Today was the first day of "teacher school" before the real thing starts next week. There is a great deal to do in my classroom to make it ready for the school year, so it's not likely that I'll accomplish much more on the house in the next few weeks. Tomorrow I plan to scrape and "foam" a crack in a concrete slab outside and above my classroom. It funnels water right down the basement wall, where it leaches through and crystalizes on my inside wall. I'm going to try to stop it from doing that before I attempt to seal and paint the inside wall.
However, this evening I did go over to Walnut Hill with a tank of water and get the well running again. It seemed to take a lot more water to prime it this time than it did last time. At some point in the future I will have to install some modifications to the system to make re-priming easier if it should be necessary, but for now it works and I can hook up a hose and get water out of it. The pressure tank appears to be functioning as well. The pump cranked the tank up to pressure and the cut out switch worked. That was something that was new. Last time when I flushed out the well and ended up running it dry I don't think the pressure tank ever got charged up. I still need to get the water quality tested too.
I rigged up the hose this evening and set to work scrubbing down the panels that ring the pool. They've got probably five to seven years of grime and dirt on them, but it's amazing what a little elbow grease can do. They scrub right up with a stiff brush, which pleases me inordinately. It was a singluarly pleasant experience to have the hose gushing out clear, cold water under pressure and be able to make a visible, tangible difference in the look of the place from the effort. Standing in that warm water, with the occassional spritz of cool water backsplashing on me from the panels, scrubbing away. It was a nice hour or so. I brought over a nozzle for the end of the hose that let me control the flow so as not to run the well dry this time. It did raise the water level in the pool about an inch, when I let it run in a while. That should translate into about 270 gallons if my math is correct. Nice to know I can get that much out of it without risking a problem, even in dry times.
I plan to put on a party for some of my students a week from Saturday so I'm cleaning a few panels each time I'm over there and making a dent in the job. I managed to get all the decking cleaned off a few days ago. It was so lovely to be there today with the cool evening air and the water warmed by the sun. Some year I'm going to put a solar heater on it so that it gets even warmer, but it's not too bad now.
The party will be a "bring your own snacks" picnic affair. I'll whip up some lemonade and have some soda on ice and we'll have a good time. If I had the time and lumber it would be fun to build some picnic tables, but that will have to wait for this one. I might be able to rig something up with saw horses though...
Sal has discovered that she can work on her computer over there and is busily hunting up leads for a new job. She'll feel a lot better when she finds something productive (with benefits) to put her energy into, I think. Her rib is improving in fits and starts. She's anxious to be able to work on the place again too.
That's all for tonight.
Doug
Friday, August 17, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Progress!
There are, in any project, times that you feel like you're standing still and times that it feels like you're going somewhere. Today was a "going somewhere" day.
The first thing that helped it be that way actually happened last night. I worked most of the afternoon and was finally able to get the well pump working! It required priming, water had to fill the pump itself plus the pipes leading down into the ground where a little water at high pressure would push a lot of water up at lower pressure.
Not knowing how much water it would take, but figuring it would be a lot, I bought a 65 gallon tank to fit in the back of my pickup and rigged it up with some hose and a valve. Ironic moment: it only took five gallons of water to prime the pump. (So now I'm set to play "water boy" when I do some long marches with friends next year, but that's another story.)
The first gushes of water were pretty ugly. They didn't smell but they were rusty, muddy brown and I was concerned that this would be all I'd get. After about 15 gallons or so, the water cleared right up and ran clear and cold the rest of the evening. I flushed out the well, ran it dry in fact. Ooops. The first 15 minutes I watered bushes, then I scrubbed down the deck around my pool. After that I put it to run into the pool, figuring that if there was anything in there that was harmfull it would get diluted and killed by the chlorine. After about 90 minutes of constant pumping at about 30 psi and a delivery rate of around 3 gpm, the water flow stopped. I didn't get anything muddy or foul at the end, it just stopped flowing. So far so good!
I used the rest of the water in my truck's tank to help replenish the pool. I've calculated that each tankful raises the level in the pool by 1/4". Even though we got some rain today, I don't think I'll pump the well at my current home dry trying to completely refill the pool. :)
I'd like to figure a way to collect the rain water off the barn roof for that use, but that'll be a project for down the road.
So well water is now on site, available in at least limited quantities from the ground. The house plumbing that is now there is full of splits due to freezing and neglect, so it's all coming out and an entirely new system will be put in it's place. I'm going to use the PEX tubing because it offers me the best options as a DIYer in terms of safety, speed and flexibility. Since I will be doing an "in slab" PEX heating system in the back wing, and in floor heat for the rest of the house where there are wood floors, I splurged and bought the tool that will let me crimp several sizes of tubing. Cool stuff to work with. I was stunned that Home Depot didn't even know anything about it. I had to go to Lowes to find the supplies.
The second big thing wrt progress happened today. Our kitchen cabinets are essentially finished. All the base cabinets and wall cabinets are done, with a few minor things like window glass to still be installed. My wife was really excited to see them all set up and arranged in the shop's warehouse, ready to be packaged and stored until we're ready for installation.
It looks like the wooden floor now in place under three layers of linoleum will not be a candidate for refinishing. It has been overlaid with tarpaper and the tar has stained the wood beyond the level it can be refinished, methinks. So we stopped by the flooring showroom today and looked at some options for the kitchen. We saw one we liked, a sort of limestone tile looking product that glues down and is sealed but individual tiles can be heated, removed and replaced should they be damaged. Lifetime warranty, etc. We didn't talk price yet, but that's a very attractive system for me so far.
Now I just have to build the walls in the kitchen space to give us the insulation "sheath" that we need, with all the do-dads of window, wiring and plumbing to go with it. We're moving forward!
Gotta snooze, more another day.
Doug
The first thing that helped it be that way actually happened last night. I worked most of the afternoon and was finally able to get the well pump working! It required priming, water had to fill the pump itself plus the pipes leading down into the ground where a little water at high pressure would push a lot of water up at lower pressure.
Not knowing how much water it would take, but figuring it would be a lot, I bought a 65 gallon tank to fit in the back of my pickup and rigged it up with some hose and a valve. Ironic moment: it only took five gallons of water to prime the pump. (So now I'm set to play "water boy" when I do some long marches with friends next year, but that's another story.)
The first gushes of water were pretty ugly. They didn't smell but they were rusty, muddy brown and I was concerned that this would be all I'd get. After about 15 gallons or so, the water cleared right up and ran clear and cold the rest of the evening. I flushed out the well, ran it dry in fact. Ooops. The first 15 minutes I watered bushes, then I scrubbed down the deck around my pool. After that I put it to run into the pool, figuring that if there was anything in there that was harmfull it would get diluted and killed by the chlorine. After about 90 minutes of constant pumping at about 30 psi and a delivery rate of around 3 gpm, the water flow stopped. I didn't get anything muddy or foul at the end, it just stopped flowing. So far so good!
I used the rest of the water in my truck's tank to help replenish the pool. I've calculated that each tankful raises the level in the pool by 1/4". Even though we got some rain today, I don't think I'll pump the well at my current home dry trying to completely refill the pool. :)
I'd like to figure a way to collect the rain water off the barn roof for that use, but that'll be a project for down the road.
So well water is now on site, available in at least limited quantities from the ground. The house plumbing that is now there is full of splits due to freezing and neglect, so it's all coming out and an entirely new system will be put in it's place. I'm going to use the PEX tubing because it offers me the best options as a DIYer in terms of safety, speed and flexibility. Since I will be doing an "in slab" PEX heating system in the back wing, and in floor heat for the rest of the house where there are wood floors, I splurged and bought the tool that will let me crimp several sizes of tubing. Cool stuff to work with. I was stunned that Home Depot didn't even know anything about it. I had to go to Lowes to find the supplies.
The second big thing wrt progress happened today. Our kitchen cabinets are essentially finished. All the base cabinets and wall cabinets are done, with a few minor things like window glass to still be installed. My wife was really excited to see them all set up and arranged in the shop's warehouse, ready to be packaged and stored until we're ready for installation.
It looks like the wooden floor now in place under three layers of linoleum will not be a candidate for refinishing. It has been overlaid with tarpaper and the tar has stained the wood beyond the level it can be refinished, methinks. So we stopped by the flooring showroom today and looked at some options for the kitchen. We saw one we liked, a sort of limestone tile looking product that glues down and is sealed but individual tiles can be heated, removed and replaced should they be damaged. Lifetime warranty, etc. We didn't talk price yet, but that's a very attractive system for me so far.
Now I just have to build the walls in the kitchen space to give us the insulation "sheath" that we need, with all the do-dads of window, wiring and plumbing to go with it. We're moving forward!
Gotta snooze, more another day.
Doug
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Hurrah without the "H"...
It is hard to believe that it's been three+ weeks since I was on here to post.
Lots has happened. Some hasn't happened.
I haven't figured out the conduit wiring to the barn, haven't gotten the north door header replaced, haven't gotten as far as I'd like vacuuming the barn loft.
However, I HAVE made progress on getting the well pump hooked up. I have gotten a lot of stuff out of my old garage into the barn loft so I have room to work at both locations now. And I have gotten the pool up and running. A yard of sand, a new liner, new water, new hoses and she's a going concern! The water is slowly warming up and should be in good shape later this week, even without a blanket on it.
It took us about three days work to get the old liner out, the sand all cleared of roots and problems, the new sand added for the berm around the bottom edge, the hoses hooked up and the water to fill it.
My friend Charles came over one day and helped me get the old liner out. We cut it along the bottom edge and took it out in sections. It had been filled with all sorts of debris, leaves, etc. So it weighed a ton. But we got it.
The sand was an issue. The online instructions for the liner specified a 3" by 3" berm. Directions in the box -with- the liner specified a 6" by 6" berm. Even that was barely enough in several places. My friend Todd and his family (wife & eight kids) came over one day and brought his trailer with a yard of sand on it, twice what we thought we'd need. They and the kids set to work with a will and moved about a ton of sand in five gallon buckets in a very short time. Those kids can WORK! As it turned out, we had one half of a five gallon bucket left over. We basically used the whole thing. (Deduction: always buy more than you think you'll need. Whatever you have in leftover is no loss when compared to the cost of making two trips for supplies. Feels extravagant, but it's really not when you consider time and cost of travel.)
The new liner was then removed from its box and laid out on the floor of the pool enclosure. We gradually got the lip into its slot around the rim. I went next door and my wonderful neighbor, Janet, let me hook up a long string of hoses to start filling the pool enough so the wind wouldn't blow it away before the pool water guy arrived. The sound of those kids laughing and giggling as they helped us spread out the lining and smooth out any wrinkles was worth a million bucks. They were treating the bottom as a big "slip and slide" as the water began to spread out across the surface. They'd grab one another by the arm and drag each other around, water spraying in all directions, shrieking as they went, oh, it was delightful to hear. I want this place to always echo with the laughter of children.
Getting the pump and hoses properly hooked up was one of the worst parts of the whole thing, but I managed. At one point I had leaks at every place there was a fitting that screwed into a housing. Whoever had last assembled the thing never put Teflon tape around the threads. I had to take the hoses off to get the fittings out. Of course, many of these can't be pulled off, they have to be cut off. And then they're too short, so they have to be replaced... at $7 a foot.... For a few pennies worth of Teflon tape. Argh.
And, of course, they don't make the part to replace just the outlet nozzle where the water returns to the pool, so I had to replace the whole assembly that goes through the wall of the pool. And, of course, the new part demands a larger hole than the old one. And, of course, the pool is filled to within about three inches of the hole at this point, so dropping any little metal shaving is potentially going to fall between the liner and the steel band that holds it up and be a leak, so I can't use the dremel tool... But I was very careful and managed to enlarge the hole with some aviation snips I've had laying around for almost 30 years. (Vindication for my pack ratish ways...) I blunted the sharp edges and applied a double layer of duct tape and installed the new fitting just as the truck pulled up for the last load of water. Whew!
Oh, and the motor, that had been sitting there for probably five or six years unused seemed to be seized up when I flicked the switch. But I grabbed the shaft with a vise grip and worked it a little and it freed up and seems to be working just fine. It's run around the clock since Thursday now with no perceptible flaws.
I wanted to take down some trees near the pool to keep the leaves out of the pool and allow more sunlight earlier in the day. In dropping the first one I almost missed the pool railing. Another two feet and I'd have cleared it... Fortunately when it hit it only bent out one vertical member and sheared off a couple rivets that hold up the "fence" around the catwalk that circles the pool. The vertical part I could straighten and will reinforce with some aluminum channel I found in a roadside trash pile. The panels that popped out from sheared rivets I can put back in place pretty easily. So all's well that ends well... One of my students came by last Friday with his chain saw (mine is in the shop) and we took down some more trees along the road. We barely scratched the surface though. There's a LOT of cutting ahead to clear all those trees out of there.
All of this was a lot of work and might seem pretty frivolous when the house has so much that needs doing. That's probably true. But the other night I got to take a dip and float around the pool under the stars in the moonlight, listening to the sound of the night critters. It all seemed worth it then. It's a small step of something DONE, amidst a sea of tasks that seem endless and overwhelming at times. The human need for definition and closure should not be underestimated, IMHO.
The kitchen cabinets are also well under way. There's been several glitches and hitches to figure out. Some of our cabinets are custom designed and we've had some challenges to figure out. But our "go to" guy, Jason, is a whiz with cabinetry and really doing outstanding work. He needed, however, the dimensions for the range exhaust hood.
"Simple," thinks I to myself. "I'll just go down to the appliance store and pick one out."
"Not so," said Capt. Murphy.
It's taken about three days of visits to hither, thither and yon to get this worked out. First I visited "Ye Olde Appliance Shoppe" and learned I had to find out the BTU rating for the cook top. Back to home, I scrambled through papers and located that. Then I had to find out how many CFM (cubic feet per minute) of ventilation that many BTU demands. About a day online trying to figure that out. (FYI, I found one site that had a formula of 1 CFM for every 100 BTU, sounded reasonable.) Now we need to find out how big the duct needs to be to carry 900 CFM and work from there. A little math, a little research, voila! (10" round)
The space I'd figured would carry an exhaust fan (3" x 10") is not large enough to carry this duct. Where can I take a 10" duct out of that location? It occurs to me that I could go straight up through my office upstairs and box in the duct, putting bookshelves along the wall to cover the depth of the duct work. Voila! Solution.
I bumble around looking at various models and types of hoods that are wide enough and have enough CFM rating to fit our needs. One site offers a model where the blower mounts outside and thus the hood doesn't have any motors in it. Quieter and better, in my estimation. My wife can cook and converse with our guests and no one will be going "eh?" from the noise of the vent hood. I look up the local dealer and it's the same appliance store where I started my search a few days ago. Different brand than they'd directed me to though.
The first hood the salesman showed me on my return trip has an opening of 8" not 10" at the top. Their suggestion was that I have 10" duct from the blower all the way to the hood, then reduce that to 8" at the hood. Which made as much sense to me as using a straw on a milkshake with big chunks of chocolate in it. Not much is going to fit through that 8" opening. It defeats the whole purpose of the big fan and big duct, as far as I could see.
I took the paperwork and walked outside and looked it over. At the bottom was a phone number for the Broan Corp., so I called it and a very nice operator put me through to a tech rep who suggested a different model vent hood that could accommodate the 10" duct all the way through from the fan to the hood. Whew! I was amazed that a) I immediately spoke with someone who spoke English b) knew what they were doing and c) offered a solid solution to my problem with little hesitation. Amazingly this new model was $240 cheaper than the one that I was shown first... I wonder how that happened..? Tomorrow morning I drop off the specs at the cabinet shop and they'll have all they need to crank out the cabinets. Now I just have to build the room they'll go into... ;)
"Well," you ask, "this is all very interesting, but why the title of this posting?"
During the Civil War... (my friends are rolling their eyes about now, every story has to involve the Civil War somehow :) this was a phrase they used to describe your stomach's reaction to the smell of rotting horse flesh. I've never had to bury a horse, let alone several hundred, but last week I did have to fish a groundhog out of my cistern.
A few months ago my buddy Todd and I pulled the old kitchen cabinets out and put them in the new shop. This exposed the hole that goes through the kitchen floor into a 5,000 gallon cistern that lies below it. It has water about 2.5 feet deep in it right now and I put a few boards over it, so we didn't step on the hole, but they were not enough. A groundhog found his way into the house, smelled water and pushed aside the boards to investigate. We've had VERY dry weather, so he was probably very thirsty. So he leaned waaaay down to get to the water, and went kerplunk. By the time I found him he'd been in there for a few days and the place reeked.
I decided to fish him out at night when the air was cooler. I set up some bright lights so I could see down in there, then mounted a fan to blow fresh air through the area, dropped two tablets of pool chlorine into the cistern to minimize the smell and sprayed a bunch of Lysol down the hole before I turned on the fan. I had prepared an old plastic 5 gallon bucket that was split down the side. I bored some holes in the bottom to let the water drain out, put a rock in it so it was heavy and wouldn't float, then fastened on a rope and lowered it into the cistern. The water was just deep enough that this might work. Using a shovel as a paddle I swished the water, trying to create a bit of a circular current, hoping he'd float into view. (I was hoping he was still floating and hadn't sunk in there, back out of sight beneath the floor.) I didn't relish the thought of climbing down in there to haul him out. This was bad enough. Finally he glided into view and I managed to get him nosed into the bucket and enough of him in that he wouldn't fall out. Holding my breath, up he came and onto a large plastic garbage bag, bucket and all. I gathered up the four corners and headed out the back door for the hill above the house. I walked briskly, holding my breath, gasping to the side away from my cargo at infrequent intervals. Finally I got far enough from the house to be safe, and pitched the whole thing into the bushes along the path. If the local scavengers don't carry him off I'll come back to bury him in a while. And that's why the title for today's posting...
Aren't old houses fun to remodel? :)
Plans for using the cistern for potable water are currently under review...
And it's not even August yet...
Cheerz!
Doug
Lots has happened. Some hasn't happened.
I haven't figured out the conduit wiring to the barn, haven't gotten the north door header replaced, haven't gotten as far as I'd like vacuuming the barn loft.
However, I HAVE made progress on getting the well pump hooked up. I have gotten a lot of stuff out of my old garage into the barn loft so I have room to work at both locations now. And I have gotten the pool up and running. A yard of sand, a new liner, new water, new hoses and she's a going concern! The water is slowly warming up and should be in good shape later this week, even without a blanket on it.
It took us about three days work to get the old liner out, the sand all cleared of roots and problems, the new sand added for the berm around the bottom edge, the hoses hooked up and the water to fill it.
My friend Charles came over one day and helped me get the old liner out. We cut it along the bottom edge and took it out in sections. It had been filled with all sorts of debris, leaves, etc. So it weighed a ton. But we got it.
The sand was an issue. The online instructions for the liner specified a 3" by 3" berm. Directions in the box -with- the liner specified a 6" by 6" berm. Even that was barely enough in several places. My friend Todd and his family (wife & eight kids) came over one day and brought his trailer with a yard of sand on it, twice what we thought we'd need. They and the kids set to work with a will and moved about a ton of sand in five gallon buckets in a very short time. Those kids can WORK! As it turned out, we had one half of a five gallon bucket left over. We basically used the whole thing. (Deduction: always buy more than you think you'll need. Whatever you have in leftover is no loss when compared to the cost of making two trips for supplies. Feels extravagant, but it's really not when you consider time and cost of travel.)
The new liner was then removed from its box and laid out on the floor of the pool enclosure. We gradually got the lip into its slot around the rim. I went next door and my wonderful neighbor, Janet, let me hook up a long string of hoses to start filling the pool enough so the wind wouldn't blow it away before the pool water guy arrived. The sound of those kids laughing and giggling as they helped us spread out the lining and smooth out any wrinkles was worth a million bucks. They were treating the bottom as a big "slip and slide" as the water began to spread out across the surface. They'd grab one another by the arm and drag each other around, water spraying in all directions, shrieking as they went, oh, it was delightful to hear. I want this place to always echo with the laughter of children.
Getting the pump and hoses properly hooked up was one of the worst parts of the whole thing, but I managed. At one point I had leaks at every place there was a fitting that screwed into a housing. Whoever had last assembled the thing never put Teflon tape around the threads. I had to take the hoses off to get the fittings out. Of course, many of these can't be pulled off, they have to be cut off. And then they're too short, so they have to be replaced... at $7 a foot.... For a few pennies worth of Teflon tape. Argh.
And, of course, they don't make the part to replace just the outlet nozzle where the water returns to the pool, so I had to replace the whole assembly that goes through the wall of the pool. And, of course, the new part demands a larger hole than the old one. And, of course, the pool is filled to within about three inches of the hole at this point, so dropping any little metal shaving is potentially going to fall between the liner and the steel band that holds it up and be a leak, so I can't use the dremel tool... But I was very careful and managed to enlarge the hole with some aviation snips I've had laying around for almost 30 years. (Vindication for my pack ratish ways...) I blunted the sharp edges and applied a double layer of duct tape and installed the new fitting just as the truck pulled up for the last load of water. Whew!
Oh, and the motor, that had been sitting there for probably five or six years unused seemed to be seized up when I flicked the switch. But I grabbed the shaft with a vise grip and worked it a little and it freed up and seems to be working just fine. It's run around the clock since Thursday now with no perceptible flaws.
I wanted to take down some trees near the pool to keep the leaves out of the pool and allow more sunlight earlier in the day. In dropping the first one I almost missed the pool railing. Another two feet and I'd have cleared it... Fortunately when it hit it only bent out one vertical member and sheared off a couple rivets that hold up the "fence" around the catwalk that circles the pool. The vertical part I could straighten and will reinforce with some aluminum channel I found in a roadside trash pile. The panels that popped out from sheared rivets I can put back in place pretty easily. So all's well that ends well... One of my students came by last Friday with his chain saw (mine is in the shop) and we took down some more trees along the road. We barely scratched the surface though. There's a LOT of cutting ahead to clear all those trees out of there.
All of this was a lot of work and might seem pretty frivolous when the house has so much that needs doing. That's probably true. But the other night I got to take a dip and float around the pool under the stars in the moonlight, listening to the sound of the night critters. It all seemed worth it then. It's a small step of something DONE, amidst a sea of tasks that seem endless and overwhelming at times. The human need for definition and closure should not be underestimated, IMHO.
The kitchen cabinets are also well under way. There's been several glitches and hitches to figure out. Some of our cabinets are custom designed and we've had some challenges to figure out. But our "go to" guy, Jason, is a whiz with cabinetry and really doing outstanding work. He needed, however, the dimensions for the range exhaust hood.
"Simple," thinks I to myself. "I'll just go down to the appliance store and pick one out."
"Not so," said Capt. Murphy.
It's taken about three days of visits to hither, thither and yon to get this worked out. First I visited "Ye Olde Appliance Shoppe" and learned I had to find out the BTU rating for the cook top. Back to home, I scrambled through papers and located that. Then I had to find out how many CFM (cubic feet per minute) of ventilation that many BTU demands. About a day online trying to figure that out. (FYI, I found one site that had a formula of 1 CFM for every 100 BTU, sounded reasonable.) Now we need to find out how big the duct needs to be to carry 900 CFM and work from there. A little math, a little research, voila! (10" round)
The space I'd figured would carry an exhaust fan (3" x 10") is not large enough to carry this duct. Where can I take a 10" duct out of that location? It occurs to me that I could go straight up through my office upstairs and box in the duct, putting bookshelves along the wall to cover the depth of the duct work. Voila! Solution.
I bumble around looking at various models and types of hoods that are wide enough and have enough CFM rating to fit our needs. One site offers a model where the blower mounts outside and thus the hood doesn't have any motors in it. Quieter and better, in my estimation. My wife can cook and converse with our guests and no one will be going "eh?" from the noise of the vent hood. I look up the local dealer and it's the same appliance store where I started my search a few days ago. Different brand than they'd directed me to though.
The first hood the salesman showed me on my return trip has an opening of 8" not 10" at the top. Their suggestion was that I have 10" duct from the blower all the way to the hood, then reduce that to 8" at the hood. Which made as much sense to me as using a straw on a milkshake with big chunks of chocolate in it. Not much is going to fit through that 8" opening. It defeats the whole purpose of the big fan and big duct, as far as I could see.
I took the paperwork and walked outside and looked it over. At the bottom was a phone number for the Broan Corp., so I called it and a very nice operator put me through to a tech rep who suggested a different model vent hood that could accommodate the 10" duct all the way through from the fan to the hood. Whew! I was amazed that a) I immediately spoke with someone who spoke English b) knew what they were doing and c) offered a solid solution to my problem with little hesitation. Amazingly this new model was $240 cheaper than the one that I was shown first... I wonder how that happened..? Tomorrow morning I drop off the specs at the cabinet shop and they'll have all they need to crank out the cabinets. Now I just have to build the room they'll go into... ;)
"Well," you ask, "this is all very interesting, but why the title of this posting?"
During the Civil War... (my friends are rolling their eyes about now, every story has to involve the Civil War somehow :) this was a phrase they used to describe your stomach's reaction to the smell of rotting horse flesh. I've never had to bury a horse, let alone several hundred, but last week I did have to fish a groundhog out of my cistern.
A few months ago my buddy Todd and I pulled the old kitchen cabinets out and put them in the new shop. This exposed the hole that goes through the kitchen floor into a 5,000 gallon cistern that lies below it. It has water about 2.5 feet deep in it right now and I put a few boards over it, so we didn't step on the hole, but they were not enough. A groundhog found his way into the house, smelled water and pushed aside the boards to investigate. We've had VERY dry weather, so he was probably very thirsty. So he leaned waaaay down to get to the water, and went kerplunk. By the time I found him he'd been in there for a few days and the place reeked.
I decided to fish him out at night when the air was cooler. I set up some bright lights so I could see down in there, then mounted a fan to blow fresh air through the area, dropped two tablets of pool chlorine into the cistern to minimize the smell and sprayed a bunch of Lysol down the hole before I turned on the fan. I had prepared an old plastic 5 gallon bucket that was split down the side. I bored some holes in the bottom to let the water drain out, put a rock in it so it was heavy and wouldn't float, then fastened on a rope and lowered it into the cistern. The water was just deep enough that this might work. Using a shovel as a paddle I swished the water, trying to create a bit of a circular current, hoping he'd float into view. (I was hoping he was still floating and hadn't sunk in there, back out of sight beneath the floor.) I didn't relish the thought of climbing down in there to haul him out. This was bad enough. Finally he glided into view and I managed to get him nosed into the bucket and enough of him in that he wouldn't fall out. Holding my breath, up he came and onto a large plastic garbage bag, bucket and all. I gathered up the four corners and headed out the back door for the hill above the house. I walked briskly, holding my breath, gasping to the side away from my cargo at infrequent intervals. Finally I got far enough from the house to be safe, and pitched the whole thing into the bushes along the path. If the local scavengers don't carry him off I'll come back to bury him in a while. And that's why the title for today's posting...
Aren't old houses fun to remodel? :)
Plans for using the cistern for potable water are currently under review...
And it's not even August yet...
Cheerz!
Doug
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Rules. Gotta love 'em.
Today I dealt with the local land use permit people. I won't go into details except to say I learned several new things.
1) The map we got with the sale of the house is grossly inaccurate.
The township claims their right of way for the road is actually 18' from the center line of the road. That would put the curb about in the middle of my swimming pool at its current location if they widen the road. It would also take out the two lovely, large spruce trees that screen the house from the road.
Time to plant a "second line of defense" against that future...
2) I can't put up a deck off the barn loft.
The barn sits in front of the front face of the house. Buildings that sit in front of the house can't be expanded. Period. Apparently a second story deck is an "expansion."
3) I should have gotten a demolition permit for the dangerously rotted out 6' by 6' deck and stairs that led to the loft until a few months ago.
They're going to let me slide on that one...
4) I can only replace what was "pre-existing" on the barn.
So a 6x6 foot deck will have to go back in there. (Though I doubt it had a permit either.) They didn't say I couldn't park a trailer alongside the deck and sit on it's roof... ;) Or put in REALLY big doors so you could sit inside the barn and enjoy the view. But I was looking forward to sitting there on sunny, cool days in the fall, enjoying the view and the air.
5) Once a bedroom, always a bedroom.
We're converting two bedrooms in the present house into office space, removing closets, etc. The third presently existing bedroom will become the new second floor bathroom. We'll be adding one master bedroom/bath in the new addition. So we're taking a three bedroom house and essentially making it a one bedroom house. But for them, it's still a three bedroom house, because you COULD use those offices for bedrooms... (Don't tell them that you COULD use the library as four bedrooms if you wanted to. And you COULD use the third floor workroom as a bedroom if you wanted to. And you COULD build an apartment in the barn if you wanted to... But hey, if they skip the sewer inspection and approve the land use permit, I'll be happy.)
[begin irony] I can't wait for the actual building permit process... [end irony]
On to other topics...
The barn is wired. Ta da!
BUT. (You knew there had to be a but, right?)
It's been beastly hot and humid here and I've hidden out in the worst of it to read up and research some more about wiring shops/barns. Turns out I made some boo-boos according to code and "best practice" so I want to go back now and correct them. I used metal handy boxes; they need to be grounded properly to the ground wire. And I didn't take a turn of electrical tape around the outside of switches and outlets to make sure they don't contact the inside of the box. I should probably have used conduit instead of Romex, but I can shield the wires from mechanical damage so they don't get banged up.
I found a really neat old local lumber yard and they deliver for free! Haven't taken the time to compare prices/delivery costs, but I really like the guys there. They're knowledgable and friendly. Goes a long way with me. The lumber to replace the north door header is in the shop, ready to go! Now all I need is some scaffolding and we're ready to start!
I've worked out a system to figure out which wire is which with regard to the "extra wires" running through the conduit from the house to the barn/shop. Hope to hop on that tomorrow morning and get those labelled.
I've got a meeting with the cabinet guy later in the day to finalize cutouts for the appliances.
Word to the wise: when you're holding a handy box against a concrete block wall and hammer drilling through the box into the block so you can fasten it with a Tapcon screw, keep your thumb OUTside the box. You will save some sore muscles and keep your skin intact. Otherwise the drill might suddenly lunge forward when it goes through the wall of the block and the chuck (with those lovely grooves where the key tightens it up) could come into contact with your thumb. ...
I have to say, my first thought was not, "Praise the Lord!" That came later. Thank God for Neosporin and bandaids.
I want to vacuum the loft first thing in the cool of tomorrow morning, then make the wiring fixes, then figure out the conduit wires, then see the cabinet guy. Not sure what I'll do after that. My 'to do' list is four pages long, double columned. I'll think of something... :)
Cheerz, my friends,
Doug
1) The map we got with the sale of the house is grossly inaccurate.
The township claims their right of way for the road is actually 18' from the center line of the road. That would put the curb about in the middle of my swimming pool at its current location if they widen the road. It would also take out the two lovely, large spruce trees that screen the house from the road.
Time to plant a "second line of defense" against that future...
2) I can't put up a deck off the barn loft.
The barn sits in front of the front face of the house. Buildings that sit in front of the house can't be expanded. Period. Apparently a second story deck is an "expansion."
3) I should have gotten a demolition permit for the dangerously rotted out 6' by 6' deck and stairs that led to the loft until a few months ago.
They're going to let me slide on that one...
4) I can only replace what was "pre-existing" on the barn.
So a 6x6 foot deck will have to go back in there. (Though I doubt it had a permit either.) They didn't say I couldn't park a trailer alongside the deck and sit on it's roof... ;) Or put in REALLY big doors so you could sit inside the barn and enjoy the view. But I was looking forward to sitting there on sunny, cool days in the fall, enjoying the view and the air.
5) Once a bedroom, always a bedroom.
We're converting two bedrooms in the present house into office space, removing closets, etc. The third presently existing bedroom will become the new second floor bathroom. We'll be adding one master bedroom/bath in the new addition. So we're taking a three bedroom house and essentially making it a one bedroom house. But for them, it's still a three bedroom house, because you COULD use those offices for bedrooms... (Don't tell them that you COULD use the library as four bedrooms if you wanted to. And you COULD use the third floor workroom as a bedroom if you wanted to. And you COULD build an apartment in the barn if you wanted to... But hey, if they skip the sewer inspection and approve the land use permit, I'll be happy.)
[begin irony] I can't wait for the actual building permit process... [end irony]
On to other topics...
The barn is wired. Ta da!
BUT. (You knew there had to be a but, right?)
It's been beastly hot and humid here and I've hidden out in the worst of it to read up and research some more about wiring shops/barns. Turns out I made some boo-boos according to code and "best practice" so I want to go back now and correct them. I used metal handy boxes; they need to be grounded properly to the ground wire. And I didn't take a turn of electrical tape around the outside of switches and outlets to make sure they don't contact the inside of the box. I should probably have used conduit instead of Romex, but I can shield the wires from mechanical damage so they don't get banged up.
I found a really neat old local lumber yard and they deliver for free! Haven't taken the time to compare prices/delivery costs, but I really like the guys there. They're knowledgable and friendly. Goes a long way with me. The lumber to replace the north door header is in the shop, ready to go! Now all I need is some scaffolding and we're ready to start!
I've worked out a system to figure out which wire is which with regard to the "extra wires" running through the conduit from the house to the barn/shop. Hope to hop on that tomorrow morning and get those labelled.
I've got a meeting with the cabinet guy later in the day to finalize cutouts for the appliances.
Word to the wise: when you're holding a handy box against a concrete block wall and hammer drilling through the box into the block so you can fasten it with a Tapcon screw, keep your thumb OUTside the box. You will save some sore muscles and keep your skin intact. Otherwise the drill might suddenly lunge forward when it goes through the wall of the block and the chuck (with those lovely grooves where the key tightens it up) could come into contact with your thumb. ...
I have to say, my first thought was not, "Praise the Lord!" That came later. Thank God for Neosporin and bandaids.
I want to vacuum the loft first thing in the cool of tomorrow morning, then make the wiring fixes, then figure out the conduit wires, then see the cabinet guy. Not sure what I'll do after that. My 'to do' list is four pages long, double columned. I'll think of something... :)
Cheerz, my friends,
Doug
Thursday, June 21, 2007
June 21 - update
Catchy title, eh? :)
Since I last wrote we've been finishing up plans (seems like there's always another "layer to the onion" as we nail down successive layers of details), working on the yard (so we can manuver around in it without thumping into rocks or brush) and continuing to bring civilization to the barn/shop.
Today was a microcosm of the effort. I spent the morning dealing with the kitchen cabinet folks. They took me on a tour of the facilities, which felt a lot like home (my dad was a building contractor and kept a wood mill for cabinets, etc.). There's no smell like a wood shop. Then I wrote them a check for about half what my folks paid for their 3 bedroom house and 10 acres of land in N.J. in 1945. Whew! Biggest check I've written in a while. But these guys do quality work and have put a lot of effort into the planning and layout.
I stopped in the local burger joint and treated myself to a mushroom swiss burger, and half an hour in the A/C. Today was a GORGEOUS day, but it still felt good to cool off a bit.
Then it was on to Walnut Hill, to tackle the wiring in the shop/barn. I kept rough track of my time and it takes me about an hour to run wire and set a box. Sheesh! At that rate I'll be on Social Security by the time I finish the wiring in the house. ;) But there are now lights and eight functional outlets in the shop area. I will probably want to expand and upgrade that at some point, but it's something I can work with for now. I was able to use some of the existing wiring, but the connections were all weird so I ended up redoing almost all of them. Added box covers, added boxes, put in six new outlets and redid all the existing ones. Turned out I needed heavier guage wire than what I'd bought so I had to make a run to Lowes and stock up on more stuff. I figure it take 1.5 to 2 hours for a Lowes run. Whew.
I'd debated over whether to work outside today or do electrical chores. As it turned out, rain came through around 5PM and it was good to be inside and able to finish up my task.
I've got to research the code on securing the wires on block walls, but it's functional for now.
Hopefully next week we can get going on replacing the north door header. Once that's taken care of, I can build and install a barn door. Then we'll be able to move in a table saw, etc. and really go to town.
I priced windows while I was at Lowes and had a bad case of sticker shock. I think I'll go to a place I found about an hour away. They do "odd lots" of windows and other building materials. I don't need perfect nor fancy for the shop. I just need something to let in the light and keep out the wind and rain. The good news is that the window rough opening in the barn takes a standard basement window perfectly. I'd like to lower the sill on the eastern windows to let in more early morning light. I think I can take out a course of block and be in good shape.
Early next week I'll tackle the upstairs electric situation and make sure I can run the vacuum up there. The loft is full of broken glass, rat dung, etc. so I've been working at using the shop vac to clear it up before I store anything up there. Once that's set though, I'm going to pretty much empty my garage here at the old house.
This weekend I'm out of town and I'll probably spend most of Friday morning preparing for the trip. It will be good to spend time with friends, but I'll miss pressing forward and keeping the momentum up.
Well, it's late, I'm rambling and I need to get to bed. Thanks for tracking our progress!
Doug
Since I last wrote we've been finishing up plans (seems like there's always another "layer to the onion" as we nail down successive layers of details), working on the yard (so we can manuver around in it without thumping into rocks or brush) and continuing to bring civilization to the barn/shop.
Today was a microcosm of the effort. I spent the morning dealing with the kitchen cabinet folks. They took me on a tour of the facilities, which felt a lot like home (my dad was a building contractor and kept a wood mill for cabinets, etc.). There's no smell like a wood shop. Then I wrote them a check for about half what my folks paid for their 3 bedroom house and 10 acres of land in N.J. in 1945. Whew! Biggest check I've written in a while. But these guys do quality work and have put a lot of effort into the planning and layout.
I stopped in the local burger joint and treated myself to a mushroom swiss burger, and half an hour in the A/C. Today was a GORGEOUS day, but it still felt good to cool off a bit.
Then it was on to Walnut Hill, to tackle the wiring in the shop/barn. I kept rough track of my time and it takes me about an hour to run wire and set a box. Sheesh! At that rate I'll be on Social Security by the time I finish the wiring in the house. ;) But there are now lights and eight functional outlets in the shop area. I will probably want to expand and upgrade that at some point, but it's something I can work with for now. I was able to use some of the existing wiring, but the connections were all weird so I ended up redoing almost all of them. Added box covers, added boxes, put in six new outlets and redid all the existing ones. Turned out I needed heavier guage wire than what I'd bought so I had to make a run to Lowes and stock up on more stuff. I figure it take 1.5 to 2 hours for a Lowes run. Whew.
I'd debated over whether to work outside today or do electrical chores. As it turned out, rain came through around 5PM and it was good to be inside and able to finish up my task.
I've got to research the code on securing the wires on block walls, but it's functional for now.
Hopefully next week we can get going on replacing the north door header. Once that's taken care of, I can build and install a barn door. Then we'll be able to move in a table saw, etc. and really go to town.
I priced windows while I was at Lowes and had a bad case of sticker shock. I think I'll go to a place I found about an hour away. They do "odd lots" of windows and other building materials. I don't need perfect nor fancy for the shop. I just need something to let in the light and keep out the wind and rain. The good news is that the window rough opening in the barn takes a standard basement window perfectly. I'd like to lower the sill on the eastern windows to let in more early morning light. I think I can take out a course of block and be in good shape.
Early next week I'll tackle the upstairs electric situation and make sure I can run the vacuum up there. The loft is full of broken glass, rat dung, etc. so I've been working at using the shop vac to clear it up before I store anything up there. Once that's set though, I'm going to pretty much empty my garage here at the old house.
This weekend I'm out of town and I'll probably spend most of Friday morning preparing for the trip. It will be good to spend time with friends, but I'll miss pressing forward and keeping the momentum up.
Well, it's late, I'm rambling and I need to get to bed. Thanks for tracking our progress!
Doug
Friday, June 08, 2007
It's June, and we're busting out all over.
Greetings, family and friends!
I've been busy chasing down loose ends at the end of my school year so I haven't done much on the house or on here the last few weeks. My apologies to all those who are tracking our progress and hanging on every word. :)
Today we visited the local building code inspector and learned two things of supreme importance.
1) Anything done within the existing structure does not need a permit nor an inspection.
You could have knocked me over with a feather when they said this. This means we can build, renovate, etc. within the "old house" at our own pace, without waiting for inspections, etc. It also means that if we get that done, we can move in there and work on the rest of it a bit at a time. Yeah! (Right now we're paying rent AND a mortgage...) It won't be convenient, but it could be done in a pinch.
2) We do not need to use licensed tradesmen to pull permits and do the work.
This frees us up to do more of the work ourselves (and with trusted friends), thus lowering the cost of the project. There are still two things I absolutely want to hire out, the foundation and the roof. The first because I don't have the expert knowledge to make no mistakes on it, the second because I don't like heights. :)
We also visited our friendly local insurance broker. The bad news on the day is that we can't get liability insurance to protect us against injuries on the place. But the house itself will be insured against loss of the building, etc. before the week is out. Guess I have to stop making jokes about burning the place down and starting fresh. :)
We can't get homeowners until we live there, but even if we had it and they found out we're doing construction, they'd cancel it. So we're stuck with this situation for the forseeable future. You'd think a country that could land a man on the moon 38 years ago could figure out how to insure against injuries while you worked on it...
Our last stop of the day was Lowes to buy some boxes and electrical parts so I could try to get the electricity in the barn figured out and straightened out. It's a rat's nest in there.
I have an existing conduit that comes up out of the ground with about eight wires in it, none of them tagged. None of them romex. They're all braided wire, not solid copper. Out of that bunch I have two white and six black. There should be half and half in my book, but that's not what I've got, so it's really "mix and match".
After the better part of *six* hours work this afternoon and evening I have got one matched pair hooked up to the pool circuit, with one outlet solidly mounted inside the barn that's "hot." That will get me power to tools in the shop with extension cords for the time being.
It took so long in part because the breaker panel is in the basement of the house, and every time I wanted to figure out which of the three circuits out there I was dealing with, I had to walk inside, hop down the stairs (they are rotted off half way down), trip the breaker and then clamber back up/out and across the yard again. The good side of this is that the basement was about 55F and a welcome relief from the 95F outside. (A very intense thunder storm rolled through about 7PM and -really- cooled things off, whew!) I've identified the two black wires for circuits #2 and #3, but I've only got one white left and not sure which one it goes to. There's got to be a way to do this, but it'll take some research.
One other weird thing is that they installed three, count them, three, wires out to what we call the chicken shed (but they used it as a kids hang out we think). Not sure why they needed three wires out from the barn to the chicken shed, because the feed all came out from the house through one set of wires. Oh, well. Another mystery to ponder...
Nah.
I disconnected those three wires and I'm going to re-route that "chicken coop" circuit to the barn, so I can have one circuit for the loft upstairs and another for the workshop downstairs. It'll take some work, but it's inside, a good rainy weather job.
My previous theory about where the power came from and went to re: the pool, etc. turned out to be all wrong. Once I started disconnecting things and really analyzing it, I found out that my first idea, the logical way to route things with a minimum of trenches, was really the way it was. So I thought I was wrong, but it turned out I was right at the start. :)
I took the little push mower back over in the truck, anticipating getting some mowing in, but the heat really didn't make that look like a good idea. I tinkered with the barn electricity instead. The grass will have to wait for another day. My blood hasn't thinned out to summer consistency yet.
Did I mention that the starter on Eloise fried several weeks ago? I've been having to roll her down a hill to start her, and the most suitable hill is on the back of the property, which means she sat outside for a few weeks. Not a good idea. So last time I ran her I put her in the barn, which means I either had to get a new starter (hard to find) or use a hand crank (easy to find on eBay). Remember the Model T's? Cranking over the tractor is supposed to be like that apparently. I just have to remember to keep my thumb outside the handle in case she kicks back.
Well, I bought a hand crank for Eloise off eBay and it arrived this week. It was supposed to be painted red, to match the tractor, but arrived bare metal. The seller was notified but hasn't responded to my request for a 1/3 rebate. I'm anxious to see if it will work, but forgot to take it with me today. At some point I need to replace her starter, but tracking one down and installing it is more work than I want to get involved in right now.
Tomorrow we're going to go look at some kitchen cabinets. They've quoted us about $25,000 for a very complex and complete kitchen. That's a huge chunk of the budget, so we'll see if we can lower it a bit, but it's really a good deal for what we're getting.
Need to hit the shower and then the bed. I didn't do a lot of heavy lifting today, but I'm a bit pooped. :) More another day.
Doug
I've been busy chasing down loose ends at the end of my school year so I haven't done much on the house or on here the last few weeks. My apologies to all those who are tracking our progress and hanging on every word. :)
Today we visited the local building code inspector and learned two things of supreme importance.
1) Anything done within the existing structure does not need a permit nor an inspection.
You could have knocked me over with a feather when they said this. This means we can build, renovate, etc. within the "old house" at our own pace, without waiting for inspections, etc. It also means that if we get that done, we can move in there and work on the rest of it a bit at a time. Yeah! (Right now we're paying rent AND a mortgage...) It won't be convenient, but it could be done in a pinch.
2) We do not need to use licensed tradesmen to pull permits and do the work.
This frees us up to do more of the work ourselves (and with trusted friends), thus lowering the cost of the project. There are still two things I absolutely want to hire out, the foundation and the roof. The first because I don't have the expert knowledge to make no mistakes on it, the second because I don't like heights. :)
We also visited our friendly local insurance broker. The bad news on the day is that we can't get liability insurance to protect us against injuries on the place. But the house itself will be insured against loss of the building, etc. before the week is out. Guess I have to stop making jokes about burning the place down and starting fresh. :)
We can't get homeowners until we live there, but even if we had it and they found out we're doing construction, they'd cancel it. So we're stuck with this situation for the forseeable future. You'd think a country that could land a man on the moon 38 years ago could figure out how to insure against injuries while you worked on it...
Our last stop of the day was Lowes to buy some boxes and electrical parts so I could try to get the electricity in the barn figured out and straightened out. It's a rat's nest in there.
I have an existing conduit that comes up out of the ground with about eight wires in it, none of them tagged. None of them romex. They're all braided wire, not solid copper. Out of that bunch I have two white and six black. There should be half and half in my book, but that's not what I've got, so it's really "mix and match".
After the better part of *six* hours work this afternoon and evening I have got one matched pair hooked up to the pool circuit, with one outlet solidly mounted inside the barn that's "hot." That will get me power to tools in the shop with extension cords for the time being.
It took so long in part because the breaker panel is in the basement of the house, and every time I wanted to figure out which of the three circuits out there I was dealing with, I had to walk inside, hop down the stairs (they are rotted off half way down), trip the breaker and then clamber back up/out and across the yard again. The good side of this is that the basement was about 55F and a welcome relief from the 95F outside. (A very intense thunder storm rolled through about 7PM and -really- cooled things off, whew!) I've identified the two black wires for circuits #2 and #3, but I've only got one white left and not sure which one it goes to. There's got to be a way to do this, but it'll take some research.
One other weird thing is that they installed three, count them, three, wires out to what we call the chicken shed (but they used it as a kids hang out we think). Not sure why they needed three wires out from the barn to the chicken shed, because the feed all came out from the house through one set of wires. Oh, well. Another mystery to ponder...
Nah.
I disconnected those three wires and I'm going to re-route that "chicken coop" circuit to the barn, so I can have one circuit for the loft upstairs and another for the workshop downstairs. It'll take some work, but it's inside, a good rainy weather job.
My previous theory about where the power came from and went to re: the pool, etc. turned out to be all wrong. Once I started disconnecting things and really analyzing it, I found out that my first idea, the logical way to route things with a minimum of trenches, was really the way it was. So I thought I was wrong, but it turned out I was right at the start. :)
I took the little push mower back over in the truck, anticipating getting some mowing in, but the heat really didn't make that look like a good idea. I tinkered with the barn electricity instead. The grass will have to wait for another day. My blood hasn't thinned out to summer consistency yet.
Did I mention that the starter on Eloise fried several weeks ago? I've been having to roll her down a hill to start her, and the most suitable hill is on the back of the property, which means she sat outside for a few weeks. Not a good idea. So last time I ran her I put her in the barn, which means I either had to get a new starter (hard to find) or use a hand crank (easy to find on eBay). Remember the Model T's? Cranking over the tractor is supposed to be like that apparently. I just have to remember to keep my thumb outside the handle in case she kicks back.
Well, I bought a hand crank for Eloise off eBay and it arrived this week. It was supposed to be painted red, to match the tractor, but arrived bare metal. The seller was notified but hasn't responded to my request for a 1/3 rebate. I'm anxious to see if it will work, but forgot to take it with me today. At some point I need to replace her starter, but tracking one down and installing it is more work than I want to get involved in right now.
Tomorrow we're going to go look at some kitchen cabinets. They've quoted us about $25,000 for a very complex and complete kitchen. That's a huge chunk of the budget, so we'll see if we can lower it a bit, but it's really a good deal for what we're getting.
Need to hit the shower and then the bed. I didn't do a lot of heavy lifting today, but I'm a bit pooped. :) More another day.
Doug
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Barn juice and boxes (CW and electrical)
Greetings, one and all,
I've been distracted with some weekend Civil War reenacting events (and been so busy with school) I haven't gotten up to Walnut Hill much since I wrote last. I did however use the shop for the very first time last Thursday. I built six boxes to approximate the sort used during the Civil War and they were well received. They weren't perfect, but it was fun to be measuring and cutting and actually using the space for what I intended, I just wish I'd been able to finish before 11PM!
Some time ago I'd bought a set of those halogen work lights on a tripod and finally had a reason to unpack them and get them assembled. Sal did a great job of figuring it all out and putting it together. They work well and I suspect will get a lot of use.
I also tinkered with the wiring in the barn and discovered the power does not come from the house to the barn and then to the pool, as I'd assumed. It goes from the house to the corner of the barn and then splits to the pool and barn. From the barn it runs up to the chicken coop. The wiring is a rat's nest. There is one joint in there with about six wires all run through one set of wire nuts. Right now the juice goes into that mess and stops, for reasons I'm not sure about. It will have to be broken down into a better arrangement for the future but for right now it's good to know the way the juice flows and what I need to do to correct things and get the lights on out there. I think I'll install some timer switches when I do it, so I don't inadvertantly leave the lights on and drive away for days.
I'd bought a little gizmo that sounds off when it senses live current in a wire and used it in my tracing. I was able to figure out why there is no juice in the barn and managed to hook up one lone outlet inside. No more having to string extension cords from the pool outlet. :) A lot of work will be required to set up new circuits and whatnot. But that will have to wait a bit. Thank God for the right tools and some basic know how though.
The grass will need cutting in a bad way by the time I can get up there Thursday this week. Eloise still needs a new starter motor and has to be rolled down the hill to get her going. And the little mower and the "goat" will have to get a workout trimming up some of the areas I can't reach with Eloise.
Saturday morning I have to go to Gettysburg and do some "yard work" cleaning up around the First Jersey Brigade Monument. My CW unit has three acres there to keep trimmed up, the largest on the battlefield we've been told, and it's a lot of work. I'll take the "goat" and she'll make short work of a large area. We usually cut down small brush and seedlings on the hill between the monument and the road, to maintain visibility up the hill. This year I'd like to clear some of the brush on the right of the path going up, so folks can see the monument better as they approach. We do this each Spring and Fall and it really makes a difference.
Late Saturday afternoon I hope to buy the new material and begin tearing out the old door header in the north end of the barn. With help I might be able to finish it up Sunday afternoon. If I only had a jack hammer I could cut out the rock in front of the door apron and lay some drain pipe there and be done with at least one aspect of this project... "All in due time," I keep telling myself. Closure on anything here will take a while, I suspect. :)
All for now, we proceed on,
Doug
I've been distracted with some weekend Civil War reenacting events (and been so busy with school) I haven't gotten up to Walnut Hill much since I wrote last. I did however use the shop for the very first time last Thursday. I built six boxes to approximate the sort used during the Civil War and they were well received. They weren't perfect, but it was fun to be measuring and cutting and actually using the space for what I intended, I just wish I'd been able to finish before 11PM!
Some time ago I'd bought a set of those halogen work lights on a tripod and finally had a reason to unpack them and get them assembled. Sal did a great job of figuring it all out and putting it together. They work well and I suspect will get a lot of use.
I also tinkered with the wiring in the barn and discovered the power does not come from the house to the barn and then to the pool, as I'd assumed. It goes from the house to the corner of the barn and then splits to the pool and barn. From the barn it runs up to the chicken coop. The wiring is a rat's nest. There is one joint in there with about six wires all run through one set of wire nuts. Right now the juice goes into that mess and stops, for reasons I'm not sure about. It will have to be broken down into a better arrangement for the future but for right now it's good to know the way the juice flows and what I need to do to correct things and get the lights on out there. I think I'll install some timer switches when I do it, so I don't inadvertantly leave the lights on and drive away for days.
I'd bought a little gizmo that sounds off when it senses live current in a wire and used it in my tracing. I was able to figure out why there is no juice in the barn and managed to hook up one lone outlet inside. No more having to string extension cords from the pool outlet. :) A lot of work will be required to set up new circuits and whatnot. But that will have to wait a bit. Thank God for the right tools and some basic know how though.
The grass will need cutting in a bad way by the time I can get up there Thursday this week. Eloise still needs a new starter motor and has to be rolled down the hill to get her going. And the little mower and the "goat" will have to get a workout trimming up some of the areas I can't reach with Eloise.
Saturday morning I have to go to Gettysburg and do some "yard work" cleaning up around the First Jersey Brigade Monument. My CW unit has three acres there to keep trimmed up, the largest on the battlefield we've been told, and it's a lot of work. I'll take the "goat" and she'll make short work of a large area. We usually cut down small brush and seedlings on the hill between the monument and the road, to maintain visibility up the hill. This year I'd like to clear some of the brush on the right of the path going up, so folks can see the monument better as they approach. We do this each Spring and Fall and it really makes a difference.
Late Saturday afternoon I hope to buy the new material and begin tearing out the old door header in the north end of the barn. With help I might be able to finish it up Sunday afternoon. If I only had a jack hammer I could cut out the rock in front of the door apron and lay some drain pipe there and be done with at least one aspect of this project... "All in due time," I keep telling myself. Closure on anything here will take a while, I suspect. :)
All for now, we proceed on,
Doug
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Updated my template here.
I've indulged myself in a new "look" for the blog. Things that were on the right are now on the left of the posts. Somehow I couldn't change that. You'll have to translate previous posts accordingly.
Also, I don't know if I mentioned it, but I got Eloise patched up, for the most part, and the grass mowed. It was a couple feet high in some places... :)
Her starter has fried, I think. I got her going by rolling her down a hill. Not the best thing for her, but it worked and the grass is now mowed except a few edges here and there. Sal did the front lawn and along the road where the flowers are blooming with the little push mower.
I hope at some point to find a machine shop that will shave off that water pump pulley and fabricate a new mount for the alternator. When I ran Eloise down the back hill she didn't like that and splurted out a lot of coolant.
All for now.
Doug
Also, I don't know if I mentioned it, but I got Eloise patched up, for the most part, and the grass mowed. It was a couple feet high in some places... :)
Her starter has fried, I think. I got her going by rolling her down a hill. Not the best thing for her, but it worked and the grass is now mowed except a few edges here and there. Sal did the front lawn and along the road where the flowers are blooming with the little push mower.
I hope at some point to find a machine shop that will shave off that water pump pulley and fabricate a new mount for the alternator. When I ran Eloise down the back hill she didn't like that and splurted out a lot of coolant.
All for now.
Doug
More pix posted tonight
I posted some more pictures tonight, same link, same album as below. They're mostly of the area around the house and barn, two of the roadway out back. Enjoy!
I didn't get a chance to pick up the lumber for the header or get the wall closed in yet. I've had brake problems with my truck and it's slowed things down. I've had it in the garage twice now and they're still not right. To the tune of $120-140 each time.
Now the car is running rough and needs new plug wires. I went to pick those up today and they gave me the wrong kind. Of course, I only found out when I got home and had removed the most difficult one to replace... So I had to put the old one back in... ugh.
About three weeks ago I bought a ladder at Lowes. Turned out there was a rebate on it. They printed me a sales slip to enclose with the request for the rebate they printed out. Today Lowes sent me a letter informing me I had not enclosed the proper receipt when I asked for my rebate. I called to tell them I enclosed what they printed out and express my displeasure, but it turns out that when they scanned it, they only got part of it, so they denied me my $25. I asked to speak to the manager and got the "well, we can't help that, sir." I told them that unless they found a way to give me my rebate I'll take my business elsewhere. And I'm about to spend a GREAT deal of money with someone. If this is the customer service I get, I'll go to the local lumber yard and pay a higher price before I'll deal with Lowes again. It's farther to drive but I refuse to be treated that way. Whatever happened to "The customer is always right!" ??
And I have this vague feeling of forboding, that it's just starting...
"Tomorrow is another day," Mom used to say...
I didn't get a chance to pick up the lumber for the header or get the wall closed in yet. I've had brake problems with my truck and it's slowed things down. I've had it in the garage twice now and they're still not right. To the tune of $120-140 each time.
Now the car is running rough and needs new plug wires. I went to pick those up today and they gave me the wrong kind. Of course, I only found out when I got home and had removed the most difficult one to replace... So I had to put the old one back in... ugh.
About three weeks ago I bought a ladder at Lowes. Turned out there was a rebate on it. They printed me a sales slip to enclose with the request for the rebate they printed out. Today Lowes sent me a letter informing me I had not enclosed the proper receipt when I asked for my rebate. I called to tell them I enclosed what they printed out and express my displeasure, but it turns out that when they scanned it, they only got part of it, so they denied me my $25. I asked to speak to the manager and got the "well, we can't help that, sir." I told them that unless they found a way to give me my rebate I'll take my business elsewhere. And I'm about to spend a GREAT deal of money with someone. If this is the customer service I get, I'll go to the local lumber yard and pay a higher price before I'll deal with Lowes again. It's farther to drive but I refuse to be treated that way. Whatever happened to "The customer is always right!" ??
And I have this vague feeling of forboding, that it's just starting...
"Tomorrow is another day," Mom used to say...
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Of tires and dirt...
When I had the backhoe last weekend I'd exposed several rock ledges around the property and was interested to see what the rains would wash clean. I got more than I bargained for. On the northwest side of the house I discovered a concrete footing which I hadn't been able to see before. I have no idea what it belonged to, but there it is. I also got a clearer picture of the rock beneath the West Wing and hope that will facilitate our plans.
Yesterday I spent a few hours clearing away some more of those rocks and smoothing out some of the rough edges on my new "road" around the back of the lower property where it gets marshy in spring. It won't be quite wide enough for a car or truck, yet, but it'll keep the tractor from bogging down, that's for sure.
Last weekend I was also filling holes here and there and digging out obstructions placed by the former owners. They had a four wheeler and had built various ramps and jumps to race over. These present a problem for mowing in the back so I used the backhoe to clear them out.
In my travels I was able to bring down off the hill another 6-8 tires, so my little collection is growing by leaps and bounds... :)
Today I want to see if I can pick up the lumber for the new shop header and get the "quick and dirty" wall and doors installed on the interior wall. If I can get the interior wall in place and the header installed I can build a barn door and begin to lock up the shop area, which means I can put in machinery, like a table saw.
I also may do some more clearing of brush by the power pole so it doesn't get overrun by vines again. Amazing how fast those things grow around there.
Pictures are another thing on today's task list. I've posted an "update" on the Webshots site.
http://community.webshots.com/user/Stickbug54
Hope you enjoy!
Doug
Yesterday I spent a few hours clearing away some more of those rocks and smoothing out some of the rough edges on my new "road" around the back of the lower property where it gets marshy in spring. It won't be quite wide enough for a car or truck, yet, but it'll keep the tractor from bogging down, that's for sure.
Last weekend I was also filling holes here and there and digging out obstructions placed by the former owners. They had a four wheeler and had built various ramps and jumps to race over. These present a problem for mowing in the back so I used the backhoe to clear them out.
In my travels I was able to bring down off the hill another 6-8 tires, so my little collection is growing by leaps and bounds... :)
Today I want to see if I can pick up the lumber for the new shop header and get the "quick and dirty" wall and doors installed on the interior wall. If I can get the interior wall in place and the header installed I can build a barn door and begin to lock up the shop area, which means I can put in machinery, like a table saw.
I also may do some more clearing of brush by the power pole so it doesn't get overrun by vines again. Amazing how fast those things grow around there.
Pictures are another thing on today's task list. I've posted an "update" on the Webshots site.
http://community.webshots.com/user/Stickbug54
Hope you enjoy!
Doug
Saturday, April 14, 2007
A day for grading. Dirt, that is.
Today was spent finishing off the slopes of some of the dirt I'd moved yesterday. We're due for a major gully washer this weekend, so we'll see what survives. I'm hoping it will wash some of the rock ledges clean of dirt.
The trap door in the barn is now done, hinges in and they work fine. Now I can lift things straight up into the loft, if I want. Of course, I lost the hinges I was going to install the other day, so I had to make a run to Lowes for new hinges...
I also managed to disassemble several sections of the fence around the backyard so that machinery can work around the West Wing easily and trucks can drive around back on the high ground. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get all the posts out. Only one came up the easy way. I've got an idea for a post puller, using a piece of chain and a car jack. We'll see if there's another way that's easier though. My car jack is holding up the end of the barn right now, so the posts will have to wait. I figure anything big and heavy enough for the posts to be in the way can give them a nudge and loosen them up.
Taking the fence apart proved to be very tedious because the horizontal boards were oak, the posts were treated and the nails coated with something that made them almost impossible to get out without a long wrecking bar. Add to that the staples that held on the wire and there's a recipe for a time consuming afternoon. ;)
Fortunately I was able to pick up a pair of fencing pliers to make the staple removing go faster. Before that it was a much bigger chore. The right tool for the job is always a blessing.
That's all for now. We're battened down for the big storm this weekend. Hope you're warm and dry.
Doug
The trap door in the barn is now done, hinges in and they work fine. Now I can lift things straight up into the loft, if I want. Of course, I lost the hinges I was going to install the other day, so I had to make a run to Lowes for new hinges...
I also managed to disassemble several sections of the fence around the backyard so that machinery can work around the West Wing easily and trucks can drive around back on the high ground. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get all the posts out. Only one came up the easy way. I've got an idea for a post puller, using a piece of chain and a car jack. We'll see if there's another way that's easier though. My car jack is holding up the end of the barn right now, so the posts will have to wait. I figure anything big and heavy enough for the posts to be in the way can give them a nudge and loosen them up.
Taking the fence apart proved to be very tedious because the horizontal boards were oak, the posts were treated and the nails coated with something that made them almost impossible to get out without a long wrecking bar. Add to that the staples that held on the wire and there's a recipe for a time consuming afternoon. ;)
Fortunately I was able to pick up a pair of fencing pliers to make the staple removing go faster. Before that it was a much bigger chore. The right tool for the job is always a blessing.
That's all for now. We're battened down for the big storm this weekend. Hope you're warm and dry.
Doug
Digging up the yard
Friday was a productive day. I rented a mini-backhoe and was able to remove 98% of the rock from the garden area (which had formerly been in what is now the shop area of the barn). I used it to build a better roadway to the back of the property, which in theory should get me around the wet spots in the ground during the spring rains. It's still pretty rough, but it'll do for now. And at least most of the stone is off the garden!
My first project was to regrade the area around the new shop garage door entrance, so the slope will allow the water to drain away from the door, not into it. I found the same ridge of rock they'd worked on in the barn/shop floor, right outside the door. I may try to break some of that up with a digging bar, or just leave it until Butch comes with his backhoe.
I also went poking around the house in the "West Wing" area and found that the ground there has some ribs of rock running through it, but there is a lot of soil between the "pages" of rock. Think of a book laying with it's spine on a table and pages standing straight up, with space between each page. Each page is a layer of rock, on edge. Some of it I could snap off with the backhoe, much of it is tougher and will require the "jackhammer" of Butch the professional backhoe guy.
I got a late start, but worked until 9:15 under the lights, so it made up for it. Gotta scoot back there today and try to dig a bit more before they come for it. :)
Doug
My first project was to regrade the area around the new shop garage door entrance, so the slope will allow the water to drain away from the door, not into it. I found the same ridge of rock they'd worked on in the barn/shop floor, right outside the door. I may try to break some of that up with a digging bar, or just leave it until Butch comes with his backhoe.
I also went poking around the house in the "West Wing" area and found that the ground there has some ribs of rock running through it, but there is a lot of soil between the "pages" of rock. Think of a book laying with it's spine on a table and pages standing straight up, with space between each page. Each page is a layer of rock, on edge. Some of it I could snap off with the backhoe, much of it is tougher and will require the "jackhammer" of Butch the professional backhoe guy.
I got a late start, but worked until 9:15 under the lights, so it made up for it. Gotta scoot back there today and try to dig a bit more before they come for it. :)
Doug
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Kitchen cabinets moved, trap door 98% done
Yesterday, Tuesday, Todd and I removed all the cabinets from the old kitchen and reinstalled most of them in the new shop. I now have 20' of counterspace to spread projects out on. We set one 10' run of countertop at the normal height, the other we mounted on 4x4 so that the level is up higher to suit my height. I've wanted a 'my size' workbench all my life and now I have one, yee ha! :)
We also fixed a large hole in the upper floor of the barn. An empty hole for a fold down stair was redone with a trap door that will fit flush to the rest of the floor and be a big asset in getting things up into storage. I even bought a pulley today that will allow me to rig a rope to haul things up rather than have to make repeated trips up and down a ladder or stairs.
I need to screw the hinges on it and add a bit of trim on the ends, but it's essentially done.
We then started working on the structure of the north end of the barn. I got out an old auto jack and we shoved the main beam for the upper floor up a couple inches. It had sagged down due to wood rot and an inadequate door header to support the weight it was carrying. It was a little unnerving to hear the floor creak and pop as we jacked the beam back into position, but nothing fell on us, so we're good... :) Unfortunately, I forgot to loosen a sill plate bolt and one of the cement blocks popped loose. Now I have to remove the old mortar and replace it with new. That'll be a project for another day though.
Tomorrow, if the cold weather holds off, I intend to try to get Eloise running again and mow some grass before it gets away from me. We managed to shove her into the barn out of the rain this afternoon, so at least I'll be able to work on her out of the rain, if it does mist.
I also would like to tinker with the electricity in the barn/shop but may not have time. Power IN the barn is not working. Power that goes THROUGH the barn to an outside outlet by the pool is working. There's something amiss there. Having the juice working in the barn would help a GREAT deal. I have an appointment in the afternoon that I must keep and that may pinch my day too much to tackle this though.
Essentially there are three more days to work on the place this week. Friday I should have the mini backhoe to play with and move a lot of dirt. There are a lot of holes that need filling, and rocky subsoil from the floor of the barn that needs a new home. I'm going to probe to see how deep the soil/rock interface is behind the house too. The lower I can set that floor, the more headroom there is in the great room.
Thanks for reading. I hope to have pictures up this weekend. Gotta scoot.
Doug
We also fixed a large hole in the upper floor of the barn. An empty hole for a fold down stair was redone with a trap door that will fit flush to the rest of the floor and be a big asset in getting things up into storage. I even bought a pulley today that will allow me to rig a rope to haul things up rather than have to make repeated trips up and down a ladder or stairs.
I need to screw the hinges on it and add a bit of trim on the ends, but it's essentially done.
We then started working on the structure of the north end of the barn. I got out an old auto jack and we shoved the main beam for the upper floor up a couple inches. It had sagged down due to wood rot and an inadequate door header to support the weight it was carrying. It was a little unnerving to hear the floor creak and pop as we jacked the beam back into position, but nothing fell on us, so we're good... :) Unfortunately, I forgot to loosen a sill plate bolt and one of the cement blocks popped loose. Now I have to remove the old mortar and replace it with new. That'll be a project for another day though.
Tomorrow, if the cold weather holds off, I intend to try to get Eloise running again and mow some grass before it gets away from me. We managed to shove her into the barn out of the rain this afternoon, so at least I'll be able to work on her out of the rain, if it does mist.
I also would like to tinker with the electricity in the barn/shop but may not have time. Power IN the barn is not working. Power that goes THROUGH the barn to an outside outlet by the pool is working. There's something amiss there. Having the juice working in the barn would help a GREAT deal. I have an appointment in the afternoon that I must keep and that may pinch my day too much to tackle this though.
Essentially there are three more days to work on the place this week. Friday I should have the mini backhoe to play with and move a lot of dirt. There are a lot of holes that need filling, and rocky subsoil from the floor of the barn that needs a new home. I'm going to probe to see how deep the soil/rock interface is behind the house too. The lower I can set that floor, the more headroom there is in the great room.
Thanks for reading. I hope to have pictures up this weekend. Gotta scoot.
Doug
Monday, April 09, 2007
An installing, uninstalling and repairing day
A belated Happy Easter to all!
Today I spent way too much time installing and then removing a new water pump on the tractor. It never had one before, original from the factory. It normally just "thermosiphons" but on hills that can be a problem when you're going down hill and the "cooler" is below the "hotter." I bought this aftermarket pump off eBay that was supposed to allow it to run cooler. However, once I installed it I discovered the pump shaft sticks out too far forward and interferes with the fan blades, thus the fan can't turn. I had to remove the pump and reinstall the original housing. Now I have to try to get my money back. :(
I had to make no less than three trips to town to (not) accomplish all that. First trip was for a different mounting bolt than the original. That was before I figured out the fan problem. Second trip was for a new fan belt once I got the old housing back in place since the one that was on there was not tight and the adjustment was maxed out. The third trip was to get a larger belt since the replacement I'd selected was a tad too small. (Fifty year old tractors with a modified alternator are not in their computer.) However, the next size was not in stock and I have to go back a fourth time tomorrow. Yippee. Hope this one fits.
On top of all that, the carburator needle float stuck open and I lost about two gallons of gas on the ground since the last time I ran her. And then I ran the battery down trying to fire it up. And when I hooked up the jumper cables to the truck, she still wouldn't turn over for some reason, so now I need to pull the tractor battery and have that checked out. And it's not easy to get it out. Ugh.
I tapped the carburator and I think the float freed up because the leak seemed to stop. I'll know tomorrow when I check the tank level. Expensive problem these days...
After the third trip today I gave up on the tractor and turned to another project. In poking around the barn a while back I realized that there had been a pull down stair installed at one point, but whoever had done it had simply cut the floor joists and left them hanging in mid air. They were being held up by the floor boards. It's supposed to be the other way around. Last week bought a couple 2x8x14 joists (to "sister" in alongside the now crippled ones). Today I got to instal them. I REALLY needed my big red wrecking bar to pry off some of the old boards but can't seem to find it. So it took me twice as long as it should have to pull out the remains of the old stairs. But the new joists are in and I should be able to install the rest of the new flooring tomorrow. It felt good to make a genuine improvment, not just cut grass or trim bushes.
In order to work on the floor joists I had to clear out the south bay of the barn, so many things migrated either to the second floor for later use, or the burn pile or the growing "to da dump" pile. As soon as I can drag out the old rusted freezer that weighs a ton, and can get Eloise running again, she can pull right in there with no problem.
I've ordered a rental backhoe for Friday to move some dirt and fill some holes and perhaps poke around where the "West Wing" will be. It's sure a nice feeling to be able to move stuff without asking anyone's permission. Just "have a vision, make it happen" is a very gratifying process.
I've got to be up early tomorrow. One of my buddies is taking the day off work to come help me with some two man jobs around the place. I'd hoped to pick up some windows a friend gave me, but I wasn't able to get ahold of the guy who owns the shed they're in. Maybe later in the week...
Tomorrow I'd like to start removing the kitchen cabinets and get them mounted in the shop. Then tear out the paneling in the kitchen and perhaps even tear up the floor to see what's under the linoleum that's there now. Never a dull moment!
Thanks for reading!
Doug
Today I spent way too much time installing and then removing a new water pump on the tractor. It never had one before, original from the factory. It normally just "thermosiphons" but on hills that can be a problem when you're going down hill and the "cooler" is below the "hotter." I bought this aftermarket pump off eBay that was supposed to allow it to run cooler. However, once I installed it I discovered the pump shaft sticks out too far forward and interferes with the fan blades, thus the fan can't turn. I had to remove the pump and reinstall the original housing. Now I have to try to get my money back. :(
I had to make no less than three trips to town to (not) accomplish all that. First trip was for a different mounting bolt than the original. That was before I figured out the fan problem. Second trip was for a new fan belt once I got the old housing back in place since the one that was on there was not tight and the adjustment was maxed out. The third trip was to get a larger belt since the replacement I'd selected was a tad too small. (Fifty year old tractors with a modified alternator are not in their computer.) However, the next size was not in stock and I have to go back a fourth time tomorrow. Yippee. Hope this one fits.
On top of all that, the carburator needle float stuck open and I lost about two gallons of gas on the ground since the last time I ran her. And then I ran the battery down trying to fire it up. And when I hooked up the jumper cables to the truck, she still wouldn't turn over for some reason, so now I need to pull the tractor battery and have that checked out. And it's not easy to get it out. Ugh.
I tapped the carburator and I think the float freed up because the leak seemed to stop. I'll know tomorrow when I check the tank level. Expensive problem these days...
After the third trip today I gave up on the tractor and turned to another project. In poking around the barn a while back I realized that there had been a pull down stair installed at one point, but whoever had done it had simply cut the floor joists and left them hanging in mid air. They were being held up by the floor boards. It's supposed to be the other way around. Last week bought a couple 2x8x14 joists (to "sister" in alongside the now crippled ones). Today I got to instal them. I REALLY needed my big red wrecking bar to pry off some of the old boards but can't seem to find it. So it took me twice as long as it should have to pull out the remains of the old stairs. But the new joists are in and I should be able to install the rest of the new flooring tomorrow. It felt good to make a genuine improvment, not just cut grass or trim bushes.
In order to work on the floor joists I had to clear out the south bay of the barn, so many things migrated either to the second floor for later use, or the burn pile or the growing "to da dump" pile. As soon as I can drag out the old rusted freezer that weighs a ton, and can get Eloise running again, she can pull right in there with no problem.
I've ordered a rental backhoe for Friday to move some dirt and fill some holes and perhaps poke around where the "West Wing" will be. It's sure a nice feeling to be able to move stuff without asking anyone's permission. Just "have a vision, make it happen" is a very gratifying process.
I've got to be up early tomorrow. One of my buddies is taking the day off work to come help me with some two man jobs around the place. I'd hoped to pick up some windows a friend gave me, but I wasn't able to get ahold of the guy who owns the shed they're in. Maybe later in the week...
Tomorrow I'd like to start removing the kitchen cabinets and get them mounted in the shop. Then tear out the paneling in the kitchen and perhaps even tear up the floor to see what's under the linoleum that's there now. Never a dull moment!
Thanks for reading!
Doug
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Houston, we have liftoff! (So to speak...)
Today was a wonderfully warm, sunny day, high about 75F, warm breezes, a great day to be outside.
Last Saturday I was able to get the PEX installed. I'd estimated that it would take close to 300' and I was right. I had to lay it out in three zones because I could only get it in 100' rolls. The stiffness of the material had been a concern, that it wouldn't turn corners well, etc. However, it went down fairly easily and I had oodles of zip ties left over.
Today I went over after work and found the concrete guys just finishing up. They were quite helpful in letting me know how the pour had gone. They said it will be a few days before the new slab will take the weight of the tractor but that I could start putting the shop together Wednesday.
That's a long day for me but I think I'll start moving the kitchen cabinets out there this Friday, assuming it's not raining or nasty cold. The floor has a slope to it, so I'll have to compensate for that somehow or my work bench will have a slope to it too... :)
The backhoe will be delivered the Monday after Easter. Then I can start scratching around where the West Wing will go and see exactly how deep the soil and rock are there. The masons put the rock they dug out of the barn onto my garden spot, so I want to get that off there and put it behind the "pond" site to build a better road to the back field. Currently one risks getting bogged down when it's wet back there. There are also a multitude of holes around the place that need to be filled up so Eloise can mow effectively. Should make for a full day with the machine.
Speaking of Eloise, she's sprung a leak in her carburator and I lost about a gallon of gas dripped onto the ground... :( Not sure why that happened, but I'm just hoping it's a stuck needle valve or something. I'd hate to have to stop everything and rebuild her carburator right now. I turned off the gas at the little bowl beneath the gas tank, we'll see if that helps. I ran the battery down pretty far trying to get it to fire up, fortunately I have a good set of jumper cables and the tractor has been modified to 12V.
I walked around the areas we planted bulbs last fall (thanks, sis!) and counted something like 40 of them have sprouted. About 3/4 have flowers showing right now, some more have buds and a very few are just leaves. The ones with flowers are a mix, everything from miniature daffodils to full size narcissus. It really adds a nice touch to the place, I have to say. Didn't get any pix taken before the light died, unfortunately. The coming cool weather will hopefully prolong their bloom.
The weeds and briars make much of the place unusable so today I cleared a path through the weeds for the new roadway so I can dump the stone there next week. The "trash piles" on the south side of the house were treated to a hair cut as the brambles went away from around the power pole, etc. Amazing how much stuff is buried under those weeds. The neighbor says that his grandfather used to have large chicken sheds there, which would make sense of the piles of stone and cinder block and rotten boards I'm seeing. Hope I can remove the debris and get it cleaned up a bit. The briars make good cover for the birds, but the trash beneath is unsightly, so perhaps I can cut them back, pull the trash and then let it regrow.
Still need to get that permit application in this week so I can get moving.
Once I get the shop space somewhat in hand I can start rebuilding that north face of the barn and we'll really be cooking with gas! :)
Wasn't able to get a pic of the new barn/shop floor today, but I'll try to snag one Thursday and post it.
We're making progress!
Doug
Last Saturday I was able to get the PEX installed. I'd estimated that it would take close to 300' and I was right. I had to lay it out in three zones because I could only get it in 100' rolls. The stiffness of the material had been a concern, that it wouldn't turn corners well, etc. However, it went down fairly easily and I had oodles of zip ties left over.
Today I went over after work and found the concrete guys just finishing up. They were quite helpful in letting me know how the pour had gone. They said it will be a few days before the new slab will take the weight of the tractor but that I could start putting the shop together Wednesday.
That's a long day for me but I think I'll start moving the kitchen cabinets out there this Friday, assuming it's not raining or nasty cold. The floor has a slope to it, so I'll have to compensate for that somehow or my work bench will have a slope to it too... :)
The backhoe will be delivered the Monday after Easter. Then I can start scratching around where the West Wing will go and see exactly how deep the soil and rock are there. The masons put the rock they dug out of the barn onto my garden spot, so I want to get that off there and put it behind the "pond" site to build a better road to the back field. Currently one risks getting bogged down when it's wet back there. There are also a multitude of holes around the place that need to be filled up so Eloise can mow effectively. Should make for a full day with the machine.
Speaking of Eloise, she's sprung a leak in her carburator and I lost about a gallon of gas dripped onto the ground... :( Not sure why that happened, but I'm just hoping it's a stuck needle valve or something. I'd hate to have to stop everything and rebuild her carburator right now. I turned off the gas at the little bowl beneath the gas tank, we'll see if that helps. I ran the battery down pretty far trying to get it to fire up, fortunately I have a good set of jumper cables and the tractor has been modified to 12V.
I walked around the areas we planted bulbs last fall (thanks, sis!) and counted something like 40 of them have sprouted. About 3/4 have flowers showing right now, some more have buds and a very few are just leaves. The ones with flowers are a mix, everything from miniature daffodils to full size narcissus. It really adds a nice touch to the place, I have to say. Didn't get any pix taken before the light died, unfortunately. The coming cool weather will hopefully prolong their bloom.
The weeds and briars make much of the place unusable so today I cleared a path through the weeds for the new roadway so I can dump the stone there next week. The "trash piles" on the south side of the house were treated to a hair cut as the brambles went away from around the power pole, etc. Amazing how much stuff is buried under those weeds. The neighbor says that his grandfather used to have large chicken sheds there, which would make sense of the piles of stone and cinder block and rotten boards I'm seeing. Hope I can remove the debris and get it cleaned up a bit. The briars make good cover for the birds, but the trash beneath is unsightly, so perhaps I can cut them back, pull the trash and then let it regrow.
Still need to get that permit application in this week so I can get moving.
Once I get the shop space somewhat in hand I can start rebuilding that north face of the barn and we'll really be cooking with gas! :)
Wasn't able to get a pic of the new barn/shop floor today, but I'll try to snag one Thursday and post it.
We're making progress!
Doug
Monday, March 26, 2007
Good News and Tasks for this week...
The good news so far is that despite drippy weather we have insulation and wire down on the shop/barn floor.
Plus, many of the flower bulbs my sister gave us (and my wife and I planted) appear to be coming up! By the end of this week I think we'll have tulips and daffidils all over!
To Do:
1) Order the PEX tubing (with oxygen barrier) for the new shop floor, and get it installed so they can pour the floor.
2) Get my land use permit filed with the township.
3) Get the designers to look at my plans and get a set of drawings done so I can get the building permit in the works. (I'm two months behind on this... :( )
4) Carve a path through the briars and weeds to the base of the power pole. (I want to ask the power company to disconnect the house from the power and mount a box on the pole. The power comes into the house right by the porch that needs to be torn off and transits the space where the rear addition will go.)
If I get half that done I'll be doing good. :)
Tasks on tap for the near future:
1) Rent the mini-backhoe to do some excavating. I want to see how deep down the rock goes where the "West Wing" will go. That's going to determine how much ceiling height we'll have in that room. (Good news: found someone who can build us a masonry heater and there is solid rock right where it would go.) Remove a layer of rock "fill" which was taken out of the shop floor and dumped on my garden plot... :(
2) As soon as the shop floor is hard, build a wall to close it off from the rest of the barn.
3) Rebuild the north gable end of the barn so it's weather tight.
4) Install doors on the north side of the barn, one at ground level and one on the second floor.
5) Rebuild the south face of the barn with a small deck and stairs.
That's all for now, should keep me out of trouble for a few days... :)
Doug
Plus, many of the flower bulbs my sister gave us (and my wife and I planted) appear to be coming up! By the end of this week I think we'll have tulips and daffidils all over!
To Do:
1) Order the PEX tubing (with oxygen barrier) for the new shop floor, and get it installed so they can pour the floor.
2) Get my land use permit filed with the township.
3) Get the designers to look at my plans and get a set of drawings done so I can get the building permit in the works. (I'm two months behind on this... :( )
4) Carve a path through the briars and weeds to the base of the power pole. (I want to ask the power company to disconnect the house from the power and mount a box on the pole. The power comes into the house right by the porch that needs to be torn off and transits the space where the rear addition will go.)
If I get half that done I'll be doing good. :)
Tasks on tap for the near future:
1) Rent the mini-backhoe to do some excavating. I want to see how deep down the rock goes where the "West Wing" will go. That's going to determine how much ceiling height we'll have in that room. (Good news: found someone who can build us a masonry heater and there is solid rock right where it would go.) Remove a layer of rock "fill" which was taken out of the shop floor and dumped on my garden plot... :(
2) As soon as the shop floor is hard, build a wall to close it off from the rest of the barn.
3) Rebuild the north gable end of the barn so it's weather tight.
4) Install doors on the north side of the barn, one at ground level and one on the second floor.
5) Rebuild the south face of the barn with a small deck and stairs.
That's all for now, should keep me out of trouble for a few days... :)
Doug
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Bonfire pix online!
I was able to upload a few pictures and short video clips of our bonfires. Check out the link on the right side of this page.
A good time was had by all. :)
A good time was had by all. :)
Sunday, January 28, 2007
News for the week
Saturday, Jan. 27 - The weather was the right mix and we were able to burn both the piles of trash trees and brush that I had built up over the last six months. It was quite a sight to light them up. I'd been afraid that they'd be wet inside and not burn well but my fears were ill founded and they went up nicely. Many friends came by to visit and toss a log on the fire for us. I'd only planned on burning one pile, but the burn rate was so fast that we ended up doing them both. The bed of coals lasted well past 10PM. That's when they had all burned down past the dangerous stage and I left to go home. Many thanks to Andy, Steven, Brittany, Steven's dad, Dustin, Calvin and Charles who came and helped especially. I'll post some pix as soon as I can.
We also managed to finish pulling the paneling and all the furring off of the living room walls. Most of it is burned, we added it to the fire. Lots of plaster patching to do, but that will come. We've a lot of work to do there, but it's nice to have it one notch farther along.
As for the barn floor, it needs to have the insulation laid down on it, then the wire, then the tubing. They hit a seam of rock while digging and brought in an air compressor to jack hammer the rock. Unfortunately they dumped the rock on my garden spot, but I'll be able to remove that to it's proper place with the backhoe I plan to rent at some point. I'll be doing the insulation this next weekend, if all goes well. After that will come the tubing and then they can pour.
I also need to get at the apple trees and do some pruning next weekend. This is the time of year for it (unless it's absolutely freezing wind chills then, which is unfortunately the forecast).
As the winter sun starts it's climb higher in the sky, the days get colder, so we'll see how it works out, but winter has definitely arrived here! Brrr! :)
Stay warm,
Doug
We also managed to finish pulling the paneling and all the furring off of the living room walls. Most of it is burned, we added it to the fire. Lots of plaster patching to do, but that will come. We've a lot of work to do there, but it's nice to have it one notch farther along.
As for the barn floor, it needs to have the insulation laid down on it, then the wire, then the tubing. They hit a seam of rock while digging and brought in an air compressor to jack hammer the rock. Unfortunately they dumped the rock on my garden spot, but I'll be able to remove that to it's proper place with the backhoe I plan to rent at some point. I'll be doing the insulation this next weekend, if all goes well. After that will come the tubing and then they can pour.
I also need to get at the apple trees and do some pruning next weekend. This is the time of year for it (unless it's absolutely freezing wind chills then, which is unfortunately the forecast).
As the winter sun starts it's climb higher in the sky, the days get colder, so we'll see how it works out, but winter has definitely arrived here! Brrr! :)
Stay warm,
Doug
Saturday, January 13, 2007
A new barn floor!
This is a short note, but a hopeful one. The warm weather we've been having has kept alive my drive to make improvements to the property through the winter. Today I met with a concrete contractor and we discussed a new floor in half of my barn. I want to use an area about 22' by 24' as a woodshop and "out of the weather" storage depot for house materials. I'm hoping I can buy things cheap while they're on sale, before I need them.
Percy says he can dig out the dirt that's there now, lay in 4" of rock and pour a 4" slab of concrete for me in the next week or two. I asked him if he'd bring in a Bobcat or what and he just grinned and said, "Do you know what a Chinese backhoe is?" I laughed because I knew there was a lot of shoveling ahead for his crew. It should be easy digging though, most of it's rotted cow and horse manure. I'm going to have him spread it in the "garden to be."
Once the floor's been laid I should be able to repair the rim joist on the north gable end of the barn (eaten away by weather) and perhaps even get that gable resided, if the weather holds warm like it has been. With a new floor, new joists, and new siding, we'll be ready for a garage door and really be going to town!
It was fun to bust out the old junky flooring and walls that had been put in there by someone. Much of it was oak that was a good bit rotted out. I managed to get a fire started (VERY carefully) in a small brush pile with a little gasoline. I tried kerosene first because it's safer to work with and it wouldn't light for some reason. I stacked on the junky boards from the old floor. Once they got going they burned really well. I ended up with a bed of coals about 18" high and 3' in diameter. It was so hot I couldn't get near it to push in the unburnt ends. I had to flip them in with a rake from a distance. Even though the day was in the 50's and rainy.
There were some old pine boughs from the other side of the house, down by the power pole. I decided to clear out that area a bit, but the pile was too big to lug so far by hand so I fired up Eloise and hooked a chain up and drug over a good sized load. I used the biggest limb I could find as a "bed" and piled the other limbs on top. Hooked up the chain and away she went. Eloise fired right up, no problem, btw.
I'm hoping to clear a good path to the power pole because at some point I want to bury the power lines into the house. I really don't like them hanging around. The power comes in from the back left side of the house and the phone/cable comes in the front left, so I will have some good experience with a trencher before I'm done. :)
The back line, the power cable, will be a bit tricky since there are a lot of rocks close to the surface there and getting the power line under ground might be a challenge. At worst I figure I'll just lay the cable on the rock and build a berm of earth over top of it to the right depth. If the cable can't go into the ground, the dirt can rise above it...
I still have about six posts to cut out of the barn. Someone installed some VERY sturdy posts to anchor the corners of box stalls, they're sunk into concrete, etc. I intend to just cut them at the top by the joists and flush with the dirt on the bottom. The footings can probably be jack hammered low enough to be buried under the slab. My concrete guy says they won't be a problem.
I've got a book on hot water heat for slabs. I want to try out the system on the barn/shop floor and see if I can work it right there. Even if the floor never gets super hot, being able to bring it from 30F to 60F will be a help on the feet in cold weather. My intention is to hook the loop up to some homemade solar collectors as an experiment. We'll see how well it works out. I'd like to hook it up to a solar electric powered circulation pump. That way it will only circulate when there's sunshine (heat) to be gathered. Not sure of the engineering math involved, but this is a great toy for a tinkerer. :)
Off to bed, a full day ahead tomorrow.
Doug
Percy says he can dig out the dirt that's there now, lay in 4" of rock and pour a 4" slab of concrete for me in the next week or two. I asked him if he'd bring in a Bobcat or what and he just grinned and said, "Do you know what a Chinese backhoe is?" I laughed because I knew there was a lot of shoveling ahead for his crew. It should be easy digging though, most of it's rotted cow and horse manure. I'm going to have him spread it in the "garden to be."
Once the floor's been laid I should be able to repair the rim joist on the north gable end of the barn (eaten away by weather) and perhaps even get that gable resided, if the weather holds warm like it has been. With a new floor, new joists, and new siding, we'll be ready for a garage door and really be going to town!
It was fun to bust out the old junky flooring and walls that had been put in there by someone. Much of it was oak that was a good bit rotted out. I managed to get a fire started (VERY carefully) in a small brush pile with a little gasoline. I tried kerosene first because it's safer to work with and it wouldn't light for some reason. I stacked on the junky boards from the old floor. Once they got going they burned really well. I ended up with a bed of coals about 18" high and 3' in diameter. It was so hot I couldn't get near it to push in the unburnt ends. I had to flip them in with a rake from a distance. Even though the day was in the 50's and rainy.
There were some old pine boughs from the other side of the house, down by the power pole. I decided to clear out that area a bit, but the pile was too big to lug so far by hand so I fired up Eloise and hooked a chain up and drug over a good sized load. I used the biggest limb I could find as a "bed" and piled the other limbs on top. Hooked up the chain and away she went. Eloise fired right up, no problem, btw.
I'm hoping to clear a good path to the power pole because at some point I want to bury the power lines into the house. I really don't like them hanging around. The power comes in from the back left side of the house and the phone/cable comes in the front left, so I will have some good experience with a trencher before I'm done. :)
The back line, the power cable, will be a bit tricky since there are a lot of rocks close to the surface there and getting the power line under ground might be a challenge. At worst I figure I'll just lay the cable on the rock and build a berm of earth over top of it to the right depth. If the cable can't go into the ground, the dirt can rise above it...
I still have about six posts to cut out of the barn. Someone installed some VERY sturdy posts to anchor the corners of box stalls, they're sunk into concrete, etc. I intend to just cut them at the top by the joists and flush with the dirt on the bottom. The footings can probably be jack hammered low enough to be buried under the slab. My concrete guy says they won't be a problem.
I've got a book on hot water heat for slabs. I want to try out the system on the barn/shop floor and see if I can work it right there. Even if the floor never gets super hot, being able to bring it from 30F to 60F will be a help on the feet in cold weather. My intention is to hook the loop up to some homemade solar collectors as an experiment. We'll see how well it works out. I'd like to hook it up to a solar electric powered circulation pump. That way it will only circulate when there's sunshine (heat) to be gathered. Not sure of the engineering math involved, but this is a great toy for a tinkerer. :)
Off to bed, a full day ahead tomorrow.
Doug
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