A tight fit

I found this quote today: "The way to succeed is to double your error rate." - Thomas J. Watson

With respect to the apartment project, I think I had already figured this out.

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Yesterday Sandy and I moved all but one of the kitchen cabinets upstairs so we could verify that they will all fit along the west wall. Fortunately there is a 3 3/4" spacer on the end of one of them. If I cut off 3 1/4" of that they will fit perfectly! We lucked out there.

Here they are, sort of where they will go. They aren't all placed flush against the wall yet.

The upper cabinets sitting on the floor to the left are two different heights, the one on top is 30" tall; the other 42". There's also a 42" corner cabinet still downstairs. It turns out that the taller cabinets will not be able to be used as intended because the ceiling is too low. (If you've been following the blog, you'll remember that the entire building, from the concrete slab to the bottom of the trusses, is only 16' high, and, with the joists and floor between the two floors, each is less than the normal height for most living spaces.)

The smaller one will probably go on the west wall at the left above the other cabinets. That decision awaits approval of my supervisor. I think I'll use the large one as a part of the pantry I plan to build. It will be to the right of the refrigerator and broom closet. (See below.)



Another revelation: our refrigerator is about an inch too tall for the surround. That can be "fixed" by adding a few inches to the bottom of the surround, or by buying a new refrigerator.

It's particularly surprising since we had to take down part of the ceiling light just to get the surround upstairs yesterday. And we had to carry it up top first because it is too high to be turned end over end upstairs.

The north wall of the kitchen, between it and the bathroom, is still without drywall awaiting the purchase of light fixtures for the bathroom wall. Wiring and a switch are in place and the drywall is already cut so it will go together quickly when the fixture(s) arrive.

A few partial prints

Progress continues.

The first picture is a test of spacing in the bathroom. We bought two cabinets at an auction a few months ago. I'm going to make our bathroom vanity using them and a sink and counter top we got at the ReStore. They are shown sitting on some 2X3's to simulate the height of the kick panel that I'll build for them. After some side panels are added, the whole setup should look pretty nice.



This is how the water distribution manifold looks with everything plugged in except the kitchen sink. It's on the first floor, of course, in the utility/laundry room.

Snow views

Just thought I'd post a few pictures from the snow flurries today. They were both taken from the apartment window.


The trail, barely visible in the left picture, leads to one of the springs. Down the hill to the right takes one to the pond.

Do we know how to party or what?

Our Greene County CASA program had a Valentine's Day fund raiser yesterday. Tommy Teddybear entertained the kids, at least the ones he didn't scare, and his main squeeze showed up and obeyed the sign.


Today it was back to work.

New address(es) - UPDATED

We have started using the rural route address at the property and have begun changing our address with all our correspondents. We haven't moved yet, but our Post Office box rental expired last week and could only be renewed for 6 months at a time. Since I am at the site virtually every day, and since we hope to be moved to the site within weeks, changing the address now made sense.

Sadly, we will have to change it again sometime soon. Greene County may be the last place in America that hasn't assigned real street addresses. We are finding some companies, insurance and financial institutions for example, will not accept an RR box as a valid address.

A company is contracted to assign addresses but no one, not the county clerk, the postmaster, nor the company itself, will say when they will announce the new addresses for any particular route. The upshot: we will soon have to change from our RR address to a street address. In the mean time, for those who won't accept the RR box number, we have made up a street address. If they use both in the sequence we have given them, their mail to us will go to our mail box. If they switch the sequence or don't use the box number at all, we have no idea if we'll get their mail or not. Time will tell.

On the topic of addresses, today as I was crawling around on the floor drawing lines, I though I saw Sandy coming in the door. It wasn't her. It was the UPS man looking inside to determine if anyone lived here. I told him "Not yet." Now for sure, UPS and the Green County Daily World have the new address.

By the way, in response to a comment, the address is:

RR 4 Box 262, Bloomfield IN 47424.

See, I do read the comments.

Progress on the heat

Today Sandy and I got the last of the tubing run for the radiant floor heat. Here's what it looks like in the bathroom.



You can also see the base of the shower. The over-stuffed bag contains cellulose that will be poured into the wall behind the shower once the fixtures are mounted inside the wall.

As I have shown earlier, the system has five "layers". The last "layer" is the cement board shown here, partially in place.



The cement boards are 3' X 5' and are placed so that four boards do not intersect at the same point. As each board is placed it is marked to show where the tubing under it is located. (The lines are easily seen if one double clicks the picture.) With these lines one can avoid damaging the tubing when the boards are screwed to the sub floor through the grids. The lonesome grid on the right is being used as a template to get the right curve when drawing the ends of the loops below onto the boards.

I hope to get all the rest of the boards in place tomorrow except where the toilet will be placed. The grid has to be cut out there first and the exact location of the toilet hasn't been determined.

Lookin' for a home

Sandy and I took a long walk around the property on Sunday. The sun was shining and the temperature was about 58. We looked carefully at areas near and at the bottom of the south-facing hill. We discussed the possibility of a larger pond and locations for our house. We decided we might need to arrange for a survey of at least the area near likely spots for the house before deciding on one. Further, since we can see large rocks at the surface at spots on the hillside, we will try to find someone who might be able to survey under the surface so we don't pick a spot where we'll have to dig or blast out huge rocks before we can dig a foundation.

We are certain we will find a great spot that will provide nice views down the hillside, an unobstructed south face for solar heat gain, sound buffering from the state road, and easy access to other areas of the property.

When we finally select the site I'll start sharing pictures from it at different times of the year.

Can't believe it's been over a month

Tonight I realized it's been 36 days since my previous posting. One might get the idea that we haven't been making any progress, but that just isn't so.

Here are a few of the things that have been done since then.

1. We finished blowing insulation into the attic.

Here are two "before" and two "after" pictures:

 

 

2. The first floor walls have been framed.

The first floor is where we will have our clothes washer and dryer (which I hope we will use sparingly in warmer weather), a toilet and a large wash tub. It will also be used for storage of things that need a bit more protection than provided by the heavy shelving on the east wall. The first floor has a concrete slab and can get pretty cold. I built the walls with 2X6's supporting two rows of 2X3's, 24 inches on center. This will allow thicker insulation on the first floor that, for the most part, will not be heated. Since neither wall surface will touch the other side of the wall, the 2X3's will prevent a "thermal bridge" between the inside and outside wall surface.

3. The water manifold has been moved to an inner wall.

If I'd thought enough about it to begin with I would have put it there in the first place. Though all the walls of the utility room will be insulated, putting the water distribution manifold on an inside wall will give it a few extra degrees of buffer on the coldest days.

4. Most of the radiant heat grids have been placed.

There are still some grids to place, but they go pretty quickly. Then comes the metal plates that distribute heat from the PEX to the cement board. Next I'll run the PEX tubing into them. After that they are covered with the 1/2 inch cement board. Here's a picture of the bedroom floor so far.

5. The stairway is installed.

You'd think I'd have taken a picture of the stairs, huh? I'll post one soon.

6. Lots of miscellaneous tasks.

It's amazing how a day can go by and nothing particularly visible gets done. The bathroom has been wired, but without the fan and medicine cabinet and its lights, one can only throw the switches on and off with no results. And they're quiet switches so there's not even a click.

I hung up some bird feeders. Dozens of birds showed up and are there all the time. At one point there were seven male cardinals around the feeder at once.

I made some time to organize the "shop area," currently just a section of the first floor defined by clear plastic walls.

I had to rework the walls behind where the shower will go because the shower base we purchased goes against the studs, not the drywall, and an additional stud was needed on each wall where the glass shower walls abut the solid walls. Lesson learned: buy, or at least decide on, everything as early as possible so dimensions and requirements can be incorporated the first time.

Still more to do, but the end is in sight.