Starring Contest

After having supper, I got up to get something from the kitchen area of my shack, and to my surprise there was a deer standing on the top of the hill right outside the window of the shack. It kinda caught me by surprise at first. The deer was looking at me as I was very still trying to remember where the camera was. When it started eating some weeds on the hill I made my grab for the camera. We had a bit of a starring contest, but obviously, I won. I am always looking over my shoulder and checking around before going outside from the shack. That could have easily been a bear, which if it was would more than liking run away at the sound of me opening the door, but you never know.

The following pictures are in no particular order, just a bunch of random pics since my last post.

Since my last post I did find some time to build, but I did work at the pay job a fair bit too. I just had a pretty good splurt of work and today was the first day back building for awhile.

I finally got the loft all insulated and the vapour barrier up. I also managed to get a little more drywalling done. Still a bit more drywall hanging to do yet though, but it is getting narrowed down. So far I have purchased 66 panels of drywall. I did'nt think a small house like this one would take that much. I might even have to get a little more yet, but I'm not real sure yet.

All the heavy rainfall that we have been getting has sure been taking it's toll on the creek banks. I've owend this property for probably over ten years and have never seen anything like this. Build a house overlooking the creek and guess what happens. lol. I'm not real concerned at the time, but I do have plans of doing some kind of erosion control for future flooding. If it were to rain like this for a few years straight, I would probably start to worry a bit if I did'nt do something. The water level is'nt overly high in this photo, this is just some of the aftermath.

I have been doing a fair bit of trucking lately. When I snapped this photo, I was kinda stranded out in the middle of no where for a bit. There is four belts on this truck, and for some reason they all blew off. I suspect one broke and caused all the rest to derail. I managed to salvage one belt for each set of pulleys to finish hauling what I had to haul and then get home. Alot of squealing was going on when the fan kicked in. So I managed to finish the day with half the belts anyway.

The insulation in the loft ceiling is R40 value. I thought would take a shot of the space above the insulation which will be the ventilation space. You want to have some ventilation above your insulation. On my house the air flows up through the soffits under the roof over hang and goes out through the vented ridge cap. That's what it is supposed to do anyway.

Just a shot of some of the wetness we've had around here lately.

Before I did my drywall surrounding the tub, I wanted to test it for leaks. My first test actually failed. What a mess downstairs. So I redone the drain and overflow installation, and this time it was good. But, as I was pumping the water out of the tub, I accidentaly bumped the drain plug with my pump, and I made another mess down stairs. I don't have the tub completely connected in the basement yet.

Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.

Drywall, Heater, Solar Equipment, Bathtub.

I seen the dog in the corner of my eye and something just did'nt seem right. I guess she wanted to have a birds eye view while searching for mice. That seems to keep her occupied while I'm busy doing my thing.

For a while there we had some pretty good rainfall happening. The creek was alot higher and wilder than I've ever seen it before for a few days there. A long with the rain came a fair bit of time off from the pay job, and I did manage to accomplish a few things on the house.

I got my loft door framed in, then I insulated it, and will vapour barrier over the whole the thing for now. I think it will be alot easier to install the door once the the deck is built up there, and who knows when that will be. It could be this summer, but it could also be not this summer. The other gable end is insulated with vapour barrier installed. I still have to insulate the ceiling.

The basement outer perimeter is drywalled and most of the main floor perimeter is also. I just have the bathroom to do on the main floor perimeter. I have one 15000 btu propane heater hanging on the wall down stairs so far, but it is not all plumbed in yet. There will be another one of these just like this one on the adjacent wall, but both will be on the same end of the house. Anything vulnerable from freezing up is in the same area as these heaters, and the bathroom and kitchen is directly above. These heaters don't require power to operate, but I have equipped them with the optional fan so I do have the option. I expect to be able to walk away from my place in the winter for days, and have nothing freezing up with just these two heaters running. Unless, of course if it gets so cold that the propane freezes off. -42 propane quits moving, and it is quite possible to reach those temps here, usually if it is that cold, I think I'll just try and be here. I realize that heaters should be mounted lower to the floor, but these are direct vent heaters and the exhaust goes out at least a foot above grade. Larger direct vent heaters would'nt pass the location/distance codes, unless they were mounted on the floor and had a B type vent system. The b vent system gets it's combustion air from inside the house, and I did'nt want that. The b vent system also requires a chimney to be run all the way to the top of the house. Did'nt want that either. I don't expect my two heaters to keep the house at a comfortable temp, but you never know, they might. Yet to come is a wood stove for the basement, and possibly a smaller forced air furnace more for use in the spring, summer and fall. I'm pretty sure that I could also use the forced air furnace in the night as the fire burns down in the winter, but I sure would not expect it to run constantly for days on solar power alone in the winter. I'll be doing alot of experimenting in the near future.

I purchased some more goodies online. All the stuff on the second plywood backing board. Plus a new inverter that is not installed yet. Shown is an Outback 60 MPPT charge controller, solar panel combiner box, and an ac/dc disconnect box. This is the main power in connections all in one convenient place. The Magnum 24 volt to 120/240 volt inverter mounts right on the face of that disconnect box. This system is going to be pretty high tech for me. So far the power that I have in the house is still coming from my shack through an extension cord. But it's all solar.

The plan is to have my batteries right in the basement so far, but that could change also. I could possibly have 24 6 volt batteries, depending on the the size I choose to buy. It could be less but larger batteries, I'll have to do some pricing out when the time comes. It would be nice to have the batteries in a box outside, but then it just seems like more headache to try and keep the batteries warm. In the last two winters that I have lived off grid, I have started the generator alot of times just to warm the batteries up. They lose capacity the colder they get, and if they were at room temperature, I probably could have gotten away with not starting the generator on alot of the winter days or nights.

I don't feel real frugal lately. I do shop around and get the best deal I can find, but I did spend more on some things than I have planned on. It's not like throwing the money away though. I'm sure it will increase the value of the house. When you go shopping for things like bathtubs where I'm from, there sure does'nt seem to be much of a selection. I guess I probably could have ordered something. I'm actually quite happy with my new tub though so far. I thought it was going to be quite the chore to get it from the trailer into the house, but it actually went pretty good.

I laid it on its side to get it in the main door, then had to skid it through the kitchen and into the living room, where the vaulted ceiling is, to stand it up. Then back through the kitchen and into the bathroom. I had to do some debuilding to get it to go through the bathroom door. The door header had to come out as the tub was too high.

I can't wait till I'm using this baby instead of showering in town, or the RV all the time. My bathroom is quite small, so I could'nt really get far enough away for a good picture, but it's looking pretty darned good so far. The tub seems to be a good fit.

Well it sure has been nice to find a little time to get a few things accomplished, but it has'nt rained for awhile here now, and I'm actually wondering why they hav'nt phoned me to go to work yet, but I'm glad they did'nt. Just trying to get as much done as I can before it happens.


Disclaimer--IMPORTANT


This is a personal blog, mainly for my own use. I am building a house with my own two hands, but I am learning alot of things as I go. I do not claim to know what I am doing, or if anything I do is even close to being done correctly or safely. So please, if you are planning on using any of my ideas or methods for your own use, please get professional advice before actually following through with your actions. I will not be held responsible for any injuries or damages of any kind caused by information or comments from this blog.