The Daily Rose

Evening Service

2012-02-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

Evening Service, soft pastel, 5.5 x 5.5 inches, $45 unframed

I like this painting. :) Is it perfect? No, but I like it nonetheless.

Another spotlight challenge

2012-02-09T07:47:00.000-08:00

Fruit Salad in the making, soft pastel, 8 x 10 inches, $115 unframed

Here is another small painting I did as a challenge from the wetcanvas forum. This was done as a part of the same underpainting challenge as the previous painting. As an artist, doing exercises like this is the equivalent of lifting weights for an athlete. This exercises our skills, lets us focus on our strengths, and improve our weaknesses. It's practice that is an essential step in being able to produce great paintings for customers. :)

Experimentation with Technique: underpainting

2012-02-07T04:42:00.000-08:00

Tennessee Tree, 6 x 9 inches, $85 unframed

In this painting, I was conducting an experiment in a technique called underpainting. I covered the paper with an underpainting of this same scene in completely different colours from the final version to add excitement and interest. Can you tell what colours I used? You can still see it peeking through. The underpainting of the sky was orange, the field was magenta, and the trees were purple. I am quite pleased with the final result.

A dog named Sue

2012-02-06T03:42:00.001-08:00

This is Sue, a lovely hunting dog that belongs to a friend of ours. Sue is the perfect dog. She only barks once, is friendly without being pushy, and is extremely obedient. The only time she's not obedient is when she knows her master puts her in the crate in the back of the truck, and continues hunting without her. Then she will, come hell or high water, find a way out of that crate, and then find her master. Who should know better than to go hunting without her, really!

Three's a company

2012-02-04T12:46:00.000-08:00

Three's a Company, 9 x 12 inches, $135 unframed

Here is another painting I did as part of the shadow challenge. This one is 9 x 12 inches, and was done using pan pastels.

Annie by the Sea

2012-01-31T04:23:00.000-08:00

Three's a crowd

2012-01-30T04:39:00.001-08:00

Three's a Crowd, 7 x 10 inches, soft pastel, $95 unframed

This painting was a challenge on the pastel artist's forum of which I am a member. The topic of the month was shadows, and this photo was posted as one of the challenges. I had a lot of fun with this one, although it took longer than I expected!

View from our living room

2012-01-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

This is the view from our living room on a sunny November day at about 9:00 in the morning. This is the barn that Erick's parents built, where our horses will live. I can just see them now, poking their heads over their doors and out the big white doors toward the house. "When are you coming to feed us??" That's what they'll be saying.

Pick a Favourite - finished!

2011-12-20T10:32:00.000-08:00

The number one reaction to this painting seems to be for the viewer to point out which pebble they like best, so that's what jumped out at me for a title. So, what's your favourite? Mine is the shy triangular white one with a translucent purpley sheen on the bottom of the left side of the painting (right above the word 'favourite'). So unassumingly pretty. :)

Incidentally, this is the first painting to be signed 'V R Burley' instead of 'V R Buerkle'.

The chocolate production line

2011-12-19T05:55:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks I've been too busy making truffles to do much of anything else. I spent several days and evenings on the chocolate production line. In total I made five varieties:
White chocolate cherry
White chocolate Grand Marnier
Milk chocolate Irish cream
Milk chocolate peanut butter
Dark Chocolate almond and amaretto

I only got good photos of two varieties though. Above are the milk chocolate Irish creams, and below are some of the white chocolate Grand Marnier truffles.
I made about 240+ in total, but I hadn't counted on the rate at which truffles disappear out of the freezer, so I may be making another batch of the dark chocolate ones after Christmas. Erick, you wouldn't know anything about the disappearing truffles, would you? :)

All Trimmed and looking good!

2011-11-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

No this post is not about Kirby. He is looking good, but definitely not trimmed. I put this picture here because (for once) he is completely still, except for his happily wagging tail. Awh. :)

Here is what I am talking about! Look at that trim on the bottom of the railing, and the bottom of the big wall. Doesn't that look good? :) Erick has been happily putting up trim all over the place all week. And when he was done, he put up some christmas decorations and then started putting up trim around the doors upstairs. Here is the view from the kitchen: Looking downstairs from the balcony...

This is the view from my studio looking toward the upstairs bedrooms. Doesn't that look nice? :)

Update on pebbles painting

2011-11-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

This is the most recent picture I have. It's coming along fairly quickly, and I like how it's turning out. :)

Railing up - 100% safer if not finished

2011-11-20T04:57:00.001-08:00

Well the railing is now structurally complete, although we still have some work to do to finish it. We'll be doing lots of sanding, and either some varnishing, or some staining, yet to be decided. We also need to finish the stairs themselves, as they are still the plywood ones that have been there for over a year now (crazy!)

Doesn't the railing look nice? Our massive black stovepipe doesn't look nearly so massive or black with a backdrop like this! We went with exterior deck railing because it was black, kind of cool looking, and 'economical'. Much cheaper than wrought iron!

Painting in the new house!

2011-11-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend I dug out my pastels, a small easel, and some paper, from a variety of boxes. For the first time ever, I am painting in the new house and so far it's awesome. At the moment I'm set up on the kitchen table (because the studio upstairs isn't ready yet), but it's very nice to be able to paint while watching TV and still feeling like I'm a part of the action. Here are some in progress shots of the painting I'm working on. So far so good! :)

Stairs, meet your new railing

2011-11-16T04:54:00.000-08:00

This week Erick has started constructing the railing for the stairs and landing. It's going to be rugged! The uprights are 3 x 6 hemlock and are very firmly attached.

You also may notice that we have our wood for the winter. You can't get much more conveniently located wood storage than that! We also have some walls upstairs! Although they've been there since May/June, I believe this is the first appearence they've made on my blog. I suppose they're deserving of their own post though, so I'll leave it at that for now. :)

New house pictures

2011-11-14T05:21:00.000-08:00

After a very long time not posting any new pictures, here are the latest.

Here's the kitchen. It's no coincidence that Emma is sitting in front of the cupboard where the treats live.
Another kitchen picture. Those two small paintings on the wall were two from the Artists by the Sea event in St. Andrews that didn't sell, for which I'm glad, because I love them there!
The hallway, with a mix of older paintings.
The living room.
Another view of the living room. Yes, Emma was following me around while I took pictures.

Another shot of the living room. Those are some of my grandfather's paintings on the wall. Yes, Erick was watching Mythbusters.

And the bedroom. It doesn't take Emma long to get comfy on our duvet.

beach cliffs

2011-10-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

This is one of the pastel paintings I did on the second day of Artists by the Sea. These cliffs are at the end of the road my parents live on, and if when you are standing facing the cliffs you turn 180 degrees, you see this:Needless to say, it's a lovely spot. This was the first time we painted there, but we had such a nice time I'm sure we'll paint there again. My sister also did a lovely painting of the same beach cottage, although hers looks completely different. Our paintings of this beach cottage were both snapped up quickly and for a fair price.

Two small pastels... and a few extras

2011-10-20T04:51:00.001-07:00

So for the past week I have been trying to post some more watercolours, but for whatever reason they've been appearing on my blog sideways. Weird. But apparently my blog has no qualms about pastel paintings being posted, and is not flipping them sideways, so here are two from artists by the sea. These are both about 5 x 7 inches and neither of them sold in the auctions, for which I am kind of glad because I wasn't asking much for them and they look so nice hanging in my kitchen as a pair. :) The top one was actually of a path leading into the woods, but I removed the woods behind the foremost trees and put sky there instead to suggest that the path is toward the beach. The bottom one is of my parent's field, done on location at about 8:00 in the morning in early July. This is probably about the 5th painting I've done of this field, and I've been happy with them all. Oh I might as well post them for good measure. :) Here they are:

More paintings from Artists by the Sea

2011-10-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

This painting is one of the ones I did at Artists by the Sea this year. My sister and I went to our usual afternoon haunt on the Saturday - the deck of the St. Andrews Yacht Club. By this time in the afternoon it was quite sunny. We're going to have to start finding somewhere else to go, as we've gone there every year and there's only so many times you can paint the same view of the wharf and boats, although people never seem to tire of buying the paintings! That's the one perk I guess. :) Both of these are watercolours. Just for fun I've included the 2009 version of the wharf, this one in pastel. Clearly I'm more comfortable with that medium!

I'm back!

2011-10-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
After a very long hiatus from blogging, I am back. :) The main reason for my absence was the loss of the cord that connects my camera to my computer. In its absence I couldn't get photos off my camera, and attempts to do so by other means were disastrous. I nearly lost all 1,100 photos I've taken over the past 10 months. But luckily, Applebee's image centre came to my rescue and managed to recover all the photos from my camera's corrupted memory card. This means that I now have 10 months worth of photos and events to catch up on!
I'm going to start with one of my favourite annual events; the St. Andrews Artists by the Sea event. This is a charity event which raises money for the hospice of charlotte. Local artists gather to paint on-site for a weekend, and the paintings are auctioned off in three silent auctions, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. My sister and I have been participating in this event together since 2007 (with last year being the one exception). This year I thought I'd be brave and try her chosen medium, watercolours. I'd never painted plein air (or on-site) with watercolours before, and it presents an interesting and completely different challenge than painting plein air in pastel. Anyway, the two paintings in this post are my first two (and favourite) attempts.

Energy Audit

2011-03-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

Hi guys, long time no post. (Sorry!)

I'd just like to mention that we had an inspector come out today to do our energy audit. And while we will have to wait 6 weeks or so to get the final result, the house did well on the air tightness test.

The inspector has done over 1200 homes, and he said ours is easily in the top three he's ever done for air tightness. He also said he usually goes around and identifies areas of improvement for a house's air tightness, but in our case he felt it wasn't necessary.

Woot!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T05:35:00.001-08:00

Above is the wreath my mother made for us, hanging off one of the sconces.

Here is the kitchen, with appliances! (Still in bags though)

And the bathroom - notice the sinks! No running water yet though.

And our beautiful shower, with brand new shower head and tap (as of yesterday)! Notice the light as well.

Take a look and enjoy, because you will likely never see this sink so shiney again. ;)

I love these bathroom sinks. :)

One of the fans...

And I've saved the best (or what I think is the best) for last. This is my favourite light in the house - the bedroom light. :)

Illuminating the situation

2010-12-14T06:09:00.001-08:00

One of the best things that's been done at the house over the past few weeks is that the lights have been hooked up.

I'm sure that all of you can understand why that's great, but let me give you a little bit more perspective. For the past few months, it's been dark when we get home from work. That means that we need lights on in the house to get any work done. Up until Thursday night, we were using spotlights plugged into either one of two of our working receptacles. While that sounds like a practical, if slightly annoying, temporary solution, the annoyance quickly outstripped the practicality. First, imagine having to stumble through the dark every time you go to your house, tripping over stacks of trim, the mitre saw, skill saw, and various other small hand tools to eventually find the power cord, and then locate the socket on feel alone, and then try to feel where the third prong is on the plug so that you can orient it correctly so that it will go in the socket. This was a good 5 minute job usually.
Then consider the fact that only two of the receptacles were hooked up, which means that every light or power tool we were using had to be run with an extension cord to the kitchen. Then consider that we only have three extension cords, and two spotlights. One of those spot lights was also touchy and sensitive. If you attempted to move it, it would shut off. And wouldn't turn back on until you unplugged it and replugged it and wiggled the cord a bit. Imagine doing all that in the dark. So that spotlight was relegated to stationary duty in the great room, otherwise known as the cutting and sawing station. The other fun thing about that light was that it shut off if there was a significant draw on the power. So, turn on the saw, the light shuts off. Awesome.

PS. Did you notice how I snuck that photo with the wood stove in there?

Starting to look like a house

2010-12-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

Can you recoginze this:

As this? Or this:

As this?

What about this:
As this?
And how about this: As this?

Jerry the gentle giant...

2010-11-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

Ok so Jerry isn't really a giant, but he is our crackfiller. And he's awesome - and not just because he wears stilts. He's a grizzled looking newfie that used to live next to Erick's parents. Within the first five minutes of showing up the first day to do some crackfilling, he was telling me about the time he heard a knock on the door at 9:30 one halloween night, and opened it (with surprise) to Erick's dad (Mike), dressed like a lady. Apparently Mike sat down and had a serious conversation with Jerry, perfectly straight faced the entire time.

One of the first spots Erick and I drywalled was our hallway. We (will) have a smoke alarm there, and we had to cut a hole in the drywall for the octagon box the smoke alarm connects to. Well, Jerry saw the hole that was cut and said (in his Newfoundland accent)
"A square hole for an octagon box Erick? Really?
[pause]
Really?"

By the way, the bottom of the beam grazing the top of Jerry's head in that photo is at 7'10" off the floor.

The wall of windows

2010-11-17T04:30:00.000-08:00

Before I post some pictures of the interesting things that have been happening over the past week, I wanted to post this one. This shows part of our south wall - the wall of windows. As you can see, all the windows are boxed in and trimmed. Notice that the windows on the lower storey have big wide sills. I love them! And I love all the sunshine they let in on a cold day in November.

Emma...

2010-11-12T04:46:00.001-08:00

I know you guys are probably hoping for more house pictures, and I do have some new ones, but I took this photo yesterday and I couldn't *not* post it. I mean, look at it!

I also took some pictures of Kirby, but Kirby only stands still for 0.01 seconds at a time, and the camera gods were not on my side yesterday, so all the Kirby pictures were blurry. Emma is a pro now at this, and stands perfectly still, staring right into the camera.

Snow falls on this house

2010-11-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't it pretty? :)

Hello Stairs, Goodbye rickety stepladder!

2010-11-04T05:28:00.001-07:00

Last Friday we had our stairs installed by Phil ‘the stair guy’. I love it when people call me and introduce themselves by what their role is in the building of our house. I know it’s kind of self centered to enjoy that so much, but I don’t know how many times I’ve been called and the person says “Hi this is Doug/Bob/Bill/Wayne/John/Jason/Fred”. And I’m supposed to remember who Doug/Bob/Bill/Wayne/John/Jason/Fred is, AND remember why they’re calling me. Trust me; it’s a lot to remember. It’s fine if it’s a person who you talk to all the time, but if you’ve only just started working with them, and you haven’t really met them yet, it sure makes it easier if they say “Hi, this is the stair guy”.
So suffice it to say that I liked Phil the stair guy right off the bat. JMy liking for Phil the stair guy increased when he told us he doesn’t do railings or anything else, he just does stairs. That means he does a lot of stairs, and he’s not going to screw them up. I then wanted to hug him when he told us he could build our stairs for $400, and install them for another $150. They’re construction grade (which means we don’t have to worry about wearing our shoes on them or dropping things on them) and are hardwood ready (which means when it comes time to finish them, we can put on the hardwood ourselves and the whole stair project will come in at $1200, tops). Phil required a couple days’ notice, so Wednesday we called, and on Friday when we came home from work we were just in time to assist Phil in fastening the stairs to the second floor. And when I say “we”, I mean Erick. I assisted mainly by watching, eating pizza, and offering pizza to anyone who didn’t look busy.

Siding Finished!

2010-10-27T04:56:00.000-07:00

I'll let the pictures do the talking. :)

A lesson on the proper use of Spackers

2010-10-21T05:25:00.001-07:00

At this point you are probably wondering “What on earth is a spacker?” I can’t say I blame you. Four short months ago I had no idea myself. Well allow me to enlighten you.

A spacker is a short piece of 1 x 4 strapping that you use to measure the correct distance between each row when putting on strapping for the roof or siding. You cut the spacker so that you can put it against the previous row of strapping, and put the next row of strapping on top of the spacker, so that the two rows of strapping are 16” on centre. On a two man (or woman) team, you each have a spacker, and before you nail in the next row of strapping, you each take your spacker and put it on an end of the piece of strapping to get the distance right across the whole length of the row.

The crew that we’ve hired to do the siding clearly has no understanding of the proper use of spackers. Using our spackers, Erick and I strapped the west side of the house, and as you can see from the photo above, the strapping is perfectly parallel and straight, and each row is the same distance apart. When we look at the strapping put on by our crew, it’s evident they didn’t use spackers as the strapping doesn’t look straight, and the distance between successive rows is variable. However, since the strapping is going to be covered by the siding, it really makes no difference from a structural point of view.

One more note about spackers. Since when you’re putting on strapping, you’re constantly making cuts, there will be all kinds of pieces of strapping of various lengths lying around looking just like a spacker, it just makes good sense to label your spacker for what it is, by writing SPACKER on it. And of course since you each have a spacker, you’ll want to differentiate between your spacker and your partner’s spacker. At this point you may be tempted to write SPACKER on one and SPACER on the other.

Our introduction to spacers occurred when Wayne and Jarret were strapping our roof in preparation for the metal. They had made two spacers to use, and had labeled on SPACER and the other one SPACKER. I’m assuming they did it so they’d know whose was whose, (not that it matters from a practical perspective, but it would certainly prevent your partner from stealing your spacer and claiming it as his own). Either that or they’re terrible spellers. Either way, the name stuck and at the Burley compound spacers were thereafter known as ‘spackers’. Which of course, when combined with the handy length of a spacer, led to all sorts of jokes about being “spacked”. We like to keep things mature on the Burley compound.

On a side note, here is what the kitchen looked like after we framed it in. We had to do this so that we could hang the kitchen cabinets off the studs. Soon this will be covered in drywall and you won't be able to see the pine at all. I'd like to note that no pine was injured in the framing of the kitchen. Although some of the beams were, slightly.

Siding at Last!

2010-10-20T04:44:00.001-07:00

Well would you look at that? Cedar siding at last! Doesn't it look great? :) Actually they're a little further along now than these pictures show. They're up to the top of the lower level windows on the south side, and the north and west sides are done. When you walk up to the front door all you can smell is cedar. You can actually smell it walking up the driveway, 100 feet or more away from the house. Although I know the lovely cedar smell won't stick around, I can't help but hope that it does. :)

work continues...

2010-10-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

I finally took some new pictures last night. I'm hoping I'll be able to post them soon. But we're working away. We've been taking care of the little details inside that we hadn't yet had time for, like putting 2 x 6 ledgers under the floorboards in places where they were previously unsupported, but that weren't safety critical (like at the very edge of the lean-to section upstairs), getting ready for drywall, arranging siding, etc.

Our electrician came on Saturday and started the wiring. What a lot of wires it takes to supply a house! And because we can't run any wires through exterior walls, there's only one path the wires can take from the west wall (where the service comes into the house) to the east side, and that is over the bathroom door. There were so many holes drilled there that the supporting 2 x 4s splintered and broke in two. It's not a load bearing wall, but still it needs to be fixed.

Also our siding is being put on this week. They started it last week and it looks great! I can't wait to see it finished.

Oh, and the photo is of one of our sunflowers in the 'garden'.

Our kitchen countertop

2010-10-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

That's it in the back of my car. Isn't it lovely? I know that most of the people who read my blog have already seen my countertop tile (whether they wanted to or not!), but I thought I'd post it anyway, since these are the only pictures I have that you guys haven't seen.

In real life it's really got more of a green/gold tinge. I love it!

Varnishing almost done... but not quite

2010-09-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

I'm a negligent blogger. It's been two weeks now with no updates, as I'm sure you're aware. I'm going to take a line from Rachel's* book though, and say that I did it (or in this case didn't do it) because I love you guys too much. I love you guys too much to subject you to two weeks worth of pictures showing more empty wood in various stages of varnishing, and more posts saying "we're still varnishing". Ok so I'll stop being melodramatic, but really it would have been boring reading.

We had some excellent help these past two weekends. Two Sundays ago Jill and Chris came to help us varnish. They stayed all day and between the two of them put one coat on the master bedroom, one coat on the bathroom, and half of a coat on the mudroom. You guys are awesome!

Then the following Sunday Marcelle and Chris paid us a visit and they helped me for the first day of outdoor labour that I've had in about two months. Marcelle and I cleaned up the yard, moving lumber and other various construction materials to the back of the house, while Chris caulked our sills, and himself in the process. I'm fairly sure his hands are both water resistant and air tight. I would have liked to have gotten some pictures that day, but I had to make a frantic and last minute trip to home hardware (really that's the only kind of trip I make to home hardware), and then I forgot. You guys, too, are awesome!

Despite all that excellent help however, I still have one more coat of varnish to get on the mudroom. Everything else is done though. Yay! So here is the current varnishing tally:

Bathroom - 4 coats

Master bedroom - 2 coats

Kitchen - 2 coats

Mudroom - 2 coats

Living room - 2 coats

Upstairs - 2 coats

Cathedral ceilings - 2 coats

That works out to about 16 gallons of varnish so far. And I'd also like to note that my head/hair will likely be water resistant by the time I'm done, because I'm varnishing the ceilings too and I can't help getting it on my head. I'm really hoping that water resistant hair is a fad that will catch on.

* It's a Glee reference, sorry, I can't help it, but I love that show.

The painting cave

2010-09-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

This week we have been varnishing. Erick has been using the sprayer with the air compressor to do the peak and high parts, and I've been doing the living room with a brush. Once the sprayer gets going, the air fills with varnish mist and it's like a big old bat cave in there. We wear vapour masks the whole time. Also we don't have power hooked up to our place yet, so we're running the big fat extension cord from the barn. Where we're running an air compressor, two high power spot lights, and fans to push the varnish mist outside, we're drawing a lot of current. At best, when the air compressor turns on, the lights go off, and then come on again once the air compressor stops. Unfortunately though, it often happens that when the air compressor goes on, we trip the breaker, which shuts off all the lights, and they don't turn back on again. Then I stumble through the thick dark varnish mist, tripping over power cords and fans, to go up to the barn and reset the breaker.

Celebrating the end of sanding

2010-09-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

Since we're finally done sanding I thought I'd post some pictures that I took after everything was sanded and cleaned. Above are the gables that you can see from pretty much everywhere in the front of the first floor, and everywhere on the second.

This is one of the main supporting 6 x 10 posts coming up through the second floor. It's holding up another 6 x 10 with a joint over the post.

Here is our storage area (looking east), but right now I think it's too pretty to close off and fill with junk.

Storage area looking west into my studio.
The east wall of the second floor (with garbage bags over the windows)

The happy smile that says "We're done sanding"

2010-09-09T06:25:00.001-07:00

Yup that's right, we're done sanding. Can you believe it? I almost can't although I've put all the orbitals and stacks of unused sanding disks away. (And by 'away' I mean I stuffed them under some sill seal in the back of the truck).

Even the ceilings on the first floor are sanded. I did those all by myself, and let me tell you ceiling sanding is pure torture. Especially when the ceilings in question have been doused with Raid earth blends (as a result of the week long battle with the carpenter ants that invaded our stack of floor decking before it got turned into actual floor), and you can't wear safety glasses because they steam up when you wear a dust mask. Our bottle of eye wash is quite a bit lighter than it was last week. Then there were the dead ant bodies still stuck to the ceiling, and the stains they made in the wood when they got squished. Gross, huh?

But this weekend we did indeed finish sanding, and also completed all the prep work needed before we could start varnishing. Erick sprayed all the walls and every nook and cranny with the air compressor hose, and I swept and vacuumed, vacuumed and swept. My mom came to help too so that was great. After everything was all sprayed, swept, and vacuumed, we then did it all again, and then dusted everywhere with microfibre dusters before vacuuming a final time.

After that Erick put clear plastic garbage bags over all the windows to protect them from the varnish, and we started varnishing. Which, as a passtime, is a huge improvement over sanding.

Intervention

2010-09-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 20th consecutive day of sanding the Beast. I now have a very large appreciation for both the enormity and the number of surfaces of our house. Not counting the additional surface area presented by the various sides of the beams, we've got approximately 4000 square feet of areas that need to be sanded and varnished. All this sanding has taken (so far) 120 person hours, and will require about 20 gallons of varnish. For the past weeks Erick and I have been arriving home grumpy, dusty, and hungry around 9:30 or 10:00pm each night.

I think our friends and family must have finally gotten tired of seeing us this way, so this week they really stepped up, and staged a sanding intervention. For three days now while Erick and I have been at our day jobs, they've been sanding at our house. Thank-you Leon, Curtis, and Evan. You guys are the best!!!! My lungs thank you from the bottom of my heart, and so do my thumbs*. By the way, all this sanding has inspired me to make a note about hemlock. Our beams (and the second floor) are made entirely of hemlock. Now I don't care what your daddy, your textbook, your professor, or the internet told you about hemlock, but it is a HARD wood. Anyone who disagrees with me is welcome to come try removing some black marks from our beams using nothing but an orbital sander and 120 grit sandpaper**.

* Anyone who doesn't understand why my thumbs are grateful hasn't spent two weeks (and more) with their thumbs clamped around an orbital sander.

** Seriously, you really are welcome (really).

My garden

2010-08-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of my tomatoes. Lynn planted these for me in our front yard (aka the field) in June. I've been neglecting them terribly and they have nothing to help them stand up so they're forming an extremely bushy and dense ground cover at the front part of the field. There are many tomatoes, in a variety of interesting and rather unappealing shapes. These are some of the nicer ones.

We've also got squash, cucumbers, and a row of sunflowers that are in bloom and only a foot high, since I planted them later in the season than I should have. Around the back I've also got sweet peas, black eyed susans, lavatera, chives, and parsely. Strewn around the front field I have ornamental poppies, california poppies, lots of sunflowers and lavatera, and more sweet peas. I neglected all of these terribly too, so I don't have any flowers and I probably won't get any from anything other than the sunflowers, which apparently thrive on neglect.

Our 'field'

2010-08-27T05:10:00.001-07:00

This picture is of the 'field' between our driveway and the east side of the house. It's a decent size and over the next year or so we are going to prep this area to be pasture for the horses.

This year all we did is cover it with the huge pile of detritus that used to live underneath where our house is currently sitting, and seed it. In May my mom brought me a grocery bag full of annual rye seed, and one rainy evening I strewed it around by hand like Johnny Appleseed. After a week or so there was just a patchy green fuzz. Then the fuzz got bigger and stronger and more and more of it grew, and now looks quite nice in places. Still there are piles of construction materials lying around, but if you look at it at just the right angle (like the photo above), you can see how nice the field is going to look.

Natural light

2010-08-26T04:48:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love about our place so far is the abundance of natural light. I probably won't ever have to have lights on in the kitchen or living room during the day. Take the photo above for example. It sure looks like we have a light on in the kitchen, but that is actually from the sun shining in the west windows. So this is the kind of light we're going to have in our kitchen at 7:00pm on a sunny day at the end of August. :)

I'd also like to note that we have started the sanding extravaganza (as of the weekend before last). All of the wood surfaces need to be sanded and varnished. As you can imagine, this is an immense undertaking. Last night marked day 11 of consecutive sanding, and we're a little over half done. Erick and I are pro-orbital operators at this point, and all that remaining wood doesn't stand a chance. We also had some awesome help this weekend - Erick's brother Curtis and his wife (and my friend) Lori put down some pretty serious sanding time and thanks to their help we're a lot further along than we would otherwise be. Lori and I did the kitchen, and although you probably can't notice in the picture above, that whole kitchen is beautifully smooth to the touch and the beams are free of mud and footprints. Lori and Rosie - 1, Dirt and stained wood - 0.

Bitch'n Kitchen

2010-08-25T05:36:00.001-07:00

For the past few weeks I've been busy planning the kitchen. On Saturday I met with dad (my cabinet maker extraordinaire) to plan what is going where. Here are the sketches I showed him:
North kitchen wall: pantry on left, Fridge in middle, drawers and counter on right.

South wall - sink under windows, dishwasher to the right of sink, drawers on both sides.

East wall: stove in middle, drawers on both sides, microwave range hood.

One problem that I've encountered now that was fully unanticipated is that because our house is open concept, the kitchen colours and such have to match the living room, or it will look odd and will lack flow. So the colour scheme I've been planning for the past 6 months has been scrapped, and we're starting again. I am planning on consulting the kitchen designer at kents to get a few opinions before we buy any of the paint or countertops. Whatever colours we go with, I am sold on granite tile as a counter top. We're too poor for granite slab, I don't like laminates, and granite tile is as cheap as the laminates. Done and done!

A big YAY for cable

2010-08-23T11:51:00.001-07:00

Erick and I have been busy! Just look at this lovely second floor. This is where we left off two weeks ago. Yes, I really am *that* far behind in my posting! Erick and I put on 3/4 of the decking for the second floor all by ourselves within two days (that's about 600 square feet of 6" boards that each need to be glued, screwed, and clamped), and we finished up the remaining 200 square feet the next three nights after we got home from our day jobs.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd pass some of the blame for my delinquency in blogging to our cable provider. We got cable a week and half ago (around the time my computer's power bar got pressed into service at the house), and we've been so busy watching HGTV (I think it stands for Home and Garden, but I'll confess I'm guessing about the garden part) that I haven't been able to make myself set up my computer again. Also I'd like to note that now that I've been watching HGTV for a week, I have a better appreciation for how crazy Erick and I are. What we're doing is an awful lot like the show 'House of Bryan', except we:

1) both work full time

2) are doing this on a shoe-string budget (compared to Bryan's!! We can't afford custom furniture, custom draperies, granite, marble, and a backyard oasis!)*

3) don't have a designer on call

4) and lastly, don't have the liberty of calling in a crew when we're running behind schedule.

* Edited to add this after numerous complaints about this comment from my ever practical dad. Sheesh.

still alive

2010-08-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't given up hope that I'll post on my blog again someday, this one's for you. I don't have any recent house pictures to share, but I thought I'd post this one that I took over the NB day long weekend.

Work continues on the house, but the power bar for my computer has been pressed into service up at the house, and I'm just too busy to cart that back and forth so that I can take the pictures off my camera. But I'm really excited to show you guys what's been going on, so I may do it soon.

We've been insanely busy, and things are still moving right along. :)

Prettiest little barn in Musquash

2010-08-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

Work on the barn has been progressing. I thought I'd post a photo of the beautiful cupola on the roof. In the evening, the cupola is the last thing on the property the sun hits before it sets, and the rooster just glows. You can see it shining like a light from hundreds of feet away.

All tyvek'd up

2010-08-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we didn't get quite as much done as we were hoping, but we still finished putting on the tyvek, and we finished the corners. Next thing we have to do to the outside of the house is put in the vents for the kitchen, bathroom, and mudroom.

Another photo

2010-07-27T04:08:00.000-07:00

No new house photos today, so here's another photo from earlier in the summer. Last night Erick and I were planning on finishing the tyvek on the east and north walls, but it was far too windy, so we just cleaned up instead.

Finished a painting!

2010-07-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

I started this painting the first week of July in the hopes that it would be finished for the Artists by the Sea event in St. Andrews the weekend of July 10th-11th. No such luck! I found the time Saturday morning to finally finish it though. House wise, Erick and I put in the corner posts: 4 massive 6x6 beams.. the largest of which were 14' long and weighed about 200 or more pounds).

Partners, 2010 soft pastel, 7 x 10 inches

Lazy week

2010-07-23T05:17:00.001-07:00

Despite the work that has been going on at our house this week, Erick and I have been taking it easy. We worked our butts off last weekend in the searing heat and have spent this week recovering. Tomorrow it's back at it - we're hoping to tyvek the remaining exterior walls and to put on the rest of the strapping. In the spirit of laziness, I thought I'd post a photo today that has nothing to do with the house. :)

Decisions Decisions

2010-07-22T04:14:00.000-07:00

When we first started making noise about building a house, one of the things we heard frequently from people who had been there, done that was that all the decision making will drive you crazy. How many windows and where? Which flooring? What sort of drywall? What colours? What countertop? What windows, siding, roofing, doors? What fixtures, lights, appliances, handles, outlets, etc.? But so far the decision making has been the fun part. Like the day we went to the plumbing show room and picked out our kitchen sink, faucets, bathroom sink and faucets, toilet, and bathtub. We were in and out in 40 minutes, and were both in perfect agreement about what we wanted. I suppose it helps that we're on a tight budget that we both recognize the importance of.

Picking out our lights took a little longer (about an hour and a half). We went with antique bronze, a burnished brassy colour. There are sconces, simple chandeliers, track lights, and some overhead lights. We picked out our doorknobs and locks in about 20 minutes, and again went with antique bronze to match the lights. The picture above is actually of our mudroom door knob (and it shows you what the antique bronze looks like).

Still we have lots of other decisions to make, ones that I'm looking forward to. At the moment it's countertops... With our budget it will be laminate, but there are *so* many different styles and colours to choose from.

Interestingly enough, the wall colours were one of the first things we started picking out. What else would you expect from an artist though? ;)

Windows at last

2010-07-21T04:37:00.000-07:00

Well, here they are. Twenty-two windows, and two doors were installed in approximately 7 hours by a team of two guys. They caulked, shimmed, and taped everything, and they look great. I'm posting most of these pictures in black and white, because the blueskin, white tyvek, red roof, and red tuck tape look a little too fourth of July for me. Ok ok... see below for a colour photo. It really does look silly though. The windows and doors are from Ultimate Windows and doors on Rothesay Avenue. I would *highly* recommend them to anyone looking for windows. Their windows are good quality, and the salesman we dealt with (Mark Campbell) is really on the ball. You can tell that they value their customers.

Here's the mudroom door:

And the front door:

And, (sigh) the promised colour picture:

Today is the day!

2010-07-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

This is the last picture you will see of the house with empty window and door holes. Today is the day!! The installation crew arrived at 9:00 am and are working away. We started the planning for the windows and doors almost 6 months ago, and I can't wait to see how they look.

Window prep

2010-07-19T05:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend Erick and I busted our butts getting the window and door holes ready to have the windows and doors installed today. Between the two of us, we put in almost 40 hours of work, on the hottest weekend of the year to date. And then this morning I got a call from the window place saying that the job scheduling guy went on vacation before they could get confirmation about coming out to do our job this morning, so they're not coming until tomorrow. Good thing we were ready! ;)

The top picture is when we finished on Saturday night.

Window flashing and more about stove choice

2010-07-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

Last night was lovely in Musquash, so I decided to get off my lazy butt and take some pictures of the house: All kinds of stuff going on with the well and septic. Our septic got approved, so yay! for that.

You can see where we've started putting tyvek and strapping around the windows in preparation for their installation.

We also discovered this awesome window flashing called 'Blue skin' which is basically a thick adhesive rubber strip that you stick on top of the tyvek and strapping around the windows and doors to keep moisture out. It prevents drafts, keeps moisture out, and self seals around punctures. Below is the corner of the window to the left of the door, above. It sometimes takes some practice to figure out how to use the materials correctly. ;)

To address Chris's comment re. the woodstove: The Alderlea does come in a larger size (the T6 for 3000 sq ft homes), but the larger stove is no wider, and it only allows peices of wood 2" longer than the T5. And of course it's more expensive. We talked to a number of people about it and decided to go with the T5 for a number of reasons:

1) Houses insulated such as ours with cathedral ceilings show a temperature gradient from floor to ceiling of less than half a degree. Yes heat rises, but you have fewer drafts and no cold spots, which means that everywhere is pretty much the same temperature.

2) It is recommended to use a smaller woodstove than your floorspace would dictate when your house is well insulated and when it's passive solar. Our floorspace is 2000 sq ft - and our stove choices were between stoves for 2000 sq ft and 3000 sq ft.

3) If your house is smaller than your woodstove can heat, you can't burn it properly (get it really going) or your house will overheat. Not burning it properly results in a less efficient burn (more particulate in the smoke and more offgas), and a lower lifespan of the stove.

4) We found a used (but basically brand new) T5 that was $1000 cheaper than a new T6.

Various family members have been betting how many cords of wood we'll burn next winter. They've been all over the map with their guesses - what do you guys think? :)

Something different...

2010-07-15T04:43:00.000-07:00

I'm going to take a break from the regularly scheduled programming (or blogging) today to show you the woodstove we're getting. It's going to go right in the middle of our house, in the corner made by the stairs. Here it is:

It's a Pacific Energy Alderlea T5, designed for heating homes 2000 sq ft (like ours). It's cast iron, non-catalytic, and has two top parts that wing out so you can use it as a cooking stove in power failures (see insets above). I though that was just too pratical a feature to pass up in our part of the world. Below is the hole in our roof where the chimney goes up. Eventually there will be a chimney pipe going from there down to the stove, but for now we just have a hole.

More digging

2010-07-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

Last week Derek Thompson from Coastal Enterprises started putting in our septic system. Above is his excavator, and on the left you can see the septic tank and some of the white piping. At one point Derek had to get in the tank to cut something with his jackknife to make it fit. He could have used our rip saw and avoided getting in the tank, but that was the one day we had all the tools locked up, and he couldn't get at it. The hole he used to get in the tank doesn't look big enough to let a person through (see below in red).

Here's a closer look at the trench that will have the water lines running from our well to the house:

And here's my rhubarb plant after they were done with the excavator. It still looks sort of alive here, but trust me... it is most certainly dead now.

The (long awaited?) roof pictures

2010-07-13T04:50:00.001-07:00

Well we've been talking about our red metal roof for a long time, and last week it was finally put on. These pictures are from Saturday morning in the thick Musquash fog. I suppose I could have gotten better pictures in last night's sunshine, but in the spirit of laziness I didn't. :)You can see the top of our well in the bottom right of this photo. The trench is for the pipes to connect the waterlines to the house. The excavator on the right is putting in the septic tank and field.
Also note the shiny new chimney :)

Drip Edges

2010-07-12T04:48:00.000-07:00

Well after a week of no new posts, here's an update... In these pictures the roof has tyvek on it and has been strapped, and the drip edges installed.

Snowglobes in July

2010-07-05T08:37:00.001-07:00

This weekend Erick and I worked on framing the windows. First Erick routered out the foam from between the layers of OSB, and then we measured and cut 2x4s to fit in the holes, then we foamed the holes, stuck in the 2x4s, and nailed them in place before sealing the edges with still more foam. This sounds like it would be a quick job, but it took Erick and I working from noon until 8:30 on Saturday, and from 10 unil 7 on Sunday to get this done for our 22 windows and 2 doors.

The routering of the panels had an interesting but wholly upleasant after-effect. The foam from between the panels was shredded by the router and due to the wind this weekend was whipping around the inside of our house the whole time, and I imagine it was very like being inside a snow globe. The foam flakes varied from invisible powder that coated your skin making everything itch to pieces the size of my fist. I've swept up four full garbage bags of foam and there's still plenty more. Worst of all, it's water resistant so there's nothing you can do to weigh it down, and that nicely swept pile you just made goes swirling around the house again with the first gust of wind.

Since I was too tired and irritated with the foam this weekend to take any pictures, you'll have to make do with one of my rock garden. It has some herbs, a tomato plant, and some flowers. :)

More window shots

2010-07-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

Since I was a bad blogger yesterday and didn't take any new photos of what was done yesterday, I thought I'd post a couple more pictures of the window and door holes. Here is the mudroom and mudroom door hole. On the left of the door hole you can see the big closet. Th mudroom door will be solid (no glass), but we are planning on having a screen door there as well for air flow.
And here is my favourite window - the master bedroom. This window is on the east wall and in the morning the sun shines directly in. Yesterday morning I sat in that window and drank my coffee like a cat in the sun. It was lovely. Also note the fairly huge closet. :)

Yesterday we were working on the house from 8:00 to 1:00 - and I'm pleased to say that after about 10am, there was *very* little sun shining directly into our house which meant that the house stayed cool all day. I was glad to see that because I was concerned that having all the southern windows would make our house overheat in the summer. But it seems that the sun is high enough in the sky this time of year that the roof overhang keeps it out.

Ok, one last window shot (this is the south west corner, and no it's not really that dark):

Window holes

2010-06-30T05:13:00.001-07:00

On Monday the window holes were cut out, and the place was transformed from a dark and cavernous space into a house. I had been looking forward to that day since we first started putting on the tongue in groove pine. Here is the south side:

And the east side: The lower window is in the master bedroom.

Here is the view standing in the kitchen, looking toward the living room and west wall:

And here is the view standing in the living room looking toward the kitchen (lower right) and the east wall:

Work Safe!

2010-06-18T04:29:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we put the top row of roof panels on the south roof. And when I say 'we' I mean Erick and I by ourselves. There was nothing to tie ourselves to, and for the most part we were standing on the 8" ledge formed by the second-to-the-top row of panels while lugging around the top row. Plus the bracing on the roof went up the north side, so we had to climb up the ladder onto the north roof, then climb up the north roof, and then climb over the peak to stand on the little 8" ledge. I was nervous at first, but I got used to it somewhat. It's a fun place to sit up there - you can see everything!

Anyway, there were lots of cars passing by as we were up there and one of our kind and concerned neighbours must have (out of the goodness of their little heart) called Work Safe NB - just to be sure no one gets hurt. So we were paid a visit by Work Safe NB the other day. They recommended that we buy these special brackets for fall arrest, and really they sound like a good idea.

Oh yeah - the top photo is of our pond. Pretty isn't it? :)

Portrait of Ice

2010-06-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

With all the house work, I haven't had much time for painting. I have done a little bit however. Here is a commission I recently completed. 'Ice' is a rescue. His current owner used to walk by where he lived, every day, and see him chained in the yard with a rut where he ran back and forth. One day his current owner knocked on the door and asked if she could take him for a walk, and then a few weeks later she asked if she could buy him. She's had him for seven years.

Ice, 16 x 20 inches, 2010 soft pastel

The panoramic view

2010-06-15T04:38:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time for another panoramic view since the last time I posted a panorama the buildings hadn't been started yet:
The barn is coming along as you can see. It's 28' x 48', and the end closer to the house will have two 9 x 12 box stalls, and a small tack and feed room, in addition to a bathroom and plenty of storage for hay. The other half will be used however Mike sees fit. :)

Here you can see some of the interior framing in the house, looking from the living room. The kitchen is on the right, and the stairs will be going up the corner on the left. Behind there is a hallway leading to the master bedroom and the bathroom.

How Emma and Kirby help

2010-06-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

Emma and Kirby do their best to help us out in this house building adventure. They have each taken roles upon themselves according to what they do best.

Emma's role is to gather all small (bite sized) pieces of wood lying around and turn them into sawdust. It keeps the mess down and reduces tripping hazards. Very beneficial. Kirby's role is to protect all of our wood (and house) from catching on fire. Here he is in action, putting down one of those pesky straying sparks. Of course, that sometimes means that he loses some whiskers, but it's a sacrifice he's willing to make.

The inside view

2010-06-11T04:35:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd post the floorplans today because a) I haven't posted them before, b) not everyone is as well acquainted with the layout as Erick and I, and c) the interior photos will make more sense. ;)

The front door is on the south side. The layout of things in the bathroom will be different, but everything else is pretty much as it will be.
And here is the second floor. We will complete this as needed, and although we have allowed for a bathroom on the 2nd floor, it won't be between the two bedrooms like it's shown here. There will be no walls enclosing the open area, it will just be railing there.

Here are some shots of the interior before we framed the inside walls. If/when we have a climbing wall, it will go up the right side of the roof in this photo. This was taken standing in the living room looking toward the stairs and north east corner.

This was taken standing by the front door, looking north west toward the living room, mudroom, and studio (on the second floor).

This one is looking at what will be the stairs, bathroom, and master bedroom, looking north east.

Panels started

2010-06-10T03:42:00.000-07:00

Last week we started putting on the structural insulated panels. For those that don't know what they are, structural insulated panels (as the name implies) provide both structural support and insulation. They are a sandwhich composed of OSB and rigid foam insulation. They perform better than a conventially insulated stud frame wall of an equivalent R-value because there are no studs (which make cold spots). Our wall panels are R-24, and the roof panels are R-42. You screw these babies right onto the frame, and once they're all on, you seal all the seams between panels with maximum expanding wet foam. We haven't gotten to that part yet!

Starting on the panels for the south roof:

Starting the panels for the south wall:

You'll note that there's a gap in the panels on the top of the roof. This is because the pieces we had for that area were too short, so we had to wait until more could be shipped to us. We have the correct panels now, but haven't been back up on the roof since we got them.

More about pine...

2010-06-08T04:36:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the pictures I’ve been posting, our house is sheathed in tongue in groove pine. And I must say, it looks lovely. But putting it on there is not so lovely. Take the roof for example – putting the pine on the roof (which has a pitch of 12/12 or 45°) is a lot like slab climbing with a nail gun in one hand and a 12’ board in the other. Then there are the logistics of getting all this pine up there – fortunately we have the zoom boom which makes this a snap, provided you don’t have to measure each piece. When you have to measure each piece separately, you have to cut each piece on the ground and then somehow get that piece up three lifts of staging to the person with the nail gun. This is a lot like climbing Cassonade in Kamouraska with a board in one hand. In the rain. Good times!

When we completed the top portion of the pine on the north roof, we had our harnesses on and were clipping into anchors. Due to the width of the roof (44’) we were perpetually clipping and unclipping from several anchors that traversed the width of the roof. The slack you needed to move around meant a fall of up to 10 feet, which thankfully neither of us had to experience. When the boys (who don’t wear safety gear) helped Erick finish the pine on the south roof, Erick had his harness on until Jared asked him “Hey Erick – Is your nail gun sad that it has a pussy behind it?” And that was the end of the harness wearing.

The pine slog continues

2010-06-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

Last week Erick and I both took a 'vacation' from our jobs in order to work on the house. On Saturday (May 29th) we finished putting the tongue in groove pine on the north roof. On Sunday (May 30th) with Chris Norfolk's help, we put the first 15 feet of tongue in groove pine on the south roof. You can see both in the picture below (kindly taken by Chris):
We've done a lot more since then, so I will post more pictures throughout the week. I am actually glad to be back to work this week, because I am exhausted (as is Erick) and need a break!

Emma

2010-05-27T05:36:00.000-07:00

Can it get any cuter than this??

The Pine slog

2010-05-27T04:15:00.001-07:00

Now that the frame is up, the next job to complete is to put all the tongue in groove pine over the frame. As you can imagine, there is a lot of pine, and it takes a long time to get it all on there!

This is a view from the top of the staging on the south wall, down into the house.

Here is Erick, cutting out a little doorway so we can get into the house:

This is the north west corner - there will be a door just to the left of that corner. Emma approves of the pine.

This is the north east corner, where the master bedroom is on the ground floor.

And a view from outside, looking at the north west corner of the house.

And as promised, the new (rented) toy. It's called a zoom-boom and it's a forklift with an extendable arm that reaches 20 + feet. It sure is handy for getting lumber and things up to the roof!

Rain rain go away!

2010-05-26T07:18:00.001-07:00

The second truck arrived on Monday evening carrying the remainder of the house materials coming from Maine. This includes the rest of the wall and roof panels, the tongue in groove pine which will line the inside of our exterior walls, and the decking for the second floor (tongue in groove hemlock). The next task is to start putting up the pine, and yesterday the boys got started on that after unloading the truck with our new (rented) toy (picture of that coming tomorrow).

Anyway, Erick and I had grand plans of doing lots of work last night until it started doing this:

Unloading the first truck in the rain pretty much ruined Erick and I on working in the rain for a while, so last night we laid around and did laundry. By the way, I hope Crystal wins american Idol!

Big update!

2010-05-25T04:51:00.000-07:00

I think that Musquash has some of the prettiest skies... Here is an example. This was Thursday evening, coming into Musquash.
Here is the house Wednesday evening: The staging is up and all ready for the crane coming the next day to raise the walls.

And here we are Thursday evening - the walls are up!!

This is Friday afternoon - here you see the crane raising the trusses for the roof:

Here is the side view after all the trusses were on - we are still missing the rafter tails which extend the roofline down to meet the top of the wall on the left hand side:

A view inside the frame - this doesn't do it justice.

And a view of the frame as of Sunday evening.

Another view of the frame:

It's pretty surreal to see it up, after months and month of planning!

A start on the frame

2010-05-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

As you know, the first load of our frame arrived from Gerald Fowler (Timber Frame Solutions in Thorndike ME) on Friday last week. Gerald has been great throughout this process - taking panicked phone calls, answering hundreds of silly (and not so silly) questions, and generally making it possible for us to get anywhere with our house. He has guided us through every part of the process - faxing us diagrams to give to the foundation guy, talking to the foundation guy, advising us on windows, tools, materials, electrical plans, etc. Pretty much for every single thing that we've bought, built, rented, or thought about for our house, Gerald's given us input.

Anyway, the frame, the panels (which serve double duty as the walls and insulation), the sheathing (tongue in groove pine), decking for the 2nd floor, and the sill plates have all been provided by Gerald. The frame (and everything else) is measured and cut precisely for our needs so all we have to do is put it together. (Ha!)

This week Erick has stayed home from work to begin putting the frame together. He's had some help, and in two days Erick, Wayne, and Garret have put on the sill plates, built the south, east, west, and one of our two north walls, and assembled all the gable ends. The next step in the frame is done using the crane again: everything gets lifted off the ground and secured in place.

So here is a picture of the four walls laying across our slab:

Another shot of the walls:

Erick and Wayne standing by the gable ends:

Another shot of the gable ends, and a closer look at the walls (8' north wall is on the top-left):

Emma tries out the slab

2010-05-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

Emma thought she'd give our new slab a try this weekend.

" Hrmm... Why is my bum warm? I think it's safe to lay down..."

"It smells alright.... and it feels so nice on my tummy!"

"mmmmm warm tummy!"

zzzzzz.....

First flatbed arrived

2010-05-19T04:10:00.001-07:00

Well on Friday afternoon last week, the trailer arrived with the first shipment of our timberframe. We were blown away by the size of some of the beams, with the largest being 6" x 10" x 24'. Three men can't pick those suckers up!

So Saturday morning, early if not bright, we went up to the lot to meet the boom truck to unload the trailer. The weather was, shall we say, not cooperating.
The boom truck arrived at 7:45 am.

We got underway very quickly - with Erick and I setting up blocking to lay the beams on, strapping the beams, hooking the straps to the ball on the crane, and Kevin (the crane guy) moving the loads where we directed. We pretty much layed everything out on the north and east walls of the frame, since the well digging truck was parked behing the house we had to leave the south and west sides free so he could get back out.

And before we knew it, the trailer was empty! Well, ok, it took 2 and a half hours and it poured the entire time. BUT we were done by 11:00 am. After that we were absolutely exhausted, and spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon lying around being lazy.

And... now we know where the low spots on our floor are. ;)

And here we are Sunday morning, with all the lumber tarped over:

Stay tuned - I will be posting another update today! :)

Solar Slab performing like a champ!

2010-05-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

As you know, the slab was poured on Tuesday. The whole point of having the slab is so that it will absorb heat from the sun and help to warm our house in winter. Well, yesterday was a sunny day, and when I went up to the lot around 7:30 pm, and sat myself down on the slab, it was pleasantly warm. It stayed warm until after 9:00, too. Yippee! I look forward to seeing how well it retains heat when it has a house (and walls) around it!

The floor is done!

2010-05-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that plain old concrete can be so pretty? Here is the finished floor:
And our new front step:

And as promised an intermediary step:

Erick and Ryan fitting in the last peices of sub-floor insulation:

We have a floor!!

2010-05-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

Ok here is a shot that Erick took this morning right after they finished trowelling the concrete floor. This is not what the finished product will look like - it still needs several layers of sealant, and oh yeah, it also needs to dry! More later... (I will also be posting some pictures of the intermediate steps between the last update and now).

Spring Flowers

2010-04-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

From Lynn's garden:

Frost wall insulation - Check!

2010-04-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

These photos pretty much speak for themselves. It took us all day on Sunday to get the insulation on. We used 36 sheets of R10 insulation, and 14 large cans of PL 300 foam adhesive. And it took us each about 3 days to fully recover.

Yay! Insulation all on! About 7:30 pm on Sunday.

Done! And what a coincidence that it was beer o'clock!
Erick finishing up bracing the last sheets

Grinding off the rebar. We left a lot of them though to help hold the insulation in place.

Lot pictures

2010-04-23T04:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of our lot, as of last night. This pretty much shows everything that's going on.

Emma likes the pond, but thinks it's still a bit cold for swimming:
Kirby has no such qualms. He doesn't worry about things like temperature or physical injury:

Another boat

2010-04-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

This is another photo from our trip around the loop road over the easter weekend. I have plans to paint this one sometime soon.

Finally found some boats

2010-04-16T05:04:00.000-07:00

I blame it on my sister, but I absolutely love fishing boats. Over easter weekend, Erick and I drove the loop road from Musquash to Lepreau and I discovered that there are boats along that road! And on sunny days in the evening the light shines wonderfully on them, making for great photo (and painting) opportunities. Here are the first of the photos. Erick pulled over on the side of the road so I could take these. :)

Gratuitous Doggie Pics

2010-04-15T04:48:00.000-07:00

Aren't my doggies cute? :) These are some shots from last Sunday at my parent's beach. Emma was being dainty and didn't want to go for a swim, but Kirby was all over it, and a chunk of driftwood.

Christmas Chickadees

2010-04-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

I took these photos at my parent's house over Christmas this year. I spent about a half hour standing as still as I could to get these shots!

The garden

2010-04-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

Today I am posting a photo that I took in December of last year. We cleared this area on our lot last summer, thinking it may be a good spot for a house. Since deciding to put the house elsewhere, this spot may be used for a garden in the future. Also, I will probably be posting photos more frequently in the future. I have limited time to paint, and I take lots of photos to serve as references for paintings, but some of them are nice in their own right. So stay tuned!

A Horse of a Different Colour

2010-04-08T04:40:00.000-07:00

Here's another one I did for the Ultimate Dressage Challenge. This time I stuck to the three colour rule, and used dark purple, lavender, and bright orange (and white). I'm quite pleased with the results!

A Horse of a Different Colour, 8 x 8 inches, 2010 soft pastel

A Challenge in three colours

2010-04-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge over at Ultimate Dressage was to do a horse on a square, using only three colours (not including white). Here are the colours I chose:
And here is my effort:
And a closeup of his nose:
Incidentally, this is what my horse looks like when he's begging for a treat. Although in real life his nose is not blue. ;)

Tools of the trade

2010-04-06T04:54:00.000-07:00

Tools of the Trade

These images were done for a challenge on Ultimate Dressage - to take a common barn object and render it in black and white. The challenge was open to all mediums, so there were some interesting things posted, including a bejewelled hoofpick done with black beads and pearls.

Anyway, above is a photo I took for the challenge, and here is a sketch, from life, of my spurs.

Tools of the Trade, 7 x 7 inches, charcoal on paper

Kemoh

2010-03-22T05:12:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't posted this painting until now. This is a portrait I did as a gift to friends who lost their dog 'Kemoh' in November of 2008. He was shot by a hunter from the road, and they found his body lying in a field. Last year they organized a memorial walk for him, and provided all the doggies with hunter orange bandanas to wear during hunting season. Emma and I attended, along with many others.

Kemoh, soft pastel, 16 x 20 inches

Musquash Marsh

2010-03-02T05:27:00.000-08:00

Ok it's been too long since my last post. So here's a plein air I did in October of last year. It's a small part of the Musquash marsh, not too far from where Erick and I are going to build our house.

Musquash Marsh Plein Air, soft pastel, 5 x 9 inches, $50 unframed

Another cutie

2010-01-07T04:29:00.000-08:00

This is 'Dusty' - a shitzu-poodle cross that I was commissioned to paint as a Christmas present. I never met him, but judging from his pictures he's a real cutie. The people who commissioned this portrait were pleased with it. :)

Dusty, 14 x 19 inches, Private Collection

Anyone recognize this doggie?

2009-12-31T04:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a painting I just couldn't resist doing. It's done with pastel pencils, on my new french paper.Emma, 7 x 10 inches, NFS

Painting from North Carolina

2009-12-24T04:18:00.000-08:00

Since we are in the aftermath of some messy winter weather, I thought I'd post a painting that I did this summer while on vacation in North Carolina. We went there at the end of June, and it was incredibly hot! The first day we got there in the late afternoon, and the sky was heavily overcast, but down the beach the light was shining in underneath the clouds.

Storm Clouds on Topsail Island, 9 x 12, Private Collection

Frozen Mirimichi Bay Plein Air

2009-12-22T04:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a painting I did this weekend up in the Mirimichi. I was on a small dirt road alongside of the Mirimichi Bay. The sky was overcast, but off in the distance it was clear with lovely yellows and pinks in it. This and the curving road were what inspired me to paint this scene.

Along the Frozen Bay, 9 x 12 inches, $100 unframed

For the curious, this is what the scene actually looked like:

Digby field

2009-12-21T04:10:00.000-08:00

This painting was done from a photo my sister took of a field near her house in Digby, NS. Since the photo was taken, a house was built in this exact spot, so this view no longer exists. Digby field, 9 x 12 inches, $100 unframed

Chamcook field

2009-12-17T04:21:00.000-08:00

Here's one that I did this August while visiting my sister. It's from a photo of my parent's field, and it was done with my new pan pastels. Chamcook Field, 14 x 18 inches, $200 unframed

Mussel Shells

2009-12-16T04:03:00.000-08:00

Here is another one I did this summer at the artists by the sea event. I painted this the second day. That morning my niece gave me a mussel shell and said "Paint this!", and how could I resist? So this painting is just one shell - front and back.

Mussel shells, 8 x 10 inches, private collection