The Klickitat River valley last weekend.

A most boring photo

Hard to think of anything more boring than a photo of a shower curtain, but it's actually a bit more exciting than that, because behind that curtain lies running hot water. So, very boring photo, but it represents a great step forward (running hot water also means the radiant floor heating system is operational).

United Nations of Ikea

Sorry, no photos, but how crazy is this: We bought our cabinets from Ikea, so of course every part comes in a different box, resulting in probably 50 or more boxes. As I was assembling things, I started paying attention to the manufacturing origin of each box. Here's what I noticed:

• Cabinet carcasses - USA
• Cabinet doors - Hungary
• Cabinet hardware - Austria
• Sink and faucet - Hungary
• Cabinet feet - India
• Pull out drawer unit - China
• Wall hanger rails for cabinets - Lithuania

And of course, everything designed in Sweden. I probably missed a couple of boxes, so there might have even been other countries. Pretty amazing job of sourcing components from around the world.

Despite a couple of hiccups assembling the cabinets, I've got to say Ikea has really designed some very clever systems for assembling them. They actually make it pretty difficult to assemble things incorrectly.

Kitchen progress

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been working on getting the kitchen built out. It started with a visit to Best Buy and Ikea:

We loaded up the truck with a new fridge and then picked up all of the cabinets from Ikea. We forgot to think through whether everything we were ordering would actually fit in the truck, but fortunately with enough shoving, everything fit in.

Out at the cabin we started replacing our bare bones kitchen. We built out some of the cabinets and hooked up the refrigerator, which resulted in:

Cold beer! It's been nice to have a way to store food that stays cold for more than a couple of days.

The next weekend we built out more of the cabinets, so most of the kitchen is set up now. We also got the farmhouse sink in place. That weekend was also the first weekend we had (cold) running water, so we actually have a functioning sink!

Still a bit of work to do to finish off the kitchen, and we're still waiting on our stove to be delivered, but it is coming together nicely. I think for this winter we'll be making do with plywood countertops; we'll figure out how to finish those off next year some time.

Gee, what's that bright light?

We have power. Pretty cool, to have electricity straight from the Sun.

Dishes by light.

Power!

Last week the electrician finished work on the solar charge controller, so we finally have power. We have started hooking up the circuits we wired up last winter, so we are starting to see lights work, etc. Next weekend we should be taking out a new refrigerator, so that will put it to the test.

Panels and Grading and Propane

Lots happening around the cabin. A couple of weeks ago, the solar panels started going up on the roof. 

This week they are wiring up the panels; theoretically there will be power to the electrical panel this weekend! The other rails on the right are for solar hot water, which also should be going up soon.

New Grading

Also this week we regraded the area in front of the house in hopes that it'll drain better this winter. By the house the ground has raised up about a foot or more. There are several inches of compacted gravel, so hopefully this will drain well. You can also see where the holes we dug have become deck footings, which will hopefully be built in September.

Fancy Drive

We had extra gravel, so they put it on the last bit of the road, so now our driveway is all fancy.

Propane tank

 At the same time, they dug the trench for a propane tank and the propane company came out and set that on a pad back in the woods a bit. So hopefully we'll have that all plumbed in shortly as well, which means we can finally have a range for cooking.

Holes, future footings for a narrow deck across the south side to connect future decks on the west and east ends. Colin and I dug five holes in total. With a newfound appreciation for grave diggers, Louis Sachar's book "Holes" came to mind.

Last week Jackson took me on a walk on the property south of ours. That's Hood, with the Klickitat River at the bottom right hand corner. Stunning views of both mountains but boy, if it's windy at our place, you'd about blow away over there.

Summer dries up the pond, but it's still fairly full at the beginning of August and no algae bloom this year, so far at least. Lots of frogs this year, too. They can be found up the hill around our cabin. They seem to like to perch atop the sliding door screen in the basement. One jumped onto my head as I was opening the door.

Our power solar panels went up last weekend. Two hot water panels will go on in a couple of weeks. Here's the first panel being placed.

More ceiling panels being lifted into place. They come in one piece: exterior siding, foam insulation, and finished interior tongue & groove. Pretty cool.

Our builder Rick does a lot of curves on his cabins. Sure frames the view nicely, non?

Note the channel cut into the window opening. Because the logs shrink over time, all of the windows and doors float within their openings: a metal bracket is inserted in the groove which the window or door is attached to. Rick and his helper John come out occasionally to tighten the metal rods that run from the roof to the basement. We think the cabin has already dropped several inches. Sometimes you can hear the shrinking in action via loud popping sounds.

Adams from the kitchen window. Might as well look at something pretty while hand-washing dishes.

View from the main room, pre-windows.

The roof panels took two days to go on. It was windy, making it more challenging for the crane operator.

Every log has a channel grooved into its underside for a line of insulation. Being a knitter, I was thrilled to learn they use wool instead of Fiberglas. Mark, the architect, brought down big bags of wool like this one. Apparently they used to use Fiberglas until a local Canadian sheep farmer suggested they try wool. They now find that the wool holds its loft longer.

And here it is being reassembled on our property, end of July 2011. The whole cabin went together in four days by an expert crew of five people. It was quite amazing to watch!

Fitting the roof beams into place.

This was the cabin in progress up in Alberta, Canada, eastern side of the Rockies, winter and spring of 2011.

Ceiling fan installation.

Concrete bar counter, setting up

New concrete floor

Cabin history thus far:

20 acres purchased summer of 2010 on the Washington side of the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge. 2,000' elevation with views of Mt. Adams (WA) and Mt. Hood (OR). Former cattle country, now prairie with Ponderosa pine and scrub oak.

Daylight foundation built fall 2010, with basement views of Adams.

First swim of 2012.

Jackson was showing off to a dog friend, who had a mere leg bone to chew on. At least this was picked clean. It's about two feet in length.

Grinding coffee.

Thought about taking this back to the cabin (Jackson was very interested in it as a chew toy) but decided more beautiful to leave it where found.

Coast toothwort, milkmaids, Cardamine integrifola, I think. Found in woods. I need to start capturing their leaves, too.

Glacier lily, Erythronium grandiflorum, found in lower elevations of our woods.

I think this is grass widow/ satin flower, Olsynium douglasii. They've popped up on the higher elevation of our property, some in the wide open and some in the woods. I'm sure there are more trying to come up under our debris pile!