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.

It Won't Be Long

The septic system is installed!!! I know this may not be a very glamorous post to many of you but I am ecstatic. They actually came last Friday and put it in but I'm just now getting around to downloading the photos. It doesn't take them very long to get these things in. The man started about 11:00 a.m., I think and set up his inspection for 3:00 p.m. The health department came out and looked it over, OK'd it and signed off and so he started covering it up. I got there about 5:00 maybe and they were to about this point. I have a pretty standard setup; approximately 200' of field lines; standard tank. I wish I had gotten a better close up of the field lines. They are a lot different than they used to be. These about almost 2' wide and the bottom is open. Basically, one half of a 2' corrugated black, plastic, drain pipe. There are 2 separate field lines; they run parallel to each other but one is slightly higher than the other and they are connected by small lines at the end so that when the higher one gets full (if ever) it flows over into the lower one. In this photo, you can see one of the caps on the tank over there in the lower right corner.

This is just the connection between the tank and field lines. That pipe seemed kinda small to me but I guess that's standard. They dug up one enormous rock but was able to move that and now I have a nice yard ornament but did not have any trouble with rocks that could not be moved. I was very glad for this. One thing that I was not aware of with a septic tank is that you need to fill them with water as soon as possible. The installer said that they normally do that for you but seeing as I don't have running water it would be up to me. Allen didn't mention this fact to me and so I asked the man why this was necessary. He said that if it rained very much the tank could float up out of the ground! It needed the water to weigh it down. About that same moment I heard thunder off in the distance and turned to the west to see storm clouds approaching. Oh, crap! It was bad enough to pay for this once but to pay to have it put back in the ground would be too much! In a great stroke of ingenuity, Allen quickly rigged up a little gutter system so that water flowing off the house would run into a trough and down into the septic tank. It worked pretty good and I hauled quite a few 5 gallon buckets of water from the creek and poured in it. Of course, that hardly made a noticeable difference but I had to do something. I paid $2,000.00 to have that thing put in, it's not coming back out.

Here, Allen is smoothing it all out nicely with Oliver and the box blade. He did a great job with that and now it's ready to plant grass and flowers. I'm pretty much just going to have a natural area with wildflowers and fruit trees.
This weekend we got the trail cleared through the woods where we are going to run the water lines from the spring to the house. That is about 290'. Next weekend we should be able to trench the line and install the pipe. I think we are on schedule to have running water by the end of the month. We didn't do much today as it was Mother's Day and went to spend some time with family. We needed some rest anyway.

Blood, Sweat and Tears

OK, so that is a title of a band and not a song but still in the same general theme. I don't know, maybe it is a song too. Anyway, my computer is wanting to be ugly to me right now and not let me download new photos so I am having to depend on photos I just happen to already have in the computer. These are a little old but hopefully I will have things straightened out soon. We are almost done with the roof. Just putting on the final trim and flashing. My finger, a nail and my hammer all met in the wrong combination here and that's where the blood is from. Metal roofs are a little aggravating to work on as they can be very slippery and trying to hold a bunch of stuff and keep from sliding around can be difficult at times. I did start to name this post "Things We Said Today" but what I said after I did this probably would not be good material to put up. I have been told by other construction workers that I have a dirty mouth. I have tried to curb that habit as much as I can. It aggravated me more that I was dripping blood all over my new roof than anything else.

The ridge cap was easy to put on but I need to find something to stuff under those open areas between the ribs to keep bugs and wasps etc. from getting up there and nesting. They make a Styrofoam weatherstripping that is made in that configuration but it is solid and does not allow for ventilation. Because of the way my roof is insulated, with the Iso board immediately under the roofing, the ribs serve as vents and I don't want to clog them up. I need a porous material that will allow air to pass through but not holey enough to let bugs etc. Make sense? We thought of something like Brillo pads (the plastic ones) but I'm not sure. Any ideas?

I'm getting down to picking colors and stuff like that. We are just about ready to close up all the walls and the block and stone wall under the house should start soon. My septic system was approved and I am getting bids on that now. I think I stated before that Alabama has recently passed a law that homeowners can no longer install their own. That sucks but in a way it's nice that I will not have to do that. Maybe I will have some photos soon of the tiles going in the bath and stuff. I'm still arguing with the BFA over that but I think budget will win that one.

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream

That a blind man came and dug two large holes in my yard and charged me $400.00 to do it. And then I realized that it was not a dream at all but really happened and that was my perc test! Well, there was a little more to it than that but I did finally have the perc test done although I still have not received the results back from the county. What you do is call a surveyor and tell them what you want, they will come out and locate approximately where the septic tank and field lines will go and then dig 2 or 3 holes with a backhoe. Now, in the past, the surveyor actually does the whole test but something must have changed because he only prepared the hole for the county who came out about 2 days later and actually performed the test. What they do is fill the holes with a certain amount of water and time how long it takes the hole to empty. Too fast or too slow can both be a problem. The surveyor said my dirt looked good and should not be a problem. Then the surveyor files this at the courthouse and the county will contact you and tell you how many feet of field line etc. that you must put in. Here, we can put in our own system but I don't know what it is like in other states. Some may require that a certified company do it. Anyway, after the septic system is in you have to call the county again and they will come out and look at everything and if it is OK you can cover everything up and proceed! As in all cases when hiring a contractor, please call at least 3 to get a price! We got prices from $400-$600. This guy was a bargain and yes, he had a guy with him who dug the holes that was legally blind.

All Things Must Pass

It is very difficult to come up with a song title that in some way relates to plumbing but I was proud of myself for this one. I have to admit I had some help from a list of Beatle's songs though. Anyway, we have ran most of the plumbing drain and vent lines under the house. We are using PVC for these lines and will use copper for the supply lines. One issue we have had is how to limit the number of plumbing vents in the roof. I would like to have as few roof penetrations as possible in the metal roof, for looks as well as to cut down on leak possibilities. Metal roofs are just a little harder to seal around stuff like that than shingles roofs. What we decided to do is to combine the vent for the shower and bathroom sink and only have one roof penetration there. There will not be a roof vent for the kitchen sink but this is OK if you run an oversize drain line. This is what they do for sinks that are in kitchen islands where there is no wall to vent up through.

We also ran oversize drain from the bathroom just to help out on account of those 2 fixtures being combined. So, we have 2" PVC to just below floor level where it flares into 3" drain lines. Should not ever have any trouble with this but just in case, Allen put a clean out on one end. The septic tank will be located near what will be the front center of the house when the whole thing is built so all the lines are running in that direction with 1/4" fall per foot. The surveyor who did my perc test staked a general location for the septic tank but I think I can move it around a little. I have to get that finalized though before I will know exactly where everything is going. I still have not heard the results of the test. Allen said they came out and completed the test last Friday and are supossed to mail me something. We also started the central vacuum system. I love these things. The collection canister will be under the house and I will have 2 plug ins in the house. You get a 30' hose so that should be plenty. I ran the phone lines too but have never gone to the phone company and requested service. I guess I need to do that. If satellite service were better out here I would just have everything on that. Phone, TV, computer etc. I hate cable everything. We have a lot of trouble with it around here.

I am on a quest now to find the shower fixtures and tile! I am picking out finishes! I'm so excited!

Rock and Roll (Hootchie Coo)

Well, we rocked some; not near what I'd like but it's a start. When the entire house is built this will be the guest bedroom but it will be the main (only) one for now. The master bedroom and one more will be in the other section across the dogtrot. There is not alot of drywall in the house actually since the living room/kitchen ceilings don't hang and some of the living room walls get plywood. We could finish it ourselves but I am going to get a price from a buddy of ours for him to mud and finish it. It's worth paying a reasonable price to me just to get it done. Allen is good at sheetrock work but we are both slow at it and things are going slow enough as it is. We also ran some sheetrock in the bathroom but had to leave a bunch open for plumbing.

This is the first of the actual plumbing!! You have no idea how happy I will be to finally be able to......... not go somewhere else for things. I finally decided where to put the toilet too! That actually was one of my harder decisions to make. We will be working on plumbing this weekend because it looks like we are in for some more rain. Hopefully I will get my perk test done within a week to start the septic system. That's $500.00 for someone to come out and dig 4 or 5 holes in the ground and fill them with water! I know, there is more to it than that but I am down to counting pennies at this point. As soon as we get that done I can go buy my septic tank permit and start putting that in. This is the one thing that I have to have inspected and if you don't get it inspected and passed the power company will not put in your permanent power. They are in cahoots with the city and health department.

A note on the insulation and plumbing: that is R-11 unfaced fiberglass insulation in the walls. It is standard stuff they use in commercial applications. As I have stated before, I would have liked to have used some of the natural cellulose or cotton insulation they have but this stuff was free so... there you go. At least no energy will have to be used to make my insulation because I'm recycling and this stuff will not go into the landfills. We are using PVC on the drains and vents in the house but everything else will be copper. Copper is through the roof right now and has been for some time. Lots of copper thefts on construction sites too. We are also starting the plan for the solar hot water system. This will be the only active solar part of the house for right now. I did not realize that there are so many types of solar water systems: indirect, direct, roof top collectors, ground level collectors etc. etc. Do any of you have any experience with such things and/or have any advice?