Preparing a garden

Last year I tried to grow some vegetables but failed miserably. The soil near the apartment is mostly clay, and hard and dry. I planted tomatoes and grape tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts, cabbage and cucumbers. All were bought as starts.

Though we did get maybe twenty cherry tomatoes, the other tomatoes barely survived until late September when a few of them started to produce. I brought one that was in a pot inside for the winter and it is now blooming again. About 10 tomatoes that were on it when it came inside actually ripened, so we got maybe 25 altogether, all late in the season.

We got about 8 peppers and two plants that were in the same pot are now producing again inside.

We got zero cucumbers, no cabbage grew large enough to be worth bending over to pick, and the few brussel sprouts were about the size of peanuts.

This year I decided to do something serious. Using a few truckloads of soil dumped by the county from the ditching work along the property, and a bunch of lousy old wood from a nearby barn that is being taken down, I built some terraces and filled them in with real soil. Here's how it looks so far.



Look carefully, just below the large rocks, and you'll see the first plants that Sandy has transplanted. Transplanting sounds so easy. Not here. She had to use a pick axe to get through the hard clay and the gravel nearest the barn. Then she carried the clay away and replaced it with soil. Finally the plants could be set in place. Some we had in pots brought from Indianapolis, some came from along the county road on our property where the ditch was cleaned out, and some from a neighbor's overgrown iris plots.

Inside I've started spinach and a few other plants. Next time we go to town I'll get some peas which can be planted outdoors now. The archway has some new grape cuttings at its bottom. Finally, when I clear a path to them in the barn, I'll pull out the dozens of other seed varfieties we've saved from plants we've grown, seen or eaten and see if we can get the entire hillside growing.

Overdue barn pictures

I was reminded a few days ago that I hadn't yet posted a picture of the barn after we painted it. We just got back from a CASA meeting at the courthouse and it was getting dark, but I took these anyway. Otherwise I'd probably forget them for a few more days.

 
North side                                                 West side

The cool hex sign was a gift from my sister Judy. Looks pretty nice, eh?

You don't see the corners because I still have to buy, paint and install them plus trim around the windows.

Another room

As some of you know, Sandy's dad Matthew has been ill on and off over the last two years. His most recent stay in a rehabilitation facility was handled so poorly by the facility staff (it took them four days to realize that he was supposed to be on oxygen at night for example) that we determined he would not go back there when he left the hospital, no matter what.

Three Thursdays ago the hospital called to say they were releasing him that afternoon! Earlier we had decided we would bring him, at least until he was stronger, to our rented apartment in Bloomfield. But we were expecting his release to be at least one day later than it was.

Sandy had just hours to arrange for oxygen systems, both fixed and portable, a bedside commode, the transport of his C-PAP machine for nighttime breathing assistance, a wheelchair, a walker and a hospital bed. Then we had to empty most of the apartment's extra bedroom and stash things wherever they would fit somewhere in the apartment. We then had to get to Indianapolis quickly, pick up some things at his apartment, get him from the hospital and get back to Bloomington to meet the delivery of the bed and other items before his bedtime.

It was a long day and tough on him, but by 9PM, after bumping him a step at a time (15 steps) up the stairs in his new wheelchair to the rented apartment, he was in his own hospital bed and the other equipment was hooked up in the room.

Of course, if you're reading this blog regularly, you know we are getting very close to our move to the apartment on our property. We can't leave him at the rented apartment, so he will move with us.

Problem: No extra room at the property.

Solution: Add another room.

Over the last few days we have hired some local contractors to quickly build a room on the first floor of the pole barn. It will be just under 200 square feet, have one exterior and two interior doors and two windows looking south. Another 64 square feet of ceiling had to be added to the east end of the barn next to the large storage shelving on the east wall. That new deck space above the new room will also allow us to move lots of the items stored on the first floor onto it to replace the space lost to the new room.

Here are two pictures of the space so far, one inside, the other outside.

Warm floors

It is getting cold and we're not quite ready to install the radiant floor heating system, but I thought I'd show how the system goes together. Our system is produced by The FloorHeat Company. Their web site explains the system in more detail. It is mostly a do-it-yourself process.

It starts with a thin sheet of foil that goes directly on the OSB floor panels. The foil is covered by 16-inch square plastic grids which snap together to cover the entire floor. Metal pieces are snapped into the grids. These will help transfer the heat from the plastic tubing which will be snapped into all of the grids to the panels which cover the grids. The panels are then covered by the laminate floor panels. The tubes are attached to a panel which contains a tankless water heater and a pump to move the heated water throughout the system.

Here is a grid, a metal piece, and how they fit together. Of course there are hundreds of them in the system.

When all the components are together it will look something like this:


You can see four of the laminate panels snapped together. Under them is a 3'X 5' cement board panel. Under that are the plastic grids. The foil is not shown because I don't want to put it down until we're ready to do the installation. Finally, the OSB panels can be seen.

Notice the piece of 2X4 next to the floor system. It is the same thickness as the system. This allows us to build a wooden grid in closets and under cabinets that will have the same laminate sheets on them but will not be heated.

I forgot to take a picture of the control panel. I'll do that after the plastic tubing (PEX) is installed and the system is ready to go.

Has it been that long?

Once again, time has flown and I haven't posted for over two weeks. I've got a few pictures to share. I'll start with a follow-up on the previous post.

Using a 1" X 4" strip of wood behind the top of the drywall sheets did the trick. The drywall is solidly supported at the top, just as if there had been a full nailer there. It turns out attaching the strip to the drywall before erecting it wasn't necessary. In fact, doing so made it harder to get the drywall in place. It worked a lot better to just slide the wood strip up behind the 2" X 10" board at the top of the wall. The pressure from the packed cellulose behind the tarp section kept it in place while the drywall was screwed to it.

Here's a picture of an installed drywall sheet showing a section of the wood strip to the left of it. You can see the 2" X 10" board that runs the length of the long walls. The white on the board is from raising the ceiling drywall and will wipe off. I plan to sand the board smooth and cover the nails which hold the boards to the barn's main posts.



All the drywall in the apartment has been installed except for a few wall sections that will have water tubes in them. These need not be finished right now, and getting heat in the building is a higher priority. The next post shows what we're doing for heat.

Getting the walls straight

I have been worried that the drywall on the outside walls will eventually bend in toward the room because of the pressure of the cellulose stuffed behind it. The drywall will be screwed into 2x2 "nailers" at the bottom and 2x4 nailers every two feet up the wall as well as into the 4x6's every 8 feet along the wall. But at the top of the east-west-running walls there is a 2x10 that supports the roof trusses. It is nailed inside the 4x6 posts. This means the drywall will come up under, but not behind, the 2x10's.

As an aside, when I first realized the 2x10s were at the top of the east-west-running walls I worried I would have to build those walls inside them. Instead we decided to make them an architectural "feature" and leave them exposed along the entire length of the north and south walls, even in the bedroom and bathroom. I'll sand them down and "spackle" them to hide the seams and nails, just like drywall, so when molding is added and they are painted it will not be apparent they are wood.

Here's what a typical 8-foot wall section looks like, shown with one sheet of drywall attached.

 

Even though there will be a piece of trim under the 2x10 that will help keep the drywall vertical, I am concerned that the trim, only being nailed into the 2x10, will not be strong enough to resist the cellulose pressure against the drywall. I've decided to add a 1x4 behind the drywall and the 2x10 by screwing the drywall to the 1x4 before putting it up on the wall. I don't think it will be necessary to attach it to the 2x10 because the cellulose pressure against the billboard tarp sections should keep it tight. Here's a closer look.

 

Here's the view from inside the wall. Of course the exterior sheets, the cellulose and the billboard tarp sections are not shown.

 

Of course this means the 1x4 attached to the drywall will have to be tucked under the 2x10 first, then screwed to the nailers below. If this works it might actually make it easier to install the drywall. So far, without the 1x4, the first any only drywall sheet I've stood up has been difficult to hold firmly against the wall. I'll write about how it works soon. Tomorrow I've got to go find 64 feet of 1x4's.

60 degrees at 8:00 PM

Each evening I work at the new apartment, when I drive back to the rented apartment, nearly the last thing I see before I get there is the time and temperature sign on a bank a few blocks away. Tonight, on the 11th of December, the sign showed 60 degrees! Who would have thunk it?

Today we got the insulation finished in the apartment walls (except for one section in the bathroom that still needs a support for the shower). Here's what a typical wall looks like full of cellulose behind sections of billboard tarps:



For those interested in more detail, there's another picture below. For the rest of you who have better things to do, that's all for now.

Since cellulose tends to compress over time, I have left the top of each section of the exterior walls accessible from the attic so more can be added if needed. Each section is covered by the tarp which runs up the wall and is stapled to the outside of the 2X10 which supports the roof trusses. Then it is pulled over the cellulose and held in place by the pressure of a small section of foam insulation board. Here's what that looks like:



From the top, you can see the roof sheets, the insulated board section, the tarp at the top of the wall cavity and the 2X10 that supports the trusses. Also, to the right, you can see one of the plates that are used to construct the trusses.

After the ceiling drywall is installed, the insulated boards will be removed to allow air to flow freely through the eaves and out the top of the attic. Before then I'll staple vent chutes to the roof so that the blown-in cellulose will not flow over the top of the wall to the outside. I don't know how I'll hold the tarp over the top after the insulated board is removed, but we'll figure it out.

Christmas is coming

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last.

All of the siding is installed except the peak of the walls at the east and west ends. The weather has turned nasty and there's plenty to do on the inside, so the peaks might not be finished until spring.

We are working on insulating the walls now. Since it is a pole barn, the outside walls are 7 inches thick so it takes a lot of insulation. We have chosen cellulose which is a recycled product, made here in Indiana, and also turns out to be the best insulator for the cost.

Normally it is blown into the walls, but we are filling them by hand as we put up the vapor barrier which is old billboard tarps. This picture shows the process and a typical wall section with the 2-foot spaced nailers in place.



Drywall will be installed vertically along the original outside walls and horizontally on the apartment's east wall which is vertical studs, 16 inches on center and not a true outside wall.

We started by breaking up the bales of cellulose ourselves. It was slow going and not all that effective. On Thursday we borrowed the cellulose blower from the store and blew about 30 bales into the bedroom. Sandy fed the machine for about 2 hours outside into the dark. I was inside where the cellulose was coming out of the hose, trying to bag as much as I could while it piled up like a gray snowstorm in the room. It even stuck to the walls like snow would in a blizzard.



I got a bit covered with the stuff.



From there it is bagged and dumped into the walls. The entire process still takes time, but the cellulose is ground up more finely and it was all ground up in a few hours instead of literally days which it would have taken the way we had started.

Tomorrow my son is coming from Indy to help lift and install drywall on the ceilings. Sandy and I got enough of the walls insulated today to make his trip worthwhile.

All the electrical wiring is done except for two lights and switches in the attic which can be added even after the ceiling drywall is installed. The best part of that is no more extension cords everywhere.

Our radiant floor system was delivered, too. It came on two large pallets. One had the tubing, the metal plates and the entire control panel with gauges, valves, and the no-tank water heater. The other pallet contained all the panels that will cover the floor. Stay tuned for pictures of that system.

The north wall is done!

Except, of course for painting it, which will cover the caulked seams, trim on the ends and the windows and building soffets, the north wall is finished. The rest of the work will likely be in the spring. There is plenty to do on the inside after all the outside panels are installed.

Here's a flash picture taken last night after the ladders were removed.



With two more days of warm weather promised, and with our improving skill (and I do use the term loosely) at putting up the second level panels, we just might get them all installed before it turns cold again.

Rustic sidewalk moving along

The rain has stopped, the ground has dried and the temperature has risen, so Sandy has been able to get back to the sidewalk project. Even with constant interruptions from me with requests to help lift wall panels, (or to help me find something I've misplaced for the umpteenth time,) things are looking good.

Armed with a carpenter's square and a tape measure, she is establishing, from east to west, a line that parallels the building's south wall. Then, with a pry bar and stones gathered nearby, she is leveling and aligning the large pieces of stone and concrete that we found scattered near there when we bought the property.

Edging is pieces of fencing purchased at the serve-yourself lumber yard in town.

Here's what it looks like so far. There is a lot of clay near the building, but the soil improves quickly as one moves down the hill to the south (right).



The fate of spindly tree next to walk is still unknown. It's been in the way while installing Tyvek and siding panels, but it won't be after that. The growth of its roots is the major concern.

What am I doing wrong?

Can't understand it. I added 33 bales of cellulose to the building's sliding door and it didn't keep it one bit warmer inside!

Was I supposed to open them?

Pictures I promised

Here's a quick "tour" of the apartment so far. You may be able to "follow" this sequence better by opening the earlier past post of the floor plan in another window and referring to it as we go.

The living area is one large room with the kitchen at its west end. This picture shows the bank of windows on the south wall and our house plants covered for the unheated nights.



Here's the same wall from the outside. The large window on the left is where the dining "booth" furniture will be.



Moving clockwise, next is the kitchen area and the bathroom.





And here's that wall from the outside.



And finally the bedroom, inside,



and the north wall outside. The lower window on the north wall is at the stairway landing. There is another window on that wall but its opening hasn't been cut in the Tyvek yet because it will be installed after the panels are nailed up.



Yesterday we nailed up the first exterior panels. this is the lower level of the east wall. Remember, the easternmost 8' by 24' section of the barn is not part of the apartment.

Finally, some windows

We have been working hard to get the windows framed so we can nail the Tyvek to the walls. My sister has come to help for a few days, and so far we're three-quarters done with the Tyvek and seven of the 13 windows are installed. I'll post some pictures soon.

There are two kitchen windows, one bathroom window, one at the top and one on the landing of the stairway and one in the bedroom still to be installed. It looks like they'll get done on Friday. Tomorrow includes a trip to the Restore in Indy and a flooring company showroom.

Here's a view of the changing colors looking down the hill from the pole barn.

The apartment takes shape

I just realized I haven't posted to the blog for three weeks. Here's what I've been up to...





The entire floor has been completed. The top picture is a view of the stairwell from the main room. The far left corner is where the bathroom will be built.

The second picture was taken after most of the framing was completed. This view from the kitchen area shows the bathroom on the left, the hallway closet in front of the stairwell and the bedroom to the far right. Some of the studs in the bedroom doorway are not in place yet so I can move in the closet wall. It is on the floor in the main room. It will have two sets of sliding doors and run the full length of the east wall of the bedroom.

We have found a dozen windows at a local resale store and hope to purchase all or most of them very soon. Once we decide on the windows, I can frame the walls to accommodate them and cut the openings in the exterior sheathing.

After that, we can add the Tyvek on the outside and install the windows. Then comes the really heavy work - installing the outside paneling. Each of the sheets is very heavy. The first (bottom) row of the panels shouldn't be too hard to install, but the upper row will be eight feet off the ground and require help just to lift them into place and hold them while they are nailed.

I'll keep you posted.

Up it goes!

We purchased a 32-foot laminated veneer lumber (LVL) beam to be sure the apartment floor would be strong enough to support whatever we might put up there. It came in two parts and weighs, both parts total, 432 pounds.

Here're the two parts waiting to be lifted.

When it arrived and I realized I could barely move it, let alone lift it, I started thinking about how to get it up on the posts.

I thought about using slings and pulleys. I was told the roof trusses were designed to support weight from the top, not the bottom, and the lower joints on the trusses might not hold with a large weight hanging on them.

I considered using sections of heavy posts on their sides, in two stacks, relatively close together near the center of the beams. Since the beams are so long, it would be easy to lift an end by pressing on the other end. By pushing down on one side, a helper could easily slide another post section under the raised side, and the process could be repeated again and again, alternating ends, until the beam was just a bit higher then the posts. From there it could be pivoted onto the posts. The whole process would be repeated for the second beam part.

It was a brilliant idea, until... I asked myself, "What's going to keep the tall stack of support boards from falling over when the pile gets more than few feet high and the center of gravity, when the beam is pushed down, shifts to outside the stack?" Answer: Nothing. Scrap that idea.

Finally I though about using a small front end loader that could just lift the darn things and no one would be at risk. We would just provide a little support on opposite ends to keep the beam from tilting as it was lifted. I called my neighbor to see if he knew someone relatively nearby who might bring a machine to the barn. He said he did, and even came by to drive me to meet him.

Just a bit down the highway lives a neighbor who owns Greene County Wood Products, a maker of wooden pallets. They have two loaders, but only one that could get to the barn, a distance on the road of about a mile. Unfortunately that one is over ten feet high and wouldn't fit through the barn door. (We also discussed whether the weight of a loader might crack the concrete floor.)

Instead of saying "No" though, he suggested he would bring a bunch of his workers and we could all just lift it up. Yeehaa! To be ready for them I needed to set up some sturdy supports at each post and get one full half of the barn emptied so the job could be done quickly, but this solution sounded real good to me.

Here's what the barn looked like before the beams went up. Before you ask, that's not clothes drying, it's dirty t-shirts. I got tired of whacking my head on the braces.

Today, right after lunch, he and four of his guys came over. In two minutes the job was done! First the wider "half" goes up, and on. Then the skinny one. Next the smaller beam will be nailed to the larger one to give the beam its full strength. Then the brackets will be installed and nailed to attach and stabilize the completed beam to the posts. Finally today, the lateral braces can be removed (with the dirty laundry).

Tomorrow the joist headers and joists start going on.

Making a barn a home - Entryway

For the past few days Sandy has been working with a shovel and pry bar digging up pieces of broken concrete that were apparently dumped as the barn was being built between the gravel leading to the sliding barn door and the side door. I've helped lift the largest pieces, but she's done all the hard work otherwise.

This is what it looked like before she started. You can see weeds along the wall which are thick and grow in dense clumps. She is pulling them out as she goes. Then she flips the concrete pieces over and away to the south (left in this picture).

Notice Sandy's homey touch - the welcome mat.

There is a wood apron around the entire building except directly under this door. This will allow us to slide a concrete chunk right up to the concrete at the doorway without risking moisture seeping into the bottom of the wall there.

Here's what it looks like after the concrete is pulled away. In the soil underneath there is a thick network of roots from the grasses and weeds that were there. She is trying to pull all of them and toss them down the small bank. Next she plans to replace the concrete pieces so they form a flat walkway sloping away from the building just enough to encourage water. We will need to import some sand to level the concrete and we'll probably

leave a small border of soil for planting something at the wall.

Two outta three ain't bad!

The LVL beam was delivered this afternoon. It was on a huge flat-bed trailer which was skillfully backed down the gravel driveway to within about 4 inches of the barn door. Then the trailer was raised to make our pushing it off easier. It took three of us to get it down off the truck safely.

Big surprise, though, it came in two parts. Both are 32 feet long, but one is 1 3/4" thick, the other 3 1/2". Even our salesman at Lowes didn't know 3 1/2" is the thickest LVL that the manufacturer produces. At first I thought, "Great, it will be easier to lift it in two pieces," but that won't work. There's no way we can align and nail the two together on top of 7'6" posts without risking our safety.

The "Handling & Installation Recommendations" provided with the beam describe just how many and where nails should be placed to connect the two. If the beam were more than 7" think I'd have to bolt the pieces together.

After the delivery I began marking and drilling the floor where the posts will stand. Sandy began clearing a trail through the tall grass toward the spring.

The lumber will be delivered tomorrow while we're running around picking up cabinets and moving the last of our belongings from two sites in Indianapolis.

When I got home I found the packages from the plumbing supplier in the hallway.

Delivery day tomorrow

Tomorrow we are scheduled to get three deliveries: the laminated veneer lumber (LVL) beam; all the dimension lumber, nails and brackets; and the water manifold, PEX tubing, tools and fittings for the water delivery system. The water related items are coming to the apartment, but the other two shipments are going straight to the barn.

I'm hoping the beam gets there first so they can help me shove it into the barn. Once the rest of the lumber arrives we won't be able to get a truck within 20 feet of the sliding door. The beam is approximately 400 pounds so if the barn is blocked I won't be able to move it inside by myself.

If I'm lucky the DeWalt nailer I ordered online will show up too. At that point I'll be out of excuses and will have to get started.

A few days ago, while coming back from the county recycling center,

Greene County Solid Waste District
R.R. #1 Box 61A, Switz City, Indiana 47465.
812 659-3788, 800 281-1930
(No functioning web site)

            we passed Jones and Sons, a concrete block manufacturer right here in Bloomfield. They have a pile of broken blocks at the side of the parking lot and today I asked if I could have some. They sell them by the truckload for $5, but since I only needed a dozen or so I was told, "Help yourself."

I loaded the trunk (and went back for another trunk load at the end of the day) and took the first load of blocks to the barn to use to elevate the lumber that will be delivered. With the second load I should have enough to get the entire lumber load at least 18 inches off the ground.

If we use a rubble trench foundation (Wikipedia entry) for our house I may be able to get all the "rubble" we need from the Jones plant.

Now all I have to worry about is that the beam gets there first tomorrow.

Windows, cabinets and siding

Since my last post we have taken grandkids to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana, and made a nearly day-long visit to Indianapolis. But we've been busy planning and making drawings to try to assure ourselves everything will "work" as we want it to.

Today we spent most of the day in Bloomington getting things for the apartment building project.

First we visited Bloomington's Habitat for Humanity ReStore. It's one of many such Habitat for Humanity stores across the US and Canada where Habitat sells donated building materials that cannot be used in the construction of new Habitat homes. Some material is new, surplus from building projects, and some is removed from homes being remodeled.

We found a window the right size for the landing in the stairwell-to-be. Then we found an entire set of kitchen cabinets, 12 units in all, built of solid oak. I won't brag about the great price (plus an additional discount for the next two weeks on everything in the store) except to say that the units are in great condition and about a quarter the cost of roughly the same set of units with laminated surfaces priced at a big box store. They had been in the ReStore for less than two days and we were lucky to find them.

Next we visited a salvage yard to look for some steel plates to spread the weight of the posts for the second floor over a larger area of the concrete slab. I found two thicker ones that had holes in them already, and one about twice the area of the others that could be cut in two. The three pieces together weighed over 100 pounds!

Just down the road the owner of a welding shop cut the larger plate in half and burned two small holes into each one for bolting them to the floor.

I'll bolt each of them to the floor through small pieces of plywood and attach the bottom brackets that will hold the posts in place to the plywood. The alternative would be another hole in each plate and a few-inch-long pin that would extend from inside the post into the concrete. Too much effort. The weight on the posts will make them nearly impossible to move, so the simple method I'll use should work just fine. The post bases will look something like this:


Then we stopped at Lowe's to order the siding, 72 - 4' X 8' sheets, about a case of large adhesive tubes for the rough floors, and some double joist hangers for the areas adjacent to the stairway openings. Lowe's cannot deliver the adhesive on the truck with the rest of the material because it is considered a hazardous material. (It's OK for the untrained consumer to take it with them in a car though!?)

Then we were on our way home. Temperature on the bank sign: 100!

Another friend at the barn

I have been finding evidence of a visitor at the barn almost every day. First it was shredded toilet paper. Then some cracker crumbs disappeared. We are concerned that someone might decide some of our fabric items, like sleeping bags, tents or stored material, would make good nesting material.

So I set a humane trap in the barn on Monday and both yesterday and today this little fellow had sprung it. Well, yesterday it might have been one of his/her relatives, but who can tell?



Both times I have let him/her go near the compost pile we have started. I hope he tires of the game before I do. We don't want to take more drastic measures.

Yesterday the last of the old Tyvek was removed. The barn looks better without it.

Today we spent the time making room in the barn for the lumber that will come next week. We ordered lots of lumber, including a 32-foot laminated beam that will allow me to use 12-foot joists for the second floor instead of 8 footers. With 12-footers there will only be three posts in the middle of the barn floor so moving around should be a lot easier than if two rows of posts were erected.