August-September 2013

After making my way back from my pilgrimage to Iowa, I decided it was time to convert my piles of interlocking bricks into a nice driveway. So I called in the dirt movers again to grade the driveway properly for drainage and level parking. I also had acquired some free fill from a neighbor building a house, which went into the low spot in the back of the yard where some water was still pooling when big rain or Spring thaw happened. I was on a fairly tight time-line, since I wanted to have the job done before we left for our big trip to Peru on Sept 16.

Grading the driveway, digging out the high spots.

Leveling and evening out the base for the driveway.

Landscaping fabric down and sand just placed on top.

Now it has to be spread and the fine grading and leveling done in preparation for the bricks.

The skid steerer making a trip to the low spot in the back yard.

The water hole filed in.

After the grading, landscaping fabric was laid down a truckload of sand dropped onto it and carefully spread and graded. This was the base for laying the interlocking bricks. By my calculations with the number of bricks in hand I could construct a driveway from garage front to street which was 14 ft wide. So I set about placing the bricks and driving them firmly in place with a 2 lb hammer and a wooden block to keep from cracking bricks. Started at the garage entrance and began to work my way toward the street. I used a brick pattern which although more complex, claims to be better at weight distribution and prevention of surface distortion/disturbance of the bricks. You did have to be thinking all the time to make sure you were following the pattern. When I had to make a bend in the driveway to finish perpendicular(or nearly so) to the street, there was a lot of creativity in cutting and fitting bricks to make the transition. This was a time and muscle/back intensive job, taking a couple weeks to accomplish and drawing lots of onlookers and comments.

First section of bricks outside the garage door.

Continuing on down the driveway.

Looked out my bedroom window one morning and a peacock was looking in. Here as it went on its way.

More progress with bricks.

Looking down the driveway, have made the bend in the path.

Sideways view of the work in progress.

Almost to the end.

The jagged edge at the road.

Finished edge at the road. Note the blocks in place for retaining edge.

In order to keep the bricks from “walking” outward with vehicle movement on the the surface, I decided to install a mini-retaining wall on the edges. I happened to have a pile of slightly damaged cement blocks from the primary construction of the house still setting back by my tool shed. So hauled them up with my lawn tractor and trailer and dug them down around the edges so the tops were just flush with bricks. The strategy then was to fill the cores and the tops of the blocks with vibrated concrete, giving a strong border extending 8 inches below brick tops. I also had enough bricks and blocks to install a brick walkway from edge of driveway to edge of breezeway.

Hauling cement blocks from my storage pile for the retaining wall at the edge of the driveway.

Cement mixer and trailer of gravel to make the concrete for the retaining edge.

Bricks in place and retaining edge being built. Cement vibrator lying on the bricks.

First part of the sloped edge at the roadway poured and being finished.

Sloped edge poured, vibrated and troweled.

Working up the easterly edge of driveway pouring concrete into the retaining edge.

Setting down the connecting walkway to the breezeway.

Cement working area adjacent to the connecting walkway

Brick and retaining edge on walkway completed.

Concrete work continued apace and before I knew it it was approaching travel time again, this time our adventure to Peru. Elena arrived from Newfoundland, had a day of recovery and then we did a lightning trip across the border to do some Bank business, allowing her to have an interac card to get Yankee dollars at ATMs when we were traveling. The driveway brick and retaining edge work was all complete cleanly before the run up to travel. Then the US excursion morning before flight to Peru, that evening we drove to Toronto, staying in an airport hotel, leaving the car in long-term parking and taking a shuttle to the airport. Just over 2 weeks of incredible adventure in Peru, Lima, Macchu Picchu, Cusco, Lake Titicaca, Arequipa and home.

Driveway complete except for sealing. Ready to travel!

Grass in the front yard beginning to look like real lawn.

June – July 2012

After Elena flew back to Newfoundland I settled down to some serious house completion issues.   First was laying the interlocking brick in the path from entry door under the breezeway to the entry door of the workshop.  I had acquired the bricks in early days of construction in trade for a case of Coors Light 🙂  Now they became my walkway.

Looking at the bricks through the breezeway to the front yard.

Looking toward the entry door to the workshop/garage.

Looking toward the entry door to the house.

I then set about completing work on my patio in front of the south-facing windows of the great room dining area. First I had a truck load of fill sand delivered, and when opportunity arose a fellow with a skid-steer working next door delivered the sand into the retaining wall. I then leveled and compacted it with my gandy dancer dirt tamper (You figure that out:) ) Filled the space up to about 1 1/2 inch of top of retaining wall, so the top of patio blocks would be flush with it.

I decided to manufacture my own patio blocks, since I had some portland cement and a pile of cement gravel and reinforcing mesh left from earlier cement work. I was able to borrow a concrete stamp and releasing liquid from my friend Craig Morley so the top of the block was to be stamped with an Italian Slate pattern. It turned out that the small stamp of his set, was 22 inches square, which coincidentally gave me a perfect fit for 4 blocks to reach from retaining wall to house edge. I built forms on sheets of plywood fastened to pallets which had been under concrete blocks delivered to my site. They were structured so I could remove the end piece, and insert a prybar under the edge to lift the block out of the form when it had cured for 24 hours.

Retaining wall filled with sand, leveled and compacted ready for patio blocks.

Setting up to make patio blocks, pallets with plywood on the driveway next to the gravel pile.

Finished forms, with reinforcing mesh in place ready for cement to be introduced.

A batch of patio blocks being removed. End piece of form removed and blocks lifted and ready to be transported to the stockpile next to the retaining wall.

FIrst batches of blocks on the stockpile.

I decided the plain concrete was too ordinary, so using red pigment I had experimented with in the stucco phase added a bit of color

Getting close to what I need for the whole patio.

Patio blocks about half in place. Note the landscaping fabric on sand surface to keep weeds from growing in cracks. Also my high-tec gandy dancers compactor to the left.

Nearly done with the patio. Needed make some custom dimension blocks to fill out the last row at the end.

In between batches of cement going into the forms, I kept at other bits that needed to be done. Working on getting the plywood liners into the window wells, and geting them stained and varnished. I also decided to run a pex line from my well pump near the edge of my property up to the edge of the house where I was more a more useful water outlet for lawn and garden and for cement mixing. This was another gift from the guys at CPE, left over from a job they did with a sort of non-standard pex size, 5/8″ instead of 1/2 or 3/4. Anyway I dug the trench, laid the pex and underground rated electrical cable and then covered again with dirt and sod about 8 inches below surface. Not deep enough to escape freezing in the winter but out of the way of lawn mower and other landscaping implements.

The trench with pex in place looking all the way to the pump house near the road.

Closer look at the pex and electrical cable in the trench.

The end of pex at the house edge, with quite a bit left over.

Supposedly the VW van in Newfoundland was to have the transplant done by a professional mechanic friend of my son-in-law Dean. Unfortunately this fellow lost one of his regular helpers in the shop, and was no longer able to schedule the job. Hence it was to be just Dean and me to do the honors in completing the transplant of manual transmission and accessories. Anyway on July 22, Kenn Cochrane one of my neighbors took me into London where I caught an airport shuttle to Toronto Pearson and flew from there to St John’s. With a bit of delay we were into it but it took while to get job done. Dean had a recurrence of major muscle spasms in his back when we were about 2/3s done so I had a significant bit where I was mostly on my own to get it finished up. I did feel the need put it together and drive it enough with short haul trips to be sure nothing was going to fall apart before hitting the road for the big jump back to Ontario. I am sorry now but did not take extensive pictures of the transplant operation only one set of the two vehicles sitting side by side in mid operation.

The donor van with most of the critical bits removed.

The recipient camper with most of the goodies now in place.

My old 92 Passat. I thought the 5th gear in its manual transmission would give a final drive boost, but it was the same as in the donor transmission.

My stay in Newfoundland was prolonged by the freak accident my wife had in which her car was totaled. If it had not been for the airbag she would have been uninjured, but the slide up a guard rail triggered the side airbag which cracked two ribs. If not for that she and her cousin would have emerged shaken but with no physical injuries. So I was involved in helping her get a new car and doing the necessaries which the bad ribs made excruciatingly painful for her till she had healed enough to carry on alone. I finally headed back to Ontario on the last ferry of the season departing September 29 from Argentia to North Sydney which saved me from having to drive the 1000 km to the Port au Basque ferry. I did the trans-border route through Maine and on to New York to save gas money and skirted Montreal in the US crossing the Border from New York state at the Thousand Island bridge. Again dropped some stuff off in Toronto for step-daughter and then home to Newbury.

March 2012

March I continued work on the interior window trim, and also set about retrieving the donor van from Kitchener.   My friend Don took me up to Kitchener where the money was transferred, and we got the transit licence I needed to move the van, to Newbury and eventually to Newfoundland.   Dean, my son-in-law had a trip scheduled to join some of his friends living in Toronto, and go to a rock concert (Van Halen).   When that was completed he took the train to Glencoe, where I picked him up and I had company for a few days, and we got the  interior of the solar chimney lined with whiteboard.  We checked out the van thoroughly and I loaned him a tool set just in case, and he was off.   Everything went very smoothly, he made it to the Ferrry  terminal in North Sydney in 29 hours.

Framing the guest room window.

Putting the meleamine lining in the bathroom window well.

Unfinished window well in entry hall.

Aluminum flashing on the mounting of the meter box and of the power entry into the mainpanel in the garage.

Starting work on the melamine liner of kitchen windows.

Partly done melamine in small kitchen window.

Melamine done in big kitchen window.

The donor van for the clutch/transaxle transplant brought home from Kitchener.

Getting ready to put the whiteboard liner in the solar chimney.

Dean working on the solar chimney lining.

More on the chimney lining.

Mostly done on the lining of the solar chimney and border trim

Finished the melamine and oak trim on kitchen windows.

Finished melamine and oak trim on master bath window.

January/February 2012

After returning from nearly  a month in the sun and sand in Sarasota, it was time to get back to work.   I laid out my agenda, which included: 1)  complete the stain and varnish of kitchen cabinet doors and drawers, 2) install whirlpool tub in master bath, 3) get and install doors for kitchen pantry, and laundry closet as well as for the entry closet, 4) get and install liner for solar chimney 5) get and install melamine liner in the kitchen and master bath window wells.   I did my due diligence shopping for the right doors, and price so ended up doing a trek across the border to Home Depot and Menards.   Came back with the pantry door, the closet doors, tile for the bathtub enclosure, and white board masonite for the lining of the solar chimney.    Then I got to work.

Installed my whirlpool tub, and tiled the enclosure.

Stepping back a little showing the master bath.

Oak trim installed on laundry closet.

Pantry door installed in kitchen.

Oak trim installed on entry closet.

Folding doors for entry closet.

Finished doors being installed in kitchen cabinets.

Louvered doors for laundry closet.

Kohler cast iron sink installed and tiles on counter top with oak trim edge. Doors and drawers with handles installed.

Door installation in progress on kitchen island.

Finished louvered doors installed on laundry closet.

Finished bifold doors installed on entry closet.

As  I was beavering away at the interior finish stuff, I got an email from my daughter saying that her husband Dean had discovered just the thing I needed.   I must first of all confess that I am an aficionado of VW camper vans, having had several over the years.    He had discovered a 95 Eurovan Camper in pristine condition, but with a broken automatic transmission at an unbelievable price.  They had decided I needed to have it, so now the deliberation began about dealing with the bad transaxle.  Internet research revealed that the Eurovans had a history of problems with the automatic trannies, and getting a good warrantied rebuild was going to cost upwards of $5K.   Dean who is a good mechanic, wondered about switching over to a manual transmission, a task he had done before on a couple pickups.   So again internet research and becoming a subscriber to the Eurovan mailing list and hunting through the archives.   It turns out that it is pretty straight-forward to do the transplant if you have a donor van, so I began the hunt on Craigslist and Kijiji looking for a suitable Eurovan with standard transmission.   After a near success, and one that was way to far away, I found one in Kitchener that met our criteria and was sound and drivable.

Side view of van in its owners garage.

Rear of van.

Interior of van.

Now its ours, at Dean and Alexias place.

November 2011

November turned into a strange month in construction operations. I was preparing to drive to Newfoundland to spend the holidays with my wife, and to bring back a bunch of things for the house which had been stored. So in addition to finishing up the solar chimney facing, and making another increment in getting the kitchen cabinets installed, I designed and implemented a scheme for putting a top, and lockable doors on my utility trailer. This was also season for the various choirs in which I sing to have their final preparations for Christmas concerts so some extra out and about for that, the major one singing Messiah with the London Pro Musica and Symphony London the first week in December. As that approached conversations with Elena determined I was not going to Newfoundland for Christmas, but we were trekking to Sarasota, FL for a “white Christmas”, sand not snow 🙂 The van minus trailer but with a bike rack went South rather than East for sun and fun. Below is what I accomplished before the Holiday exodus. Just to make life interesting in addition to a lot of beach time, we also did a sing-along Messiah in Sarasota…. can’t stop singing!

Finished the paneling on the north face of the solar chimney, with help from my dear friend Don; two old guys fiddling on the roof.

View of solar chimney from the northeast.

Installing the wall units of my kitchen cabinet.

Wall units on the kitchen island.

View of house with breezeway, and solar chimney finished.

Turning my utility trailer into an enclosed trailer for bringing stuff back from Newfoundland.

Trailer now with top and lockable doors.

Southern view of house with trim and solar chimney finished.

First dusting of snow of the year, and also now water in my backyard pond.

Snow on my stockpiles of topsoil, eventually to be used for landscaping.

Looking through the breezeway to the driveway.

October 2011

October I had the focus on finishing the window trim and the Hardieboard paneling on the solar chimney. I set up a cutting area outside the garage with my trusty diamond blade in the skilsaw. Trim was cut and drilled for long tapcons which went into the stucco surrounding the windows. Actually went pretty quickly once I got into the routine.

The paneling on the solar chimney was a “horse of a different color”. The narrow sections on the south face were easy, and the East and West sides were harder but doable with one set of hands. However the North side was way too risky with just one person and I deferred that for while (see accomplishments for November).

I then started the prep work for the retaining wall planned for building a patio that runs from the outer edge of the screen porch to just past the door emerging from the great room. First step was to dig the trench for the footings and to put the forming boards in place, properly leveled for screeding the concrete when it was poured into the form. I as usual mixed my own concrete and wheel-barrowed to the forms as it was generated, and troweled the footing to give a smooth level base for the wall.

After a day or so of curing, I by now had moved many of my remaining partly damaged cement blocks to pallets adjacent to the footing and began the wall construction. First step as way back in building the main foundation walls, was to level the base layer of blocks, setting them in a mortar bed on the footing. Ater an overnight cure of the mortar, I then stacked the remaining two layers of blocks to get a wall that was 3 courses tall, e.g. 24 inches off the footing.

Now I started up my cement plant again and poured the stacked blocks full of concrete, vibrating it vigorously so no air voids in the wall. This gave me a resultant solid concrete wall. I raked the sand fill that had to be excavated to put in the footings to partially fill the enclosure provided by the retaining wall. Next Summer for the final effort on this. Pictures of the work done in October in the gallery below.

Cutting Hardieboard trim with a diamond blade in my saw.

Another view of the trim cutting setup.

Hardieboard panel installed on the south face of the solar chimney.

Trim installed on garage/workshop windows.

Window trim installed on north windows on house.

Hardieboard panel installed on East face of solar chimney.

Hardieboard on west face of solar chimney.

View from the north, window trim done, 3 sides of solar chimney paneled.

Digging the form for the footing of my patio retaining wall.

Form details for retaining wall footing.

Footing poured for retaining wall, eastern edge and corner.

Footing poured on the southern edge.

Western edge and corner of the footing, almost done.

Footing done and cured, blocks in place for stacking.

Getting ready to stack the blocks for retaining wall.

Getting ready to mortar and level the base layer of blocks.

Base layer of blocks set in mortar and leveled.

Southern edge base layer complete.

All 3 layers of the wall stacked in place and filled with concrete.

All three layers stacked and the holes filled with concrete, now a solid concrete wall.

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.