DAY ONE

Monday, July 16th, 2007.
Building began. It was a blur of activity and the sounds of chainsaws filled the air.

There was...

framing,

scribing,

planing,

and lots of lagging.

I have to admit D & I were a little nervous when they got started.
Did we scale and size this right? It looks really small. What are we getting ourselves into?
Can we really afford this?

But we didn't have time to think about that because we were responsible for our outside decks and Charlie got us started right away ....

dig, D, dig!

Pics from Traci here.
More pics here.

D-DAY

They came...

They saw...

They started our cabin...

(Wacko corners)

(second floor sunset)

Charlie and the crew worked amazingly fast...

(Monday morning, 7.16.07)

(Monday morning, 7.23.07)

More details to come...

DELAYED AGAIN

June 2007.

Tarp #3 was the winner. Finally a dry basement. Mold stopped growing, smells not too shabby. Thank goodness because Charlie was still working on his 4 level masterpiece and pushed our start date back until after the July 4th holiday so we had another month to wait.

That gave us time to get rid of that cement pond the trucks left for us.

D made me these shelves from our old barn's wood and cedar branches.

Enough of the years worth of photos we've shown of just the basement... we have a definite start date. Charlie and the crew will be stacking logs starting July 16th. All these years of planning and waiting, worrying and saving - it's finally here. The next post will be real time from the job site. Can you believe it?

CEMENT FLOORS

May 2007.

(Pump truck = $$$)

Cement floors were poured. They needed to use the pump truck which cost extra...of course, lucky us!! But they turned out really nice.

They left us a present...

... a cement pond!!


Dereck took down this huge tree near the barn.

I'm on the other end of the yellow rope in little red - YIKES!
We didn't realize this dead tree was someone's home...

... two flying squirrels.

(doesn't the squirrel look pissed?)

The basement was still wet so please meet tarp #3. We opened our wallet (again) and purchased our third, largest and most expensive, tarp. It became an epic battle - Tharp's vs. the tarps.

TUBES & TARPS

April 2007.


Can't keep the basement dry. Don't have a clue what to do. To make matters worse Charlie is being delayed at the job he started in the Fall so our start date is now being bumped to May or mid June. That's two more months of trying to keep things dry and mold free. Ugh!


D and big Jim went up and laid out the tube pattern - knee and back breaking work. The tube ends all connect to a manifold which will eventually be hooked up to a boiler. This should keep the lower level living space warm and cozy.


We decided to remove the tyvek on the deck, open up the stair hole, keep some fans running and create awning holes to help air things out. Before we left we covered the foundation with tarp number 2. Then we held our breath and crossed our fingers.

RADIANT FLOORING

March 2007.


Spring on the hill was proving to be, well...wet. We consulted with many about the mold issue and although ugly and smelly (really smelly), no one seemed concerned about any health issues. The plan was to get the basement dry, stop the growth then powerwash the staining away. Easier said than done. D and Phy hauled out all the grody hay we had on the floor to keep the cement warm over the winter and installed a heater hoping to get things warm and dry. This would be our first, we were sure, of many challenges we will have ahead of us.



It was hard not to think about the fresh-smelling, beautiful, clean wood that Charlie and the crew put up for us in the Fall. Not to metion the money we shelled out for it. We were both kind of devastated - why us? But the show must go on...

D became a welder.

(notice the wet walls)

Next we prepped the basement floor for radiant floor heating. The insulation went down first directly on the dirt floor.

Then we cut, placed and intertwined metal wire over the insulation. The tubes would eventually be tied directly to the wire.