Winter Blues

Building a house in winter has its downers. We are set back by both exterior and interior problems.The damage from the last ice storm occupied the workers who were supposed to lay in the electricity & phone line, dig the leech field, hook up water and the septic, finish the driveway, clear out the trees taken out in the Fall, and bring in the remaining fill around the house. They were all clearing away tree damage in Kinderhook and abandoned us. The big blue septic tank (see pictures below) was put in place two days ago, but the dump truck delivering gravel could not make it up our icy drive. Phone and electricity will be run from off site until Spring. Everything looks half done and it is a drag! The driveway is too treacherous to reach by anything less than a 4 wheel drive with great snow tires. Walking down to the house is an obstacle course due to mounds of dirt and deep holes covered with dirt. No visitors, please!

The interior has its own particular problems. We closed up the house in November, right before the first snow. The interior wood, which is new and about 40% water, demands that we constantly run two fans and two dehumidifiers. Even with this, every morning we mop up a couple of condensed quarter- sized water droplets which fall from the beams. The wood floors are in, but we'll keep the paper and cardboard down until the droplets quit. I'm feeling lucky, though. A post and beam project in the area, so the drywall guy said, came to a hault in the. Condensation created a tropical rainforest in the whole house, complete with constant rain showers.

Still things have been done. The whole interior has been taped and painted, shelves are in place, the bathroom is finished, a woodstove installer was found (difficult to find!), and the countertop is coming soon and will finish off the kitchen. I'm beginning to sing and record there already, thanks to the wonder of pocket-sized digital recorders.

It will be a wonderful work space and pleasant place to be...once things start moving again. A snow storm is predicted for Tuesday. Yes, another one. I pray it's snow and not ice...

Septic pipe waiting, waiting, waiting for dirt. Meanwhile, watch your step. (Note: end windows are now four-sided instead of triangular. No glass cutter in the area would cut the glass to a point and guarantee it after seeing that the glass would be set against pine. This was our solution.)

First coat of "Lotus Gold" in the studio area.

Bathroom before and after. Still, only for show.