Soldering

In today's installment of bad pics taken with camera phones:  The Husband and Father-in-law soldering brass fittings together for the cold return of the radiant heat system.  

The Hubs likes plumbing the best of all the trades that are encompassed in building a house.  In his words: "What could be better than blue flame and molten metal?"  Of course, there is the downside of plumbing...     Bob says people throw all sorts of wierd things down drains and toilets and the plumber's rule is:  If you didn't eat it first, it shouldn't be flushed.  (With the obvious exception, of course of toilet paper.)

Today's post is really just an excuse for me to type "soldering."  Because I can't write it without pronouncing it wrong.  (SOL-during vs. SAH-during)   Soldering soldering soldering. 

Take that.

Hot Header

Bob the Log Builder installed this pipe in the basement today, which will carry hot water to the radiant floor tubing from the boiler.   Apparently it's called a "hot header."   

There's also another squatter in our house.  A vole has taken up confused residency in the basement.  He waddled up and started chewing on Bob's boot today....

Saranac Lake Ice Palace

Of course, we in the North Country look forward every winter to the building of the ice palace/ice castle/ice EXTRAVAGANZA in Saranac Lake.  If your daily travels don't take you through this winter wonderland, you can take a virtual visit via the webcam feed at:   http://www.adksearch.com/new/ .  

Crappy pic of the kids at the ice spectacular in 2009. 

Pretty sure I took this with my phone. 

That cameraphone is making me lazy, darnit. 

Hey Mom.  Sorry I took a pic with the sun glaring behind you. 

Sub-flooring and Friends

Except for the two places that the flooring is purposefully absent (in order to allow heat from the makeshift woodstove in the basement to warm the upper floors), the new sub-floor is done!  

In my opinion, there is one good by-product of having the floor ripped up and re-done....   all the tools and scrap materials that had accumulated in the house had to be moved, which means they were cleaned up.  My house doesn't look like the marina shop anymore.

What's next, you ask?  (You did ask, right?)  Well, to be honest, probably nothin' for a week.  The Hubs has been working elsewhere this week (those paying gigs really get in the way of him building me a house!) and then is taking the weekend off.  Friend Craig is taking a job out of state and so Bob and the boys are having a weekend-long huddle in Craig's wee cabin. 

Boys in 2001.  How young they look!  Bob the not-yet-log-builder is at right, sans beard.

I haven't yet forgiven Craig for taking a job in Maine, but if he lets me visit and learns to talk like Bert & I, maybe I'll consider it.

Dormant

Here's a neat pic from this morning of the gangly lilac bushes in our side yard in town.  Can't you hear them snoring under their blanket of snow? 

Zzzzzzzzzz......   {wake me in the spring!}

Bob [Vila?]

Tonggu Momma's comment on yesterday's post spurred me to post this picture from yesterday.  When I dropped by the new house, guess who was there!    Bob Vila!    Here's a fan pic with my cell phone camera:

No, just kidding.  But Bob the Log Builder is sporting a beard now.  If you point it out, he 'arrrrrs' like a pirate.   Yeah.  

And please note that he's smiling.   It's under duress; that's the second take.  The first (non-smiling) one was too fierce for publication.  No wonder sub-par sub-floors quail before him.  Bent nails straighten in his glare.  

If only.   I'd have a staircase by now! 

Of floors and fatherhood

Work is progressing on the new sub-floor. (click here for explanation, if you missed it the first time around).  It's nearly done now -- all that is left to do is the exposed area you can see in the pictures.   It's been so cold out the past week that, even with the makeshift wood stove in the basement, Bob and his father are working in their coats and hats.  At least there's no snow in the house this winter, though, eh?

I picked up Little G from school today and drove him out to The Lake so he could help Bob pound in nails and stack up wood scraps. I hear he's not actually that much real help, but it surely builds character to have a boy work with his Daddy.

Progress and Perspective, part 8

January 3, 2009:

January 1, 2010:

Snowy Snow Snow

I love today's puffy light snow.  When I brushed my car off this morning it was like fake Hollywood snow or shredded styrofoam.  Easy and beautiful.  Later in the winter we'll get packed down dirty snow, but for now, it's all picture-worthy. 

The Husband was eloquent about the frosting on the logs today...    it's the kind of snow that makes even Bob the Log Builder uncharacteristically loquacious. 

Looking out on a snowy world

This is Bob looking out at snowy pines in December 2008:

And this is the same view in January 2010:

While the former had a sort of pure aesthetic beauty to it....    the latter is definitely warmer!

Winter House

Someday it'll be a lot easier to visit the in-laws.  Today we drove 9 miles out of town to The Lake.  Soon, we'll walk across the driveway.  Okay, and down a little bit.  But the point is, that today's day full of sledding (sliding for you native NY-ers), snowball fights and games of Clue by the wood stove will be old hat soon.  Just a 'I'll be down at Grandma's!' sort of casual comfort.    I love it.

Here are some pics from New Year's Day of our 'almost getting there' log house.   Temp was about 30 F and the snow was clumpy on all the boughs.  Still and quiet.  Ahhhhh......

School Vacation, part 2

What does a school-aged child WANT to do on vacation?

Play GameBoy. 

(Incidentally, isn't it amusing that our son likes to hang out and be slothful in the Ab Lounge at his grandparents' house?)

School Vacation

What do you do with a school-aged child during vacation?  Put him to work building your house, of course!

Go, Little G, go!