We Have a Bedroom

There's nothing like a work party to get things accomplished. More things got done on our house last weekend than I had been able to do in a couple of months. When Russell, JJ, and Stringfellow called me up one day and offered to come to Hornby for a weekend, I was pretty stoked. Those are 3 guys who know how to use a carpenter's pouch.

My original plan was to pour footings for the proposed "west wing" and have those guys help me build the floor and frame up the structure. Then I realized that the concrete would be too green, so I made a list of priority items for the existing house. What actually got done blew me away.

I tried to put in the soffits a few weeks ago and failed miserably. The boards are too long for one person to manage and you have to move the ladder every time you move down the material. Russell and John took on that hard, scary, and neck bending job and installed all of the long soffit boards.

I was hoping that they'd get the front, and one of the sides done, They did that in the first day and had just hit their stride. The next day they finished the rest of the house. That job was one of those things that prevented a bunch of other things from happening. Now I can insulate and vapour barrier the ceiling. It was a huge accomplishment!

Originally I was going to put Dave on wiring the house since he has a bunch of experience doing that. There turned out to be a bunch of complications with that, so we got into one of his other skills... flooring. We took out the patchwork of plywood that I had screwed on the loft joists and started to lay the tongue and groove pine that I had bought. With Anne's help on the screw gun we got about 75% of the flooring done by the end of the day.

The following day, while Russell and JJ were grunting through another day of soffit work, Dave and I finished the floor and began the mind bending exercise of building a set of stairs. We needed 2 landings which added some complications. In the end, though, Dave flexed his big brain and came up with the perfect measurements to get 10 treads and 9 rises. It worked perfectly.

(This is where Rachelle has the next word.) I was working at the Pottery Shop on Sunday, so I came home after the fireworks of flying hammers at about 6pm. When I walked into the room, it looked as if the square footage had doubled. The bed was missing from the middle of the floor and there was a staircase!! I walked up the stairs to find a fully formed 2nd storey fully furnished - including a carpet. The guys had not only built up the entire loft, but they'd decorated too!

In addition to bring their carpentry skills these guys also brought a truckload of beer, a never ending stream of laughs, some of the best steaks I've had, and 2 dozen of amazing sausages from Bosa. We added a couple of salmon sides that we had in the freezer and had a hell of a barbecue!

There are a whole bunch of other photos one our web album. Click here to see lots of pictures of sweaty, shirtless guys with power tools... And a few of Anne... with her shirt on...

It was a truly inspiring weekend for me. Having those guys up for one weekend took our humble little shack to the next level and gave me a renewed energy to keep things moving forward. Thanks a million! You guys are awesome!