Another Busy Week

I should feel a sense of accomplishment... and I do... but mostly I just feel exhausted.  It has been a very busy week working on the guest cottage.

I headed out on a solo trip on the afternoon of July 26th, and will stay until the end of the month.  I worked around six to eight hours every day, and managed to get quite a bit done.

I picked up the 75 pine seedlings in Rocky Mountain House on my way out.  I cut stakes for all of them, and managed to get them all planted.  We still need to get them all caged with chicken wire so the deer don't eat them, but that will have to wait for another trip.

While I had the table saw out cutting stakes, I also cut up a bunch of other material for the guest cottage.  I used up a bunch of scraps of plywood and 2x6 and made some storage shelves that will go in the crawl space of the guest cottage.  I put these together and set them up down below.  I also cut up some of the material needed to enclose the plumbing vent and exhaust vent up on the small loft.  And, I ripped some aspen down into narrow trim boards to finish up the last of what is needed.

I finished up all the painting of casing, and applying lacquer to the last of the aspen trim.  It took several coats, and some drying time, so the elapsed time for this was stretched out over severalf days.  In between I dealt with the pine seedlings.

There was a pile of construction waste behind the guest cottage.  This was cuttings and leftovers of siding and soffit material, as well as some cardboard and wrappers.  There was also a pile of old plywood cuttings and joist ends behind the main cottage that dates back over five years.  I cleaned up both of these piles and loaded up all the waste for a run to the dump.  I added a few bags of construction waste from the ongoing interior finishing.

On Saturday night I visited with our new neighbors.  They recently bought the cottage next door to ours... the one that used to belong to my friend and neighbor Dan.  Sadly Dan had to sell, and we ended up with new neighbors.  They seem nice, but this is their second cottage here in the subdivision and I learned that they intend to rent it out as a short term rental.  I'm not thrilled about it, but there's nothing I can really do, as short term rentals are allowed under the County bylaws.  Hopefully it does not get out of hand.

On Sunday I installed particle board subfloor to the main loft.  This was a tedious job as it involved a lot of up and down.  I also had to slide the sheets of material up the ladder, which was a bit of a challenge given that I am just recovering from a hockey injury to my shoulder.  And, the space up there is very cramped, so I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees fitting the subfloor panels and gluing and screwing them down.  But, by the end of a long day, I was done.

There remains three pieces of trim to be installed above the kitchen counter.  I will complete that on Monday before I head back to the city.  Once that is done, there is no more woodwork or finishing work that needs to be done inside the cottage.  So the next time I come out I can clean up all the mess and get ready to start installing the flooring.  I'm hoping that on Monday, before I have to return to the city, I can take a little time to relax and either play a round of golf, or go fishing, or get for a bit with my camera.  Once I get back to the city I will be busy for a while as the Renegades are in the playoffs.  With our game one victory before I left town we only need to win one of the next two games to advance to the finals.