Two Silos Farm

Jan 6^th, 2006

Today we are moving the water heater to the old cellar. This is an 80 gallon Marathon. It stands taller than me, and is 30” diameter. Most of that is insulation, but it’s still going to be a bear to move.

As I type, my hubby is draining it. Last week we cleaned up the cellar and poured the pad.

Once the unit is empty, hubby will be disconnecting it, opening up the back wall wider to fit it through, and then I get to help getting it down the stairs and into the cellar.

This pic shows the new water softener in the corner – sure is a tiny thing compared to the one we had back in WI.

Once there, hubby will reconnect everything, including hooking up the new water softener. Once that is all done, I’ll be opening up the wall between where the water heater was, and the laundry room. Then we can move the freezer to the basement, and put the shower surround in the laundry room until we get the second bathroom ready.

This weekend we plan on finishing closing up the ceiling in the dining room, and maybe working on the end wall in the addition (living room). Like always, we will see what we get done.

Cathy

We did get the ceiling vaulted this weekend, and I got the insulation back up. Sure is nice knowing I don't have to take it down again. Still have lots of work to do on the non-vaulted hall section, but it's finally coming together, and looking like living space instead of a place to film horror movies.

Been too tired to post much, glad to be back at work where I can sit for a while. Hubby gets to rest a bit today too, and we'll be working at it in the evenings. Last night hubby got the pad poured for the waterheater, we are on track for moving the water heater Friday afternoon.

Speaking of water, we were having problems with low water pressure on Sunday and again yesterday. We are on a municiple water system, and hubby figured it must be something on thier end. Water pressure was way down while we were working on the cement pad. Son was mixing, hubby was spreading and I was hauling water up and down the stairs. We have cold water spigot in the basement, but hubby decided he wanted to use hot water.

Got done, son took a quick shower so he could get to bed. Hubby got done smoothing the cement, and came upstairs to find we had almost no water pressure. So, he finally calls the Water Dept. They call back and say they have no problems, it's on our end. Great - I'm covered with insulation, hubby's covered with cement dust, and I just changed the bedsheets!

Earlier, we had determined the problem was not a leak in one of the outgoing lines (we can shut them off from inside the house).

Got the flashlight, went out to the "pot" - at least it's been warm enough the cover was not froze on. Hubby climbed down into the hole and turned the shutoff on and off a few times. It was moving real hard, not like it did last time he messed with it, but that was months ago.

Then he taped on the regulator a bit, and he heard it make some noise. He climbed out, put the cover on and when to the nearest hydrant - had full power.

Went into the house, and the laundry tub STILL was not flowing well. Went downstairs and checked to make sure all the valves were working. We have two water lines off the main (for softened and non-softened water, once we get the softener hooked up). Hubby had just installed the spigot off the non-softened line, so he tried that and had full pressure.

So, we were thinking maybe there was a blockage in the second waterline. It feeds everything inside but the kitchen sink (drinking water).

Hubby starts taking apart the laundry faucet and finds the screen full of gunk. Now he's thinking maybe that was the problem all along, but I reminded him I had gone into the bathroom and turned on both hot and cold handles, and gotten almost nothing. I checked in the bathroom again, and we now had full pressure.

Hubby cleaned out the screen for the laundry faucet, and now that one worked too. It's always fun when you fix a problem, but don't realize you did, because you've got more than one problem LOL!!

Like the time my son had an electrical problem on his car It plain would not start. He replaced the most obvious part, but that did not fix the problem. But he didn't put the "old" part back in, and started replacing other parts. After trying and testing, he still was getting indications that the problem was the original part, so he took out the new part, and put back in the old part - and the car worked!!

One of the sensors went bad, but the first part he replaced turned out to be a dud, so even when he did replace the sensor that was causing the problem, he didn't know it because the brand new "dud" part wasn't working.

Jan 2^nd.

Yesterday started slow. We had plans of finally getting a lot done, but the morning turned out the way the rest of the weekend had been going. Our first task was to layout the short wall, determining where the electric subpanel and the toilet vent stack would go. We started with the panel, and got that all figured out. From the top side, it looked like the vent should go to the south, and the incoming electric to the north. We decided we’d better go down in the cellar to see how the toilet vent/drain would run, and with the help of a few PVC fittings, we determined that it was better to put on elbow and then the T for the vent, than the other way around. However this meant that now the vent had to go to the north, and the electrical to the south. So, back upstairs and more layout to move things around. Finally got it figured out where we needed the holes for the 2” pvc for the wires, and the 3” pvc for the vent stack. Got the holes cut, cut the rest of the boards for the short wall and decided it was lunch time.

After lunch we started working on the side wall for the bathroom. This will be the high side of the vaulted ceiling over the dining room. We figured where the studs had to go so they could be attached to the rafters, which are 24” on center. I remember telling my husband not to let me be stupid, as we also needed to frame up for the doorway.

This wall took quite a bit of layout, so the studs would be level and spaced correctly. When I say the rafters were 24” on center, like everything else in this place, they are “about” 24” on center. Which means they are between 23” and 25”, so we had to locate the base of each stud separately. I had taken down a bit of insulation so we could see where the rafters were, but I didn’t want to take down any more than needed, as it is winter out there.

We got the spacing figured out, got the height figured out, got them all laid out on the floor, all nailed together, put bracing to hold it up while we lifted it in place, and I realized I had forgot about the door! Yup, I had been stupid after all LOL!!

At least we only had to remove one stud, and then figured where we wanted the door, made the header to go all the way between the two tall studs (47”) and put in a jack wall close off one side to make it the right width for the door. This wasn’t all that hard, just more work and time. We finally were ready to put the wall in place, and up it went. That was pretty easy. We leveled each stud and tacked it to the rafter, and looked it over. Decided we had the end stud not lined up with the other three (though we had leveled them all). Seemed like we were pretty tired, and just making stupid mistakes. Some days are like that.

We left it like it was for now, assembled the short wall we’d cut the pieces for before lunch, and put that one in place. We still needed to move hay for the horses, so decided this would be a good stopping place before it got dark outside.

Got the hay moved (two round bales) and the evening chores done. Another 13 eggs, but Hubby accidentally broke one in his coat pocket. I think that coat has been washed three times this fall due to eggs in the pockets. Maybe I should get him a basket to use.

Got back in the house, and decided we had time before supper to get a bit more work done. Our next step was to start on the new ceiling joists for the vaulted ceiling. I pulled out more insulation so I could work between the old joists. Put up nails and a string to determine the angle the joist would follow. I used my new tool for measuring the angle, and that sure did work nice. I’ve used a cheap bevel tool before, but this tool actually shows the angle, and it turned out really accurate. Set the miter box for the angles, cut the ends and we put the first new joist up. Does not sound like much, but that took near two hours to figure it all out and put up the first board. While we were working, Hubby’s friend called and said the weather was bad and he didn’t feel we should go hunting in the morning. Since we would be traveling about 80 miles to get there, and the roads were getting very icy with more freezing rain in the forecast, we agreed with him. We’ll try to make it next Saturday, sure hope we get a deer then, as the late season will be closing and then we will be out of luck until next fall. I guess I can get used to eating 100% ground beef again, but I sure do like the 50% venison blend we’ve been having.

Got supper done, boiled shrimp and crab legs (our New Year’s treat) and got back to work. Since we didn’t need to get up early in the morning, figured we might as well continue on while we still remembered what we were doing. I had to pull down the rest of the insulation in that area, tossed it all in the addition. Then we had to pull down the old joist on the end of the house. The rest were not in the way, but this one was. More demo, but it all came out of there. Sometimes it seems like they used the biggest nails they could find, and sometimes it seems like nothing is holding things together. Of course, whether something needs to be removed or needs to stay seems to have a direct correlation to how well it’s attached. That’s what a reciprocating saw is made for, I guess. . .

Got the boards down, spent 15 minutes cleaning up the dust/cellulose that we knocked down, and put the last rafter in place. Hubby decides he’s done for the night, which was ok with me, as I had to put the insulation back up there.

At least this time, I won’t have to take it back down!!! I got it stapled up in the new joists, and sort of “filled in” to close it off enough for the night. Didn’t want to suck all the hot air out the attic vents, but didn’t want to do too much, as I knew I’d be pulling it all down the next morning.

Got done near midnight, took a hot shower and headed off to bed. It’s almost 8:30 now, so I think I let Hubby sleep enough. I’ve already done some laundry and dishes, and got a loaf going in the bread maker. Hmm, I’ll see if he wants French toast for breakfast, and then we can get to work finishing up that ceiling.

Cathy