Spring is coming and that can only mean that after a very long wait we will soon be back to building our home. It has been two years since the fire and our family isn’t back to normal yet. We were under-insured and without a fire department in our municipality we lost everything and didn’t have enough funds to pay a builder, buy a new home, or replace our possessions. But we’re strong and we’ve had some help along the way. The trouble is…we’re sick of building. We’re sick of commuting in to work on the house. We’re sick of being house poor.

In fact, that’s what we are. We could have moved into a full house over the winter but we ran out of money. Couldn’t buy insulation for the roof so we moved into the basement. If you think that might be a dreary place to be when you’re flat broke and the wind is howling outside your door, you’re right. It sucked. We were spared too much cabin fever however when a friend of less than 10 miles away asked us to look after her home for four months and once again we left our land and animals to suffer through one more hard winter without us.

I still came in every day for chores and my own work, but again we’re displaced – half living in a friends home without our ’stuff’, half living out of a basement. A mom of 46 who repeatedly slips into depression, a budding teenage daughter with many interests and activities and a dad/husband who has had months of trouble in his work and career due to the economy and just a lot of bad luck.

But Spring brings promise and hope!

The next step for us is to get some plumbing up to the main floor. We’re running Pex tubing that a local plumber gifted us with, if you ever want to return a favor for us and you need an excellent plumber in the Bancroft Ontario region look up Tony Bertucca of AJ Plumbing. Next time I find his phone number I’ll post it for you here. He does excellent work and I’m not just saying that because he is an acquaintance. He’s guaranteed to make you laugh too – he has an excellent sense of humor!

Once the tubing is in place we can head into the township office to get sign off on our Framing Permit. After that we’ve got to find $4,000 somewhere to put into the ceiling, pound on the siding for the gable ends and dormers and well, I guess we’ll worry about the rest if we ever get to it. That $4,000 sounds like a mountain we’ll never climb given our current work situation and the economy.

But I’ll keep dreaming. Carpentry work is in my list and I’ve got a kitchen to build! I’m planning on building my own cabinets – yes, that’s right a geek doing carpentry – but I’ve got two capable and able girlfriends to jump in and help me when Eric gets frustrated working with me and a lot of great ideas. The cabinets must be sturdy and tall. Tall because I don’t want to hunch over to cook and chop anymore in my life and sturdy because I’ll be making my own countertops out of concrete. If you think that’s odd, just wait until you see them! Concrete countertops are gorgeous and can even be made to simulate the finest granite.

I’m getting far ahead of myself here. Back to the cabinets – but first I have to learn a little more about carpentry! Here’s what I’ve learned so far and what I still need to absorb:

I won’t need a lot of this terminology, but I’ll include it for later reference or in case you need it when you build your own log home like we’re doing.

Architrave: The moulding used to surround doors, windows, arches or wood panelling.

Bay window: A window that extends out from the wall of a room. If you’re ghetto country you’ll recognize this to be similar to a tip out of a trailer. That’s a joke – poking fun at ourselves.

Beading: The narrow strip of wood with a half round profile used as an ornamental edging. If you’re really incapable you use it in place of quarter-round and hope no one notices.

Bolster chisel: Broad-bladed chisel used mainly for masonry work but useful for lifting floorboards. Hoping I won’t need it. I did enough chiseling to last a lifetime while putting these logs in place.

Brace: This one is going to come in handy building those cabinets. Braces are placed diagonally and used to prevent structures from buckling and sagging.

Casement windows: We have most of these in place and I love them. These windows have vertically and/or horizontally hinged openings.

Caulking: We’ve done a pile of that and have a pile more to go. Caulking seals joints and cracks, it is a flexible compound that has many uses so if you don’t know precisely what you need – ask or you’re sure to bring the wrong stuff home and it’s a long ride back to town.

Chalk line: Length of string, coated in blue chalk dust and used to produce accurate straight lines for many building anddecorating tasks. The line is held at both ends and ‘twanged’ against the surface to create a mark.

Chipboard: Chipboard is a manufactured building board made of compressed and glued wooden particles. I don’t like it and Eric hates squeeky floors so we used plywood for almost everything where chipboard might have gone.

Counter-bore: The insertion of a screw into the surface so that its head does not protrude above that surface. If the counterbore is deep enough, it may be plugged with a piece of doweling and fully hiding the screw head.

Counter-sink: The insertion of a screw into a surface so that its head does not protrude above that surface. Didn’t I just say that? I did, the difference between counter-bore and counter-sink I guess is all about the tool used to create the hole.

(continued in the next post…)