The Rat Hole

Shed in the Snow

2012-01-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

We're having a few back to back snow storms here in the Puget Sound area. The shed looks good in the snow!

E-Waste Disposal

2012-01-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

So... my spouse and I have accumulated a fair amount of stuff that has become e-waste. Old CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, VHS tapes, Zip disks, 3.25" floppies, Jazz disks, cables, etc. There's just no point in keeping this stuff. But what should we do with it? Toss it in the landfill? There aren't many options.

One option is to recycle it. It costs some money, but it's not that much and it's definitely worth it. We decided to use GreenDisk.

They have an option where we can ship 25 pounds of e-waste to a GreenDisk certified processing facility where all the material broken down and recycled in the USA. We pay the shipping and the processing fee is ten dollars. We filled three twenty-five pound boxes.

And now the e-waste in not in our house or our shed!

Shed in Action

2012-01-03T16:20:00.000-08:00

There have been requests to see stuff in the shed. Here are photos of units 3 and 2 with stuff in them. Unit 3 has stuff that was in the storage unit. We'll be doing a purge on unit 3 soon. Unit 2 has stuff that has been reboxed and was formerly in the second bedroom.

Shed - Part 18: Fascia

2012-01-02T18:55:00.000-08:00

I finally got the fascia and the drip cap on the front of the shed.

Shed - Part 17: Shelves

2011-11-25T16:51:00.000-08:00

I built the shelves in units 2 and 3 instead of going shopping on Black Friday. Time well spent. I framed the shelves using 2x4's and 2x2's and used the left over siding for the surfaces.

These two units are going to be primarily filled with boxes. There will also be an unused futon and other random larger stuff. I'll be emptying the storage unit tomorrow or the next day so the shed will be able to start paying for itself!

Shed - Part 16: Door Locks

2011-11-20T18:11:00.000-08:00

I finished installing the frames and locks on the other 2 doors today. Now all three doors lock. Next is the fascia along the front roof line and the shelving.

Shed - Part 15: Door Details

2011-10-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

I finished trimming a door and installing a lock this weekend. So... other than building the shelving, one unit is done and ready for move-in!

I used aluminum 'L' to trim the edge of the door. This both stiffened the door and protected the edge. Plus it looks nice. I notched the aluminum 'L' at the corners for the first door. I think I'll miter the corners on the other two doors.

What it looks like from the outside.

What it looks like on the inside.

What the aluminum trim looks like around the hinges.

I applied some weather stripping along the inside to provide a seal. This isn't so much for airflow as keeping the wildlife out (insects) and for provided an even closure surface.

I installed a dead bolt as the locking mechanism. I put in in the wall instead of putting the lock on the door .

I built a "handle" with the bolt catch in it on the door. I'll probably get around to polyurethaning the wood 'handle' when I'm done with all three doors.

And here are a couple of photos showing the completed door locked up tight.

Shed - Part 14: Doors

2011-10-08T19:40:00.001-07:00

I was planning on building sliding barn doors for the shed, but I couldn't bring myself to pay for the hardware that I'd need. I instead looked all over the place for some nice big offset hinges. I finally found some that were a decent price. I mounted the doors on the outside of the hinges so I needed to use a spacer to make things fit. I used a big fat washer. It was the exact same thickness as the hinge metal!

The wood I chose to use for the doors is an ACX plywood (A is a good side, C is a not so good side, X is for exterior grade glue). The doors are about three feet by seven feet. I used one of the plywood remnants as a hinge placement template so I could local the hinges on the shed.

After mounting each door, I applied a coat of exterior polyurethane to both faces and the edges. The plywood will eventually turn gray, but I think it will take a while since the doors are on the north side of the shed.

All three doors are on. I have two more coats to apply. I also have to flatten the doors. They've warped just a little bit because of the beautiful PNW autumn humidity. I have a couple of ideas on how I'd like to true them up. Now for the handle and lock hardware.

Blueberry Harvest 2011

2011-10-02T20:00:00.000-07:00

We picked all the ripe blueberries last week. It was a meager harvest. They're not it the best location (they need more sunlight), but that will be rectified next season since we're moving them. I think summer's late start didn't help, too. Still, they're our own and they taste really good!

Shed - Part 13: Paint

2011-09-19T07:18:00.000-07:00

I painted the shed even though it was windy and rainy this last weekend (not really recommended). The paint brand that I painted the new parts of the house is no longer available so I had to get a match. The matched paint is close (a hair darker). The big square is the original and the small square is the new paint. The brand of paint is available in Canada, but I don't think I'll be driving to Vancouver just for paint.

I'm only painting the north and south wall of the shed right now. The east and west walls will be enclosed so they don't really need paint. One gallon of paint covered the front and back.

Here are some shots of the finished paint job.

My wife and I tried to get our two-year-old to help paint, but he didn't want to wear his painting smock (one of my old T-shirts). He went inside and took a three and a half hour nap instead.

Shed - Part 12: Glazing, Siding, and Window Unit 3

2011-09-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

I got a lot done last weekend (and last night). The roof glazing, the siding, and the window are now all done for unit 3. Hooray! My wife and I have also decided to modify the additional sections on either end. We've decided to forgo the hot tub and enclose the west pad for gardening equipment storage (lawnmower, wheelbarrow, etc.). The east section will still be home for the table saw but will now be enclosed. Both the east and west sections will have bi-fold doors.

The color scheme will be the same as the house (blue with white trim, and natural wood for the doors).

The next steps are to paint the north and south sides of the shed and then install the sliding doors. I suspect I can get my two-year-old to help me paint.

Shed - Part 11: Framing Walls and Rafters Unit 3

2011-09-06T07:53:00.001-07:00

A three day weekend with some free time equals shed work. Yay! I got the walls and the rafters framed for unit 3.

Shed - Part 10: Siding and Window Unit 2

2011-08-28T14:07:00.001-07:00

It has unfortunately taken a while to get back the the shed project. I finally got some time yesterday and today to nail on the siding and install the window.

It's really starting to come along. I hope I can get unit 3 done in less time that unit 2 took. And I've decided to build all three units, then paint, then install the trim and the doors. I found a farm supply store locally that has the hardware for the sliding doors I want to built, too.

First Blueberries

2011-08-10T19:16:00.001-07:00

The blueberries are beginning to get ripe. Very slowly. The two-year-old has discovered them and has be gently led away since he'll eat the green ones, too. It's very satisfying to see the berries change color since the summer has been so cool and cloudy. We'd thought they'd never get ripe!

No More Trailer

2011-07-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

Notice anything different in the above photo? No trailer! Just sold it today. And, unfortunately, for less than we paid. A lot less. I am not a trailer expert. And I didn't have a lot of time to shop around and learn before making the trailer purchase last October. And while I think I got the best trailer available at the time and for our needs, it had some water damage and leaks that I didn't know about or understand.

I found a buyer that understood the issues and was willing to fix them so I can sleep at night knowing I didn't screw someone over. And now the end of the driveway is empty. Yay!

Shed - Part 9: Rafter Framing and Glazing Unit 2

2011-07-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

I finished up the rafter framing and roof glazing on unit 2 this last weekend. Nothing really new or different to report. I did take advantage of the fact that the glazing is a little expandable to accommodate some of the creep that was showing up on the back side in the rafters. I was able add 3/8" to the run of 8 feet which was nice because now unit 3 can start from zero instead of being in the hole.

Shed - Part 8: Wall Framing Unit 2

2011-06-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

I got the framing itch yesterday and today. And now the walls are framed for shed unit 2. I'm still shopping for the hardware for the sliding doors so I can't really proceed on unit 1. Well... I guess I could start building the shelving in unit 1.

Never-the-less... I framed the walls. I'm learning a few things as I go. Like... make the front perfect and let the back side absorb the errors in tolerances. And unit 2 is approximately 3.5" taller than unit 1. Since the doors will be the same size, that means that the header for the doorway is bigger.

Framing for unit 2 seemed to go more quickly. That's partially because I only framed three walls (the fourth was essentially already built). All the 2x4's are assembled using nails, but I'm using screws when attaching the walls together. I'm also using screws along with nails when attaching walls to the floor.

Then next post will likely be about installing the rafters for unit 2.

Shed - Part 7: Window

2011-06-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Installing the north facing window on the shed this weekend was the easiest part about the shed so far. I used Sunlite which is a clear twin-wall polycarbonate. It comes in 24"x96" panels and is 8mm thick (which is just under 3/8" which is the thickness of the siding). I'll be putting on trim around the window and along the corners of shed someday.

I used screws to attach the glazing to the shed. I cut little squares out of the top layer of the glazing so that the head of the screw was below the surface. Then I put a little piece of tape over the hole. You eventually won't see the tape or screws when the trim is on. I also taped the ends of the glazing panel. The tape will minimize condensation in the hollow glazing.

The sliding door comes next.

Shed - Part 6: Siding

2011-06-06T11:31:00.001-07:00

I finished installing the siding on the first shed unit this weekend. I used a preprimed 3/8" thick OSB siding panel. Now that the siding is on, the shed is very stiff and doesn't rack at all. The interior is very well illuminated because of the translucent roof, but I am going to install windows the north wall above the doorway any way. I think it will look better and it will guarantee some additional light even in the winter or if the pine needle built up on the roof gets too thick.

I may start framing the next unit now since I'm still exploring ways to do the sliding door and the windows. We'll see. The weather is so nice right now that I may be able to crank through the next two units pretty quickly. Especially since my brother is moving to town and my brother-in-law will be in town for a little while, too. One of us will play with my son while the other builds the shed.

I should install shelving and peg board next. That way I can move stuff into the shed right away and clear out the entryway in the house.

Shed - Part 5: Roof

2011-05-22T17:16:00.001-07:00

I installed the last of the roof panels today on the first section of the shed. I used Suntuf corrugated polycarbonate panels. The kind I chose were opal white with a light transmission of 45%. They also block 99.9% of UV light.

I added some additional lumber to that rafter assembly so that I could install the panels according to the manufacturer's recommendations. You can see in the photos below that I added some 2x2's along the front and the back as well as some 2x4's along the middle.

The 2x2's along the front and back are the most critical. They'll keep the panels flat and help resist the attempts that the wind will make to remove the panels. I'll be installing some fascia along the front and back so the 2x2's won't really be all that visible when the shed is done.

Now I get to start on the wall sheathing.

Shed - Part 4: Roof Framing

2011-05-09T08:46:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally got the rafters installed. I notched the rafters along the top, but I left the lower end unnotched. Here's a photo of the first rafter in place while I traced the notch.

Here are a couple of process photos.

The rafters overhang the front by one foot. They overhang the back by two feet. I'll be storing ladders and various yard tools on the back so the extra overhang will provide additional protection. I used brackets called hurricane ties on each of the rafters to connect it to the walls. At least the rafters will stay connected to the walls in a wind storm even if the roof panels get pulled off.

The rafter blocking has screened holes for cross-breeze ventilation. This completes the framing. The next step is to install the roof panels. Then I'll tackle the sheathing, the window, and the door.

Flowers in the Yard - 2011

2011-05-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

The violets that my spouse brought from her childhood home bloomed wonderfully this year. She says their fragrance isn't as strong though. I wonder if it's because of the lack of sunlight.

The tulip in the fifty-five gallon plastic drum container came up this year. I think this is only the second time it's bloomed since we've been in the rat-hole.

Here's a photo of one of the daffodils that comes up every year.

And here are a couple of photos of the most common flower in the yard.

Shed - Part 3: Wall Framing

2011-04-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

I've been framing the walls for the shed over the last two weekends (maybe four and a half hours total). The west most piece of the shed will have a ceiling height of seven and a half feet. The next to parts of the shed will have three and a half inches more head space and seven inches more respectively. It was surprisingly easy to assemble the walls and tilt them up.

The shed will have a shed roof that will pitch form the front to the back. The rise is eighteen inches over five feet. I'll probably need to clean debris off once a year.

All the walls are pretty square. The diagonals at the top were about an inch different so I used a cable and turn buckle to square the top up. I may be able to remove the cable after the rafters and sheathing are on. That way I can use it on the other parts of the shed if I need to. Or maybe I'll install a 2x4 on the diagonal to lock in the squareness.

Here are a couple more photos of the shed from different angles.

I can't wait to do the rafters and the roof panels next weekend!

Shed - Part 2: The Floor

2011-04-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

The actual construction of the shed floor went pretty quickly, but it took me a couple of weekends to get all the supplies. In fact, I bought all the 2x6's and cut them on one weekend. I didn't get to do the plywood subflooring until the following weekend, though.

Here's a photo of the finished floor joist assemblies. Since the 2x6's were already cut, it only took me a day to nail all of them together. Each floor pad is attached to its rails with a series of brackets. They are lined up on the string line and are just about as in line with one another as they can be. The extra 2x6 blocking that you see you the lowest pad is there because I want to get the best yield from the subflooring plywood. The shed is only five feet deep so that leaves three foot pieces left over. The extra blocking lets me use those drop-offs.

Here's a photo of one of the pads with a cross piece still attached. I did this to keep the pad square while I moved it into place and attached it to the rails.

I also laid down some vapor barrier to minimize moisture under the shed. This is the Pacific Northwest after all.

And here are some photos of the plywood attached. I nailed all the joists together, but I used screws to attach the plywood.

Here's a photo of the middle pad so you can see the elevation change from pad to pad.

I waffled a bit about the best way to attach the joists to the rails. I chose to use brackets that restrict side to side movement as well and up and down movement. I think the connections should withstand a modest earthquake.

Blueberry Buds

2011-02-25T17:32:00.001-08:00

There's snow on the ground today, but a week ago things were warmer. In fact, we noticed the new leaf buds on the blueberry plants. Five of the plants have no leaves and the buds look full of spring promise. The semi-evergreen plant looks good, too. Can't want for the crop to come in this summer!

New Outdoor Circuits

2011-02-14T16:16:00.000-08:00

While this post is related to the shed, it's not of the shed directly so I'm not giving it a shed heading.

Since the table saw and future hot tub will need electricity, I installed a new dedicated 20 amp 110 volt duplex on the south side of the house. This also means that I can plug my miter saw in and cut the wood that I'll be building the shed with. While I could use an extension cord and plug into one of the other 20 amp circuits, this would mean that I would have to disconnect my mother-in-law while I was using the saw. Now I don't have to do that.

To install the new circuit and duplex I had to go under the house and run some 12-2 wire (mandatory for 20 amp circuits). Drilling the hole to the outside was a pain! The spot where I wanted to located the hole was in an area that I couldn't really reach. I could either stick my head in and see the location or I could stick my left arm in to drill the hole. But not both! I ended up drilling most of the hole from the outside and then drilling a pilot hole the rest of the way. Then I was able to locate the pilot hole from under the house by feel and only have to drill for a half inch.

The duplex is a 20 amp GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter). GFCI's are required for areas that have moisture. I'll eventually run some electrical to the actual shed area from this GFCI so they'll be protected, too. I also installed an outdoor cover on the duplex to protect it from the rain.

Installing the new breaker in the service panel was pretty easy. I actually installed a tandem 20 amp breaker. I did this because I also installed another 2o amp duplex on the north side of the house. The additional duplex/circuit is for my mother-in-law's trailer. There's been an extention cord running through the kitchen for the last three months and it's gotten annoying. Now it's gone. Yay!

Shed - Part 1: The Foundation

2011-02-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

We've finally started building the shed. This is a project that will have a huge impact on our quality of life because once it's done we can move most of our tools as well as a lot of our boxes out of the house. This means more living space and more room to do more work on the house. It's going to take a little while to complete, but it will be worth it.

The shed will be located on the south side of the house where the drain field is, but since the septic system has been decommissioned there won't be any problems with smothering the drain field. The shed will be five feet deep and twenty-four feet long. We'll be adding a pad on either end of the shed as well. The one on the east side will be covered and will be the new home for the table saw. The pad on the west side will be the future location of the hot tub.

The first thing that we needed to do was clean up the area and string the shed location. The setback from the property lines is five feet. Getting the measurements and the strings set up took a lot of time.

Once the strings were in place it was time to mark and dig the holes. The foundation system is a pair of 4x4 rails anchored into the ground with three posts in concrete footings. This means that three holes get dug for each rail (eighteen holes in all). Each set of holes was dug first. Then the rail (with posts pre-attached) was placed and leveled. Then the rail was removed and the concrete poured in the holes. The rail was then put back in place with the posts inserted into the fresh concrete.

Digging post holes in the Pacific Northwest requires hacking through roots and dealing with ground water. The first holes ended up being close to thirty inches deep. Water seeped into the holes when they got to be around twenty-four inches deep. The soil was relatively easy to dig with just the post hole digger, but the digging bar was very handy to have. The goal for each hole was to get down to harder earth so as to best support the concrete footing.

Here are some photos showing the rail installation progression.

There is a rise of about seven inches from the lowest to the highest area. The shed will be built in three sections, though the roof will be seamless from one end to the other. The rails are probably the most level thing on the entire property so the floor joists should be very easy to line up and install.

Where Do We Live?

2011-02-05T16:37:00.003-08:00

Notice anything different?

One project that we've been meaning to get around to is the address marker. We purchased the numbers three or four years ago. Unfortunately, this project has not moved up the project list.

The whole mother-in-law in the driveway reality has had an effect on this project's ranking. Especially now that she has some home care nurses and a physical therapist showing up. Apparently the same nurse doesn't show up each time either. We gave them very good directions (i.e. we're in the house directly behind the monstrosity at 14519), but that doesn't seem to work for some folks. Well... time for us to put up the numbers.

The neighbor in the monstrosity said it was okay to attach a plaque to his fence so that's what we did. We used a 1x6 clear cedar board for the plaque and screwed it to the fence post. We're undecided about the positioning of the four. We'll live with it for a week and then change it if we can't handle it.

At least now delivery trucks and emergency vehicles will have an easier time of finding us.

Shower Saga

2011-01-17T22:46:00.001-08:00

The hall bathroom sucks. It's small and dirty. It's also our main bathroom. We've been dragging our feet on addressing the mold and mildew problem on the shower tiles for five years now, but it's time to make some progress. We'd like to tear it all out, but our budget and time are are in short supply. So... we'll make do with some spot touch up work.

Way back in July we started to do some exploratory work in a corner that had a lot of mildew. When we removed the bottom bead of silicone a whole bunch of ants came crawling out. Not a good sign! We sprayed some poison in the crack so they'd stop coming out. And we prayed. Maybe we were going to have to tear out the whole wall!

Here's a photo of area of the tube where we first removed the silicone. We suspect that the opossum nest is under this part of the tub.

The next area that we attacked was the really mildewy soap holder tray. The tiles were loose, too.

What did we find when we removed the soap insert? Not much. No dead animals in the wall. No insect hive. It was wonderfully disappointing.

The tiles pretty much just fell off the wall around the soap holder. There was lots of black mildew. We also found out that the tiles were just glued to drywall. Code these days is to use concrete board behind tiles in showers. The drywall was in moderately fair condition so we decided not to tear out the whole shower and just live with what we have until we can afford to do things right.

After cleaning the tiles and the wall area, we glued the tiles back in place. Liquid Nails makes a contact cement especially for tiles.

Here's a photo of the tiles back in place with the new grout in the seams.

And here's a couple of photos of the finished work.

We removed all of the silicone along the bottom of the tiles and replaced it with new silicone. We also removed all of the grout in the verticals of the first row of tiles and regrouted. We used a Dremel MultiMax oscillating tool to removed the grout. Very fast, very easy. The area is SO much cleaner than before.

The project took over FIVE months to complete because we just didn't have the time (or energy). It should have taken less than a week. Instead we lived with plastic hanging in the shower for WAY too long. The results are so wonderful though that we'll probably start regrouting most of the shower soon.

Shelves

2010-12-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

We really need to get the shed built. We also really need to button up the breakfast nook so we can let the baby go hog wild when eating. In order to facilitate the nook work, we got some wire shelving at IKEA so that we can unclutter the area. We need to throw up some drywall to cover the insulation. Once that's done, we'll feel better using the room. The baby was a big help during the assembly process. He's going to be a real asset as he gets older.

What's that scratching noise inside the walls?

2010-11-17T20:29:00.000-08:00

My spouse thought she heard a rat in the attic space last week. Well, it's happened twice before so I went up to investigate. I didn't find anything. I did however spray some polyurethane foam in any cracks and holes that I thought a rat could get through from the walls below. Then I went under the house to do the same. Again, I didn't find any rat sign. I did see some fresh opossum poop. I brought a garbage bag with me to collect the remains of the cat and small dog skeletons this time. I've been meaning to do this since we bought the house. Since I had the bag, I threw the poop in too.

Back to the main task. Plugging holes. There's a big hole where the drain for the bathtub comes through the floor. My spouse and I have suspected that opossum have crawled up through this hole in the past and hung out in the space between the tub and the wall. Since the hole is too big to just spray polyurethane foam into, I stapled Tyvek over the hole. With the job done, the family settled in for a night of rest.

Didn't get any. At about 11PM we heard a bunch of movement. I knew immediately what was happening. I'd inadvertently trapped an opossum in the wall! Crap! The poor animal moved around ever twenty minutes or so. After about 2 hours it started trying to scratch its way out through the drywall (that's what it sounded like at least). I was seriously afraid of having to deal with a rogue opossum in the house.

So at 2AM I put on my "under-the-house" clothes from the previous afternoon and all the necessary gear and went under the house to free the damned rodent. I also took some grapes to lead it to freedom. While I was under the house I did not see or even hear the opossum. Thank god. I left the crawlspace hatch open as I left.

The next morning I noticed that a vent screen was pushed aside. This was the escape route that the opossum used ( I guess it didn't trust the freedom trail of grapes). I suspected that the opossum had vacated the area, but I still rented a live trap and set it just in case.

It's been a couple of days now and I haven't caught anything in the trap. I went under the house tonight and resealed the hole under the tub. I really don't want to have to go under the house again to free the damned opossum. If it's still in the wall I'm likely to just cut a hole in the wall, reach through and grab it. I'm not sure what I'll do once I grab it though. Maybe I'll devour it since I'll be so drunk with sleep-deprived rage.

UPDATE: No scratching noises last night. No opossum. No late night snack for me.

Blueberries for Baby (and us)

2010-11-10T20:46:00.000-08:00

We've been wanting to plant blueberries since we bought the rat-hole. And now that we have a baby, we're more motivated. We bought six bushes a month ago (they were on sale), and they've been sitting in the yard every since then. The weather was really nice last week so we took the opportunity to get them in the ground. The location isn't our first choice and the spacing is a little tight. We'll transplant them to their final location next year (or the year after that).

Here's a photo of where the blueberries are planted.

We've learned a lot about blueberries during this process. One thing we learned is that there are A LOT of varieties. How to choose?

There are highbush and half-high varieties. Highbush can grow over six feet high and wide. The half-high ones are more in the range of one to four feet high and some of those spread out. Most of the bigger and better tasting blueberries seem to be of the highbush varieties so that were we focused. Plus, we want lots of blueberries!

Another thing we learned was that there are three bloom seasons for blueberries: early, mid, and late. It's best to have at least two varieties where bloom times overlap. For example, one early to mid and one mid to late. We got two of each season: two earlies, two mids, and two lates. This way we will hopefully have blueberries all summer long!

Blueberries like lots of sun and lots of water, especially during the fruiting season. They also really like peat moss for compost.

Here are some photos of our new blueberry bushes and some descriptions.

Bluejay
Early-mid
Mild fruit

Spartan
Early
Large flavorful fruit

Hardiblue
Mid
Heavy bearing

Chandler
Mid
World's largest blueberries

Elliot
Late
Large and tangy berries

Sunshine Blue
Mid to late
Tangy sweet berries

We're looking forward to seeing how they produce next summer!

Digging Deep

2010-10-17T20:26:00.001-07:00

We bought a 22 foot trailer for my spouse's mother to live in while she's here in Washington dealing with some medical issues. The trailer seemed to be a better buy than two months or more in a motel. We don't really have room in the house because of the work we're doing on it. (We've missed a few posts, but we're working on pulling out mildewy carpet, regrouting the bathroom, and a few other things.)

Here's a photo of the trailer in its new home.

A "Y" was installed for future use when the sewer was installed. Well, I guess this is future use. The digging was pretty easy since the location had just been back filled a month ago.

I had to dig a hole next to the main hole so I could stand in the hole while digging the other hole. I had to dig five feet down.

I used the trusty reciprocating saw to cut off the cap. Here's a shot of the elbow I installed.

Then I installed a five foot length of pipe up to the surface and did the hook up.

Now to fill the hole. (Wait, I just dug that hole yesterday!)

Here's the final set up. I laid a board down so that the hose from the trailer sloped nicely to the sewer pipe. No clogging of this system! *fingers crossed*

More Rock Raking

2010-10-07T20:34:00.001-07:00

The baby likes to play outside in his sandbox. Sometimes he doesn't care if we're right next to him or not so sometimes we sneak off and rake rocks. It's amazing how much better the area looks without the big rocks.

We've also starting thinking about doing the additions and have started getting quotes for the foundation work. The foundations should be significantly less expensive than the sewer. We'll probably have to rake rocks after the foundations are excavated, too.

Rock Farming

2010-09-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

We've been raking the rocks out of the soil that the sewer contractors graded their work area with. There are a lot of rocks! We're mostly trying to get rid of the ones that are the size of a quarter or bigger. Especially the rocks in the lawn area. The work is going well enough. We try do do it whenever time permits. The only thing we're up against is the weeds and grass that are starting to grow back. Getting the rocks out of the way before the plants come back would definitely be nice.

Sewer Connection

2010-09-15T17:32:00.001-07:00

We're connected to the sewer! The work took place at the end of August but we're just now getting around to posting about it.

The weekend before the sewer connection required us to do a little preparation work. We had to reroute the kitchen sink into the washer drain line. This required being under the house which we all know is wonderful. We also had to cut out a section of the deck to expose the old washer drain pipe and to dig part of the trench.

The last thing that we had to do was limb up the cedars so that the construction equipment had room to maneuver.

We've posted the photos to a Picasa album.

2010-08 Sewer Connection

Everything works and we've paid the contractor and the city. This was not a cheap project. If we had been more savvy, we'd have had the side sewer connection run under the front lot when the front house was being build. It probably would have cost less. But it would have meant dealing with the horrible developer.

The contractor (Bolles Construction) was fabulous. They were very professional and left the site in very good condition. They even dumped the left over crushed gravel at the end of the driveway thus filling in the muddy holes that have been there since we bought our house. We are very appreciative!

Hearth

2010-09-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

We've finally gotten around to the hearth. There are a couple of stone shops that are close to us and one of them has remnants. We've been by a couple of times but never saw a piece of stone we loved (we've been hoping to fine a piece of soapstone).

Well, we dropped by again and they had a remnant that was the perfect size in Dark Julia (some variety of soapstone). The shop next door that sells entire slabs had a sample so we were able to borrow it and bring it home to see how it looked. It looked good in front of the fireplace (with with and without the baby on it).

We emailed the shop drawings of what we wanted and also gave them a deposit. The hearth was ready a week later. It barely fit in the back of the Subaru. The shop had recommended that it travel on end (like glass) so as to reduce the chance of fracture. It weighed about 100 pounds.

Soapstone needs to be oiled with mineral oil (a lot) for it to get dark. Here's a look at the first coat. We'll be putting on many more coats (even after it's installed).

We prepped the area and placed the hearth. We used silicone as the adhesive on advice from the stone shop. We'd cut a bunch of shims to support the hearth, but it didn't lay flat (the floor's not really flat enough). We ended up only using a few.

We love the look of the hearth. So does the baby. He'll love the cool stone on those hot summer days next year.

Sandbox (No Cats Allowed)

2010-08-28T09:08:00.001-07:00

We think the little boy might enjoy some time in a sandbox so we built one for him. After doing a little research we found that Dunn Lumber was having a sale on cedar 5 1/4 x 4's (true dimensions are 1" x 3 1/2").

Here are a couple of sketch concepts of what the sand box might look like.

We used screws to assemble the sandbox and nailed some weed barrier fabric on the bottom.

After clearing a space, we placed the sandbox and leveled it.

Now for the hard part (450 pounds of play sand). We wheeled the sand from the truck to the box location and filled up the box. Nine bags in total.

The last thing to do was to put a lid on it so the neighborhood cats don't find it. Luckily, we had a remnant of plywood that was 48"x48" (the perfect size).

Sewer Work Starts Tomorrow!

2010-08-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was dedicated to getting ready for the sewer contractor. We rerouted the kitchen drain, dug a trench to expose the washer drain line, and limbed up the cedars.

The side sewer stub will be installed tomorrow. The pipe from the stub to our house will be installed on Wednesday. We are SO excited! We have to admit that having work done by a contractor is a really nice luxury.

Leaf Blower

2010-08-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

My father will disown me when he reads this post. I am now an owner of a leaf blower. He hates leaf blowers because of the noise they make. I bought mine used and it's electric. It's not as loud as the gas powered models, but it's still pretty loud.

The reason I bought it was because our roof had a leak. The roof company employee said it was because of pine needle build up on the shallow slope of the roof. He recommended that I use a leaf blower to clean off the roof once or twice a year. He also recommended that I use moss killer on the roof to keep moss from growing.

It takes longer than using a broom, but you can tell that it's not so hard on the shingles. It's good practice to keep one's roof free of debris as it helps keep the down spouts unclogged.

Later that week the roof company owner had the employee come back out a make some adjustments where the leak occurred. He didn't think the leak was solely due to pine needle build up. Okay by me.

Berries!

2010-07-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

It's berry season at the rat hole. The raspberries in the southwest corner of the yard are producing lots of berries and there are, of course, lots of strawberries along the driveway.

Here are some photos of the raspberries.

And here's a photo of the harvest.

The raspberries will get frozen because we just can't eat that many! The strawberries in this photo are the second quart of strawberries this season. Plus, another quart or two have gone bad just waiting to be picked! We just don't have time with the baby and all. Oh, well.

We're thinking of making jam.

Laundry/Linen Closet

2010-07-06T20:58:00.001-07:00

We've completed a little more of the Rat-Hole. The laundry/linen closet is essentially done. Well... the inside at least. We'll put the doors on a little later.

To finish the closet off, we had to move the washer/dryer stack to the right side of the closet. This move allows for better use of space and for easier opening of the washer and dryer doors. To accomplish the move we had to move the 220V dryer outlet from one side of the closet to the other. We also had to move the light switch from inside the closet to the outside (otherwise it wouldn't be accessible). Since we were playing with the electrical, we also added a 110V outlet below the light switch (outside the closet).

A new dryer vent had to be installed as well. By now you're thinking to yourself, "Guys, measure twice, cut once." Yes, that's all well and good, but you live and you learn. We'd originally looked at the closet and decided one thing and now we've realized that we want things to be different. Fortunately, we don't have to pay the contractor to come back.

Here's a photo of me mothballing the old vent. We considered removing the vent and patching the hole, but now we have a house with TWO dryer vents. Now THAT'S a feature.

Here's a full view photo of the washer/dryer stack moved over.

And here are some photos of the completed closet.

We got the shelving at IKEA. We're going to store all of our sheets, towels, and extra blankets on it. We could have built it ourselves, but it would have cost just as much (if not more) plus the hassle of time/labor. The unit was so big that we almost couldn't fit it into the closet. The 3D model had indicated that it would be tight, but it all worked out.

Appraisal

2010-06-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

We're in the process of refinancing the mortgage. We'd originally gotten an ARM so that we had as much money as possible to put into the house as possible (the house really needed it as our readers already know). We've put additional money into paying the principal as well, but the flexibility has been really nice. Well, the ARM resets in November and while it wouldn't affect our payments in the short term (in fact, they'd probably go down), the interest rate would likely go up and that would hurt us in the end.

Part of the refi process means getting a new appraisal. The appraiser came on Monday. We were kind of nervous. They did a walk-through of the house, took some pictures and were generally quite nice. We were a little embarrassed since we hadn't really had time to clean up.

We'd gotten a King county property tax assessment recently that had valued our house at about $25K below what we'd paid. We weren't too surprised since the real estate market sucks for everyone. Well, we got our copy of the new appraisal today and it came in about $35K over what we paid. Yay! This is great for our egos and hopefully our pocketbook. The higher appraisal means that we qualify for a lower interest rate. We're really happy! Now we just have to get all the other I's dotted and T's crossed.

Improvements for Baby

2010-05-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Now that the baby is crawling and getting into stuff, we've had to make a few improvements to our living situation. First things first... a baby gate to keep the baby away from the mess and tools in the entryway.

I also had to notch the door catch in the jam so the door would actually latch (it never has).

The next thing to do was put down some adhesive times where the baby crawls and plays. The kitchen has some disgusting areas. The two main problem areas are the floor in the doorway and the floor under the microwave.

Shelf Trim

2010-05-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

I finally got the trim up around the built-in shelf. Looks pretty good. I made the cuts in the kitchen. I've got a few more nails I want to put in, but it's really fine the way it is. I used primed MDF (cheaper and easier to paint). The brother-in-law will probably give me a hard time about using the MDF since he had to prime and paint the Hemlock we used for the windows.

All that's left is to fill the holes and paint the frame. I'll probably do the nook window the same way. And maybe sooner than later.

When Baby's Away

2010-05-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

My spouse and baby were in MT last weekend for a funeral. I didn't go. To fill my time I worked on the house and other various projects.

Thursday night I put the second coat of polyurethane on the shelf. On Friday night, I sanded the whole thing one more time and put the third and final coat on. I used Safecoat's Polyureseal which has a volatile organic compound (VOC) rating of 111. Pretty low. Plus it's water based. I'm pretty happy with the results.

One of the other things I did was burnish the walls that have the heaters in them so I could put on the heater covers. Since baby is crawling around and putting his hands in interesting places, this was a priority.

One more priority... fill the gap. With baby crawling, the transition between the new floor and the kitchen (old floor) is missing. It catches a bunch of rug fuzz and dust so baby gets really dirty when he gets near it (or in it). I cut a few extra pieces of flooring to size, counter sunk the screw holes, and screwed them in place. Not a great solution but a respectable interim measure.

Readers may remember that my brother was in town last October and helped me with some tree trimming. Well, those piles of branches have been just sitting. While baby was away, I moved the piles of branches so that my nice neighbor can help me get rid of them (he's got a big truck and has offered).

I also weed-whacked and mowed the lawn, but those pictures are boring so I didn't post them.

I got a lot done, but I missed my spouse and baby. They're back and we're all happy again.

Let There Be Cable!

2010-05-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Grandma D. is visiting so in order to give her a better room experience, we've jumped ahead and installed the cable (and phone) connection in the den. This allows us to move the modem, router, and network hard drive into the den. This also allows us to plug the printer back in (to the network drive).

The installation involved cutting a hole in the wall (in the correct spot), running the coax and phone cables from that location to their respective points outside the house, and then putting the respective cable ends on them.

Here are some photos.

We'll be moving the TV into the second bedroom today to increase its livability for our guest.

Curtain Thoughts

2010-04-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

We're getting closer to getting curtains up in the living/dining room. We've had the fabric for a while now and a friend is helping us sew them. We've hung some sheets up on the windows when guests have stayed over and liked the way the sheets scalloped over the bars (when being held on by safety pins). We were thinking of using that technique on the real curtains except we were going to use buttons instead of safety pins.

Turns out that the thicker fabric didn't hang as well with the button idea so we're going to go with tabs. We've hung up the curtains with a couple of different tab lengths and also looked at having the diffuser as a pocket option as well.

We like the 2" tabs (on the left) and think that we'll go with having tabs on both the diffuser and the curtain.

Here are photos of the curtains with the mock tabs.

Here's a detail photo of the diffuser.

Some Slight Heater Modifications

2010-04-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

The back bedroom has a couple of baseboard heaters in it. One of them is an institutional level monster that is very noisy and very hot. Nice. But it's so noisy that we've never slept with it on (we use a plug in radiator type heater for night time). Well, we were tired of it so we replaced it with a smaller (and dare we say... more friendly) unit. The overall switchover time was about an hour. Not bad. And we slept with the room heaters on last night. Cozy and quiet.

Here's a photo of the monster after it was removed.

And here's a photo of the new heater in its new home.

Contact!

2010-04-08T18:56:00.001-07:00

UPDATE: The phone rang last night at 8PM. I didn't even notice! Some 800 number.

I found some time this afternoon and crawled under the house to run the phone wire. The phone box was a snap to open and to connect into. There were four spots and only three were being used.

So... now the phone jack in the bookshelf is live. In fact, we've moved the phone and answering machine onto the shelf. The phone that is still in the bedroom doesn't ring so now when someone calls it won't wake up the baby. Yay!

I'll be staining and sealing the shelf as soon as I can. I have a low VOC water based stain and a low VOC water based polyurethane sealer that should go on without much problem.

Built-in Shelf Built

2010-03-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend assembling and installing the built-in bookshelf (located in the main room next to the fireplace). This project has taken a VERY long time to get to this point. I cut the 3/4" plywood (with cherry veneer) on our table saw, but I used my friend's jointer and radial arm saw to clean up the edges and to cut the dados. I also edge-banded all of the exposed shelves and middle supports.

I assembled the shelf in the second bedroom so as to stay out of the way of the baby's play area.

I had already installed the back of the shelf in the cavity and thought that I would need to install a temporary brace to keep the shelf from racking during the move, but the shelf was rigid enough without the brace. I used screws for all joints and used dowels for alignment on the middle supports.

Here's a photo of the shelf in place before I attached the back, cut a hole for the elecrtical duplex, and secured it with some finishing nails.

My spouse wanted to see if the baby fit on the bottom shelf. He could if he curled up a little. I'm sure he'll be pulling himself on the shelf very soon!

Here's a photo of the shelf fully installed. We will be locating a land line phone on the second shelf from the bottom (you can see the duplex and the phone cable on the right).

All that's left to do is: stain, seal, and trim. We'll be using the same trim as the windows. Oh, I still need to connect the phone wire to the phone box. Maybe later today or in the next couple of days. Shouldn't be too hard.

No-Rest Room

2010-03-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

I'm posting from the husband's account - I'm too lazy to log in to my own profile. ^_^

So we have actually been working on the rat hole. Projects are so much more difficult with the baby! Not only is our workforce cut in half, but sleep deprivation hurts both motivation and the skill with which things are done (to say nothing of concentration abilities).

That said, we are making progress on getting the built-in bookshelf done. Hopefully this week or this weekend. The wood is all prepped. It just needs to be put together. Having the shelf will not only make the room look better, but we'll also be able to collect all the stacks of books we have piled about and clear off some surfaces (hopefully NOT so we can just pile more stuff on the newly cleared-off surfaces). We'll also be able to move the phone/answering machine out of our bedroom so the little one isn't woken up by callers.

Once the shelf is done, we're going to try our best to get the rest of the crown molding up quickly, then the baseboard, and then we'll install the mantle and hearth.

Then we might work on the sewer. We pray every day that the septic keeps lasting us. We'll see when that happens.

Anyway, once we have the living/dining room all trimmed out and finished, we've decided that we're going to take on the hall bath. That bathroom is the one we shower in. It's not a pretty place. Mold and dirt is suspended in the crappy silicone job, there are patches of painted drywall showing through the awful wallpaper, there's mildew on the ceiling that constantly needs to be wiped up, and the wallpaper itself is trying its darndest to grow mold. Not a place for rest and relaxation.

We don't have the funds to do a full remodel, so we're just going to do what we can to make the room look nicer and get it to a state where we can live with it for the next ten years or so. We're going to put in a plastic tub surround, get rid of some tile, put in a new medicine cabinet (maybe), improve the lighting, put in a heater, seal the crappy floor, and put new paintable wallpaper over the stuff that's in there now.

So although we haven't been posting as often, we are still working, and stay tuned for our progress!

Washer and Dryer

2010-03-05T15:08:00.000-08:00

We just couldn't take it any more. The timer on the old dryer was only working half the time and the washer was loud and scary. Thank goodness for Presidents Day sales. We got a matched pair of LG appliances from Sears. They were delivered 5 days later. Our clothes have never been so clean! We're very happy. And the baby likes the bright control panel lights!

Floored!

2009-12-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

What did you do for your winter vacation? Please write a 300 word essay.

Well... we installed our floor in the den/living room/dining room. Yay! We started in the den and worked our way eastward towards the dining area. All and all, it was relatively easy. Except maybe for the back-breaking bending over part. And the anxiety of making the wrong cuts and running out of flooring. And the saga of the air compressor that wouldn't start in the mornings. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

The installation team for this event consisted of the brother-in-law and me. My spouse distracted the baby in the back room so that the pneumatic nailer and table saw didn't upset him too badly. B-i-L was in charge of the cut list and the master plan (which I printed out for him). He did a pretty good job of keeping me honest. I only deviated once (my fault, not his, although he might argue this point). We were able to install approximately 100 sq ft a day for a total of just under 400 sq ft.

As previously mentioned, our floor is Teragren Synergy Java strand bamboo.

Here's a photo of the den before we started.

We layed a layer of 1/4" thick cork down between the flooring and the subfloor. This was to help insulate the floor for both temperature and sound.

The den turned out to be a dimension that created no waste (12 feet wide). This was great and made the install much faster. Here are some photos of the layout.

I used a pneumatic nailer. I'd originally rented a manual one, but after practicing with it a couple of times, I realized the error of my ways (much harder to use than a pneumatic floor nailer) and went back to rent the right tool.

Here's a photo of the completed den floor. This took one day.

The air compressor that I rented kept tripping the breaker. The Hertz rental place guy said it was that the voltage on my circuit was too low, but I plugged it in on several different circuits (15amp and 20amp, both with and without an extension cord) and it still had a hard time starting. It seemed like the motor was binding up because of a sticky axle. B-i-L and I had to spend more than 15 minutes each morning trying to get the thing started. The the last day it wouldn't start at all so I had to run to Home Depot to rent another air compressor. It worked great and made me wish I'd rented from HD instead of Hertz.

Here's a photo of me cutting the flooring planks to length. It looks like I'm using the fence in the photo, but I'm not.

Day two. I wore knee pads in the beginning of the project, but I eventually ditched them since it was faster to just bend over. More painful at the end of the day, too. The buckets in the next photo are being used to weigh down the floor next to the wall since I couldn't use the nailer in tight locations. I glued the flooring in these spots since I didn't want to nail through the top of the floor (as is common practice).

B-i-L took a photo of the floor that I thought showed the color and visual texture quite well.

Here's a photo of the fireplace and future hearth location. We centered the flooring planks on the fireplace.

This was the end of day two.

As I was bringing the air compressor inside for the night, I noticed the view from our entryway. The angle makes it look like the flooring is complete, and this really perked me up.

We took Christmas day off.

Here's a good shot of me using cutoff pieces as hammering blocks. I used them to get the flooring planks nice and tight.

This was the end of day three.

Day four had me worried since I had to spend time renting a new air compressor and I didn't want to run out of time (we try to put the baby to bed by 7:30).

I had to glue the last four rows of flooring down. The buckets of leftover wall clay and the leftover flooring planks were great weights.

I returned all of the equipment the next day. I told Hertz about my problems and they chose to only charge me for two days' rental of the nailer and not at all for the compressor. While disappointed in the overall rental experience, they made up for it in the end.

The floor looks great! B-i-L thinks the heaters turn on less frequently, too. We put felt pads on all the furniture to minimize the risk of scratches to the floor. All that's left is the trim work.

Halloween Tree Pruning

2009-12-15T20:00:00.000-08:00

My brother was visiting during this last Halloween and wanted to be useful. Every winter brings a wind storm here in the NW so I was anxious to trim some branches from my neighbor's tree that touch the house. Some of you have seen these photos before as my sister/girlfriend-in-law posted them on her Picasa album.

Finishing the Den Walls and Ceiling

2009-12-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

Let me just say that being a father is amazing and wonderful. However, I seem to get less done on the house when I'm holding my baby in one arm.

This post is about finishing the den walls and ceiling. The drywall has been up for a while. I've been taping, mudding, and sanding as I've had time and energy.

With all the seams and screws mudded, I next primed and painted the ceiling. I ended up having to paint the whole ceiling (including what I'd already painted in the dining room) because the paint colors were not a perfect match and we could see the transition. I don't understand why. The paint was the same paint from the same can. I guess one-year-old paint shouldn't be expected to match itself when it was fresh.

After the ceiling was painted, I put sanded primer on the walls in preparation for the clay, one layer of Loma and one layer of Porcelina. All I have left to do is burnish.

Next is the floor!

Washer and Dryer Move

2009-09-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

I had to do a few things before moving the washer and dryer. Specifically, I had to install a new dryer vent, connect into the drain line for the washer, and connect the 110V and 220V electrical circuits for the washer and dryer.

Here's a photo of me installing the dryer vent. We're going to stack the dryer on the washer some day so the vent is located in the ceiling.

I'd show you photos of the drain line, but I hate going under the house enough as it is so... no photos. Instead here are some photos of the move.

Sadly, I found that I'd installed the 220V outlet too high for a ground level dryer. So, I raised the dryer. It's a dryer on blocks! It's actually WAY easier to load and unload the dryer at this height.

And here's a photo to of the empty entryway (formerly the utility room).

The next steps are to clean out the entryway and then move all our tools and other gear into the entryway to clear up space to work in the den.

The Big Move

2009-09-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of where the water heater has lived since we bought the rat hole.

As you can see, it's in the way. We have to walk through the kitchen to get anywhere in the house.

The first thing to do before the big move was to turn off the power to the water heater, turn off the water to the house, and drain the water heater.

The next steps were to decommission the old lines and hook up to the new lines. I used Sharkbite fittings so the pex to pex connections were ultra-simple. The only annoying connection was the brass barb into the 1" poly main line under the house. Handling scalding water in a cramped crawl space is tricky.

Here are some photos of some of the old galvanized lines that were removed.

Can you tell which ones were hot water and which were cold?

We used a furniture dolly to move the water heater to its new home. We think it's happy.

Here are some photos of the empty doorway in the utility room. What a big difference!

The next steps took a while. Connecting into the lines for the water heater wasn't hard, but it was a long process.

I'll say it again... Sharkbite fittings are great! And easy! And expensive. One of them leaked after I turned the water back on. I was upset, but turned the pex and fitting a little and the leak stopped. Yay! I really like Sharkbite!

Here's a funny part of the story. After I connected everything and turned the water back on, I turned on the faucets to let the air out of the system. The hot water lines expelled air for a long time since the water heater had to fill up. I noticed that the cold water valve in the washer and dryer closet was expelling air. It freaked me out! Had I made a mistake and reversed my connections somewhere?

After going under the house, going into the attic space, and checking the water heater closet, I was able to confirm that, yes, I had indeed reversed the connections (hot to cold and cold to hot). All of them. In moving the water heater, I also moved the main incoming water line (cold). I connected the main line to the new hot water line instead of the new cold water line. But I also connected the water heater input and output to the wrong lines. And I reversed the splices up in the attic as well. It all stemmed from me misremembering which line was which. Should have labeled them. In the end, because I was consistent in my mixup, everything worked out. Except for the washer valves. Those are reversed. I'll switch them around before the washer gets moved. Three wrongs make a right!

Closet Baseboard

2009-09-02T04:36:00.000-07:00

We had a little difficulty settling on the design for the baseboards in the closets. After looking at a number of different profiles, we chose to go with a standard 1x4 (.75x3.5). We liked the height the best. We also chose to put a 1/4" radius on the top corner. We like this look, but we will likely do something different in the main rooms. These are the closets after all. Simple is okay.

The baseboards were installed using panel adhesive and a few nails.

Since nothing is ever straight and perfect, there was a little gapiosis between the boards and the walls. The whole family got in on the gap filling project.

The end results looked great. A couple coats of paint went on next.

And now for the big move!

The Lowdown on the Floor, Click!

2009-09-01T07:53:00.001-07:00

As was mentioned before, we chose to use Forbo Marmoleum Click for our closet floors. The tiles are 36"x12" and fit the closets perfectly (the closets being 36" deep).

The install was super simple. I used the table saw to cut off the tab on one end and then just laid the pieces in the closet. Each tile snaps tight to its neighbor. Forbo makes sheet linoleum as well, but the tiles were just so easy!

The finished floors! Next... the baseboards.

Painting the Closets

2009-08-31T17:18:00.001-07:00

Before I get into the meat of this post, let me begin by telling the readers that...

WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY MOVED THE WATER HEATER!

This momentous event was achieved this last weekend and took 2 days. Whew!

Before moving the water heater, I had to mud and paint the walls. I also wanted to install the floor and baseboard as well.

We chose not to install crown molding in the closets (it seemed fussy and a waste of time). We used a Zero-VOC semi-gloss white (Mythic brand). The painting went very quickly. We only applied one layer of primer and one layer of paint.

Floors and Walls

2009-08-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

I installed some plywood on the floor of the closets last weekend. We've bought some Marmoleum for the finished floors in the closets so the overall thickness stack is a little different than what is going in the living room and eventually the hallway.

This is the color of the Marmoleum Click we bought.

I also got the first layer of mud on the seams and corners.

My father-in-law and brother-in-law are coming to visit in a week. They may want to do other things besides play with the baby (not likely). If so, the closet walls should be ready to paint. *fingers crossed*

Slow Going

2009-07-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

So we haven't forgotten about this blog, or the house, but we're still adjusting to life with baby. We're exhausted, but we're loving every minute of it (although some minutes are far more coherent than others).

We fully intend to start hanging the rest of the drywall for the utility closets and getting those buttoned up in the next few weeks. We'd love for the washer/dryer to be closer to the bedroom, especially now that we find ourselves doing a lot more laundry with the baby around.

Stay tuned, and we'll hopefully get back into a regular cadence of updates soon!

Changing Table

2009-07-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is kind of a crossover blog post. It's baby-related but really probably belongs with other posts of its kind (i.e. construction-related).

We'd set up a changing station for our new baby Arlo in the second bedroom before he was born. But once we had the baby, changing diapers at 3AM seemed easier to do closer to our room. Plus, a couple of friends of ours who have a child always changed their kid in the bathroom so that the child started to associate the bathroom with potty-related activities. In short, we needed to come up with a new solution.

First we tried changing the baby on the floor. This worked fine, but bending over was tough for me in the small bathroom and it was impossible for my spouse and her healing C-section incision.

I had a thought to make a fold-down changing table. After taking some measurements, I found that the space between the sink and the wall was was adequate and so was the height of the sink. Finding the time to go to Home Depot was a little challenging, but I finally did yesterday. The table is 36" wide and 18" deep and 32" high. It went together pretty quickly. The only thing I have to do is put a finish on it to protect it from torrents of pee. I'm going to use the linseed oil and beeswax finish that we got for the built-in bookshelf (that is as of yet unfinished).

Closet Plumbing and Drywall

2009-06-16T17:54:00.001-07:00

The work on the closet continues...and now that the electrical is done, I get to focus on the plumbing. That means cold water, hot water, and a drain for the washer. I have to put in an emergency drain for the water heater too, but I haven't figured that one out yet. Here are some photos of the plumbing.

I used Sharkbite brand fittings this time. I've never used them before. They're more expensive, but they are really easy to put together. If I had used the Rehau fittings, I'd have to rent the installation tools for $25 a day. In the end, the Sharkbite fittings were cheaper.

After I got all the plumbing in the wall, I put in insulation (to minimize noise and to insulate the water heater room).

Here are photos of the washer/dryer closet.

And here is a photo of the water heater closet.

You may have noticed that I left some holes in the drywall where the plumbing connections are. I want to verify that there are no leaks before I seal up the wall. I'll patch the holes later after I've hooked up the plumbing.

And here is a photo of the other side of the closet wall (the den wall) before it was filled with insulation and closed up.

Wired and Waiting

2009-06-01T15:37:00.001-07:00

I finished wiring the closet this weekend. All that's left is to connect to the service panel to make everything live. All the wire is run, all the outlets are installed, and all the lights are in and functional. I won't wire up the dryer, washer or water heater until I move the appliances. And that won't happen until the plumbing is run and connected.

I did install one piece of the plumbing puzzle. I found a valve and drain combo box at the hardware store that I liked and decided to put it in right away. The photo below is of the dryer outlet (top), the washer outlet (below the dryer outlet), and the plumbing box.

This next photo shows the water heater j-box in the water heater closet, the light in the water heater closet (it has a pull cord), and the light switch for the lights in the washer/dryer closet.

This last photo shows the lights in the washer-dryer closet. It's so nice to have light.

The circuit that the washer is on is 20 amp and has a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) on it. It's always good to be safe. The outlets were easy to wire because I could just insert the wires in holes on the back of the outlet and then tighten the screw. None of this bending wires into little loops hassle. The brother-in-law would have loved it.

The Rest of the Hall

2009-05-19T20:23:00.001-07:00

We accomplished two things this weekend. The first thing we did was assemble the crib. The second was to finish the demo and framing in the hallway. The demo wasn't particularly hard, but the framing was a little tricky.

We ran out of 2x4's and to save on time, money and materials, we reused some of the old cedar 2x4's that we've saved from previous demo. The old 2x4's have slightly different dimensions than new 2x4's and some are slightly warped.

Here's a panoramic stitched photo of the water heater closet.

Bamboo Floor Preview

2009-05-16T18:00:00.000-07:00

There was a sale on the flooring we're going to use in the living room area so we bought it. Here's a little preview of what the board look like.

We dropped off my spouse's family rocking chair this morning at an upholstery shop. It needs new fabric, but it also needs a new runner (the old one broke off and is now missing). The upholsterer is going to take the fabric off of it and then the rocking chair will go to a furniture restoration specialist where it will get a new runner and get refinished. Then the chair will come back to the upholsterer. We picked out a nice medium blue fabric with embroidered dots of brown/yellow. The whole process will likely take 3 to 5 weeks. We'll post pictures when it's done!

Demo(n) in the Hall

2009-05-13T14:04:00.001-07:00

Before I started working on the hall closet, I finished cutting the drywall in the doorway between the den and the utility/entry room.

The next work to do was to demo the hall wall to make room for the doorways that will give access to the washer, dryer, and water heater.

This is what the area looked like before I took a sawzall to it.

And this is what it looked like after the saw had its fill (more next weekend).

Big difference! There are two things that my spouse and I have noticed about this new void. First it seems to have made our bedroom door not so tight in its frame, and secondly it creates a sense of doom when we walk down the hall at night without the lights on. We like the non-sticking door. We do not like the dark forbidding feeling. We're pretty sure drywall and doors will take care of the dread.

WMD (Walls Mostly Done)

2009-05-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we wired the heater and tried to get all of the drywall up on the walls before the end of the day Sunday. We almost made it. We had to make the most use of the brother-in-law before he left (which happens tomorrow). Drywall installation requires both tall and short work plus lifting and cutting. These are all things he's become accustomed to.

We really got a lot done considering how much time we had (there were a few errands and emergencies that interrupted us such as car batteries and washing machines). More about washing machines later.

One of the things that didn't get finished was cutting out the arch in the doorway. We just ran out of energy and time. The doorway now reminds us of the movie Being John Malkovich.

The other thing we didn't do is fully seal up the closet wall. That was on purpose, though. We still need to demo and reframe the hall side of the closet for the doors, and it will be nice not to have to walk all the way around.

Here's a picture of a funny moment (that's probably not at all funny to anybody else).

The b-in-l was using a tool belt to hold all the drywall screws. I had bought some more screws (in a smaller box) and put them in the larger empty box so that we would know where to find them. The b-in-l ran out of screws (in his tool belt) and asked if I'd bought more screws and where they were. I said, "In the box." He didn't understand or didn't believe that there were more screws in the box the he had emptied earlier in the day. To prove that there were indeed screws in the box, I handed them to him. This photo captured either the moment of realization or the expression of incredulity at my choice of screw storage location (I'm not sure which).

Lights, Electrical, Den!

2009-04-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

I'd like to start this post by showcasing the framing that the brother-in-law did. There is currently, and there will continue to be, a doorway between the utility room and the den. In order to better facilitate an easy and pleasing transition between the two rooms, we decided to widen the doorway and shift it towards the wall. Here's a photo of the newly framed doorway.

The wall next to the doorway is a location that we think is a good candidate for another heater so we're going to install one. We reframed the lower portion of the wall because we wanted to center the heater on the wall. Here are some photos of the reframed wall and of the heater installation.

You know what? It's dark in this room. It would have been a lot nicer to have been able to see what we were doing while framing for the heater. To rectify this we installed three can lights. We marked the locations and then marred our beautiful ceiling by cutting three holes in the middle of it.

I gave my b-in-l a quick lesson in outlet wiring so I could go up into the attic space to wire the lights. He installed the J-boxes and began wiring the outlets in the room on his own.

I was able to get the wiring done before the outlet wiring was down so the b-in-l got to have a little light while working.

The lights are on a 3-way switch and line up with one of the solatubes and with the center of the French doors. We only sort of meant for things to all line up. In reality, it's really more of a happy accident.

To wrap up the work for the weekend, the b-in-l installed some plates over where the wiring passes through the studs.

Then we nailed down some underlayment to span the floor seams.

My mother commented that we should be using the b-in-law for more "tall" work before he goes back to MT. I agree and now feel a little foolish having had him do so much "low" work this last week end.

Hitting the ***** Ceiling

2009-04-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

We really cranked this last weekend. By Sunday evening, we had all of the drywall installed on the ceiling. The den room is 10' by 12'. This is after we built the utility closet. The closet is what drove the dimensions because we have to put a washer and dryer in it. The 10' by 12' area is what was left over. We bought 4 sheets of 4' by 12' drywall. We would have liked to get 10' long drywall, but that size is apparently not readily available. We used 3 full sheets (minus the extra 2 feet) for the den ceiling and the last sheet for the closet ceiling.

Getting 12 foot long drywall sheets from the Home Depot to our house proved to be a difficult task. Our truck's bed is only 7 feet long. We had to buy three 2x4x10' boards to support the drywall sheets for the trip home. My spouse drove, the brother-in-law sat up front, and I sat in the extended cab of the truck. We'd strapped the drywall sheets into the truck bed as best we could, but I still stuck my arm out the back window to add a little extra push to keep the sheets in place. We drove pretty slowly, hit a few bumps, felt the drywall shift and tip a little, but we got home just fine. (That is if sweaty palms are just fine.)

The first couple of sheets went up pretty easily. That's mostly because there was no wall on the east side of the room.

The third sheet was a lot tougher. Bound in on three sides, and us not wanting to cut the drywall into smaller pieces, meant that we had to heave the heavy sheet into place incrementally.

The process of installing the big drywall sheets involved installing a 2x4 cleat on the wall to support one end of the drywall and using a 'deadman' to support the board on the other end. While the board was supported, we screwed it into the ceiling joists. Because it's the ceiling, we put screws in every 6 inches (we're just paranoid like that).

The closets were a lot easier because they were so much smaller.

During the drywall installation, my spouse commented that we looked like we were going to put on a puppet show.

And there was a little bit of peek-a-boo (practice for when the baby is born).

My spouse and brother-in-law noticed something funny at the end of the day. After smiling and laughing...

Apparently I had been using my head a little too much. The work had left its mark.

Chalk lines are great tools. And the marks wash off skin pretty easily. Here's a photo of the finished work!

Jacking the Floor

2009-04-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

Our floors are uneven. We know that. When we reframed the ceiling, we saw that the wall between the den and the utility room was sagging about 5/8ths of an inch in the middle. The below photo shows the discrepancy between the new joist (under the paper) and the old joist.

Unfortunately (?) for our readers, we didn't take any photos under the house this time. It's hard enough getting under there in the first place and I'm usually not looking forward to it.

I jacked up two of the supports 3/4". I had a mild amount of apprehension during this process. I positioned myself parallel to the floor joists so that if the house came tumbling down, I wouldn't be severed in half (just crushed and smothered). While getting the last quarter inch of height, I could really hear the creaking and groaning of the house. I even heard something fall off the shelf in the room that was right above me.

In addition to the two locations that I raised 3/4", I was able raise four other supports about 1/2" each. When I checking the ceiling joist inside, it had only moved about 3/16". Oh, well. I guess the old wall is just too solidly built to move.

I was planning on chiseling out the part of the old 2x4 that hangs low, but it'll be hidden by drywall mud and crown molding so I'm not going to worry about it.

When my spouse came home from Pilates and later when my brother-in-law came back from MT, they couldn't see a difference in the floor. I swear it's better, though. The laser level doesn't lie.

Den Ceiling Progress

2009-03-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

We've been working on the ceiling in the den for the last few weeks. We've also framed the closet wall for where the washer, dryer, and water heater will live. The ceiling has the same crappy 1/4" drywall board. You just can't see it directly since it's covered with 12" acoustic tiles. We pulled down the ceiling and took it to the dump. This included several bags of old insulation that had bits of mouse and rat droppings mixed in with it. Yum!

Here's a photo of my brother-in-law surveying the ceiling after the drywall was removed. The old cedar joists were a bit warped and we ended up not reusing them as ceiling joists.

After replacing the ceiling joists, we hung on them just for fun. They flexed a little bit. We also found that the north wall of the room had sagged (likely due to the flood from a couple of summers ago). It's about 5/8" low in the center and will require being jacked up from below and having a new post to support it. Can't wait to do that!

After installing the new ceiling joists, we put in some blocking to stiffen the ceiling members and so that we have material to screw the ceiling drywall to.

Here are a couple of photos of us just for the fun of it.

With all the framing in place, we jumped ahead a bit. Normally, we would have started doing electrical and plumbing work at this point, but we decided to install the ceiling insulation instead. We're just so tired of the house being so cold! Good thing we did because it snowed the very next day!

It's amazing how quiet the rooms get after insulation goes in!

Sheathing, Floor Removal, and French Door

2009-02-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, let's do this!

On Valentine's Day weekend, we finished reframing the den wall and installed the last of the sheathing. We did a double check on the rough opening measurements for the French door, too.

Valentine's Day weekend was followed by President's Day, which I had off. The extra day off was spent pulling up the old floor. My brother-in-law was available for the three day weekend, too, so we got a lot of work done. When we pulled up the old floor, we found more newspaper. This time the newspapers were from 1937.

It's hard to see, but here's the date.

And here are some photos of some of the papers that we found.

And here are some more photos of the floor demo.

As my spouse mentioned in the previous post, our French door came in. The brother-in-law and I went down and picked it up, brought it home, and installed it. It was really heavy! I spent some time reading the instructions and getting the required tools together. The install went pretty smoothly. Having a big helper to lift the doors, hold the doors, and push/pull the doors into place was great! Too bad he had a cold. Still, he was willing to help out, and he was much appreciated.

The French doors open to the outside and have a keyed lock. They're going to come in really handy when we want to get large things into the house in the future. We'll also reuse them when we enclose the carport (in a few years).

Door has arrived!

2009-02-20T18:25:00.000-08:00

You won't be hearing much from me, since I'm not directly involved in the actual work on the ol' rat hole these days. Being pregnant will do that to a person. So, the posting will be mostly left to my spouse, since my brother prefers to just do the manual labor and steer clear of blogging.

But, I wanted to give a quick update, as it's been a very busy couple of weeks and blogging time has been scarce. The outside wall (facing west, into the carport) has now been reframed and sheathed. Happy day! And the french door arrived today, so this weekend we'll pick it up and install it. We have a couple of guests in March, so it will be nicer to not have a gaping hole to the elements.

The floor has also been torn up down to the subfloor, and with that demo came the discovery of more old newspapers. We didn't take as many pictures as last time, but the papers (this time from about 1937) were just as interesting as before.

This weekend, aside from the door installation, an assessment of the floor levelness will be done, and steps taken to correct whatever we can.

My spouse will update with more info and pictures when he has a moment. I think we're making good progress, though.

Stud by Stud

2009-02-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

As many of our readers may remember, when we worked on previous exterior walls, we supported the roof and completely removed the walls. Well, we didn't really have a choice back then, but we did have a choice this time. The game plan for the den section of exterior wall was to add the new studs as we demoed the old ones. The reason we're removing old studs is that we're removing old windows and adding a new French door.

We started on the south end of the wall. We used the best demo tool ever invented (the reciprocating saw/sawzall) and removed 2 to 3 studs at a time. Then we (my brother-in-law and I) added new studs in the proper locations, taking into account the new closet wall.

We worked on both Saturday and Super Bowl Sunday. Towards the end of the day, we were going to make a dump run. We made our way over to the truck in order to tarp it and were stunned to see a visitor!

The hunt was on! Who was here? When did they get here? The vehicle parked behind the truck was not familiar and was very much in the way. After a visit to the neighbors in front of us, the owner was found (a Super Bowl party guest). Our neighbor was very embarrassed. The vehicle was moved and there were no more problems.

The transfer station wasn't any different than the last time we went (last week).

The weekend's work took its toll on us. Ice for sore joints was in order and very much enjoyed!

Let's see what we find in the walls this time

2009-01-31T11:12:00.000-08:00

Two posts ago is a photo of the den before we started the demo. The demo that we were able to do consisted of all the walls. We didn't do the ceiling and will get to that later. We're going to try and not be so cold this time round.

In order to removed the wood paneling, we used a circular saw to cut right across the wall. This made the paneling a lot easier to remove. We found that the paneling was really only attached at the top and bottom, and that there was no drywall behind the paneling. The lack of drywall was nice because that meant that there was less to take to the dump (transfer station).

As you can see in the photos, we found some insulation in the walls! It was foil-backed fiberglass and about one inch thick.

As we were removing the paneling on the south wall of the room, we found a dead mouse. It had been dead for quite some time.

After we pulled the paneling off the west and south walls, we started on the north wall (which will be completely removed and rebuilt eventually). The north wall had 12" square ceiling tiles (painted white) on the surface. Beneath the 12" tiles was a layer of cellulose-based tiles that were about 12" x 24" (painted blue). Beneath the blue tiles was a layer of 3/4" thick sheathing planks.

My brother-in-law's friend came over and helped out with the demo, and his help was definitely appreciated. While I and the friend did demo, my spouse and brother-in-law made three dump runs. Taking the debris to the dump right away paid, off since the garbage didn't have a chance to get rained on and get heavy (the transfer station charges by weight).

Den Update Soon!

2009-01-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

You guys are fortunate that I've pretty much already used up all my "den" puns.

Anyway, we'll have pictures and an update up soon. I was doing dump runs all day in my truck, taking away demolition debris, so I wasn't really around and don't have that much to say. Trucking the crap to the dump as it got torn out was an awesome idea. No more piles of garbage in the yard! Anyway, we got all the interior walls torn down to the studs, and imagine our surprise when there was actually insulation in the walls.

This weekend we're going to take out the insulation and the siding and begin the reframing of the wall that's in the carport. That way we can replace the studs that need to be replaced and put sheathing up ASAP so we don't freeze.

Into the Lion's Den

2009-01-22T21:14:00.000-08:00

This weekend we begin our push on the den in earnest. Once we're finished, we'll have a place to put a television and eventually a couch, so when people come over, they'll actually have a place to sit while we visit that doesn't involve scarily rickety second hand dining chairs. It will be so nice to not have to hang out in our bedroom anymore. And don't get me started on the pleasures of having a floor...

However, the den is where we had set up our office, and the other half of the room was used for boxes/storage.

We're getting pretty good at moving stuff from one room to the next. It all got moved into the dining room (the one we just completed). We took all the furniture in the dining room, pushed it up against the walls, and proceeded to fill the entire space with boxes. We moved the desk/computer in there, too. It smells better in the new room, but without the plastic cocoon it's not nearly as warm. Oh well, it won't be as cold as it was a couple of winters ago, and it's already nearly February, so we'll be just fine.

This weekend is slated for demo, which should go pretty easily and quickly. We're going to get rid of the exterior wall first, and then throw up some sheathing just to keep it enclosed. No more open walls in the winter for us, no sir. Then we can work on the other walls, get those framed, and finally do the ceiling. We're hoping this will minimize our exposure to the cold, and especially hoping that this room goes far more quickly and smoothly than the last one.

Mini-Project 2: Range Hood of Horror

2009-01-21T21:02:00.000-08:00

As those of you who helped us clean the kitchen upon moving in will remember, the kitchen was originally covered in grease. Lots of grease. Big meat-eaters, apparently, or just never cleaned anything. The whole kitchen took multiple scrubbings, and still there was grease. Plus the light burned out a year after we moved in-it was a wiring issue because merely changing the bulb didn't help. We never used the fan because it just blew the air (and mystery crungles) right back down onto the stove, which was immensely appetizing.

Well, the kitchen is dark, and without the light it's even darker over where the stove is. That makes it tough to see while you're cooking (as if I ever voluntarily cooked). And although we don't cook meat or generate a lot of grease, we still generate a lot of steam when we cook, which just fills the kitchen and leaves everything damp. Tired of the damp and darkness, we finally decided we'd had enough and tackled the range hood of horror.

The trick to getting the fan to work properly turned out to be cleaning the vent to the outside. It was so caked with sludge that the vent was actually stuck closed. Yum! We had to use lacquer thinner to get the grease off, since we didn't want to replace the fan. Here's all you really need to see.

That's the brush we used to clean. We had to throw the brush away. And this picture was taken after we cleaned off the brush itself a little bit. *shudder* Here's a shot of the filthy open holes.

After some exploratory troubleshooting and some wrong turns, it became evident that the light socket itself had shorted out. Instead of repairing the socket, we just put a new one in (simple is best, sometimes). We also wired it to the fan switch so that both turn on at the same time, since we had cut all the wires to the original light switch and didn't feel like going back and wiring it all up again.

But, at long last, success!

It seems like a small thing, but we are SO happy to have a fan and functioning light. We'll take whatever little victories we can get.

Mini-Project 1: Finished Cabinet

2009-01-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

We were talking about this blog the other day, and we realized that we never posted photos of the finished storage cabinet we built in the carport. Yeah, I'm sure everyone was dying to see the photos. But here they are anyway.

The cabinet has been working well for us; it'll work even better when we put the door in the den leading to the carport. The cabinet locks up nice and tight...especially when the keys were inside. We went nuts looking for those keys, and finally had to cut the locks off with a Dremel (we used security screws, so we couldn't just unscrew the hinges). Took a few minutes, but we got inside. And there were the keys. We'll try not to make that mistake again.

We also got all the window trim painted - I know we posted some pics of the whole room, but I'm so pleased with the way the windows look that here are some photos taken in October of the painted windows. Imagine how nice they look even without the blue tape. ^_^

Next time: the range hood of horror.

We're Back!

2009-01-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

After a very nice holiday season, we're getting ready for round 2, the den. More on that in a bit.

Even though we haven't been working on actual rooms, however, we've still been plugging away at a few things that have been bothering us.

For one, there's really not a lot of storage in this house. The master bedroom has big closets, and the other bedroom has a closet as well, but no linen closet for towels/sheets/sleeping bags, etc. So, we've been using bookshelves in our bedroom, but shelves take up space in the room that we're going to need come June.

It was my spouse's idea to use the shower in the master bath as a closet. From nightmare shower to heavenly storage! The shower is way too dark and small, and always looks moldy and filthy no matter how much you scrub it, hence its disuse. Some Tyvek and quick shelving later and presto! Excellent temporary linen closet (we'll be putting a real linen close in during our next phase of construction).

I'll talk about some of our other mini-projects over the course of the week, and then hopefully next week we'll have some good demolition pictures. The plan is to submit for the permit next Tuesday (since there's plumbing and more electrical involved, we want the permit for insurance purposes), and hopefully have it completed by June. Since the exterior wall is in the carport this time we won't need to do fancy siding or anything. We will be putting in a door, and a media closet, along with all the laundry/linen closets accessible from the hallway. Ahhh, sweet storage. And then once that's all done, we can finally put in a floor. I think that makes me most excited of all.

Pre-Thanksgiving Post

2008-11-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we posted to the Rat-Hole blog so I though I'd share some photos.

Here is the messy room before we cleaned it up (for my brother's visit on Halloween).

Some detail shots of painted trim, crown moulding, and curtain rods (no curtains).

And, finally, a photo of the room as it stands now.

We still need to get the curtains made, but we've at least got the fabric in our hands. Now we just need to get the drawings done for the den so we can start working on it!

Nice and Trim

2008-10-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

So while my brother and I were working on getting the outside painted in preparation for inspection (that man worked like crazy while I did my day job - we couldn't have met our permit deadline without him), my spouse was working like crazy on the inside trim. He did a beautiful job, and we think the windows turned out really nicely. We're especially happy with the way the sill turned out.

Now that our permit's complete, we're doing a couple of side projects to prep for the next round of ripping out the den. Right now my spouse has been working on building a cabinet for our tools, so we don't have to keep moving them around the rooms as we work on them anymore.

I'll post more pictures when the cabinet's complete, because I think it looks good and will be really useful (especially since we can't build our shed yet).

Next up, while the spouse works on the drawings for the next permit, my brother and I will paint the interior window trim (white) and measure/install/paint the crown moulding. Then it's time for the bookshelf, and hopefully we'll have that all in by Thanksgiving, so we can rip out the den in early December.

Siding Sojourn

2008-10-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

As you know, we've passed our final inspection, and we're really, really pleased with the way everything looks. So, this time, we're going to go through and show the progression of the siding, from start to finished product. When we get the insides closer to finished (more moulding, trim painted) we'll do the same thing there.

Rear of the house (south wall):

Side of the house (east wall):

And here are a few details pictures that we liked:

Finally, the siding is finished, and we think it looks nice.

You can't really see the work we did on the siding unless you walk around the side of the house - it isn't visible from the road. Which is bad, because we think it looks so sharp, but it's also good because then our patchwork house doesn't look more "Frankenstein" than it does already.

We'll post more later this week!

FINAL INSPECTION: PASS!!!

2008-09-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

Just a note to all of our loyal followers... we had a final inspection (for the dining/living room) at noon today and... WE PASSED!!!

We are pretty tired and sore. And definitely looking forward to a little break. But wait! How did we get here?

More later.

Not Dead!

2008-09-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to drop a quick note and update to let everyone know we're not dead.

We've been hot and heavy into the siding, which is nearly finished now, and the interior trim around the windows. It's been going mostly well. We've been working so hard that there hasn't been time to update the ol' blog, between rat hole work and job work.

The permit expires next Monday, so we'll continue to have our heads down this week. We have to finish the siding and exterior trim and paint it all, and do the window interior trim and paint that. It doesn't seem like much, but this sort of thing always takes longer than we expect it to, so we'll just be craking this next week and weekend. Try to send us good weather thoughts, heh heh.

I'll try to do a longer post with glorious photos soon.

In other news, my brother has successfully moved in and is totally rocking the rat hole. We're very glad to have him!

Deep Sh-t

2008-08-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

There were so many good possible titles for this post we almost couldn't choose one.

Today we got our septic tank pumped. And found out that it probably won't last us another year, so we should try to get hooked up to the sewer before the end of winter. Maybe it will last until next summer. It's $7,000 just to get permission to hook up to the sewer, and it will take roughly $5,000 to pay someone to dig the trench, lay the line, and hook it up. So now it's a race against time to raise/save the money. FUN!

It's not like it's one of those things you can put off, either. I really like being able to flush my toilet.

So, let's start at the beginning of the septic saga.

The guy shows up with his truck. He and my spouse go around back and talk about where the tank is. The fella, being larger than we are, immediately finds it because he walks over it and it bends. Well, that was easy. Apparently neither of us who actually own the property have been big enough to feel the bending before. Well, that saves us some time and money trying to locate the thing. The guy tells my spouse that we need to put a sheet of plywood over it or something to keep someone larger than we are (read: my brother) from accidentally falling in.

Then, they open it up. Horrors. We've tried to protect the innocent, considering what you're looking at.

Turns out that our tank is probably an old Sears model from the 1950s, iron, about 500-600 gallons. It's been retrofitted, probably by the previous owner. Super. The guy tells us that if he was inspecting our property, and saw this setup, he would have never given it a pass. Good to know. Three years later.

(You can tell that this whole episode doesn't bother me at all. $12,000 or suffer toilet trauma like never before doesn't bug me at all.)

Anyway, the guy pumps it.

Nice and "clean." At this point in time he thinks that we could probably last on the system a couple more years.

Then he tests our leach field. Turns out it doesn't really leach. At all. For $500 cash (it usually costs $800-$1,000) he'll come out and try to make it drain better. No guarantees that it will work, of course. At this point, there's really not much more to do but seal the thing up.

After he leaves, my spouse calls the utility district. They confirm the prices, and then say that we can actually do all the work ourselves to save us that $5,000. But, we'll have to sign a waiver that we'll be liable and pay for any problems in the line "downstream" of us ourselves. I don't know about you, but that sounds like an awful lot of liability to me. So I'm not so comfortable with that, either, even though it saves us money. We could dig the trench ourselves, and have a contractor could lay the line and do the attachment. We'll have to price that out and see how it goes.

We should even be able to decommission it ourselves. That will involve getting an inspector over here, who will watch us get it pumped, break the bottom out with an iron tamping bar, and then fill it with sand. Then I might dance on top of it and light my money on fire, you know, just for fun.

At any rate, we need to do something. This isn't a problem that will just go away or solve itself. But we won't worry about it right now. My brother moves in with us this weekend. We'll just have to let him know to go easy on the tp.

Clay Play

2008-08-24T18:09:00.001-07:00

Strap yourself in for a long post. When we don't post often, it means we're getting a lot done! At least that's what we tell ourselves. Sorry you haven't heard from us in a little while.

We finished the ceiling a couple of weeks ago, Solatubes and all. The Solatube dampers are in, and so we can let less light in, should we so choose.

As of right now, our walls are very close to being finished. We've nearly completed the application process of the clay, which has been fairly easy to work with, overall. We're liking the way it looks, and we think we'll be able to do a better job next time.

How it works is you put the sanded primer on, mix up the first coat (coarse grit, which is called Loma), trowel that on to the walls, let it dry, and then mix up and put on the second coat (which you can either do another Loma coat or use the fine grit, Porcelina). We used the Porcelina because we wanted a smooth finish. Then you do what's called burnishing, where you're basically compressing the clay to harden it, but also to smooth it out further and get the finer particles to the top.

We've put on our Loma coat and the Porcelina coat, and we've burnished two of the walls. It has taken a LOT longer than we thought it would, but working every night after work and on the weekends, we're nearly finished. What hasn't taken a lot longer than we thought it would, though?

Here's how our process went.

We put the Loma into the bucket, and using a drill we got off of craigslist for the express purpose of mixing stuff, added the water and tried to mix it.

Unfortunately, we couldn't get the water to distribute through the Loma powder well enough to actually USE the mixer. So, we started it off the old fashioned way:

Hand mixing worked out surprisingly well. Good thing I keep my fingernails super-short, or I would have been picking Loma out for weeks. Anyway, once we got all the Loma more or less wet, we were able to use the drill mixer without it smoking.

Then it was time to add the color. We chose Tucson Gold (yellow), and so we mixed up the pigment paste and added to the Loma. I was worried that the pigments wouldn't come out of our clothes, but they did. The clay has come out of our clothes each time (it's just dirt), and the pigment hasn't left any stains.

The thing about the pigment is that each batch is different, so you have to make a big enough batch so that you have some left over, because it's almost certain that you won't have the same color next time. (Gotta account for natural variation in color.) The Loma mixed up very nicely, in the end, about the consistency of pudding.

Then it was time to apply the Loma. All said and done, it took between eight and 10 hours to do the Loma coat.

And here's how the room looked with the Loma coat.

Then we mixed up the Porcelina. This time we followed the directions to the letter to try and avoid the problems we had with the Loma, but the hand mixing actually worked better. Oh well. In order to apply the Porcelina, we wetted down the layer of Loma on the walls with a spray bottle, and then applied the Porcelina right on top. The Porcelina was much smoother than the Loma, and was the same earthy yellow color (which incidentally matches our pendant lights perfectly).

And now we're burnishing!

We're very, very happy with the color and the way the room looks, and we're really excited to get the burnishing done, which will happen this week, and then begin the bookshelf and trim, which we'll do after moving my brother in next weekend.

Our permit runs out next month (gasp, gasp), and so we need to really get cracking. We also have to put on and paint siding, so we mocked up a couple of different widths. We ended up going with the width on the right (five inch exposure) because it's not a special order item. Now we just have to make our order and we'll install that soon. Whew!

Hopefully things will go more quickly once my brother moves in and we have an extra hand. We're feeling the clock ticking away the minutes, but at least we have our plan of action.

Sealing and Ceiling

2008-08-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

We've been really hard at work the past week and a half working on covering up our drywall. Last weekend we primered the ceiling using American Pride primer and put our sanded primer on the walls in preparation for the clay. The American Pride primer is a very low-VOC paint, and while we could smell a paint-like odor, it wasn't very strong and it didn't have any negative effects on us at all. We tried to ventilate the space, but probably didn't try as hard as we might have. Anyway, I've gotten paint headaches from smaller, more well-ventilated areas in the past, so that was a good sign. It was easy to use and covered well. The sand was not quite so easy to use, but we managed. The sand didn't settle too badly into the bottom of the can, and we managed to cover all our walls, no problem.

This week we worked evenings to get the ceiling painted. For this we used Safecoat paint - a no-VOC paint, flat, white. (We were told a flat paint would go best with the sheen of unsealed clay.) The paint didn't have an odor at all, really - it was a milder substance than the primer, which was mild to begin with. I had heard some bad things about "eco-friendly" paint, but this stuff covered well, stuck well, and was really easy to use. Granted,we were putting white paint on white primer, but it still went much better than expected.

Applying Paint Primer to Ceiling

Applying Sand Primer to Walls

Finally, we popped back in our halogen cans, put the pendants back above the table, and got the final Solatube mostly installed. Except for the Solatube, the ceiling is done, and I think it looks great. That is going to be one bright, cheery room when we're done with it (which is why we decided to get dampers for the Solatubes - WOW, they bring in a lot of light!). We're really excited. My spouse isn't 100% happy with the way the two big seams in the ceiling drywall turned out, but I think that while they're noticable, they're not bad at all. *shrug*

Tonight or tomorrow we start putting on the clay. Hopefully it will turn out well! It was really easy to work with when we took the workshop last November. Labor-intensive, not skill-intensive. Well, I definitely have more labor in me than skill, so it should work out. Then we'll put up the trim (which we've picked out and put into a 3-D model), finish out the bookcase, and work on the siding. We have to have that installed and painted by the time we have our final inspection. So much to do, and our permit expiration date is approaching quickly.

We got all our paint and clay supplies at Ecohaus (which just opened up another store in Bellevue). If you live in Seattle/Portland, you probably know all about it, but if you live here and you don't, get yourself over there for some really great, non-toxic, sustainable house stuff.

Into the Light

2008-07-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

Other than sanding and mudding, and mudding and sanding, and sanding and mudding... we installed one of the Solatubes last Sunday. Since we had already installed the ceiling portion of the Solatube, all we had to do was connect the new roof portion of the Solatube to it.

The second picture above was taken at 6:30AM. The Solatube brings A LOT of light into the room. It has this unearthly glow early in the morning and late at night. During the day, it's just bright. We think we like it and will be installing the other two Solatubes (especially the 10" one in the kitchen).

About the install... pretty easy. It would have been easier if we had not choosen where each hole in the ceiling and in the roof was going to be and then tried to connect them. Better to let the Solatube tubing dictate where the holes go. We thought the tubing was a little more forgiving. Not.

New Roof!

2008-07-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

We meant to post about the new roof sooner, but we've been sanding and mudding and just couldn't quite find the time. So, without further ado...

The first thing we had to do to prepare for the new roof was mark the locations for the new bathroom fan vents and the Solatubes. I went into the attic space and marked each location by driving a screw up through the roof to the outside. This would have made me nervous if it were any other season but summer. Then I went up onto the roof and attached duct tape to the screws indicating what the locations were for (14" Solatube, 10" Solatube, 4" fan vent). Here are some photos of me on the roof.

The roofing materials (shingles, etc.) were delivered the week prior to the work being done. The dumpster was delivered the morning that the work began. I stayed home that morning to make sure everything was okay and to answer any questions. Good thing, too, since the dumpster guy wanted to put the dumpster right against the house. The kitchen sink has a drain field on the north side of the house, so I didn't want the dumpster too close. I directed the dumpster to be placed about 9 feet from the house and felt comfortable about the drain feild.

The roofers took a little longer than I anticipated. I had thought that the job would take a day. They had thought it would take a little over a day. It took 2 full days. Plus, they had to come back on the third day to clean up. Still, the new roof looks great! They took out the individual roof vents and replaced them with a single vent that stretches the ridge of the roof.

My spouse and I also had the roofers plumb cut the rafters on the east side of the house. This will allow us to install the gutter in a horizontal manner and not the canted way that it was before.

All of the Solatubes are in the roof now and all that needs to be done is for them to be connected to the ceiling below. We are very happy with our new roof! We are gauranteed for 20 years against leaks and should be nice and dry (at least when it come to rain).

Slow Mudding

2008-07-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

We thought we'd share some photos of our drywall mudding progress. As you can see in the photos, We've got all of our seams taped and mudded. The screw holes are all mudded, too. All of the tapered seams between the drywall boards were very easy to mud, but the flat seams are requiring a bit more artistry. We have to feather the mud out much further to hide the slight hump that results from the tape and mud.

We've been sanding with the vacuum attachment and that has made cleanup less of a pain. The ceiling has been the hardest part by far. We think we should be able to finish mudding and sanding by the end of this weekend or early next week.

By the way, our new roof is on! More on that in the next post.

Weak-end

2008-07-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

I'm freaking tired today. My arms and back feel a bit like jelly. This is good, because it means I worked hard this weekened. But it's bad because it means that I'm weak and out of good digging shape. Hmmm.

One of the reasons I'm so tired today is because we ignored one of the first rules of remodeling/house projects: put it where you want it the first time.

As you may have read before, my spouse and I moved a couple of tons of rocks from a messy pile to nice stacks under our trees not so long ago. If we had put them in the right spot the first time, we would have saved ourselves a lot of time and effort.

Well, this weekend I knocked down the big pile of dirt that was sitting in front of our house, gathering weeds and spiders. I dug and dug and shoveled and hoed,and now the pile is gone, and the sunken spots from when the electrical was run are now filled. Hence the weakness. But, if we had put the pile of dirt someplace else when we were first determining where to put what, I wouldn't have had to spend all day in the sun flattening it out.

Oh well. If I keep it up, I'll get nice and strong. In our defense, when the dirt pile was first created, we had no idea what we were doing or where we wanted things. Plus the contractor put it in the wrong spot. I'm being a bit hard on us.

The motivation for moving the pile was the dumpster that was delivered this morning for the roofers. Hooray, new roof!! Today they took off the old roof and started to put on the new; they'll finish up tomorrow. They're also going to install the top portion of our Solatubes, where the flange comes up through the shingles. AND they're going to cut some of the joists that are at the edge of the roof so that they're perpendicular to the ground instead of slanted. We're very happy and excited. Anyway, the pile was right where it'd be good to put the dumpster, and so in the interest of cleanliness, the pile was flattened. And sure enough, that's where they put the dumpster. I'd feel good if I wasn't so stiff. Time for more Pilates...

Actually, it's been fine. Now that our strawberry crop has petered out, the raspberries are coming into their own. I'm getting about a cup of fresh raspberries a day. Yum!

We actually had a pretty good weekend. We put the final coat of joint compound on the drywall screws, and many seams were sanded and had another layer of mud put on. We'll put pictures up of all this later in the week. We're going to try to have it all finished up so we can start putting on primer this weekend or early next week. We have to move on this room; our permit ends in September and we'd like to have the den insulated before it gets cold. Whew!

Cherry Stain

2008-07-14T07:19:00.001-07:00

We think that we've settled on the way we're going to finish the wood we're using for the built-in book shelf. As stated before, we're using a cherry veneer plywood. While visiting the Environmental Home Center (EcoHaus) in Seattle, we found a very nice bee's wax and linseed oil sealer. After applying a coat on the plywood, we decided that we wanted a little more "cherry" than what we were seeing. Since the linseed oil and wax finish is not a petroleum product, we wanted to find a stain that was water based. After some research, we found a brand that was exactly what we were looking for. Saman offers water based stains in a variety of colors. The one we chose is a little on the pink side when unfinished, but gets nice and red (in a wood sort of way) when the wax & linseed sealer is applied. You can see the final color in the photo below (as well as the steps leading up to it).

1. Untreated cherry veneer
2. Bee's wax & linseed oil
3. Saman's water base stain (chamois)
4. Stain with wax sealer

We thought we'd try to finish our shelf using non-petroleum products and feel pretty successful in this regard. The wax finish will require a little maintenance over the years but not much. Now we just have to build the shelf!

Berry Bounty

2008-07-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

It's been a good couple of weeks for strawberries. The strawberries we planted last year spread like crazy, and now our hedge is full of them. Here's the haul for one day:

Over the space of two days, we nearly filled a colander.

Tasty treats. The slugs haven't attacked too many berries - the resident crows have taken more. There are four of them, all of them very young-looking, and so I suspect they're an easy snack while they're learning to fend for themselves. They don't take too many, so we don't mind too terribly much. They always seem to take the best ones, though. Oh well. It's not like we're lacking for good strawberries.

Other than eating from our garden (our red leaf lettuce has gone crazy, and we might have more than we can manage to eat this summer), we've been slowly chugging away on the drywall. We finished taping this weekend, and next is the round of sanding, then the final finish layer of mud. So close! Still, I don't think we'll be done with the drywall until the end of the month. After that it should be short work to paint and put the clay up, and the trim should be up by the end of August. That's much more slowly than we wanted (we wanted to have the den torn out and the insulation up by then), but that's life. Still, we are making progress, and the hedge keeps us happy.

In the Garden of Eatin'

2008-06-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

We planted our vegetables a couple of weeks ago in the hedge garden. The slugs have found a couple of lettuces and some caterpillars found a collard plant, but everything else seems to be happy. Here are some pictures.

As you may remember, we've got heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, read leaf lettuce, butter crunch lettuce, beets, carrots, spinach, collards, and rainbow chard. Besides our newly planted veggies, we've got lots of strawberries going in the hedge, oregano, chives, three kinds of mint (plus Corsican mint), and a few other things. We used the mint to make mojitos on Father's Day. The spearmint was better than the orange mint for the mojitos. Yum.

We've been mudding our seams in the living/dining room. More posts about that later.

Magic Box of Samples

2008-06-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend slathering more joint compound on our walls. We would have put on more, but my poor spouse was sick all weekend with a bad fever. He's a little better now, but still not great. So, I did what I could on my own. Progress was made. Pretty much the whole room has the first coats except for the ceiling. Because of my old back injury, doing stuff over my head is really hard for me. My nerves get pinched and my arms end up going numb. Not very conducive to doing ceiling drywall taping. Still, I managed to do some.

We've also been doing other sorts of research, such as on washing machines/dryers. The ones we got when we moved in are okay, but they like to eat clothes sometimes. We'll also be moving the location of our laundry room, and machines capable of different configurations might be beneficial, such as a front-loading washer (that way we can put more storage on top).

We also found out that Teragren, who makes that bamboo flooring we liked, is a local company. So, we ordered up a box of samples.

Here are the ones that we liked, the Synergy line. It's oriented strands of bamboo. The strands are more carefully oriented than in OSB. The color we like is the Java, in the center.

Apparently the Synergy line is generally used in commercial applications. It's 100% harder than red oak (2200 on the hardness scale, as I mentioned before). It has a 25-year finish warranty, and its production adheres to LEED standards. So far, we think it's pretty good stuff. Even though it's an engineered floor, it's the same material all the way through, instead of a veneer over a different wooden core. So, if we ever needed to refinish, we can.

And, just for the heck of it, here are some other products of theirs. There were even more samples in the box, like bamboo plywood and butcher block, but these were the most interesting.

I liked my magic box of samples. It'll come in handy once we have the clay up on our walls and want to test for color, and it's also nice to see how the different colors look during different times of day.

Mud Honey

2008-06-01T18:06:00.000-07:00

We have officially entered the final phases of the living/dining room work. Hooray!

This weekend we popped down to the Environmental Home Center (now Ecohaus) to look for some non-toxic stain for our cherry bookshelf wood and check out the colors of American Clay, the clay we're going to use to "paint" our walls (it's more like plaster). It was fun. I've probably said this before, but I've never really liked to shop much - but I LOVE shopping for the rat hole. We looked at all the colors, and we picked Tucson Gold, which is a light yellow. Not pastel, but not too bright, either. It will go well with our pendant lights and really create a nice atmosphere in the room, we think. Anyway, we ended up picking up non-voc primer and flat paint for the ceiling, semi-gloss for the trim, and then the supplies we'll need for putting on the clay. While we were there, we checked out flooring just for the heck of it. We've been waffling over what we want to use for our floor. We need something with a slightly beveled edge, like most engineered flooring has, because our floor isn't exactly level, and we think that might be easier and more forgiving for our project. We like bamboo, so long as it rates well on the hardness scale (we pay very particular attention to hardness), but a lot of bamboo flooring uses toxic adhesives. Bamboo is good if we're trying to be environmentally friendly from the standpoint that it's a quickly-renewable resource, but then you have to factor in all the resources needed to truck that stuff across the Pacific, which is decidedly not environmentally friendly. It would be nice to get something harvested in the US, so long as it's harvested sustainably, to cut down on emissions and all that. And, of course, underlying all this is how much we can afford. *sigh*

But I digress. While we were at the store, we saw some beautiful flooring. One of the problems with bamboo, aside from all the environmental/hardness arguments, is that it very well could look a bit dated 40 years from now (although who knows). So we'd been looking into regular hardwoods, too. The flooring we saw, though, was bamboo (2200 on the hardness scale), but it was oriented strands put together with a relatively non-toxic glue. This particular sample was Teragren Synergy (the Wheat color). We're still on the lookout for flooring and haven't made any decisions, but we were both really surprised at how well we liked it.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing drywall taping. Mudding. Not exciting, not really fun. And because of some of our walls not really being straight or plumb, we're going through a lot of mud in some places. Neither of us have very much experience doing this sort of thing, either. All in all, not the best combination. Luckily, we have some gracious friends who let us borrow all of their taping tools (hooray, corner trowel!), and we have some extra joint compound and tools from other good friends. We also have another friend who actually doesn't mind taping and is going to come over and help. So, hopefully we can get through this stage relatively quickly, but we're also going to take our time and try to get it right. After all, we have to look at these walls for the coming years. Luckily the clay we'll ultimately be putting up on the walls will help hide our mistakes a little.

So here's what we've got done so far. Not much, really, and just the first layers of mud.

We'll probably sand next weekend and put on the final layers.

We started mudding, and THEN we looked through our books and online for tips and tricks. So I had gone around doing all the screwheads, then read online about a great technique for doing them all at once (which is how the pros do it). Oh well. I think it'll be okay.

Our friends who lent us all the equipment also told us about this contraption that allows a shopvac to suck up all the dust when you sand, so we found one at the hardware store and picked it up. That will hopefully make cleanup easier.

So, we'll just keep mudding, slowly and surely. I know what I'm doing every single night this week...and probably next week...but it will be worth it. Or at least that's what I'm going to tell myself.