It's electric!

So after living with some well intentioned but incorrect wiring for nearly seven months, I decided to tackle the problems. It appears as though (almost) all of the wires had been run correctly. Curiously, the two "three-way" branch circuits that had been bothering us were just hooked up to the switches incorrectly. Thank you Internet! The one juggle was that the power for one of the three ways also passed through a half-switched outlet. 

That never worked. So I dug in and worked my way through the maze of wires. I figured out by process of elimination which one was the line in, and which others were meant to control theswitch-ability  of the outlet.

Here is the mess at the switch box, where one switch is a leg that controls one half of the nearby outlet, and the other is one of two three way switches controlling the mudroom light.

I worked at it for hours, running to the basement to flip breakers on and off (the same circuit controls the ceiling light in the kitchen and the fan/light over the Island). When I nearly had it figured out, but not quite, Sarah made a perfectly simple suggestion:

All that had been missing was a neutral (white wire) connecting the feed to the switch box. Well, really, the neutral had run to the switch box, letting the mudroom light function in one orientation, but the switch leg had been omitted for the outlet. After wiring the switch leg, I couldn't get the mudroom light to work, and in came Sarah's solution as a means of testing a theory.

I opened up the wall, fed a new wire between the boxes, (fish tape hanging out of the stud bay on the right) and we are nearly back in business. 

Finally, we won't have to worry about which switch controls the mudroom light! Before, one switch had to stay in one position for the other to have any control. Now, either switch will work, anytime. As a bonus, we have a switched outlet into which we can plug a lamp, ending the confusion of the heretofore useless switch! 

As the same non-functioning three way situation existed in our stairwell, I tackled that with no new holes in the wall! It seems as though all the wires were run, and maybe an apprentice came through (?) and took a swing at the three way wiring and missed. I'm surprised the lights ever worked at all! 

I'll just mud that back up, and no one loses!

So much with which to catch our faithful readers up! For now,

1love

Andy

On/off

Today Andy stared at the wall. A lot. This is a bit unusual. We have some mysterious switches/wiring going on in this house. Basically, there were some switches that didn't operate anything and now, with a lot of wall looking and going up and down stairs, they do something. I helped by making a roux sauce for pasta  and saying, "what if you wired it outside the wall to test out the possibility of operating the outlet switch and the 3-way setup in the mudroom."  Apparently this suggestion saved the day. The pasta didn't hurt either.

Measure twice, cut once, just keep on vacuuming continuously

Yesterday I followed Andy with the vaccuum while he pulled up the last bit of carpet underlayment. Today he installed new subfloor! There is a little to go in the bedroom but we are ready to frame in a closet and start gathering materials for the built in bookshelves, bench, and closet storage up there! 

Revival

This blog will be revived. We have been up to our eyeballs in life and so the documenting took a backseat. For now...

A dormer

Soon a bedroom! We are up to sub floor and built ins. More pictures to come.

Dirt and wood

The trench my cousins and uncle helped dig months ago is finally filled in, top soiled and seeded. 

Andy is working through the wood left behind. We have some tree work to attack, hopefully before winter sets in.

And this has all been restacked closer to the door for easy wood stove filling. A neighbor helped sweep our chimney this past weekend which means it's almost time for the flue liner installation! 

Everything and the bathroom sink

So one day a few weeks ago, I noticed that the pedestal sink in the upstairs bathroom was kind of loose. No problem, right? I'll just get under there and tighten the bolts and move on. Well, the sink was only held by toggle bolts to the drywall, and the head of the screw was impossible to access with a right angle screwdriver.

So what do I do? I tear open the wall to install some "nailers" that will accept lag screws.

 This wall is right against the chimney, but even so, what's up with the 20" on center stud bay? I decided not to block in the big bay for drywall purposes, but I'm sure that I should have. All I wanted was a sink I could lean on! 

Too bad I'm a terrible taper. Also too bad to not have a bathroom sink for a minute....

1love

Andy

Installing final surfaces

Semi-finished surfaces this week include:

Siding

Dry wall

Flooring

It's entirely premature and will have to be rolled up for wrapping the beam, priming and adding trim around the French doors but I needed to see this light at the end of a long, long tunnel.

Music Video

Possible music video titles:

Shiplap Recap

Water Shed, Yoga Instead 

Grass Tickles (Not a Nose Pick)

Side Stretch

Pine Align

Wall Sconce ... / ...Yoga Dance by Backtrack Jack feat. SRF

Bug In My Water! Bug In My Water!

Siding at 178 from Sarah Freund on Vimeo.

A side of siding

Andy's dad, Dave, came up to visit and help out. Yesterday we prepped and stained the back side of the siding for the west facing side of the house. Today they will likely finish installing the siding. It's looking like a house again!

Bounty

Remember yesterday's near pint of berries (posted earlier today, I know)?

Well what a difference a day makes!

The berries seem to respond well to being picked. This is after the 6+ raspberries I sampled while mowing the lawn this morning!

I can't wait to get some more gardens in; fresh is the only way to roll!

1love

Andy

Where did the first part of summer go?

Well things seem to be crazy these days. I find myself mowing the lawn just so the noise will drown out all the chatter between my ears!

Since my last post, the French doors are back in and ready for trim and siding. As I am planning on slightly extending the jambs, I want to have the siding in hand before I make trim and figure out the amount of extension.

I managed to make some plates for the two light sconces, though:

A good sight better than what had been in place, I assure you.

I am not excited about leaving the tar paper to the weather for the next few weeks while I'm at summer camp, but it all sheds water, and I tacked up some stickers to keep it from blowing off.

Our garden and edges of the yard continue to produce, with red and black raspberries just coming in now. A quick walk around the place yields a nice pint!

Here is the aforementioned cucumber trellis made from an aluminum ladder that was left behind. It was old enough (and full of kinks) that I figured it was safer to chop it up.

The cukes went from nothing to something basically overnight:

Though difficult to photograph, these climbers are amazing!

I caught one of them holding hands with a nearby pea plant, but I had to break that up. I'm hoping the third section of ladder will give the peas something to climb, but not make too much shade for everyone else. Tune in next summer, when we have some more garden space!

Tomorrow I am delivering a chair and taking up residency at the high school craft program at snow farm. Should be a good time!

1love

Andy

Books unpacked

There are so many updates we have lost track. To name a few:

-The doors are reinstalled and properly flashed. 

-The raspberries are weeded.

-The cucumbers have a homemade trellis. And two flowers!!

-The stump by the house has been pick axed. 

-There was a carpenter ant massacre.

-The bedroom dormer design has been sketched.

-Andy is set up to make ship lap siding here. 

And more!

Andy has spent the last two days raiding a lumber store that is going out of business. We are well stocked for many upcoming projects now! We still have to purchase the raw materials for the siding though. Unfortunately, Andy is committed to going to teach at an art camp for two weeks so all house projects will come to a screeching halt. On the upside, you don't need new material for all projects... 

Andy created two saw horses out of an old, broken firewood housing that the previous owners generously left for us.

Apparently these two contraptions will let Andy bring some work up to a comfortable working height. Neigh.

I have been busy too...

 

So I guess not all house projects will come to a halt in Andy's absense! Just the complicated and difficult ones. He leaves on Saturday for sleep away camp and likely update the blog before then. 

More blooms

Unpacking is hard work.

Not sure if I need more or less coffee in my cup to stay right side up. Andy is working at snow farm so I am left to battle my own work ethic. Blogging is more interesting than unpacking. Even with little to report.

Sunday

So we haven't gotten a chance to update about the end of the long weekend because it was so super productive. We are also in the final phase of cleaning in our Northampton apartment. It's intense taking care of two places at once but soon we will focus our energy up here. So, all in all the long weekend was really productive but Sunday was the best by far. Among the smaller accomplishments, I mounted the toilet paper holder and corner cabinet in the downstairs bathroom.

I am learning to use lots of new tools and I make the very best concentration faces.  

The hammer and driver are the only tool use documentation from Sunday but I swear I used the jig saw and chop saw. Not the "clircular" saw- that one is "too sharp" and "just for real work men like Andy" according to a little boy in my class. Besides the reward of having a more structurally sound home to live in, I am getting some great material for stories to share at school. I have a fan club of three year olds (mostly boys) fascinated by the number of tools in have at my home!

And a "real work man" too!

Here is the beam and subfloor in place:

I am clearly inspecting the quality work with a well trained eye. It passed my inspection.

One other mini side project of the day was straightening out a band joist (I am making  that word up but I think that sounds like something Andy might call it). We had to pop over to the neighbors for a socket wrench extension. Andy held the other side from the basement while I cranked the wrench by reaching under the deck. The difference is substantial:

The top is before and bottom is after.  I did that!

Tha peonies have popped and they make hammock laying even better- I didn't know that was possible! 

Hemlock and Tar

After an early and running start this morning Andy realized he could be more productive if we picked up some additional supplies. So off we went to get a sister beam for between the French doors. Here she is riding home:

Who's driving this crazy Buick?! Oh it's parked. Andy was talking about white oak logs with someone who probably didn't really care when I snapped the top pic.

After hitting up Florence hardware for some additional goods we got a buy one get one free pizza lunch for the drive home. When we returned home I quickly started wiggling our belongings into more or less the places where they might live and then volunteered myself or an awful, awful job: applying tar coating to the foundation that my family had helped expose last weekend. This is what we are working with here:

It's the worst. The absolute worst. The brush kept coming undone and holes I had filled with the stuff kept reappearing. A real test of mental and physical strength this job. I hate even writing about it. It's not slower than molasses up a hill in January to me anymore. It's slower than tar on a foundation wall in June. 

 

It's finished now. Andy is hoping to have the French doors reinstalled today or tomorrow. I am glad to be able to do jobs like this one that don't require a carpenters brain. My body is much better suited for the organizing in home though. So back to that!

And the band plays on

So after digging out all the dry-rotted and insect-eaten wood that was pretending to hold up an end of our house, I finally had the joy of permanently putting in clean wood.

First, the weird bottom sill, which is now a pressure treated 2x4 for the first time:

 Not having a Ramset, or whatever the tool is called for anchoring wood to concrete, I used PL adhesive. This will be largely responsible for keeping bugs from crawling under. Not that they won't find another way...

I also made use of the 20-ton jack as a clamp, providing downward pressure against the sill from the header above. It was really good for my psyche to see some clean wood in there!

Next, the more typical 2x8 sill, again pressure treated for the first time:

This piece I notched around the end of the carrying beam in the basement. Keep in mind that the post seen here is temporary. I also intend to put in one of those adjustable lally columns just under the end of this beam in the basement. I can tell that there is water damage there, but I can't tell how deep in the end grain if the triple 2x10 it goes. 

Finally, the band joist or maybe you like "box beam," and what I have been referring to as its sister:

This was a struggle as the kiln dried Fraser fir that was used in the early 70's had an ever so slightly different dimension to it. This certainly wasn't my finest work, but it is surely a whole lot better than it ever had been in this spot.

  This means that I am finally back up above the deck ledger! For now! I still need to put in the sheathing under the opening, and re-bolt the ledger to the joists through 3/4" spacers. All of that should be child's play compared to removing the same to get at the sills!

After wondering through this all how much I needed to push the header back up, I came to a good finding today. Measuring the trimmer (I think... I have a really difficult time with names of framing members...) studs on either side of the opening would give me the intended height in the center, obviously. So a quick whip of the tape measure shows me that even what I thought had been a fairly pre-loaded temporary post could be a full half-inch longer! Amazing! This place really sagged! But having seen what I have seen so far, I am not surprised!

I now have a gameplan in place, and I am sure one more solid day on this project will find me ready to throw the door units back in and move on to something else! 

In case anyone is reading this that has lent or handed down or extendedly loaned tools to me in the past, MANY THANKS! I could not do any of this work without them. Further, if anyone wants to pass down a Fein multi-master, well that would be just swell! 

That's all for now. Tonight we continue the schlep of belongings from our apartment in Town to our home in the Country.

1love

Andy

Starting a long weekend

Today is Thursday and I have taken today and tomorrow off for some long weekend house projecting. This is what Andy sketched as a possible end result (the mud room fell off the page):

It's a good follow up to his exploratory digging mission because a lot of what might change the face of the house is my idea for a little nook/alcove type area where the deck off the master bedroom currently is - Andy sees some structural gains by making that area indoors but I will let him explain it. I just see that we could use the newer sliders downstairs where they would actually be walking through regularly and have a great, sunny little book reading/lounging area of the bedroom! 

Alright, off to a productive start...