tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-907216005501630392024-03-12T22:05:48.960-04:00Building My Hobbit HoleThe story of my earth sheltered home constructionBDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.comBlogger136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-26152981117007610012013-01-09T21:24:00.002-05:002013-01-09T21:24:59.803-05:00Living undergroundWell to those who don't know me personally, let me reassure you that I was not done in by my house :-)<br />
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I am living here and writing this from within. I moved in at the end of last June. Although, there has been organizing, unpacking, and a lot of finishing the little bits that were left when I moved in. I have also been trying to relax some. Getting caught up on some reading, enjoying movies in the family room, and contemplating the next projects.<br />
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To note, there are a few projects that have been important during the last few months in making the house really livable. The main thing was communications! The area where I have built is surrounded by 4G cellular coverage. Yes, I said SURROUNDED as in, my neighbors property and mine is in a black hole of coverage. They use a USB WiFi unit for their internet access, and they have an external antenna for it, that gets hung in different locations in the room depending on the weather, and the wind direction! I have the further challenge of having steel, concrete and dirt to block signals. So, I put up an antenna mast, with an antenna for the cell coverage up at its top. It sends a signal into the house and it gets amplified and rebroadcast in the house. Most days I can get a pretty usable signal in the office and in some of the family room and kitchen. I can usually receive a call, but the internet access even with this setup helping my WiFi hotspot, was only so-so. So I got HughesNet installed. It has been working quite well. It provides pretty good throughput, so can download patches for the computer and game consoles, I can surf the web, I can even do limited movie watching over the connection. If you find yourself in a no mans land of internet service, I recommend looking into it. It won't allow you to do everything that a fios or cable internet connection will, but for most things it works.<br />
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Here is my tower (it now also has a TV antenna mounted on it down lower, as well).<br />
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We finally finished the trim on the front of the house, and here is what it looked like after the snow storm moved through.<br />
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This spring I will be moving on to outside work, landscaping, gardens and such. For now I continue working on getting things straightened up on the inside. But here is a look at how the inside has turned out.<br />
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A view into the hobby room from the garage entry. I have a curtain rod up, and am waiting for the drapes I bought to be shortened so I can hang them.<br />
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In the master bedroom...<br />
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Looking out of the master bedroom, this window will also get a curtain put up.<br />
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This is my "closet". The bedrooms don't have built in closets. I think this is much nicer and quite sufficient for my purposes. This was given to me by close friends and dad and I cleaned it up and refinished the doors. We added the cedar paneling (which smells great) as the original back had been lost. Our guess is that this was originally made in the late 1800s to early 1900s.<br />
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And that is the bedroom, now leaving there...<br />
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This is the hall. The white door on the left comes from the garage. I come in, sit down on the bench, take off my coat and shoes and put on my slippers.<br />
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Here we have the guest bedroom.<br />
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And across the hall, the guest bath.<br />
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The dining room, with coat closet, hutch from my grandparents, and my window seat.<br />
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Then here is my kitchen. Pantry closet with the door open, and you can't see the sink behind the refrigerator.<br />
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Then on into the family room and the view from the family room through the window.<br />
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The heating system has worked quite well at keeping the house comfortable, although I have had some trouble with the pumps blowing fuses on occasion. That is something I will have to try to rectify this year once we are out of the heating season and I can afford to have the system offline while I work on it. The house doesn't seem to need the ventilation system run much to keep the air from being stale, but I do have higher humidity than I would prefer. Right now, it is running around 70%. I would like to get that down somewhat, but with the limited daylight hours for providing power, I don't want to keep the ventilation system running, or run a dehumidifier. The air is quite comfortable, no dry skin problems in here, but on real cold days, I do get condensation forming on the inside around the window pane edges.<br />
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<br />Hope you enjoyed this little tour.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-84798170233196743902012-06-12T22:58:00.000-04:002012-06-12T22:58:14.375-04:00I'm legalWell, I have passed my final inspection. So, I can now legally reside in my home.<br />
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We have been working on finishing up the trim details, and some other items that will be best to finish before I move in. There are still a few things, that will wait, until after I move in. Some trim on the columns, won't be difficult to work on after I move in, so we are going to wait on it, so I can get moved in sooner.<br />
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We got the molding around the garage doors finished. This is for fire protection, and had to be done before final inspection.<br />
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We put a shelf on top of the chase in the kitchen, where we didn't have cabinets sitting on top of it. This will provide a little spot to set things, seasonings, timer, flower vase... <br />
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All the trim in the hall is finished. <br />
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The door to the office was a little difficult to finish, because of how close it is to the adjacent wall. <br />
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The pantry got trimmed out. <br />
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Then we worked on the shelves for the pantry. Here are the end supports going in. <br />
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I put a coat of shellac on the window seat top, and found new cushions that fit better. <br />
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We got the doors on the coat closet. <br />
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We also finished the shelves in the pantry. <br />
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I've put up my mailbox, and am starting to change my address with credit card companies and so forth. We have started moving furniture in, and I have been packing up boxes with books, winter clothes, and other things and taking them out to the house.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-89302107971102011842012-05-29T21:38:00.000-04:002012-05-29T21:38:57.313-04:00The window seatAfter a lot of planning and re-planning, the window seat is finally complete. We even dealt with some boards that weren't completely straight. Some of it involved me standing on it, while Matt pushed another place, and dad ran screws in to secure it. With everything tied together now, it should be fine.<br />
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Matt noticed that the opening between the dining room, and family room, almost perfectly framed the window seat with its side cabinets.<br />
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We have also finished the electrical, ventilation and the last of the plumbing work.<br />
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So, we have been working on the trim, and the doors. The framer left me a number of different sized opening for the various doors. All the openings were shorter than they should have been. Some of them, were much wider than they should have been and had to add 2x4s and drywall to fill in the space.<br />
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We managed to make them fit.<br />
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That was a tiring weekend. It will be nice when I am moved in, and can actually sit down on my window seat, and enjoy a good book.<br />
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<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-81861723513842153502012-05-26T21:24:00.000-04:002012-05-26T21:24:43.965-04:00The landscaping inspectorA productive weekend so far. I have a number of things to show you, but for tonight, I wanted to introduce you to the new inspector. This one came by to check how the grounds were being kept, and to make sure I didn't have offensive weeds growing. He seemed to be pleased with what he saw, but didn't stay to chat when I came out the front door.<br />
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<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-73904996642963064212012-05-22T22:14:00.000-04:002012-05-22T22:14:17.137-04:00Mowing the lawnA lot of progress has been made in the last couple weeks. Kitchen cabinets are done. I passed my final plumbing inspection. I have almost completed the electrical, there are two bath fans, and one light left. The ceiling tiles are all in place except for where the bath fans will go, and the supply vent in the hall. I have started installing base boards, and we have the first interior door installed. I even mowed part of the "lawn".<br />
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So, first the lawn. I felt things were getting a little too wild right around the house. Looking out the front window, it looked like I was in the middle of a hay field. While that does have an interesting feel, I thought it was time to take a little bit of time, and straighten the yard.<br />
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Great privacy feature.</div>
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Trimmed down some.</div>
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The front yard, is passable again. </div>
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I was not going to mow the sides though with those slopes! Besides, I like this part of the look. It softens the hard lines of the wood and blocks quite a bit.</div>
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Next on to the lighting section. We got the fronts on all the columns, and I worked on getting all the lights installed. We put up can lights in the kitchen. I put up lights in the utility room, and the hall now is well lit as well. Here is some of the lighting, for you viewing pleasure.<br />
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Columns also got sides put on, and down the road, I will add pieces on the corners.</div>
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The sports chair stands in for the couch. With all the lights on, the family room is well lit, but with 4 pairs of lights on separate switches, I have a lot of control over the light level, and what areas are lit. </div>
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While most of the house, has adequate, but not overwhelming light levels, the utility room now has enough light to frighten the shadows!</div>
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The utility room, has a lot of equipment, so it will be nice to have all that light available, when ever I need to work on something. It would have been very useful to have this amount of light in there, when we were installing the equipment originally.<br />
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Now, for the kitchen. We worked on getting the first part of the cabinets installed. Matt came out and helped dad and I get them in place and fit around the plumbing, and fastened to the wall. Then I had Jason come out, and finish my plumbing work. I needed a couple things finished in the utility room, but the rest was in the kitchen. The sink and dishwasher needed to be connected to the supply and the drain. The range needed to be connected to the gas line.<br />
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Finally, we hung the first interior door. Hanging these doors is going to present some work, since the framer chose to frame many of the door openings too short, and some of them, quite a bit too wide. For hanging the pantry door, we had to cut off the bottom of the frame and the door. Then we had to use a 2x4 as a shim on the one side to take care of the extra space the framer left.<br />
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That utility cabinet will go back against the wall with the window, when we finish the window seat. The door to the pantry should be able to swing nice and wide then.</div>
<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-79763436577035538312012-05-09T23:26:00.001-04:002012-05-09T23:26:22.745-04:00Nice sceneryJust a few pictures to show. My wild roses are doing quite well.<br />
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Inside, we are getting paneling on the columns and the chase, and I am wiring them. I think they are going to turn out quite well.<br />
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<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-61438148269552202992012-05-07T22:00:00.001-04:002012-05-07T22:00:53.481-04:00So, where does it all go?A big milestone was reached this last week. I now have "indoor plumbing"! It has been about 2 years since the septic system was put in. Now it can finally be used for something other than a place to send leaks from pipes.<br />
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Simple, quiet, and water efficient. Yes, it is actually installed. No, a toilet would not normally be out that far from the wall. I had to get a toilet with a different clearance than normal, to make sure it would fit on the drain, and not run into the wall. Oh well, just another adventure in a long list.<br />
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The plumber also installed the vanities.<br />
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Guest bathroom</div>
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It is nice to be able to wash my hands, rather than cleaning my hands with hand sanitizer. Although, the day we had hot water from letting a black bag out in the sun all day, was pretty nice.<br />
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The plumber had to negotiate some issues with the sink drains. I am using air admittance valves rather than running vent pipes from each trap, and the sinks needed to be offset from the drain line for everything to work easily, but I had put the drain lines and lights pretty much in line. That meant that when we put the sinks where they were supposed to be the drains were right in front of the drain coming out of the wall and he had to add some extra fittings to line things up properly.<br />
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While the plumber was having fun, my dad and I worked on some other things. We got the hood installed for over the range.<br />
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We also got the light switches on the kitchen wall wired up. So, now I can turn on power to the hood, though that is of little use at this point. It also means that I can turn on the lights on the dining room wall.<br />
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Saturday, we spent more time going and buying stuff, than actually constructing. We bought and cut the panels for covering the columns. We still have to cut holes for the outlets and lights, but we are hoping we can get some done tomorrow. I have my baseboard material ordered now. With the exception of one light for the hall, I have all the rest of my light fixtures purchased.<br />
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Sunday, Matt came out, and gave us a hand working with the cabinets that will go on either side of the window seat. He also helped dad get the panel cut for the front of the chase over the kitchen counter. We needed to cut holes in the cabinets for the boxes that will take power to the lights I am going to have, and to the switches which will control the outside lights, and the the dining room lights. We did the cutting outside to minimize mess in the house.<br />
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We positioned and mounted the first cabinet. Yes, the cabinet is pretty vertical, I have some sort of optical illusion going on there. Well tomorrow hopefully, we will get some of the columns covered, and I can start putting up lights in more rooms.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-72764709612486800272012-05-01T20:19:00.002-04:002012-05-01T20:19:44.896-04:00A nice complement to the ceilingLast weekend, we spent quite a while Saturday afternoon painting the floor. It has brightened up the inside quite a bit over the dark gray of the concrete. Though, the floor with all the drywall compound and such on it, may have been lighter still than this paint. The paint looks better though.<br />
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This week, the plumbing in the bathrooms will get finished, so toilets and sinks will be in. We are also planning to work on the cabinets in the kitchen some more.<br />
<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-45834846652800433172012-04-25T22:35:00.000-04:002012-04-25T22:36:04.650-04:00A ceiling makes a differenceWe finished painting the walls on a couple Sundays ago, and the following day, the ceiling contractor started. He got about half the grid work up on the first day.<br />
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The second day the rest of the grid went up, including in the utility room.<br />
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They used 3 different ceiling tiles in my house. These are the stacks of the main tile that was used.<br />
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The main tile was chosen for looks, low odor and good sound absorption. The tiles used in the bathrooms were chosen to stand up to high humidity. The ones used in the utility room, are actually a vinyl coated gypsum board. They are normally used in commercial kitchens. They should hold up well with some humidity, and are good for fire protection.<br />
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They did leave some tiles out, since I still need to get vents positioned and adjusted to the correct height, and I need to run the duct for the hood. I also will have some lights that will be installed up there. Other than that, the ceiling is done.<br />
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The next big task, is to paint the floor. We spent a few hours getting it all cleaned this week. We got a pretty good system going. I would hose down the floor (hot water from the spigot in the garage), dad would scrub with the big broom, then I would squeegee it and pull the dirty water over to where dad would suck it up with the wet/dry vac.<br />
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Besides needing to clean the floor, I also had to order the paint for the floors. They did not have enough in stock at Menard's so I had to wait until they came in, and it is going to require a good part of a day to paint all the floors, so it has to wait till the weekend. While we wait for floor painting day to arrive, we have been busy with other things that can proceed before the floor is painted.<br />
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We put up the wall cabinets in the kitchen. We started on the end by the pantry.<br />
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Then we got to the complicated one. This took some time to get ready to go on the wall. This cabinet needed to be cut so the gas pipe could be slid in through the back, since taking any piping apart was not even conceivable. We also needed to cut out a section on the top and bottom so that the duct from the range hood can pass through. This cabinet is just for looks really, it won't have anything stored in it.<br />
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With the exception of the filler piece that goes on the left side, we have finished installing the wall cabinets.<br />
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Another thing that has been getting worked on is finishing the electrical work. The thermostats are now permanently mounted on the walls, the bathrooms are all wired, except for installing the fans, and some of the wall lighting is now up.<br />
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Once the floors are painted this weekend, then we can get a lot of other things underway. Installing the rest of the cabinets in the kitchen, putting in vanities and toilets in the bathrooms. Doors, baseboards, and paneling for the columns.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-30881339711776393452012-04-17T22:19:00.000-04:002012-04-17T22:20:34.503-04:00Multicolored inside, and green on topIt has been a while, and I have been busy. I got the dry-waller in, and he got to work covering all those walls.<br />
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My dad and I built the support for the arch into the family room. We used pieces that we had cut out of the Hardie panel over the front window, as a guide to make a similar arch to walk through.<br />
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We also got some of the electrical finish work done. The outside lights are up, the lights inside the garage work, and the electrical panels are now closed up. </div>
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The drywaller got the arch covered, and it was looking pretty good.</div>
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We worked on getting the fronts for the columns fabricated, and put in a panel for access to the master bath tub plumbing.<br />
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Walls were now covered...<br />
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Things were greening up outside... <br />
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Time to do a little painting. First all the interior walls were primed. Then we started with the paint...<br />
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Everything is growing outside while we paint the inside. <br />
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After putting about 21 gallons of primer and paint on the walls, we are ready for the ceiling to be installed. They are working on that this week. Today they finished hanging the grid, and tomorrow they start putting panels in. I was worried that the contractor would have some trouble with the utility room. Yesterday, he told me my house, including the utility room, was a piece of cake compared to some places he has installed ceiling in (although those were factories). If he does as good with the panels as he has done with the grid, this is going to look very good.<br />
<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-27948742222900340212012-03-15T21:47:00.000-04:002012-03-15T21:48:13.416-04:00I see then end aproachingAh, bathtubs, with running water such a nice thing to see. Jason came out and I helped him install my bathtubs. My dad and I had taken out studs where needed so Jason had room to work, and we could get the bathtub into the master bathroom. There was no way it was going through the door. We were barely able to maneuver the bathtub in the guest bathroom through the doorway and into its alcove. A wood chisel was used to adjust one of the bottom plates to make the tub fit.<br />
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After the bathtub was in the master bathroom, then we added studs back in. Once the tubs were plumbed in, we reconnected the water lines and tested them.<br />
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We had some trouble with the one in the master bathroom, it was giving hot water when we wanted cold and vise versa. We got that fixed, and they both worked fine.<br />
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Here is how the fixture looks.<br />
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Once the drywall is up, then the showerheads will get installed, and they will be fully functional.<br />
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Once we got the tubs in, then it was time to finish the electrical. I have taken quite a few photos, but not much that is of general interest. We got the wire runs from the breaker box to the first junction box, or outlet box done for each circuit, then while dad worked on wiring the breaker panel, mom helped me continue running wires in the rooms.<br />
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Dad took this:<br />
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And made it look like this:<br />
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There are just a few other things that you may find interesting. I have already wired for my speakers in the family room and I put boxes in that will let me pass cables through from the media equipment in the office to the family room.<br />
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I also built a control system for the ventilation, so I can have the ventilation system run automatically when I turn on a bathroom fan, or the range hood for example. I will also have switches in the hall so I can turn on the system and bring in fresh air from outside, or just recirculate the air in the house.<br />
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The dark box up on the wall controls the outlets for the HRV and the duct fan, and there is a control wire out to the garage for turning on a relay that controls the venthouse fan.<br />
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We have also mulled over how to provide outlets above the counter top in the kitchen for quite some time. We finally settled on building a chase, the same as we had built the columns for the family room and bedrooms. The chase ended up being built in three pieces. We constructed them and wired them in the garage, then put them on the wall in the kitchen.<br />
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We put screws into every place we had a stud to fasten into, except where the outlet boxes prevented that. The upper cabinets will set right on top of the chase. In fact the chase should help us put the cabinets up faster as it will assist us in holding them on the wall as we fasten them. It will also give us a guild better than just a line on the wall to determine where all the full height upper cabinets should go.<br />
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Wednesday this week I had my rough inspection. There were a couple things that the inspector wanted me to fix, but he passed me. So now I have the drywaller lined up to come out and hang the rest of the drywall. Hopefully by later next week, I may be painting.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-19674801265339240312012-02-20T22:31:00.001-05:002012-02-20T22:35:56.337-05:00Battling the silver octopus and a special deliveryRouting the ducting presented quite a few challenges. It was just difficult to get things where they needed to go. The flexible duct, doesn't let the air flow as smoothly as hard pipe would, but it took a lot less time and money to get things connected.<br />
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So now that is all connected. We ran the heating system and although it took most of a day to warm the slab and the house up, it is now pretty comfortable inside. When I go inside, I can take off my jacket and work with just a shirt on. I shut the system down last week for one day, when it was pretty cold overnight, and the house had only dropped about 5 degrees over the course of a day.<br />
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With the duct work, and the heating system now operational, the last thing to complete before my rough inspections is the electrical wiring. We worked on running wires in the house, and getting them secured. Then over this last weekend, and today, we worked on getting the conduit runs in the garage installed. By the end of today, we had completed most of it, we just had to get a few more parts to complete it. Hopefully by tomorrow night, we will be done running the conduit, and I can run the wires.<br />
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I received a couple little things today. My interior doors showed up.<br />
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These doors are for the closets I have.</div>
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These are the doors for the rooms. </div>
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The other item that was delivered is my bathtubs. The plumbers are planning to come out on Wednesday to install them. <br />
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However these are one piece units and to get these in, and do the plumbing below them in the floor, we needed to take out some studs. <br />
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We will put them back in, or add others as needed, once the tubs are installed. Tomorrow I am hoping to get a lot of wire run through the walls.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-25634141827884028622012-02-07T21:11:00.001-05:002012-02-07T21:18:07.779-05:00Bailing wire, without the chewing gumWe have been pretty busy finishing the hydronics, and the duct work. There are a number of threaded fittings in the hydronic system, and some of them have given us an inordinate amount of trouble. But to take things in proper order...<br />
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We worked on putting the rest of the pieces together for the hydronics. This gives you an idea of how much plumbing you can stuff on the walls, in the corner of a room. Domestic water supply on the left, and hydronic heating system on the right. I want to put insulation on the PEX in the hydronic system as well, but that may be an item that waits until after I move in.<br />
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Since the rough plumbing was signed off on, it was time to close up the
walls in the utility room. We had one more plywood sheet that needed to
go up. We took measurements, and then dad cut some holes in it. <br />
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This... <br />
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Became this...<br />
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There is a little frame that goes in the washing machine box, and that will cover the rough edges of the rectangular hole. The PVC pipe down low, near the gas line, is where the drain and trap will be added on for the washer.<br />
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More duct "work" ensued and the place looked like a scene from a sci-fi movie, after they have had an accident on board the ship.<br />
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Those two in the foreground, are extending to boxes, and across the floor. At times, we had mom holding them out of our way, just so we could work on the other parts.<br />
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Last night we got more of the duct work under control, and cut a couple of them to length, so they were not trailing across the floor anymore.<br />
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We got the water coil in its box, mounted on the wall and I put a thermostat inside. The thermostat is wired to one of the pumps in the hydronic system, so if the air coming in is too cold, it will pump warm water over to the coil to warm up the incoming air.<br />
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We also added a duct fan on the outlet side to help pull air into the house, and we are going to set it up, so it can also act to recirculate air in the house when I want it to. Hanging on the wall at first, it looked like some sort of jet engine test rig.<br />
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Right now with the system turned on, and the fan plugged in, it makes a nice hand warmer, as dad demonstrates here.<br />
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Last weekend we called it quits on trying to get the fittings for the hydronic system completely sealed. It is filled with distilled water, so there is very little issue with a bit of leaking. Except for one, the few places it is still leaking, are leaking slowly enough that the floor is drying faster than the water leaks out. So for now, we won't take any more time to pull fittings apart and redo them. We did not have any chewing gum, but bailing wire was used to handle the one leak that is a little faster...a red plastic cup was also employed.<br />
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With the control panel wired up, we ran the system. I still need to get some air flushed out of the lines, some wires need to be secured, and a little tweaking to valve settings will be needed for it to work well, but it is basically usable. <br />
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This pair of pumps runs whenever the little tank is below its temperature setting, and one of the other pumps is running. These pumps push water through a heat exchanger that I have in a foam box. The heat exchanger and pumps, move heat from the domestic water heater, over to the small water heater tank. The rest of the pumps take the heated water in the small tank, and push it through the water coil, or the tubing embedded in the floor of the house.<br />
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We are concentrating on the duct work right now. We are still putting together more plenums to connect the ducts together.<br />
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This and some duct fittings that will get put together tomorrow night, will work to route the air returning from the rooms in the house, either to the HRV to have heat removed before being exhausted from the house, or to the supply duct to be delivered back into the house.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-62921188332032484532012-01-18T00:04:00.000-05:002012-01-18T00:13:46.903-05:00The Superviser comes for an inspectionThe last couple weeks have been quite busy at the house. We have made some very good progress. Erin came out to inspect the work.<br />
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She worked on re-stacking scrap blocks of wood and Trex, and felt that the proper safety gear was required (even if a little too big to fit).<br />
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We have worked to get the plumbing finished. This required connecting and insulating all the water lines. That was a little involved, but we finished it.<br />
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There were quite a few pieces to put together to get all the rest of the system functioning.<br />
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Last Wednesday, Matt came out to help me, and we fired up the water heater for the first time. It took a little bit of time to get it to start, since the lines in the house still had air and not propane in them. When it eventually started, it made a sputtering gurgling sound as it finally got fuel. Then it heated a tank of water very quickly. We had hot water that day from the one spigot in the garage, and still had warm water in the tank the next morning. I only fired it the once so far.<br />
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Jason, the plumber I am working with, came out, and looked over the plumbing and had a couple recommendations for addressing a couple minor leaks we were having. Then he looked over what needed to be done to get ready for the inspection. Matt and I worked on getting concrete broken out around the openings for the bathtub drains. The holes that had been left were too small to work in. Jason brought a hammer drill back the next morning. He was able to break out more concrete, and made adjustments to the concrete around the toilet flanges, so they could sit down properly.<br />
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We thought we were ready, and Jason gave the inspector a call to get an inspection later in the morning. I thought by lunch last Thursday I would have a checked off plumbing inspection. However, when we started trying to pressurize the drain system for the test, we couldn't get it to hold any pressure. The needle on the gauge just sat on 0! I started going around listening for leaks where the pipes came out of the floor. Then I heard a hissing from withing the utility room wall by the garage and hallway. This was not good at all. We could almost feel the air coming out of the floor. Since we weren't getting air from any other place that we could identify, we figured that the leak had to be close to where we heard it, but how would we get to it to fix it. The one answer was to jack hammer a hole close to where we believed it was leaking, and hope we could get into a position to be able to patch it. Since I have hydronic tubing running through the floor in the hall, and the utility room, we decide to try to break a hole in the corner of the garage. Marcus had found a company that would seal broken pipes, from inside the pipe, but the cost was pretty high. We decided to try the jack hammer route.<br />
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Jason sent over a couple guys and they started by drilling a series of holes to minimize the likelihood of cracking the slab beyond where we wanted the hole.<br />
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I hung a plastic drop cloth up to contain most of the dust. They broke out an area in the corner, and we pulled out the insulation. We could see a part of the pipe, and there was a hole right in the side of it. We think that sometime after my original drain inspection, someone hit the pipe maybe with a shovel while they were working and chipped it.<br />
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Keith and Jamie went to get some Quickrete to fill the hole. Jason was't going to be able to come out for a while. So I waited, and watched the snow fall.<br />
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Jason showed up and took a look at the hole. He had been expecting a chunk of the pipe would be missing, and we would have to rejoin it with a rubber fitting. The same type I had used on the pipes behind the house when I had problems there. However, this was a small hole, and he didn't really have room to put in a rubber fitting. I haven't been throwing much of any pieces of anything away, unless they are really trashed. I found I had a fitting I had not used, in the right size, and he cut a patch out of the end of the fitting, and glued it onto the side of the pipe, over the hole. Then we waited. We wanted to test it before we buried it, but the glue had to set up properly before we put pressure on it. I showed the guys around the house, and we talked about the various issues I had in building such a unique structure.<br />
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Then it was time to test the patch. Jason, put a little pressure in the system, and it held. So then they needed to mix, pour and work the Quickrete. We got the hole filled, and I lit up the propane heater I have been using when I want to warm things up. After things started to warm up in the garage, I turned it down to its low setting. However, I ran us out of the garage! They wanted it as warm as they could get it for the concrete to set up, but we were sweating while we were in there. After Jamie worked the patch for a bit, we went out and sat in our cold trucks, while we waited for it to set up more so Jamie could continue working it. Jaimie got it pretty good, but it is a shame that we had to take a chunk out of the nice floor I had.<br />
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Friday morning, I tried putting the plugs in, and testing the system. The needle started to climb. When it got a little above 4 pounds, it stopped climbing. I couldn't get it to go any higher! Oh no! When I stopped adding air, I could see the needle drop. Running around, as it lost pressure, I could hear a real quite hiss from the tub drain in the master bathroom, but I couldn't be sure that was were it was leaking. Jason wouldn't be able to make it out until Monday night. He said, just go ahead with my other work. So we did just that over the weekend.<br />
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We mounted the brackets to hold up the heat recovery ventilator (HRV), and started attaching ducting to it. This will help warm up incoming air in the winter, by drawing heat from the outgoing air.<br />
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We still have a little work to do to secure it, and we need to complete the duct work on it. We got the plenum for the incoming fresh air mounted onto the wall below the HRV.<br />
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The HRV will connect onto the top duct connections, and will circulate the incoming air between the plenum and the HRV, before the air passes out of the duct fitting on the right. The connection on the right, will direct the fresh air, to the water coil. This will add heat to the air if needed and will be fed by the hot water in the hydronic system.<br />
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We worked on getting the other components of the hydronics connected, and mounted.<br />
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The two insulated lines running across the top, go over to the water coil. It was a challenge in places to got the mounting clips up on the wall, because of the other equipment that is sitting along that wall.<br />
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It took, mom, dad and I to fish the lines behind the equipment, pipes and other tubing.<br />
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As we were working on this, Jason showed up to check out the drainage system. He adjusted the plug in the house drain, and inflated it and the plug in the floor drain in the utility room. Then he started to add air to the system, and I held the air in my lungs and listened.<br />
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No hissing sound, and he was able to take the pressure up to 5psi. We stood and talked about the other work I want him to do, while we waited to see if the pressure would hold. After a little bit, the pressure was holding right were it was supposed to!<br />
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Today, Jason met with the inspector, and my plumbing passed rough inspection. So now just the final inspection for my plumbing! That is a relief.<br />
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I have to finish the ventilation sytem, and the hydronics, and my rough wiring. Then I will be ready for my last rough inspection. Once I pass that, then we can get drywall up on the rest of the walls, put cabinets in, and finish the house.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-55889926448279359342012-01-02T21:53:00.000-05:002012-01-02T21:53:48.387-05:00So over the holidays, I got a number of things taken care of. Primarily with the plumbing, but that wasn't the only thing we worked on.<br />
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We worked on constructing the plenum, that will take the incoming fresh air, and collect it into one pipe. It will also be connected to the heat recovery ventilator to allow heat to be transfered between the incoming air, and the outgoing air. We are building this out of wood. It will all be primed when I am done with it, and it will eventually have a collector for any condensation that runs into it from the ventilation pipes, but that should not be an issue during the winter, so right now, it is just being put together so we can get it mounted and complete the ventilation system.<br />
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This is the frame for it, which will get attached to the wall in the utility room. The other sides are constructed, and will be put on after we mount it to the wall.<br />
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I got some nice rugs for places in the house such as in the kitchen and in front of the washer and dryer, for Christmas. I also went shopping more than once for things I will need. I got some cushions for on the window seat, and we are start constructing it and have gotten wood for the structure.<br />
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This should go nicely with the hickory wood on the cabinets.</div>
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A neighbor was over New Years Eve morning, to check for mice.<br />
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We changed a bit of the plumbing. The pressure pump was transferring a lot of vibration through the PEX tubing, so I replaced the pieces on either side, with some flexible tubing to quiet things down.<br />
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We also got the connection box for the washer, and the hose spigots mounted.<br />
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Hot and cold spigots in the garage.</div>
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Ready to be connected once I run the PEX lines to them.</div>
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Oh, by the way, the painted plywood on the left in those photos, is mounted perfectly vertical. The studs on the left, are not perfectly vertical!<br />
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We also got more drain lines set up. Now the drain for the water heater exhaust condensate is run to the floor drain.<br />
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The condensate drain is coming out of the gray plastic fittings, and running over to the wall.</div>
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The hose (coming up from the bottom) is running from the boiler drain on the pressure tank fittings, so I could drain the system to change the plumbing on the pressure pump. The elbow hanging in mid air, has a piece of pipe that will drop into the floor drain but is not connected at the moment. I needed a bigger floor drain! Although, there are only two lines that will regularly have water coming out. That is the condensate line, and the drainage line from the pipes on the back wall. The two pipes running close to the floor, are for the drain pans under the holding tank, and the water heater.<br />
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I am hoping to be ready for my rough plumbing inspection in the next couple weeks. Then the ventilation system and electrical wiring need to be finished and inspected. After that, I get started on the finish work.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-84294781729824230502011-12-20T23:16:00.000-05:002011-12-20T23:21:36.918-05:00A December to RememberWell, we have been making a lot of progress. I feel like a candle with multiple wicks! However the progress helps me keep going. We worked on getting the gas lines all finished in the house. Worked on electrical equipment and wiring, the ventilation system, and plumbing. While dad and I were finishing up the air intake and exhaust for the water heater, mom sat in front of the fire and read a book :-)<br />
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We got the gas lines finished up, and I had my gas line inspection. The plumber that helped with the test, was impressed we were holding 70 pounds of pressure with the quality of the black iron piping he has been seeing. The inspector commented that he was bored since the pressure gauge was not moving any, and with that he signed off on my inspection.<br />
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We got the air intake for the water heater run out through the garage and connected out through the wall.<br />
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On the left is the air intake for the water heater, the other PVC vents the gases the batteries produce, and the black metal pipe is what the propane will flow through to the appliances in the house.</div>
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We got the last 4 panels mounted. I haven't had the chance to get them wired into the system yet.<br />
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We also got the fan mounted in the vent house, and the filters installed. It is hooked up to a breaker in the house, and if I want to bring in fresh air, I flip a switch, and it starts up. Last weekend we had it running for a while. It was 45 outside, and the air coming into the house was 52. The real test will be when it is freezing outside, and I want to bring in fresh air. Then I will see how well this will work.<br />
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I got the large wires running from the batteries to the power panel, "organized". The problem is when you have a wire that is too long, but you can't cut it, and it is very heavy, what do you do with it? Make modern art?<br />
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It looks like a mess, but I was very careful in how I routed them. Still, there is only so much you can do with them, they are quite unwieldy. <br />
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I got the permanent drainage installed for the underground conduits. The tubing drains to the floor drain off to the right. On the left I will be connecting other drain lines on from the heat recovery ventilator, and my water to air heat exchanger. I am not expecting condensation off the water to air heat exchanger until into the spring or summer when I plan to draw heat from the incoming air, and put it in the floor.<br />
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I also ran the drain for the air intake for the water heater. They want a drain so that any moisture that condenses in the air intake, has a way out other than through the combustion chamber. <br />
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Drains going to the floor drain, water heater gas line is connected, ready for gas.</div>
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After I passed my inspection, and had my valves installed and my water heater connected, I got a hold of the propane company, and got them to finish the gas line hookup. They literally hung the pressure regulator off the end of the pipe. Dad went out and supervised the final hookup.<br />
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While he was waiting for the propane guys to show up, and then after it as well, he and mom worked on running some of the plumbing line. They got the lines for the kitchen and the master bath run from the respective rooms, back to the utility room. <br />
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We got the rest of the conduit runs out in the garage put up. I have one conduit running into the utility room for the DC power for my pumps, and one for the AC that will go to the house breaker panel. <br />
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I wanted to have my plumbing lines well insulated. So I started to insulate the lines all the way from where they would come out of the manifolds, to where they would go to the fixtures.<br />
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This last weekend, we continued working on the plumbing.<br />
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We had to build an arrangement to turn off the well pump when my tank is full. We constructed a support structure for the switch and the float rod that goes into the tank and connects to the float. </div>
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We got the plumbing from the water conditioner to the holding tank and through the pressure pump complete. I went ahead and powered up the well pump and pumped for a while. </div>
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Here you can see the arrangement of the holding tank, the pressure tanks, the water conditioner, and the water heater. I am filling up the one wall of my utility room very quickly.</div>
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My hope is that by the end of this week, I will have the pressure tanks plumbed in, and be able to have "running" water from a drain outlet off of them. Hopefully by the beginning of the year, I will be able to fire up the water heater. <br />
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Hope you all have a merry Christmas, and a happy and safe new year.<br />
<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-21086235059335885142011-12-04T21:19:00.001-05:002011-12-04T21:40:55.496-05:00Growing solarWell we have made some good progress. The solar array has been growing, and now has 10 panels on 5 racks, mounted and wired into the system. Mom has been helping dad and I get the panels attached to the racks. So here is how my array has grown.<br />
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Another thing we have been working on, is getting the vent house construction finished, and getting it installed. We were working outside well after dark last night to get it in place. Yesterday earlier in the day we got it moved onto its footers. That was challenging all by itself. <br />
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You can see the pipes going from inside down to the pipes coming out of the ground. The frame inside, will hold a fan, and a set of filters that the air will pass through before going underground. This morning I got a picture of what it looks like with the sides and top on.<br />
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The top is hinged, and the front is removable. I still need to get the electrical box inside wired, and put in the fan and filters so I can push air into the house. But it is almost there.<br />
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We have also been working on getting the last pieces of pipe in place for the gas line before I get it inspected. We have it run out the house, and secured to the retaining wall.<br />
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Stainless steel and aluminum for supporting the galvanized pipe. Not real pretty, but functional. The gas company will hang their regulator off the end of the pipe, and tie into the gas line they left sticking through the wall. I am hoping that maybe I can have gas flowing into the house sometime in the next couple weeks.<br />
<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-67715519312028354372011-11-25T20:52:00.001-05:002011-11-25T21:11:49.999-05:00Nuclear powered Hobbit Hole <p class='bloggerplus_text_section' align='left'>I finally got tapped into that big nuclear fusion reactor in the sky. My first solar panels are now connected into the system and charging the batteries.<br><br></p><p class='bloggerplus_image_section'><div class='bloggerplus_image_section' align='center' ><img src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/-6aTDcnX1gCA/TtBKdeC16nI/AAAAAAAABd0/O7sYoSGYbSY/bloggerPlus.jpg' ></img></div></p><p class='bloggerplus_text_section' align='center'>Here is the first rack with its two panels</p><p class='bloggerplus_text_section' align='left'>This morning I did not participate in Black Friday, I went to see a bright Friday shining on my panels. These two panels, under "ideal" (read, almost never going to happen) conditions, could generate about 520 watts. This morning, they were sending a little less than 400 watts into the batteries. The panels were generating just over 400 watts, and the charge controller was sending about 380 watts to the batteries. It was sending about 94% of the power from the panels to the batteries.<br></p><p class='bloggerplus_image_section'><div class='bloggerplus_image_section' align='center' ><img src='http://lh6.ggpht.com/-6FB212-H8LE/TtBK5LChf7I/AAAAAAAABeU/qooAlfBLgyA/bloggerPlus.jpg' ></img></div></p><p class='bloggerplus_text_section' align='center'>The charge controller is reporting sending 380 watts to the batteries</p><p class='bloggerplus_text_section' align='left'>I watched the system and it took the batteries from about 90% full to 94% full by the time I had to leave around lunch time. It had put over a kilowatt hour back into the batteries, and was delivering 440 watts into the batteries at that time.<br></p><p class='bloggerplus_image_section'><div class='bloggerplus_image_section' align='center' ><img src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/-RY5MdlTlTLo/TtBK4rjMHDI/AAAAAAAABeM/dtMnI_ZJaSQ/bloggerPlus.jpg' ></img></div></p><p class='bloggerplus_image_section'><div class='bloggerplus_image_section' align='center' ><img src='http://lh4.ggpht.com/-EobvKGN-hfQ/TtBK4HSXBJI/AAAAAAAABeE/MFUho_eDzZc/bloggerPlus.jpg' ></img></div></p><p class='bloggerplus_image_section'><div class='bloggerplus_image_section' align='center' ><img src='http://lh6.ggpht.com/-E8XG62KMSc0/TtBK3mXDwzI/AAAAAAAABd8/EVhKfJrx1Ss/bloggerPlus.jpg' ></img></div></p><p class='bloggerplus_text_section' align='left'>Tomorrow we are going to try to set up two more racks with another 4 panels. This should let me really charge the batteries and keep them charged without having to run the generator much, while we finish the construction work. I am hoping that within 2 or 3 weeks, I will have all the panels installed. But that will require some cooperation from the weather.</p>BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-37529813843652051912011-11-20T22:48:00.001-05:002011-11-20T23:29:15.273-05:00A little this, and a lot of that!Many things have been happening, and it has been a little too busy and tiring, for me to get the chance to write. This will be more a photo montage, than a long written out explanation of what we are doing. So here we go:<br />
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Painting the utility room floor.<br />
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Before</div>
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After</div>
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Finishing the duct runs to the dining room</div>
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Installing columns on the walls </div>
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Finishing more duct work</div>
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Dropping the gas line to the water heater</div>
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Running wiring (oh what a tangled web)</div>
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Nestled under the green</div>
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More wiring, I am labeling the wires to keep track of which is which.</div>
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Hydronic manifolds plumbed, and ready to finish connections to the tempering tank, which will maintain the proper temperature water for the floor. </div>
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Heat will be transfered to the tempering tank, from the water heater, which is a 96% efficient propane water heater. </div>
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Laying out parts for the water supply manifolds.</div>
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Wiring the columns.</div>
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Quite a load ready to go. 2 solar panels in the bed of the truck, the rest of the parts of the vent house, and the aluminum for the 7 racks to hold all the solar panels. </div>
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Blocks set to support the vent house. </div>
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First rack assembled </div>
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Panels mounted on the rack </div>
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Well line plumbed through water conditioner. </div>
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Water supply manifolds assembled, and attached to the wall, ready to plumb. </div>
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Finishing the conduit run, from the big junction box to...</div>
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The combiner box on the rack. </div>
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First panels are wired to the combiner, and power is now run all the way into the house from the panels. </div>
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Added a fuse and switch, to protect the batteries, and allow shutting off the battery power to the power panel completely. </div>
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Dad is framing up the roof for the vent house. He used metal braces that were used during the pouring of the walls for the house, to stiffen the roof framing without adding a lot of weight.</div>
<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-25637353911694083502011-10-24T23:47:00.001-04:002011-10-24T23:47:54.143-04:00ScattershotRight now, I am trying to get everything done, as fast as I can, and all at the same time. I say I, but it is really we. If we run into an impasse on one of the tasks, we just jump to another, and circle around to the problem task later on.<br />
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For instance, the hydronics, keep requiring redesign. I have not had the time to sit down, find what parts are available, take their measurements, and lay out all the fitting nice and neat. I know that this pump, has to hook up to this manifold, which has to hook up to these loops, but each time I go to get parts, I find that no, they are out of the exact part I need. So I have to come up with substitutes. But then I find that they won't fit where I was intending them to, so the piping has to be re-routed, and that requires some other fittings, I don't have on hand. This is not the way I like to operate, but right now, I am just getting it done, so it functions correctly.<br />
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Mom finished the priming, with the exception of one area we want to go over a second time. We took the tape and plastic off the windows. Looking pretty nice.<br />
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We got the pex tubing corralled and connected to the manifolds.<br />
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Dad put in a drain line for the pipes that keep having leaks. These pipes carry the well line, and in the future the wires out to the communications tower, and hopefully some solar panels for heating. I have had problems with them leaking when we get rain, and I kept buckets under them. Now I have a drainage system running to the floor drain, so that I don't have to worry whether I am going to get out there and find an overflowing bucket in the utility room.<br />
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We got the structure for the columns done.<br />
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So then it was time to haul them out to the house and start putting them on the walls.<br />
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Mom helped me get some more parts connected on the hydronics, then I ran into another issue with fittings. <br />
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So, it was time to clean the utility room floor. I think that the dirt we removed could have been measured by the pound! It is much cleaner (as clean as I think I will be able to get it). It now looks much darker than it did.<br />
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Tomorrow, I plan to put down an epoxy paint in the utility room. Hopefully that goes well, and I can start installing equipment in the utility room later in the week.<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-62706955833243933622011-10-21T00:02:00.000-04:002011-10-21T00:02:54.514-04:00Letting the batteries breathWell, we have gotten some more work done. We finished the battery box and got the vent for it run outside. That lets hydrogen out when the batteries are being charged, rather than having it collect in the box. We got the garage and utility room painted, as well as putting primer on a majority of the other drywall. Here are some pictures.<br />
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Battery vent pipe to exhaust hydrogen gas. </div>
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Battery box is finished, unless I decide to paint it. It has hasps that I can put pad locks on, so I can prevent others (especially curious little nieces) from getting to the batteries. </div>
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House breaker box is on the wall, waiting for me to run wiring. </div>
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Garage is painted white. Still need to clean and seal the floor. </div>
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First manifolds for the hydronic heating system are mounted on the wall in the utility room, waiting for me to connect the water lines. </div>
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Mom came out to help me put primer on the rest of the drywall. We had a guest outside the front window Wednesday morning. (I need to get a camera with a manual focus, I was not concerned with having the straw in sharp focus!) <br />
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Mom starts to do battle with the walls.</div>
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We are glad I put plastic over the windows and the door before we painted around them. </div>
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Even just the primer looks fairly finished.</div>
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Hopefully this weekend we can finish priming the walls, get the first set of lines connected to the hydronic manifolds, get more done on the gas lines, and get the columns ready to install on the walls.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-57687573027479410072011-10-12T22:29:00.000-04:002011-10-12T22:30:01.094-04:00Running on batteries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You are probably wondering what I have been up to since I got my batteries. Well, quite a bit actually. We have continued working on the gas piping. We still had a leak, and couldn't seem to find it, so we took down the section where we knew it must be, and put it under water.<br />
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This was very effective. We found the leaks in a few minutes after we got this set up. Unfortunately, that was not the last leak we have to deal with. However, the gas piping was put on hold, until I got my power system up and running.<br />
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Dad had come up with a scheme for attaching vertical studs to the bar joists, so I could mount the power panel on a "wall" that would support the weight without having to use concrete anchors.<br />
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After the wall was up, we started to mount equipment. The inverters each weigh about 65 pounds. These things have quite a bit of metal in them.<br />
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We also got the battery box set up. We put in a shower liner as protection from any acid that leaks. I am hoping that I never have to deal with that, but better to have a leak contained in the battery box, than spilling all over the floor. <br />
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The wiring in one of these setups is pretty involved. Even with all my planning, there were a couple things where I went "wait a minute, we need to redo that". <br />
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We got the batteries loaded into the box, and hooked up to the system. Almost ready to test. <br />
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Today, Adam came over with the Bobcat. I had been wanting to get the gravel pile pretty well used up, and out of the way. Adam started with the gravel work, and got the driveway smoothed out, and enlarged the turnaround area. <br />
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He also took some of the gravel around to the front, and we got the bottom of the walls covered, and I have a covered area outside the front door now. Eventually the area in front of the door will have some sort of paving stones set down to make a patio. But that will most likely be a project for next year at this point. <br />
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Adam also got things smoothed up around the house, so it was ready for me to put down some rye seed to keep the dirt in place, and try to make things a little less muddy. <br />
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I replaced the caps on the batteries with ones that have a pop top lid, rather than having to unscrew them when I need to check the battery fluid. That should make maintenance less of an ordeal. The battery box still needs to be finished up. There is also some additional wiring work to do in the panel, but for now, the system is functional. The work light that I had on in these pictures, was being run using the energy stored in these batteries, and the AC generated from that by the equipment on the wall. <br />
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I bought rye seed today, and put down 56 pounds of it on the areas that Adam worked this morning. Then I covered most of it with straw. I didn't have quite enough to cover all the areas that Adam graded, but I think the most critical are taken care of. <br />
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<br />BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-64327604828668535052011-09-29T23:35:00.001-04:002011-09-29T23:35:28.655-04:00I have batteries!That was a long day. This morning dad and I got started pretty early. I finished sealing up the drywall in the garage against fire.<br />
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I was wearing my rubber gloves again, so I didn't have any problem with the caulk and didn't even get any on the gloves. </div>
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Adam came over and worked a little while on the driveway, but his back was being a pain, so he wasn't able to do much of the work I had planned on. Oh well, dad and I had plenty of work to do. We checked the gas line. It had leaked again, and dad is not able to get the bubble solutions to bubble. So we finally had to start just tightening one connection at a time, a little at a time and waiting to see if we still had a leak. We did this on a few connections today, a few different times. I am hoping we finally got this part of the system leak free.<br />
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We got set up for painting. We put down paper along the whole wall, then put down a large drop cloth right were we were working at the moment.<br />
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Dad worked with a brush, and got in the corners, up in the nooks and crannies, and along the bottom. Then I came along behind, and rolled the rest of the wall. We got the primer on the wall where the batteries and power equipment will go, and a ways over on the wall that is shared with the utility room.<br />
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FedEx called and asked about the best way to get to the house. I told the driver, and then he asked about the road in front of the house. I told him that it was narrow and getting in the driveway is not easy for a big truck. He had a semi! I had told them that was not a good idea, but apparently the dispatch folks didn't think it would be a problem. When he got there, he tried to back in. It was a short trailer, and he got it into the driveway, but he could not back it up the steep part, and with the rain we have had, there was no way he could turn around at the top if he went up forwards. So I backed my truck down so we could load the batteries from the back of his truck into mine. We loaded 4 at a time, and I used the 4 wheel drive to slowly take them up the drive. Dad road in back, and made sure they rode OK.<br />
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Once we got them up, we had to get them inside. I was not going to turn around with those in the back. The area I would have to turn around in is bumpy, and I did not want to risk tipping any of them over. So we unloaded them outside and used my wagon to haul them inside. <br />
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12 batteries all lined up. Over 1400 pounds of plastic, lead and acid sitting in my garage. <br />
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Dad and I went for lunch then. After we got back, we worked on painting the wall we had primed in the morning. It is looking good. After we finished with that, Matt and mom came up and Matt helped us get part of the battery box assembled. Here it is lying on its back. Once we have a finish on the floor where it needs to sit, we will move it there, and load the batteries in. <br />
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Hopefully sometime next week, I will be able to charge the batteries for the first time, and try running off the batteries rather than the generator.BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-61970508264346461502011-09-28T22:15:00.001-04:002011-09-28T22:15:46.825-04:00Drywall stage 1: completeThe drywalling of the outside walls has been finished. The walls are sanded, and ready for primer and paint. They did a nice job on the windows.<br />
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This wall will be getting primer tomorrow. It is in the garage, and power equipment and the battery box will go along this wall. So it needs to be painted before that can be done.<br />
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The drywall was cut to fit as close to the steel as they could get it, but there are still places where I have to put in caulk and foam to seal it up from the rest of the house, for fire safety. I started that last night. I am glad I was wearing rubber gloves! I will need to finish that tomorrow before I start with the primer. I was going to finish it tonight and start priming, but my batteries are coming tomorrow and I wanted to have some things on hand before they arrived, and the shopping took longer than I expected. Hopefully I will have pictures of the batteries tomorrow evening to share, and hopefully no dramatic story to go with the pictures.<br />
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The grass I planted has been growing quite well. There are still some areas that are not coming along very quickly, and may need more seed yet, but overall, I am very pleased.<br />
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The roof has done very well. </div>
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On the 24th, the south slope beside the garage was like this.</div>
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Here it is on the 27th, with quite a bit more grass showing.</div>
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While grass seems to grow just fine in my lawn, I have much more interesting plants that seem to keep visiting. With moving out to property that is rural, I was expecting to see or find evidence of a lot of animals. I also am not expecting or desiring to have the sort of lawn Chem Lawn will get you (despite the appearance of my roof). I was expecting to have to deal with some plants such as poison ivy. I was not expecting the who's who of dangerous plants to come live beside my house. As you may recall, I had the interesting, lovely, and very tall poison hemlock. Now I have this lovely and interesting looking plant showing up.<br />
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It has lovely flowers, and an interesting seed pod. It is Datura stramonium, and some of the other names it is called, are as colorful as the plant and its flowers. This is in the same family as the potato and tomato. However, this plant should not be eaten. It can produce hallucinations, delirium, or even death. I am waiting for the ninja to show up to buy ingredients for poisons to tip their weapons!</div>
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Off to bed, I think tomorrow is going to be a long day.</div>
BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90721600550163039.post-36138407992909461652011-09-20T20:05:00.000-04:002011-09-20T20:07:48.677-04:00Field of WeedsWell, with drywall being worked on while I am not there, there aren't too many pictures to show. There are a number of things that can't really proceed while the drywall is being finished. But we are working on what we can. Late last week, I started trying to clear some of the weeds, so we will be able to work on the vent house, and the solar array.<br />
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Before</div>
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After</div>
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Mulched</div>
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I wanted to keep the plants killed off under where the array is going to be, and I had a bunch of cardboard from boxes that materials and equipment have come in. So, we laid the cardboard out under the aluminum supports. That should minimize what comes up before I get the array installed.<br />
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Sunday dad and I looked around the outside of the house to decide where it made sense to get more grass growing. I still had seed from the first batch I bought, so I thought I may as well get it going. As we checked on the area around the house, we saw deer tracks on the east side. We followed them, and they proceeded up onto the roof.<br />
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Not the best picture, but the dark spots are where the hooves pushed down through the straw and into the soil.<br />
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The drywall work is coming along. It looks like they have two coats on, and I am hoping they can put the third on tomorrow. The windows are looking good.<br />
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I am hoping that before the end of the week they will have the last coat on.<br />
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Next week the batteries should show up for the power system. I will have 12 batteries each weighing 119 pounds!BDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04522730521158162105noreply@blogger.com0