Former neighbours in Ottawa and good friends Cam (cabinet maker extraordinaire) and Elizabeth came out for a week to check out the house and ski in BC snow.  It was great to hang out with them.  We joined them one day at Big White (about an hour from here) which has had 8 meters of snow this year and has a 2 meter base.  Great day at a big ski area.  They are both excellent skiers.  Mizuho has some Angry Birds as ear warmers. 

Two days later, we golfed at a nearby course – the course opened the last week of February.  So, we were able to ski and golf the same week, and will be able to continue to do so for at least another month.

A few hours after they left for the airport, I found this tree on the driveway.  It had been dead for awhile and was on my list of things to do.  It moved up a few notches.

I quickly cut it up and moved it off the road. We will split and stack it in April.

My helpers.

Next on the list are outdoor stairs and backfilling, workbench for the shop, railing/bookcase for upstairs, installing bathroom drawers, and building some more drawers for the kitchen. And maybe a bit of skiing and golfing.

….is coming along slowly.  We (mostly Mizuho) painted the bedroom and ensuite the same blue as the main floor guest bedroom.  We are expecting most visitors during the summer, so decided on a cooler colour.  The first photo is looking through the ensuite to the bedroom.  The next two are of the bedroom.  We are thinking of a floating laminate floor with an area rug for the bedroom.  Will (should) be ready for guests sometime this summer.  Just need to decide and install flooring, baseboards, doors, door trim, bathroom tiles, and vanity and sink.

We finally had another open fire day in the valley.  We burned many branches that were not suitable for burning in the shop wood stove, about twice as many as you can see in the fireplace.  Sadly, we did not have any marshmallows.  The coals were still hot two days later.  May try for one more burn before the season ends at the end of March, weather permitting. 

After 11 years in storage, we were finally able to bring out our Ohima-sama.  It has been a traditional gift to the first-born girl, and is displayed for a few weeks in the home around the time of Girl’s Day, March 3.  This display was given to Mizuho’s mother about 80 years ago, and has incredible detail.  The top level has the prince/princess, the 2nd – servants , the 3rd – musicians, the 4th – bodyguards, and the 5th – more servants.  There are also representations of food, lanterns, palanquins and carts, and more.  Mizuho remembers playing with these dolls with her sister, and is pretty sure they may have mislaid a few pieces. 

Finally got back to making drawers for the kitchen (Mizuho has been very patient) – 4 on the right of the stove and 8 beside the pantry.  They are all Baltic birch with cherry edging, and have 100lb full extension soft closing slides.  I was going to make solid cherry drawer fronts but am now concerned that it may be a bit too dark.  So, with the cork floor and maple hardwood in the dining room, I am now thinking about maple fronts edged with cherry, which is what we did in our kitchen in Ottawa about 12 years ago.  The drawers store and organize a lot of stuff and make the house feel that much more finished.  Another 15 or so drawers to make for the kitchen.

Also finally got around to doing the trim on the garden door. This door, and one window in the basement, were out of plumb which required a lot of fiddling, and a bit of DAP gap filler. Mizuho is doing the final touch-up filling/sanding/painting this week.  The snow in the background is now gone.

All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy. So, we spent an music evening at the neighbour’s playing songs at least one of us knew. We had 3 guitars, a banjo and banjolina, a washboard and other percussion devices.  They wouldn’t let me very close to the mike (due to concerns about my singing voice?). Sadly, the only record we have of the evening is this short clip.

Finally got around to building more drawers – two sets of four for the master bath.  These are made of maple veneered plywood sides, Baltic birch plywood bottoms, and cedar edging.  The cedar is oiled and the sides of the drawers have 3 coats of satin polyurethane.  The faces of the drawers will be cedar, and will be inset.  As a consequence of having inset drawers, the slides need to be exactly level and the faces of the drawers need to be exactly flush.  This involved a bit of fiddling.  The slides are full extension and soft-closing.  I hope to start building the faces in the next few days – cedar veneer plywood with cedar edging.

Also started on the weekend to build a dozen drawers for the kitchen.  In the foreground are the cherry hardwood pieces that will be used for the edging; behind them are the sides and bottoms for 3 drawers; on the left is a drawer with the edging being glued on; behind it are drawers with edging ready for scraping, sanding and finishing; and on the right are 4 drawers ready for edging.  Its a lot of fun building these, and I am getting better (more accurate and faster) at it, but it takes a bit of time and I need to keep the shop warm for the glue to cure correctly.

Am also trying to get better organized. I built this box last week to store saw-related stuff so it is out of the way but easily accessible.  There is room for two cross-cut sleds, a jointer guide, two miter fences, a tall fence, a taper jig, two wrenches and saw blades.

We had some more snow the past few days – it looks beautiful, but ca suffit.

We decided to go to Cuba (Veraderro) before the country opened up to our southern neighbours.  Nice area, and really friendly and nice people, although the weather was not what we had hoped. Too many clouds, and too much rain and cooler weather, but the food was plentiful, varied and good, the rum was delicious (straight, mohitos, pina coladas and cubatas) and included, and the cigars (at least the export ones) were delightful – the local cigars were a unique experience.  We had a direct 6hour flight from Kelowna to Veraderro.  Straight off this beach about 120kms is Key West.

The revolution in 1959 put paid to relations with the U.S. and ended imports.  Cubans have been maintaining their late 1950’s American cars with love and duct tape for the past 60 years.  The cars are spectacular and you see them everywhere.  Havana itself was clearly a magnificent city at one time, with strong influences from the Spanish and then the Americans in the early part of the last century, but it is crumbling and in dire need of investment and rejuvenation.  I expect it will soon be featured in US films and music videos.

But for me, Cuba is really about the cigars and rum, both the best in the world.  It was a pleasure to go to one of the Casa del Habanos government shops which sells about 150 different kinds of cigars.  Cuban rum is also delicious, a bit sweeter and spicier than we are used to – we had several types that were perfect for drinking neat.  Am looking forward to a smoke and sip at the rock cocktail table this summer.

The art scene in Cuba is vibrant with some great galleries. Not sure of the story behind this naked woman with a fork on a chicken.

This was the view the morning after we got back. We had a few centimeters during the night but the sun came out and it all began to melt.  Pat and Coop stayed at the house while we were away and enjoyed the company of Hime and had fun with the ATV.  Slides for the bathroom drawers finally arrived this afternoon so shall turn tomorrow to installing 8 drawers, building a storage box for the shop, and then building a dozen drawers for the kitchen.

After a leisure-filled December, I started again in earnest on house stuff on New Year’s Day.  These are two shelves for the corner cabinets in the kitchen, and the strips in the middle are cedar edging that will be installed in the master bath.

These are the pieces for 2 drawers and 2 drawers already assembled.  The have Baltic birch bottoms, and maple sides.  The sides all have dadoes to receive the bottom, and the long sides are rabbeted to receive the front and back sides.  They are glued and stapled.  I am making 8 drawers at the same time as the master bathroom has two banks of 4 drawers of the same size.

Gluing on the cedar edging.  As taught by Cam, I glue the two long ones, let them dry 30 minutes or so, and then fit and glue the short ones between the long ones.  These are all pieces ripped from some boards my Brother in Law gave me when he replaced their 50 year old cedar deck.  The edging is a bit oversize and will have the ends trimmed and the long edges scraped and sanded before it is ready for finishing.  The scraping and sanding is a bit tedious and time consuming but makes for a nice finish.  These Bessey clamps are great.  These are all now finished with 3 coats of tung oil on the edging, and 3 coats of water-based satin polyurethane for the insides and the outside sides (had to use a brush as I won’t be able to spray until it warms up).  I am just waiting for a shipment of drawer slides from Lee Valley Tools (who are opening a new store in Kelowna in the spring) so I can install them.  The first UPS shipment went astray.

Boxes of books, files, curios and art.  All awaiting the design and construction of shelving units and cabinets. Good to have them finally out of the basement and in the room they will eventually live.

I made up some baseboards out of the leftover fir flooring and then oiled and varathaned them. However, I did not much like the finished product. I am now thinking of using a dark stain, as on the left, for the baseboards. Any views?

We are off to Cuba for a week so there won’t be any updates for about 10 days or so.  In the interim, here is a photo of the framers at the almost-lock-up party one year ago.

And here is a photo of the house one year ago and three months after we started the footings – roof is on and shingled, windows are in but doors were delayed.

Took a bit of a break from house building in December to arrange and organize some stuff, including our art and photos. Some of it we had not seen since we left Ottawa almost 12 years ago. Some we created in France, Saudi Arabia or Korea.  It is really nice to have some familiar art on the walls.  These are photos taken in Kenya and at Ankor Wat in Cambodia.  Am still designing the stairs, but expect I will go with two steel stringers and open treads.

More photos, taken in the same three places.

This is the Japanesque genkan entry – an old Rama with keyaki wood purchased many years ago, and photos in the rural areas of Japan.  The floor in the entry is still cement – hope to get to it finished later this year.

The winter here in the valley is quite mild, but is a Canadian winter none the less.  This is a view looking NW from the guest suite entrance, with Ellison lake in the distance.

The snow is light powder. Hime just pushes through it but it comes up past her belly.  She prefers a beaten-down path.

Have used more wood than expected, mostly in the shop.  As about 2/3 has already been converted to heat, next year I will need to cut and split a lot more.  It is good fun and great exercise.  I have several dead or fallen trees that I will tackle first.  The fellow who did the environmental assessment of the property suggested strongly that I also thin out many of the groves of trees so there would be less competition for the remaining ones and they would be healthier and would grow larger faster.  Bottom line is we should have lots of firewood for the next and subsequent years.

When I finally got around to putting the chains on the bobcat, I forgot about putting on the bungee cords to keep the chains tight. After they came off a few times, I remembered about the cords.  Since then, they have worked like a charm, as has the bobcat (touch wood).  As I write this, I am looking out on another 10cm of powder snow that fell during the last 24 hours.  Enough of a good thing already.