Nature Trail To Hell!

     We've been planning this ride for some time...Recently AnnaMarie and I were at the Ocean Beach street fair and saw this poster.  I stopped to try to figure out where it was exactly.  The lady selling the poster and matching t-shirts knew what I was trying to do and said, "C'mon, you can do it; you'd be the first!" 
    I realized it's exactly where we planned on ending the ride, right where Highway 78 'T's into Highway 86 at Salton Sea. 
    58 miles, starting at my house at Lake Cuyamaca (elevation 4800') ending at this sign (elevation 227' below sea level).  October 16th.  We will leave early morning; if you want to get here the night before and carbo-load, great!
    What You Need--- 1) A bicycle (duh) 2) Sustenance 3) Spare inner tubes 4) A good attitude.  We will leave cars at the endpoint and drive up the road a few miles to one of Mike Friese's Salton City homes for a victory BBQ.
    What We Need--- 1)A chase driver.  There must be somebody wanting to participate but not wanting to pedal. 2)Hot chicks to staff the victory BBQ.  AnnaMarie's the first volunteer meeting all requirements.  3)A cool t-shirt would be good
     Other info---this is a fun ride intended for non-riders.  Not a race.  Anyone that wishes to bail and ride in the chase truck will be welcome to do so.  Alternate plan for the ride if the Santa Ana's are blowing (a headwind would be unfun) we'll go the opposite direction to Mission Beach.
    This is a not-to-miss event.  Celebrity bicycle mechanic James L. Vandewalle will be coming from NorCal at great expense to participate.
     Back to the lady with the poster--I may be getting this wrong but I think she said her husband, who is going blind, took this photo and they are selling the posters/shirts as a fundraiser and awareness raiser for blindness.  If there's interest, I'll contact her and see about buying her shirts with this image

Smaller Beams

Perfect combination of good weather and days off and a minimum of other have-to-do's makes for some good progress.  You can kinda see why the big beams went the way they did. The heavy timbers are where the wrap around deck is.  You have to have a minimum 1" step down from inside to outside.  The interior framing is 2" higher than the exterior since the decking is 1" thick.

The part with the funny angles is where the bay window will be.  It's cantilevered out like the deck.  It's about 6' off the ground already, and there's two stories to go---this is going to be a tall and skinny house!

I'm learning to really like the I-joists.  They are perfectly staight and very stiff and light.  The hangars go in pretty quick then you cut the joists to size and they just snap in.  I made the mistake of pre-staging some hangars upside down over some already installed joists.  The vibrations from pounding made them settle down and clip themselves in.  They don't come off easy...Oh well, lessons learned.  The part that isn't done yet is where I have to do the rough-in plumbing.  I'll hang a few of the joists so I can hang the drainpipes from them but still move around without having to crawl underneath a completed floor---one of the advantages of doing everything myself is planning steps out like that.

The floor frame is very sturdy, even before the subflooring is down. 

Big Beams

With a few days off in a row, lots of work can get done.  There was a bit of a delay (again) caused by suppliers---I wanted the sill (the pressure treated lumber the house sits on) to be splice free.  I made a special trip to buy a 3x6x 20'; got home and noticed it was only 16' long.  How do you not notice 4' of board missing??  Then, what was really frustrating, the metal column caps (that's the piece where the beams intersect) were all custom special order.  The supplier called saying they were in; I made the hour and a half drive to Escondido, only to find out my order WASN'T in, they were looking at a different order.....

Finally with my last day off I had all the parts and a whole day to work.  It was a bit scary getting the big beams from here to there but it all worked...It was really enjoyable to be working with big lumber on land I own on a beautiful day---until my sports-freak neighbor came up and really scolded me for missing Patrick's soccer game.

It may look like I have beams going every which way.  I do. Since I really wanted the deck to wrap around two sides, and the new fire restrictive codes don't allow for stacking cantilevers, this was the solution.  There are still a few more big beams to put in, then the rough in plumbing; then I'll be ready for the next inspection.

Cost Of Doing It Right

       When you decide to build something, you have to decide what kind of builder you're going to be.   You can be the kind that does it as cheap as possible.  You can just do what it takes to get something up, or you could design based on your current skill level.  I'm of the opinion you draw up exactly what you want to end up with and figure it out as you go.

Now that the foundation is done, I'm installing the sill plates---the pressure treated lumber that sits on the foundation, and the whole house rests on these plates.  Well, this lumber was at the very bottom of the wood pile, so I had to spend time moving things up to the lumber rack.  It gave me a chance to figure out what was what.  There are some parts missing.  

I wanted a deck that wraps around two sides of the cabin.  The normal way to do this is to have some heavy timbers stick out (cantilever) one direction, then have the floor joists on top of those timbers, cantilevering out in a perpendicular direction.  Problem is with the new fire resistive construction you can't stack exposed framing members.  Eliminating the deck on one side would be the easy thing.

Instead, I have very heavy timbers (they are the 6x12's wrapped in white paper) that sort of herring-bone pattern off each other, with the joists hung between them.  Added bonus--the overall elevation of the house is 14" less.  However, I have to support two heavy timbers on the outside floating edge of these beams, and there's a 6x6 post at each junction that will support the porch roof.  All this requires some very beefy steel hangers.  They are custom order items.  If you look at the picture, you have to imagine it inverted, and the post straps are used instead to hold the 6x6 columns.

I need 6 of these.  Not all the same.  Some of them are $228 EACH!  Whoa.  Not in the budget, but there aren't options.  I ordered them; they come in Thursday.

So, instead of framing, I'm picking up overtime shifts (always available in the Summer) and a modelling job that will pay 'several hundred dollars' a day for four days, which should just cover the expense.

Delays, Delays!

Tidying Things Up

Things were looking kind of junky around the lot after stripping the forms.  I need to get to some specific pieces of lumber next, and they are buried underneath some big beams that I'd rather not move twice.   So the bigger boards (that started life as driveway forms, then were re-used as foundation forms) became a big lumber rack.  It's going to be nice having a big flat area to stage lumber, and even make some cuts.  A lesson learned from before was, working on a slope slows everything down.  Having a flat surface to measure and cut on is worth a day's work....When the framing is done this lumber rack will be re-re-reconstructed as a steep staircase to the roof for that stage of the project

  

Building My Own House

            Once again, a neighbor asked when I'm gonna start building.  I wanted to tell her I'm almost finished----plans are approved, utilities are all in, materials are delivered, and foundation is done. 
             Foundation's DONE!  I've been fantasizing about this point for two years now.  It took two months to dig then form the foundation.  It took two hours to pour it.  It took two days to strip the forms.
             One of my volunteers (Kieran) was tasked with dumping the color (iron oxide, mostly) into the forms while we worked the concrete in.  I wanted it to look somewhat like the surrounding boulders---it doesn't, but it's still better looking than plain concrete.  I kinda like how it turned out.
              Stripping the forms wasn't easy.  First I took out all the screws that I could get to; many of them faced inward so it took some prying and breaking to get everything apart.  Then the task of peeling away to fabric and cutting it.  Very dusty work---didn't help allergies at all.  Oh well---I'm out of the dirt now and can start with the wood stuff now!  Next up is the rough floor framing inspection

The Big Day

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Yesterday everything (forms, digging, housework, cleaning the cabin) finished around 10:00 pm. Byron got here around 6:30 this morning. We started actually pumping and pouring about 7:00. Other volunteers showed up--Butch Paddock (neighbor) and a few co-workers from HazMat---Kieran and Steve (Mike showed up after all the work was done, just like a blister. He still got a grilled sandwich but had to eat the heels)
After months of prep work, it was only 2 hours of pouring. It got to be a juggling act because the concrete was setting quick in the heat. The forms didn't move a bit, and we had exactly the right amount of concrete.
We had lunch and hung out for a bit. I have to go wet it down, then I'm going to lie down for awhile

Last Minute Prep

So, a full load of concrete is 9.5 yards. I need 14.5 I figure for the foundation. The biggest expense is the delivery charge, so ordering a short load doesn't make sense.
So, I decided it was worth shaping and forming the rest of the driveway, enough to eat up another 4.5 yards. It's hard pan dirt and needs to come down about 8" in some spots. Racing the sun but got it done in time to get some rebar down.

The Inspection and Edmund Fitzgerald

Sorry, no new picture.


Met my project inspector---Rob. Rob liked to talk. I wasn't sure what he'd think of the fabric formed foundation---he acted like he'd seen millions of them. Or it's possible that this is his first project, so 100% of them have been like this.
Rob was impressed that I had all my Best Management Practices (BMPs) in place, then proceeded to give a detailed history of BMP's. They were to protect the Great Lakes. He then tried to list the Great Lakes but left out Huron and Ontario. He seemed surprised and impressed that I knew them---I told him just thought of the Gordon Lightfoot song "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" because he lists them all, so Rob was even more impressed that I knew who Gordon Lightfoot was.
Just one little thing he wants done before the pour. He wants me to cut all the fabric out of the bottom of the trench so the concrete will sit on the dirt. I have to have a 20' grounding rod encased in the foundation that sticks out so I can later bond it to the electrical panel, which was already done. Rob is afraid the concrete will not provide sufficient ground if it's separated from the dirt by a layer of fabric. Never mind there are TWO 8' copper rods at the power pole already and I'm grounding to the cold water line, too.
I got about a third of it cut out. He wants pictures.
So I've ordered concrete. 14.5 yards (27 cubic feet to the yard)will do it. I've hired out a concrete pump too. The most I can mix in a day myself is two yards, so there would be 'cold joints' if I did it myself and I want a one piece foundation. A truck holds 9 1/2 yards. Delivery is the expensive part so I ordered two full trucks and will use the other 4 1/2 yards for the section of driveway between the parking area and the main driveway. I have two days to cut, grade, form and reinforce. The pour starts at 7:00 am Monday. Byron's coming to help as are a few co workers.

George Michael Was Right

Lee's post prompted this blog. Thanks Lee

I wasn't born with much talent. Anyone that has heard me sing, watched me dance, and so on can attest to it. No one has ever asked me to model. When picking teams in playground sports I wasn't one of the first picked.
No...What I WAS born with, and took for granted for a long time, is a strong faith. The existence of a creator, with a distinct personality, whom I will get to know better after death, to me is unquestionable.
Before my agnostic friends start demanding proof---let me say that faith distinctly implies that which can't be proven. As such, any faith that doesn't contradict historical proof or physical law is equally valid. Arguing faith versus faith makes no rational sense.
Evangelizing to people that don't want to be evangelized at, is a waste of time. I like the Roman Catholic approach better of just leading by example (true, there are plenty of Roman Catholics that have set a pretty poor example. Those actions have nothing to do with faith and are very damaging)
Half of my hour long commute to work is dedicated to prayer (the other half listening to the news, which usually leads to more prayer) Mostly contemplative prayer, like meditation. Some for thanksgiving, some for forgiveness, and a little for intercession though I try to keep that to a minimum.
Bottom line is, faith has been such a good source of calming and reassurance. If I imagine life without faith there's something good and big missing. From the outside it may look like a crutch. People with faith will understand it puts you more in lockstep with the universe. We are designed for it.

Ready For Mud

Yesterday the goal was to get the foundation forms completely ready for concrete. I was sooo close when AnnaMarie told me it was time to get ready for church...Cleaned up, went to church, jammed back home just to get all dirty again.
I went back and forth about how I wanted to form the piers. Basically, there is a pier underneath every point a beam intersects another beam under the house. There's a 24" square hole, 30" deep, for each one--then a 12" square form suspended over the hole. The rebar all had to be bent a certain way. The perimeter foundation forms are all set, too.
Next is having the surveyor come out and make sure I'm building in the correct spot. Sure hope I am---there's no practical way to move this monstrosity. They'll draft a letter, which I have to then give to the county inspector---who will make sure all the BMP's (Best Management Practices) are in place.
Made use of the remaining twilight to clean up everything around the lot. I think neatness counts. There's enough scrap wood for a nice beach party