Here's What the Place Looks LIke at 8 Below

 

Yes, it may look like a piece of dreck . . . because that's what it is!  However, a more solidly built piece of dreck you will not find anywhere.  A few afternoons ago the light was so nice that I wandered on over (Ev having hightailed it to Las Vegas for a week to avoid the bitter, bitter cold and attend his builders' conference) to take a photo, certain that the beautiful light would make the cabin look at least halfway habitable.

HA!

However, the roof is all on, and  the inside is looking lots more spacious.

All the cross braces will be taken out when the loft beam goes across; then Ev will put in the floor joists for the loft.  That oughtta keep the old thing hanging together. He wants to put in the floor as well, which is okay I guess.  Then the shingles and skylight go on.  That dark triangle at the far end is the old roof that still hasn't been taken down yet--with only about 2 1/2 more feet and a 10" beam around the top of the wall, there seems to be a whole lot more space.

There better be; with the economy going the way it is I may have to live here sooner than anticipated--with an outhouse!!!

 

At this point I've just got to have faith that the old shack will come together soon.  Perhaps Ev will be back this week--it's going to be in the 30s and 40s so I will crack the whip . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Ivy Palace" No More: Let's Think Positive (this is gonna kill me . . . )

Will you look at this.

The Tumbleweed Tiny House people have a new manager, Ella Jenkins, and she has a tiny house.  Here’s what she says about it:

"I chose the name Little Yellow (Buidhe Bheag) because to me, yellow means sunshine, daffodils and California. In Scottish Gaelic, the colour yellow (buidhe) is often used as a positive emphasis symbolizing happiness, luck or beauty. A person who is "pretty, yellow" (brèagha, buidhe) is very pretty indeed and The phrase "I am yellow" (tha mi buidhe) means that one is well, happy or satisfied."

 

 

 

That is so damn positive it makes me want to run out in traffic.

But part of me admits . . . at this point my cabin should have a better name than the Ivy Palace (or Ivy Acres, as it is known to some).  Besides, it's 5 degrees outside and any poison ivy that was growing there has packed up and left for St. Croix. So henceforth, IP will be Barney’s Cabin, for this blog anyway.  And next time there will be a new blog title.  I’m wondering, though, if I can change the URL . . . .

Another nice day brings out the curious onlookers . . .

From: Pete

Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 11:38 AM

To: Penny

Subject: Penny's Cabin

Hi Penny

So here's what your cabin looks like (around 11 a.m. on Tuesday)  It's good to see some more progress, although it is very slow. I do hope that things move along much faster for your sake, and that finances get better, so you can continue to improve upon this little treasure of a place.

Always,

Pete

 

Great photos, Pete--thanks!  I think I will use the last ones on the blog--I have been taking photos over the last couple of days--yes, the progress is indeed slow, but we have had discussions about that, and I think Ev will be a bit friskier now.  The next thing after the roof will be the floor of the loft, to strengthen the frame, so you won't see much from the outside for a bit after all the roof sheathing goes on. Then comes some of the under-roof trim, and then the doors and windows get installed.  Ev is being whipped by another master on this one---his new tenants, who want to use his garage, so their impatience is my gain!

My finances, I'm afraid, are not going to get any better--all I can hope for is that repairs get cheaper! :) Stay tuned!

--Penny
 

Ev to the Rescue

Well, maybe it was the warm temps this week or maybe it was my crying jag the other day at Barneys, but when I arrived at the cabin yesterday I had nearly a whole roof’s worth of rafters.  And today there is actual sheathing on the roof.

 

I understand the delay.  Partly.  Barney built the cabin well in some spots, weirdly in others, and not at all where the roof meets the walls.  If I hadn’t wanted a higher pitched roof, I guess things could have stayed the same, but when the rafters came off there was nothing else holding the roof together.  Since I want an open ceiling, Ev has to make sure that an enormous carrying beam along the roof line, plus a cross beam that will define the edge of my loft, keeps the whole shebang upright.
 

The Town Library replaced its old addition this summer, and Randy could not bear to see all those beautiful hand-hewn beams go to waste, so he took apart the addition board by board, and stored it at his house.  Several of those beams are key to the cabin’s future: one will be the roofline beam, which not only will be way cool but which will add a bit of integrity to the structure that a wimpy old Home Depot piece of wood could not.

Ev has been fretting about the load that the chimney side of the house will have to take, and so has been reinforcing it so that it will withstand the Battle of Normandy.  This is where the money and time is going . . .

But this weekend should be gorgeous weather and Mike the chimney guy will be pouring his cement and hopefully even getting the chimney pot on.

Ev and I did have a bit of a tiff about the loft.  I want it 9 feet; he says that because of the placement of the windows in front and the door in the rear the big beam that has to cross the house has to go at 7 feet, rendering the loft 7x12, which is damn dinky, especially since at least 2 feet on each side of the 12 foot width is too low under the roof to do anything except amuse the cat.

 

And he is not easily amused.

But what can I do?  Suck it up and think of a nifty design to put on this big 10” wide beam that spans the width of the house and that will be seen from below --and, dear reader, 5” of which will have to be climbed over when one reaches the top of the ladder to get to the loft.  Hey, at least it’ll remind me of my old days on the shrimp boats, nestled in the berth.  But wait . . . as Woody Allen would say, “the wrong life is flashing before my eyes.”

Ev is also asking me to change not only the name of this blog but the name of the cabin as well.  He thinks it’s demeaning.  After all, the original poison ivy invasion, from which the cabin derived its nickname, has been sent packing.  Ev calls it “the Dacha.”  I am indebted to another blog called “the Strange Love” for this photo, in a post titled, cleverly, “Dacha.”. 

Um . . . be warned, it’s not a tiny house blog . . . I rather liked the photo of the retro blow-up doll . . .

http://hombresteph.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post.html

Enough of Winter! Let's Design a Garden

(Updated from yesterday--with photos!) 
In the front of the Ivy Palace, where once was just a rug of poison ivy (and 3 iron bed frames, a box spring, a mess of scraggly scotch pines and 300 feet of coiled barbed wire) there will now be a dear little front lawn.

The front of the house, as you know, is only 14 feet of lawn.  There used to be 90 feet but in 1982 a large curve was taken out of the road, to eliminate an overpass that crossed the Airline Trail. Now that it is a rail trail, cars can just cross it.  But poor Barney lost 90 feet of woodsy frontage.  However, there are about 5 cars a day on this road (except when the horsey folks get together, then it's trailer-o-rama but it's kind of cool to watch them) and plus, we got the Air Line Trail out of it, so I can live with 14 feet.  But one wants a bit of a buffer.

So, picture the house, in all its length of 20 glorious feet.
Now, right in front of it will be a 12" curtain drain instead of a roof gutter--I like them lots better.  Then there will be a 2-foot grass and stepping stone pathway, and in front of that is a simple but elegant wood fence, painted dark mouse brown, like in the photo below (which doesn't exist yet), on which are climbing New Dawn roses.  I think 3 of them, along the fence.

Now,walk round to look at the 18 foot fence (don't want exactly the same length as the house) from the street, and you will also see, interspersed, russian sage

white peonies

>
the smaller, darker Salvia "May Night" a bit to the front (above)

and interspersed with this some pale yellow daylily "Happy Returns"
and on the side and maybe a few behind the fence some digitalis ambigua (foxglve)
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and a fabulous new Echinacea "Sunrise."

I love "Solar Flare" and want to put it somewhere, but what I want here is the white-pink of the rose standing out against the fence and the light and dark lavender, with some soft white accents (peonies) and yellow contrasts, which will flower at different times.

The front of the house will have 3 awning windows, remember, since it is the street side and close to the road, but window boxes plus this fence/rose garden in front will anchor the house and make the oblong of the windows fit right in.
That's the plan anyway, if I decide to keep it.
Perhaps, since I'm still depressed, I will design the window boxes next . . .
I may not be a carpenter, but I am a landscaping fool . . .

Pete Visits Again

New email from Pete, the stealth photographer and friend of Barney's:

 

Cabin in the Woods

Slowly but surely, this old cabin in the woods has started to take on a new look, more or less. A face lift? No matter what, it's good to see the old structure coming to life again. Well, Penny, it's a good thing that you have lots of patience. Perhaps by spring thaw, or ice out, one's hopes would be rejuvenated. In the meantime, I'm enjoying seeing changes to your future dwelling. This place has interesting history. I just wish that good old Barney P. would have kept a journal about his time out at his secluded cabin.

Pete

 

Postcard from Ev

Sometimes Ev gets the feeling that I am too anxious for the roof to go on.  He worries about my blood pressure.  He is a mellow, laid-back sort of guy.  This type of personality does not produce the zippiest of roof jobs, but he genuinely likes the place, and even though it was 3 (count 'em) degrees last week, he was there, well into the afternoon.

He sent me this photo from the back door, which he called "On Rosy Pond."

 

I am just hoping that looking at the property enough will convince me I have not embarked on one of the biggest fools' errands of my life.

Oy!

Happy New Year!

The little house still does not have a roof.  I am too depressed to take photos of it.  Here's what most of the roads look like.  We had about a foot of snow the other day and it is still sticking.  Ev says don't worry, but the holiday has meant that everything has ground to a halt.  Plus it's 9 degrees outside.  I have paid Mike the mason to start on the chimney--I don't care if the roof's not done.  He can match up the flashing by eyeballing the plywood.  I suppose I will be on rock-schlepping detail. This poor thing has to get buttoned up. 

 

I have to say, it's still a pretty spot, even in snow.  Jo and I went walking on the Air Line Trail beside the house the other day.

Kinda cool.
But I fear for Barney's cabin . . . and my sanity.
I'm posting proposed front garden pictures next time.  Maybe that will cheer me up.