David Ruppert

Ok, after two and a half months of getting things done at the cabin, I’ve finally got a split second to sit down and post up some pictures. I started with this one because Jordan’s adorable and this is one of the 4000 pictures I have that prove it.

Our first order of business is this crazy loft. Anne and I are sleeping up here and, as you can see, there’s no way to get up to that little oasis. The previous owner had a folding ladder, but no . . . no that will not do.

Luckily, I know a guy who does stairs, so this is an easy one.

Next is the bathroom . . . which should come as no surprise. This is some exhausting work. Very sweat-inducing work. And, at this point, showers are still being done with a clean wash rag. It’s . . . uhh . . not ideal, but mandatory at this point. Let’s not even talk about restroom breaks cause . . . . these are the existing ‘facilities’.

Aannnd, that’s just not going to do it. So, this will be our new bathroom.

First, we need to add some framing [we need to build out the exterior wall to account for some existing trim].

. . . and framing in the shower . . .

. . . and finishing things up.

While we were doing our little framing project this happened!

I know . . “a pile of dirt . . whoopidy doo”, but my friends that is a brand spankin new septic tank. Something to store all 10-200’s [virtual high five to all the Smokey and the Bandit fans].

This bathroom is going to require some additional electrical work, including this new heater . . .

. . . and some actual plumbing.

And . . with actual plumbing comes roof vents. Good times.

In the midst of all this, we manage to screw around on the property, and I manage to make my ‘ol lady [she LOVES that] drive me around so I can do absolutely nothing.

At some point we brought down the propane tank. Even though it’s Texas, it does drop below 60 once or twice a year . . . we’ll need something to power the heaters. It made for quite an interesting time unloading . . . a kind of ’strap on to it here and I’ll drive the trailer out from under it’ disaster. It was not OSHA approved, but this is the country. Nothing’s OSHA approved.

This was the old cart. It was fine, but struggled getting around some of the steeper inclines.

So we opted for this one instead. This one’s the mayor of Awesometown.

This was a bit of a bummer. Though we have a seemingly endless number of trees around the property, we don’t like to cut down ANY. This one, however, is going to interfere with the new addition. Soo, it’s gotta come down. Bye bye you glorious shade.

We’ve now made it all the way up to this past weekend. The plumber was back out to start the 1100+ foot of water line from the neighbor’s well.

Madison ended up on the wrong side of the mote. She’ll probably perish as a result. It’s been a good run.

One of the few upsides of doing our own work? Playing with red-blooded, gas powered, heavy-duty commercial equipment.

Mmmmm. That’s the kinda stuff that puts hair on your chest. And then covers it in a sweaty, dusty muck-like adhesive.

So here’s where the plumber left off. That 1100′ of water line was . . umm . . ’bout 50′ foot short. In a couple of weeks he’ll be back out to connect it to this pur-tee new pump, then into the cabin. Then some additional line work inside and we’ll have ourselves a running toilet. Imagine. Indoor plumbing. Move over Jeffersons, we’re moving on up.

While the plumbers played in the dirt, we had our own fun. We need to begin the foundation for the addition.

Twenty five 3′ holes.

Twenty 60lb bags of concrete.

And two incredibly sore backs

We’re going to skip next weekend and be back out the following weekend. Thank God.

This entry was posted onMonday, July 21st, 2008 at9:19 pm and is filed underCabin, Nothing. You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.