First Bath in 34 Months.

Don't let the title scare you all away, I have had alot of showers in that time, just no baths because I did'nt have an operational bathtub till now. I have been pretty busy working on the house lately, but things hav'nt been always going the way it should. As usuall, things seem to take alot longer than I thought it should. I recently spent about 5 consecutive days working on my water system. The first day of that, I had in my mind one or two hours and things should be up and running. Well, 5 days later. lol. Seems everytime I really want to accomplish things, something backfires. Just trying to get photos up on this blog right now is frustrating me. I have tried a few times lately and gave up cuz it was getting too late. Is there something wrong with blogger, or is it just me. I used to be able to upload photos, not sure what happend now.
   Anyway, I've got my septic tank up and running. The outhouse is having a holiday, and hopefully it is a long one. Last night I had a long hot soak in the tub. Wowwww. Tonight too, dang near fell asleep in there tonight. The pressure system and the water heater is all working good. It took me awhile to figure the water problem out. Using my smaller solar system, my first pump would'nt work. Was'nt sure if I had enough power to run it or not. Then I tried the big generator on it and blew the breaker a few times. I was using a new pump, so it's hard to blame that, but it seemed like it. Long story short, I traded that pump in on a new one and still had problems. After all kinds of experiments and tests, I finally discovered I had a kinked off hose under the cistern. I just thought maybe I had air in the line and it was hard to get it out. Oh well, live and learn.

Whoa, look at that, it's a picture of the sewer system. I just tried to upload some more pictures but it just don't want to cooperate with me. Anyone know whats going on.

(Upload failed:

Server returned invalid response). That's the response when I try to upload  photos from my computer. I wanted to put on a few. Not that there is really all that much to show. Alot of what I have done is'nt real noticeable anyway. I changed my ridge cap, as the other one was a little to small and it did'nt have a snow filter on it. I noticed the other winter before the ceiling was insulated, that I had alot of snow blow up and into the ceiling area and land on the loft floor on the colder windier days. I did'nt think that would be very good over time.

 

Hey, another picture. This is the bottom of my water cistern which still is'nt in use yet, but soon will be. For the time being the house is hooked into this water line and to a tank on a trailer above ground. Right there where the line goes under the cistern is where it was kinked off. I know it had lots of room when I put it there a long time ago and I can remember thinking this thing could settle a bit, but it must have settled alot more than I thought it would. I had to cut the corragated metal with a grinder and bend the metal up. The hose seems fine, I think. The water is flowing freely through it now anyway. I'm going to do some more preperations here and then soon should be pouring some concrete down  there for a cleaner water environment.

Well, I thought the photos were going to start working, but I guess not. I've got my wood stove down stairs in the basement now (a brother came over and gave me a hand with that), and am in the process of  running the chimney. I need more supplies now. Silly me for assuming that a 12 inch peice of chimney pipe would actually be 12 inches. By code, the peice of chimney pipe is supposed to be at least 3 inches coming into the house before the stove pipe is attached. Mine is only 2 inches. I thought I had this all planned out, but when I measured that 12 inch chunk of chimney, it is only 11 inches. Geeeeee, I really wonder why they would'nt call it an 11 inch chunk of pipe. I mean, 11 is a number also, is'nt it? lol. 12 is 12, 11 is 11. 11 and 1/4 is 11 and 1/4. I don't know, that's just how my brain works anyway. Well I'm going to do what I can without that piece for now until I get to town if I can even find one there. I've also got a rubber boot flashing (because of the corragated tin roof) on order for the top of chimney. I would really like to get this chimney out of the way before moving the ladder for solar panel installation. Moving the ladder seems to be one of the biggest chores I have up on that roof.

I hav'nt even tried my forced air furnace yet. Both heaters are working, but I really think that furnace could be quite handy soon. I'll have to get a thermostat and give that baby a try soon. I don't know why, but the days are really flying by. Guess it could be because winter is on its way here in Canada.

Just a bit of an update for now. I'm going to try and figure out my picture problem now. That will probably keep me busy for a few days right there. lol. Any help on that one would be greatly appreciated.  

Ok, I'm back. I opened a different browser. Using Firefox right now instead of internet explorer. Heres some more pictures in no specific order.

The bathroom. It still needs some ceiling and finishing touches, but other than that, it is quite useable. 

 The second water pump. It is totally different than the first one. With the two big tanks and that one little one, I can fill the tub at least once and flush the toilet quite a lot of times before the the pump cycles on again. I think it's going to work out pretty nicely for a solar powered home.

Just a bunch of chimney stuff scattered all over the place. 

  

Up on the roof again, changing that crown, or ridge cap. This was a good day and a half job. Moving the ladder was the biggest issue. Oh, and going up and down it all the time too. This is another one of my boo boos that I did. When I strapped the rafters (the horizontal 2x4s that run across the rafters that the tin roof scews to) I put a 2x4 across the top(or close to it), then the next one at 2 feet. I did'nt really have much to properly screw my new ridge cap down to. I could'nt screw the flange down like it should have been, so I had to screw  a little higher up on the ridge cap. I'm sure things will work fine (hopefully), but it sure looks amateurish from close up. I would know how to do things if I built another house though.

 These are the vented foamies I installed under the new ridge cap that are supposed to help keep the snow and insects etc from getting in the attic, and yet let the attic breath. 

There is that nasty pipe in the cistern before I fixed the problem.

These guys were pretty busy. I did'nt even notice this thing being built about 4 feet away from the garage entrance, until I got stung one day going into my own garage. That one wasp kinda ruined it for all the rest of them and I declared war. They are now all dead, except for maybe the odd one who was out that night.

Well it's nice to know that I can still put pictures on. I really wish I had more to show, but soon it will come. Oh ya, I even took one of me having my first bath in the house. lol. Did'nt think anyone really wanted to see that one though. lol.

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.