More Framing

Ben went up a couple weekends ago on his own to finish the interior framing. He framed out the bedroom walls and the raised bathroom floor. Here are the results...

In the above picture, you are looking at the bathroom on the left and the bedroom on the right, with the hall in the middle leading to the back of the house.


It's looking a bit smushed here - the bedroom wall now butts up against our little camp bubble.


This is looking from inside the bedroom out the bedroom door at our bubble.


The bathroom floor is raised to accomodate the pipes that come from the well and lead to the septic. We need to keep them above the floor since there is no basement or crawlspace and they must be kept warm throughout the winter.


Ben insulated the box where the pipes come up. The box reaches down 3 or 4 feet underground and (hopefully) protects those pipes as they come into the house. We will also have heat taping that snakes down into the well pipe and keeps it warm enough not to freeze (as long as the power stays on).



Here's the fuzzy preview of our view-to-be, the lump at the bottom being our blanket-covered tent. You can get a glimpse of the white horse on the right side of the picture. We like seeing the horse except that it also makes us sad because the owners never ride him or visit him and he's all alone. We're going to ask them if we can visit him once in awhile, but they're not super friendly people so we'll see...

Now we're waiting on the plumber to come rough out the plumbing in the walls, then we'll close up for the winter and resume in the spring!

Camp Breakdown and Some Walls

We broke down the campsite the weekend before Thanksgiving, in anticipation of winter, though at that point it was still a balmy 50 degrees or so. The straps that had been holding the big tent down were threadbare and snapping at the slightest tug: ready to fly had we waited much longer.





We've left a bit of stuff under the tarp, which will likely become a warm haven for a myriad of creatures thruout the winter. The Farmer's Almanac is predicting a nasty one. I can believe it, I can see it lasting forever because of the mild beginning. Snow in April, maybe.

Looks a bit melancholy, our leftover campsite huddled there on it's own.


That weekend we (ok, ben, but I helped) framed out the walls for the bathroom and the laundry nook.
Framing the Bathroom


Head in the Rafters


There will be a piece of glass in that rectangle above the door to the bathroom.



Here's me sealing the windows with silicone. It was pretty cold- my fingers kept going numb and I'd have to go inside and stick them on the heater once in awhile.



Our new campsite within the house has been great, especially with the unseasonably warm weather. Above is me at the crack of dawn, in the tent in the clothes I slept in drinking my freshly brewed tea brought to me in bed by my honey. It wasn't THAT unseasonably warm, as you can see. Notice the heater inside the tent. It was super duper warm in the night with that thing pumping at the lowest possible setting. Some voiced concern about the safety of this but rest assured (as we did), it's just hot oil in an enclosed container, no fumes or Carbon Monoxide released.


Friday night we cooked a lovely dinner of Progresso Chicken and Dumpling Soup with fresh parsley, accompanied by some carrot sticks and a bottle of Australian Sauvignon Blanc given to us by Binda and Richard.


Saturday night we treated ourselves to dinner at Yassiou Cafe, the local Greek restaurant.

Even with just the skeleton of the walls we can see the shape of our house emerge, which is very exciting and gives us a sense of accomplishment. There is SO MUCH MORE to do, but this project is going to be all about the little strides we make, otherwise it feels just too big. Progress is being made.

Inside the Bubble