If you have been keeping up with the story of the Farm, you already know that it has been a bit wet here this Winter. The weather report said seven inches in January and I believe they're just a bit low. Last week seemed dryer than any week in recent memory The weather was better, but only just a bit better. There were only three days where we got rained out of work, but there was so much mud. . . .
We bought a unit of crushed rock to fix the damage done to the driveway by digging trenches and allowing ninety ton cement trucks in when it was really wet. The driveway is cleaned up once more and we even got a small foot path back to the house. But the mud was still making things horrible to walk on, so I went down to McMinnville on Monday to get a load of straw to put everywhere the mud was still a problem.
Straw is hard to find this late in the Winter because there is so much building going on in the City and everyone has the same mud abatement problems. The farm I get it from is west of McMinnville. This sounds like a long distance drive, but really it is only a forty-five minutes away. The bales are slightly less expensive there, but most importantly he has some bales to sell. We got fifteen bales and the mud we covered took ten. Just as things got cleaned up enough to work the rains slacked off and things started to dry out.
We had two minor County inspections on Monday, plumbing and electrical things which we passed easily, so we began "rolling joists" on Tuesday. (I don't know they they call it "rolling", but what they mean is putting the joists together to make a floor frame onto which we can build the walls.) This is heavy work, but with straw covering the mud made the work a bit easier. We're still waiting for a special order girder beam for half the floor to rest upon. But we got about half of the floor frame nailed together and the beam should show up next Monday.We'll make quick work of the remaining frame once it arrives. Then on to some easier next steps.
First up will be the plumbing that goes under the house. All the water and waste pipes have to be in and checked before we can lay down floor boards. Most of this work should be pretty easy to imagine. Our only big changes are in the hot water supply.
We're putting in a tank-less propane water heater as the main supplier of hot water and this will allow us a limitless supply. To augment the tank-less heater, we'll put in a small water heater in the linen closet of the bathroom. The distance from the tank-less heater to the bathroom is more than forty feet and the little tank in the bathroom will provide immediate hot water while being refilled with pre-heated water from the main heater. The little holding tank will only need to maintain the temperature so it will be cheap to run. These two water heaters together ought to lower heating costs by half while giving us immediate and unlimited hot water, achieving the 85% rule. (85% of all desire for 50% of the resources.)
We have re-considered the pipes we're going to put in, deciding to go with PEX plastic pipe. The system will cost half as much as we have budgeted for copper and go in much more easily than all of the copper pipe and welding we were committed to using. Nearly all of the pipe will run through holes bored in the joists and be surrounded by six inches of insulation everywhere. The septic pipe is just a big expensive black thing where no economizing can be found. But ours is a very small house with a simple waste water system.
In other areas: The gardens are beginning to grow things, some of them good. Low weeds are everywhere, but these are the sort which burn off easily using our field burner. I can cover about five hundred square feet of burning at a time so there's a lot to do. But the growth also includes the bulbs Ann put in last fall which are really doing well.
Ann re-assigned last years corn rows to bulbs just to have a place large enough to put it all. We left the Crocus (flowering right now) where it was but the hundreds of Tulips and Daffodils we had propagated last year got planted and we bought three hundred more of three types to kick start the numbers. So right now there's about seven hundred bulbs in six rows. Many of these are already budding out. By next year we should have about twenty-three hundred bulbs and can start putting them into the Kitchen Garden where they will live year around.
There are also have Onions and Garlic over-Wintering out in the Market Garden and they are doing pretty well. Over-Wintering Onions is experimental because the wet weather can bring rot, but the Garlic is where we grew it last year and it worked pretty well. Garlic takes nine months to produce so we re-planted immediately after last year's harvest using cloves we grew ourselves. With the bulbs it is all about increasing numbers without buying more.
Other that the stuff written above, we got a bit more accomplished. Every day we scour Craig's List for deals on things we will need and found a few this week. We somehow scored eight oak barrels, four emptied of French wine, four emptied of whiskey, for free. And we picked up a good used cement mixer for $90.00, to save us about three hundred. Finally, we found a brand new kitchen sink and saved about $150.00 on it. We still need a back door, but there is still time.
With warmer and drier in the forecast, and the beam landing early next week things are looking good for building walls pretty soon. Hopefully we'll get things done before time must be devoted to the gardens mid-March.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Saturday, February 1, 2020
February 1, 2020 Another Wet Week
I'm told that this is a "solar minimum" year, one where the Sun's Corona lacks Sunspots, so less energy is reaching us. I'm no scientist. But the source of this information contends that the cooler season with extra rain is the result. There is nothing to be done, the rain falls. Gravity is still the law.
So this past week was another rained out game. We had about three short periods of time suitable for work outdoors. We were able to get the trenching under the Farmhouse, and a drainage sump put in as well. The conduit for electricity and the first water pipe is also put in, but little else was done this week worthy of noting here.
The forecast for next week is for a clearing trend. We have an inspection scheduled for Monday. Following this we may be able to put the sub-floor framing in and this will allow a large part of the house plumbing to by piped in before the next inspection. These two things are not very weather dependent, but the ground where we will need to work gets very slippery when wet. A bit of dry weather is what we need to get things moving.
So this past week was another rained out game. We had about three short periods of time suitable for work outdoors. We were able to get the trenching under the Farmhouse, and a drainage sump put in as well. The conduit for electricity and the first water pipe is also put in, but little else was done this week worthy of noting here.
The forecast for next week is for a clearing trend. We have an inspection scheduled for Monday. Following this we may be able to put the sub-floor framing in and this will allow a large part of the house plumbing to by piped in before the next inspection. These two things are not very weather dependent, but the ground where we will need to work gets very slippery when wet. A bit of dry weather is what we need to get things moving.
Saturday, January 25, 2020
January 25th, 2020 We got some wood on it.
The week was horribly rainy every day, so not much got done in the way of real work. But we did work on some things while it was raining.
We didn't let the weather slow us to a stand still though the rain kept us indoors for the most part, doing a few small projects. We bought a new sliding compound miter saw from Amazon and it needed a mobile bench to bolt it down to so we can move it nearer the house build. The saw is a wonderful tool that will easily cut up to twelve inch lumber with laser accuracy, so this was something we have a lot of work for. The bench we built for the new saw will sit on some new saw horses we built as the new saws very first project.
Other than this small stuff we bought the borate treated, bottom plate, lumber on Monday. This is the "green" marine treated lumber that sits on top of the concrete foundation and the rest of the house gets nailed to this first layer. On Thursday I went up to Woodland, Washington to pick up the balance of the wood we will need to put the sub-floor frame together.
Lumber isn't something that can be chiseled for price very much. At Parr Lumber a sixteen foot 2x12 runs about twenty-eight dollars. We can save a bit by going to Home Depot where the wood runs about $23 dollars a board. But in Woodland, Washington (60 miles away) the same board runs about $18, but you have to dig through the boards to find good wood. It is worth ten dollars a board to us to drive an hour and load them myself, especially since the sub-floor frame alone uses seventy boards. We will re-use the concrete form lumber and save a thousand dollars, then save ten dollars a board on the remaining twenty-nine boards, bringing the sub-floor frame in at about half the expected price. This is right in line with our eighty-five percent rule (85% of our desires for 50% of the money).
Today the rain let up and it was about fifty-five degrees outside with some sunny breaks. We spent the morning doing a routine clean-out of the chicken coop . The coop has had a perennial rat problem. The little buggers come in under the front edge and work their way toward the chicken food dispenser, every few weeks we try another way of keeping them out. We added a layer of chicken wire under the floor, but it probable won't work. Rats are clever, and they have all the time in the world to figure a way around our defenses. We built a new rat live catch trap this morning . . . Maybe it will work.
In the afternoon we put the green boards we bought onto the foundation permanently. The first step of framing the house. Since the foundation has a bunch of bolts embedded in it, we had to find a way to mark the green boards accurately so that the wood and the boards line up properly with the bolts holding them down. Eventually we figured it all out and added a layer of closed cell foam between the concrete and the green boards to make sure everything is well protected from any moisture coming up through the concrete.
We still have to dig a bit under the house. This week's rain didn't allow much digging in the mud. But with any luck we'll get the trenches dug out, then we'll be able to nail the sub-floor frame together and get the preliminary plumbing installed.
After a few minor inspections we'll have a floor to walk on, enough to begin putting up some walls.
We didn't let the weather slow us to a stand still though the rain kept us indoors for the most part, doing a few small projects. We bought a new sliding compound miter saw from Amazon and it needed a mobile bench to bolt it down to so we can move it nearer the house build. The saw is a wonderful tool that will easily cut up to twelve inch lumber with laser accuracy, so this was something we have a lot of work for. The bench we built for the new saw will sit on some new saw horses we built as the new saws very first project.
Other than this small stuff we bought the borate treated, bottom plate, lumber on Monday. This is the "green" marine treated lumber that sits on top of the concrete foundation and the rest of the house gets nailed to this first layer. On Thursday I went up to Woodland, Washington to pick up the balance of the wood we will need to put the sub-floor frame together.
Lumber isn't something that can be chiseled for price very much. At Parr Lumber a sixteen foot 2x12 runs about twenty-eight dollars. We can save a bit by going to Home Depot where the wood runs about $23 dollars a board. But in Woodland, Washington (60 miles away) the same board runs about $18, but you have to dig through the boards to find good wood. It is worth ten dollars a board to us to drive an hour and load them myself, especially since the sub-floor frame alone uses seventy boards. We will re-use the concrete form lumber and save a thousand dollars, then save ten dollars a board on the remaining twenty-nine boards, bringing the sub-floor frame in at about half the expected price. This is right in line with our eighty-five percent rule (85% of our desires for 50% of the money).
Today the rain let up and it was about fifty-five degrees outside with some sunny breaks. We spent the morning doing a routine clean-out of the chicken coop . The coop has had a perennial rat problem. The little buggers come in under the front edge and work their way toward the chicken food dispenser, every few weeks we try another way of keeping them out. We added a layer of chicken wire under the floor, but it probable won't work. Rats are clever, and they have all the time in the world to figure a way around our defenses. We built a new rat live catch trap this morning . . . Maybe it will work.
In the afternoon we put the green boards we bought onto the foundation permanently. The first step of framing the house. Since the foundation has a bunch of bolts embedded in it, we had to find a way to mark the green boards accurately so that the wood and the boards line up properly with the bolts holding them down. Eventually we figured it all out and added a layer of closed cell foam between the concrete and the green boards to make sure everything is well protected from any moisture coming up through the concrete.
We still have to dig a bit under the house. This week's rain didn't allow much digging in the mud. But with any luck we'll get the trenches dug out, then we'll be able to nail the sub-floor frame together and get the preliminary plumbing installed.
After a few minor inspections we'll have a floor to walk on, enough to begin putting up some walls.
Friday, January 17, 2020
January 17, 2020 We Are Building Our New Home THIS YEAR!
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| This is the South-eastern corner. The Kitchen will go in this corner. |
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| Click for a larger picture |
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| The forms we removed |
We finished the foundation for our new home yesterday by pulling all of the wooden forms off the fresh concrete. It took three long days to get all of the forms and supports taken off, but it took two weeks to put it all in place, so we are doing well for time. The wood we used got no lighter in weight, and the mud around the home-site only got deeper. Taking the forms off was heavy work. But the end result was pretty nice to look at.
Our next steps will be difficult, just not on the scale that this huge first step proposed. There are quite a few things needing done prior to building the first floor. We need to hand dig some trenches, one for the water supply, one for the electrical lines. These trenches have to be inspected prior to them being filled in, but after the trenches are filled in we will be able to dig a sump to collect any water that might find its way under the house. The sump pumps the water through a hole we put through the foundation to be drained away. We'll put down a plastic moisture barrier, lay a drainage pipe around the inside perimeter, and bury the drain pipe in rock. The whole thing is fairly easy to do, but this will take a few days.
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| This is the hallway. The W/C is at the close end of the hallway. The engineer designed this house very heavily. |
Once done with the preparations, we'll begin laying out the first floor framing. One of the features of this house will be putting in a floor and ceiling with an insulation r-value of 38 (really thick bats). This requires that we use twelve inch wood to frame the sub-floor, the same heavy stuff we used to do the concrete forms, so we will be working hard carrying boards around. We will re-use the foundation form lumber in building the sub-floor frame and this will save us about a thousand dollars while keeping to our re-use, re-purpose, plan. The sub-floor framing will hold most of the house plumbing as well as the insulation. We will be using copper pipe throughout the house, though it likely costs a bit more.
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| This view is from the North-west corner. Our bedroom will be in this corner. |
I've done a lot of copper plumbing through the years, and the choice of copper is mostly for comfort in knowing they won't leak. And freezing pipes won't be any trouble since we'll run the pipes inside the frame, the insulation bats will protect them even in the coldest Winter. We'll also hang the septic pipe from the sub-floor frame and run all of the other drains to it before calling for more inspections. If all goes as expected the County will give us permission to put a flooring plywood on. At that point we'll have a large flat place on which we can put up our walls.
We are hoping to get most of this preparation done in the balance of January, but weather has been a constant problem this year so we're going to have to dodge a few more raindrops. We are not far behind in our plans, considering we did the foundation work in Winter we're lucky to have come this far. The idea is to get the framing up and a roof on the house by April. We still want to get our gardens planted this year, so the Farm will take so good days away from the building project. But we think that, with a bit of luck, we'll be move in ready in August.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
January 5, 2020 We found our front door
We are trying to use reclaimed and reused things for the Farmhouse build where we can. This is both an economical thing as well as a philosophical statement of a sort. The idea of it is to put economical decisions where they belong, in third place. So I shop Craig's List every day, scouting bargains.
This morning we found the front door. A Craftsman styled pre-hung door which we picked up this afternoon. I paid him $185 for the door, he asked $190 but I read it as two-hundred and only had a five dollar bill, so $185 it is. If he'd been asking $400 I'd have gladly given it. At Home Depot the door goes for $1221.
The guy who had it listed was a man like myself. In retirement he built a wonderfully eclectic tiny B&B up in the gentrified Alberta neighborhood. He had some of the best weird stuff out among the plants and paths. We want to be like him someday.
"Turquoise is one of our favorite front door colors. It may be a bit unusual but, but it’s perfect if you crave emotional balance, have big hopes and dreams and believe that anything is possible. , ."
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| The door is finished in natural wood stain, I added the turquoise color using Photoshop. |
This morning we found the front door. A Craftsman styled pre-hung door which we picked up this afternoon. I paid him $185 for the door, he asked $190 but I read it as two-hundred and only had a five dollar bill, so $185 it is. If he'd been asking $400 I'd have gladly given it. At Home Depot the door goes for $1221.
The guy who had it listed was a man like myself. In retirement he built a wonderfully eclectic tiny B&B up in the gentrified Alberta neighborhood. He had some of the best weird stuff out among the plants and paths. We want to be like him someday.
"Turquoise is one of our favorite front door colors. It may be a bit unusual but, but it’s perfect if you crave emotional balance, have big hopes and dreams and believe that anything is possible. , ."
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