Back At It Again

Building season number five…back at it again. Wow! I didn’t think I’d ever be saying that since my original timeline ended with year three. But, as we’ve heard over and over again, building a house takes more money and more time than you ever imagine.

Scott just returned to Logan from his first trip of the season to Torrey. There were three things on his to-do list this time – get the myriad new trees and plants into the ground, make a list of things we need to purchase in order to get started on this year’s projects and work on the cement floor.

Right off the bat, Scott planted peach, apricot and linden trees, asparagus, raspberries, blackberries and hazelnuts. From our neighbor, Ann, he also learned how to graft scions of the crabapples trees here in Logan onto rootstock in Torrey. These are Rescue Crabapples that produce 2-inch fruits, which taste like flowers and make the most amazingly delicious, pink applesauce ever.

The office and bedroom floors were next.  After almost fifteen hours on his hands and knees, the saw cuts in the office floor are filled with grout and both rooms have more coats of linseed oil. 

Here is a storage room in Scott's office. The saw cuts have been cleaned out and the floor is now ready for grouting.

It took a while to decide on the right color for the grout, but, on one of our early evening walks last summer, we found a piece of rusted steel in a field. At the tile store, we matched the color of the steel to the grout and it proved to be perfect.

Scott filled all of the cut lines...

 then washed away the excess grout.

He followed the same procedure in the office workspace.

After cleaning the office floor once more, Scott applied another coat of linseed oil. The concrete won't absorb any more, so we feel like that floor is ready for the traffic of life.

In the bedroom, Scott dug out all of debris that had collected in the saw cuts over the last year. This removal was somewhat of a timeline of the evolution of our house - cottonwood fluff from before there were any walls three summers ago, plenty of straw from stacking bales two summers ago and compacted plaster from last summer. Following this floor excavation, he thoroughly washed the floor. 

 

Next he applied four coats of linseed oil,

Now the floor is ready for grout when we return to Torrey in a few short days...that is once we gathered all of the materials on the long list he prepared.