Mizuho and I had a brief 12 day holiday in Madrid and Paris to celebrate my Kanreki birthday and Cam (friend, cabinetmaker and former neighbor in Ottawa) offered to come out to take care of Hime and do some work around the house.  Third visit this year by Cam and Hime was thrilled (and a bit spoiled).  Most of the following photos capture the great work he did while we were eating, drinking and walking around two great cities. This was his birthday present to me – a crosscut sawblade with the appropriate number of teeth.

Before we left, we assembled the guest bedroom door that we had cut and mortised and tenoned last year and Cam installed it and the handle.  We now need to give it a few coats of oil on the rails and stiles, and install the door stop and trim around the door jamb.

This is one of two sliding pocket doors made of fir that I bought and Cam installed.  I decided to buy the five interior doors for the downstairs as the list of things to do remains very long.  They await Mizuho’s sanding and oiling, and installation of trim, but we are very pleased with the fir doors.

Cam also installed 11 drawers I had made previously for the kitchen and guest bathroom.  Still need to make the fronts and install the handles but that won’t be for another few months at best.  The drawers in the kitchen were quickly filled.

Cam and I also installed the drawer fronts and handles for a bank of drawers in the master bath.  These drawers were trickier than regular drawers because they are inset into the frame.

Cam installed the cork-backed flooring in the basement – living/kitchen/bedroom and we bought a new queen size bed for visitors.  Mizuho bought the rug that is beside the bed in Tunisia more than 30 years ago.  Cam also built a bathroom vanity cabinet and we have just ordered a quartz top for it.  Next step is to get the top/sink installed, the fixtures and a mirror, and then get/paint/install the baseboards.  Cam also tiled the backsplash in the kitchen and the funky tiles Mizuho chose for the downstairs shower.

This is one of the cedar beams I got last year from Oyama Sawmill, about 8″ x 8″ x 10′ that will be used for the two porches.  A few weeks ago, I planed all the cedar posts and the spruce beams.  They cleaned up nicely.  I will now need to stain the cedar and paint the beams before installing them.

We are now working on the irrigation for the front lawn and hope to have some sod soon. Next is finishing off a bunch of largely completed projects before turning to the two porches. Some motorbiking may get in the way.