On the modified "A" frame project, we are making progress. The roof is all buttoned up, so, for the most part, we are out of the weather, which is always a good thing this time of year. I have the windows, but there is no need to bring them to the jobsite just yet. We will get all the interior walls framed and then electricians and plumbers can get in and do their thing while we stay out of their way putting in windows and applying the siding.

The "A" frame beams inside will remain. They are Doug Fir that was stained a very dark brown, but we took the time to sand them so they are now the natural Doug Fir color:

On the other project we are getting the ground work in. The masons have finished the foundation walls, and the dirt guys have backfilled inside. We have put the foam insulation down to insulate under the heat tubing, and the plumber and electrician have put their tubes and pipes in place. We are ready for the slab to be poured. Unfortunately, this is opening deer hunting weekend, and the entire world in Ely comes to a complete stop. I don't understand this, even after living here for about 25 years, but from three days before opening day till about the wednesday followong opening weekend, nothing gets done in Ely. Apparently, it is not about hunting, it is more of a ritual. We see men in the grocery store loading up shopping carts with enough food to last months and then at the liquor store loading up on beverages. Meantime, I we just had the most beautifull fall day you could imagine and my slab is not getting poured. Next Wednesday they are saying...it looks like the weather will hold, but I am getting nervous. It's all my own fault, of course. I dragged my feet this summer on getting this project going and now this is where I am.

I did manage to get up on the roof of the youth center building we are constructing in town and finished the upper dormers. These stayed open last winter, although is wasn't a big deal then, we really didn't have the ceiling finished inside or anything, but this year I wanted to make sure no snow blew in there and wrecked anything. This is totally a volunteer project, so I have to find time here and there to fit it in. A bunch of kids from IRYA came and finished, (or mostly finished) the soffets, so we are moving along. We will have the warming room ready for the ice season, so, hopefully that end of it will get some use this winter once the city starts making ice in the rinks.

 

Inside, the floors and ceilings are done. Hopefully it will be ready to use as a "youth center" or whatever this winter, but there is still a lot of work to do...

For more info on the Ely Youth Facility click HERE.

Or copy and paste:

http://www.irya.org/projects/view/ely/

 

On one of my errands this week I was confronted by this guy. He appeared pretty full of himself, so I let him cross and go on his way:

 

It looks like we might just make it with the concrete work for this new house before winter sets in. We have the footings poured and ready. Before we back-fill we will put one row of ICFs around to take it up to the floor height. Here are the footings with the forms stripped:

We have a few ICF forms on the site:

I finally completed the finishing touches on the little sauna building we have been working on this summer. It has been largely complete and usable for a few weeks now, but I had to finish building the cedar slat floor in the sauna room and the doors. Everything looks good now. I added pictures to my gallery, they can be seen here.

I was meeting the electrician at a new job site yesterday, but I got their a little early. The lake was like glass and the colors were nice, though this isn't going to be a great year for leaves. It was chilly, probably about 32 degrees and very quiet. I put my little camera in my pocket and took a little walk around.

I walked up on the rock in front of the cabin and was standing there when I caught something something out of the corner of my eye. It was a fox curled up looking at me over his bushy tail like I had disturbed him. He had the expression on his face that he was not quite ready to get up and face the chill of the morning yet.

I thought he would disappear quickly, like every fox I had ever seen in my life, but he just laid there looking at me, so I slowly reached for my camera. Then he got up and slowly walked over to me. Very strange. He stopped about ten feet away and sat down looking at me. He didn't seem concerned, possibly more bored than anything. He didn't look sick or anything, (like I would know if a fox is sick), just mildly interested in me. I tried to coax him a little closer, but he had no interest in that. I wonder if I had had some food, maybe he would come, but I had nothing.

We spent about 15 minutes there together, I would guess. He walked around me looking at me, sitting there looking bored, yawning, scratching. I felt a little silly taking pictures of him, he had that cat like attitude that makes you feel like you are really an inferior being, but I didn't really know what else to do. I said a few words to him, but he didn't seem to hear or didn't care if he did hear. I wondered if some of the cabin owners in the area fed him and he was waiting for something from me.

 

Eventually, he seemed to get tired of the whole thing and just wandered off slowly into the woods.
The electrician drove up and I told him about the experience. We talked briefly about the grouse we had seen on the road on the way in and the chilly morning and then the day moved along like any other.

Hopefully we will be getting started on a new project here sometime over the winter. The most important thing is getting the foundation in, all the concrete and dirt work done before everything freezes. I always like to wait for the last possible minute to do this, just because it makes my life a little more interesting.
I was at the new home site on Wednesday of this past week and took this picture. This is the site, pretty much untouched except for a few ribbons and marking to show where the footprint of the house will be. They all start like this:

Today we woke up to a little bit of winter. About two inches of new snow, 26 degrees and very windy. It's only mid october so I am not worried, but it certainly is an unwelcome blast of reality. Here is a shot I took from the deck of the house, some of the snow had alread melted, but most of it stayed all day:

We got the siding deliver this week. it is half log siding from Homestead Timbers. I don't know anything about this company, have never worked with them before, but it looks like nice stuff, as far as half log siding goes. It is all Northern White Cedar, which is interesting because we don't see White Cedar around here consistently large enough to get that many of that size of board out of.  Here's one pile of it:

A plank way up on the side of the building to get the last few soffet boards in:

This is an interesting project we started last week. It is an "A" frame with "wings" built lower down and we are going to raise the "wings" and give it room for a few extra bedrooms and baths. This is the profile before we start:

This is what the profile will look like after:

Here is a shot I took before we started:

 

It is hard to get a good shot of it with the dumpster in front, but you can see the new roof line through the trees:

 

Here, you can see it better from the lakeside:

 

I stumbled upon this the other day, I have no idea who this is, but I sure do like how it's done. Let's see...I'll put it right Here.