Howell Cabin

Thursday Eliot had the day off work, so he and Christina came up to prepare the cabin for insulation & drywall contractors. They reorganized the storage container, did a dump run, and packed all the tools and supplies from the cabin into it. Saturday Siggy drove the lift all the way from the gate to the house. He's pretty good at it now. Then we went up and down in the bucket just for fun. Jon spent eight hours vacuuming out the crawlspace, to be ready for the floor insulation. In the second pic, I've finished the first two rooms and I'm just about to start on the last.   Siobhan and Siggy worked on adding fire-resistant caulk to the vertical penetrations. Meanwhile, Eliot finished flashing the siding by the door, and built the last piece of header trim. Siobhan primed it. He also measured and cut blocks for the entryway, so we'll carry the varnished wood theme from the loft beams. Sunday Eliot & Jon sanded the entryway blocking and varnished it.    Jon cut th...

Saturday   We installed 36 feet of 2x6 below the ridge, to support another varnished board we'll attach tomorrow. The varnished board will give the impression of the ridge beam protruding through the vaulted ceiling. Back at the design stage, we chose a narrower (12 inch) ridge beam to keep down the weight to make the installation less difficult.   While we waited for the varnish to dry on the pretty boards, we installed the front door.   Situation normal: when we actually tried to put the door in, the hole had shrunk to 1/8" too small. We had to pull the header board out and bump it up half an inch. Sunday Varnish dry, we put the pretty boards in and screwed them from behind. With the front door in, we can finally wrap up the last three siding panels. One on the northwest corner was waiting because a ground wire snaked out of the house to protect the temporary pole. With the panel inspection complete last fall, we got rid of the temporary pole and used power from the pan...

  Friday Jon went up to meet the inspector for the electrical rough-in. Oooh, the robins nesting in our rafters kicked out an eggshell! On Saturday, Christina saw one parent feeding worms.   We got three corrections. First, we were supposed to "make up the grounds", which I knew from when Darwin taught us that for the shedlet, what, three years ago? Shoot. We also needed a dedicated laundry circuit. We'd planned one (even had a labeled breaker), but somehow forgot and strung those receptacles onto another chain. That was an easy fix. Last, the inspector wanted a floor receptacle along the balcony front edge. I never want to plug anything in there, but ... okay. I drove to Ellensburg to buy a special floor receptacle box (pretty pricey!), came back, and spent the afternoon installing it. I made a test installation on a piece of scrap, then very carefully went to work on the fancy car-decking floor.     Here's the finished installation: Saturday evening I went on a sev...

Monday   We added a couple of weekdays to make up for missing a weekend back when it was 108°F.   Christina varnished the exterior of the door. Jon installed this modest little box, ready to deliver power to a water reservoir pump. It's the last branch circuit. Christina connected it to the panel. Jon installed junction boxes for accent lighting up by the collar ties, twenty feet over the kitchen. Dinner was at Red Arrow Burgers. Tuesday  Christina worked on the door finish.   Siggy found these monster dandelions.   Jon's drill bit found this piece of Romex. Thankfully it was an easy replacement.   Jon finished the accent lighting junction boxes. We went around and looked for quality control issues. Too many cables were crammed into this wall. Christina pulled the staples out with sheer force of will. Siggy installed blocking.   Christina stapled the cables down to the blocking. Siobhan moved some line-voltage cables away from the thermostat wire. Sigg...