Getting Back Into The Groove

Steve came by and picked me up at 8:00 a.m. and we were on our way to The Drunken Bear for the first time since late last fall.  Steve had gone up a couple of times over the holiday season and did some various things.  I was still working then and trying to get my house decorated for the holidays, so I was not able to join him.

It was a cold morning, with frost everywhere.  It was one of those mornings where you look at the houses and the roofs are all the same color...white.  Steve pointed that out as we were approaching Monroe.  It looked like a scene out of the Stepford Wives where nothing could be out of the ordinary.  Thankfully the look was only temporary.

There were some major changes on the way to the cabin since the last time I was there.  First, the new exit from Hwy. 522 onto Hwy. 2 at Monroe is now open.  It makes it so much easier and faster to make the transition.  Now you just turn right at the exit from Hwy. 522 and as you leave that exit, you are immediately onto Hwy. 2...no more making the loop and having to stop at the stop light.  The next two changes were not so nice.  First, the church that had been converted into an art gallery and residence in Startup caught on fire on Christmas day and is now unliveable.  And the second change was the clear-cutting of trees on the ridge overlooking the quarry near Zeke's Drive Inn.  It ia always sad to see trees disappear...even knowing that one day they will be back.  Of course, these trees might never be back if the mountain is taken for use by the quarry.

We stopped by the Sultan Bakery for breakfast.  The food here is always great tasting and is more than plentiful.  Both Steve and I had the 3 meat omelet, hashbrowns and toast.  The omelet is filled with ham, sausage and bacon.  Neither one of us could finish the meal and each took a doggie bag.  Outside of Seattle, restaurants can still use the styrafoam containers.

When we got to The Drunken Bear, we decided to try putting on the doors to the wood shed first since it wasn't raining.  Steve figured out how we would do this and had brought the hardware for hanging them, but once we got started, Steve thought it would be better to use another type of hinge.  It will work better on one of the doors that we will not be able to open all of the way becasue of a large tree in the way.

We next tackled the rigid insulation.  When we first got the building permit, the R factor of the insulation required was R38.  When we had to renew our building permit, the R factor had changed to R49, a much thicker insulation and one that would not fit the trusses we already had in place.  The inspector even thought it was strange that the requirement could be changed once the trusses and the roof were already on the cabin.  Anyway, we are trying to comply and hence the need for the rigid insulation.  After some time of calculating, we finally decided we wanted to come up 3 feet from where the walls meet the roof (you'll be able to see what I am talking about in the picture below).  We then had to cut the installation to size.  What a mess that was.  We cut the first 4X8 piece inside the cabin and there was a fine dust everywhere!  We decided since it wasn't raining, we would move the saw outside and finish the cutting.  Out of each 4X8 piece we got 3 - 3 foot pieces and 4 - 1 foot pieces.  The 1 foot pieces we would tape together to make another 3 foot piece.  These 1 foot pieces were also easier to work with when we had to go around lighting fixtures or wires.  Just one more step on our way to finishing the cabin.

Oh, by the way, when we were going through Sultan, the temperature was 32 degrees.  It felt much colder at the cabin, but luckily Steve had brought up two propane heaters when he came up during the holidays and in no time, the chill factor dropped...thankfully!

The new Hwy. 2 exit off of Hwy. 522

Oh no Mr. Bill...we ran out of gas...luckily not too far 

from a gas station in Goldbar

While waiting for Steve to come back with the gas, I took this

picture to show you what $600 in insulation looks like...

each 4 foot by 8 foot piece was $99.16 plus tax!

There's our saviour...with the new $9.00 gas can he had to buy.  

Whatever happened to the friendly loaner can?  Oh, the good ol' days.

We are really behind in snow levels this season.  

This shows the snow line of the little bit of snow we had gotten the night before.

The water bucket by the fire pit had a very thin layer of ice
over the top.  Looking in, it looked like a little terrarium.

Steve standing in front of the woodshed as he was finishing taking the measurements.

We haven't yet figured out what is doing damages to the trees
around the area.   Here you can see where the bark has
disappeared on the left side of the tree. There are some
trees that are stripped of the bark all the way to the top.

The very fine dust from cutting the insulation.  Almost looks like a fine dusting of snow.

Steve installing the 3 feet of rigid insulation between the trusses.

We will be using rolled insulation on the rest of the ceiling.