Big progress today (Day 510)

Bob and Josh Brown (Bob Brown Plumbing) arrived at 9:30 on Monday morning, tools in hand. I decided to bite the bullet and have them do the final installation of the faucets, toilets and drains. I figured it would take me a week to do these since there are 2 toilets, a urinal, 6 sinks (drains and faucets). In addition, they plumbed and installed the dishwasher and the much-hated air-gap device. This is an obnoxious little breather cap that Jefferson County requires to be mounted on the countertop. The City of PT doesn't require it since most (all?) new dishwashers already have such a device built in. Nevertheless, we need it to pass the next and final inspection, so in it went. In addition to all the plumbing work, which was finished at 2:30 pm (5 hrs, two guys!!), I mounted the finished, but not-waxed, maple countertops in the pantry, since the farm sink has to sit on top of the counters. They look be'ute't'ful, as Billy Crystal would say. Off to Idaho for some geology today, then back to it this weekend. Getting close to our IRS deadline, so it will be a full-court push in April.

Thanks, but no thanks (Day 507)

Some unknown person has posted a couple comments in Japanese(?), which aren't really helpful. So I changed the comments section to only allow registered followers to post comments.

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Spring has sprung (Day 507)

Spring has sprung. Officially it was a week ago, but the plants say it was yesterday. That is when the bright red Rhody that we planted last fall bloomed, big time. Its twin to the side is a few days late, but by the end of the weekend they should be out in all their glory. Rhodys however, can bloom just about any month of the year depending on their species. The big bloom usually happens around the end of April, just in time for the Rhody Festival in Port Townsend (May 10-16).

Today, I'm laying some more irrigation pipe (3/4" and 1/2" polypipe) for the drip system that will keep the trees and plants moist during our 3 dry months (July, Aug, Sept). Just insurance in case we take a long vacation during the summer, which sounds like a better idea by the day.

Plastering, second round (Day 505)

After a week of resting my arms, Brian and I attacked the plaster wall for round 2, using the porcelina (clay). This goes on much smoother than the loma (sand) plaster and looks good when it dries. However, in order for the plaster to be hard and not chalk off, you need to compress it, which means wetting it up and troweling it back and forth with mild pressure.

The porcelina went on fine. Did the green wall first and had a gallon of mud left. So I cut back for the gold wall and had to really skimp to make it cover all the surface. It worked in the long run, but I wish I'd made 5 pounds more plaster for backup. Since I know the mix formula, I can always make more but that is a pain in the ___ and the color could be slightly off. We'll cross that quagmire when we get to it.

Did a bunch of other things this week and fiddled with the clay plaster. Added a metal shield to the garage attic ladder cover, which is a code issue (fireproof ceilings required in garages). Got the fan motor fixed since it was DOA. Turns out to be a bad rheosat in the hood. As low settings there wasn't enough voltage going to the motor to turn it, so it made some bad sounds and smells. Replaced the motor on warranty and racked up the rheosat. All is well and the Best Appliance people were real good about the work.

Nancy has been sanding and finishing the Eastern Hard Maple countertops that Bill McCutcheon made for us. I'd bought the wood at Edensaw, a local hardwood supplier that does a fantastic business in the marine trades here. They had too much maple (6000 bd ft) so they marked it down from $7.50 a foot to $3.50 a foot (less than half price). Couldn't pass up that deal. After Bill was done gluing up the board, planing them down and running them thru his big sander, we come out with about 27 ft of counters for the pantry, and another 11 ft for the mudroom desk. That works out to be 38 linear ft (75 sq. ft) for about $1350, or about $35 a linear ft. That is cheaper than any rock you can buy and about half the price of store bought butcher block tops. Another good deal realized, for a change.

Cut a bunch of paint grade trim to size for the closets, but will wait to install after flooring goes in. Brian came by for 6 hrs on Wednesday and worked on more doors. Since the plaster is all up, we mounted the trim on the guest bath, pantry and bedroom doors. The natural fir looks great against the clay. We also mounted the double pocket doors in the bath/bedroom opening. These were a bit of a pain to get square and level, but it worked out after a couple of hours of fiddling. So now all the doors downstairs have been hung with the exception of the fire-rated garage/mudroom door (don't want to damage it). Finally, today I finished the trim work on the pantry. Completed the toe kick by adding 1/4" plywood cover to the cabinet bases. The toe kick has to be above the floor so that the cork can expand and contract. Elsewhere in the pantry there are fir baseboards over the cork tiles and some L shaped fir trim on the edges of the cork-covered platform for the washer and dryer. Looks good, now just have to find some big monkeys to help lift all the appliances into the house from the garage.

Tomorrow I need to grout and seal the bathroom tile so that the plumber can come and set the toilets in place on Monday. To speed things along, I've asked him to install all the faucets and plumb the sinks so we can pass the Occupancy inspection in a couple of weeks. Once the plumbing and appliances are in place, the only stickler is the handrails which are made and finished, but not hung. Waiting for a box of hardware, then we're good to go.

Day 500 (March 20th)

Today we've been building the house for 500 days and we're still not done. Seems like less, but the calendar doesn't lie. In the long run, I suspect it will be more like 750 days or two full years, and then we'll still have a punch list of things we'd like to do (more built ins, back yard, etc). Our move in date is set for the week of May 8-15 ; this is driven by the lease on our rented house, which expires on May 15th. We'll need a couple days to move and a couple days to clean up, so in essence we have about 6 weeks to finish the house. Hope to have the occupancy permit by Tax Day at the latest since there is a $6500 credit we can qualify for as repeat home buyers. So the next month will be crunch time for those remaining occupancy issues: mainly the appliances, stair rails, working bathroom (toilet), and garage/mudroom fire door. We'll hang the door then remove it after the inspection so it doesn't get damaged when we move furniture in. The more I do this building thing, the more it feels like graduate school. Maybe I can get my doctorate in home construction from the University of Phoenix.

By the way, our visitor counter is at about 5500 (thanks for all those eyes). Son Tom set it up in Nov. 2009 at 500 views, so it didn't look like we just started the blog. I'd already been blathering on for a year, so that means we've have 5000 hits in about 5 months or 1000 per month. No record for sure, but someones are watching us. Cheers, Michael

PS. First on the job accident other than bumps and bruises and sore muscles. The house has been pretty forgiving, but when stupidity enters the equation anything can happen. Tim Hamm and I were setting up some binder boards for gravel walkways in the front of the house. I was holding 2 ends together and screwing them together with a 1.5" drywall screw. Yeep, the screw went through the two boards and firmly attached them to my left index finger. Hurt like hell and then I had to use the power screw driver to detach my finger from the boards. Nice clean entry about 3/8" deep. So, my typing is off speed a bit now.

Master Bath Tile (Day 498)

Finished up laying the floor tile in the master bath yesterday. Relatively simple pattern (12" x 12"), but we cut the corners off some tiles to inset 4 pieces of 2" x 2" tiles (4" x 4" overall). In order to get the cutoffs just right you have to make a jig (plywood), then overlie it on the intersection of 4 large tiles. Once you have your cut offs marked, you set up the tile saw with the 45° guide and a stop and cut away. Cut the first four a little small, check the overall dimension and then recut if needed. Once you get the saw setup, then cut all the corners off at once. We had 15 inset diamonds, so that was 60 tiles, or roughly 1/2 of the 125 we laid on the floor. The only tricky part to this job was fitting the tile under the jambs for the toilet room door. I had the tile cut and fitted, but forgot to put the left piece in before the adjacent tile. Then the tile wouldn't fit because the outside edge was elevated (resting on the adjacent tile). Luckily, I managed to pop the already laid tile up. Problem solved, but I might have cracked it in the process. I'd ordered 125 floor tiles and used 124, so there wasn't a lot of room for error. Next step is grouting. Nancy went over to Sequim yesterday to order the floor grout, as well as the shower tile and grout. So, within a week we should have everything here to finish the first (of 3) bathrooms in the house. Not looking forward to doing the upstairs one since it has both a shower and tub. That can wait until the summer.

You Know You're A Contractor If (Day 495)

Now, I'm not really a contractor (other than being our general), but some of the following ring true: Enjoy this one Ken and Steve.

You Know You're A Contractor If...

1. Your dog rides in your truck more than your wife.

2. You wear specific hats to paint, grout, plaster, and cut trim, or to different stores (Carls vs Home Depot vs Seattle Lighting).

3. You have ever had to wash off in the backyard with a garden hose before your wife would let you in the house.

4. You've never thrown away a 5-gallon bucket.

5. You'll remember the square footage, pounds of nails required, crew labor rates and permit delays on a house you built, but cannot recall your wife's birthday or your anniversary.

6. You have used a Lee Valley catalog as toilet paper.

7. You have driven off the road while checking out a new house going up in your neighborhood. Even worse, you stop and interview the builder and subs, regularly

8. You have 'borrowed' gravel from the county road to fill potholes in your driveway.

9. You've used a 5-gal 'honey bucket' as a porta potty, for 3 months (which is why no. 3 is important)

10. You've used the same knife to exterminate vermin and peel apples; of course, you wipe it off so its clean.

Plastered all weekend (Day 494)

Yeep, we plastered all weekend. Brian (6'5" tall helper) and I hit it Saturday morning. I'd prepped the two walls (sunroom-gold) and kitchen-green) last week, taped off the trim and walls and laid plastic on the floors keep the excess plaster from staining the unfinished wood floor. The walls needed some "tooth" to them to hold the first coat of plaster, so they got painted with a latex primer with about 1 pound of fine sand per gallon. Same sort of mix you'd use on a porch to make it slip proof.

With calculator and kitchen scale in hand, I calculated how much plaster we'd need for the sunroom. American Clay advertises that a 50# bag of Loma (sandy base coat) will cover 200 sq. ft of wall. The 100% color was too much for us, so we started at 50% and it looked like shit (literally). So I upped the colorant to 66% and that was better, but the end result (when everything dried) as more like Gray Poupon. Its ok, but for the second coat (Porcellina), we'll go at 75% which will make the room "pop" a bit.

I mixed up 70# of loma using our bathroom scale to weigh the plaster. Then I weighed out the colorant, which comes in small bags. The Tucson Gold weighed 6.7 oz (190 g), so I needed 1.4x normal to get the right amount of color. Bought one of those little digital kitchen scales to weight it out; worked great. 266 grams of Tucson Gold and 70# of Loma. The bag says add up to 3 gals of water per bag, but I'd been warned that this would be too much. Right, we only used 11 qts (2.75) gals of water for 70# and it was a bit watery, so the right water mix is about 8 qts per bag. Your desired consistency is pudding: it should be stiff enough to hold a peak (like whipped cream) but not so stiff that its hard to trowel on (like peanut butter). With a bit of experience (like on Day 2), you can get it to pudding, remembering that you can always add water, but its hard to extract it (let it dry a day in an open bucket). Anyway, 70# mixed and off we went. I started in the sunroom and Brian started in the living room. Being a type A guy, I was slow. Brian whooped my ass on area covered, but my wall needed less refinement in the long run. You need a fairly smooth surface, complete coverage, and no buggers or divots. The leopard appearance on the gold wall is a result of uneven drying. The dark is wet, the light (final color) is dry.

The plastering went faster than I thought it would. An hour to prep and mix the plaster, 3 hours to trowel on the plaster (275 sq. ft), and an hour to clean up. Five hours total; I thought it would be more like eight. So Brian only got a half day of work in (no clean up for him)

On Sunday, we went at it again on the bigger wall, the green kitchen. Same routine of mixing, but a bit more. On Saturday we only had about 1 cup of extra plaster, so I mixed a bit more than needed (I thought). We had 325 ft to cover, so I made 85# of mud. The green color is Verde (green) Valley and comes in larger bags (290 g). We mixed this color at 100% (508 g) since the sample I'd made at EcoHaus in Seattle turned out to be just right for the room. And in the long run we had 2 cups left over. What happens is that you start to watch the remaining amount of plaster and the amount of wall and start stretching it out, recovering plaster from the floor (if clean and on the plastic). Its tough mixing a partial bag, so running out is not a pretty option.

The green wall went faster since we were now pros (with 3 hours of experience each). Knocked off this wall in a little over 2 hours even though it as 50 sq. ft larger. So now that we've done 2 large walls, I'd figure we can lay up about 100 sq ft per hour (2 guys). Brian is about twice as fast as I am, but I tend to handle the edges and he takes the main walls on. We're half way through, so I expect we'll have two half days of work next weekend, then another day to compress the final clay coat. I'll save that for a later post. Back onto tile in the bathroom this week. Its about 75% laid on the floor, then grout and sealer. Nancy will tackle filling the hundreds of nail holes in the fir trim, sanding, and patching the polyurethane finish. Sounds like fun, so no bitching from me on the tile.

The big bad wolf (Day 489)

He puffed and he puffed and blew the house down. NOT. We had the Wolf cooktop stove of Nancy's dreams hooked up today, and its sweet. Simmers so low you can melt chocolate chips on a paper plate right over the flames (no kidding). Levi Ross came over and hooked up the propane (15" flexible metal line), we plugged it in (igniteors), and turned it on. Presto--flames. Six 18,000 BTU burners; you can heat the house with this sucker!

Prepped the two plaster walls with latex primer and 16 oz of fine sand per gallon. Now we have 600 sq. ft of walls that look and feel like 100 grit sandpaper. Plastering is on the schedule for the weekend. Working on bathroom file in between, cutting the corners out of 13" tiles for 4"x4" insets. Kind of tricky until you get the jig made. Jigs are wonderful for anything you're going to do more than a half-dozen times, or if you don't have any patience or abilities to replicate your own work. Oops, got to go and watch The Middle now. Ciao. Michael

The Occupancy Permit (Day 486)

On Monday, I ventured into the big town (Port Townsend) to have a little visit with the building department. These folks are actually quite friendly and helpful, perhaps a sign of the times. They are a fee-based county department, meaning that they pay their people and do business on moneys collected from building permits and other fees. They have $4500 of our dollars, so I don't really mind using up some of their time, from time to time.

I needed to get a better grip on just what needs to be finished to get an "Occupancy Permit." Its a pretty self explanatory permit; you get one and you can occupy you house. Simple enough, but what's on their magical list. About 25 items, some that seem trivial but most of which deal with health and safety. Here's what they need to see (abridged for space). X means we've already finished with these items (i.e., installed and operable):

X Smoke detectors
X Fan in laundry room
X Sheetrock taped and sealed
X Plumbing in and inspected.
X Septic system finaled
X Heating system working
X Electrical outlets covered, no exposed wires (including light boxes)
X Roof drainage system installed
X Siding on and painted or stained
X Garage doors installed
X Glass doors on fireplaces
X 911 placard (address) installed
X Exterior doors and threshold fit tight and are weather stripped
X Waterlines insulated in crawl spaces
X Hotwater pressure-relief value drains to outside
X All holes in drywall filled (pipes, wires, ducts, etc)
X Insulation certificate on hand
X All glass in hazardous locations is tempered
X All bath and whole house fans installed and operable

Yet to be completed:
Firewall between house and garage (still need to install the fire rated door)
Crawl spaces and attic access sealed with weather stripping (easy)
Stairs and decks have handrails (working on this now)
All appliances installed, operable, and manuals on hand (at the end)
Dishwasher must have air gap device (at the end)
One complete and operational bathroom (seemingly the big enchilada for us)

As for the remaining items, the last seemed most daunting until I asked what all needs to be in the bathroom. Its a toilet and a sink. Shower or tub is optional. They said that in a pinch, you can clean up (bathe) in the sink. Go figure.

Things you don't need to occupy a house:
Paint on the walls. Very many lights. Carpet or other covering on the floors. A tub or shower. Window coverings. Cabinets in the kitchen or bathrooms. Just those little things that make a house a home.

Looks like we should be able to get our Occupancy Permit in the next month and perhaps quality for a $6500 tax break from Uncle Sam. Oh boy, I'm getting excited about finishing up this little project.

Getting Plastered (Day 485)

The clay type, not the booze type of plastered. I spent Saturday March 6th with Brian (trim carpenter, soon to be amateur plasterer) at a 2-hour training session on clay plastering. Nancy and I had attended a full-days training in Santa Fe, which was great but it was 2 years ago. So it was time for a refresher. Brian and I went over to EcoHaus in Seattle via the Bainbridge ferry. Did I mention that he must have a tapeworm! Feed him a MacDonalds breakfast at 10 am, did a big lunch at 2 at the Pyramid Brewery, then he stopped for a candy bar on the way back. I figure the trip cost me more in food support than gas, but I need the big guy (see photo of him on Day 480 blog) to help put all that plaster on our walls. But I digress from the point of the day--plastering.

Our trainer was Middie, an attractive young woman from Seattle. Had been with EcoHaus for a couple years and had a degree in interior design. Who'd think that she could sling mud with the best of them. In a couple hours she showed six customers about the product, how to mix it up and apply it to wall, drywall sheets in this case. Luckily she asked if anyone had a special color in mind and I piped up with Verde Valley (light green) which we planned to use in the kitchen area. So she mixed up a 50 pound bag in a jiffy, and off we went.

American clay is an entirely organic product. Its composed of about 75% marble dust (binder), clay, and fine sand or ground up shells. The clay and sand is mined in New Mexico, whereas the marble dust is probably imported from Italy (their sources and quarry locations are proprietary info, so I'm speculating on the basis of my geologic background). The company is family owned and operated out of Albuquerque, NM; been around for 10-15 years I think. Check out there website (http://www.americanclay.com/our-clay) for info and pretty pictures of their product in use.

We'll use two types of American Clay. You always start with Loma, a sandy clay plaster that is the base coat. Loma has a sandy feel when applied, so we'll use a second, finish coat of Porcelina, which is smoother and resembles Venetian plaster. The nice thing about American Clay is that it has no lime (cement) content, so cleaning up tools, clothes, and adjacent surfaces is easy. Also the material isn't caustic to your hands like cement. On the eco side of things, the clay plaster generates gobs of negative ions, which is a good thing for controlling dust and other particles in the air. Their web site goes on with feel-good technobabble like : "Negative ions are believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy." If this is true, I'll be one happy camper surrounded by 600 square feet of the stuff.

Another nice attribute of the clay is that its a hygroscopic material, meaning it absorbs water. In the Pacific NW this is a good thing. To what extent it does this is tough say. I'd had an argument with the trainer in Santa Fe back in 2008. This gal, who later left the company, told us that the clay absorbed 300 times its weight in water. My god, how could that be. Common sense never entered her little mind. Clay materials have a bulk density of about 1.2 g/cc but could go higher (1.5 g/cc) if compressed (like American Clay). That means that a sugar cube (1 cm) size block of American Clay, enough to cover about one square inch (7 sq. cm) in a layer 1/16" thick (the typical applied thickness) weighs 1.5 g. So stick with me here. You spread a sugar-cube size wad (1.5 g) of American Clay on the wall and it covers a square inch. To do a square foot (144 sq. in), you'd need 144 x 1.5 g = 216 g of material. There are 2.2 pounds per kg, so 216 g is the equivalent of 0.46 pounds. This makes sense since American Clay says one 50# bag of Loma will cover about 200 sq. ft of wall. OK, now back to the weight of absorbed water.

Your 216 g (0.46 lb) of clay covering that sq. ft of wall absorbs water with increasing humidity. If its foggy in the house, there is plenty of moisture to hydrate the clay. 300 x its weight in water means that one sq. ft of clay-covered wall absorbs 140 pounds of water, and that 1/16" thick layer must swell to about 18" in thickness. I have visions of a gooey mess. So what happened was that the trainer in Santa Fe mistakingly used x (times) rather than % (percent). Even after I pointed out the error and its common sense implications, she was reticent to admit the error and continued to claim the nearly miraculous qualities of the clay. Obviously she'd been much impressed with mud packs and mud baths. OK back to the walls and plastering.

After we apply the Loma clay, we'll come back and top coat it with the Porcelina clay. This has little to no sand in it so it comes out with a smooth surface, much like a babys butt (so to speak). When its dried to a leather hard surface, you can burnish it with a steel or plastic trowel which gives the surface a special patina. So it looks like the next week will be dedicated to priming the soon to be plastered walls and laying the tile on the master bath floor. Stay tuned.

The Great Wall (Day 483)

Tim Hamm, hardscaper extraordinaire, is at it again. Nancy got ready to plant ground cover on the dirt berm that we build just above the drainage ditch at the front of the house. I'd been worrying that the berm would just melt away with time and eventually end up in the ditch. So I asked Tim to build a small wall along the front of the berm, something stylish and 18-24" high. It would go about 60 ft across the front of our lot, from near the driveway to our large (50 ft) Madrona tree.

Last week we ordered up 5 tons of basalt boulders ($190), mainly 1/2 and 1 man sized with some smaller stuff for chinks. In addition, I picked up about 3/4 ton of greenish glacier mist boulders ($120), which appear to be some sort of metamorphic greenstone. The guys at these landscape places (Blake Sand and Gravel, this time) are completely brain dead when it comes to rock type. Glacier Mist, Greenstone. At least they both start with G and have about the same no. of letters. Granite and basalt, those they know. Perhaps slate and sandstone, but past that point they don't have a clue. Good enough for contractor work as they say.

Anyway, Tim put three days into the wall and has it about 95% complete at a cost of about $800 rock included. We'll need to get a couple of yards of top soil to back fill the wall, then my lovely gardener can get on with planting the ground cover. Just a little diversion from the real task at hand--get the house finished and move into it.