Friday, July 28th
The large beam for the front face
Everything is ready for the installation of the last beam. The columns are in place and all the joists are installed. Thanks to everybody who will show up tomorrow for the "final trip of the beam". The weatherman calls for excellent weather, well suited for a swim, which will make it all the more pleasant. I went on the food run this morning so we'll get to share some great pizzas and a big organic tomatoes and cucumber salad from "La Terre Ferme" with the fabulous feta cheese from "La Suisse Normande".
Monday, we will close the roof after having blown the cellulose isulation, hoping rain and wind won't be joining in! Our next challenge is deciding in what order to continue the work. We'd like to do an earthen floor, but the drying time is rather long. Plus the cooler weather would make it even longer which means we should do it as quickly as possible. But there remains a lot that should be done first: some plumbing, the planter walls and the stairway. And also the bathtub should logically be placed before the floor is done so as not to ruin it when we will carry in the imposing rock. We had planned on doing the windows next but it looks like they'll have to wait a bit.
ALain had a brilliant idea this week for the stairs. We'd always talked of doing cement steps topped with wood. He suggested doing only the first two steps like that and to continue the cement of the second one all the way to the back to provide a hiding place for our electrical system. We'd then make the remaining steps out of wood, we'd install hinges and pulleys in order to lift and lower the stairs to acces the compartment underneath.
And fame is at our door! TQS, a french canadian network, is supposed to film Tuesday morning for a presentation of our house in their newscast.