Appliances

We picked up the appliances from Boyer Barge. A chick named Rainbow runs the forklift there she's cool. When appliances arrive that means things are pretty close to moving in. Hurrah!! Jon drove through camp with a refrigerator in the back of the truck and rounded up Ken, Bear, Kit, Dusty, and Ron to help lift the washer and dryer up on to the loft. Then that night we moved it at least four times and we're still no sure where it will go. I think they just look so new, modern and weird that it is going to take some getting used to. We still need plumbing and a bathroom sink. But first we need more firewood, so that is what we are doing today.





Anyway the tile seems to be curing allright.

Carpet, again.

The carpet got stretched into place, thanks Ron. It looks great, feels good and kitty likes it.

Tile in the bathroom

The bathroom floor is done too. We got some of this tile from the leftovers from a job Jonathan worked on and some from a neighbor that was going to throw it away, gasp. The shower also came from a plumbing job he did. The owner bought it and when it arrived on the barge they realized they didn't like so we snatched it right up, cha-ching.


I was going to go with just the squares but Jonathan asked for flowers. That is probably the last time that will ever happen. Anyway it is all grouted in now. We used a grout that was colored pewter. Will have to get more shots, or not. We had to keep the fire going for three days to let it cure.

River Rock Entryway

Bear tracks are hard to make out of rock and cement. I had to use my handy Field Guide to Alaskan Wildlife. What luck finding a rock that looks just like the bottom of a bears foot. I should have tried to sell it on eBay. I hear Pope shaped frozen waffles are in high demand these days. This is actually bridge grout, not cement. But I think I already wrote about that. Nice stuff to work with but I have to remember to let it set a few minutes before starting to drop rocks in.


A few flowers got swallowed by the wet grout. These ones seem to stand out okay.


This will be a fine place to take off wet clothes and house break Jonathan.

No Cabinets, Shelves

I love the new shelves. We beach combed the wood and it has some beautiful worm holes along the edge. All of the wood we used here was part our scaffolding during construction.

Jon used some of the left over bamboo to make a counter. That was his first attempt at bending cedar. Very nice. This will be next to the refrigerator. We picked it up from the barge today. He's down there wrestling with it now while I blog :)
Red cedar on the bottom shelf. That brad nailer is his new favorite tool. It uses an air compresser that runs off the generator.
He custom bent each nail to hang the mugs. They are a priority and must be within easy reach. Mom if you are reading this those are the ones you gave us. Martha yes that is the mixer! Amy the canisters go on the counter. Dad those are the lanterns from the barn.

Floors, not that the tar paper was bad.

We have been dedicating all of our attention lately to getting floors in. The bamboo is down and done. On Saturday we put down the entry way floor. Here I am working on a design for the stone for the floor in the entryway/mudroom. I hope the bear paw prints come out ok. They are in the shot below but should look better when it is dry.
Don't do it Kitty. She thought about it for a while but in moment of clarity she just walked across the rocks in stepping stone style. Dolly on the other hand did walk through it but we decided to leave her paw prints in there.It will look much different when it dries, we used a grout that was surplus from a road construction job. They use this stuff to patch bridges and can hold something like 3000 pounds per square inch. I just want to be able to stomp our feet off when we come in.Next is the tile in the bathroom. And kick in the carpets. And another counter. And shelves. And plumbing. And trim. And hooks. And...

This is how the counter came out so far

I love them. It was weird though. We have been planning them so long that when they were in place it just seemed like nothing new. I think we have 18 feet of counter space to work with. The sink is nice, we beach combed it. We bid on a faucet on Ebay since it is a wall mount, its a little hard to find. Hopefully we will win. The center section is big enough to sling a deer up there and piece it up.
We have one more counter to build next to the fridge. Jonathan is going to make it out of the left over bamboo. We ordered our appliances too. That was super scary but I think we did really well. Still I am loosing sleep over it. We have an old fridge and stove but realize with the waterwheel and generator set up they will never have enough power to work. So we ordered a super efficient refrigerator and washer and dryer. We also ordered a propane stove, so we will have to bring in a tank for the propane. Hopefully the supply for this fuel will be available for some time. Gas and diesel supply was spotty this winter. We always have the wood stove though ;) Jon's Mom had to do her laundry by hand on the floathouse when they grew up. Another lady told me how she had just the spot in a river with perfect rocks for doing laundry. All this was just 20 years ago. I don't even want to go there.

He'll never be house broken.

Ok, so we have this beautiful new bamboo floor. Dave and Jonathan and I worked on the floor for hours two weekends ago. The counters had to go in after the floors, I wanted to be careful of this strange store bought floor.So Dave and I chased Jonathan around with a shop vac until we realised we couldn't keep up with him when the chainsaw came out again. I guess this is how plumbers install sinks? Oh yeah and dormers. Oh yeah and the framing. Oh don't forget the ceiling, waterwheel and pantry. Chainsaws for all your building needs.
We have been saving this piece of hemlock for the counter forever. It has been moved and shuffled around so many times. It was the second piece of building material drug down here on the four wheeler, after the center pole for the house. Dave cut the left over from the center pole piece into legs to support the counters. We aren't having cabinets because Jonathan can't see into them and because we have a nice big pantry for storage. So it will be open under the counters. Big Jon from Colorado is building us some custom benches for one side of the bar.

Dream Pantry

These are the designs I drew for the pantry. The neighbors gave me a hard time for measuring the bisquick boxes, dog food bins, crab cooker and some of the cool appliances and canisters we got for our wedding. But hey, they will all have their own spot. I didn't get any pictures of the finished product before we moved the tools in there to put the floor down.


This is what it looks like right now. Please excuse the mess while we are under construction. Yeah right. The light is one from the cottage that was being leveled on Damon's Point that we ransacked for parts. Those green boxes are left over bamboo flooring. The sacks of cement are waiting for me to do the entry way floor this weekend. I like how he used beachlogs for the supports. They look like they go right through the shelves.





The right side wall is covered with shelves just for jars and cans. We jar food alot in the summer and also buy canned goods during case lot sales they have up here in the fall. Hopefully this way we will be able to see what we have so we don't buy twice.
The fuse box is very deceptive as our electrical system is super complicated. Sometimes we are on the generator, sometimes we are on the waterwheel. Sometimes the power goes out when too many power tools are runnning, so you don't really just flip the switch when we blow a fuse. I doubt that this will ever be easy.

A new pantry

Jonathan made me a super super pantry. Lots of shelves for big things. A couple of potato and onion bins and big bins for the animal food. The whole right wall is shelving for cans, I even measured the cans so they would fit. There is alot of room for turning around. Originally we were going to stick the washer/dryer in there but we have a different spot now. So now we have the back wall to fill up too. Very good when we only shop about every four to six weeks and do alot of canning in the summer. I should be able to start putting stuff in there any day now.

The Wheel is not Spinning

Our hydro wheel is covered with ice, but the water is still running. The day we had the painting party, even the creek was covered with snow. At least we could still find the bridge going across so we could get rinse water for the painting.
I was hoping the weight of the snow would take down the trees that are all crisscrossed over the "trail" and creek because they seem a bit dangerous. But if the snow didn't take them down maybe they are pretty stable? The batteries were charged enough to run the lights and stereo. We are running the generator for all the power tools. Jonathan made this dashboard for the car stereo we are using for our home stereo, it runs great off the batteries, it even has one of those old cigarette lighters we plug the iPod into. I am keeping my eye out for different gauges like an ampmeter, barometer a voltmeter, etc. I would alos liketo hide the wires when we move in.

Some interior shots, and Harley the Dog

This is going to be the entry way. As Steve says there are only two kinds of clothes in Alaska: wet and dry. So this will have lots of hooks and room for boots. The floor will be more stone work like around the woodstove.






The bright pink(?) wall will have the fridge against it and some shelves and a counter (that I started planing this weekend, I think it is spruce, it is the piece on the saw horse below).










Misty mixed up her own color for the bathroom I think it looks great. We can't put grout on the tile for awhile because it can't freeze for like 30 days or something. Whan we went on vacation we bought a vanity light for the bathroom, but one of the shades broke. It is never easy to get stuff here.