Progress continues on our dream home with sunsets over the Salish Sea, as Thor builds a sauna — a feature he considers essential for a home.
Thor keeps worries at bay by always making sure he has projects to build (heaven help us all if he runs out of things to build and places to put them!). Ever my hero-husband, he has spent many months recently driving me to cancer treatments and generally taking care of things while I’ve been disabled. But there were more hours he had to fill, so it was time to build us a sauna.
The back stretch of our near-acre lot after the house-building was a mess of bulldozed rubble, and we decided that major landscaping was beyond our abilities. Landscapers started with my idea for a berm and a tree “grotto” to provide a calm, sheltered area that would also give shade during the summer. Here, Thor sets out the footprint for the sauna and its deck:
Bulldozing and grading commenced.
Preparation for a level concrete pad:
Meanwhile, Thor followed a design to build a garden shed, so he could practice the sauna construction type on a smaller scale. It’s next to his “man cave” workshop that makes him so happy.
The landscapers installed trees and other plants, then made this gravel pathway to where the sauna deck would be. The concrete pad had been poured.
Thor installed footings and started building the stud walls.
The work crew: Thor did almost all the work himself, but called on his daughter Laura for help when four hands were needed. Bear dog, of course, was always a help. Ordinarily, I would have been the helper, but I did manage to take photos.
Siding going on:
Exterior siding and roof — check.
By now, it was rainy winter, and the first coat of paint got messed up by a downpour. Thor is leery of ladders and heights since he’s now dealing with peripheral neuropathy that affects his balance, but Laura had no hesitation in climbing like a monkey to nail the roof sheeting.
More paint. Thor let me choose the colors.
Next: building the deck.
On the side, an outdoor shower for cooling off between cooking sessions inside. When occasionally we get snow in this area, we like to roll in the snow for a real rush (and some shrieking).
The interior underway — cedar planks covering insulated walls.
The color of tile that Thor liked for the surround of the wood-burning stove was rectangular instead of square, so he got a tile cutter. (Any excuse for a new tool??) His elegant outfit featured a garbage bag for the splashing water from the cutter.
A beautiful stove delivered and fired up!
Next, Thor built a shelter roof over the sitting area.
After a couple of sauna sessions that made me nervous about Thor’s balance as he leaned over to stoke the fire, I talked him into installing safety rails he made from wood. (Can’t have hot metal to grab.) The river rocks on top of the stove are for creating steam when he sprinkles water with eucalyptus and peppermint oils for a wonderful sinus cleansing.
He brought the wood box he’d made for me at our previous home sauna. It features my Viking petroglyph dragon (I have some Nordic blood, too), which was the logo for a small press I started many years ago.
He also made a dragon door handle.
And, of course, the dragon cut-out that had adorned our previous sauna. I was born in the year of the Dragon, and we discovered that Thor was born in the year of the Rabbit, so he added a bunny. According to Thor, Bunny is telling Dragon, “You look all tied up in knots! Can I help?” Like I said, my hero.
Today, Turtle cat inspects our grotto. We just added a water feature to the dry river bed, but that’s a topic for another blog post.
Thank you, Thor! (He would be happy to answer questions via the Comments area below.)
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
