stairs!!

once again parts of the original house have been re-purposed, the stairs to the old back deck now keep us out of the mud outside the back door, they're almost in the identical position from when we bought the house

chris has been masterminding the stairs up to the second floor so we can safely get the windows up there when delivered, and we can temporarily put away the ladder

the space almost feels bigger with the stairs going in and miraculously they fit perfectly

Maestro Martinz making sure the levels on the level

and as the sun set we went up the stairs for the first time!!!!

the novelty still hasn't worn off

the mess

cleaning house is as hard as building house

all this junk is now gone before the snow flies too deep

Backfillling

Our awesome neighbor Tom came down on his tractor to take home the trailer he'd been lending us all summer (this photo is for all you tractor lovers out there, you know who you are). The trailer was moved in anticipation of the bobcats arrival to backfill
and an action shot of the trailer in motion

a few before and after shots, this is the pile of earth and rocks that needed moving (and a nice side angle of Marvin the golden Olds)

this is where a good chunk of it went, in the pit where we also put the wall we demo'd

and the earth slowly made it around the house till we were all frost protected for the winter

taking down the wall

After deliberation and consultation with Kurt and Haji, we decided to take down one of the basement walls so we could orient our basement stairs better

we did the job in two scull breaking days, parts of the wall were over 20" thick

we wanted to get this done before the backfilling so we could bury all the rubble

the work was painful but definitely the right decision

wrapping the house

working on the house wrap, making sure there are no gaps

the glow of the inside light, comes from the wrap being on on so tight

cozy as a bug, but there'll be no bugs in this fine rug

summer's gone and fall is here, the wrap's on now because the windows are near

finishing up the house wrap, makes us pretty darn hap.
py

gittin on the roof

In between frosts we managed to get half the roof panels on, working wherever the sun was hitting the roof, this took a little while

the underlayer is very durable (and slip proof) so we had a little bit of leeway waiting for the weather to cooperate

Dad is a champion of assistance as always and baby kaya and feast bearing parents Sanjay and Nicole helped speed things along and keep the belly satisfied

The Super Jones and soon-to-be-Daddy John really blitzed it by helping us lift the last panels into place before the first snow storm of the year hit. thank you thank you

with the roof on and done, we enclosed the gable ends and finished all the soffits and fascia

There is a master of paint mixing at the Shelburne home hardware who helped us get the exact stain colour we were looking for and in between the constant rain, sleet and snow, we got it all done