What a long strange trip it has been. After nine consecutive years abroad, we arrived back in Canada one year ago today, and started building the house 5 days later (the water and electricity had already been run up to the site). A voyage of discovery, learning, some frustration and loads and loads of satisfaction. Lots has been done but lots remains.

The exterior of the house is now pretty much all done, except for the front and back porches (post and beams will be prepared this winter) and the landscaping (a multi year project). Finished up the last of the window trim last week.

Much of the main floor is done but still need to build/install drawers and doors in the kitchen and two bathrooms, build cabinets for the laundry room, build two closets, build 5 doors, complete the window (90% done) / door (0%) / baseboard (10%) trim. The upstairs needs to have the fir floor installed, sanded and finished, two walls painted, window trim completed, and bookcases around the stair opening designed and built. Will also need to replace the construction stairs at some point. The downstairs needs decisions and actions on floors, walls painted, window trim completed and 6 doors built. And the stairs need to be covered in maple (currently just plywood).

We made a big push to be able to get into the house on July 1 (as our rental house lease expired then), and another to get ready for Mizuho’s mother’s visit in August, and then again in September to get some projects done before winter.  I now intend on slowing down a bit and focusing more on leisure activities.  On va voir.

Bought a cargo carrier rack for the ATV to carry the garbage bins up and down.

When Steve (Brother in law) was here last week he cut up a log to make the first of about 10 benches I intend on distributing around the property.

This is a weird-looking cauliflower that we bought at the farmer’s market. Tastes very good.

This is also from the market – a Brussels sprout stalk.

37 windows in total on the house and garage/shop.  29 have now been trimmed out with 8 left to do.  Some were done in pvc, some were done in fir painted white (3 coats).  Cannot tell the difference from 2 metres away.

Finished 7 of them yesterday, working off the roof in shorts and a t shirt (23 above :)) and am planning on doing the rest over the next few days.  Most of the main floor interior window trim has been completed.  We have started on the basement and upper windows (the returns and sills) but the walls will need to be painted before we put on the final face trim.

The bottom windows were done by the Hardie Board guys, while I did the upper ones yesterday.

I was able to peck away at the rocky bank beside the shop and create enough room for the ATV. The plan is to dig it out some more and level/pack it down before winter. Might even be a good place for the Bobcat.

Have also realized that I will not get the two porches done this fall. Coop was kind enough to put in a porch/step off the dining room which inspired me to build a front porch. This will give us a flat, cleaner and dryer entrance until we can get the cement or interlock work done next spring.  The wood leaning up against the house is fir flooring which I need to move upstairs.

Weather has been great with warm sunny days (plus 20) and much cooler nights (about 5).  The Okanagan Wine Festival starts today.  cheers.

Still moving rocks around. This gives a bit of perspective – some of the rocks are too heavy to lift (or even flip) with the bucket but I hope to be able to push them into place over time.

View of the house and garage/shop in the early evening light.

The fruits of the visit of Mizuho’s sister and husband – 15 bottles of wine, 2 bottles of olive oil, home-made pickles and blueberry jam, and maps and guides to jog the memory.  T’was a great visit, most enjoyable.

Pat and Coop came to town.  Had a great visit, made some plum pickle and chili sauce, and toured around a bit.  Here’s Pat painting up a storm – the interior trim for the windows and doors.  She is an excellent painter, and did an amazing amount over a 2 day stretch.

And here is Coop and I putting on some exterior window trim. It is a bit finicky as it goes over the stucco. I hope to get this (or at least most of it) done before it gets cold.

Shades of Putin?  Drove the ATV up a ramp and into the truck to take it to the dealer for some pre-winter servicing. It is 9 years old but only has 525kms and is in great shape.

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.