Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day so I could stay home from work guilt-free. The only "Memorial Day stuff" I did was to fly my flag at half-mast. For years we've gone to the cemetery to watch the VFW do their thing - we didn't this year; I felt bad about missing it. I think it's important to be reminded of what the cost was and is for the freedom we enjoy and so often take for granted.

That being said, the sum total of "addition work" accomplished in the last week is pictured for you below. Actually we had a couple of guys give us estimates for the foundation work (we've picked one); we also figured out who's going to dig the hole for the foundation. Now we just have to coordinate things so they show up in the right order and within a couple of days of one another - apparently that can be quite a chore. It will be nice when we get to the point where we can start doing stuff ourselves.

I've been working in the barn. I got it cleaned up a little bit and then it went downhill in a hurry during the course of today's work bench project. I went to Home Depot in Abbotsford this morning. I was waiting outside with all the contractors when it opened. I picked up all of the lumber I needed for it. I made excellent use of one of the tape measures I got for my birthday (thanks, K's!). The bench is coming along fine but it's not done. I had to order a bunch of hardware online which should come in by week's end. (Then I'll show you pictures - it's going to be one burly workbench!)

Yeah, that's right! I got my sign done. Safely too, I might add...

For the want of a nail...

It's been almost a week since I've posted anything and so, lest you think we've just been sitting around or (perish the thought!) that we've given up, I thought I'd better update things.

As far as the actual addition is concerned - a guy is coming over tomorrow to give us a quote on the foundation work. (We're contracting that out.) We did manage to get all of the chimney bricks picked up.

About the title - it's the beginning of a Ben Franklin quote (which he undoubtedly stole from someone else). Plagiarized or not, it's a good quote (look it up yourself...) It has to do with preparedness. I'm finding more and more that we have to know what we need before we start a project. I could have finished off the barn this weekend but I was missing a part for my security light and since I was missing that part, everything ground to a halt. I was in Bellingham on Saturday morning and none of the big box hardware stores had it (I'm sure that Hardware Sales would have had it - but I couldn't get there.) I had to go to Lynden on Saturday afternoon - none of the three not-quite-so-big-box hardware stores there had it either. I knew that MFNHS had it. I knew this because I had picked up the wrong part there on Friday (the right part was in the bin next to the bin with the wrong part in it.) Unfortunately, MFNHS closes at noon on Saturday. So no real barn progress happened on Saturday, but lots of barn frustration happened.

Once I took stock of things it turned out that there was quite a bit more to do on the barn than I originally anticipated. Of course, I should know by now that it takes me a long time to do electrical work. I ran a circuit for outlets - I put in a 20 amp breaker and ran thicker gauge wire. I got some burly outlets too. My cord reels came in today and so I can mount them tomorrow. We're real pleased with the way things turned out. I picked up the critical part at MFNHS on my way home from work and finished up. I did one thing wrong though - I have an outlet that only has power to it when my photosensitive security light is on - I'll have to do a little circuit rerouting tomorrow...

Hopefully, I can build a decent work bench on Memorial Day (next Monday) and start organizing the barn. It sure will be nice to have power out there. Gone are the days of lugging the table saw, chop saw, etc. out to the house in order to cut things! I suppose I'd better replace the cords that my dog has chewed off several of my tools before then.

The wait is over

Well, there it is. Grace picked up our building permit on Monday afternoon. You might have thought that I would have run to the computer right away and posted about it - but it's somewhat daunting. As I go through the thing it strikes me that I'm a bit like a dog that chases cars - once he catches one what's he gonna do with it? So we've got this permit, now what? For starters, I suppose we have to find somebody who knows something about excavation and footings and foundations. I'm pretty sure that Grace has some leads in that regard.

As I pore over the gibberish of the permit and try to decipher all of the illegible red ink stamps and decode the garish green stickers that our bureaucratic friends have liberally splattered all over our carefully drawn up plans I'm a little overwhelmed. At first glance it would seem that about 74 more layers of difficulty have been tacked on to our addition. We looked it over last night - it's mind boggling; especially if you're not used to doing this kind of stuff. But then we settled down, had a beer, and things began to make sense. Instead of looking at the whole thing in a jumble all at once - we began (somewhat) systematically picking through the thing. We matched up code reference numbers in red ink stamps and on green stickers to code numbers in the little code booklet that came with our package. I still don't understand it all but I'm almost certain that this is the way we've been making and remaking stuff all along. Apparently one of the first things I have to do is make an ugly sign with our house number on it. The numbers must be at least three inches tall and be easily readable from the road. I can do that...

The light show continues

I took yesterday off work and got busy running a circuit for my barn lights. First I had to figure out what I would need in terms of supplies as well as inventory what I already had. Then I went to MFNHS, while I was in the store a friend of mine came in and asked if I knew that there was a 25 foot long coil of cable on the trunk of my car. I didn't. I had driven about four miles with this stuff on there.

Once I had everything I needed, it went pretty quick. It was just a straight "up and across" 75 foot run with three outlets in it. The thing that slowed me down the most was my tendency to lose tools. Honestly, I probably spent as much time looking for my wire strippers, hammer, tester, etc. as I did wiring. I would put something down and it would disappear - only to reappear in exactly the same place after a few minutes. It's like living in the Bermuda Triangle of Tools. Frustrating.

Here are some before & after shots of the inside of the barn:

This is what the interior of the barn looked like before the lights were installed -

This is what the interior of the barn looks like now -

It's brighter now.

That's just about going to do it for the barn for now - I still have to put some outlets in but I have to wait until the two cord reels that I ordered arrive.

By the way, while I was working on the barn yesterday. We got a call from Buildings & Plans that our building permit has been approved! So on Monday we will load the back of the van up with money and go pick it up! On to the main event...

Let there be light!

Yahoo! I got a big "OK" on my wiring job in the barn. I actually had everything right - but it was worth waiting a few days in order to have the peace of mind plus it's just not a good idea to take chances when you're doing electrical work. I'm taking tomorrow off work so I can run some circuits.

What I did on Monday & other random stuff

I took Monday off. Kind of got electricity to the barn - I'm not real confident about a few things so I'm having someone who actually knows what he's doing have a look at it before I declare my endeavor a success. Things went well. A few trips back and forth to my friendly neighborhood hardware store (MFNHS); but I've come to expect that - particularly when I'm doing electrical stuff. By Thursday I should have the verdict on how I did - and get anything I did wrong fixed.

Once I got as far as I dared on electrical matters I turned my attention elsewhere in the barn. I put some trim up around the doors - discovered that I didn't have enough prepainted trim boards to finish that task. GRRR. Thankfully(?) there were other things to do too. There were about 100 miles of seams that still needed caulking so I tackled that. I only caulked about 42 miles worth - I did another 17 miles after work this afternoon. Only 41 more miles to go!

On to things random - I find that blogging inspires me to get stuff done (or at least get stuff started) so that I can write about it. If I had started this blog when we first moved in, by now our home would look like the house in the picture below and I would have written blogdom's equivalent to War and Peace.

Next, random item - Books I have found absolutely invaluable throughout this whole ordeal:

1) How to Build a House by Larry Haun & others. Taunton Press, 2002. This is put together by the folks from Habitat for Humanity. Love 'em or hate 'em (why would anyone hate H4H?) they build good houses. They also put together a terrific book that literally shows you how to do everything from foundation to shingles.

2) Renovation, 3rd Edition by Michael Litchfield. Taunton Press, 2005. Encyclopedic in its scope; detailed in its presentation. With this book, a few tools and a little confidence you could redo, recover, rebuild anything pertaining to your domicile.

3) Wiring a House by Rex Cauldwell. Taunton Press, 1996. This guy is good. He's a master electrician who can explain things to non-master electricians. He throws in some theory too. Most importantly: a veritable cornucopia of pictures and diagrams. I've done most of my wiring with this book open to one page or another.

4) Graphic Guide to Frame Construction by Rob Thallon. Taunton Press, 1998. Again lots of pix and diagrams. Complements How to Build a House nicely. It's got a little more detail.

Did you notice how all of these books are from the Taunton Press? I love the Taunton Press. We've got books from them on all kinds of subjects. They are consistently worth every penny we spent on them. Good, practical, no nonsense "how to do whatever you want to do" books - with lots of pictures. It's not that I'm illiterate; it's just that I like pictures. I like to be able to see what something is supposed to look like when I'm done with it -- that doesn't necessarily mean that my finished projects always conform to the pictures.

On finishing projects

This morning, while we continued to wait for our building permit, my wife and I reviewed the photo album which chronicles all that we've accomplished on our humble abode thus far. Everytime we came to the end of a section I heard this refrain echoing in my head "we still have to finish this or that little detail." It's true. We're great idea people. We're super, full of energy starters but we suck at actually bringing projects all the way to completion. Mind you, as a rule, the things left to do are fairly minor and visitors might not even notice them but the unfinished things are there. They taunt us and dare us to tackle them. Generally we are pretty good at just ignoring their tauntings and darings but once in a great while, we say, "Enough already! You're going down, little unfinished detail!"

Today I set myself to finishing our barn. Well, OK - not "finishing" per se but at least getting one of the biggest unfinished details out of the way. I had to get electricity out there. I've known how I was going to do this for a while but never found the energy for it (mainly because it involved digging a 25 foot long 18 inch deep trench. Last week, while I was tearing down the chimney and fighting off bats, I had my son and his friend dig the trench for me. Today I went to my friendly neighborhood hardware store, purchased 75 feet of direct bury cable, spliced it on to the existing cable and got all the way to the barn.

I had to fill in the trench afterwards so I dumped a bunch of the chimney bricks in it. I also threw some beer cans (empty), and some dog poop in there. To quote one of my favorite philosophers/theologians Mr. T, "I pity da fool" who has to do an archeological assessment on that area. Indiana Jones is in for a big surprise if he sinks his 4x4x24 hole in the wrong spot.

But I digress. We still don't have power to the barn but it's close. (I need some parts yet and, mercifully, my friendly neighborhood hardware store closes at noon on Saturdays). I might take Monday off and then I'm sure I can get it done. Then I might finish some of those other things (but probably not...) Seriously though, if we're going to do this whole addition thing, we've got to learn how to complete a task.

This is our barn. You can't tell from the picture that it doesn't have electricity but even I can see at least three things that need to be done yet. If you can find them, you might win a fabulous prize!

We've been archeologically assessed!

We have passed our archeological assessment! I quote from our handsomely bound report, "the archeological survey and examination of sediments at Heron Lane did not result in the identification of any intact or diagnostic archeological resources." Most importantly, the archeologist "recommends the project be permitted to proceed." Yay!!!

We got a nice, eleven page, spiral-bound copy of the report; replete with a beautiful color photograph of our home on the cover page. There is also a stunning color picture of a two foot deep 4x4 hole with a tape measure in it. A final picture shows the side of the house where the future addition will be. This last picture actually shows where the addition will be better than my picture does at the beginning of this blog (but I'm not going to change it.)

So now Buildings & Plans and three native tribes get to peruse the report. In the meantime, we will keep waiting.

By the way, I wasn't home when the assessment was being done, but I'm pretty sure it would have looked like the above picture. Indiana Jones and his little helper are using that flashlight to plumb the mirky depths of one of the 24 inch deep holes they dug. They are no doubt hoping that the Philosopher's Stone or the Treasure of the Knights' Templar will be down there - but alas, it's not to be. Keep searching Indy!

Some ground rules...

It's Monday; it's raining; still no permit. The sum total of "addition work" accomplished today - some of the bricks got picked up. Given this break in the action, I figured I'd better lay down some ground rules for all of you people in blogdom before things get totally out of hand (yeah, we're teetering on the brink now... Chaos, mayhem!)

RULE 1) Your comments are encouraged. Comments such as; "Hey, way to go!"; "Looks real good!"; or "You guys are sure working hard!" - these are allowed. You don't necessarily have to use those exact words but feel free to use the above suggested comments as templates. Such comments will be rewarded with a comment response from yours truly along the lines of "Hey, way to follow RULE 1!"

RULE 2) Advice about how to do stuff that we've already done is strongly discouraged. Considering that by the time you see this stuff it's already finished - what's the point? So don't post remarks such as; "I see you did X in this particular way; you should have done it this way." When you build your own addition feel free to do it your way; we've already done it our way (dumb as our way may have been.) Also forbidden under this rule are comments such as "That picture shows you doing something kind of unsafely." When viewing pictures of us working on the addition always remember the following: The camera not only adds ten pounds but it increases any danger (real or imagined) by a factor of five. Comments which violate this rule will probably still be published (unless they are not) but you will be reprimanded along the following lines, "Hey buddy, maybe you should reread RULE 2!"

RULE 3) No comments pertaining to even the slightest change of the agreed upon design of the addition will be tolerated. The design, simple though it is, is the result of (literally) years of painstaking, agonizing deliberation by my better half. I participated in the process by agreeing with everything she proposed. Yeah, don't even bother trying to sneak in a comment that violates RULE 3. Ain't gonna happen.

RULE 4) If there is ever a post in which something like the following is put forth - "I wonder how we do this next part" - feel free to immediately post comments which outline in great detail how to do that particular thing in an extremely easy and economical way. In the event that your advice is taken and it actually works, we will be forever in your debt. (We'll be forever in your debt because we aren't going to pay you anything.) Seriously though, you will be rewarded with a comment along the following lines, "That's a great idea; thank you so very much. Why don't you come over a show us how to do that in a little more detail? We will feed you and give you beer."

RULE 5) I reserve the right to suspend any of the above rules at any time if I feel like it. I'm not taking them very seriously so I don't really see why anyone else should (with the exception of RULE 3).

Day 1: About those bricks...

Note, if you will, that there is a chimney on the side of the house. If we left this chimney up it would be right in the doorway of our new bedroom. We decided to dismantle the chimney.

I bought a new mini-sledge hammer and a cold chisel at Lowes, leaned our extension ladder against the house and began chipping away.

Things were going quite well. The bricks were coming apart without too much effort. There were not too many pieces flying into my face.

Once I got to the spot where the chimney met the roof, I had to work from the ground which was not necessarily easier - just different.

You can't really tell from the picture but there is about a 1.5 inch gap between the chimney and the exterior siding. Apparently that is more than enough room for a bat....

I was taking down bricks without a care in the world when suddenly a little brown bat was snarling at me. It was about six inches from my face. I screamed like a little girl, which brought the whole family and our three dogs running to see whether I had finally fallen off a ladder. They were only mildly disappointed to see that I hadn't toppled off a ladder. Their disappointment was tempered by the news about the bat. The whole "dismantling of the chimney" project ground to a halt while we caught the bat.

Long story short, we caught the bat. They're pretty cool little animals. Nasty looking though.

The chimney is down. I didn't find anymore bats - just the remains of one unfortunate starling. Now we just have to wait some more....

By the way, we let the bat go earlier this evening. They are so cool to watch in flight!

Day 1: Prep work

See those black lines? Soon(?) they will be the walls of our new addition. (The bricks are another story which I will get to shortly.)

Where to begin.... Five years ago, our family moved into a house that was truthfully far too small for us. Not only was it small but it was something of a "handy man's special". Well, for five years, we've been renovating, replacing, rewiring, re-everything-ing; and now we're going to try to add on.

We are going to build a 16x20 addition. It will be a master bedroom with a bathroom and walk-in closet. It seems to be a fairly modest undertaking and given the experience that my wife and I have accumulated over the past years; I'm sure we can do it.

That's not to say that we won't be faced with some challenges.

First of all, I labeled this post "Day 1" but in reality we've been at this for a long time already. We've actually had plans drawn up for a few years and even got so far as to apply for a building permit; but for whatever reason, we decided to put the project on hold at that time.

Now our plans have been resubmitted. We've made numerous trips to our county's Buildings & Plans Dept. and we are waiting....

A few days ago we got a letter from Buildings & Plans. We were excited! We were sure that our permit had arrived! We were wrong. B&P informed us that we lived in an area of "international cultural and historical significance". They told us that before the permit process could continue we would have to have an "archeological assessment" done and then several tribes and committees would have to review the findings. We called one of the approved archeologists and he came, dug two 4 inch by 4 inch holes, found nothing, presented us with a bill, and left... You can't see them in the picture because they are covered by bricks but there are two small dirt patches in the black rectangle - each filled in hole is about $350. I'm going to encourage my kids to become archeologists!

I'll get to the pile of bricks in the next post.