The Forbidden Forest

We are having a new bout of madness. Hubby saw a house for sale up on Skyline that he thought looked pretty interesting. We went to see it, thinking about buying it for a weekend home, but it turned out to be too small for our purposes (which would involve having space for 20 people to sleep!). The realtor let slip that she had a parcel of 40 acres of undeveloped land also for sale, so we asked to see that.

Long story short, we fell in love with it. It is heavily wooded. A former logging area, there has clearly been no forest management for at least 50 years. The place is a tinder box, a potential wildfire hazard...but still.

Hubby is getting back to his family roots, clearly. As we have discovered from our family history work, many of his Scottish relatives farmed around 40 acres in the Highlands during the 19th century. Just as Dr Mom's brother has gone back to the family roots (in that case, canals) by moving onto a narrow boat, so Hubby seems to want to return to crofting (of a sort).

We have made an offer on the land, which has been accepted. Hubby has consulted with a well digger and a septic system creator. We have also taken one builder up there to discuss the feasibility of building (OK), and consulted with our Architect from the remodel, whom we are inclined to use again for this project.

We have a great heap of books and magazines in hand about green building, modern cabins, and sustainable building.

So it seems all systems go. One fly in the today's ointment is that the question of the legality of the parcel is not proving as easy to establish as one might hope. Both the seller's realtor and our realtor are working on establishing the legal title to the plot. Clearly we won't be buying it if that doesn't work out 100% perfectly. Watch this space.

Indeed, watch this space for a whole new phase of Four Go Mad in a Cardboard Box. Except the new box may be made out of metal. We'll have to wait and see!

House Party

As we grind to the close of the project, the blog postings are becoming less frequent. There just isn't so much to say.

(Which is a good thing.)


On Saturday we invited our good friends over and grilled far too much food on the outdoor kitchen. There were 20 of us. The kids splashed in the pool - in fact, so much splashing that we had to top the pool up this morning - while the adults grilled, drank and ate.



The menu was simpler this week: ginger and honey ribs, Kosovan mushrooms, and salmon in cream shallot sauce (from the recipe book); with grilled pork chops, halloumi cheese and sweet pepper kebabs, sausages, Piazza's finest hamburgers (really good, but very big); and a green salad, a corn salad, and a tomato/mozzerella salad; bread and fixings; rounded off with a bottle of champagne to commemorate the first time all our British friends had been over.

The Inaugural Barbecue

Welcome to week 35, and Happy Independence Day! Which is always a curious time for those of us from the Old Country, especially since many of our children are American. As usual, we ex-pats gathered together to enjoy the great British pursuits of barbecue, swimming in the outdoor pool, and beer drinking. Well, I guess one out three isn't bad.

Anyway.

Today provided an excuse for the first use of the new outdoor kitchen. Next weekend we have the whole set of ex-pat friends over - that'll be 26 people in all - so we thought we'd have a good go today when there were only 11 of us. I bought Hubby a new grilling cookbook at William Sonoma ("Planet Barbecue" by Steven Raichlen) and selected a number of recipes for us to try, making sure that we used the rotisserie grill, of which our friend Richard had been very scornful...

The menu included:
- Santa Maria Tri-Tip (beef)= Californian recipe
- Ginger, Garlic and Honey Grilled Back Ribs (pork) = Cambodian recipe
- Grilled Tofu with Chile Peanut Sauce = Malaysian recipe
- Grilled Bananas = Colombian recipe
- Caramelized Grilled Pineapple = Brazilian recipe
- Rotisserie Onions = Brazilian recipe





We also had salads made by our friends, a summer pudding made by Deep Thought, cup cakes made by a friend's daughter, plain grilled chicken,
"British Bangers", and tofu burgers. (One family visiting us today is vegetarian.)


When the guys started, the grills were pristine and shiney. Now they look about 10 years old. What can I say: "Man, He Make Fire." Hubby will need to be out there tomorrow morning with a big, big bucket of soapy water to scrub it all down. One good thing is that we have a lot of leftover meat (intentionally), so we won't need to cook so much this week.

Here's a picture of Hubby reading the cook book. It seems to be upside down, which may account for some of the anxiety and high tension around the cooking process.

Revenge of the Killer Squirrel

Well, it might not be squirrel damage, but we're not sure we can explain what the problem is otherwise. Our previously functioning solar power heating for the pool has sprung a leak - a big leak, in fact. The new pool maintenance service sent me an email saying that they'd put the solar on, then turned it off as "water was pouring off the roof". They said we'd need a new panel to replace one that was damaged.

We are always skeptical when things suddenly go wrong. So we turned on the solar and, darn it, water poured off the roof. Here's a photo of Deep Thought experiencing our impromptu roof shower.


This didn't stop us having friends over for lunch on Sunday. Seven children and one brave adult went swimming in our low-80sF water. Reports are good, though Deep Thought said she couldn't really tell that the plaster was much smoother than the old kind. However, since none of the kids got out with "raspberries" on the bottom of their toes, I guess this was a successful experiment.

Funky New Furniture

On Saturday we took delivery of our new dining chairs, table, and bar stools for the kitchen. We had a minor alarm with the chairs, as they were squiffy, but the delivery guys took the legs off, rotated them, and put them back on; and all is now well. Hubby and I put the table together, which was super easy, though it is super heavy.

Now we are trying to dispose of the old furniture. I was able to sell our old chairs for $60, but no one wants to buy our table; and I haven't attempted to sell the bar stools - which we inherited with the house three years ago - so I am freecycling them. Not much interest in the table, but lots in the bar stools.

We passed our old wine fridge onto friends today. Good to see everything surplus to requirements going to a good home.

From Crazy Paving to a Good Night's Sleep

On Friday, SS2 was hardly here at all, and it was peaceful inside the house. The one piece of bad news that he did bring was that the electricians had thrown their hands in the air in despair and declared that the skylights in the kitchen could not be repaired; and that the construction team would now need to deal direct with the customer service people at Velux. SS2 views this prospect with a sinking feeling, having had poor experiences with other manufacturers' customer "service" departments.

Progress on the hardscaping and other elements of the exterior work has picked up the pace.

Outside the house, the hardscapers completed the grouting of the stonework in the front yard, and very smart it looks too. They immediately moved on to laying the stone in the side yard and where the pergola will be. Not content with the jigsaw that is the ashlar pattern, we have asked for the pergola area and side path to be constructed of irregular, crazy paving style stones. Amazingly, the main stone guy is doing a fabulous job of fitting it all together. He really is a highly skilled worker.

The stucco subcontractor completed the finish coat on the house and also on the front wall. It's looking quite striking out there, even imposing. The stucco is a creamy white color. I must say that Hubby and I are finding that quite appealing, and wondering if we'd like to leave it light rather than having it painted Brewster Gray like the house.

The technician from Pool Covers Inc arrived and installed a bright blue pool cover. This is, alas, the wrong color. It should be grey. I only noticed him out there at the point when he was finishing the work. To say he was a bit downcast when I told him would be an understatement. Well, this will stay on the pool for a week or so, and then be replaced by the correct color, so no harm done.

The solar heating for the pool seems to be working fine.


This morning I got rid of our filing cabinet through Freecycle. We also had our new bed delivered - moved the old bed into the new guest room and enlisted friends to put it together - and also had the piano moved back into the family room...just in time for Mothers' Day tomorrow. No 6:30am wake up call from Little Starlet.


Hubby finally unpacked his new espresso maker. It may take us a while to really understand out how to use it....

Go on, torment me, why don't you?

The house has been in total turmoil today. It was fairly oppressive.

The diggers and jack hammers were hard at it in the back yard, removing every last vestige of concrete from around the pool in preparation for the 200 feet long trench that needs to be dug for the BBQ utilities. Worryingly, the landscape guys decided that the posts that hold up the overhanging roof outside the family room and living room were in the wrong place; and so they removed them, propping up the roof instead with flimsier looking sticks balanced on wood blocks. I almost ran round to Site Supervisor II for reassurance when I saw this - figuring that he knows more about houses and roofs than the landscapers would - but then I decided that they must have consulted. Hubby thinks this is an example of plunging head into sand rather than opening potentially difficult (embarrassing?) dialog....




The dining room was taken over by a couple of men from Jim's Bunch installing the new French doors. This involved ripping out the existing door unit, of course, leaving a large hole in the wall for most of the day. Much drilling and sanding, as the threshold of the old door and that of the new door proved to be incompatible. The guys covered everything in the dining room with plastic and blue tape, as there was lots of dust. As a result I could not get at anything in the dining room and haven't been able to make a cup of tea all day (sob). Luckily I was headed out to a friend's house to do some pre-RV trip cooking and she fed and watered me at lunchtime.



In the kitchen we are seeing great progress. The countertops are in, complete with sinks. I am a little concerned that there seems to be no space cut for the cooktop (which is currently sitting dustily in the garage). The microwave/appliance garage cabinet still needs to be installed. The floor has started. The dour Russian tile guy put the concrete layer down on Monday, and today he started putting the actual tile down. I reckon he's about a quarter way through. I popped my head round the door late this afternoon to take a peek at what he was doing, and he was quite affronted that I disturbed him. "Do not step on the tiles!" he ordered. "I'm not coming anywhere near them," I told him with a cheery wave of the hand.

We Almost Passed the Inspection

We had the All Trades inspection this afternoon, and we almost passed. The two things we need to do to pass the inspection actually have nothing to do with the work that all the construction guys have been busily doing!

First of all the inspector says that we need to upgrade our gas meter - that it is undersized for the house with our current appliance load, never mind when we add the extra items in the outdoor kitchen. Since this will involve the City, I can only imagine how expensive it's going to be.

Secondly the inspector wants us to remove a piece of asbestos waste pipe from the front yard. Site Supervisor II says this is really pretty silly, since it is a waste (i.e. attaches to sewer) pipe, the asbestos is the "good" sort with no damage, and it's two feet undergroud. But if that's what the inspector wants, that's what he gets. So the Site Supervisor has asked the hardscaping company to dig yet another trench through the front yard in order to remove this pipe (about 15 feet). I fear it might spell the demise of our cherry tree, which is ironic in a city that is so keen on trees.

Photos attached from today:
1) the current state of the kitchen - don't the cabinets look fine;
2) a big, big trench in the back yard, waiting for the dissipator to be installed tomorrow - rain permitting - and also a photo of the plug that goes in the end of the pipe (I thought this was just funny, whoever expects to see an 18 inch plug?)






One of the families in Deep Thought's class heard that we have no kitchen, and brought dinner round to us this evening. Aren't people nice?

Cabinets going in

Plenty of activity around the Cardboard Box again today. The main event was the first part of the installation of the kitchen cabinets. Looking good. I'm really pleased with the color of the alder we chose. It's a nice warm honey-ish color.

Friends came over for a visit today bearing my lunch. We did the grand tour of the works. There were men under the floor of the bedroom addition, including a couple I hadn't seen before. I wonder if they'd tunnelled there from somewhere else?

A Clowder of Cats

We now have three Bob Cats in the back yard, two with scoopy things and one with a drilly thing. Don't you love the way my construction vocabulary is expanding?

We also have three holiday visitors with us. Lawyer Mom and Running Dad are sleeping in the family room. They are thoroughly enjoying the gently billowing dust wall and being awoken by men digging outside the window. The Boy Wonder - their 10 year old son - is sleeping in Little Starlet's room. He seems to be fairly oblivious to the construction work.

Weather holding up well - bright sunny days yesterday and today.