Shifting Priorities as Necessary

Hmmm... beginning to look like winter...

Rain, rain, rain here, probably snow tonite.

Mark (the builder) came by today with the first page of plans for the addition. See below.


We should be ready for the Planning Dept on Monday. Apparently you can save almost a week on receiving the building permit by hand delivering and picking up the plans and application at the main office in Santa Fe (70 miles). I'll talk with the people at the local office on Monday to make sure my ducks are lined up neatly.

I still need to choose a window for the bedroom - I want to put it near the north corner of the west wall. The view will be kind of like this:


The nice view will be near the ceiling, but the egress requires a lower profile. Mark has a new legal egress thermopane window (vertical) that might work - I have to get the dimensions.

I bought a grounding rod today, and a sledge. This will make it possible to get the phone hooked up.

I had a septic system guy up on the property day before yesterday, Carlos. He thinks we might be able to do a field big enough for 2 bedrooms - the tank would be the same - 1000 gal. He needs to call the gravel guys before he can give me an estimate - 28 tons for 2 bedrooms.

The weather has been very wet, however I do have a couple other septic guys who will be coming up soon. Right now, it's VERY muddy - I think I'll be graveling some paths to get around if this keeps up.

I'm also working on weatherproofing the yurt. I got some plexiglas to cover the ring at the top. The yurt door needs some sealing.

The house windows need sealing too, when it dries out...

The floor is now stained and sealed, 2 coats. We'll be securing the kitchen unit this weekend, and installing the woodstove, weather-permitting.

Mark wants to punch and frame the holes in the north wall, then insulate and cover them with the T-111 on the outside temporarily, so there'll be less dusty intrusion later on, when I'm inside.

I have a few weeks off from school until the next semester starts, around Jan 23, so the timing is actually good for moving, etc., etc., etc....

Boy, there's more news than I thought...

Masonite Floor

The floor is stained now, with one coat of sealer:

Well, it LOOKS like masonite - it's really cement - it'll be darker. This is only about a half-hour after the first coat of sealer. The look is very uneven, like Mexican saltillo tiles, but a dark coffee color. In case you forgot, here's the concrete floor, before:



Here's a picture taken through the car's front window (carefully...), coming down into Questa. The property is out of view here, I think, but it would be almost in the center of this image (the tiny red arrow - click picture to see it BIG), in the foothills of the big mountain, hidden here by the ridge in Questa town.


Another view, from my parking lot, looking south, toward the hill seen in the above image on the right, below, on the left...


The big one in the background here is Flag Mountain, site of the Lama Founation and the huge fire of '97(?).

Finally, here's the old cistern (just a big cement tank, no pipes in or out), in danger of further deterioration because of a combination of wet and cold. I've been covering it with cardboard, but some water is soaking part of the concrete, turning the cover back into gravel in the hard frosts.

More Weather

We had about 2 days of sun after the snow, but it rained yesterday and melted most of said snow. Somehow in all this, I managed to stain the floor:


The picture above shows the acid stain soaking in, before removal. I've since sopped all this up and rinsed the floor many times. The actual color is going to be more like black coffee, I hope (for max solar gain, as they say).

Yesterday, friend Steve hauled hauled up the bookcase I sold him long ago, which I just bought back from him... I was intending to seal the floor then, but rain had gone through the big thermopane windows... around them.... There was a bit of water on the floor, and obviously a lot of wind came with the rain.

So, today I'll work on sealing windows. If the sun comes out, I'll seal the floor.

Not sure about contractors... Sun and wind (good) and cold (bad) are forecast.

And what about the cat?
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