Final posting for this project

We had a big yearning to see our kids so we took a road trip further west to California to see how they were faring. It was our first chance to meet Heather, Lars' main squeeze since several years back. The visits were brief but totally wonderful. It takes a whole day of driving to get from the LA area where Krispin is based up north to the Grass Valley where Lars lives. Rest and recuperation was on the agenda and reading in a local park with Kib was delicious.

The drive home was via Reno, Nevada ... after that we took route 50 across the rest of the state and all the way home. That first several hundred miles deep into Utah is total desert ... dry and inhospitable beyond anything you can imagine ... no passing cars, no life, no growth, no sign of humans, no water, nothing ... the stretch is nicknamed the "Loneliest Road in America" ... it was a real relief to come out at the other end without any unexpected hiccups.

This is an attempt at connecting the great swath of a hugely vast panoramic vista as we emerged from the desolate miles behind us. The greenery is refreshing ... we did watch for rattle snakes with every step we took though. Please ignore the fact that Chris appears twice in the image.

Back on task. IKEA is a wonderful supply house for what I need now, here I am assembling bookcases for upstairs. You can see we've hung one of our tapestries on the wall behind the staircase ... making it homey.

Here is an attempt at showing a broad space upstairs ... Chris was pressed hard against the banister as he took the three shots for me. This is where the bookcases I was assembling went ... it's the ones on the right. I felt that the bookcases set at a right angle would help define the sitting/reading area from the rest of the studio which is further to the right. We will make a solid top surface and paint it green just like the rest.

 You might remember that Chris has been diligently searching for months for a left handed lock for our front door. Well, he finally came up with one and now it is installed and functioning. That giant key is the actual key of course ... a bit big for a key chain in your purse. I couldn't be more thrilled.

Small things are getting done along with the bigger ones. Notice the little teardrop detail at the peak of the gable ... every gable peak gets one just like it.

We have several feral cats--wild cats, roaming around here surviving as best they can, actually they have appeared pretty healthy. All of a sudden, one of them delivered three kittens under our woodpile tarp while we were in California. They were growing and getting quite cute when we realized that we hadn't seen the mom for a few days and the kittens were getting more and more lethargic. Abbi and Evan approached the babies after a couple of days and they didn't care to hide like normal plus there were only two remaining. Chris and I were gone for the day and we came home to this startling news in the form of a note on our counter. Abbi nursed the two for a few days and then they were moved to our pantry. They are getting used to humans and starting to purr and they are awfully cute as kittens tend to be. The plan is to get them to about 8 weeks old and then have them neutered at the SPCA and returned to the wild. I don't really want any house cats, but some mousers outside would be fine.

Our decks have received their second coating of UV protective stuff and should all be good for several years before needing another dose.

Here's a three-legged rocking chair story ... I already had one, the black one. It was my Mormor's and I dragged it home from Sweden many years ago. I loved it in front of our fireplace ... sit there and read or chat by the warm hearth when it is cold outside. But we needed two and I had no idea how to get a hold of another. So I searched the web and chanced to find an antiques dealer in Los Angeles who had one! His appeared to be exactly the same as mine. This was fortuitous, for we were planning a trip to visit Krispin anyway. Wow! What luck! I called Ken, the dealer, and he was Swedish too, so we made a deal and now the beauty is in place and all is as it should be. You can see, we also found a perfect home for three of our weavings on the banister wall above the Tulikivi.

Here are Chris and I working on this year's new supply of wood to feed that Tulikivi. We are awaiting another load any day now.

A few big things remain undone but are on the docket: gutter installation, final driveway prep, master bathroom finalizing (the tiling is almost done), stone facings installed around master bedroom's propane stove and a real fireplace built in the den (which we will do in the spring).

This will be my last posting chronicling this home building effort of ours. It has been about two and a half years of hard labor and the end is in sight. We thank all those who have stayed the course with us and cheered us on ... it has been a big boost for our morale when the going got tough.

Please come visit us!