Another polar vortex swooped down from the Arctic yesterday afternoon, and I tracked its progress online trying to figure out when the howling winds and eye-crossing headache it brought would abate.

It was 10 degrees here this morning at 7:00 a.m. It’s close to noon and the temperature still hasn’t passed 20.

I just went outside to bring in some firewood—to get the woodstove going to supplement the electric heat—and while I was out I turned on the outdoor tap on the wellhouse to fill Tucker’s water bucket. Well, the tap turned, but no water came out. Hmmmm….Then one second later my well house began to cry, water running out of the wall along the lower layers of siding. That’s when I saw the icicles, incongruously where no water usually flows…

Of course I knew what this was. All the plumbing for my house runs through the well house basement, which also houses my well pump, and it’s exposed to significantly more temperature variation than within my house. I’d had a taste of winter plumbing issues a few weeks earlier when my water filter, also in the basement, froze and needed emergency defrosting before I could get any water to run to the indoor taps.

So expecting a new basement swimming pool, I went inside to put on my wellies. Thankfully the basement wasn’t entirely flooded, but I found some nice icicles and dripping water, which I traced back up the stairs to the pipe that runs from the basement to the outdoor tap.

I peeled back the insulation to reveal the money shot. Sure enough, the pipe had burst. Another copper victim for the polar vortex!

I suppose burst pipes are a homeowner rite of passage and all things considered, if one had to go this was the one that would cause the least damage. Now I stand in solidarity with my burst-pipe brothers and sisters across the country as this winter continues to beat the crap out of most everyone.

Thankfully, when a friend did some plumbing upgrades I’d asked him to install a shutoff valve to this external faucet, with a scenario just such as this in the murky back of my mind. I can turn the water off to the the entire affected section and only be out the use of my outdoor tap. I’m pretty sure I’ll wait a few weeks—or maybe a few months the way this winter is going—to have it fixed.

Much has happen in the last two weeks. My builder emerged from the holidays like a house on fire (knock on wood) and there has been a steady stream of tradesmen through the house. The siding guys completed much of the horizontal siding. Taking my cue from the old wood siding on the well house, I went with a 5″reveal on the HardiPlank to approximate the look of an older home. It’s primed and ready for paint, though a neighbor stopped by the other night to tell me how much she loved the color of it as is!

I’ve been kept very busy figuring out my electrical plan, including phone/tv and data cables, the blue and black wires shown above, dangling in the laundry room awaiting eventual hookup. I’ve also plotted out all my light fixtures and exactly where they need to be hung, and walked the house many, many times “practicing” tuning on light switches to make sure their locations make sense.

One of the small joys of building a home is that I get to put things exactly where I want them. In many ways, this house is sized to fit me. From the placement of outlets and switches to the length of the bathtubs to the height of the showers and the head room above the toilet in the master bath—above—I’ve used my own body as a measuring tape.

Insulation went in today, and I was amazed that all the exterior walls and roof were accomplished in one day. The house feels different now—fluffier! I am particularly taken with the shape that’s emerging in the large gable dormer that’s in my upstairs bedroom:

Next week we say goodbye to the studs and hello to real walls as drywall starts on Jan. 25.  My builder wrapped the faux beams in the kitchen in preparation.

Other changes include the build-out of the porch. The front porch is getting beefed up with a drop beam, weightier paneled columns, and the tounge and groove floor and ceiling pine is ready and waiting in the garage. I won’t even get into the hours of consternation and drama that went into figuring out how to finish this porch. It was a challenge!

In the meantime, seed catalogs are pouring into my mailbox and the recent warm up has me dreaming of planting time. I can’t wait until next summer when I can come home from work, take off my heels and dress clothes, and walk right out the door to my garden. I have a feeling it’s going to be great.

You are going to rock!

I returned to the farm today after a wonderful, much-needed trip to a bustling big city to see beloved friends. Much awesome beer, delicious food, and goofing around has me relaxed and ready to power through the second half of getting this house built. I’m going to need all the help I can get to stay focused and not let the stresses get me–and the stresses are flying fast and furious. Planning parties–and returning hosting favors–for next summer also helps keep my eye on the goal.

Work has moved inside, which is good as temperatures are expected to barely get above freezing this week. The plumbers have been setting  tubs and running pipes. The electrician has begun to hang boxes for switches and outlets. I pity the siding crew that will be finishing up exterior siding this week. It was so cold at the house today that when I walked on top of the remaining snow, my boots left no tracks. But the birds were singing like crazy in the sun, I fall more in love with the farm each time I visit, and 2010 is going to be my best year yet.

And what a doozy it was!

A  snowstorm last Friday and Saturday dropped a “historic” two feet of snow on the farm. The roads weren’t clear enough to get up to the house until late Tuesday night, when the Intrepid Tractorplower arrived to clear the driveway for the siding delivery later this week. Thanks go to I.T. for both the photos and his mad snowclearing skillz.

I can’t wait until next year when I’ll be able to awake to these wintry views and make my own footprints through the fields.

The board and batten siding was installed on the second floor last week. That will all be painted one color, same as the siding below, so my house will lose its charming zebra stripes. As soon as the horizontal siding–which was delayed in the storm–arrives and is installed, the exterior of the house will be truly buttoned up and work will head inside, where the HVAC ductwork has been completed and the plumbers are now roughing in for fixtures.