Howell Cabin

Sunrise, snow capped mountains.  Snowcicles sliding off the roof. Sunrise. Mud and tape! We got most of the seams taped up today. A small disaster distraction: a couple gallons of water spilled out of a bucket all over our subfloor. Midday scenery break! We got a few other errands done, like installing a bank of light switches, lights in the attic, and the front door lights. I put some flag tape around the foundation pit, so it'll be easier to avoid when things are snowy. So here's our tape work. We still need to tape the ceiling corners and do the second and third coats.

Well, we've got a roof, insulation, and electricity to run a heater, so we stayed our overnight in the shop.  Snow and moonlight:     Calvin and Eliot vacuumed the floor and rolled out our mats and sleeping bags.

We hung about seven sheets of drywall today, finishing up the hanging.  Siggy came along and did a lot of helping. His main job was banging the drywall to make the cuts (that Eliot and I scored). His auxillary job was making monster shadows. Here's the south end of the building with the drywall complete. Eliot is installing the second circuit of receptacles. And here are a bunch of the receptacles, installed and working. Last job: demolish a milkshake at the turtle cafe!

First stop this morning was completing the outside power receptacle and the generator inlet circuit. Here Eliot is testing the completed, powered-up receptacle. No more generator for us!   The whole family came up. We went on a walk, and kids drove shovels and the wheelbarrow. Eliot organized the tools, again.  We made a smidgeon of progress on the drywall. And Eliot installed one of our electric heaters! Dinner at Cottage Cafe!

I arrived early this morning to meet the crew with the wood chipper to clean up the many brush piles we've made in the last year. They straggled in at 11am. Once they got going, they were feeding brush -- and small trees! -- into their huge chipper. Yeah, that machine from Harbor Freight just wasn't going to do the job. After I gave them the plan, I got back to working on the stairs. I finished installing all the plastic treads, and I got the handrails stained and installed. All that's left are balusters.

Eliot and I came up to make a little progress today, joined by Jeremy and Liesl. We framed up the entry stairs. Eliot got started on the generator inlet socket. We also winterized the foundation and the water system. And I saw this cool little beetle.