Blog

January 2017

We are trying to move forward with the interior, getting more ceiling and walls plastered. Hopefully we can start painting very soon.

We have opened up the solar mass so that air will circulate through the floor area. We have noticed that it has started to moderate the temperature in the house, so that it doesn’t get as cold inside as the outside. Of course, the R-54 insulation in the roof also helps that.

 

December 2016

Still slow progress.

I have built the cabinets for the bedroom closet, and installed them. We will be working somewhat better after Christmas.

Our daughter is coming again for the holidays, and we possibly can get some painting done.

I have gotten some of the water distribution system started, although that is a slow process. I can’t work in the crawl space for very long.

I now have the doors on to close up the crawl space. I still need to do the weather seal on them, but at least the space is enclosed. We will be circulating air into and out of it from the living area once that is done.

 

November 2016

Things are moving rather slowly since Denise is gone until Christmas helping out with the school where she taught. Many things have to wait until there are two of us.

I have managed to get the front porch and the back deck built. We had the support posts in back in October, and the support beams up right after that. I’ve done the floor joists and the deck over the last few weeks.

It has still been quite warm here for October and November, with not a great deal of rain. Although we have the rainwater collection system in place, we don’t have room for any more water. We have 10,000 gallons stored.

We have started on the water system. The line is into the house from the pump shed, and all of the water filter system is hooked up and working. We will turn the water into the house later on.

Still working on taping and plastering where possible.

The other thing we are doing is reclaiming some maple flooring that was removed from a gymnasium. The flooring is attached to 2 layers of plywood, cut into 2 ft by 8 ft pieces. We have about 350 sq. ft. of this flooring. We want to pull all of the maple strips off the plywood, remove all the nails, and plane it to remove the old finish.

We will probably install it in our bedroom, and refinish it once installed. It will be a long process to get all of this done.

September 2016

We’re slowly getting the walls done. Most of what is still open is the bathroom area. There’s a lot of plumbing left to do here.

We have started on putting the drain system in to go to the septic tank. The kitchen sink, and the toilet (including provision for a second toilet at some time) will go there. All other water will go to a gray water outlet that drains into the area below the west wall of the house. It will be distributed to water the trees and bushes.

 

August 2016

We are getting more of the walls sheetrocked, and are starting to tape joints and close in spaces. We’re now beginning to see the shape of the space.

The great room is well underway, as is the bedroom. Nearly all of the ceiling is sheetrocked, and the exterior walls are mostly covered.

We have decided to put in a mini-split heat pump system. There will be two air handlers – one in the bedroom, and the other at the dining room end of the house. Each is independently operated. We’ve had the company come and install the refrigerant lines for each of the units, running them to a common location on the north wall where the heat pump will sit. After we are finished generating tons of dust in the house, we will have them come back and complete the installation.

 

 

July 2016

Finally the right windows have arrived. We’ll get them put in as soon as we can. We have discovered that a small wren has decided that a good place for a nest is inside the house in a small space in the insulation. We discovered a nest with 4 eggs in it.

We are getting electrical work done, putting all the switches, outlets, and wiring in place. Once an area is done, we are putting up the sheetrock. That gets the huge stack out of our way.

June 2016

The fun continues – the second window order has arrived, and they are wrong also. So we still have wide open holes in the south wall of the house. We have put plastic over them, but it doesn’t block it completely.

We have all of the sheetrock now, and it is stacked outside against the south wall, with about 4 layers of plastic and tarp over it to keep the weather out.

We’re starting to put some sheetrock up in the great room, but we need to get all of the sheetrock inside the house before we go too far.

We also have the electrical panel installed and connected to the meter box. We had an electrician come and do that installation, and we are wiring the rest of the house.

We have also set up a system to automatically transfer water from the 4000 gallon collection tanks to the 6000 gallon storage tank. It involves a pump that is switched on and off by two float switches. If the 6000 gallon tank needs water, and there is enough in the 4000 gallon storage, the pump will come on and transfer water until the 6000 is full.

 

 

 

 

May 2016

We ordered windows and doors the end of April, and should get them by the end of this month.

The order came in, and we discovered that some of the windows were not built correctly, so we reordered the wrong ones. The store will pick them up when the new ones come in.

We are installing the doors, and the windows that are correct.

 

April 2016

The two of us spent 4 very busy days laying out and gluing all of the roofing membrane down, one section at a time. Trying to do an entire roll at once was an impossible task, so we cut it into sections and laid one at a time.

This seems to have worked very well.

Addendum – April 2017 –After a year, the roof show no signs of any problem with the seams in the sections. The glue is holding it all down very nicely.

We have also started collecting rainwater from the roof of the house. We’ve brought in a 6000 gallon tank and have transferred some water from our 4000 gallon storage to it.