My how time flies. I just finished my fifth quarter (of seven!) in the radiologic technology program! Feels like just yesterday I was contemplating the 3 year wait list and if I would still want to be on the same path that far in the future. Now here we are almost 5 years later feeling suddenly like 5 years is no time at all. It’s Thursday, tomorrow we have an end of quarter party, and Saturday we leave for a three week trip to New Zealand! (I haven’t even begun to pack). Oops. Well unless you count doing laundry and making a list of all the necessary items not to forget. Which I do not 🙂
Somehow I forgot to update through a couple of pretty major milestones. Oops again. My head has been focused on other things I suppose. We haven’t gotten the Cabin entirely sealed in from the weather like we were hoping to do before leaving on our trip. But we did get the floor beams and joists in!
This enabled us to lay down a few sheets of floating sub-flooring so we would have room to move the doors in and lay them down while we sealed below them prior to setting them in place. Even though the sub-flooring isn’t everywhere – which is semi-dangerous by the way – it makes it feel closer to becoming a home. The next major milestone we hit was getting the french doors in! Getting the french doors home from the store was incredibly stressful; getting the french doors put in made all the stress worth it. I thought the floating sub-flooring made the place feel closer to being a home. Seeing the french doors go in made all the difference in the world.
Somehow every single door opening we made was laughably incorrect. We had to alter each opening as we went, so each door took a full work day to get in, which we’ve had about one of per week. Time has not been our friend with this Cabin project! After the french doors we got the front door in. This opening was over sized, so getting the door in was easy, and then my FIL helped us fit pieces in to seal the openings. We knew this door opening was going to be too tall as the log above it needed to be partially removed in order to get a flat cut. At least the width was correct on this one!
The back door was a little too narrow and took more time and energy to correct, but soon we had all the doors in, with floating sub-flooring behind each. So when we step into the Cabin now, there is hardly a breeze – though it is still very cold – and we’re no longer stepping down into dirt! Don’t mind the log treatment oil seeping down the Everbilt; it’ll get covered…eventually….
The next thing we started working on was getting the chinking in. This is weather dependent – perfect thing to be dependent on in the Pacific Northwest in December, right?! It’s supposed to be rain free during and 24 hours after, as well as above 40 degrees. We’ve had very few days with workable weather. So far we have completed one wall. In two weeks, I think. The wall has taken about 12 hours, so we’ve only got…30-ish more!
It was so cool to look out from the South facing wall of the Cabin and only see light coming in through the windows and french doors. Eventually, sometime soonish after we get home from New Zealand, we will get all the chinking done, and we will be able to start the next tedious projects: electrical, plumbing and sewer. But once those are all in under the floor joists, we’ll be able to put the sub-flooring down and start the fun part: building! Right now I am hoping for 6 months to move in. I don’t care if it’s done, but hopefully we can have the loft done by then and get ourselves out of the RV. Until then, we get to take a nice little break from this project and work and school and enjoy ourselves while exploring, biking, and adventuring on the other side of the globe. Wooo!
The Homestead Journey 