Twinsprings Research Institute

Electrician’s List

Posted on July 7, 2016 by ellen

Most of the walls are in and we are planning to get the electrical done as soon as possible after the walls are built. Last summer the electrician redid the service box and put in the outside disconnect and we had to wait several weeks until they had time in their schedule. This year the company is not as busy. They mentioned that in an election year, people are less inclined to have work done on their houses. I was surprised by that. I have had the budget for this work for several years now and just hope it can still be done for about what we have been estimating.

I redid the electrical plan to update it to the most recent plan for lighting and outlets.

Dibble Res_Electric Plan_Rev-07_16 w_core

The electrician did not seem excited about all the furniture etc. in the way of the work. Of course that is a problem for the workers. The utility room was especially problematic because there is little wall space. So I offered to remove the storage tank for the boiler system.

We discussed the following list of tasks that have to be done before the electricians can come and do the work.

Clear out garage for access to the electrical box.
Build all walls for electrical boxes.
1. Short wall in dining room
2. Half wall for kitchen outlets–6 inches above countertops
3. Plumbing wall in master bath
4. Shower ceiling
5. Finish wall for master bedroom door
Box in living room post with hardibacker
Membrane with boards for ceiling fixtures
Move boiler storage tank out of utility room
Move furniture away from walls at electrical outlets.
Shim out walls for electrical install in bathroom and master bedroom outside wall outlet.

I think that was it although when he was here it seemed like a long list of things to get done in a 2-3 week time frame.

Posted in Electrical, Floating Walls | Comments Off

Two Doors

Posted on July 7, 2016 by ellen

These two door frames are in the master bedroom. The door on the left is for the walk in closet and the one on the right accesses the bathroom.

Master Bedroom Doors

The angles were a little tricky in order to fit two 36″ doors. These wide doors will allow wheelchair access if ever needed. I have the rustic doors for the spaces. They will be double doors that I bought on craigslist.

Craigslist Bifold Doors

There is one wide plumbing wall left to build in the master bathroom and the shower needs a ceiling to install the fan/light combination that I ordered. We are trying to get all the walls in so that the electrician can come and rewire the house.

Posted in Floating Walls | Comments Off

Trying a Chiller Again

Posted on July 6, 2016 by ellen

I do not give up easily on an idea, especially when my research shows it is viable. It is just a matter of setting up the right combination of cooling and circulation to create a chilled floor. About a week ago I tried running well water through the floor and that worked to chill the floor slightly. Even though I set up a pump to get the water outside, I felt it was using a LOT of well water. I’m not sure how strong the well is and although it is a relatively wet year, what would happen in a dry year?
Reasoning that a chiller might be more able to chill just the floor pipes and not the storage tank, I bought another chiller, this time from Craigslist. It is a 1/3 horsepower modular chiller from Prime. They no longer market these chillers but it has a reasonable reputation in aquarium forums. The modular chiller is stronger than the 1/3 horsepower tower chiller by the same manufacturer–it is rated to chill 300 gallons at 12-22 gpm flow rate.

Plumbing the Chiller

I plumbed the chiller into the radiant system and turned off the boiler and closed off the pipes to it. Then I tried just using the Grundfos pump to circulate chilled water but it never got over 3 gpm. That is too low for the chiller to work properly.

Chiller with Grundfos Pump

So I took out the Taco 011 and hooked it up in series with the Grundfos. Of course the piping leaked a couple of times and had to be redone. I didn’t have all the connections I needed and I had to work around the Home Depot being out of stock of the specific Sharkbite connections that I wanted to use.

Adding the Taco Pump

I have the chiller running right now at a setpoint of 67 with a current temp of 70 and a 2 degree differential. The Taco pump will continue to run even when the system shuts off.

Controller set to 67

I will have to figure out how to control it with the thermostats. Currently they open the appropriate zone valve and turn on the Grundfos pump set on cool instead of heat. But when the room meets the set temperature the Grundfos will turn off. I’m not sure how much of a problem that is for the pump if the secondary pump is still operating.

Chiller System Plumbing

Right now I’m waiting to see if the water will cool the floor and maintain a cooler temperature during the day. Ideally this system is paired with ventilation. If this works, installing ventilation would be the next step, after getting the electrical done of course.

Unfortunately the chiller has the same problem as the others even with a shorter run to chill. The temperature of the water going through the chiller stayed at 70 degrees all night and the refrigeration unit added heat to the utility room so that the whole house did not cool down as much as it had without the chiller or even just water circulation.

Posted in Radiant Cooling | Comments Off

Pocket Door

Posted on July 3, 2016 by ellen

Pocket Door Installed

We have friends in construction who don’t like pocket doors. They say no matter what the door will eventually move off track and out of alignment and they are a pain to fix. But I had planned for a pocket door for the utility room. And I didn’t want the door to swing either into the kitchen or into the small utility room but I wanted a 36″ door to more easily move a washer and dryer through the door. So I purchased the best quality pocket door frame I could find. It is the Johnson Products 2400 and I purchased it from Hartford Building Products through Amazon.
I have learned it is not a good idea to keep new products unopened and uninstalled. Sometimes when it comes to the installation, something is missing from the package or there is some damage that was not noticed. So I wanted to install the door frame as soon as the wall was up.
I found the installation instructions a little confusing. Maybe I was just tired, but I had read them when I ordered the door frame and again when I was putting it up. I was concerned that the screws sent were longer than those called for in the instructions. For most of the install I used them anyway. I used my own 1″ cap screws to fasten into the header as the ones sent seemed too long. There was only one header bracket and it didn’t mention that the other was already installed in the header so I spent some time looking for a second one. I didn’t notice that the screw holes had to be at the top of the metal studs for screwing them into place so had to take apart the stud and redo it.
Since I was feeling confused I looked up a youtube video for this frame and found two excellent ones but the position of the wood strip is different in my door frame. Still it helped to see an actual install. I am glad I didn’t have to do the demolition and rebuild that most have to do to install in existing construction.

Lower Pocket Door Frame

Upper Pocket Door Frame

So between the confusion and my slowness it took me a couple of hours to install the door frame and the door. Getting the door out of the way and hung safely was a good accomplishment too. I bought this door from Craigslist for $50. Quite a bargain.

The door has a clear glass full pane and I watched an etching of clear glass on a home improvement show that looked really cool. But after reading about what can go wrong while etching, I decided to opt for window film and vinyl stencils to help screen out the utility stuff in this room. But the full light door will let in plenty of daylight which will help illuminate this small dark room.

Posted in Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

Fixing the Plumbing

Posted on July 3, 2016 by ellen

After our courtesy rough plumbing inspection, there were a couple of items I had to take care of. The side drain to the bathroom sink had too many connections. Only one is allowed between the trap and the wall pipe.

Existing bathroom sink pipes

I wanted to move the piping into the new wall to line up with the sink placement

Wall sink plumbing

I replaced the polyiso “walls” over the framing to enclose the bathroom until the drywall is installed.

New Sink Plumbing

The dishwasher and water filter drains were draining directly into the sewer pipe. If I had put a trap under this stand pipe, like the washing machine drain, it would be OK but both of these drains needed a trap under them. The rule is ALWAYS a trap between fresh water and the sewer.

Existing dishwasher and Filter Drain Piping

An S trap would have worked well here but they no longer meet code so I had to plug the upper part of the P-trap.

S trap to P trap

New P-Trap Drain Plumbing

Luckily I put these two tasks on the summer list so they can be checked off!

Posted in Inspections, Plumbing | Comments Off

Cooling and Thermal Mass

Posted on June 28, 2016 by ellen

We are finding that the house holds heat well. In winter that is a good thing. In summer, it is more difficult to cool the house. It gets cool at night in Colorado. The humidity can go up at night too. After blowing cooler air into the house all night through two open windows with all windows open the house still retains a lot of heat.

Night cooling

During the day with all the windows closed and two people working inside, the temperatures get high, although not as high as outside.We may be creating the heat ourselves.

You must also consider internal heat gain, both latent and sensible, from people, appliances, electronics, bathing, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. While the house may be superinsulated to retard heat gain or loss due to outdoor conditions, the structure is also retarding heat loss from internal sources. http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?139357-Night-cooling-of-super-insulated-home

So with these high temperatures we get uncomfortable while working inside.

Daytime temperature

I tried to connect the evaporative cooler that I used with the old windows, but after examining the new windows closely, I realized that the screws holding the windows were tightly connected and awkward to remove and I didn’t want to strip a screw in the new expensive windows just to put in an old cooler. So I gave up.

The small indoor evaporative cooler that I bought does not do much to cool the large living area so I moved it to the bedroom where it does an admirable job getting the temps down to about 73 but adding humidity to the room even with the opposite window open all the way. The humidity makes the cooling feel clammy which I never noticed with the larger window cooler.

So these efforts got me back to the radiant cooling study. I had planned to use a chiller to cool the water in the radiant loops and the storage tank that was installed for the fireplace boiler. I examined the pipes in the utility room and realized that I could run well water through the radiant pipe and out the drain, like when the system is being flushed. This leaves the storage tank out of the system completely.

I got out the FLIR camera to test the idea. This is the floor in the living room at about 2 PM.

Living Room Floor about 76 degrees

I opened one radiant valve and its drain and water began to flow through the loop. After 30 minutes I began to see some cooling in the radiant pipes.

Well water starting to cool floor

So cool water will cool some of the thermal mass maybe enough to retain that cold throughout the day. I didn’t want gallons of fresh water running into the septic tank so I closed the valve at this point.

Ideally I would figure out how to use an evaporator for the mini-split air conditioner to chill the water with the heat producing condenser outside. But that is a large project that I don’t have time for right now. If we can use the water that would run through the radiant pipes outside in the garden, it might be OK to just use our well water.

There can be an issue with condensation, however, the solution to that is to only run cool water when the humidity in the room is lower than the dew point.

In most commercial buildings, protecting against the risk of condensation can be quite simple. The coolest point in the fluid’s path through the radiant circuit is, by definition, the entering water temperature at the supply header of a radiant cooling manifold. Therefore, it makes the most sense to monitor and control the system from this point. Ensuring the entering water temperature is never lower than 1.6 C (3 F) above dew point effectively mitigates condensation. http://www.constructionspecifier.com/being-radiant-planning-in-slab-hydronic-heating-and-cooling

The easiest way to pump the well water used by the radiant cooling system outside to the garden is to use a sump pump and a collection tub. So I have one on order to try this new radiant cooling idea. And I’m wondering if the chillers I tried last summer would have worked if I had not tried to cool the whole storage tank but just the water in the loops instead.

Posted in Planning, Radiant Cooling | Comments Off

Slow but Steady WALLS!

Posted on June 27, 2016 by ellen

We have been putting up walls since we returned from vacation. Each wall’s placement must be finalized and the base plate is glued down first. The base plates are weighted and then we wait at least 24 hours to build the floating wall above.

Bathroom base plates

Closet base plates

The wall between the bathroom and the kitchen was completed today.

Bathroom side of wall

Kitchen side of wall

Next to the refrigerator will be a small pantry with a door. The pantry cabinet we have been using is now inside that space. The shelves will be 15 inches deep and the radon pipe is concealed by this closet.

On the bathroom/family room side is the rather strange shaped closet outlined in the above photo. It will also have an 18″ door and the shelves although oddly shaped will be at least 15 inches deep. Perfect for guest linens and towels and maybe a few games.

This small section went in today.

Bath wall section between vent pipe and utility room

This corner is tricky because the plumbing for the shower, utility room and bathroom come together here and so do the bathroom and utility room walls. Plus there is not a lot of room to work in this corner.

I also put in the base plates in the corner of the pantry closet and we finished installing the 2 x 8 beam for the bathroom hanging wall. Temporary shelf brackets held up the 2×8 while we were installing it. The wall is screwed to the structure above and braced at the two ends.

Braced 2×8 from below

Top 2 x 8 plate for floating bathroom wall

The bathroom wall juts out by the width of a 2 x 4 so had to widen the base for the new wall. The new wall will hang from the outside edge of the 2 x 8 and be lined up with the plates installed on the floor that give enough room for the toilet clearance on both sides.

Hopefully we can get this extended wall built and attached to the base plates this week.

We will also need to frame in for a pocket door in the utility room and the kit for installation should be arriving in the next day or two.

With these walls in the house underway we are making progress after our vacation.

Posted in Floating Walls | Comments Off

Well Pump Electrical Box Moved

Posted on June 22, 2016 by ellen

I had put off moving this electrical box because I thought it was a big job. It was not. All I had to do was shut off the electricity and unscrew the box from the wall.

Well Electrical Box

The utility room wall has to be in the corner where the box was located. I just moved it over to the other side of the wire connection to the outside.

Well Electrical Box Moved

I had a bit of trouble drilling the holes for the screw anchors. I used four new masonry drill bits and needed a fresh battery for my drill. I used the hammer setting and used one different sized anchor but I got three holes drilled which was what was holding it before. It was easy to screw into the anchors and the box was set. The breakers were turned back on–it is 220 volts, and the well pump worked again.
Now we have a space for the utility wall to get attached to the inside of the concrete wall at this corner. Next I have to plan for a pocket door for this wall.

Posted in Electrical | Comments Off

Summer List 2016

Posted on June 22, 2016 by ellen

Yeah, yeah, I know that these lists are kind of a joke. Very few projects seem to get finished yet we keep working. Kind of crazy isn’t it?

Nevertheless, here is my list for the summer, now that it is the end of June and summer officially started.

Summer 2016 List

Finish building walls
Finish membrane on ceiling
~~Move electric box in utility room~~
Build pocket door for utility room
Fix water filter and dishwasher drains
Fix family room bathroom drain
Install master bedroom door wall
Cut down rustic doors to fit openings
Build fence for pool
Set up pool
Put shade structure over hot tub
Set up master bathroom
Install radon fan and piping
Build ductwork for ventilation
Install ventilation
Research radiant floor cooling
Set up refrigerated floor system
Fill in concrete edges and caulk
Plan for crawlspace ventilation
Fix crawlspace radon mitigation
Install polyiso in crawlspace
Install tile on slab periphery
Install siding

And of course I finished one item on the list already. Fair because it was not on the winter list. I moved the electrical box for the well pump out of the way to build the utility room wall. Voila!

Posted in Planning | Comments Off

Summer Solstice and Shading

Posted on June 22, 2016 by ellen

The actual first day of summer was June 20th but it was cloudy here. So yesterday I took photos of the shading effectiveness of the fiberglass overhangs on the windows and doors in summer.

Most references specify an overhang of about two to four feet, which I’m sure works to shade out sunlight for more months of the year. Our architect designed a 4 foot overhang for the lower front of the house and showed the shading for a two and a half foot overhang. But the upper part of the house could be shaded with just shy of one foot of overhang. It is a LEED requirement to shade the south facing windows in the summer.

Dibble Res_Window Shading

Part of preparing the doors for repainting was to protect them from above with an awning. Based on the architect’s drawing, we used the recycled fiberglass edging to protect the upper edge of the doors. In winter the sun completely misses this one foot awning and shines fully into the house.

This photo is of the overhang very near the winter solstice.

Winter Doors with Shading

The shade from the one foot awning is only about six inches and is completely above the doors.
But the doors are shaded in summer. This is a summer solstice photo.

Summer Doors with Shading

Shading is effective for the entire south side of the house.

Front Door Shading

Interior Front Door Shading

Window Shading

Interior Window Shading

We did not shade the upper windows so some sun is entering the house. But we plan to install the fiberglass corners on the upper level too.

Sun from clerestory windows

And ideally there will be summer shades for the two skylights. One is currently covered by the interior air barrier. This one is in a bedroom of the house that is not being gutted.

Sun from north facing skylight

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Reduce Reuse Recycle | Comments Off

Home Again and Bathroom Wall Planning

Posted on June 21, 2016 by ellen

We have been on vacation with the grandkids for two weeks and just getting back at our daily grind. No really, every day is a vacation, we are retired! Dave is having tons of used topsoil delivered in 7 gallon buckets which he is spreading to improve our bentonite clay soil. So he was out working at that and mowing the grass which got very shaggy. But in the middle of that the mower belt broke again, so it still looks shaggy until the new belt gets here.

I started worrying about everything we need to get done before September. Worry doesn’t really help but it does make me dream of solutions to some of the issues we face. One of the big ones was the triangle bathroom walls. Having to guess where the walls will be before concrete is poured was prone to error. Both toilet placements are a little off. I solved one with the offset toilet drain, but the triangle bathroom is too narrow where the toilet sits and we just have to move the wall to accommodate the incorrect placement. So how to do that? I measured and measured and it was looking like the wall would have to move over at least 6 inches to fit drywall and a 15 inch clearance. That would put it too close to the opening for the double doors!

Toilet installed behind Polyiso walls in triangle bath

So I thought I would try to rotate the toilet to be parallel with the sink cabinet instead of the wall, hoping to gain more side clearance. But that only placed the tank corner over the edge of the original wall placement.

Dibble Floorplan Current 12 11 15

The toilet was in line with the wall between the bathroom and the den/family room. I rotated it to be in line with the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen.

New Bath Layout

But this new toilet position will still require that the family room wall be placed 3 1/2 inches over from the upper wall. That means there will be a ledge above the lower wall and the attic wall is recessed 4 inches. So we are thinking of a plan to hang the wall below from a 2 x 8 installed under the attic wall and extending out to suspend the new wall. It will be supported by L brackets and form the small shelf above the bathroom doorway all along that wall. It will look like it was designed that way, right?

Right now the temporary bathroom is completely torn apart so that we can install the walls. They hang from the attic supports and the upper attic sides are enclosed and help support the beams below to which the floated walls are anchored. It will really be good to have these walls completed so that all the major walls are in. Then we can call the electrician and get on their schedule.

Disconnected Bathroom

Posted in Construction, Planning | Comments Off

LEED Paperwork!

Posted on June 2, 2016 by ellen

After the rough inspection, Adam the evaluation representative from Energy Logic sent me an official list of documentation that is required for each LEED point category. I have kept lots of paperwork for the project but had not organized it by item so that is what I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. I’m double checking the information that I have and finding new stuff where I may have had a gap.

Of course I am missing a few receipts especially for the roll off dumpsters but I have other documentation to show what was sent to the dump and how. I’m photographing or scanning receipts, labeling electronic files and using emails and photos for part of the documentation.

I’m labeling my files by item and number. In areas where more than one file is required, I’m matching the title to the items. Each of these areas need documentation although some are repetitive, perhaps for those applicants who are not asking for points in all related areas.

The documents that I have gathered and labeled are posted on a separate page in this blog.

LEED Documentation

LEED Verification Requirements Innovative Design

LEED Verification Requirements Location and Linkages

LEED Verification Requirements Sustainable Sites

LEED Verification Requirements Water Efficiency

LEED Verification Requirements Energy and Atmosphere

LEED Verification Requirements Materials and Resources

LEED Verification Requirements Indoor Environmental Quality

LEED Verification Requirements Awareness and Education

Posted in LEED Project, Project Team | Comments Off

A Study in Contrasts

Posted on May 18, 2016 by ellen

Oh for a bit of clean looking drywall! These two photos are essentially taken from the same angle and of the same area of the house. Looking from the living room to the kitchen in both cases.

2012 View of Kitchen/Walls

05/17/16 View of Kitchen/Dining

On the left in 2012 just after we bought the house, there was an attic space over the utility room and rear bathroom and closet. You can see three doorways down that hall, one to the utility room, next one to the bathroom, and the third to the family room which had a vaulted ceiling and a large closet behind the bathroom.

In today’s view, the attic has been removed. The view is all the way to the end of the beam that has been opened. So the utility room was shrunk into a 6′ x 10′ space and the kitchen enlarged into an L shape for the business part and the dining parts of the eating areas. We moved the bar stool seating from the left of the space with the old kitchen sink behind it, to the right in front of the new kitchen area.

Behind the new kitchen wall is the bathroom that opens onto the family room and a small pantry area enclosed next to the refrigerator.

I flipped the triangle from the utility room to the bathroom side and lost the large family room closet.

Original Build Floorplan

Dibble Floorplan Update 12-11-15

Dave cut and installed the wall on the kitchen side of the new attic. This wall does not touch the floor so it does not have to hang. The wall below the attic will be hanging. We have gained about 12 feet of vaulted ceiling and the light from the clerestory windows. The smaller attic will hold the ventilation system.

Installing new attic wall

Posted in Construction, Design Style, Planning | Comments Off

LEED Rough Inspection

Posted on May 18, 2016 by ellen

I have been emailing my new project person from Energy Logic for over a year and he has been very helpful, but now I needed to have the rough insulation inspection before we covered more of our Roxul rock wool install with the interior air barrier and drywall. I also really wanted him to see the project so we could discuss the details better.

I was able to show him around the house, pointing out the various construction details and the radiant heating system. He seemed interested in some of the details and I sent him the documentation for the wafflemat system and landscape plan with irrigation that I told him we probably would not install. Instead we are using drought tolerant grasses and plants and using hand watering in the garden and greenhouse.

It turned out that he also asked to go over the LEED checklist with me and it appears that I had the durability checklist filled out incorrectly and I have overlooked the requirements for initialed accountability forms for the various stages of the project. I will have to go back and get some signatures from the architect and the wafflemat engineer and should get a signature from the landscape planner but unfortunately I believe the company has gone out of business or changed hands.

I was able to redo the durability strategies to itemize 18 that were NOT part of the LEED requirements or point items. That was a little difficult but I think I have the list made. Now I just have to document each item.

Durability Strategies by Issue Type

Exterior Water / Moisture
1. Slab replacement with moisture control system–WaffleMat
2. Exterior rain screen under siding
3. Siga Moisture Air barrier on exterior
4. Fiberglass edging installed over exterior insulation
Interior Water / Moisture
5. Rebuild exterior window access retaining walls
6. High R value windows and doors keep condensation outdoors
Air Infiltration
7. Multiple air barrier layers in ceiling–polyiso sealed, Siga air barrier, drywall
8. Polyiso barrier over original construction where there are multiple 2 x 4’s
Interstitial Condensation
9. Siga Moisture permeable air barrier allows moisture to escape from insulated ceiling
10. Rainscreen layer under siding allows moisture to escape from exterior walls.
Pests
11. Stainless steel mesh insect barriers at top and bottom of siding and around all exterior pipes
12. Caulking around doors and windows
13. Air lock entry separating garage and front door from interior
Heat Loss
14. Concrete slab edge insulated on both interior and exterior
Ultraviolet Radiation
15. Light shelves in clerestory
Natural Disasters
16. Earth berm protection against tornadoes and blizzards
17. Post and beam construction protection against earthquakes
18. Non-vegetated barrier around home protection against wildfires

I also had double credited some LEED items where if there were points in one area, then points in another could not be taken but I had tried! So my point total without innovation points fell below the required points for LEED platinum by 2 points. Adam said he would review the project and hopefully I can regain two points elsewhere.

The insulation so far passed the requirements for a quality installation at the rough inspection. Adam sent me a detailed list of accountability forms that have to be signed and documentation that has to be provided for each area. I’m excited to get started putting the documentation in the correct order and moving forward with this remodel as an official LEED project.

Posted in Inspections, LEED Project, Planning, Project Team | Comments Off

Big Snakes…

Posted on May 16, 2016 by ellen

These two guys were in our front yard near the deck. I did some research and they are bull snakes that can imitate rattlers. That is supposed to be a defense but people often kill them for the imitation not realizing they are harmless. They come out of hibernation in the spring ready to mate and have young. The males do this twisty thing trying to keep their head on top to subdue their rivals. The winner gets the female. These snakes kill their prey by asphyxiation. I’m thinking they are here to help control our rabbit population.

Two Large Bull Snakes

This is another photo. I also saw one of the snakes by the woodpile and the next day two of them duking it out back by the new shed. Maybe these same two? So they are active this time of year.

Bull (AKA Gopher) Snakes

Posted in Diversions | Comments Off

Storage!

Posted on May 14, 2016 by ellen

We are drowning in building supplies that are not being used right now or were extra from earlier projects. One large item is extra rock wool insulation that I over ordered for the house. We have seven full bolts of 24″ and a few 16″. I was able to fit the 16″ in the garage attic but I had “rented” the playhouse that Dave built for the grandkids for winter storage of the 24″ roxul. They only rented it to me for the winter and said I had to pay again in spring/summer so I wanted to get that roxul out of there!
I have been looking for a shed on Craigslist for some time. They were either too expensive or too small, or in bad shape, so when I saw a construction shed for sale for only $200 I thought it would be exactly what I needed. The construction site is wrapping up and the crew wanted to sell the shed basically for the materials that were in it. I thought $200 was a very reasonable price for the building.
I was able to use the trailer that we bought last year to move the spa to pick up the shed. The workers placed it on the trailer with a huge forklift and helped me secure it to the trailer.

Construction Shed

I had to drive it home about 25 miles and used only side streets. I felt like I had a very interesting RV in tow!

Shed in Place next to Playhouse

The trailer is a tilt type and when I got it home Dave helped pry it off the trailer onto some concrete blocks from our demolished slab. We leveled it and swept it out.
The next day we moved the extra 2 panels of chipboard and pieces of short 2 x 6 they threw in for shelving and repairs, and all the roxul into the new shed. I will be moving various pieces of wood and other materials into the shed to get them out of our way.

Posted in Construction, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Tools | Comments Off

Attic platform

Posted on May 14, 2016 by ellen

I finished building the attic platform over the guest bathroom and pantry. This area is going to hold the ventilation system and also encloses the plumbing vent on this side of the house.

Wall Remodel Drawing Plan Rotated 03_14_16

Wall Remodel Drawing Plan Shows Triangle Bath and Pantry at Right

We have the walls up around the air lock entry, the closets and the Master bath and closet. Building the platform allows us to finish the wall between the bathroom and the kitchen and the one between the bathroom and the family room. Along with the utility room, those are all the new walls.

Attic deck

I had to buy a couple of 2×6’s to finish the deck. For some reason we are missing the 2×6’s from our tear down. I only had a couple and one that I used for the deck was really warped, but I used it anyway.

Blocking for warped 2×6 on Left

The plywood was from a Craigslist buy but I still have a lot of wood from that purchase including an extra 2×6.

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Wabi-sabi Garden Gate

Posted on April 26, 2016 by ellen

I often have the pleasure of meeting someone special while purchasing Craigslist items. Some folks are all business, which is fine, some are cautious, which makes sense, and some are very friendly and sharing. I have to say that connecting with people from Craigslist finds has been a positive experience. Now if I think I need something for the house, I start shopping on Craigslist to see what I can fit into the overall plan or flow of the house. And I find gems in the people as well as the items.

This weekend I picked up a garden gate with an arch for $100. I thought that was a reasonable price. One of the interesting things about items on Craigslist is that some items are highly priced and some reasonably. I will ask for a reduction if I see a lot of the same type of thing listed for less, and the seller usually expects that and reduces a price a bit. But if the item is something I like for a reasonable price compared to other listings, I will pay that asking price outright.

Garden Gate on Craigslist

I have been looking for something to define the entrance to the patio as separate from the public front door. Eventually we plan to have a porch roof over the new front door, which I think will help, but we often have visitors skip the mud room front door and proceed to the door that is recessed and was the former front door. That door will be to our bedroom so I need to redirect traffic.

Front Walk blocked by Gate

My reservations were that the gate is very ornate and my house is definitely plain and I thought it needed a paint job. But the seller introduced me to the concept of Wabi-sabi. He even sent me the Wickipedia link when I thanked him for the gate.

The idea of Wabi-sabi is to appreciate simplicity and feature the process of nature wearing out the physical world. Sort of like appreciating getting older I guess. The legend I found in this Utne Reader article is that a tea ceremony apprentice was asked to clean up a garden, so he did it perfectly, but before showing his master he shook a cherry tree so some blossoms would fall to interrupt the perfection. He understood wabi-sabi. The seller was telling me not to paint over the rust on the gate but to leave it in its natural state of decay. I kind of like the idea. And it goes along with the simplicity and plain nature of our building itself.

To install the gate I leveled it a bit with some extra chips of flagstone and used large nail spikes in all four corners to hold it to the walk. I envision flower beds on each side of the walk and the recycled rubber patio blocks will be on the lower patio where the fiberglass edges are laying.

The Wabi-sabi of the gate

I think it needs plants around it to soften the contrast with the straight pergola. But if it truly doesn’t fit in this space, it will be easy to move to another. I think the gate is charming.

View of the gate from inside

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From Heating to Cooling in One Week

Posted on April 22, 2016 by ellen

I bought a little something to help with cooling this summer. It is an older Convair Award 2000 portable evaporative cooler. Again from Craigslist and only $20. I brought it home just in time as today is in the upper 70’s and I have been heating the house (although I have turned it off today) so it gets warm inside quickly. The owner said he used this cooler only briefly and because it takes a lot of space, he relegated it to the basement where it sat for 10 years or so. It seems to be in great condition and only needed a good cleaning and some fresh water to begin working to cool the living area.

Front of Cooler

These are amazingly simple machines. The water from the reservoir is pumped and sprayed onto the blanket of media in this case aspen fibers, and the fan blows air over that wet layer cooling the air. Cooling depends on the “wet bulb” temperature difference from actual dry temps. That is why these don’t work in humid areas, not enough difference between the dry and wet temperatures to cool the air. This cooler was made in Australia. The company started building coolers from plastic in the mid 80’s. At the time it was a new way to manufacture evaporative coolers. This model is probably from the early 2000s. I found an online post about someone purchasing this model in 2004.

I found the manual on the Seeley International Website but not by following links. The main website only points to manuals for the Australian and European models. I actually found the link to the manual from a question about how to get the rear cover off. It is not obvious from looking at the rear. The plastic case is flexible and the sides have to be pulled over slipping two fingers under the rear cover and popping out the plastic connection. Putting it back in requires flexing the cover to go under both the top and bottom lips and stretching the sides to pop the cover back behind the clips. If the plastic was not flexible enough it seems this would break it but it actually works fine.

Popping off rear cover

After taking off the cover, the media is in a metal cage that sits above the bottom of the reservoir.

Aspen wood cooling media

I took the media out by hugging it on each side and pulling it out of the case.
I cleaned the reservoir with bleach water and the case with Goof Off where there were stains. The black tub inside the case must hold a squirrel cage fan.

Tub holds fan-water below

I replaced the media and popped the rear cover back on.

Rear Cover

This cooler has a lot of capacity for a portable @ 5800 btu/hr. The fan speed is also high at 3000 cfm. Most models rated for 250 square ft. are much smaller with only 300 cfm and 2 gallon water tanks. Honeywell makes a model that uses 220 watts and is rated for 850 square ft. with a high fan speed of only 1580 cfm but a 15 gallon tank. I’m happy to get this cooler all cleaned up and working in the house.

Convair Award_2000 Specs

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Interior Doors

Posted on April 16, 2016 by ellen

Handmade Doors

I decided to buy these craigslist doors and I worry that they are not quite right for the house. They are just made out of 2 x 6’s which would normally have a tendency to warp but these seem to still be reasonably straight and they are not new. The planks are chamfered and glued edge to edge with plinths. The cross pieces have rounded edges and are bolted and glued to the planks on both sides.

I bought all nine doors the couple was selling. They thought they would use them in their house and even hung one of the doors for awhile, but they told me the design was too cabin/country for their house.

I could replace the majority of the existing hollow core doors in the house with these heavy, homemade doors. I would have to trim most of them to fit though. The two I have in the master bedroom doorway would have to be trimmed to be the same height, and I was envisioning about 24″ doors to make a 48″ opening but these two doors are 29″. So one whole plank would be trimmed off each door or I would have to figure out if a wider opening will work.

The first thing I did after getting my visiting brother and his friend to help carry them into the garage and a pair into the house, was order new bolts for them. These hex bolts and nuts are not very attractive and create a front (bolt head) and rear (nut) side, but the bolts and nuts used in put-together furniture are more attractive and have the same head on each side.

Hafele Bolts

These are rather pricey in sets of 4, they cost $5.99 at woodworking outlets. I found a supplier who sells in bulk at Home Decor Hardware. The free shipping threshold is $200 so I had to pay $12.00 for shipping but each set of bolt and nut was only 33 cents.

I measured the shank of the bolt from the door and it was 3 1/2″ so in millimeters, I bought 80 mm or 3.15 inch bolts plus the nuts that have 10 mm of thread or .39 inches to connect and tighten in the hole.

These cabin type doors will certainly give the house a rustic look. I just hope the homemade doors are not too heavy for existing frames and once hung operate smoothly. I’m thinking they can be cut to fit using table saw without too much trouble. Of course I need to get my hands on a table saw. I’m hoping I can improve the look of them with an antiquing stain finish.

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