Shed - Part 1: The Foundation

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?

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

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

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?

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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.