops, and got started at 4:30pm. We finished the water proofing and drainage boards for the cabin. We assembled most of the french drain around the foundation, and realized we were a couple pipes short. Then we went up the hill, said hi to the neighbor, and assembled 100 feet of sleeve to protect the flexible water line. We cleaned out all the conduits by vacuuming a ball of paper towels though them.

Mike, Rob, and Mike's spunky puppy Murray came up today to plan more excavator work -- digging the septic, backfilling the utility trench, and backfilling the foundation. We can't do much else with the foundation, on account of still not having a building permit , but we can get it ready to have dirt piled against it. That means adding a layer of waterproofing membrane to guide water down over the footer to the french drain system and adding a layer of dimple drain board over that to provide a low-resistance path for water to get to the drain. Eliot and I spent most of the day cleaning the foam, and then fighting with the gooey waterproofing membrane. It's fantastically sticky. It sticks to your fingers. It sticks to itself and doesn't pull apart without distintegrating like putty. And yet when some of the styrofoam has a thin layer of UV damage that comes off like dust on the membrane, maknig the membrane not stick to the south wall. We got it stuck well enough, and ...

We put up more drywall today, getting about 2/3 the way through the room. One of the light fixtures vanished under the drywall; we'll need to rescue it later. Calvin came over again and was very helpful. Irie also visited.

We sealed up the gaps in the attic, added baffles to keep the insulation from blocking the vents, and then unloaded all the tools from the shop and cleaned it out. We installed insulation in the ceiling and all the walls. Calvin joined us to help out. We got started on the drywall today, too. Three sheets done, seventeen to go. We wrapped up around 10pm, and off to the Cottage Cafe for dinner and engaging conversation.

I got a call at 2pm today from the electrical inspector, so I zoomed home in a Lyft, met Eliot at the pickup truck, and zoomed up the hill. The inspector inspected our Ufer ground, our temporary service pole, our shop service meter, panel, and the wiring inside the shop. Every item passed, first try! Here's a shout-out to electrician Darwin Wray, who provided instruction for us.    Today's wildlife included the Blacks' labrador Marlin, and these wild turkeys that hang out near their rural road: