LOCKED UP!

Today was a day we've long awaited. Today the last of the lower floor windows arrived. Two still have temporary plywood as they await permanent glassbut all the holes are at long last filled. The good news is that as the Harold's contracting crew fastened the last window in place we have achieved official lockup.

The last batch of windows included the big round sets, front and rear as well as the front door set - fifteen windows and one door in all. They all look perfect and fit perfectly too. It took a while for Harold's crew to carefully align the many panes - up to six in each set. 

The Element Spray Foam crew has three or four more days to go before that big job is done. Then we can start in on the inside work required to finish the house. A good chunk of the day was also spent onsite with Roy from the cabinet shop. We surveyed each location cabinets are needed and in the next few days we will have our first draft of the cabinet plan. 

Things are coming together!

-grampa dan

Tree house inspiration

Today I drove to the Okanagan to meet with my clients. Although I could have taken a relatively new freeway I decided instead to take a different road - a road I knew well from decades past. This was the scenic route.

Back in the late seventies and early eighties I made my living doing detailed pen and ink drawings. These drawings and the limited edition prints derived from them were sold in about forty galleries and frame shops throughout British Columbia. I travelled across the province many times in those years selling my artwork in these far flung places. As I traveled I would take a different route each time, documenting everything I saw along the way. My drawings were based on this research.

One of my favorite places in those days was a spot along the Hope-Princeton highway called Bromley rock on the Similkameen River.

The river is forced to bend around the massive rock and in the process it scours the opposite riverbank in high water exposing the roots of many wonderful trees there. It was good to visit with my old friends once more.

I did a number of drawings based on these trees, one of which still hangs on our wall.

When we were designing the new house I drew reference from these same trees. Janis asked that we make the trees not quite so twisty and knarly and I had no problem with that (as long as we did the trees).

Many other sources also provided inspiration as well.

-grampa dan

42392

Every house needs a street number and so does our new one. We weren't about to go to the hardware store to get some typical cast or vinyl ones however. We decided to route our address into some Precision Board high density urethane with a layered heart background of course and work it into the similar house trim. 

The marker will go on the front wall right where the bright orange building permit currently is fastened.

It is one more small detail that will make this house extra special.

-grampa dan