How to make Bathroom Shelves:

First, find a log in the woods:

Mill it into boards with the chainsaw mill:

collect your boards:

Use the table saw to trim off all the bad bits:

cut them to lengths, and glue together to get the right widths:

plane them... a lot:

and then plane some more:

and then put them together!

Now, of course, I have to make doors.

Back in the mud game!

we decided to tackle the finish layer of floor in the main bedroom today. One thing about these finish layers, you can't stop half way through a room, so we had to get it done today.

Mixed it up right in the living room:

and spread it around with the hand trowel:

working towards the door, of course:

we'll see how she turns out:

the whole solar system

I'm starting in on the solar electric system puzzle. It's going to take me a while to figure out what goes where.

Melissa takes it easy

We have the big tarp up over the yurt again, so it's shady and cool inside again. Melissa decided to take a break, doing some reading in the rocking chair with her feet up. the country life!

Updates after long pause

I've been dealing with some pinched nerve issues, so besides the guests, I've been on my back a bunch not getting stuff done... so not much to update. Thought I'd show off some things though:

the setting sunlight coming in the west door on solstice:

Melissa continues to lay out tile on the kitchen counter. Starting to look like a house!

The "farewell to spring" flowers are coming on strong... must be summer now!

We had a breech in the deer fence... or they figured out how to get through the one small door down to the west. Anyway, they got the grapes, amongst other things.

Talcotts visit!

Looking back at the blog to this old blog post we see how when Talcotts were here last time, they sat on what would become the living room bench:

well, a little further along, and now with Diana as well, they're back on the bench!

We also put Karl to work moving the irrigation barrels uphill a ways (to keep them out of the sight lines of the house) and plumb them into the grape drip line system:

Michael wants to point out how good the new grapes look: "it's right there!"

Tile and Wood

Melissa starts tackling the strange angles of the kitchen counter, planning out the layout of the 12x12 tiles:

and I got the bathroom door up on the hinges and oiled up. Here it is from the outside:

and here's an inside shot. Did I brag about how the window is a shelf from a refrigerator? I love that. Nice frosted window.

and since I had the linseeded rag (you have to be really careful with linseed oil, as it has a spontaneous combustion quality as it dries [on rags, not doors] so when I oil something, that's officially the last time that rag gets used. It goes into the firepit afterwards. So, I try hard to get every drop of oil and use out of a rag... so I run around re-oiling stuff), I cleaned up the living room benches:

Floors and Edges

Melissa did a bunch of work filling in the subfloor in the bedroom. We'd worn it down over the last year (or more?) kicking up dust and such, and so by sweeping up the dust, sifting it out and adding water, we were able to pretty easily spread it out again.

Note all the protection of the white walls from splashes. We will need that for the finish layer as well.

They say the oiled and waxed earth floor will be the same color it is when it's wet... so the above might be the color of our future floors.

Meanwhile, now that the granite counter end is in place, I've added the 'hip bumper' to that section (so we can get down to finishing the plaster around it) and started making it fit into the curve:

After some chiseling and some sanding, I added the first layer of linseed oil, and it looks pretty good:

I suppose I could have gotten it rounder, but it feels pretty smooth on your hand even now.

Top of the bathroom wall

Above the bathroom/hallway interior wall, we've put up a glass 'transom' or whatever.

The idea is that it will allow light in from the west - the sunset light - into the rest of the house. We used the old windows from our San Francisco apartment, some of which, I'm sure, are quite old.