Snowy Solar Panels---Dec Update

This is truly one of the downfalls of solar power in the winter. When the panels get covered like that, they don't charge very much. But then even if I were to clean them off, the sun is'nt shining all that well. I do alot of thinking about how I am going to clean them off when they are way up there on my house. I'm thinking some kind of vibrator system, or maybe compressed air, or maybe just let the sun melt it off. This really is'nt an issue for me right now though. This time of year the generator is usually utilized off and on even when the sun is shining. I use it to warm the batteries up in the old deep freeze. I got the shack all skirted in again for another long and cold winter. When I get more snow I will keep banking it up around the shack for added insulation.

The dirty old Peterbilt truck dash tells alot of info. the far left gauge is a thermometer that is reading -28 Celcius outside. Thanks to the Peterbilt getting tired and having some engine work and transmission issues rectified, I am on about a 2 week break from work to try and get some things done on the house. The old Peterbilt has less than 600,000 kms on it, but that is quite alot for a bush truck, where I have been driving it anyway. If it were mostly on the highway, it would probably have well over a million kms before all this stuff takes place. It's about 17,000 hours on the engine. It's got alot of hard mile on it. It can't seem to be helped with some of the places we go and the weight we haul. The boss offered me a brand new tri-drive, but I turned it down and let the other driver have it. I've had my taste of that, and don't really like it that much for what we do. They are really awkward to get around and also, it will be expected to be busier. I don't want to be real busy at work anymore. Not for awhile anyway.

All the windows and doors are in. I had that done for awhile now, except for the ones way up there.

Recently I have been working on the main loft floor. I always had some plywood up there to walk on, but nothing was cut to fit or secured. I now have it all sized, but still have to glue and nail it all down. I am going to concentrate on getting all my indoor plumbing done soon, as my permit, that I already had to get extended once, expires mid March. It'll be nice to get that out of the way, then get the electrical all out of the way so I can insulate and actually hold some heat in when I am burning propane. I can aim the heater at myself where I am working, and it does help alot, but I sure am going through the propane. It's been in the area of -20c/-8 ish F lately. I'm not going to let the cold slow me down much though, however, the lack of knowledge probably will. I spent most of today (Friday) just planning and measuring. I never was completely sure how I wanted to arrange my bathroom, but I do have a pretty good idea now. I think I'll get the plumbing permit guy to come out next week if he can, cause I have a big list of dumb questions for him. Drains, vents, even chimneys for propane appliances and woodstoves. I think he's into all that too. But now that I know what I am doing, it would be really neat to find out just how to do it. lol. Code, code, code. Anyway, just a little bit of an update for now.



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.

Started to Wrap the House

I finally had a full day off from work, where it was'nt raining out. I hav'nt done very much on the house since my last post, a little here and there, but not much. Maybe I wont be in it before winter. lol. It was a pretty good run at work for awhile there and I did enjoy doing it, but I am truly getting the urge to do some serious building again.
Today I finally cut the main door out to it's correct size. It probably makes the house look smaller. A 36" left outswing door will go in that spot. I did a bunch of other smaller things to get ready for some wrap. Sealed all the gaps between the basement top plate and the main floor system. Had to do some adjustments on the door rough opening size and finish sheathing the strip around the house where the main floor is. One last look at this side of the house before the housewrap goes on. This is the north side, and there is one basement window and one main floor window in the living area at the foot of the stairs that go up to the loft. I did'nt want a whole bunch of larger sized windows. When I am not at home, I am going to rely on a propane space heater in the basement to heat the whole house. This is the plan for now anyway. Our winters are sometimes pretty cold and long, and too many windows could result in more heat loss than I really want. There are more and one that is a bit larger on the south side.

I just started experimenting with the housewrap. I need to cut out another door and some windows, then I can finish wrapping it up. I really hope they can live without me at work tomorrow.

I am still trying to decide exactly what to do up here in the loft. Window or door. I know I probably have the technology to frame a door in there, but it's not quite that simple. That gable wall is a part of my manufactored trusses, and for me to just start wacking a hole in there for a door could cause some grief for me with with the permit guys. I may have to draw my plans up and get someone who is qualified to ok it for me. I guess that would be an engineer or maybe the truss manufactorer. I just hope it is not a complicated drawn out and expensive ordeal. It would be nice to have a door going out to the balcony though. This end of the house probably wont get completely wrapped right away. I am going to try and draw up a door framing plan soon. Any suggestions? The top part studs are at 2 foot on center and the bottom part is at 16".

Anyway, thats it for now. I will try and post a little bit more often, as I THINK things may be slowing down a tad at work. Hopefully.

More Wall Sheathing Done.

I got the smaller loft in sort of. I know that there will have to be some modifications to it later for the wood stove chimney. So I left out one joist in the middle area. On this loft the joist spacing is 1 foot on center with 2x10 lumber. I don't have a wood stove yet, and am not real sure where the chimney will run exactly, so I did'nt mount everything to stay for ever. I could have totally left it out until the roof was on, but I am thinking that it will help with putting the roof on.
I was in the process of measuring my top plate for the truss spacing when I decided that maybe now would be a good time to finish sheathing the walls. (I know that I am a little backwards at times). It is a lot easier when I can do it from the inside. If I did this again, the walls would be completely sheathed before I stand them up, but I did'nt because I wanted to tie the split sections together with sheathing. It was quite a battle I had with some of this so far today, and I could'nt imagine doing it from the outside on a ladder.
My natural fridge is slowly disappearing. Today was the warmest we had this spring so far. I'm not sure what the temperature got to, but I'm sure it was well over 20 celcius. I had to go and put on a long sleave shirt eventually, because I thought I was going to scorch myself.

Anyway, somehow I seemed to short change myself on wall sheathing, and I am going to make a quick trip into town for some of that and a shower, in the morning. Once I'm done with the sheathing, it is time to start with the roofing. I'm sure the roofing will have me doing a little thinking for a bit to get things started. I'm kinda scratching my head thinking up ways of getting my gable ends way up there.

Interior Walls and Loft Framed.

The loft floor over the bathroom and kitchen. This is one of the advantages of a smaller house. Just one room to frame in. The bathroom. I still have work to do on the loft floor(blocking, fire block, attach the sub floor, etc.), but it can all wait until the roof is on for now.

Got the trusses home and a bit more lumber.

This is a view from where the loft window will be.

I have a bit more prep work before I put the trusses up. A smaller loft on the other side of the house.
Things have been drying up alot quicker around here than they usually do in the spring. I'm getting a little worried that soon work might get busy. Usually we're shut down for a couple months in the spring, but this could be one of those real short spring breaks. Possibly anyway. All I really care about is getting a roof on before some major weather.

I had a mouse in my shack for the last couple of days. When I first discovered this, I was on the phone when the dog was obviously after something. Then the mouse came out and started coming at me, I thought anyway. I let out a quick beller and jumped up on the chair. lol. It was a little imbarrassing, as I was on the phone. The following two mornings I watched the little guy touring around the shack at the other end from my bunk and I could hear him stirring around just as I was trying to go to sleep at night. As I was writing this blog I heard the mouse trap snap. Hopefully, that was the only mouse I had in here.