The upstairs bedroom walls are in, now making the room look like this:
As you can see, the ceiling is still unfinished, but the 2×4’s are in place to hold up either the 1/4″ drywall, 0.5″ drywall, or ship lap boards.
Although I’d prefer ship lap boards, they are about 4x more expensive than drywall, so once reinforcements have arrived,
we will see if the drywall stays up without sagging.
At least this room is now taking shape. It’s small but not too small.
To keep things interesting I alternate jobs, like the bar, coding, handling remote orders and questions, FaceTime calls with Germany, and today getting the last drywall walls in.
The top section is now also in, but I did not take a new picture
This wall is upstairs and makes a bedroom with en-suite bathroom.
From the inside it looks like this;
The door on the left leads to the small bathroom, the door on the right to the hallway.
The ceiling will be lower here, so hot air in the roof does not affect the room too much.
Once insulated and drywalled on this side, this room should be easy to heat/cool,
as it is much smaller. For the ceiling I also bought some thin sheetrock (drywall).
It may not be thick enough to stay straight when mounted at an angle or horizontal,
but it’s so much cheaper than ship lap boards,that I want to give it a try.
Hopefully I will find a way to mount them by myself.
They aren’t that heavy, but rather large and breakable. If it doesn’t work, I will use them
to do the gable ends upstairs, which still need to be done on the inside too.
For that, they will work and will be easier, as they are half the weight of the normal drywalls.
This bedroom does have a double bed, which I still have to make a frame for from Cedar,
so for now the mattress is on the floor (see top picture). The Ikea lamp was already put up by Karel last week.
(It may look like a chandelier on this picture, but it’s actually a rope like fabric, lit up by the bulb).
Currently the bar looks like this:
Six drawers in place and the waste bin under the sink is new.
The one you see on the right will not stay there; that will get the final three drawers, which are wider and intended for heavier loads.
I ran out of drawer sliders, so the last three will take a few days longer.
One thing my brother Karel and myself have in common is our love for gadgets,
and our ability to create our own. Karel brought a smart mirror he made himself which is now
above the bar. Apart from obviously reflecting, when someone is in front of it,
it shows the weather forecast, the latest news in white and can be further customised.
(The picture doesn’t do it justice, but it’s not easy taking a picture of it; I will try later with a tripod)
In the future I think I will add a personalized welcome message on it, and maybe some tips on how to use Siri;
the home pod can control lights, give information and play music by voice control.
Besides the home pod, I’m using Trädfri, Ikea’s wireless lighting system, so all lights can be controlled with an App,
or by voice commands. Shouting “Hey Siri, turn off all lights” works from every room and reminds me of the TV series “Little house on the prairie”,
back in the 70’s where the family would say good night to each other through the walls after turning of the light.
This is a 21st century version of that 😉
Near Wimberley, is a small Pioneer town, that shows how the first settlers also built chinked log cabins:
Silicone based Chink (PermaChink) wasn’t invented then, so they used clay, which dries up, shrinks and leaves cracks.
The Cabin is in a street that could have been taken straight out of western;
Here are some shots of individual buildings and from the center of the town:
In the summer and in the weekend, this place has a lot of tourists. Now, it was just us.
Besides a plumber, electrician, painter, carpenter and coder, I’m as you know a runner.
Finding a good place to run around here is not so easy; plenty of nature but either inaccessible or private property.
So I went to Canyon Lake, or to be more precise, Overlook Park at Canyon Lake. Here’s a 180 degree view from the waterline:
On the right you see the dam. It’s rocky here, but on some spots around the lake are some small sandy beaches.
Just below the dam is Dam Red Bar: it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but serves decent burgers and beer.
Just down the road is a gorge that I passed while running:
When I started planning the kitchen, I thought I would just buy Ikea cabinets and easily be done wit it. But then I thought;
I’d like a bar with barstools and proper bar height, so Ikea become a non option, as Ikea kitchen look like crap from the back.
Besides, they are made of particle wood which does not fit the log home.
So, instead of having a few boards to slap together, I had to design and make everything from scratch.
This also includes drawers, the first three of which are now in;
Above, the first three drawers are in, in closed position.
Below shows them opened up.
Obviously, they need to be stained still. Oh and notice the running faucet?
The faucet is connected and the sink drain is going through the floor (I still need to
connect it so the septic pipes below the home, but at least the kitchen can now be used to do dishes.
Downstairs already had all 4 doors, but today, I added 2 doors upstairs;
This is the door to the master bedroom upstairs, seen from the bathroom.
This is the two doors, on the left towards the bathroom, on the right to the stairs.
Never mind the mess there: it’s doubling as storage space, work area and bedroom.
As you may know, my brother is like my self a fully qualified electrical engineer. Although I don’t have any pictures of the details,
I would like to mention that he did a very good job of hooking up power to several places in the home,
like light in the guest bedroom, power upstairs, a better spot for the wifi, increasing the speed.
The bar is starting to look nice too:
Thanks to Lina’s staining and suggestion to move the fridge to the corner,
which makes the kitchen look bigger too.
The countertop is in, But the faucet and sink are not yet hooked up, nor are there any drawers.