Eagle restored to his place of honour
During the high winds over a month ago, the eagle atop the weathervane twisted itself off from its threaded perch. It was repaired at a local welding shop, Halls Maritime Welding. This time I added red Loctite to bind the threads and mitigate this happening again. I took the camera up the ladder when I finished installing the bird. I also needed to set the angle for the halogen motion detector light on the gable end.
Free leaves for the taking will build the much needed soil.
One of the aspects of local culture here in NS that I’ve come to adore, is that if you put something you no longer need beside the road, sooner or later, someone will come along and help you out by pitchin’ it into their vehicle.
About 200 bags or more later.
Hello again friends, neighbours and countrymen . . . ladies too! ():>) As one can see, I’m sporting a halo atop me head these daze. The snake has been plummeting of late and my poor cold hands are in need of warming. Please someone rub the genie bottle so that I might be quickly re-incarnated as a wallaby. I lust after a warm pouch to withdraw the siding nails from.
First smoke.
We *had* to use the Excel chimney system http://www.icc-rsf.com/en/icc/insulated-stainless-steel-chimney since I purchased their stainless steel flashing and it’s designed *only* for *their* stuff. Get the picture? Great gig fellahs! I must admit it is a good chimney, especially with the telescoping, double wall, stainless insert in the black pipe exiting the rear of the stove.
First snowfall
My friend Jan, an avid gardener, said I might think about insulating the garlic beds with hay, straw or the like. Well, I and the trailer picked up over 200 bags of leaves destined to be made into compost at the municipal site. Does anyone reading this realize, that a thousand years is necessary for a forest to generate 1″ of topsoil? I have no soil on this mountainside site so it will have to be made for the gardens and landscaping.
First fire, J�tul #F3
The F3 from J�tul: http://www.jotul.com/en/wwwjotulcom/ is designed to heat only 1500 sq. ft. The conditioned area in this house is a tick over 2700 sq. ft. Why go smaller? Because this house, due to the increase in envelope insulation and attention to the vapour barrier and HRV, will not lose heat as quickly. Therefore a larger stove would overheat the building and make the occupant/s uncomfortable.
RT of the black pipe, is the recirculating HRV pickup.
While I say that the wood stove is backup, the electric 3kW element in the supply line yet to be i9nstalled will be backup. More on that in the New Year. While I regret that burning wood means cutting down trees which are nature’s carbon sinks . . . you know what? There are no damn answers. Only more questions about how to build, eat, grow, live and Love. Wood smoke carries with it many toxins foreign to the human’s well being. Each tree has a given amt. of carbon. It will release that CO2 whether it decays naturally in the forest or if it’s burnt.
Ever read “Small is beautiful” by the British economist E. F. Schumacher. At the end of the tome he wrote that the most political thing any of us with awareness of Mother Earth’s current plight would be to “plant a tree”.
Aluminum eavestrough saver
Here’s a tip to save denting your soft, seamless aluminum trough. Take a scrap 2 x 6 and wrap it with old carpet. Staple the ends around. Eh voil�! Lay it on the trough with a step ladder, then hoist your extension.
The proper way to cant your garage opening.
Improper method. Notice the torn weatherstripping.
The last image is from my rental duplex. The door as it goes up and down, rubs the weather stripping continuously and abrades it such that it eventually tears. It was like this when I moved in and was only 2 yrs. old.
Garden hydrant and well casing in the distance.
The water hydrant is self bleeding. It will permit trickle irrigation as well as drip irrigation for the raised bed garden boxes. This hydrant drains back under ground 5′ deep each time it shuts off. No need for bleeding and no worries about freezing lines.
Firm backing for outside taps. They have the valve located 12″ inside the house.
Fini
I’ve always been a detail person, as that’s what furniture making is. For those new to this blog, my woodworking history has a good deal of carpentry, yet the mainstay has been cabinetmaking as well as furniture creating. No need to say I have my own style. Ever recall the clich�; “God is in the details”? He is of course and everywhere else too. It was important to get the two screw holes for mounting centred on the full thickness of the siding.
No thermal/acoustic bridging.
This is the partition between the shop and one of the two private rooms. By staggering the 2 x 4 studs on a 2 x 8 plate, acoustic transference of sound is greatly lessened although not completely. This reduces the spread of workshop noise throughout the rest of the building . . . just in case anyone else is ‘home’ 🙂 .
The plumbers came
Morgan in ‘victory mode’ descending the ladder. Andrew bundled up against the severe cold. They finished installing the shop sink vent, which is visible to the left of Morgan. That vent needs a stub wall when the musketeers return. Robert Cross and his band of merry men have done a splendid job of roughing in the plumbing. The wall behind these ‘buddies’ (a NS localism instead of the more colloquial ON~terrible ‘guys’] is between the conditioned area of the shop and the unconditioned area of the garage.
The temperature differential in mid winter should only be about 20F�. The wall is 2 x 8 with staggered studs insulated to near R28. Notice that the vapour barrier is on the *warm* side of the building. The drywall in the garage will prevent moisture dripping off my wet VeeDub from penetrating the wall cavity,
Free passive solar gain.Notice the sunshine pattern on the floor at 10AM near the end of Nov. Here’s where passive solar takes over. Just face the house south within a few degrees of what is ‘due’. ():>) [I’m now sporting a halo on my smilies]
Passive solar gain.
I’m taking these images now, because once the walls are boarded in, the degree of passive gain will not be so well documented. The J�tul F3 is ablaze and ready to warm my frozen fingers. I wish to be reincarnated as a wallaby so that I can feel the nails in my pouch. I said that already didn’t eye. Uh oh! Dementia is settin’ in early.
The next series of images depict what I’ve been working on daily. Namely, the wall siding. The gable ends were finished in early Nov. I have decided that I alone will do all the finished details and am responsible for any balls up as the Kiwis say. Much more polite than the NA clich of f . . . you know 🙂 I’ve done one biggy and will save that post: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” for much later.
Window flashing with Typar skip taped to allow H2O to move down and out.
End coating brush for siding.
This is the same bag I started using at the end of Sept. I’ve never washed the brush! It’s always moist. Wet is good. Blow the bag open, drop in the brush to the same end. Roll it up, seal the Ziploc and store it out of the sun. Blow it open and extract your end~coat weapon.
Storey board drilling
Ducks all in a row.
Here one may see that the siding piece in question is not touching my spacer standoff by about 3/32″. It’s all about making micro adjustments as you proceed, by pulling out either the top or bottom.. Recall, this kind of work is all about having an attitude devoted to excellence, *not* perfection.
Stub backing for skirt flashing. Dry line for straight level on bottoms.
East gable and wall complete
Recall again for those who regularly read this junk, hey it’s good junk, that the carport pitch is 4:12 and the main ‘ruff’ is 7:12. The carport is 13′ longer than the main roof. This meant that the sunburst design would be off centre, but not off kilter. The asymmetrical design is wearing well with my uniform sensibilities. In the askew portion, I hung a halogen night light set up for 5 min. on a motion detector. I am attempting to keep the colours to a minimum and am using all the spare roof steel for siding, window and perimeter flashing. The idea again is to get the house to blend in with the forest and have it appear as if it has always been here.
Hey, what’s up with the ‘+’ jayöh?
The ‘+’ is my feeble attempt to give recognition to all those men and a few ladies who have put in work to make this retirement dream a reality coming true. Perhaps I’ll list first names later, but for now, know that I could not possibly have come this far along on my own. God bless all of you and Tiny Tim. Don’t have a big enough ego. I still fit through doors straight on. Etienne commented when he first saw this erection, that, “The poor blighter only lived two years. What a loss!” Actually this is the cornerstone raised, if you will, to it’s rightful place of benediction. The joint was started last year and will not be complete~d until later in 2011. What’s the rush? And now you have the rest of the story. With thanks for that last line to Paul Harvey.
BTW, my alias jayöh, is a stylized, humorous, phonetical take, on the two letters that form my first and last name initials, i.e., “J” & “O”. The ö is an exclamation on, what is this? or as the kids say, whatever.
I Am John Ötvös, aka jayöh.
48 Responses to “Bird’s Eye View”
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toy blog says:
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Hey Toy Blog, give me a chance to hammer a few more nails in place before I blog again. I don’t do this to fan my own flame. Fame I’ve had in the past and plenty. As mentioned before the Sufi poetess Lalla, says that: “Fame is water carried in a basket. ” I blog to share what I’ve learned and am continuing to learn with anyone who cares enough about how we live in our houses and how we feed ourselves. When enough has transpired on the scene here on the side of the North Mtn., I’ll pound away again at this keyboard.
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Laura says:
You are so much more than a wood worker!(while that in itself is plenty)
You are an engineer and not just one kind, but I think all three………….
We had the very same jotul stove in our house in Wolfville, except it was gray. I loved that stove, but I also loved the airtight cook stove we had in Greenfield(can’t confidently remember the brand name).
I think you have everything under as much control as a human being can…….amazing insight/foresight
Guess we wait on the hindsight!
KUDOS!-
Hi Laura,
Thank you and many blessings your way too. Well as we all know, that since hindsight is 20/20, wisdom comes after repeated faux pas’ and usually later in life although there have been some wise young people. I’ve made plenty of mistakes elsewhere and have nailed a few into this joint too. (:<<) Those will all be exposed in a much later post entitled: "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", with apologies to Clint and Sergio.
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Patricia Steinhauser says:
Very interesting post, it really got me thinking. Thank you.
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andy b says:
look into making biochar with your scrap wood. its good in the garden, makes clean heat and captures carbon for thousands of years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXMUmby8PpU
ps: great job on the house.
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I don’t have a great deal of scrap wood Andy. This building is a one time shot. There will be a small gazebo and garden shed next year and that’s it. Much of what falls in the forest, I shall leave there for the forest. As yet, I don’t know how much firewood the house will need.
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