Summer Time …………..

After getting back from my leisure time in the sunny South,  it was obvious that I had much to do.   Since I had promised my son and family a place to stay and visit me, I needed to make sure at least primitive amenities were in place.   I had hung 2 of the interior doors before the trip, and quickly finished hanging the rest on my return. I hoped to finish the trim and hopefully varnish the interior doors before their arrival.    Also meant getting a functional bedroom, other than my “man cave” in the RV.   I needed a real dining table, and decided that the little drop leaf dining table I had been given when I hit the ground in Ontario, by neighbors in the trailer park who saw me running my little propane barbecue on the grass.   It was rough but sound, and had been supporting my barbecue ever since.   I stripped the ancient paint, sanded, primed and repainted it to make a serviceable dining table. I also began putting the trim on the interior doors, and got word that my shower doors had arrived at Menards in Davison MI. So a day trip to pick them up and return home to get back to work.

June 13, My refurbished barbecue table, now temporary dining table.

June 15, Master bath and mechanical room doors hung, awaiting frames, finish and hardware.

Door hung on 3-piece bath in workshop.

It became quickly apparent that I had greatly underestimated how much moulding I would need to frame the interior doors, so soon after getting back I made another trip to Port Huron to get more of the oak trim that I needed. I also picked up a ceiling fan for the living room, as well as stain and varnish for my finishing activities. While poking around Home Depot, I spotted a Kohler cast iron sink of the type I wanted for my kitchen, at an incredible mark down. Unfortunately I already had my VW Jetta pretty full with other stuff I had rounded up, and decided come back later for the sink, hoping it would still be there. Came back 5 days later, and it was there; not bad for $77!

I then became a busy beaver, with mitering the trim and installing it on all the doors.   Next was the preparation for varnish with filler for nail heads and sanding.   As the end of the month approached, I had my layaway queens size bed delivered and commandeered some young strong backs to help move my linen cabinet from the garage  to its place in the bridging hallway between bedrooms and the master bath.

June 30, My bargain Kohler cast iron kitchen sink.

A bed in master bedroom, first furniture for moving in!

Linen cabinet installed in hallway between bedrooms and master bath.

Master bath, with towel bars and mirror; ready for guests!

As I was getting ready to start the stain and varnish on the interior doors and trim, my son called to tell me they would be visiting me a week earlier than the original plan, so decided to delay the application till after they left. So after a pleasant few days with grandkids exploring my place, it was back to work, first with doing the stain and varnish on the doors. I also now put my shower doors on so the temporary curtain goes into storage.

Mechanical room door, framing and finish complete, hardware installed.

Master bath door, looking in.

Looking from master bedroom to master bath.

Looking from back of master bath, new shower doors installed.

Looking into master bath, new shower door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next item on my agenda was to finish and install my kitchen cabinets. I quickly discovered that I had made a small error in the framing of the space in the partial wall that divides the kitchen from the great room. The width of the space was slightly narrow, in relation to the width of the cabinets to be fitted. There was however enough “meat” in the oak framing to trim a small amount from the edges with a router. My friend Don Eyles, a master wood-worker gave me hand with this in his shop and now my cabinets fitted.

July 23, Dissembled kitchen cabinets being sanded, stained and varnished.

Drawer ends of cabinets being finished.

Glueing veneer panels on sides of wall cabinets.

July 29, Finish work progressing.

Finished drawers in cabients.

Finished veneer on side of base cabinet with an exposed side.

drawers back in finished cabinets.

Finished veneer on wall cabinets.

July 30, Measuring for fit of base cabinets in the kitchen island.

Bathrooms and Doors

A New Year and new challenges

I took a bit of a holiday from the house building business, and spent a month including Christmas and New Year in Newfoundland catching up with friends and family and enjoying the “fleshpots” of the Newfoundland holiday season.   I had got my radiant heating system up and running on the backup heat source with the natural gas tankless heater heating the water in my 80 gallon solar storage tank.  The plumbers had finished most of the copper plumbing in the attic connecting the manifolds of the solar panels on the roof, but ran out of acetylene which they needed to do the silver solder on the copper pipes and there were two joints that would not hold pressure.   I had arranged to have my friend Ron of the strawbale house down the street, keep an eye on my radiant heating system which was still in start-up mode.   Since he had gone through similar setup with his house not long ago, was well adapted to overseeing it.   Just after  I got on the plane to NL, there was a major dump of snow here in Ontario,  and Ron complained by email of having to slog through the drifts.  Fortunately with  a little tweaking on his part the heating worked quite nicely and reached equilibrium a few days after I left.

When I got back from Newfoundland on January 11,  all that snow had melted, but in another couple days there was again snow on the ground and the roof.   I was able to schedule plumbers to come and finish the solar panel plumbing and it then passed muster holding pressure.   We also  re-organized the loop from the tank-less heater which was doing weird things and got air locked regularly.   Had been taking water from the middle of  of the storage tank and feeding it back into the top after heating.   Now take water from the middle, and feed it in at the bottom.   The system is much happier!    At that point the plumbing was compete to the solar panels, but the roof was loaded with ice and snow, so no prospect of installing the evacuated tubes in the panel manifolds.

There was a really cold spell during my absence, and unfortunately the battery on my VW Jetta  ran down because of issues I had with an ignition switch frozen in accessory position.  Net result a wrecked battery which had frozen.   I also had the final insult to the blower motor of the propane furnace of my trailer. I thought I had left the furnace turned down really low and had an electric heater to keep the interior from getting really cold,  but apparently had left the furnace thermostat set higher than intended.  Net result, exhausted the propane tank, and the dumb furnace controller runs the fan forever when there is no propane, you have to turn the furnace off to at the thermostat to get it to stop.  The fan motor bearings were on their last legs, would make noise on startup, but running indefinitely pushed them over the edge and the motor was non-functional when I got back.

Since I had two ceramic heaters I was able to make the trailer temps livable since I have it winterized with plexiglass storm windows and an insulating skirt, but set about finding a replacement motor.  By far the best price I could find was at RVParts.com which is part of Wild Tangent Ventures Inc. in Tuscon, AZ.   I had a bit of trouble getting their online ordering system to work, and they saw my incomplete order and contacted me by email.  When I tried again, I got the order and was astounded at the low shipping cost.  It turns out there was a glitch in the program, and it undercharged me for shipping, but they shipped at that price anyway.  GOOD PEOPLE! They also ship by USPost which avoids the exorbitant brokerage fee with FedX or UPS for coming across the border.  It got here in good time, and with a bit of fiddling and cold hands got the furnace up and running again.

Just to make my life even more interesting, my MacBook laptop, not quite a year in my hands, had the hard drive crash at the end of January.  It was really close but it was still in warranty, and I had been using the Time Machine backup system so in theory everything was backed up on an external drive.  I got the new hard-drive for free, but  getting  a really complete restoration of everything was so complicated I had to pay the Mac technician to get it done.  Painful, but money well spent because I had wasted an entire weekend trying unsuccessfully to do it myself.

In the meantime, I was  working away at preparing my floors for staining.   This was a multiple step process.  1. thoroughly scrub floor with soap and water.  2. Treat with an etching chemical to prepare surface for  staining.  3. REALLY scrub the surface to remove the treatment product and leave the surface ready for stain  4. Stain the floors    5. Apply sealer.       I have chosen to use a set of water based chemicals which are rated much less toxic (to me and the environment) than the acid stain process and epoxy sealers which have been in common use for many years.   I had seen a demo of these products at the Form and Build shop which supplies a wide variety of tools and finshes/chemicals for doing concrete construction, and liked the reduced hazard and “green” features.  I started out doing the scrubbing  with rubber gloves and a scrub brush,  followed by the wet vac to pick up the dirt and water.   Quickly found that was not doing good things to my back and other joints, so rented a commercial floor scrubber from Home Depot.   Thought I could finish the prep work in two days, but figured out after two 14 hour days alternating between scrubber and wet vac, that it would take four days to get the job done.   I was one tired puppy by the time I brought the scrubber back the Home Depot at the end of the 4th day.    I sort of empathized with the guy in the joke who was banging his head against the wall.  When asked why he was doing it, answered “because it feels so good when I stop “:)  After a day of recovery  I started working on the staining.  First go was the walk-in closet in the master BR, quickly determined the dilution factor was too dark, and tried to remove some stain with a roller.   Final result was not happy, very streaky.  Had to do another coat, darker than I really wanted but more uniform.  Final dilution ratio was 12 to 1 distilled H2O to stain.

In the second week in February the weather warmed up and snow melted including all the snow and ice on the roof.   At that point I connected with my friend Ron and Ken Cochrane another of my close neighbors came over to help and we installed the evacuated tubes in the solar panels.  D-Day  was Feb 18 and we  had an assembly line.   Ken was in the house unpacking the tubes and greasing the end of the heat pipe with silicone. He  passed them out the door to Ron who was on the scaffold,  from there to me on the roof  where I inserted each one into the manifold and Ron screwed in the retainer cap to hold the tube from sliding out.  Went lickety split, done with all 60 tubes in a little over 2 hours.   It was almost 5 pm when we were finished but already the panels were hot enough that the controller computer turned on the pump and we collecting heat from the tubes.   It has not been a particularly sunny winter, lots of snow and full or partial overcast.  On the first really bright sunny day,  the solar panels brought the temp in the storage tank up to 180 F, the max the controller would allow, and then shut off the pump so the water drained back into the reservoir.  The collector temperature under the stagnant conditions with no water in the manifold, rose to 409F .   My strategy now on sunny days is to turn up the thermostat so I’m pulling heat out of the tank at the same time as panels are putting heat in.   Maximizes the heat I can capture and store in the water tank and the floor and don’t get tank temp so high that the pump shuts off and I stop collecting calories.

February 18, Evacuated tubes installed in the solar panels.

February 21, Snow again!

Snow partially cleared from the panels.

Snow brushed off the solar panels.

All three panels cleared of snow.

Part of my life and engagement with the community is a continuation of my passion for choral music. As a consequence I sing in two choirs, plus a church choir. In my near community this is the Glencoe community choir called Voiceprints, as well as the London-based London Pro Musica an auditioned high level choir with a long history of excellence. Net result is that I have rehearsals pretty much every Monday and Tuesday evening, the Monday rehearsal of course taking me to London. I usually try to combine the Monday trip with errands I may need to run in relation to stuff I need for the house project, and one place I regularly check out is the Sears outlet store, which is just down the street from another of my regular haunts, the Costco store. On one of my visits I noticed an mahogany armoire with a small scratch on its finish that was price reduced by almost 70% and was a perfect fit for the space in my bedroom hallway were I was planning to build a movable linen cabinet. It is real wood, and the price was right so I made it mine, and a couple days later my friend Don helped me bring it home with his pickup.

My new linen closet/ armoire for the bedroom hallway.

A major commitment of LPM for the winter season was to travel to Kingston, ON on March 5 for a joint concert with the Cantabile choir directed by Mark Sirett. As warmup of repertoire and presentation to our local audience we did a joint concert with the choirs from Medway High School, which also has a long history of choral excellence, on Feb 26. Since I have a daughter who lives in Montreal I have not visited in a while, I chose to drive to Kingston rather than taking the bus which the choir had hired.

The weather was not entirely cooperative, had pouring rain for the trip to Kingston on Saturday, where the rehearsal and concert went swimmingly

March 5, Rehearsal in St George's Anglican church of Cantabile choir.

Had a full house at St. Georges Anglican Cathedral, more than 600 people who were enthusiastically appreciative. That night it snowed, significantly Sang an additional engagement at the service of the Chalmers United Church Sunday morning and then it was hit the road to Montreal.

First 100 km was dicey, snow-packed occasionally icy spots on the road, and some drivers with death wishes who insisted on driving far faster than conditions warranted. After I got away from the lake effect snow coming off Lake Ontario, the road improved and I made it into Montreal before dark. That night MORE snow, about 20cm, so I had to dig out my car the next morning. Montreal has very good snow clearing, so major streets were open right away, but enough snow so parking areas took a while to open up. Did a bit of out and about around town, traffic was light, I gather it was a school snow day. When we decided to go to a movie on Monday night, at a huge multiplex in the old hockey temple the Forum, we had a private screening, just the two of us in the theater. Tuesday morning headed back home to the country, once I got outside Montreal the highway was clear and dry. Made it back in time for choir practice with my other choir

Stained sealed floor in dining room area.

Hot water, solar panels and finish details

I now began to aggressively research my options as far as getting a hot water storage tank with 2 heat exchangers that would be appropriate for my planned hot water solar panels to provide heat in the radiant floor circuits when needed to supplement what is coming in the windows. My first check was with local plumbing supply houses, and when they would not give me a price quote, through my plumbing contractor, Mike Noe of CPE. What I needed was going to be expensive so I cast my net further afield checking with a solar energy specialist in upstate NY, and got a very competitive quote on an appropriate tank that saved me roughly $1000. They also were having a Fall promotional sale on solar panels (probably to move out existing stock at the end of the main construction season) so I decided to jump forward and get my solar panels at the same time. I ordered 3 – 20 tube evacuated tube heat pipe solar panels rated at 28,000 btu/day each, a drain back tank, fittings, pumps, and an electronic solar controller, as well as the 80 gallon storage tank. I arranged to go to their office and warehouse in Bainbridge, NY and pick the stuff up on Friday October 15. My timing was complicated by the fact that the appliances (stove and frig) I had put on layaway from the Boxing day sales last winter were being delivered on Thursday afternoon. So after receiving and securing them I loaded up and headed East, with a first stop in London to get a bank draft, and then on to Bainbridge.

My GPS was overly optimistic in terms of the driving time required to get there and I was planning on stopping at a reasonable time near destination and getting a motel. By the time I got to that geography, it was 2AM, and I just pulled into a parking area, climbed the back of the van with a blanket and slept until about 7AM.

Rolled in to Bainbridge about 7:30, had some breakfast at a diner and showed up at Silcon Solar shortly after they opened for the day. After a bit of consultation with the installer/engineer decided on the final assortment of bits I would get, settled the payment and headed out to the warehouse which was a few miles away on the other side of town. Morning had dawned gray and wet with building wind and heavy rain and I had my sturdy tarpaulin and bungee cords which I thought would be adequate to cover my precious load and keep it dry in my trailer. Started off and before I got back to Bainbridge it was apparent I needed more tiedowns to keep the tarp from flapping wildly. After a vist to the Dollar store had more bungees, and it seemed to be doing well but then I got on the interstate and more or less up to a safe cruising speed. The tarp started to flap wildly in spite of the tie-downs, split up the middle and was doing nothing to protect the packages in the trailer. Hence I had to pull of and hunt for a building supply outlet and get another tarp and even more bungees. I also had a bunch ratchet strap tie downs in the van which I used over the months to secure loads in the trailer, and with a combination of the bungees around the edges and 3 ratchet straps from front to back of the trailer was able to control the effect of the wind on the tarp and finally about 12:30 really got started on the trek back home.

It was decidedly unpleasant driving with the wind and rain and after a couple of hours the short night began to catch up with me and I pulled into a rest area for a nap. Still not really sure what happened, but when I woke up from my snooze, my battery was so low the engine wouldn’t start. I determined I had left my headlights on, and maybe had my foot on the brakes so the electric brakes were also draining power. Had a moment of panic but I had my jumper cables, and the first people I encountered as I headed toward the bathrooms were willing to give me a boost, so in short order I was back on the road.

The nasty rain and wind continued nearly till I reached the border as daylight was fading and it was dry pavement from there till I got home at about midnight, where I crashed for a recovery sleep. Next morning was dry and sunny, and peeled of the tarp and loaded everything into the garage. On Monday I ordered an additional two pumps which I need for the system, and the specialized pipe insulation for the lines to the solar panels. In about a week I should have pretty much everything I will need to assemble the solar hot water system. Below are pictures of my new stove and fridge in the newly painted kitchen area, Silicon Solar location and of the boxes of the components I acquired,.

Stove and fridge in their approximate final locations.

Slightly different angle showing the painted surfaces of the kitchen area. Paint color is called Warm Hug:)

Silicon Solar sales office.

More of the demo solar panels at the sales office.

Hot water storage tank and all the solar components in boxes. Some assembly required

A "found" dresser left out by one of my neighbors. Solid real hardwood, must be good for something

After recovering from my trip over the weekend and reading the operating manual for my solar controller, I decided it didn’t make sense to have two pumps working in parallel to pump water to the solar panels and called Silicon Solar to cancel the back ordered pump which would have doubled the pump input with two small pumps.

I then ordered a larger single pump which would be able to pump water to the height needed at an appropriate flow rate (Taco 008 a cast iron pump housing) and a small bronze housing pump to circulate potable water from the storage tank to the tankless natural gas powered heater if the solar panels are not generating enough heat for radiant heating and household use. I also, on the recommendation of the Silicon Solar people located a source for high temperature pipe insulation to insulate the pipe circuit to the solar panels. Placed my orders by phone and had them shipped to the Bluewater Ferry as per earlier strategy for US shipping sources. The pump source was Pex Universe a plumbing supply house in Brooklyn, NY, and the pipe insulation was from AltEstore in Massachussets. They both arrived at the ferry by Friday and I buzzed over and picked them up.

I then set about to begin assembling the pieces of my solar system starting by moving the hot water storage tank into the mechanical room from the landing zone in the garage. Also got some help from my friend Ron of the strawbale house down the street to put up my range hood so the kitchen will be ready for cooking shortly. The following Monday I got a voicemail message from the folks at Silicon Solar telling me they had shipped the back-ordered pump which was still on my bill for the the system So I planned to make a trip to pick it up at the ferry later in the week. I had also scheduled the gas company to hook up my gas meter and had the gas fitters do their final stuff so I had a working appliance with my gas range when the gas company lady showed up. Anyway, I now have a working refrigerator and stove, but it will be a while before the kitchen cabinets are ready.

I decided that rather than just pick up the pump from the ferry, that I would cross the river and do some shopping for door latches and locks in particular to match the ones I had purchased earlier, and to get the deadbolt that was out of stock, as well as to have them all rekeyed to one key. I checked on the web for Lowes where I had purchased the original locks, and behold, my brand was on 50% off special, so decided to really go whole hog and get the hardware for all my doors. Went smoothly, except that it turned out that Lowes is terminating the lock brand, so it was hit or miss if any store had what I needed in stock. The service people at my first encounter didn’t have what I needed but another store only about 8 miles away had some of what I needed. So off I went. I got several of the locks and deadbolts and passage hardware that I needed but not everything. It was going to take almost 2 hours to get my locks rekeyed, 3 sets of exterior locks and deadbolts, so I took the time to visit two other Lowes stores each within 20 minutes of that location, and planned to hit a 5th one that was on the path back to the ferry. Still can’t believe the density of Lowes stores in the Detroit suburbs, and all but one of them had a Home Depot virtually across the street. I was only able to get two more of the closet and bath/bed privacy latches, but got a very close match with Weiser brand in appearance although not the solid brass hardware like the Gatehouse locks I was getting on special. Interestingly when I checked at the new Lowes store in London on the Canadian side of the border, no special on the Gatehouse locks, and no sign that they are being discontinued. The big difference was in price, the fancy main entry set I got for $59 US was $159 Canadian and the currencies are almost on par right now.  The  Weiser locks were a good buy, about $10  less than Canadian prices but nothing like the closeouts.

Working stove and range hood.

Hot water storage tank in mechanical room, heat exchangers installed and solar panel drainback tank on top.

All three panel bases assembled and positioned as they will be on the roof.

Scaffolding and foot rail in place for installing solar panels on the south face of the roof.

In preparation for mounting the solar panels 2×8 backing pieces were screwed between the trusses flush to the back of the roof deck, place such that the mounting feet would be centered over them. Thus the lag bolts which would penetrate the shingles and deck would be solidly attached into that mounting block. Took a couple days of thinking and planning and actually executing to get the preparation done for the panels working in the attic under the roof.

The roof was set up on the day of installation with 2×6 or 2×8 planks cut to hold the feet in the proper location over the securing block under the roof. The manifold frames were placed on the roof, fastened together with the brass unions between them, and then positioned laterally so no foot was over a shingle seam. Pilot holes were drilled, filled with silicone caulk, and then the lag bolts secured to fasten the frame and seal the roof penetration.

Solar panel manifolds and frames installed on the roof with interconnections. Ron Challis my neighbor and assistant in the operation.

Solar panel mounts with the supporting spacers removed.

On my Monday trip into London, for dental appointment, and choir practice, I scored track light fixtures at Costco. They are brushed nickel, Energy Star with CFLs in them. Fixture and lights $35 and quite handsome. May be retrofittable with LED lights when the price comes down. I also got tiles for the floors of my bathrooms, now just have to get organized to start on the tile work after I have solar panel and hot water details finished. Plumbers are scheduled to come in and hook up city water and plumb domestic hot water and radiant heat system on Tuesday Nov 16, so things should be percolating along.

New track light fixtures mounted on great room ceiling.

Kelly from CPE arrived with a helper on Tuesday afternoon, and then again for a few hours on Wednesday. Not complete, and still no water hooked up, but many benchmarks of the system are done. The circulation loop from the Takagi Jr. tankless natural gas water heater to the water storage tanks is complete. A small bronze Taco 006 pump is controlled by the solar panel controller computer to circulate water from the tank through the heater and bring the temp up to standard when the solar panels are either not hot enough or no sun is shining. The system is a “drainback” hot water system, otherwise known as an open or non-pressurized sytem. There is a drainback reservoir which sits above the main water/heat storage tank and a circulating pump moves the water from that tank up to the solar panels. More accurately it draws water through the heat exchanger in the storage, up to the panels, back to the drainback tank, and then down through the heat exchanger heating the water in the tank, and then back around the loop. When the sensor in the solar panel shows that the temperature difference is too small for effective heat capture (either because the sun is not shining, or the storage tank temperature is up to the maximum) the pump turns off. Since the system is open with a vent to the atmosphere in the drainback tank, and the pipes and solar panels are all sloped so the water drains efficiently back to the 10 gallon drainback tank, leaving the pipes and solar collector manifold empty. The benefit of this system is that it is simpler and has less hassles in meeting standards for pressure and freedom from leaks which is necessary in a closed system. The closed system also must be filled with antifreeze (Glycol) which is expensive compared to water, and requires an extra pump and arrangement for heat dumping when the storage volume is up to spec and the sun is still shining. The drainback system just empties out and heat dumping is not an issue. This approach is particularly simple when dealing with an evacuated tube/heat pipe collector which has a very small volume of fluid in the manifold, so the drainback approach works very nicely. The flat panel collectors apparently can also use drainback, but the mechanics of getting complete emptying of the loop are more complicated.

Below are pictures of the present status of the solar collector and radiant heating plumbing.

Plumbing of the hot water storage tank, lines and pump to the backup heat source from the tankless natural gas water heater. Pump will be controlled by the solar panel controller.

A slightly different angle, showing the two other pumps, up top to send water to the solar panels, below the circulator for the radiant heat in the floors, at bottom the manifold for the radiant circuits. On the shelf above is the drainback tank for the solar collector circuit.

Circulating pump and radiant heat manifold for the garage/workshop.

In the attic looking from the access door over the box of pipe insulation to the far west end of the pipe to the collectors.

Looking east under the trusses to the far end of the collectors and the turn of the pipes down to the mechanical room. Some insulation on the pipes.

Looking from the ceiling over the mechanical room up the insulated pipes feeding the collectors.

Plumbing complete on the workshop radiant heat manifold and pump.

Plumbing complete on the radiant heat, solar circuits, and domestic hot water connections. City water is now connected.

Plumbing complete to the west end of the solar panels with insulation in place

Feed and return pipes emerging from the mechanical room.

The dividing point where feed and return pipes diverge to go to the opposite ends of the solar array. Note the slope in the lines to give efficient drainback when the pump turns off.

Looking down the pipes to the penetration point into the mechanical room. Note the red wire which connects the temperature sensor in the solar array to the control computer below.

Windows and other stuff.

As I was finishing the stucco including a 3rd coat on the east, north and west walls of the garage/workshop, I was finalizing my list for ordering windows. Got the final decisions made and order in to Northstar on the Tuesday after Labor Day, and they were scheduled to arrive on Sept 28. So I set about getting the window frames ready removing the strapping and screws on the outside which were there to make them relatively airtight over the winter and removing plastic and staples on the inside panel of vinyl. Also a bit of work with the right angle grinder and diamond wheel to even out the edge of stucco where it joins the window frame. Anyway, got it mostly done by midday of the 27th and made my weekly trip into London for choir practice with London Pro Musica, and visits to the tool repair place to order a replacement part for my compressor, as well as to get a box of light fixtures and compact fluorescent bulbs to get some real lights hooked up and usable.

I had been warned that the truck from Northstar would be arriving at the crack of dawn (actually before dawn) and was up and waiting at 6 AM, they arrived at 6:15 and had all the windows in my garage in just under 20 minutes. I had arranged to have Adam Kaufman, who did my drywall, come and help me install windows on Wednesday, so I tied up the loose ends on prepping the window frames on Tuesday, and got a good supply of deck screws, shingle shims, caulk and low expansion foam for the installation exercise. It rained off and on all day, and at supper time Adam called to delay the help till Thursday, which was not a problem for me. So Wednesday, more prep work on frames, and cut up a half sheet of 1/4 inch plywood to make base shims to lift the bottom of the window off the bottom of the framed opening to be able to spray the foam in and seal all the gaps. I then set about installing the first two windows, the two smallest ones, that I could manage alone. Pictures below of the windows in the garage, and the two installed windows in the kitchen overlooking the screen porch and breezeway.

September 28, Looking at the really big windows, nearest the camera 68 inches tall, by 76 inches triple glazed. The slightly smaller ones nearer the garage door are only 68 x 52.

The long stack are the small windows 44x28, the tall ones are 68x28

Looking at the small big windows, two pictures, and three picture over awning windows for ventilation.

September 29, the initial two windows installed in the kitchen.

Thursday September 30 I was out removing plastic film and staples from window frames in preparation for the arrival of Adam Kaufman and his helper Kieran. A little after 8 AM they showed up and a very busy day began.The two biggest windows are in the garage and workshop, and those were the first to go in. They then completed the rest of the south wall of the garage and went on to put in all the smaller windows on the east, west and north walls.

All windows on south side of garage/workshop installed.

WIndows on north side of garage installed.

Adam and Kieran putting the last of the big windows into the kitchen/dining room window frame.

Positioning the window over the shims.

Now check the level and centering and screw it to the frame.

Fastening the window in place.

The last set of windows to be installed, frames ready.

Kieran placing the shims and checking for a level base.

Installing the last window, in the solar chimney. Kieran on the roof and Adam inside.

The chimney window in place.

Checking level and centering the window.

Fastening the screws.

Looking out the Dining room windows.

Looking out the master bedroom windows.

Panaromic view of house with windows from the north side.

Looking at the installed windows from the southwest.

 

Stucco, stucco stucco, playing in the mud on the outer walls.

On Wednesday July 14, I had a dental appointment in London and got myself another 5 gallons of drywall primer as well.  The following 2 days let me finish up the priming in the garage/workshop drywall and then I spent a day getting all my mortar mixing gear ready for the stucco application.   On July 17, I put the first stucco to wall on the southeast corner of the the garage.   The following day all of the the south wall was completed, and the next day the west wall around the corner to the north face.   I then took a day to get more portland cement for making up my stucco mix.

July 17, the whiter cured stucco on the corner was applied, the darker grey in back applied the day after.

The rest of the south wall stucco applied for the first coat.

July 19, west wall stucco scratch coat done.

Northwest corner of garage, scratch coat done.

I had an odyssey tracking down my preferred brand of cement.   In the work last summer on the surface-bonding cement I discovered that one brand  Essroc made in Picton, ON was notably lighter in color when it was cured.  This was a definite desired factor in the final visible surface.   I got that batch of cement quite by accident at the TSC store in Strathroy, ON when my usual source in Lambeth was running out at the end of the summer.  Normally the TSC stores supply Quickcrete products, but their supplier couldn’t keep up with demand and they had a few pallets of the Essroc brand.   When I went back to try and get more this Spring, it was a black hole, nobody knew  “nuttin”.   So I called the manufacturer, who told me they supply  Lowes stores, but after calling the three stores closest to me, they all only had Quickcrete.    So I chased the manufacturer again, and after harassing the rep’s voice mail a couple times finally got a real line on a relatively near location that had their product, the Timbr Mart in Wyoming, ON.   So on a Saturday morning  July 10, I called them just to make sure they had a good stock, which they did.   Then I planned a looping trip to pick up 20 bags of my preferred Essroc for the finish coat, and 12 bags of Quickcrete from the TSC in Strathroy, which was $2.00/bag cheaper, and quite OK for the scratch coat.    I was astounded to find that the store closed at noon on Saturday,  and figured I would just continue and now get 20 bags of TSC product.   Just to show how perverse the universe is, TSC only had 9 bags in stock, so I got a raincheck for the extra 11 bags I wanted.   About a week later they called to say new stock had come in, so on Tuesday Jul20, I took a rest day and did the loop again, this time successfully 21 bags of Essroc and 11 bags of Quickcrete.   Got home and loaded it all (2816 lbs)  onto pallets in the garage bay to keep it dry so not a real rest day

Wednesday  July 21. another good day on the stucco sprayer, completed the north wall of the garage and around the corner to where the meter panel lives.   That will be a painful bit of work to do the stucco behind the panel, but I expect that wall will be finished by Thursday night, and then it will be on to put up all the stucco mesh on the house in preparation for the scratch coat there.

July 21, north face of garage scratch coat done.

Around the corner to the meter panel.

Just a comment about working with stucco/surface bonding cement.   Because the mixture has a relatively high lime content, which is necessary for its waterproof nature,  it is quite corrosive before it cures.   I wear long sleeves and nitrile gloves followed by rubber gloves with gauntlets, safety glasses and a respiration mask.   I still end up getting some of the stuff on my wrists, mostly the right one which is the hand I use most for  cleaning the mixer blades, or any other intervention which is likely to open a gap between glove and sleeve.   Leaves a nasty “burn” especially if you don’t notice it immediately and don’t wash it off quickly.  If it is partially “cured”  on the skin I find it takes a hand scrubbing brush and soap to really get the stuff off, and then polysporin and lanolin to get it to heal quickly.   The best thing is NOT to get it on your skin.  In spite of the protection, still get some splatter in my beard and hair, which makes for some less than pleasant activity to remove it when it is partially cured.

As predicted, the scratch coat on the garage was finished on Thursday, although because that was the sunny side in the morning I didn’t start till about 3 pm, so the last mixer load was applied in near darkness after 9 pm.

Finished! The east wall of garage has its scratch coat done.

I had a flakeout day after finishing the scratch coat on the garage, and then went at the preparation for stucco screen on the house. I had learned from my experience on the garage walls that the flatter the foam base the easier it is to get good stucco penetration of the mesh and bonding to the foam. So I set about doing a more rigorous job of shaving off the lumps and bumps of the foam. Also then put up my fastening rail at the top of the wall made of of 1×3 strips of treated wood, screwed through the foam at the top to the nailing plate just under the butts of the trusses. A dirty job with the shaving, using a right angle grinder with a 4 inch diamond blade previously used for cutting concrete blocks. May seem counter-intuitive, but of all the cutting discs and wire wheels I tried this seemed to give the cleanest even shaving and less blowoff than the alternatives. Still a dust mask, safety glasses, and long sleeves sort of job.

Any way after a couple days of this sort of work I had all the wall except the screen porch prepared, and got to actually hanging the mesh. Like the garage the entire south face is covered with diamond mesh steel stucco lath between the window and door frames. By Friday July 30 early afternoon I had the whole south face and a good start around the corner on the west face with the mesh in place. Since I needed to get more lime and diamond mesh to finish the job, I made an excursion into London to resupply. Called my lime supplier Complete Building Supply because I remembered from last summer that on holiday weekends they would close at 4 PM and lucky I did because the were due to close, but waited for me get there about 4:10PM. The got my diamond mesh Home Depot, and as usual checked Costco when I was getting my propane tanks refilled. They had a really nice Moen bathroom vanity faucet at an incredibly good price and I bought one. I didn’t realize how good the price was till I checked a comparable Moen product at Home Depot then went back and got 2 more so have the faucets for all the bathroom vanities.

Saturday I worked onward on the west wall and by quitting time had the mesh done up to the northwest corner.

July 29, Stucco mesh on south wall of house complete.

July 30, around the corner a start on the west wall stucco mesh.

July 31, Stucco mesh on west complete to northwest corner.

As I was working away diligently on the stucco mesh, I was checking on my back-ordered water heater vent, and put in an order for more of the PVA fiber which use for the stucco mix which is only available in the USA. I had been waiting for months for the replacement part for my cement mixer, I had worn out the ring gear stamped into the bottom half of the mixer barrel. It had to be ordered from supplier in China so took a long time to arrive (Think “a slow boat from China” with music ) The folks at Harbor Freight were less than completely informative about the shipping details even though I harassed them a couple times. Anyway, I also harassed the plumbing supplier, about when the back order was coming and wonder of wonders, that morning it was shipped, so I was tracking the UPS progress of the packages, which arrived at the Blue Water Ferry in Marine CIty, MI on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, and about an hour after there was confirmed delivery of the second package headed off to the border in Sombra, ON. The ferry there has a package receiving service, they accept them on the US side and bring them across for $5 per package, where you pick it up and take it through customs and pay the tax and duty if there is any. When I got there and got the two packages I expected, the deck hand grumbled that I had another package that had been there almost a month. It turned out to be my cement mixer part, which I could have used much earlier, since I am using a borrowed machine in the meantime. All in all a productive trip. Got back in time to still do useful work on the stucco mesh. The end result was that by Friday night the whole house was covered with mesh and it was time to get to work on making up the stucco mix I would need for the scratch coat on the house. Pictures below of the final walls of mesh.

August 4, complete mesh on the north wall.

August 5 , entry door and wall mesh complete.

August 6, the circle is complete, the last walls in the screen porch have stucco mesh done.

After finishing the mesh installation, I set about mixing the dry stucco ingredients and with a few days work had 77 batches made up. I took a day to run into London to get some cement color pigment and settled on iron oxide, ocher to tint the final coat of stucco. I also picked up a 20 gallon air tank to hook in series with my compressor to increase the volume of air I can expel when using my stucco sprayer. On Thursday morning August 12 I was ready to go. I put in three good days, was planning on getting more brick sand from my aggregate supplier early on Saturday, but discovered they are not open all weekend, so ran out of sand by the end of the day. An enforced holiday on Sunday, to give a little time for the stucco burn on my right forearm to heal Monday morning will get a trailer load of sand and be back at it.

August 12, House stucco begun, part of south wall complete scratch coat.

South wall scratch coat complete.

Around the corner to the west bedroom window.

Scratch coat complete on the west wall.

Around the corner to the north wall.

Experiments in putting varying amounts of red oxide colour into a mixer load of the stucco. One measure (from my whey protein powder package) These panels will be covered by the final finish coat. Use this colour ratio to have a pink house

Half a measure of red oxide, not quite so pink.

One third measure. This one has the least cure time, so need another day to see what the colour will really be. This looks pretty close to what I would like the stucco to look like, just a hint of red, not the hard grey.

August 16 ,Monday morning I got my trailer load of sand, and got a good start on the north wall. Took most of Tuesday morning to make up stucco batches with the one bag of white portland I had from last fall when I was coating the interior walls of the house to get the white plaster effect. This let me make up 3 mixer loads of pure white portland, and 3 loads of 50/50 white/grey portland. One mixer of each of those groups also had 1 teaspoon of red oxide in the mix. The remainder of the pure grey portland on the rest of the scratch coat had 1 teaspoon of red oxide in the mix. The result is my wall of many colours, which as it now has been decided will be covered with the pure white portland mix for the finish coat. I had a short section that was completed on Tuesday afternoon, and on Wednesday finished the north wall. Took the day on Thursday to clean the screen porch area where I was mixing stucco batches, and tarped the floor to protect it from the fallout from the stucco process. Andrew from Hamilton arrived at noon to have a look at the house, especially the Wakefield Bridge shingles. He also gave me hand the rest of the clearing out the tarps in the house and sweeping up the fallout from the drywall operation. Friday was a long day, but got the last section entry door and screen porch wall scratch coat done. My poor compressor started to “fatigue” as the end was in sight. The thermal cut-off would shut it down and after a cool-down would run for a while again shorter and shorter till it just wouldn’t reset. Finally went down the street to my neighbor Ron who just finished building his strawbale house and borrowed his compressor to finish the last 4 mixers of stucco.

Below are pictures of the last stage of the scratch coat.

North wall of house scratch coat, with color test sections.

North wall with additional cure time, closer to real color of stucco.

Thursday August 19, East end of the north wall, detail of corner.

Details of the entry door.

Scratch coat complete on screen porch walls.

August 22, Longest cure time on the scratch coat of garage/workshop.

August 22, longest cure time on south wall of house scratch coat.

After finishing the scratch coat and evaluating the color samples, I made a trip into London and purchased 20 bags of white portland cement. I also called the Timbr-Mart folks and found I could return the 18 bags of Essroc portland which turned out to not be as white as I had perceived last summer when doing the SBC coats. Then I set about mixing up the dry formula for the stucco as shown below.

Stucco dry formula mixing area on the screen porch with scales and measuring cup.

The "dry" mix, cement mixer used to blend the white portland, PVA fiber, and mason's lime, which was then bagged in double plastic kitchen catcher bags.

Stockpiled mixer batches in the garage bay.

Looking out the garage door, stockpiled batches and remaining white portland for future mixing.

Saturday morning, August 27, I started putting the finish coat on the west wall of the garage/workshop working from the edge of the most southerly window to the north. That day I completed the finish coat along the north wall to the edge of the garage door.

Saturday August 27, FIrst wall on garage workshop with finish coat. Tarp hung to protect against sun to control curing speed.

Looking back behind the tarp on the west wall of workshop.

North wall also finished on Saturday, no direct sun so no tarp.

The east and south walls presented a problem because they catch direct sun throughout the morning, and on the south for a good part of the afternoon. As a consequence I delayed application till I could work in the shade. This was for my own protection as well as the stucco, since temperatures were in excess of 30C with a humidex in excess of 40C, and I had to wear long sleeves and pants, as well as a mask and safety glasses to protect myself from the stucco splatter. The net result was that work finished on the east wall at 10 pm on Sunday with a work light, and at 9 pm on Monday with the south wall which I started at about 4:30pm.

Sunday finished east wall, and tarped because of direct sun all morning.

Monday, finished south wall and tarped to protect from sun.

Northeast corner of garage/workshop with a few days of cure time.

South wall with a couple days of cure time.

North wall with 4 days of cure time.

I determined after finishing the garage/workshop using 34 mixer loads that I would need at least 60 mixer loads for the house based on the ratio I had with the scratch coat. So to be safe ran into London and got 2 more bags of white portland and another bucket of Acryl 60. The weather has be truly evil with the high temp and humidity, so I took a day on Wednesday Sept 1 to go to Port Huron, MI to shop for doors and windows. I came back with good bargains on a patio door for the house to screen porch boundary and a door for the living room to patio/deck exit. Am awaiting price quotes on custom windows, but not optimistic, preliminary calcs seemed indicate they are cheaper only with stock items in standard sizes which they purchase in large lots. For example Lowes had 32 and 36 inch door of interest but could have used a 34 inch door which would be special ordered. Special order for the same spec door almost doubled the price. The curious thing is that the two doors I purchased are actually manufactured in Canada, but I can get them much cheaper even with the currency exchange than I can at my local building supply.

Patio door from my excursion to Port Huron.

Living room door to patio/deck next to its opening.

West side of garage/workshop with 1 week of cure.

North side of garage/workshop stucco with 1 week of cure.

East side of garage/workshop one week of cure in the morning sunshine.

The day after my return from Port Huron, I spent the next 2 days preparing the walls on the west and south sides of the house for stucco, using a diamond wheel in my right angle grinder. This was to trim down and excessively large sharp trowel marks i the scratch coat and to clean up around the window frames so the finish coat will make clean match to the frames. On Sunday stuccoed the West wall, used my corn broom to texture the surface and blend the edges between mixer batches. On Monday, Labor Day, I finished the South wall, and on Tuesday took a “slack” day to prepare walls and window frames on the north and east walls. This was also to protect myself from the heat as the temp was again over 30C. On Wednesday things had cooled down and I finished the walls in the screen porch around the corner to the top north side of the entry door.

On Thursday worked on the long north wall with help from my neighbor Ron of the strawbale house. I mixed and sprayed stucco, and troweled the top third of each section on the ladder. He troweled the bottom 2/3 and “broomed” it all. We started at about 9AM and worked continuously to finish the wall by 3:15PM. Cleaned up the tools and went to our respective homes eat and recover.

Sept 7, West side of house finish coat of stucco with 2 days of cure.

Labor Day labors, south side of house finished, behind the tarp to control cure rate.

September 8, completed finish coat on screen porch walls.

September 9, the circle is complete with finish coat on the north wall.

Corner by the entry door, where the last section made contact with the rest of the finish coat.

September 21, South face of the house with more cure time.

Southwest corner of the house with more cure time.

North side of the house with more cure time, getting whiter and more uniform.

New entry door to the workshop from the breezeway. The old one is now between the garage and workshop.

French doors to the screen porch from the outside.

Garage door installed. Plywood mask still in place because more stucco is likely here.

French doors to screen porch from inside.

Great room door to patio installed.

Natural gas manifold installed and pressure checked for stove, water heater, and dryer.

Ceilings and more

After getting past my electrical inspection, and hatching the birdies    I pressed forward with putting the strapping on the bottom of the trusses for installing drywall for the ceilings.   The sequence will be to install strapping, install and tape the ceiling drywall, spray the polyurethane foam in the ceiling.    Then and/or at the same time the stucco lathe and plastic mesh will be installed on the outer wall, and the first coat of stucco sprayed and troweled to seal in the insulation and protect it from the sun.

Spring has sprung!

The unseasonal warmth has persisted with brief interludes of more typical early Spring temperatures for the region. The result is that I have been able to finish the putting the steel shingles on my roof. The last part of that was shingling the top of the solar chimney. I delayed going up there after discovering that all the pollen, and leaf bud fallout from the big trees around my lot rendered the roof quite slippy, which was a significant deterrent. After a couple good rains, the traction on the roof was acceptable, and I had at it. I had also been ruminating about a safe way to get from the roof ridge up onto the top of the solar chimney, and the final successful plan was to screw 3 2×4 pieces to the corner of the chimney to form a sort of ladder so I could climb up onto the flat top. It worked well, and I got the shingles on, and caulked around the edges and back down as it was getting to quitting time. So I left my ladder in place, knowing I would need to remove it later. I decided it would be fun to get pictures of me up there at the top turret of my castle, so got my neighbor down the street to come and photograph me as I was up there to take down the ladder steps. Below are pix showing the roof finished status and me on top.

April 15, On the roof, to remove the temporary ladder.

In the bleak midwinter

After getting the two big surfaces of the roof shingled, the weather became more persistently winter-like in spite of the local reputation for being the “banana belt” of Ontario.  I worked at getting the plywood skirt on the heels of the trusses.  This has two functions,  1) to provide additional secure attachment (hurricane ties) of the trusses to the nailing plate which is bolted into the reinforced concrete bond beam at the top of the wall and 2) to reduce the wind infiltration over the top of the wall.  In the long term, a space must remain for air circulation in the attic up to the ridge vent on the peak of the roof, but I had enough scrap plywood from the roof deck process that I put temporary closures of the space between the top chords of the trusses held in place with a single short deck screw.

January 11, Plywood skirt on the truss heels south side of the house, air gap at top between top chords.

West face of house, plywood skirt plus temporary covers of the air gap.

North face of house, boundary between finished plywood skirt with temp panels, and fully open section.

February 6, first wall frame section for garage/ workshop bathroom in place and plumb. Next section being assembled.

The long section of garage/workshop wall with door opening a 6 inch plumbing wall ready to erect.

4 inch framing of bathroom walls in place.

The entire framed bathroom walls.

Edge of bathroom walls to left and rest of workshop/garage wall and door.

Bridging the trusses, so all firring strips for drywall go in the same direction.

In January I discovered that there was some cracking of the concrete slab floors in both garage and house. On the advice of my cement contractor I guessed it was due to freezing under the slab stressing the concrete by lifting on it. It was recommended that I use heaters to keep the floor from freezing deep, to prevent more cracking and I had purchased a multi-fuel (kerosene/diesel fuel) space heater from my neighbor Ron, down the street who is finishing a strawbale house, and was loaned another by my plumbing electrical contractor. Now whenever the temperature went substantially below freezing I run the heaters to keep the floor temp above zero. When we had our really cold spell, I had not finished closing in the top of the wall so the wind whistled through, and I added a second layer of poly film on my windows. That also helps to keep the interior warmer, even without insulation or real heating. The cement guys assessment is that the cracks will largely disappear when I stain and polish the floors.

I continue plugging along at the interior framing, now working on the walls in the main house.

February 10, Floor cracks.

Floor crack and kerosene/diesel fuel space heater.

February 19, North wall of master bedroom with entry door and door to walk-in closet framing complete.

Looking down the hall at bedroom walls and closet framing.

February 23, West wall of master bathroom with closet door of guest bedroom.

Framing for master bathroom walls complete.

Complete framing of Master bathroom walls, and machinery room wall.

February 25, Framing of half-bath and Washer-Dryer alcove complete.

February 26, Beginning to frame the kitchen wall dividing it from the entry hall.

Kitchen wall framing complete, with door to the entry hallway.

Looking up the hall from the front door, to the half-bath and entry door to the great-room on the left.

March 2, Entry closet framing finished.

Guest bedroom closet bulge into master bath, framing finished.

March 3, Pillar to ceiling for support of cabinet island and power and switch feeds.

Outer shell of the cabinet complex dividing kitchen from great room.

March 4, framing for cabinet structure complete, pantry/closet on nearest end.

Framing on the east kitchen wall, provision for plumbing, electrical, and vents.

On the weekend of March 7-8, the weather began to get very Springlike, and I began to prepare for roof work again. On Monday got to it seriously finishing the prep work screwing partial shingles to top the roof to where the roof vents were to be attached. Then finished the second layer of flashing on the solar chimney and installed the ridge vents on either side of it. Then went on to finish the final shingles of the west face of the house roof and installed the flashing at the junction to the wall of the gable.

The weather continued spectacular all week with temps 15-18C, and I went on to install the valley flashings on the breezeway and installing the shingles on the east face of the house roof. If the weather holds, will be able to finish all the steel shingles in a few more days.

March 11, solar chimney flashing, ridge vents, and west roof face and flashing complete.

View from the north showing ridge vents and flashing on solar chimney.

Valley flashing on garage end of breezeway in place.

Valley flashing on house end of breezeway and partial completion of east face shingles on house roof.

March 17, Shingles on east face of house roof complete and joined to valley flashing.

March 19, West face of garage, shingles complete flashing installed on gable.

Friday, March 19 was the end of the early Spring record high temps through the region. I completed the east face of the garage/workshop roof and called it a day. Saturday it was back down to near freezing with a brisk northerly breeze. Tried to get on the roof and continue, but I had gotten soft with a week of balmy weather and decided it wasn’t worth the pain. Supposed to be back to similar temps next week, so maybe finish the breezeway roof then.

March 26, South face of breezeway most shingles in place.

Drip edge and first two courses of shingles on north face of breezeway.

Another day and 3 more courses of shingles. Slow going blending to the flashing and ridge trim.

April 1, no fooling, all shingles on the breezeway and on the roof surfaces except for the top of the solar chimney. South face pointing at the garage.

South face of breezeway looking toward the house.

North face of breezeway looking complete.

Building Site Archaeology

The village of Newbury has been occupied by European settlers for approximately 200 years, and by at least transient encampments of native americans.  The area is currently home (within 20 km to “first nation” reserves and communities.  My building lot was occupied by settlers for much of that 200 years, and according to the local old-timers at one time had a veneer/basket factory with a steam engine to treat logs, and shave thin strips of wood for various uses.  The concrete base with large steel bolts emerging on which the steam engine was mounted is still present just behind my RV trailer.  The reason for all this activity was the railroad which runs through the village, and at one time there were all sorts of businesses, hotels, etc related to the support of the railroad activity.  According to the village history,  somewhere on the block in which my lot is placed on York Street the first school (now long gone) was constructed more than 150 years ago.

During the excavation for the footings of the house, a few real artifacts turned up, and I anticipate finding more when I spread the stockpile of topsoil on the south side of the house for landscaping.  Below are pictures of my prizes.

Queen Victoria silver nickel 1881

The "heads" side of the Victoria nickel, very small, smaller than a modern dime.

A nearly perfect crockery vinegar decanter, a medicine bottle, and a hand forged nail.