Today I installed the rain shower in the downstairs bathroom, right next to the tub.
The picture below shows the pex lines coming in, the valve and the top connection where the shower is connected.

Like most good ideas, it was a good idea in theory; making the tiled floor run down t0 a drain point,
so that a rain shower could be mounted to the wall next to the tub.
So I used normal hardy backer board for the largest part, and 1/4″ thinner hardy backer board for the drain area,
and used an aluminium ruler to make the slope from the thick hardy backer board to the thinner board using thinset
thus creating a slope down. So far, so good. In theory. In practise, the entire floor slopes down the wrong direction,
and the only level part is the part that was supposed to be sloped down.

So the problem I now have to solve is that the water runs down from tile row three,
all the way to the other side of the bathroom.
What I’m thinking to try first is put a barrier line of transparent silicon kit to form an invisible shower pan.
It will only need to be like a quarter inch tall, and if I put it in the grout, you would not see it.
If that doesn’t work I will have to create a shower pan using a small strip of tile.
But that would not look as nice and might be something you bump into with your toes.
So I will try the silicon kit tomorrow, after the floor has dried.

Sometimes you just want to do something else than stain or chink or code. So I picked a fun project.
Nothing more Wild West than saloon doors, right?
with two sets of double hinges and again some left over cedar wood,
I came up with these:

The shape is inspired by the bar, and created with a dinner plate as a template for the curves.
I still have to tweak them a little, as the sides hit each other in the center, but they do function; you simply push in the direction you want to go and they swing back to the closed position afterwards. Also, they need to be stained and sanded really smooth, to make it easy to “walk through” the doors,
without the wood catching your clothing.
Now someone can walk from the bedroom to the bathroom butt naked and all private parts would be well covered by the doors.

It was time for some scaffolding climbing again today; the gable end on the west side is the only wall not accessible without one.
The drywall is now in, putting an accent on the rafters.

You might notice some gadgets up on the rafter; that’s the LTE router:
That particular spot gives the best internet connection. (Karel found this spot)
The round thing is the Ikea gateway; it talks to homekit and controls all lights.
Apart from the upstairs bathroom and the upper east gable end, now all walls have drywall on them.
As the roof isn’t yet insulated or covered by boards, the white styrofoam keeps the worst draft out.
Today it was nice weather: 70’s (24 C) with sun. Finally the entire house warmed up again.
But in a few days the next cold front will arrive, so it will be sweater wearing time soon.

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).

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:

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.