Closing Down for the Winter

Well, this is it: The official notice that we're closed for 2009. Tomorrow is my last working trip to Shangri-La, and my last chance to get one full side of the cabin covered in shiplap before the long winter rest begins.

Thanks to those of you who read along this year, and to those of you who helped! I'll be back in March or April to pick up the effort with the septic and well, and hopefully carry it though to our first weekend stay sometime in late summer or early fall!

The Slow Work

I have read that the framing is the fastest (and most gratifying) part of building a house - it's all rough cuts and rough nailing, and every day you see big progress as a wall goes up or a roof goes on. And it's true - each weekend this summer left a feeling of accomplishment in its wake, each new picture on my desktop at work drawing comments from passers-by, astonished that one of their desk-jockey compatriots could successfully assault a task so seemingly daunting.

Now? Not so much. The picture from 3 weeks ago showed siding on one side of the building up to the first window. 2 weeks ago the picture had siding up to the 2nd window. With any luck, this week's picture will show one side finished. My co-workers are starting to sneak past my desk without comment.

In fairness to me, I'm now working by myself, one day a week, in increasingly cold weather. By the time I get there and set up, it's almost 10, and I begin to pack up for home by 2. Not exactly a recipe for rapid progress. But the goal is to get all the trim up and get one wall sided, so I keep plugging away. (Thank god, by the way, that I chose white pine shiplap rather than shingles; at this rate I'd be 3 years dead of old age before the shingles would be finished.)

I expect that this weekend (or next) will be the last for the year, and then we'll settle for staying at the Saxton's River Inn once per month (they gave us the corporate rate - thanks!) to check on the place and have a nice meal. Maybe we'll spend some time getting better acquainted with the other 2.5 acres on the property, and I've promised The Boy we'd do some sledding - the cleared slope of land from the cabin to the utility right-of-way should be perfect for it. Might even rent a snow machine or two and explore some of the VAST trails. In any event, it will be nice to go up to relax for a few weekends for a change.

On the plus side, our little slice of heaven has been painfully picturesque as the fall has progressed, and the fresh donuts at the Saxton's River Market seem to get even better as the temperature drops. With the leaves gone, I've noted that - with a little clearing - we've got an potentially nice view of the ridge to the West to add to the current view from the East. We'll have the perfect view from either porch. Nice.

I'm Exhausted

So I'm sure the two of you who read have noticed the posts getting sparse lately. Sorry about that, but I'm exhausted.

For example, today I got up at 5 am to be on the road by 6. Got to the cabin by 9 am, and began setting up to continue the siding in 40 degree weather. Spent 6 hours covering on 16 feet, and then spent 3 1/2 hours on the road to arrive home at 6:30. Such has been my life each Sunday for the last (?) number of weekends, trying to get the siding up before it gets too cold to work any more.

I know: Boo-Hoo. Just the price you pay for a 'vacation home'. (Actually, I had always assumed that if you could afford a second home, you could afford to pay someone to build it. Sigh.)

It's all good, though - VT is beautiful in the fall. After a few days of rest, I'll post a real update.

Nature Hunting at Shangri-La and A Lesson Learned

LSW here. It was a fun-filled Labor Day weekend up in Shangri-La. We couldn't have asked for better weather. In fact, it was so beautiful, it seemed kind of a shame that we couldn't enjoy all the local goings-on. Ah, well. Our sadness was quelled by this awesome find:

Bird skull! The Boy is very into mushrooms right now, so the Vermonster and I took turns taking him on nature hunts. In addition to the bird skeleton, we found turkey tail mushrooms and coral mushrooms and ... a roach (the smoking kind, not the moving kind. Apparently the roofer had a little smoking break).

One of the first things I noticed when The Boy and I arrived was a horrible screaming sound, like a bunch of children were being lured into a witch's candy house. "Is that a baby?" I asked.
The Vermonster said, "It would seem the neighbors have a couple of new kids-- not the human kind." We're guessing they're goats, although I suppose they could be sheep or maybe even peacocks. In any case, they screeched all day, drowning out the rooster's cock-a-doodle-dooing.

Lesson #1 learned on this trip: Just because two doors are in the same rack at Home Depot doesn't mean they're the same size. Yeah, that front door slid in real easy. A little too easy. There was about 4 inches of extra space, so the Vermonster had to re-frame the hole.
I can't say I was much help over the weekend; mostly I painted trim and weather-proofed underneath the sheathing. I just put this photo here so you could check out my cool shades I got for $1 at the National Liquidators Closing Sale.
By the end of the weekend, we managed to put in all the windows and doors, so we now officially have a lockable cabin, which means we can finally start storing stuff up there instead of hauling it with us every time.

Weathertight and Lockable

The LSW and I packed up The Boy this weekend and headed back up to VT, with the goal of getting the place lockable and weather-tight. 9 double-glazed ModernView windows were being delivered on Saturday morning, and I had 2 Home Depot insulated fiberglass doors and one homemade crawlspace door in the truck with me.

I was out of the house by 5:30 AM, and arrived on site by 8:30, after a brief stop at the Saxton’s River Market to get one of their fresh donuts (the SRM donut thing has become a bit of a habit). The place looked great with the roof on it, but the roofer’s attention to detail was a little off; the Tyvek I asked him to complete on the rear gable was forgotten, and he didn’t put spacers under my 1 x 8 gable trim to get it to stand proud of the shingle siding I’m going to put on. Lesson learned: If you have to hire something out, be on site while the work is happening. Still, I’m not complaining – overall I’d recommend him. In the end, the sheathing and shingling work came to about $3,200.

I spent about an hour cleaning while waiting for the windows (and the wife) to arrive. It occurred to me that I had never put in vinyl windows before, and I had no idea how heavy they were. It would really suck to find that they were too heavy for the two of us and so the weekend was wasted. Fortunately, they were lighter than I expected, and I had 4 of them installed before the LSW pulled in with The Boy at about 11.

I knew from the start that I was going to use double-glazed vinyl windows, so it was just a question of brands. Lavalley’s had JenWeld and ModernView, the principle difference being price (the JenWeld were about 20% more expensive) and the warranty (20 years for JenWeld vs. 10 for ModernView). Otherwise they looked identical. In the end, my rapidly diminishing bank account forced my hand on the cheaper option, although I did splurge on internal muntins and the jam extensions. Six 3’ x 4’ and three 3’ x 3’ new construction windows came to about $1,670.

The big surprise of the weekend was discovering that I had purchased 2 different door sizes – 36” wide and 32” wide. Both were supposed to have been 36”. I’m not sure how I missed this when I bought them, but I was committed to making the place lockable that weekend, so I made due. There’s supposed to be a closet on the left wall of the front entrance, so I put the smaller door there, figuring it would give me a little more closet space.

In the ‘best laid plans’ category, I had rechecked my crawlspace door calculations no less than 3 times, and still got it wrong. I had to trim an inch off the height and 2 inches off the width, which changed some of the door’s design and meant that I would have to come back to do some finish work on it. At least it’s up and locked. I had debated on whether or not I should by a $100 impact drill for use in securing the crawlspace door jams to the foundation, or just make due with a regular drill, but I’m here to tell you it was worth every penny - more evidence for the idea that if you’re finding the job too hard, you don’t have the right tool. I did, and it couldn’t have been easier.

Standing inside the cabin on Sunday, I had to admit that I was just a little disappointed – the interior of the cabin was darker than I thought it would be. This is because the three windows on the road side face north, there's no window in the Southeast corner (due to the entry closet), and the window heights conspire with the roof overhang to shut out most of the direct sunlight. I suspect that the situation will be better in the winter when the sun is lower, but I may need to rethink the closet design to allow for at least one more window. The LSW also opined that the drywall is likely to brighten up the interior significantly, and I’m guessing she’s right. A skylight or two would also help, but I just can’t cotton to the idea of a hole in the roof.

The neighbor up the hill stopped by on his 4-wheeler and introduced himself. I asked him what he knew about the property – I reckoned it to be too small and hilly for crop or grazing land, but the stone wall and some remaining strands of barbed wire hinted that it was used for something. He said that it had been an apple orchard in the 30s and 40s when he was growing up in the cabin across the street, and that he could see all the way down the hill and across the neighbor’s fields. The land is mostly forested now - it's surprising how much nature can reclaim in 70 years. He also mentioned that the trails at the top of the hill (one of which is the abandoned portion of our road) let out in 4 different places, and recommended a 4-wheeler as the best method for exploring them. So now – in addition to the planned Snowmobile – I’ve got two toys on my wish list.

The LSW helped with the doors, chased after the boy, procured lunches, and painted the trim boards, which will go up throughout September. Other work that remains: Self-adhering flashing around the windows, Tyvek on the back gable, and shingles on the sides. At that point, the initial funding for this little escapade – about $56,000 – will be depleted. I figure that there is about $35,000 in work left, including the well, septic, plumbing, wiring and finishing, so now I’ll be forced to pray for raises, bonuses and tax returns if we’re ever actually going to enjoy the place. Of course, if we think of it as a big tent, we’ve now got a place to camp…

Just for Fun

LSW here. I saw this news item from the AP and had to share. A student at the University of Buffalo couldn't afford housing, so he built himself an 8-by-10 foot cabin on the campus. College officials made him leave, but one has to ask: Why did they wait until he built the cabin? Weren't they a little suspicious at the sight of a student hauling in stacks of wood? Best part of the story: his name is Brian Borncamp.

I predict a gypsy caravan in our future

LSW here. I saw this book, "Shed Chic" by Sally Coulthard, at the library the other day and thought it looked kind of cool. Funny how one person's definition of "shed" is another person's dream house.
When I think of "shed," I think of a small, dark box that smells of oil and gas and fertilizer and is inhabited by spiders and their nasty, disgusting cottony egg sacs. A shed is a place where you keep your lawn mower, your collection of broken and dirty clay pots, your gardening tools and miscellaneous cans of bug spray, paint and other toxic liquids that hopefully the neighbor's cats (or kids) won't get into.
That's not the kind of shed this book is about.
Obviously these are funky out-buildings used for writing, painting, woodworking, relaxing and entertaining Thurston and Lovey Howell. There are some very cool ideas in here, but one that really takes the cake: gypsy caravans.

Yeah, you heard me right. You know, those funky wagon-type things that are painted in crazy colors and designs. Well, apparently there's a whole subculture of caravan makers, restorers and painters. How could we have overlooked this as a possibility for housing at Shangri-La? As I have gypsy blood in me (my great-grandfather was a gypsy in Bohemia), I'm feeling like we definitely need to have one of these on the property. Maybe I can do tarot readings and tea parties out of it for some extra income. Or sell chocolates. I can see it now: "Gypsy Chocolates & Tarot Readings."
In any case, this discovery had us searching the web last night for more info and we found Tiny House Blog, which is a really cool resource. They had a page dedicated to caravans.
Needless to say, the Vermonster has been reading more and more about these and has mentioned a couple of times now that there are classes offered in building gypsy caravans. Yeah, um, just putting it out there right here and now: Not. Going. To. Happen. Unless I'm the one who gets to take the class.