December view

Snow snow snow is the recipe for the winter of 2008/2009.   This shot was taken at the end of December 2009 and you can see Bob on the porch - we were working on making sure things were well closed up for the upcoming winter weather.

Angara sign from Ronn Hann

Here is the gorgeous log sign that Ronn made and left for us to find like a Santa gift in December. The images of the rearing horses are a prelude to the arrival of the Morgans and Princess (Shetland pony) in 2009.

North and South Gables get soffit

Here is the nice job Don's crew did on the "Sandlewood" coloured steel soffit to close up the north and south gables.  An easier option for maintenance and looks OK with the colour of the logs.  We ran out of weather so the east and west gable ends are closed up temporarily with plywood and insulation until spring.    See also from this shot what a great job Jim did with constructing the arch on the south side (under the eyebrow).

Warming up in the basement

Catherine taking a break to warm up.  It got to -18C on December 12, which was a long day finishing the vapor barrier and then sweeping the snow out of the main floor.   Next year we will smile about this as we watch the snow swirl around from inside the house with a nice cup of tea (or glog...).

Keeping the basement warm

The ICF foundation does a great job of keeping the basement warm.  December 5 brings electricity to the house via hook up of the main panel in the basement, with some outlets and on December 12 also hook up of the power supply to the pump for the well.   Since the phone was also hooked up this week, technically we have power, phone, running water and septic now available (roughed in at least).   Thanks to Danny McIver for getting us power and making a heater and blower available.   It is now hooked up to keep the basement from freezing.  Bob is here showing where he put temporary insulation in the subfloor and is now installing vapor barrier - this is to keep things snug so that we do not freeze and heave that newly poured basement floor.  

Snow everywhere

Looking good from here on the outside too.   We have found that without the soffit installed in the gables and gable ends that we are getting snow blowing into the main floor on the inside ......so Don is going to do that as soon as he can.

Finally the north and south sides are shingled!

Early December sees the shingling done on the north and south sides including gables.  All that is left is the west and east side porch roof shingling, which we are leaving until spring because we need to stage off of these two sections of roof to install the east and west gable end siding and soffit.  These two sides are fully protected with ice guard and they are good an watertight for now.

There is so much snow that you cannot actually see that the shingling is done, you will have to trust me on this.....   Note that it looks sweet now with the windows and doors in place.