Since The Last Time

I've been quite busy on several projects since I last posted. I believe I mentioned that I completed the final finish on the living room rafters and ceiling. I'll try to get photos of that soon. I spent most of Monday trying to gather material for the house. I was partially successful. I did get enough to install the slate floor in the bathroom though and am very happy with the result. Please excuse the photos however; the color is way off. I have the window in here temporarily boarded up and so the bathroom doesn't get good light.
Well, first Allen installed the Durock over the plywood subfloor. It is 1/2" cement board and he glued it and screwed it down in about a 12" grid pattern. This gives you a very stable surface to adhere the tile to because with stone or ceramic tile ( anything you would grout), you don't want any movement in the floor when it's walked on. We kind of had to piece it as we were being real conservative in buying material so we put that area, in the upper left hand corner, where it will be under the sink.

For the remainder of the project I was on my own! Allen got me started and then went to mow but I wanted to do this myself anyway. I have never installed stone flooring before. So, I got all my slate together and found the pattern. Fortunately, I had presence of mind enough to save this diagram from 8 years ago that comes on all boxes of tile that call for a certain pattern. Now, most real stone setters would probably laugh their butt off at how I did this but I felt it was this easiest way for me. I have no idea of the "proper" way to set stone but that leaves you free to create your own system. Yeah. Ok.....
Next, I just laid out the whole pattern in the room, making sure to center it both ways. I was so lucky that it just worked out right. I had about 1 1/4" margin on either side (against the wall). It fit perfectly long ways. It was like the tile was just made for the room and I had just exactly enough! I drew a control line down one side to keep that straight and checked it for square every so often. There is some humoring in here and there with this. You want it square off your walls for the most part because that is where it will show up. I kept a 1/4" grout joint throughout.

Once I had the entire room laid out and situated like I wanted, I would remove a small section at a time and lay down my thin set with a 1/4" notched trowel, then reset the tiles. Once they are back in place you can float them around some to get them exactly where you want them and make sure that they are pressed down to about the same height. You don't want to press hard on the tiles, their weight will be enough to secure them to the thin set. Also, make sure your floor is very clean before you lay the tiles down because if there is even a small speck of rock or something under one and you step on it, you can break the tile. Obviously, when you set tile in sections like this you have to pay careful attention to which areas you have set and do not get on them!

I had to make several cuts around the toilet flange but that's easy. Make sure that at least some stone or tile is under the flange ( but don't get in the way of your screw holes) so that it is resting on top of the flooring.

I let this cure for almost 48 hours I guess before I grouted it. You could do it after 24 hours but that's just what worked out for me. I finally picked my grout color; what a pain, and mixed that up. I just flopped it out on the floor and then used a rubber grout float to squish it in the joints. Never use a metal float or something like that 'cause you will scratch the stone and drag it diagonally across the joints to screed off the excess. I let it sit for about 15 minutes and then went back with the first wipe down. With very clean water and a big sponge, wipe the excess grout off the tiles. I wiped it 3 times I think, letting it sit until it was starting to form a haze in between each time. At this point, it should be fairly clean but if you keep wiping you are just wiping grout out of your joints. It's going to form a haze but the grout has to cure. I'll go back tomorrow and clean it thoroughly. I thought it came out really well.

I got the paint for the bedroom today so I'll be working on that tomorrow and can soon start to trim out the windows there! Things are going great but I still haven't heard much about when I will go back to work. I love having this much time but I am anxious to start work also for the money. It won't be long that I will need some big bucks to buy material with.

Southern Rain

We are still getting a good bit of rain every day it seems like down here. Plants are going nuts everywhere. The title of this post is a old Cowboy Junkies song. If I were smart enough I could put a link in so that you could hear part of the song but as it is, you'll just have to Google them if you want to. Great band though. The song starts out with the husband saying, "looks like a storm cloud coming, honey, guess we'll have to stay in bed today". It goes on about other stuff and then she ends the song saying you'll never catch her complaining about too much southern rain. I wouldn't either.
I don't think I have shown a picture of the exterior of the house in a while. Not much has changed there. All of the block that is going to be laid is there though. Charles came this past week and finished that up. This photo looks kind of messy though; I need to do a good clean-up. Lots is happening on the inside of the house though. I finished the ceiling, hallelujah!!!! We are going to be installing the slate floor in the bathroom on Sunday. More walls are primed and ready for finish paint.

The pump house is much further along but not quite finished. I still need to roof it and put a door on. At some point it will get a floor too. I am going to build 2 small retaining walls on either side of the trail leading up to the door also and backfill all that so most of the concrete you see here will be covered up. The pump and tank continue to work great in this location. It is better we moved all this down here as it turns out because this equipment is louder than we thought it would be and if it stayed under the house you would definitely be hearing all that.

Hopefully, the slate floor will go well tomorrow and I'll try to get some more inside photos up.

A Slow Go

Man, this is taking forever to put this oil and beeswax finish on. You can see in the above photo the difference in the color of the wood after the application. Part of this has just been put on; it does seem to lighten somewhat after it cures for a couple of days. The rafter tails have been stained but you can see that better in the next photo. You have to keep the oil/beeswax fairly warm also for easier application so that has been a challenge. At first I just heated a small amount in the microwave and carried it up the scaffold with me but then I remembered that I had an old, mini crock pot that I got at the thrift store for when I thought I was going to make some candles. I took it up the scaffold and ran an extension cord up there and just keep it full of the mixture. That works really well. Even though I am trying to apply the oil very sparingly, some of it still drips on me. My hands and arms are getting really soft from having this stuff on them so much.

This is a closer view of the stained and waxed rafter tails/rafters. I wanted the tails to look more like they were just another type of wood rather than having a heavy stain on them. I think it looks good. We'll see what the BFA says; I sent him photos this afternoon. I think he will hate it.

I'm not sure if you can make out what this is or not; it's not the best photo. I was trying to show the entire rafter tail, inside and out. I have gotten a lot of hits on this site for people looking for adding tails to rafters. I thought this shot might make it more obvious what we did. This is taken as I was looking up through the window. The main rafter (and what's really bearing the weight) ends inside the wall. The exterior tail is sort of capped over the end of the rafter and extends inside the house also. Now, this made the cost of each rafter just about double but, I don't have fascia or soffit board to buy since my tails are decorative so I save there. I could have just scabbed a fake tail on one side of the rafter but that doesn't look very pretty or substantial and is why most people cover it up with soffit.

I'm hoping the ceiling here will be done by the weekend and we should start the bathroom floor in the next day or two. Not much else happening. It has rained almost every day here for the past week I guess. The spring is up and I have squash out the wazzoo.

Watchful Eyes

This is Slim, my cherry tomato guardian. Can you see him? He's right in the center of the photo. I keep a cherry tomato plant on the patio right outside our little apartment and I came out one morning to see evidence of a tomato hormworm. Horrors!! I hate those things. It had eaten a couple of the ends off 2 limbs and pooped everywhere but as I scoured the plant from top to bottom, I couldn't find the worm anywhere. Then I saw Slim here, perched right next to one of the areas (and poop) where it seemed the nasty caterpillar had last been. I guess Slim had a good meal too. Anyway, he's been hanging around on the plant for the last couple of weeks so I try to make him feel welcome. Unfortunately, praying mantis will also eat beneficial bugs like honey bees but if he will eat tomato hornworms then he is fine in my book.

On the previous post I mentioned VOCs and Pablo asked what that was so I thought I'd provide a little information to all on that. This is a very simple definition I found.
VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are the fumes that you smell while you paint, and sometimes several days after. A VOC is an organic chemical that becomes a breathable gas at room temperature. Some examples are benzene, ethylene glycol, vinyl chloride and mercury.
VOCs in paint usually come from additives to the paint, such as fungicides, biocides, color, and spread ability agents. High levels of VOCs in paints can cause headaches, allergic reactions, and health problems in the very old, very young and in those with chronic illnesses.
Concerns about air pollution and hazardous waste have greatly reduced the use of oil-based paints which can release high amounts of VOCs and contain toxic solvents. Alkyd-based paints and latex paints are much safer, but some still have high levels of VOCs.

One of the things I am trying to accomplish with this house is to build an environment using all natural materials wherever possible. You know, untreated wood, stone, natural fabrics etc. I'm trying to severely limit the amount of plastic which will be in the house, which are another source of VOCs and other nasty things. Besides that, it has no soul. Carpet, plywood and some paints also emit formaldehyde, a carcinogen, so no carpet anywhere in the house. Now, I have used plywood but as of now there are just no other sources available in this area for an alternative product.
Most of my family laughs at me for being concerned about such things and actually taking these steps but just by coincidence, I'm the only one who does not take any prescription medications whatsoever, is not overweight, can work the hell out of most anybody and am often told that I look younger than I am..... if they don't see my gray hair! And I have a happy personality (most of the time.... hush Allen!) Now, whether this is due to just eating healthy and staying active or to avoiding these products I mentioned also, I don't know but, you know, it doesn't hurt. To me, if you are surrounded be natural, inviting furnishings you just feel better.
I am continuing to work on the ceiling finish and priming walls today. I will try to have more photos soon. I am trying to make good use of my time off but I always feel like I'm not doing enough. Allen has been working his butt off under the house leveling out the dirt so that we can pour a slab under there for my studio. I'll get photos of that too.

Under Pressure

Here is a different view of the clerestory wall and windows that I don't believe I have shown before. I took these while up on the scaffold I am using to sand and paint this wall and the ceiling. Lots of things are happening since I have so much time now to work on the house. I have primed almost all of the walls that got Sheetrock. I completely finished painting the bathroom and it's ready for flooring. More about that later. This wall is primed and ready for the final color. The title of this post refers to the extreme difficulty I have in picking colors. The BFA is of no help lately. He is very busy on real projects so I am mostly on my own with this now. I have only my concept of what he verbally described as wanting this room to look like, which is probably nothing like what he imagined. So, we'll all get over it. It's going to look good I think, at any rate.

I also cleaned the steel beam here and it's waiting it's final coat of wax. Lots of people ask me if this beam has been painted or if I'm going to paint it and I'm not. I left the mill scale, which is a natural, blackish coating that forms on the steel as it is rolled. I love the way it looks and a good coat of wax will keep the edges from rusting. I have installed the screens in these windows so that I can keep them open all the time now. Normally, you would not put the screens in until a house is completely done (they don't usually come with the window anyway) but these windows are not likely to have anyone messing around them. I think having them open helps a lot to vent the hot air in the house. I have a thermometer in the house and with no air conditioning, the house usually stays about 10-12 degrees cooler than the outside on a sunny day. Now, that's not too bad but on days when it reaches 95, that can get warm. I think with the addition of ceiling fans, it will be a little cooler or feel like it anyway. I plan on having air conditioning but it will probably have to be a window unit for a while.

This is just a close up of the rafter tails. I am using a natural polymerized linseed oil/beeswax finish on the rafters and plywood decking. It is a beautiful golden color, completely natural, biodegradable finish, VOC-free and smells wonderful. The beeswax gives it anti-static properties also so they claim surfaces finished with it won't attract dust. I had to order this stuff from New York and it was kind of expensive but I think its worth it for the health factor. By getting so much salvaged material for free etc. I feel I can splurge some on a few things like this. These rafters don't have anything on them in this photo. The tail part (spruce) of the rafter ( #2 yellow pine) is going to be stained a slightly darker color (which I started today) to accent them a little from the rafter. It took a long time to finish around each of these tails and make the Sheetrock look good.

This is not a very good shot but I was trying to show something of the bathroom. I am having to mix my own colors due to the fact that I was given various paint. You get it free but have to take what is available. Hey, but I'm not complaining! It's worked out really well. I was able to mix up just the right color in a kitchen and bath semi-gloss. The colors are not showing up well in these photos though. This is a light sand color that goes great with the slate floor and I will have white trim. I wanted to show the shower to show that you can finish Durock just like Sheetrock. It would be pretty pricey to tile the shower all the way to the ceiling so I am going to stop it about 18" from the top. You have to skim the Durock maybe a couple more times than Sheetrock but you can't tell where one leaves off. Here, I have cut in my corners and am about to roll the walls.

I did a little investigating on the VOC levels in paint as far as what is considered unhealthy and all. Anything above 150 grams per liter is generally considered not good. All paint, stain etc. now has this information on the label so I checked out the stuff I got and it was all around 60-85 grams/liter except the semi-gloss in the bathroom. It was 163 g/l but I figure I will just leave the windows open slightly until I'm sure the paint has dried to let everything air out good.

Tomorrow I plan to continue finishing the ceiling and rafters so maybe I will have photos of that soon. I think it looks great so far. I am very excited!!!

Dog Dish Cobbler

Okay, let me explain this one. As I have mentioned in a previous post, we live in a very small "apartment" right now and I only have a makeshift kitchen for now. Any baking has to be done in a toaster oven and even though it's a pretty good size toaster oven, most of my regular baking pans, dishes don't fit in it. Well, Allen was really wanting a blackberry cobbler since there are so many fresh blackberries for the picking right now. We eat very few sweets but I do sometimes make something for dessert, mainly for him. Since funds are very tight right now due to my being laid off, this was a good deal also because I didn't have to buy anything to do it. Anyway, I needed a good deep dish to bake it in, couldn't find any of my regular stuff that would fit, when I remembered that I had thrown several dog bowls and had never sold them. Hhhmm. Stoneware is perfect to bake in. This one was the perfect size. And no, they had never been used. So, I whipped up this cobbler and it came out just wonderful! Stoneware really cooks nice; everything really bakes very even. No overdone bottoms. In fact, when I start throwing again, I may start making a similar form just for cobblers etc.

We received a good bit of rain over the past weekend so the garden is really doing well. Last year I planted 2 lavender shrubs ( plants, whatever) and they are really taking off now. I think they liked the dry weather actually. I have already harvested several bundles like this one and they keep producing more. I have them all hanging in the apartment drying and they really smell great.

On house news, Allen has about finished the structure of the pumphouse; just need to put some kind of siding on it and finish roof. I have started painting in the bathroom and bedroom!! Once again, my boys came through and I received enough paint to start this next step. I have primed the bathroom, bedroom and clerestory wall and mixed the color I want for the bathroom. I'm still working on the color for the bedroom. I want to finish the bathroom first so the flooring can go down because that means the toilet is next!!! The tile for the shower is going to run me about $360.00 so unless I came work some deal there, installing that may be a while. Also, as soon as the clerestory wall is done (trim and everything) I can remove the scaffolding and frame the wall for the kitchen. There is still sooo much to do but actually starting some finish work is really picking my spirits up considerable.

Dawg Days

Yes, you have to make sure you pronounce "dog" correctly here in the South in you are going to use it in a phrase like that. Well, last weekend I attended a ritzy farmer's market in downtown Birmingham to try to make a little cash since I'm out of work right now. They have various crafters and artists there in addition to the farmers and in the past I have done fairly well selling my pottery but this weekend didn't go very well. I sold a few items but not near what I was hoping for. The place has sort of become the "in" spot (no pun intended) to take your dog to show off. They dress them up sometimes in all kinds of stuff.

This trio did at least get to sit in the shade for a little while. On other news, we have gotten some good rain for the past 3 days! It's wonderful. Allen and I went to a party this weekend that a friend of ours has out on 80 acres. It's a big outdoor thing, swimming in a pond, a huge potluck dinner, just goofing off. It rained like hell there Sunday but everybody was so happy to see the rain, lots of them were just walking around in it. This is the same place where they have the solar home tour that Rurality has written about. A lot of people describe it as an old hippie commune but it has been successful for over 30 years now. We toured some of the houses and learned more about solar water systems etc.

We did not get a lot done on the house this weekend but I am still laid off and will be working full force this week. A buddy of mine is bringing me a load of free paint today so I will start priming the walls! As soon as the bathroom is painted I can install the flooring, which means I can install the toilet! I need to order the water filter that I want so we can get the house online. Right now the water is only on at the garden. We completely filled the septic tank and I rescued a frog out of there. Not sure how he managed to get in the septic tank but I'm sure he was glad to get out.

They have wonderful organic veggies and fruits at this market but the fresh flowers seemed to sell well too. I did buy a few peaches from Chilton county (south of us). They have wonderful peaches down there and surprisingly enough, had a decent crop this year despite that late freeze.

Cool, Clear Water

I do not think I can quite express my overwhelming joy and glee at what you are now seeing. That beautiful, clear water is freely flowing from my garden hose whenever I turn the knob! True, it's not flowing in the house yet, but like the monkey said when he got his tail caught in the door, it won't be long now. Mostly due to Allen's great efforts, we finally relocated the pump and tank and got everything wired and hooked up. The pump house itself is not finished but is providing enough shelter for the equipment for now.

We had to run about 220 feet of #8 wire in conduit to this new location. We are using a 1hp shallow well pump which draws 7 or 8 amps running but more when it initially starts up. I found several different recommendations for wire size on this due to length of the pull etc. but #12 seemed to be the most popular size. I did want to go one size up from that because this allows for greater energy efficiency. Just like water flows freer through a larger pipe, electricity flows easier through larger wire. I read a couple of studies on how much cheaper it is to run an appliance or whatever if you go one size bigger on the wire. On average, it was about $30-$40 a year savings, which may not seem like that much but to me, that adds up. Actually, the #8 is 2 sizes bigger but Allen insisted and we worked out a deal where he gets my leftover #12 wire (which I had procured at an earlier date for free), which will be a lot, in exchange for this wire here. The electrical box is an old leftover off a job, the rafters are 80 year old heart pine out of an old building downtown and the roof decking is plyform from way back when we poured the first foundation wall for the house. We did buy the PT 2x4's for the framing.

Here you can see the configuration of the pump and tank and how that is all hooked up. There will be a real floor in the house at some point. It did not take anywhere near the effort to prime the system this time. Of course, the water line was still holding water from our first efforts but it was much easier to get going and you can hear that it just runs better and sounds better. There is only one 90 degree turn in the pipe on the suction side.

Here you can see that, in order to keep the water lines as even and in line as possible, the equipment was located at different elevations. I was pleased to see the concrete walls came out as well as they did. I was afraid that with such tight (4") forms and no vibrator, we were going to have a bunch of honeycomb in the walls but we didn't. I bumped them really good but gently with a sledgehammer the whole time we were pouring. If you look close you can see the little PT blocks we embedded in the top of the walls for the framing to fasten to. That seemed to work well. Pulling wire that far was really a pain. We ran a strong string through the conduit as we were gluing it together but when we tried to pull all three wires through, the string broke. So, we pulled everything back out and sucked the string back through with a vacuum. We then pulled just the ground wire through (we had double length of it) and used it to pull the 2 hot wires and another length of ground wire. That worked pretty good but you still need one person at each end pushing and pulling.

So now I can water my garden just standing there instead of hauling water in buckets up from the creek. I watered everything I could reach today, even myself some. That spring water is COLD though! After about an hour of running water and making sure the pump and tank were going to work properly, I checked the spring level. It had dropped about 12-14 inches, which did cause me some concern. I have not seen it drop that much that fast. Anyway, I turned the water off and left for about 2 hours and when I came back the spring had completely recovered to it's previous level.

Stacked

This weekend was very productive and some noticeable things are going on at the house. My mason buddy (Charles) came Friday and Saturday and started closing up the underside of the house. We ran out of block so it's not completed but I hope to be able to scrounge up some more soon. Now, when completed, this block will not show on the outside of the house. A stone planter will be built in front of the block and stone will top out the wall above the planter. I got the block for free and am trading for the labor to lay it, so I thought it would save me time and rock gathering labor to do it this way. If you notice the bright pink ball of string in the bottom right of the photo, Charles said he bought that just for me and this job. It takes a manly mason to use pink string. I wonder if he will carry to any other jobs though.

Due to lack of planning more than poor planning, lots of cuts had to be made and so that is why this little bit of block took 2 days to lay. I had originally thought the whole wall would be stone and so footing steps, column lines etc. didn't matter. They matter a lot if you lay block. But he was very kind about it and did a beautiful job. I told him it didn't have to be so neat but he wouldn't have it any other way because he said someone might see it before it got covered up. And I thought I was obsessive-compulsive.

I welded these ties on every 16" vertically (to hit in every other joint) and then painted my welds with primer. You can see that the ties have a slot that the little wire can move up and down in so you have about 3" in case the tie isn't in exactly the right spot. This block has been "buttered" and is waiting for the next block to be set on top.

I also had to serve as the laborer because a mason usually does not mix or carry any mud, block or tools. So, after proper instruction, I mixed the mortar, kept it on the boards, kept it wet, carried and placed block, made some cuts and generally tried to keep Charles from having to do anything but lay the block. I did not succeed on everything. I cooked lunch for him and welded a fender back on his trailer too so maybe I did my part for the weekend. He claims that he has not laid block in about 10 years (2 back surgeries) so I said this was sort of like a limited edition wall then. I'm proud to have it at any rate. At the end I also provided some comedy for him because he wanted me to try laying the last couple of block. Let me tell you, it's much harder than it looks. But I did see the tricks to it and, as I told him, I learned a lot. I learned I don't want to be a mason.

We had some friends visit who have been watching the blog for a while and that was fun although I didn't get to talk with them a whole lot due to work. Allen got most of the pump house framed and we both worked on wiring it on Sunday. After a pain in the butt ordeal we finally got the wire pulled and the connections made and he set the pump today. We may try to move the pressure tank tomorrow.

I'm still out of work. Maybe that won't last much longer because things are getting pretty slim as far as being able to buy materials for the house. But it will all work out fine.

Sweets

Despite the drought conditions, the blackberry crop has been pretty good this year. I have been taking advantage of my laid-off time by doing some stuff I normally don't have time to. Like going out in the mornings or evenings and picking blackberries and cooking a little more etc. These are a chore to get to but worth it to me. I spent a couple of days picking the thorns out of the back of my hand after gathering these. The bowl is one of a set I made in college. One of the few pieces I have from that time. I am actually firing some pottery I made some time ago to take to a upscale farmer's market in Birmingham this Saturday. I've got to do something to get more income coming in and I usually do pretty good at this place.
On house news, the drywall is finished and ready to prime and start painting. I am kind of torn between 2 options on the paint. I could try to make the paint. I have found several recipes for natural milk paint etc. I already have most of the ingredients (whiting, mineral colorants)because a lot of them are used in making glazes for pottery and the paints are considered the healthiest. However, some don't work real well over drywall and in the very humid areas like here in the South. My other option is a commercial painting contractor that I know well. They give their leftover paint away to certain individuals because otherwise they have to pay to have it disposed of. You only have certain colors to choose from as it is just what they happen to have at the moment but I imagine that, due to the size of the company, that could be a pretty good selection and I'm sure that I could find at least some of the paint I wanted. Latex paint is considered to be somewhat unhealthy as it releases certain chemicals (VOCs) but even non-"green" paint has gotten somewhat better about that. Using the paint would keep it out of a landfill also. After it dries (in a house) I think it becomes basically inert and is probably a worse thing for it to be disposed of, even in a proper way. So... free, potentially slightly unhealthy paint that is easy and quick to apply or very healthy, very inexpensive paint that could be a real pain in the butt to make (and color) and time consuming to apply.
I will be wrecking the forms soon at the pump house and we can start to move that equipment down there and hopefully, have running water soon.

Late In The Evening

Over the weekend we formed and poured the lower walls for the pump house. The tallest part of these walls are 3'-6" and then we will frame the rest of the structure on top of this. The walls are 3 5/8" thick so that the concrete and the wood frame will all be one thickness. Not that that really matters but it helps cut down on the amount of Quickrete I had to buy and mix etc. and it is sufficient to hold. We used concrete for the bottom half to be able to backfill against it and offer some thermal protection to the pump and tank without running a heater. Also, if we had wanted to do the whole thing wood-framed that would have required A LOT of excavation and the dirt in this area is very hard. As you can see if this photo, we went ahead and made the door frame out of PT 4x4's and set it in concrete. This way it served to help form the front walls and tie into the concrete.

Allen made up the rebar mats for the walls while I cut the plyform etc. We did not pour any footings and will pour a little dirt/mortar floor later. Due to the thinness of the walls and the hardness of the dirt I think this will be OK. Normally, I would always pour some kind of footing but, as we say on the big jobs, we ain't building no piano. The 2 holes in the ground are for the door frame.

This is a detail of the of the forms; I didn't think this was a very good shot but maybe it's clear enough to see what we did. The forms are basically 3/4" plyform (not regular plywood although that would be fine) with 2x4's nailed on the edges to stiffen. Plyform is plywood (usually fir) that has been treated with an oily release agent. It has a good smooth surface kinda like BC and is great for sheathing later because it resists moisture. We did not use snap ties because, as far as I know, they don't make 4" ties but these walls were not hardly big enough for them anyway. The little, wooden block in the photo acted as a snap tie in that it kept the forms a certain distance apart and, being PT also, will be left in the walls to screw the wood framing down to. We ran galvanized screws halfway into the sides of the blocks to help them bond into the concrete. There are also 2- 3" PVC sleeves down in there to form a passageway for the water pipe and electrical conduit to run through the walls.

This is just me floating off the top of the walls trying to get them pretty much on grade and fairly smooth so the bottom plate of the wood framing will sit nice. The interior forms we set at grade but for ease we just let the outer forms run wild on about half of it. We couldn't do a lot of digging or disturbing ground without it falling into the wall forms.

We started mixing and pouring about 3:00 p.m. and finished around 7:00. We used 28, 80 lb. bags, so we poured 2,240 lbs of concrete ( doesn't include the water) with a 5 -gallon bucket. We took turns mixing but we were wore slap out by evening to say the least. If you are wondering why didn't I just order concrete, well, I'll tell you. Even all that wouldn't have made quite a yard of concrete. All the batch plants up here charge a 3-4 yard minimum and with concrete going up to $91.00/yard min. it was much cheaper this way. Plus, we would have had a major time getting a truck up in the woods where this thing is, if it would have been possible at all. Now, we could have laid 8" block and it would have been cheaper (maybe not much) and easier ( sorta) but we just prefer poured concrete. Maybe we are gluttons for punishment. Oh, BTW, the local building supply once again beat Lowe's and Home Depot on prices. They were about 50 cents cheaper per bag on the Quikcrete than the big box stores. How is that possible? Hhhmm. Something stinks in Denmark.

Dry Times

This week our county and about half the others in the state were declared federal disaster areas because of the drought here. Around this area it doesn't actually look that bad but I know it is. What is frustrating is that, like today, huge, dark clouds just filled with rain came up and boiled all around and then just sorta faded away without so much as a drop falling. The little spring doesn't seem to be doing too badly though. It is down about 2 inches. We put this 3" pipe down in the spring with these measurements marked on the outside just to keep an idea of what the water does. This pipe also serves to protect the suction pipe from a possible cave-in and keep any big frog or whatever away. There are a series of 1/2" holes drilled in the lower 4' of this pipe to allow the water to flow to the suction pipe. The suction pipe is 1 1/2" PVC with a brass footvalve about 18" above the bottom of the hole.

This is a little further down the line where I walk down to the stream, that comes from the spring, to dip water. As you can see, the path is well worn.

This is down at the deeper part; you can see my dipping can on the right. This is about as deep as it ever is though. This is a very nice area and I want to clear it just a little more and plant some native, flowering plants here and there. There are already lots of oak leaf hydrangea and ferns.

My garden is not doing too bad except where the rabbits came in and mauled it but I have been willing to haul water to it several days a week. I did pick some squash today and hopefully the tomatoes will be ripe soon. One thing that is thriving is the grasshoppers! They are everywhere and just waiting to eat everything I have. I keep the plants sprayed with Pyola or Neem oil which are both good organic insecticides. They even keep the Japanese beetles off.

On another subject, I look at my site meter pretty regular to see who is coming around and I have noticed many regulars but most never leave comments. Now, I love to hear from those of you who do (Pablo, FC, karl) but I would like to hear from you other people! I see some from New York, California (which always surprises me) Illinois, South Carolina etc. I know I am not perceptive enough to be explaining everything well about the house we are building. Do ya'll want to know something about things that I have not shown? Have I not explained something well? Do you wonder why in the hell I do the things I do? Speak to me!! Any other female construction workers out there? And another thing: I got people from Pella Corp. to visit my site just by mentioning the name because it is found by search engines, so I wonder, could I get say, Martha Stewart to visit my site just by mentioning her name a bunch of times? Hhmm. We'll see.

Dig A Little Deeper

Our big project lately has been relocating the pump and pressure tank. We shot grade along the pipe line until we found the spot that was at the highest point that the pump could pull to. This should have been done at the beginning and that's what you get when you just assume that something will work and not check out the facts. Allen dug out the area so that, keeping the pipe at it's current elevation, the pump can be set down in line with the pipe and not require a 90 degree turn to reach the inlet. It's best to only have 1 turn in the pipe on the suction side. Any more and you start dramatically reducing the amount of head the pump can pull. In the photo, the pump pad has been poured and I have formed up the pad for the pressure tank. That pad sits higher due to the fact that the outlet pipe on the pump is on the top, so having the pressure tank sit higher allows the piping to be run with as few turns as possible. I'll have photos later when everything is hooked up so that this will be clear in case I'm completely confusing you now. This setup also allows for the pump house to be somewhat earth sheltered and hopefully will retain some warmth from the ground during the winter. We are going to pour a 4" concrete wall all around (only about 3 feet high) and a concrete/dirt floor. Masonry or wood will top out the walls and I plan to use drop from my metal roof to roof this little house. I am trying to build this without buying any material other than Quikcrete. The pump house will have a light and at least one plug outlet too. It sits about halfway between the spring and house (about 180 feet from the house) so it's not that bad to have to walk down to, work on etc. and will be a good source to have power and water at later. I hope to build my chicken coop in this general area at a later date.

This is the little form for the pump. We dug a hole under where the pad will sit to anchor it to the ground, added a little rebar here and there and put in the anchor bolts for the pump. The floor in here will be mainly for aesthetics so that is why we did not pour that first. I can probably wreck the forms this afternoon and start forming the walls too so things are moving along fine. Until then I am working on the interior of the house and getting the ceiling ready to stain.

Walkin' Blues

Either Clapton or Muddy Waters' version will do. I'm a little in the dumps today; it's a combination of several good and bad things. Friday afternoon I was laid off from work. Now, that's a bad thing from a money point of view but it gives me more time to work on my house and catch up on some other projects I've been putting off for way too long. No money to buy stuff for my house but I'm a pretty good scrapper and salvager. The photo above is of the crew I've been working with for the past several months. They're a motley bunch but good as gold. Now, this is just the boys in my crew, being the general contractor, not all the guys with the subcontractors. Actually, 2 of them left before me and there were a couple more not in the photo. Some of them I've known for almost my whole career and some I just met on this job. This is the part of my job that gets me down sometimes. You work with a crew for sometimes up to 2 years building this huge thing and get to be friends with a lot of different people and then one day the superintendent comes up and says "tomorrow is your last day, you're going to so and so". Notice is normally pretty short. It's not unusual to never see these people again either. I think this has a stronger impact on me because, as a woman, I am not really allowed to keep in contact with these guys outside of work. The guys can call each other, and do, from job to job to see how each are getting along but I can't do that. So, I have to just rely on what I hear from my present crew as to how different people are doing; did their child get over that car accident?, did he get promoted? and so on. Now, some guys we are more than glad to never hear from again but several of them I can't help but think a lot of as they try to look out for me and really go out of their way to do things for me. I try to help them as much as I can (some of them like to have a woman to talk to as far as personal dilemmas) and I bake cookies and stuff for them. Since I knew Friday was my last day, I made fried apple pies for them which they scarfed down really quick. One guy dropped one of his on the ground but picked it up and ate it anyway so I think they liked them. Hey! don't gross out; believe me, when you are on one of these jobs and get some good food you don't let it go to waste. We get very little time to eat (15 minute break at 9:00 a.m. and 30 minutes at lunch) so going to get something from a store or whatever is not usually an option. And when the crew needs certain supplies that the boss thinks is maybe unnecessary, I will go harass them for it because they usually won't tell me "no" where they would turn down one of the men. Oops! I hope I'm not giving away my secrets!
So anyway, things almost always work out for the best and this job provided several opportunities for me while I was there. Construction is an odd profession and is it's own society within itself and very ritualized. There are certain age-old greetings, comments and insults that have been handed down for generations. So, we don't really say good-bye when we leave. We say, "See you on the next one". And sometimes if we are lucky, we do.

On a completely unrelated topic, Allen came dragging this snake home yesterday morning and insisted I get a picture of it. What is it with you guys and snakes? He thought maybe some of you out there could identify it for him. It was about 4 1/2 feet long. Very pretty but after awhile it got kinda agitated and started shaking it's tail like it was a rattlesnake. I guess it thought maybe that bluff was worth a try. Allen found it in the road and so we released it out into the woods.
We are still working on relocating the water pump and tank so I should have some photos and stuff about that soon. Maybe we will have water again soon. At least with being laid off I might can blog a little more often.

Good Vibrations

Trenchers are wonderful machines. I would have really been discouraged if we had to dig all 390 feet of water line by hand. As it was, it was pretty rough going even with the machine when we hit the wooded areas but we got it all trenched in a day and the next day even put in a line to the garden since I had time left on the machine. It was only about $140 to rent the trencher for a weekend so to me it was worth every penny. It did very well but we did hit one rock that would not be moved so I had to remove that one by hand. But thanks to this little chipping hammer I borrowed from work, it didn't take but a couple of afternoons to get that done.

We have suffered a bit of a setback with the water though. Due to poor planning and research we have now discovered (after complete installation) that the pump is not going to work in it's current location. We are going to have to move it and the pressure tank much closer to the spring and build a little pump house etc. etc. This means running power to it, which means more money and more money for pump house materials although I can probably scavenge a lot of that. We did get the septic tank about half full before we decided to shut the pump down for good though, so that gives me a little more peace of mind; not that it is going to be in danger of floating out of the ground around here with this drought. Hey, but Sunday, it came a toad strangler at the house! I was SO excited! If it hadn't been lightning too I might have been out playing in the rain. We quickly rigged our gutter system back up under the eaves and funneled even more water into the septic tank. Oh, Allen did get the septic tank tied into the house lines also, so now we just need water coming in 'cause it will go out!

I worked on getting the ceiling ready to stain and finish so the scaffolding can be gotten rid of for good. This must be done now in order to build the wall between the kitchen and living room. Once that wall is there, it will be much harder to move scaffolding around and reach everything. The sheetrock finishers came back today so I am closer to painting too. I hate trying to pick out colors though!

I would like to think that the house is entering an easier phase but it doesn't feel like it. I still have several of footings to dig by hand (because of more poor planning), much stone and block need to be laid and a lot of concrete to be formed and poured. We are not working much overtime so far this week at the job but I almost broke a finger today at work and am still tired from last week. I know all of this will be worth it but I just hope my body will hold out until I actually get to live in the house. I wish I could post more because there are lots of little details to show but I just can't make it sometimes. Our computer is at our office, not at our little apartment so that makes it harder to make time especially when I just want to go home and collapse. The camera is still out of commission too so I may have to post little cartoons of what's going on.

Oh, yes, Pablo, Oliver is named Oliver because that is what kind he is. And it kind of suits him. I bought a book for Allen some time ago titled "Sex, Love and Tractors" (the authors name escapes me at the moment) which was quite humorous and that guy had a tractor named Sweet Alice because it was, of course, an Alis Chalmers.

Big Birds

I have been meaning to put up some photos of the job I am on now so when these geese passed through the other day I thought they would be a good story. They were just sort of cruising through the parking lot as we were all arriving for work. They didn't seem bothered by us. This photo is kind of dark because the sun was just coming up. This is a very large job I'm on now; more what I am accustomed to. At it's busiest time there were probably 100-150 men on the site. It's winding down now so there are fewer people there now. It's a big church and I can't say that I am happy to be working on it but it pays good. I like the crew and bosses that I work with but I have some issues nowadays with some big construction.

These guys have been hanging around for some time now. I wonder why they don't go on further north. Anyway, I wrote this post several days ago but Blogger was being a butt and wouldn't post it and then I forgot about it, so here it is now!

Once In A Lifetime

I tried to find a good song that had "water" in the title but couldn't come up with anything that was appropriate. The most appropriate one was this Talking Heads song that some of you may be familiar with that mentions "water flowing under ground". It uses various metaphors of flowing water to allude to life and death etc. I know I don't understand the whole thing but I love the song. And this house is my once in a lifetime chance to have something that is mine and that is an embodiment of what I believe in; not possessions mind you, but of living simply but fully. Well, enough philosophical crap...........! I'm going to try to answer questions today. The photos posted are a few of the ones I've taken in the course of us trenching and installing water lines from the spring.
A lot of people have been asking here and in person about my water system so I'm going to do a Q&A deal here.
1. Why am I using a spring instead of city water?
Ok, due to just the way the land laid out etc., my house is located about 1,000 feet from the main road with a line of very rocky terrain in between. It would be incredibly expensive and difficult to run water line from this distance and in that dirt. In this municipality, they charge $2,500.00 just to tap the water main at the road and set your meter. I have not spent that amount yet and I almost have complete running water. Secondly, I don't want to drink dirty city water or chlorine or fluoride. Thirdly, I won't have a water bill. This type of setup is what I was looking for. It's not much different than being on a well system.
2. How reliable is the spring? Well, just from the 2 1/2 years that we have observed it, it seems pretty reliable. Also, Fred's family used this spring ( at another outlet) for their water about 70 years ago. It sustained them until the utilities came in. You can actually still find some of the old pipe they used and ran along the creek. Last year when Allen built the syphon, (it's in the archives) we ran a 2" line out of the spring and opened it up all the way. It ran for about 3 days constantly putting out about 5 gallons every 2 minutes, 24 hours a day, before too much air got in the siphon and caused it to stop. This did not cause any appreciable difference in the spring. Right now we are in a level 2 drought here and it is still flowing pretty much like always.
3. Are we going to filter or treat the water? Yes! My first thought was a reverse osmosis system but then I learned that they are very slow, only producing about 50 gallons of usable water a day if you have a high capacity system. Then I learned that you can't use activated charcoal systems unless your water has been chlorinated. Charcoal, being a natural substance and very good filter, can grow little buggies if the water has not been sterilized. Well, I'll be horse whipped if I'm going to chemicalize up my fresh water with chlorine and then remove it again! So, I have decided on a 3-stage micron filter. I will try to put up some specs on it later. Basically, it starts off about a 2 micron that filters dirt, sediment etc, then reduces down to about a .5 micron that gets the little buggies and organisms. I have tested my water several times too. You could add the UV filters too. The one I have picked is fairly reasonably priced too at around $200.00.

4. Have I tested my water or had it tested? Yes! I had the city test it, which was almost not worth it. It cost $5 and all they tested for was bacteria but it came back negative for E.Coli which is nice to know. I ran several test myself with a kit I got from a reputable lab. I tested it for lead (negative), pesticides (negative), nitrates (negative), general bacteria (negative and that is the photo above) they explained this as fecal matter from farms, houses etc. All water, earth, people, animals etc. contain certain amounts of natural bacteria. I tested the pH, which is important for your plumbing. If the pH is low it can damage copper plumbing. Mine was around 8.5, I think, which is good. I tested the hardness of the water and it is a little hard. I may have to do something about this because this can cause some deposits in your plumbing. It tested for chlorine too but, of course, that was negative.
5. Do I have or will have a backup system? No. I'm not sure if that is possible, at least in a way that I could afford. There is another old bluegrass song that I like that says, " I have the faith of a saint but the soul of a gambler and a heart like a rushing wind"...... I guess that's about the way I look at it. I believe, that if you are willing to see, things always work out and I'm willing to take the risk (but studied risk) for what I see as being a once in a lifetime chance and just hang on with all fours!!! Some may see that as pretty stupid or intensely naive but it's gotten me this far and I've had a hell of a good time as yet.

I'll try to have some more stuff up soon showing details on the water lines etc. but my camera screwed up this weekend (wouldn't you know) and it will probably in the shop for awhile. But we have running water at the house!!! No faucets yet but I do have water!

Hello Goodbye

Hey! Sorry for such a quickie post but things have been really hectic lately. I've had a lot of people asking me about my water system both here on the blog and at work etc. so I want to do a post just on that and answer everybody's questions at once. We are working a little overtime at my real job and then I'm trying to get ready for this weekend and possible subcontractors being at the house. We also encountered a large boulder in our water line trenching so in my spare time I get to jackhammer this thing out of the way. Also, our refrigerator died with a little help from me (we won't go into that) and we had to procure a new one last night before everything in the old fridge ruined. Plus, I'm trying to do a little more research on water filters before we get everything going. I've got lots of info to post and lots to report on, just bear with me for the next day or two.