Friday, July 27th
Finally, some nice and hot weather
It's ideal for all the mud to dry. With the help of the ten volunteers that showed up last week-end, things are moving along great. A huge THANK YOU to Annie and Dominique who brought their friends and family to play in the mud and pack tires. It's wonderful to meet so many nice and interesting people, it restores hope in the human species
During the preceding week, ALain and I got busy completing all the plumbing and wiring that goes under the floor and spread the gravel before our friends arrived. We also made the second and tenth steps for the staircase, along with the rock border for the seond level planter. Everything was ready to cover all the tires and the floor with mud. If the nice weather continues, we'll be able to do a second coat on the floor in 2 or 3 weeks. Then a third coat a month later, after which comes the final layer with slate inlay to top it off.
Since we were so numerous, we started packing the last retaining wall on the East side. We should fill in the berm on that side of the first level before it snows. That means we'll be able to sow some seeds on the whole roof since the berm in the back of the house is now completed, thanks to Carlo, only the insulation remains to be laid out.
Of course, every time we do a batch of mud, we build up the walls for the composting outhouse. ALain made a small prop to help cut the bottom off the bottles with the glass cutter. We keep the bottom 3" from each bottle and we lay them into the wall 2 by 2, cut end together. They'll be like a lot of small colored portholes to let the daylight in. Unfortunately, we have only one blue bottle so far...
Another aspect of the outside finishing came to our attention when I decided to tackle the front of the house. In November 2005, when we were finally moving indoors, we didn't have time to do more then quickly install the door and windows. We knew we would have to redo the doorframe area to amke sure the columns and the wooden bond beam were protected from moisture. So, we started looking at how we can lay out the front porch and the underground insulation beneath the windows. The main problem lies with the West side that is left unfinished so it's possible to expand the house in the future. Because of that, there's no drainage, no berm but we still need to insulate so the cement slab doesn't suffer frost damage. Quite a puzzle that is twisting our brains, but I've always loved puzzles and ALain with his McGyverism, we should find a brilliant solution soon.
For now, I'll go back to raspberry picking and Alain will learn how to use his new toy. We found an old Massey-Ferguson tractor with a snow-blower. Next winter we won't have to wait our turn for our road to be cleared.