Sometime in February, 2003: Made two sets of sawhorses, one 4 footer, one 3 footer.

1 march, 2003: Haven’t even paid for the property yet (any day, though), but can’t wait any longer. Did the final assessment of building sites and laid out the foundation with stakes and strings. Was visited by the daughter of the neighbor and three of her friends, all on horses. Chico not happy about this nor their dog Duke. From eleven to four.

4 march, 2003: I’m including the year in the date... Will this project take more than one? Today I ordered the Reflectix for the floor, 200’ of 16” stable tab for $140.00. Tom seemed sour about having things shipped to his pad. Something about delivery trucks tearing up his driveway. Started construction of the above ground part of the pit/composting toilet that will serve us in the beginning. It is just a box with a toilet seat and a (lexan) window for solar heating of the pile. The cost of the materials was a bit chocking, $120.00, but that darn lucite, lexan, Plexiglas glass or whatever it is was about fifty bucks. BTW, the t/g at methow lumber is somewhere around $9.00 per foot for 8’ tall walls.
Had a good time building most of the frame work, working with my new tools. I also made a third set of sawhorses. 3 hrs total.

8-9 march, 2003: Brought the off site construction of the pit/composting toilet to 99% completion. Ca. 5 hours.

13 march, 2003: Spend some time at the land digging the hole for the toilet (got a blister) and marking a trail to and fro. Chatted with Dave and the Doug ‘Earthship” Wilcox. Did the hike to peak 2700 for the first time, 1 hr up. Rained when we got there, but it turned warm, dry and windy.
Lots of rain these days. Slightly concerned about setting down the foundation pavers on wet earth with subsequent settling.

17 march, 2003: Monday. Hank started the driveway today. What a project. It looks very steep. Can’t decide if that's good or bad. Might keep most curious investigators out. I was down there all day except for a trip to Twisp to order the chop saw etc. Julie neighbor, Mike and Kathy, and Scott stopped by. Build a trail to the little summit (gotta find a name for it) and dug most of the holes for the foundation.
Less concerned about the moisture now.

Day 1, 18 march, 2003: The first day of the project in earnest. From now on its go, go, go. Colder and windy today, even sprinkles. Hank got there early and retrieved his machinery. Later the phone people marked the cable location. Got access to the land from the Larsons property and finished digging the holes for the footers. Dumped the winter tires and went to Winthrop to get gravel. Loaded up with 3400 lbs for $ 9.00 and crept back to Libby Creek where I shoveled it into the holes with help from our new wheelbarrow ($60.00). Also defined the driving path from the end of the driveway to the cabin site. Met Sarah from down below on the property walking Whisper, her dog.

Day 2, 19 march, 2003: Had a spurt of optimism today, very unlike me... Foundation is going well, actually done, with 4x6 #1 fir beams in place, with Sonja's help. Lumberyard didn't’t have pt beams, which was kinda nice, them being possibly still toxic. Anyway, that makes the cost for the foundation about 150.00, and the effort some two days. Still no Hank today.

Day 3, 20 march, 2003: Again no Hank. Day started rather unpleasant when the office clerk (or is he the owner?) at hardware store loaded 14 footers instead of the proper 16 footers for the floor. Didn’t realize until unloading on property. Much swearing ensued before the inevitable trip back to Twisp to get the right ones. Grabbed four and talked the nice yard guy (Rich) into delivering the remaining 11. Fiddled with the perimeter of the floor framing to get it neat and square until the rest of the joists arrived at the back door (thru Olson's property). Managed to frame it all up in one long afternoon, which was all that there was left of the day after all the driving.
Checked the plans rather belated just to discover that it calls for 4x8 beams instead of the 4x6’s already in place.
The price for 2x6 TG is $14.00 for a 16 footer.
Back at the cabin one of four rolls of Reflectix had arrived, the rest shrouded in mystery.

Day 4, 21 march, spring equinox, 2003: Back to reality day. Body tired, load heavy. Saw hank, finally. He came up to building site and chatted for quite some time while we were working on the darn plastic project. Good guy.
Hauled ‘under layment’ and r-30 batts down there. Again I got the wrong stuff from the yard. Asked for paper faced batts and got plain faced batts. Alas. Ended up accepting the mistake. Was racing wet stormy weather in the late afternoon and got half the floor insulated and temporarily covered.
Ordered windows and doors at lumber yard with help from Rick.

22 & 23 march: Weekend

Day 5, 24 march, 2003: Back Monday morning after taking the weekend off. Renewed energy, surprisingly. Learned from Friday not to rush and get frantic. Not good for back etc. So now we’re at it again with new attitude. Finished the other half of the floor and did a better job. Also nailed and painted the plywood until out of nails (3 lbs) and primer (1 gal). Had enough time left over to frame and raise the west wall. An hour and a half. Exciting. Good day, but long and draining, after all.

Day 6, 25 march, 2003: More wall framing and raising, plus nailing the rest of the plywood subfloor. By the time Tom showed up late in the afternoon I had two more walls up, minus a little here and there. We build and raised the last.

Day 7, 26 march, 2003: Big day day at the lumber yard, spending wise. In addition to the usual $150.00 I purchased all the siding and lumber for the loft floor and rafters, all in all almost a grand. It was all delivered by Rich and included an extra 3 sheets of Breckenridge siding (by mistake?), a gift of eighty some dollars!! Pay back for the wrong batts and so on.
Finished most of the missing little things on the walls and put up the two double walls (north and south).
Hank was there working on the driveway and put in the culvert and dealt with the telephone people. When I left I drove down the driveway for the first time and turned around and had to use four wheel drive to go back up.

Day 8, 27 march, 2003: Jesus Lopez, the fence guy, tore the hill up yesterday. He’s nice though. Gave me a sample of this youth elixir he’s distributing. Speaking of tearing up the ground, Hank the man was busy doing exactly that again today. Pretty close to completion as far as I can see, except for the gravel (and settling..).
Felt the strain of construction work today. All that nailing etc, like coming off an El Cap route. Also the last two days consisted of mainly wrapping things up and finishing off the framing. Hard to spot any major progress yet lots o’ hours spent on the job. In other words, less dramatic although I still have a really, really good time building this cabin. Attempted to put up all the loft joists, but the lot of 2x6’s from the yard was pretty crappy. 2 short. Hope to exchange them tomorrow.

Day 9, 28 march, 2003: Intended this to be a working day, but was wasted when I got up so it was decided to take a rest day. Half way thru I couldn’t stand it any longer and we all went down there and finished off the loft joists (with the new exchanged ones), nailed on the remaining top plates and fixed the one corner of the foundation. Done driving over Larsons property, but we do need 4x4 to get up our driveway. My dad’s birthday.

Day 10, 29 march, 2003: Sonja and I did a lot of work together today. We dragged 8 sheets of OSB up on the loft to create a work platform from which we raised the end gables and connected them with a 2x6 ridge beam 16 feet long. All in all a quite exciting day, a bit of a breakthrough and defining, so to speak. I laid out the shape of the rafters full size on the subfloor and lifted the angles of the cuts directly. It seemed to work extraordinarily, thanks again to countryplans.com. Struggling the assemblies up on the loft floor was the crux of the day and hopefully the last and greatest physical effort of the entire construction. Early on, in an attempt to square up the upper corners I let a spanish windlass out of control and bruised my hand badly. On a good note we did a little ceremony involving a pine bough on the peak and some prayer and kisses.

30 march, 2003: Sunday and restday.

Day 11, 31 march, 2003: Did lots of little mistakes and extra efforts this morning. Cut and stacked the remaining rafters and braced them in place. Simple operation that nevertheless took all day. Shoulder pain. Precip in the forecast. Challenging task ahead (sheathing the roof). Saw a lot of folks at libby creek today: Sonja & Bjorn, Scott, Ellis, Tim-the-phone-cable-digger and his quiet assistant, plus Linda & Sam. Very windy and thus challenging to work on the roof. First day with help from a rented generator, quite the relief.

Day 12, 1 April, 2003: Trucked the windows down. Second day with generator. Tom came and helped with paper and sheathing for 3 hrs 20 min.
Started the day bad again. Attempted to cover to roof with lumber tarps, but almost went nuts from the incessant flapping due to to strong continuous wind. Ripped it all off again, 400 staples later. Build a table for the chopsaw etc. Put in blocking between rafters, did some framing of gable ends and, with Toms help, sheathed the east and west walls. Took down the OSB loft work surface. Mistakes of the day, besides the tarping of the roof, was forgetting to trim down offset edge of subfloor on east wall and getting lots of hammering indentations on siding.

Day 13, 2 April, 2003: Did some solar/generator research in Twisp before heading to Libby Creek. Good day. The wind was up and running again at around 11 am, but I was less bothered and did the paper and sheathing on the south wall. Then I sat in the car while it rained a bit, had lunch and took a short nap. In the afternoon I nailed and nailed, 6” spacing all around the siding. Far from done. Tom showed up with Emma & Sarah at five and insisted we’d hang the last wall. So we did in under an hour I think. The women left and I took Tom home when done. Chico decided to sneak out of the perimeter in the morning and was gone for a while before I realized and went searching. I spotted him in the field across the highway near the river, chewing and rolling on deer remains. The weather was dramatic with big dark clouds rolling in, snow and rain, and a calm beautiful evening.

Day 14, 3 April, 2003: Windstill. Immediately abandoned the siding and struggled a couple of OSB’s up on the roof. Foolish and strenuous even with all the careful prep work, such as 2x4 steps, belay rope and so on. Got a sore back and two sheets up there before I realized that I had to stop. Sonja showed up and things went better, with a total of 8 sheets up at the end of the day. The generator sat unused all day. After Sonja left I intended to do some more work but crashed in the car. Sonja had long talk with Scott about about land use issues, including his desire to blade the native bushes on the public land behind our place.

Day 15, 4 April, 2003: Picked up the doors along with the rest of the OSB. Managed to hang the doors safely and efficiently by myself in the morning. Did a good job, all level and plumb. Sonja showed up and said Tom probably wouldn’t come so we started on the roof again. One sheet up and Tom came and took over. We finished the sheathing and worked on the gables. Got the south one done, but abandoned the other on account of the lumber pile in the way. Cabin now has a roof and all walls (- north gable), pretty exciting, good day. Julie neighbor and friend rode across the land on their animals.

5 April, 2003: Rest day.

Day16, ½ day, 6 April, 2003: It snowed at Twin Lks when we got up and it turned to rain by the time I arrived at Libby Creek. Had planned an easy day. Installed the door locks and set up shop along the west interior wall. Also build a small set of steps below kitchen door. Got kinda cold and windy in the afternoon. With the north gable missing it is like a wind tunnel at the doors.

7 April, 2003: Rest day.

Day 17, ½ day, 8 April, 2003: Emma’s birthday and Sonja’s yoga class didn’t get me down there until 1 pm. The well driller and his father in law waited there in two huge trucks to discuss the well affair. After that I finished sheathing and hung the window on the north gable. The cabin is finally closed up. Sat a bit inside and reflected over the journey and the efforts done and remaining. Also got up the 2x4 nailer/spacers for the gable trim. Having that darn lumber pile on the north side makes working on a ladder back there a chore. Noticed how bowed the roof ridge line really is. Nothing to do about it at this point. Won’t affect anything and probably won’t be seen...

Day 18, 9 April, 2003: Good day. How wonderful to do this. The 11 year long road trip appears finally to be over...
Picked up the new generator this morning together with trim lumber for the gables (those gables sure seems to consume a lot of time). Trimmed out the upper two windows with painted plain 2x4’s after papering the gables. Finished nailing the east wall in addition to installing the vent blocking.
Drove south on 153 to see how visible the cabin is. The answer is: Very visible. At least until the cottonwoods in the creek bed has leafed out. Hope we’ll be safe until then.

Day 19, ½ day, 10 April 2003: Yoga in the morning. Did research and paint/lumber purchases. Got to Libby around 2:00, light rain and other headaches.... Brought down the table saw and set it up, though nothing to use it for just yet. Did lots of painting of all sorts. Color testing for the siding, primed and first coat on the 1x8 pine for the main trim, stinky chemicals on the cedar and yet more testing. Went over the shingle versus other options on the gables again and again, until settling for shingles.

Day 20, 11 April, 2003: Another day doing the right stuff. No visitors. Second coat on the pine and installing all the corner trim pieces. With the paint barely dry I eased the front main trim piece in place under the doubled flashing and screwed it in. Broke open a bundle of shakes and went for it, learning as I nailed them on. Up and down the ladder maybe fifty times, even with the help of the backpack, due to all the angle cutting. It took circa 1.2 bundle to do the south gable (didn’t even get done despite 3 hrs+ hard at shingling), until the wind blew the ladder over at full extension. Cleaned up and left. Driveway is getting rougher...

Day 21, ½ day, 12 April, 2003: Did a few hours in the morning before going to the peace rally in Twisp. Finished the south shingles and put on the cedar. Prepared the green top triangles. During the peace event it really started to rain so I had to rush down there again to tarp up the roof.

Day 22, ¼ day, 13 april: Not a work day per se, just trying to save the building. It rained hard all night to the point of keeping me awake and worried. At first opportunity in morning I went down to assess the situation. Drive way muddy and hard to negotiate (when is it not?), some tarps had blown off, everything wet. More rain moved in, with thunder, and I struggled tremendously to redo the tarp job entirely. Took hours, but now it will probably stay on for a few days. Off course the precip stopped by the time I was done and it turned windy and blustery. Also cleaned up in anticipation of Ralfs arrival, and fixed the ramp.

Day 23, ½ day, 14 April, 2003: Picked up Ralf and went straight to work at 1 pm. Worked on the north gable, hung the painted trim etc, and started shingling.

Day 24, 15 April, 2003: Lost Ralf in Twisp while picking up the metal. Mildly frustrating. After reuniting at the start of the Loup road 2.5 miles out of Twisp (?!) we started working. It was kinda late, almost to the point where this could easily be considered another half day. Finished the north gable and installed the ‘triangles’. Put up the rest of the eave vent blocks after debating whether to start the paper job on the roof or not. Decided not to, which was the number one bright idea of the day. Tom also showed up for a bit doing some electrical work among other things. We prepared as much as possible for the upcoming roofing endeavor and then went for a drive up Libby Creek. On the way back we spotted someone riding on the property. Later that night I got sick.

16 April, 2003: Sick day.

17 April, 2003: Recovery day.

Day 25, 18 April, 2003: After the intense fever and following weakness I was more than ready to crank on the cabin today. Got Ralf out the door at 8 AM, and we put a good eight hours in at the site, all roofing stuff. Started with the insect screen on the peak vent, then the tar paper, done from the top down with each subsequent layer shuffled under. We stood on the screwed on 2x4’s of previous roof job and used safety lines. Ralf excelled on the hammer tacker. We put on scrap pieces of OSB vertically on the fascia to hold the paper down in the wind and to have a straight edge to but the first sheet of metal roofing up against. It was all trial and error for the next two days regarding the metal. At first we used the self tapping screws as such and struggled quite a bit with them. Slow and cumbersome. About 24 had to go in each sheet. After 3 pieces we said screw this, literally, and gang pilot drilled the whole stack for every screw and ho-ho what an increase in productivity. Got all 16 full sheets on before fyraften.

Day 26, 19 April, 2003: Back to the roofing project at around ten. All that was left was the trim and ridge so I thought we had an easy day ahead. I learned otherwise. It didn’t work out at all in the beginning, or if it did it was painfully slow, with long fruitless debates over methods and procedures. After many different attempts, a jigsaw was finally deemed as the most effective tool with which to rip the 12 foot sheets that had to fit in the odd little 5” spaces on the ends, since the total roof width was incompatible with the width of the roofing material. Pliers and hammers were used to tweak the edge of these into some sort of water bar. Then the gable trim pieces did not want to go on decently and all sort of futile manipulating took most of the late morning until Sonja relieved us for lunch. I was sour and grumpy, and had to race to the store for more roofing screws. Back again things shaped up slightly and we got the whole affair finished off by 5:30 with not a single screw to spare after combing the grounds for spilled ones. A total of 500 purchased and exactly enough. Ralf thought it some kind of divine blessing, a concept Sonja whole heartedly would adopt. The ridge piece went on relatively unproblematic if you turn a blind eye to a number of details.
It has been discovered that the yard charged us several hundred dollars less than they should for the metal. What to do?
The cabin is finally weather proof, an incredible 11 workdays after finishing the roof sheathing. What took so long? Nevertheless it is definitely an event to celebrate and since the day shaped up immeasurably towards the end we all drove home in a state of mildly elevated spirits.
I’ve come far in the past month but have further yet to go. But who wants to be done?

20 april, 2003: Easter restday. Slate creek hike. Met Hank on main street and learned about well rig stuck in Mazama and difficulties of getting it up to property without tearing up the driveway once again.

Day 27, 21 April, 2003: Paint day. Did 3 of the walls in a full day. Painting the grooves and applying the secret second coat of ‘weathering’ made it take quite some time. Cabin turned out a lot darker than I anticipated, once it all dried. The weathering with the drift wood color also looks different than imagined, since rubbing it in before basecoat had fully cured made it less grey and more olive or something. Oh well, can always come back in times of leniency and redo things. Nothing too difficult to change here, unlike roofing or something structural. Looks like a little more than 2 gallons thinned 4:1 with water and with a cup of grey added will do all 4 walls.
Very warm today, and windstill. First shorts day and what a dramatic increase in temps. Truly was comfy in long pants every day up until now.
Had a meeting with Twisp-E/mayor guy, Mike Price. Friendly guy, but seemingly unable to listen, very annoying. Bought $100.00+ worth of enviro oil for the interior and talked about cotton insulation and strawboards.

Day 28, 22 April, 2003: Finished the wall painting in a light drizzle. Very light indeed. Also Tom showed up, with no work for him to do. Started painting the trim for the doors and windows. Hung the side fascia.

Day 29, 23 April, 2003: Went to twisp-E and got the quote for insulation and strawboards plus shipping to the Methow: $1950.00. Obviously a fair bit of money, but can we do it cheaper and do we want to spend the time trying to save a buck? It seems beyond doubt that the friendly cotton insulation is what we need in this cabin, so we’re willing to pay for the product, but the shipping?
Today we weren’t super energetic, but did get a few things done. Ralf caulked the gaps over the west fascia and I caulked all the windows on the exterior. Applied the last coat on the trim pieces using the economy roller covers. Pieces of crap. Leaves a thick trail of lint imbedded in the paint. But it’s a cabin and not a boat or a piece of furniture so I let it be. Used the enviro-oil on the loft joists. Nice, but thick stuff. Kept having to wipe off oil dripping from the bottom. Also spend some time solving the problems associated with hanging and supporting the transverse north-south lowest loft beef-up beam over the window. Ralfs seemingly overbuild solution incorporating a hard to place header won and in retrospect it does appear to be the best way.
A bit of sprinkles today and much colder, without it really being too cold. Flowers are fantastic.

24 April, 2003: Forced day off because of heavy rain. Went down there to check for leaks and build a couple of small water bars on the driveway.

Day 30, 25 April, 2003: Somebody had tried to get up the driveway in morning before we came. It turned out to be Whistle and Hank struggling with the drilling rig. Couldn’t do it.
Hung the trim while Ralf did most of the beefer studs (2x2) inside. Then we started oiling and installing the ceiling T&G. Along the way we devised a wedging tool that screws to the joists. Got about a third done.

Day 31, 26 April, 2003: More oiling and fiddling with crooked boards. Also put the 2x6 support beam in place using a joist hanger on the south wall and another overbuilt Ralf solution on north wall. Got the the whole floor in place with the opening as detailed in the plans. We had just the right amount of lumber with a few of the worst pieces left. Whistle showed up and we told him that the Larson plan of access is no good and get Hank to fix the driveway so it is usable for trucks. Hope he’ll understand and not get pissed.

27 April, 2003: Restday, Andrews creek hike.

Day 32, 28 April, 2003: Hank did not get pissed. He came up on the property in his dump truck and was mighty proud of it. In the truck was a load of topsoil which he spread on the troublesome spot on the driveway. He did a bit of grading and I compacted it as good as I could on the way home. We will now call Whistle and have him try the driveway once more...
Ralf and I (mostly Ralf) dug the holes for the beef up foundation, all 10 of them. This time I tried to lay them out only slightly bigger than 16x16, to keep them under the cabin as much as possible. Did some design discussions regarding the north-south dimension of the additions, with the conclusion that an 18 “ jog is a great idea. Had another wasteful experience with the expanding foam in a can. Three of them down and still a lot to do. Also wrung our brains to figure out how to set the 2x4 rafters in place without to much trouble. At the end of a long discussion we finally reached an agreement, but it was too late to work any more.

Day 33, 29 April, 2003: Today was quite different from yesterday. In other words productive. Got all the pierposts and beams and so on from the lumber yard. After unloading we went to Sarahs place to borrow an extra shovel and then on to Hanks gravel quarry and loaded up with nice gravel which we shoveled into the holes we dug the day before. In no time thereafter was the beef up foundation done, and we went for the loft rafters. The plan was in place so we merely executed and got it done. How straight it is remains to be seen. We installed purlins, 2 on each side, and bolted the 2x4 rafters on with counter sunk ¼ “ bolts. The bottom end needed two bevel cuts, but we cut the top end at 90 degrees, one longer than the opposing side and scabbed them together with a small piece of OSB.
Scott came over for a short talk.

Day 34, 30 April, 2003: Sidste dag med Ralf I denne omgang. Got all the strawboard and half the insulation from Twisp-E (the rest was still in Seattle..) in Mike’s truck. The driveway is no problem at the moment. After unloading we set about to frame the double walls on the gable ends. It took the usual lengthy discussion to get started but after this necessary evil we got right along and almost finished it off. We got a late start and was requested to end early so it was a short day. Used a bunch of semi reject 2x4’s for the project so things are a bit wavy and took longer than it should.

Day 35, 1 maj, 2003: Dropped Ralf off at the airport before seven and saw him take off on schedule. Was very good to have him up here for this long. Got a lot done and had a fine time. Went to Tom with his ladder, albeit a bit early and felt bad about it. Also is feeling bad about the way we yesterday left Mike’s truck with the paint and two last strawboards exposed in the back. Today was a sort of semi restday for me, with an hour or two of wandering and thinking in the morning. Almost overwhelmed over how beautiful the land is and lucky we are. Worried about the bubble bursting and something bad happening. Got to stop that and live and be happy. Must be convinced that I deserve this. Getting a job would help or something.
Did some detailing on the double wall framing and other odds and ends before familien arriverede. Sonja went for a walk with Chico while Bjorn and I played and I installed the temporary skirt on the east and west sides. Later we had a great thunderstorm with quite a bit of rain. We sat it out in the cabin, me napping. I did some work with the cotton insulation upstairs towards the end of the day. It seems kinda flat and limp, but that’s probably how it is supposed to be, since I’ve heard such comments before. Starting to wonder about this double wall/cotton insulation combo. Mostly its cost and labor. May just look into BIBS and Thermax for the addition. Gives you more room, much easier to install and build and, lo and behold, maybe cheaper.

2 maj, 2003: Wenatchee.

3 maj, 2003: Took down camper and insulation. 8 Mile Ridge hike.

Day 36, ½ day, 4 maj, 2003: Decided to camp on property to be there when Whistle attempts the driveway in the morning. Arrived in the afternoon after church and Sonja zoomed off on her walk while Bjorn and I removed some rocks from the road and dug holes for the chain. After lunch and the haircut I worked on the insulation upstairs.

Day 37, 5 maj, 2003: Well drilling day. Wandered around on the property for a few hours waiting for Whistle and his crew. I returned to work on the cabin and Sonja removed rocks from the driveway, until suddenly this enormous red truck labored up the driveway. It made it! Enormous relief was felt by all. 20 min after arriving the drill was deep down in the ground, dust was blowing out of the discharge in the stiff breeze. The racket was deafening. 80 feet down and still only dust. They ran out of pipe and took off for more. It was hard to concentrate on working but I put in some insulation downstairs and Sonja and I sawed 8 sheets of strawboard in half. In the afternoon while the family was down frolicking in the creek Whistle hit water at 105 feet. At 120 it was ca. 8 gls a minute. I decided to go another 20 feet ($520.00) to get better flow and a little peace of mind. Good choice. The result is 140 feet, 25 gls/min. Big celebration and happiness. Enormous weight off our shoulders. We have water!!!

Day 38, 6 maj, 2003: Returned to the Twin Lks cabin early on a frosty morning. I had breakfast and went to Twisp to do some Internet research. Also ordered the Simple handpump for a mere $1000.00. Checked out the plastic stock tanks at the feed store and wondering if they are the solution for compost bins and the tub in the bath house. Maybe. At Libby I put up the vapor barrier in the loft, some of the nailers for the reflectix and did a lot of thinking and pondering about the water issues and bath house location. Finally I settled on a spot near the west side of the cabin, layed out the foundation plan and dug 5 out of 6 footers. Little tired today.

Day 39, ½ day, 7 maj, 2003: In the morning we did the Crystal Lake hike and then I went down to put T&G on the inside gables. Got about ¾ done, after initial grumpiness over the cramped conditions with insulation and strawboards all over the place.

Day 40, 8 maj, 2003: Finished the gable T&G and did the foundation and floor framing on the bath house.

9 maj, 2003: Saw Tom and family in the morning, and found out that the pump people haven’t shipped yet because of some credit card details. Ships today or Monday, hopefully.
Mazama climbing w Sonja.

10 maj, 2003: Pete + Jaymie, parade, visit to land where Pete and I cut two strawboards. Learned that Ralf will be back for a 10 day stint in late may.

11 maj, 2003: Scatter Lk hike, Kari + Eric potluck.

Day 41, 12 maj, 2003: Tog mig sammen og købte en stock tank this morning. Dug a hole and set up the toilet with bricks and gravel. Only missing to build some privacy screens and get sawdust to be in operation. After lunch I did the SE corner inside with strawboards and T&G. It went fast and smooth. The boards Mike got me are quite different from the sample I obtained from EHC, more smooth and particle board like. Definitely less attractive to finish with oil or stain, and a little frustrating. Maybe a sign that the cabin needs some white painted surfaces? Still waiting for the Reflectix and running out of important projects...

Day 42, 13 maj, 2003: Still no Reflectix. Starting to bum about it, maybe I have to call..
After shopping for electrical stuff and other things at the hardware store I went up Newby Creek to the sawmill to get some sawdust for the composter. Nobody there, but the neighbor in the huge double set of partially finished houses (Frye) told me where he lived. He (Thomas) wasn’t there either so I talked to his wife who said, just go ahead and take it. And I did. Filled the the two newly purchased 32 gal trash barrels and carted it all back to Twisp where we stopped at the lumber yard to get materials for the privacy screen. Rick talked me out of real cedar lattice and sold me (cheaper) fake vinyl stuff instead. Probably a good idea.
Did the complete installation of above and fiddled with the electrical after, which I’m starting to like. Another mystery unveiled. Not as hard as I’d thought.
What to do tomorrow? Firewood? Wenatchee?
Trim available at the lumber yard is 1 3/8 wide and cost $.29 LF. Bogus stuff.

Day 43, 14 maj, 2003: Not so great of a day, for reasons of comfort. Checked Sustainable Village about the darned Reflectix, and, yes, they goofed. It will be shipped today or tomorrow. So I need to start the shed, which I did. Got the T&G subfloor in place and primed the surface for weatherproofing. Also searched (on the internet) for water tanks, and found the right stuff. 50 gal or 70 gal, $140-160. In the afternoon I spent some needed time pondering the use of the socalled shed formerly known as the bath house. A shop is undoubtedly the best use but it is small and must have some serious add-ons to be useful. An idea appeared towards the end of the brain storming that must be worked out on paper. Then I moved inside and took down the ‘shop’ and insulated the west wall. Crammed conditions. Can’t wait to get the batts in the roof ceiling to clear up some space.
May just give up on the forced ventilation concept. Only useful when we’re gone, since we can off course open the windows at other times.
Drains must be located and put thru the north wall soon. So must propane pipes. This means finalizing the kitchen and ‘bath’ layout, another time consuming brain storm session. But first the west wall and then move chopsaw set up etc over there.
Electricity is flowing good.

Day 44, 15 maj, 2003: Good day. I wish I could write that more often than once a week.
Oiled upstairs T&G, interrupted by Hank (lots of chatting, and the bill, $3100.00) and the lumber yard delivery of the shed framing material. After that it was on to the west wall. First Thermax, then strawboards and finally T&G and oil. Had fun, felt good and witnessed good progress. Took it easy and methodically, worked steady and got the job done. Want to do that some more. Was without Chico, which was relaxing and allowed more focus. Wait a minute, is there something here relating to physical comfort?
Nær fyraften I moved the shop back to west wall and straightened up.

Day 45, 16 maj, 2003; Frosty morning in the twenties. We all went down there in the Saturn, first stopping in Twisp for wiring purchases etc. Started oiling again, this time the south+ wall. Then I redid the wiring so its neat and overskueligt. Still missing to do some runs and other details. A fair bit of time was wasted pondering over the openings in the north wall. Puzzled and inconclusive was all I got out of that. The question is about the battery vent, the tub and sink drain, the main power in, the passive fridge and the propane piping, all of which have hard riddles attached to them.
The post lunch hours was spent dinking with window trim upstairs. Very lengthy affair, but in the end quite well done. One piece of 2x10 pine, with ‘ears’, was fitted as bottom sill, strawboard made up the rest. Leveling and squaring ate up tons of shims and just as many hours before I was satisfied. And the face trim is not even on yet. A total of 8 pieces in almost 4 hours. Hopefully I worked out all the quirks for the remaining 4 windows... Sonja put in her time on the driveway, filling the dips. Bjorn was all right.

17 maj, 2003: Fence day at the Post family and North Creek hike.

18 maj, 2003: At Toms and a quick trip to Libby, did hardly any work.

Day 46, 19 maj, 2003: Long day at Libby. Tiring and slow, but it’s getting done slowly. Electrical and insulation and strawboards.

Day 47, 20 maj 2003: Actually done with all in-the-walls electrical and all the downstairs insulation, cotton and Thermax. 99% done with strawboards down there too. Big job. Took tons of studying to get confidence to drill the holes for all the incoming and outgoing things on the north wall. Think I got it right.

21 maj, 2003: Picked Ralf up in Wenatchee. Some research at Lowe’s.

22 maj, 2003: Drove clear to Omak Mountain to discover new No Trespassing sign. Back again and did Smith Canyon hike.

Day 48, 23 maj, 2003: First day in the second Ralf installment at Libby. Framed all walls and most of the roof on the shed.

Day 49, 24 maj, 2003: Shed roof framing round up and some sheathing. Headache day, not made any better by big bump on cranium at lumber yard.

Day 50, 25 maj, 2003: Moving day at Peter & Linda. Metal on, 99 % of the siding done, windows in.

Day 51, 26 maj, 2003: Hiked to Beaver Creek property. Painted and stained the exterior in a semi short work day. Diarrhea.

Day 52, 27 maj, 2003:After shopping for the materials we started to build the doors for the shed and mount the trim.

Day 53, 28 maj, 2003: Finished the doors and hung them.

29 maj, 2003: Hike to Twisp Pass.

30 maj, 2003: Did a fair bit of sight seeing with Ralf until late afternoon when we cut a truck load of firewood at Twin Lks.

Day 54, 31 maj, 2003: Took ralf to the airport in Wenatchee in the wee hours. Slept a bit at home and then off to stack fire wood, paint the shed trim and doors, and put in shelves.

Day 55, 1 juni, 2003: Moved tools into the shop and insulated the loft in cabin. Sonja etc came for lunch.

Day 56, 2 juni, 2003: Firewood from Twisp River. Installed some door hardware on shed. Then on to the loft where I hung 14 half panels of strawboard. One hour hike with Chico in late afternoon.

Day 57, 3 juni, 2003: Got paint in the morning at Mike’ shop (two gallons for the loft). At libby I finished the paneling and applied the first coat of paint. Had to be in Twisp at 5 pm for baby sitting during Sonja’s yoga class.

Day 58, 4 juni, 2003: Yellowed the paint a little at Twisp-E, and applied the second coat. Prepared the short T-G pieces for the downstairs, and then drove over the mountain via Black Pine Lk and west fork Buttermilk creek to Kim Frey’s house for dinner.

Day 59, 5 juni, 2003: Second load of firewood from Twin lks. Picked up the two posts at Tim’s shop and realized that it was way too extravagant to pay such money for a bit of steel. Did trimming and related things in the loft. North window is complete and worked out quite well. Also did lots of thinking and planning and pondering. Come a long way and really like the cabin, its been a great journey, both this construction process and the years leading up to arriving here.

Day 60, 6 juni, 2003: Put in posts and the loft battens. Made them out of strips of strawboard and it looks sharp

7 - 8 juni 2003: Oval Peak trip.

Day 61, 7 juni, 2003: Last load of firewood from Eric's place. Thunderstorms. Little cooler today, actually pleasant after a week and a half of hot weather. Did the south loft window trim and it looks good but isn’t as tight as the other. Gave all the trim up there a coat of that odd stuff, Duro Stain from twisp-E. I wonder what that’s for and if it can stand alone as a coat and sealer.