Bathhouse 6

On Thursday, June 11^th we started the work on Chekhov’s cottage, and the first day was a long one:  eleven hours, with only a short break for dinner.  Though the engineering of the kit is very impressive (the logs fit together perfectly in most cases, and the few which don’t usually only require a few minutes of pounding and/or tweaking), the front wall was not sufficiently stable until the logs above the door were in place, so we were loath to stop until we reached the top of the walls (“we” being mostly me, Chekhov and a hired man who occasionally does hard physical labor for me at Sunset).  This picture was taken from my office window the next afternoon, once we’d built up the gables and installed most of the roof purlins.  On Saturday we put in the floor for the loft so as to have a place to stand on Sunday while installing the tops of the gables and the last three roof purlins, which were simply too awkward to manage from ladders at that height; then on Wednesday the 17^th we had another long day (9 hours) building the roof.  Since I’m the lightest I was the one in the safety harness up on top, while Chekhov handed up the boards and, working from a ladder, screwed them to the wall and the lowest purlin while I handled the four higher points of attachment.  It wasn’t nearly as exhausting as the day we built the walls, but by the time I got in the shower a bit after 9 pm I was bruised and sore from the cramped, awkward positions I had to work in all afternoon.  Last week we installed the floor, and earlier this week we shingled the roof; Grace has been busy installing a new breaker box so we can wire it for electricity.  Now we’re working on the wellhouse deck between the back door and the cottage porch; we should be finished that in the next few days. Look for a pic of the completed cottage next week!