A Christmas miracle

OSCAR!

Our second cat now lives down the road with Barb and Bette, whose bird-filled backyard and cozy outdoor shelters are more inviting than our house with a feisty feline foe, Felix.

He showed up at the back door for a Christmas visit. We were so happy!

Have a sniff, Max.

Ruby checks on her young charge. She helped to raise Oscar when he landed, ferrel, in our basement 

at 2 weeks of age.

Fire

Back yard fire works as this year's shredder. 

The old fireplace tiles are waiting for some attention...

 Cheri restores them with her grinder in plenty of height under the back deck. Nice!

Dry walls

A white Christmas!

(living room, entering from front door)

Kitchen beyond the peninsula bar, on the right entering front door; 

hallway (left) leads to laundry, linen closet, bathroom and two bedrooms.

Drywallers are ready to move out.

 Did you ever watch Marcel the Shell on YouTube? 

The little scene (below) reminds me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU

Wet wood

Jacob (left) and Jeth (right) swim through the rain and secure beautiful, straight lines of shingles.

 Jake and his dad both take to the front porch - south facing and exposed to the wind and rain.

 Even Ruby got her feet muddy today.

 Shingle remnants are cast aside and one hydraulic jack sits beneath a deck post:

 This slab of fir flooring came from our new basement stairs hole.

 Early into winter break, and the rain hits hard on door delivery day.

Take cover!

Mud and mudding

Yes, a sloppy mess it is...

but the shingles look great, Jeth and Jacob!

And waterfront to boot!

The grand room

 and long corridor...

sealed up with the powdery, white, interior mud

Wait - Tiny Tim, were you here?

always a merry timmy ho ho

The last of the innards

Fireplace and ducting...

 sewer pipe reaching upstairs...

 conduit holding wires...

 heat ducts in the suite...

 and proper kitchen sink vents...

are all to be boarded soon with drywall!

Stained cedar

-

Shingles, siding and slides

What a cool contraption for drying wet shingles! The rack is the "lath" from "lath and plaster" that forms walls in old houses like ours. It'll take weeks for shingles to dry in this humid weather, so they may go on the house now and get stained in the spring.

Somehow this siding shot of the shed is blessed with Carey working and Jacob stripping off his shirt!

Max had to pee so badly at lunch today that he jumped off these hanging stairs. Landing in the rocks below, he was bleeding from the hind leg and took an extended refuge behind the hedge.
"What have you done to my world?" Max asked Jacob.

Without access at the back, these ramps are the new entry, making way for concrete forms for the stairs.

With such a steep view and recovering from today's leap into the rocks,  Max wouldn't risk this steep slope. Neighbour dog, Sky, taught Ruby to crouch low and go slow, but Max would have no part of it.

Triangulation

These are entrance steps to the suite, on the east and front side of the house.

What you can not see are the detail pieces in the forms that add a creative reveal to the risers.

Nice work, de Goede!

Our foundations have an angled edge too - signature details of Hans and the crew.

 This is a top-down perspective of the back steps, heading into our storage area in the northwest quarter of the basement.

This is a distance view of those back steps. We look forward to the filling of the mud pit!

 Looking north from the basement door, you can see the triangles that result in the connection of stairs. The wood stairs need to meet their deck. They require the proverbial 'lift'. A boost of cement under the cedar makes the bricks freed up for other projects.

Snug as a bug in a rug

For the first time in our time at 1846 Kings Road, there are no cracks with air and light coming through the basement walls. This is the real seal.

 Saanich requested this duvet-style quilt to lay over the tar paper. It is called a rain seal.

 tucked in and strapped secure:

 hospital corners:

 Forever, it seems, we have dreamed of the studs fared out, insulation fitted and vapour barrier secured. This is truly amazing!

This vanilla / caramel idea warms up the suite's ceiling.

Exterior walls are wrapped in thick plastic - polyethylene.

Insulation is maybe not quite carpet, but it's feeling close!