Well, not for another 2 or 3 months, but we shall be ready. This is about a cord of wood (the upper level is about 8′ by 4′ by 4′), mostly fir with some pine, that came from 3 dead trees and two felled trees.  Felling trees and bucking up the trunks was more work than I expected, but very satisfying.  Most of it is really dry.  Mizuho split it up with the splitter.  We are planning to fire up the stove soon to season the paint – takes a one time burn of about 6 hours with an open window to season it.

When M’s Sister and Brother were here, we did a 2 day tour of local wineries in a rented van, with me as the designated driver.  It was very nice to do touristy things rather than work on the house every day.  They then did some additional winery tours – 15 in total – and took back 12 bottles to Japan.  This is the wine tasting and making room of 50th Parallel, a small new winery that is north of Kelowna overlooking the lake.  When we were there, they were moving the wine from the French oak barrels, where it had been aging since last year’s harvest, to the steel tanks for blending, and rinsing out the barrels to get ready for the new harvest.   The lovely aroma of new wine and oak barrels brought back memories of France.

View from Arrowleaf Cellars, also north of Kelowna overlooking the lake, and also a very modern design.  Great picnic spot.

2015 is shaping up to be possibly the best vintage ever in the Valley – a long hot summer with little rain.

Here is Mizuho’s mother helping me with the sanding of the window sill plates.  It was great to have her here for a week and she enjoyed the visit enough to be talking about another next summer.  Not sure why I have such a look of concentration as I was only sanding.

This is the result of the fruits of the labour of Mizuho and her mother – tomato sauce, dill pickles, blueberry jam, and plum pickle (kind of a chutney jam).  We are continually amazed with how tasty the abundant local fruit and vegetables are.  Next year we will have a freezer ready and more sealers.  My plan this week is to install the window trim on most of the main floor windows, cut down another 2 trees and cut up the wood, begin installing exterior trim on the windows, and doing some more backfilling and driveway shaping.  Weather forecast is great – mid 20’s all week.

So, this is the normal view we see from the front of the house in the evening.

This is the view we have been seeing for most of the past week. A 300,000 hectare fire has been burning just south of the border for the past few weeks and the winds have been blowing it north up the valley. The burning and burnt area is more than 1/2 the size of Prince Edward Island. Another fire started yesterday south of Kelowna – you could see the glow in the sky last night.  Rain is finally in the forecast for tonight.

Bathroom door. Made of fir.  Weighs about 40kgs.  Needed four hinges.  Installed two days ago.   Mizuho’s mother (and sister, B in Law and nephew) all arrived last night. I committed to having doors on the guest bed and bath rooms before M’s mother arrived. Just made it.  Door handle to be installed in the future and trim around the door.  Visit is going great, not withstanding the smoke and cloudy skies.

Guest bedroom ready for guests. Art on wall 2 hours before plane touched down. 🙂

Kitchen uppers on the stove wall now completed. Doors will take a few months at least. I figure it will give us time to learn where all the stuff is. Next jobs in the kitchen are toe kicks and some more drawers. Don’t hold your breath.

Downspouts and the almost last rain gutters installed last week. We decided to go with a grey green colour for the downspouts to match the stucco colour, rather than matching it to the Charcoal Grey gutters. the gutter guys thought we were nuts but we really like it.

Chainsaw bought a few months ago that is finally seeing some action. B in Law Steve gave me some lessons on how to use it. Great tool!  We have lots of trees and some dead ones, and a wood stove in the basement – a match made in heaven.  Felling trees and cutting them up is very satisfying.

The result of cutting down three dead trees.  The ones with a blue/green colour were killed by the Pine Bark Beetle.  So far, only a few have succumbed.  Mizuho is going to use the splitter to split these up into smaller pieces in the weeks ahead.

I was using a small quiet compressor but realized I was over-working it. It is a great unit, but best for doing trim work in the house. So, I was in the market for a larger unit and this one was on sale at KMS Tools. 5hp, 220 volt, 60 gallon. I really like it. Tools run for a long time before it kicks in. Great for the paint sprayer and air blasting out the sawdust in the shop. It is bolted to the concrete floor with anti-vibration pads. Steve helped be get in strapped into the truck and off loaded into the garage.  I ran the hose through the wall into the shop.  Really pleased with it.

Also got a sprayer from Lee Valley Tools, recommended by Cam. Great little spray gun. These pieces of trim were all sprayed with primer and finish in about 1/4 the time it would take to paint them by hand and with a better quality finish.

This is the view from near the top of the property. That is Mizuho, Hime and me in the distance. The house is beyond the trees about 100 metres.  I am holding a can of bear spray as neighbours reported a black bear with two cubs in the area.  No worry, but better to be safe.

Sister Susan and Steve visiting from Vancouver. They brought their bikes on the back of their first generation Prius. Great to have them for 6 days – got lots done with Steve’s help and Susan’s painting skills, and had some time for touristy things and a few drops of vino.

They went for a ride in a nearby Provincial Park that has the roadbed of what was once the Kettle Valley Railroad. There are a series of trestles and magnificent views along some 25kms of the Myra Canyon portion, part of which was burned in the Mission fires of 2003. The roadbed is part of a 600km long biking trail

The view over part of the Gray Monk Vineyard that is about 8kms from us, overlooking the lake. Very nice area, and they give free wine tastings. Sister Susan and Brother in Law Steve visited us for 6 days and we took an afternoon off to visit some wineries.

This is the view from the terrace of the closest winery to us, just down the hill, called Ancient Hill.  Actually taken at the end of June when S and S were visiting.

A selection of vegetables from our local farmer just down the road. I had forgotten how good veggies fresh from the garden can taste. The valley really does offer a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables from late spring to fall. For example, cherries come first, followed by peaches, grapes, nectarines, plums, pears and then apples, and there are several varieties of each.

This is the twice-weekly farmers market in Kelowna, very popular with about 100 vendors.  Lots of produce, jams, baked goods, eggs, organic lamb and beef, sausage, crafts, etc. Reminded us a bit of the markets in France – several people even had those little wheeled bags that are so coming in Paris. We are now planning to make an early morning visit (8:30 or so, no need to be rash) at least once a week to stock up. Mizuho is planning to do some canning, and has already made some really good pickles.

This is a basket of fruit from a small mixed orchard just down the road from us. The owners planted the trees 35 years ago. These are peaches, nectarines and 3 kinds of plums (the plums were picked while we waited) for $10.

This is a bit of an experiment. Am putting crushed rock and some thin slabs of concrete left over from a pour in front of the garage and then dropping some sand over it and then driving over it. Will see if this works to build up a harder surface and enables us to drive the car into the garage (after I use up some of the wood that is filling most of it).  Am also continuing a moverocks and backfill in front of house but this work is going slow as it is hard on my legs.

These are the garage lights that go on/off and dim with the remote in my hand. Can operate from house, inside garage or car. Slick.

The next three photos are of the window trim on the garage window. This is the 3rd and likely final version that we will use in the house.  Painted trim on 3 sides and oiled fir sill.

And this is the fir door that Cam and I built. Finally go around to assembling it. Next step is some sanding and oiling. It is a very very solid and heavy door.  Weather continues to be great but we really could use some rain – it is really dry.

Built a couple more upper cabinets, installed the range hood vent, and had roast lamb and a bottle of 1998 Bordeaux to celebrate. Both were excellent.  The white box above the fan is temporary but will remain until I get around to building a nicer enclosure for the vent pipe.  2016 at the earliest.  Bottom of cabinets is 17″ to facilitate Mizuho’s reach.  We have a solid selection of olive oil and vinegar as there is a really good shop in town that has a great selection.

Finally got around to installing the second door under the sink. Then had to remove it as that is where we keep the garbage and we don’t have any door handles yet.  We are enjoying the faucet – you can turn it off/on with a touch of your hand, arm or head on the tap.

Also finally got these two doors in the guest bath installed. They were built weeks ago but only made it on the daily to do list yesterday.

Had the electricians back to connect some cat 5 and cat 6 cables for computers and tvs. We now have Netflix and are enjoying immensely as we have not had a tv for more than a year. Now in the market for a tv.  This is where all the cables live, in the mechanical room.  Will need to do some organization.  Also got the timer for the exhaust fan hooked up, a 220 outlet in the garage switched over from 110 for an air compressor, and a few other electrical items completed.  There is likely another 4 hours of elec work to do sometime in late August or early September.

And these are the lights above the stairs going to the upper floor. Really happy the electricians did these as they used a 10′ step ladder and worked off the top. Pretty much all the fixtures are now in, except for the ceiling light in the master bed and the two uplights in the front entry.  Next year we will do the lights in the driveway and maybe a gate.

Had a little rain yesterday and this morning but really only enough to dampen down the dust.  Back to sunny plus 30 weather tomorrow and for the next few days.

So, back in December, I started to plumb and wire in the central vac. Part had to been done before we laid the joists over the slab on the main floor, but the rest could not be done until the basement and upper floor were framed in February. I thought I did it all correctly, but there was no way of telling until the system was hooked up. That happened a few days ago. I was a little anxious. We discovered there was a short, but had no idea where. I suggested to the installer we test 3 of the outlets on one circuit, and then the other two on the other circuit. The problem was with the latter. I then isolated it to the basement outlet. Before turning to plan B, I tested again the basement outlet because I could not imagine a short anywhere else. And I discovered that when I installed the face plate, I drove the screw right between the two wires. Freaky. We rewired the outlet and everything worked. Really good system – Cyclovac – built in Quebec. Works really well, especially in a dusty construction zone!

We need to decide on some handles for the kitchen cabinets if I am going to be able to install the cherry drawer fronts. The choices are curved, similar to the stove, DW and fridge, or a bit more angular.

This is the more angular option. Views?

DW handle.

Fridge handles.

First of four upper cabinets on the stove wall. Thanks to Cam for insights on how to install by one person.  Also, cherry nectar gable was also installed on the pantry wall.

Next steps are another 4 upper cabinets (going to get more melamine sheeting tomorrow) and starting on the window trim. Taking a break from the backfilling and my legs are appreciating it.  Fires in the valley have subsided, but it is hot (35 during the day, 15-18 at night) and dry.

Fires were burning across the lake last week – some 500 hectacres went up in smoke. Not much over there in terms of housing so no buildings were burned. But it reminded everyone of 2003 and the fires on the south east side of Kelowna in Mission where some 200 houses were burned. The gov has learned and now hits new fires fast and hard. Been really dry here but we had some rain last weekend which really helped. Forcast for mid-30s this week however, and no more rain in sight.

We had an undetermined smell in the house. I thought it may have been a dead mouse, but it turned out that the drain pipe for the eventual kitchen in the lower level had never been capped and some scents of the septic had been wafting up. Now fixed.

Was in Saskatchewan last week for 5 days to attend a funeral so progress on the house has been delayed. Will be working on backfilling, upper cabinets, drawers and window trim this week.