Despite my best intentions, I have been doing a very poor job at updating weekly! The past couple of weekends were full of fun and exciting progress, though with the inevitable oncoming rainy season of the PNW, the progress can’t seem to come fast enough. The weekend before last we started with finishing up our lower level window and door framing project. I have to say, I expected a lot of resistance when I set my heart on putting in French Doors off the kitchen. Husband, however, took me by surprise and was in complete support of the idea! When it came time to cut the opening in the wall, it was a little nerve-racking, but the results were instantly gratifying. Which I have been sorely missing in the more recent projects.
It was so cool to get the remnants of the exoskeleton off the Cabin and be able to see her in all her former beauty again. The beauty that will just continue to be polished back into her erstwhile brilliance. With some much deserved upgrades, like double paned windows and French Doors.
One day, far, far in the future, all that construction mess will be cleaned up and replaced by a patio, that giant pile of dirt will be replaced by a smooth lawn, there will be a BBQ on the patio and an awesome little fire pit nearby to entertain friends and family. I’ll walk out those gorgeous French Doors to enjoy my morning coffee looking out at the beautiful oasis we created. One day.
Once we finished the French Door cutout and final lower window framing we got all set up to dig out the interior for our crawl space. Originally we thought, ‘we’ll invite some friends over and dig it out with shovels and wheelbarrows. It’ll be fun, we’ll provide beer and pizza. No problem’. Then we had the rude awakening of digging the ditches for the foundation. And we thought, ‘Nah. Nevermind’.
So we rented this beautiful tiny 008 and used the trusty tractor to move the dirt into our ever growing dirt mountain. (which we have three of, by the way). We thought, ‘this can’t take more than a couple hours. Sure, it’s clay, but come on, we only have to dig 12-24 inches down. No problem’. One of these days guys, I’m going to get smarter. I swear. When something looks like a two hour project, I’m going to use my experience and realize, okay, it’s a six hour project. But not today. We started early and assumed we’d be done by noon and have some free time on our hands. Guess what. It did not work out like that.
However, as painfully slow as it went, this was not hard back-breaking work. I was sitting on my trusty tractor for 8 hours (in the rain) watching progress slowly come about and doing little clean up tasks in the sporadic few minutes where I wasn’t needed atop the tractor. And when it was done it was worth the mind-numbingly slow advancement.
A project that we had both been subconsciously dreading was crossed off the todo list, and with very little sweat, tears, or blood! Actually, I’m fairly certain there were none. The following weekend we planned to put in the french drain around the foundation footing. We already had trenches dug from doing the foundation pouring and all we had to do was level it to grade so the water wouldn’t pool anywhere and then add some fabric, gravel, and pipe, right? Quick. Easy.
Silly, silly girl.
When we first started prepping for the foundation, we realized we were going to need to put the electrical outside the Cabin so it would still be accessible (our septic system is wired to it!), but entirely out of the way of all the foundation work. Due to where the underground electrical comes up, however, it needed to be underneath the drainage system. So when we went out to start the drain system, we realized that we were going to have to reroute the electrical back into the Cabin before we could start.
Well, then Husband says, ‘why don’t we just get the water line into the Cabin right now too, then?’. I must admit, in that moment, I kind of wanted to punch him. I’m thinking holy cow, here we go again, this is going to take another 3 weekends. Much to my surprise, I was blissfully wrong.
I think we had it all done and the water line trench filled back in by 2:30. I was so impressed. And it was so incredibly nice not to have to look at that ugly makeshift electrical hut anymore. Funny side note, we built that little hut for the mini fridge we posted outside our RV when we first moved to the In-laws old property. It just happened to work perfectly as a little electrical hut as well!
The next day I had to work, but Husband essentially put in the french drain without me! Our best friend came over and kindly helped him out (in the rain. So much rain). But they said it went really quick and fairly easy. Now all that’s left is to cover the remaining trench with dirt. The only trouble is that it. will. not. stop. raining. And it’s no use driving the tractor through the yard and tearing it all up, nor trying to haul around mud to fill the trenches. I’m trying very hard to be patient with the weather. But I need like 2 (or 4…6?) more months of sun. Is that really too much to ask for?
The Homestead Journey 
WOW. Great progress. Love the pictures ♥️
I’m dreaming of sitting on that deck having coffee with you. Love the French doors and views.
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