The Hearth

     Fun stage.  Starting to do some artistic stuff that will actually show.  This is the building of the hearth, done exactly how you'd do a concrete countertop.  I've done the pour-in-place method before but never the upside-down mold that gives a perfectly flat surface.
    Starting with the mold----this is melamine.  I didn't want extreme folds in the plastic so instead of lining the entire mold with plastic I just wrapped the form walls, then screwed it all together.   Then a 2x6 was cut the length of the form, and rebar wired so it would hang in the center of the concrete.  3 anchor bolts were molded into the bottom to secure the piece to the wooden base later.

    Once the rebar was checked for fit that whole part was set aside.  The first sack of concrete was mixed.  I took out a scoop of it and threw it in the form, then added some 'buff' color to the remainder; after thorough mixing, placed that in the form.  Then three sacks of concrete were mixed with black oxide color and that got dumped in.

    Note to self---don't rely on vibrating the form to soften the edge of the different colors.  You have to blend the edges manually as soon as you dump it in the form.  Otherwise when your wife first sees it, she'll ask "Did you mean for it to look like that?"
   After packing the concrete as best as I could, the rebar/anchor bolt rack was put in place.

    When you build the form, build it very sturdy---this one holds over 300 pounds of concrete and you have to vibrate it.  If you don't do some shaking of some kind you end up with all these honeycomb voids.  This form is held off the floor so I could get a crowbar under it to shake and wiggle it---then I took the blade off the sawzall and vibrated it.  A few good raps with a sledge got some bubbles out, too.  Make sure your form is on a level surface for curing.

   Note to self #2.  If you don't want animal tracks in the pour, keep animals away.  I had no idea until now the raccoons were coming inside at night.  Guess it's time to buy a front door?
             
    Let it cure at least 24 hours.  Impatience is bad---some of these forms are gonna stick, and 'green' concrete might prefer to stick to part of the form and not itself.  300 pounds minus a little is one helluva paper weight.
    So I carefully stripped the forms and built the wooden base.  It was very tempting to just flip it over and have a look, but I would have bent the anchor bolts.   The wooden base was very solid and distributed the weight evenly on the floor.  I also made certain the base was over two of the floor joists. 

    The wooden base was then screwed into the joists below and the Hardibacker screwed into place.  The base and the fireplace surround will get a native stone veneer.  The concrete still needs a little grinding, polishing and sealing....  Doing the pour indoors right near the finished spot was slightly inconvenient since I had to carry the mixed concrete in from outside, but I don't think I could have carried the finished product in without lots of help                                  

Is This Your First Occupation?

  Look--I know it was a rude awakening.  After 16 years or so of government schools where there was lots of emphasis on fairness and self esteem, and little on productivity and entrepreneurship...  Too few teachers understood and taught what runs our economy and too many filled your head with the liberal tripe their union clings to.  You saw first hand how your government will take care of you---free food before, during, and after school, free counseling, contraception, field trips, transportation.  You must have gotten the impression the government has unlimited funds.  You must have gotten the notion that if someone has more than you, it's because they took it away from you.  After all, we're all the same, right?
   What a rude awakening to be turned out into the real world!  Suddenly no one is giving you stuff anymore!  Hey, don't they realize how valuable you are??  Don't they realize what this is doing to your self esteem?
   So along comes this wealth hating protest.  Heck, maybe even a special interest group will pay you to go.   Go teach those evil capitalists what's up.
   Here's what they failed to teach you in school, though.  Our economy, and all the free stuff you enjoy, rely 100% on corporation and business profit or the speculation of future  profit.  Those people you are protesting against are paying the vast majority of the taxes.  That millionaire didn't get there by whining or holding a sign.
   You sign says, "Wake Up!" Oh, we're awake.  We know that the financial meltdown has far more to do with Barney Frank's 'fair housing' scheme and almost nothing to do with CEO pay.  We are awake to the fact that over-regulation and undue influence of environmental laws has killed business development.  We are awake to the fact that an economy can't sustain unskilled jobs artificially overcompensated not by need or scarcity but by union thuggery.  Yep, you can actually earn $50,000 scanning bananas.
   And those millionaires you revile?  Very few were handed anything.  They were the ones that got up early to study and took a job (you would have considered beneath you)after school.  They found a niche, made themselves valuable and productive---and 'the system' you hate rewarded them.  Well, sort of---their tax burden is hefty and few recognize their true heroics today.
   Here's my question to you.  Maybe you can awaken me in this regard.  After you're done bringing down all the millionaires, who are you gonna tax to support all your social programs?   

Patrick Asks 'The Question"

   We're homeschooling Patrick this year, like we did for the girls during 6th grade.  He's 11.  We were just riding in the car when he asked "The Question".
    I guess it's the same age I started getting curious about such things, too.  They say you shouldn't overload them or go way beyond what they're able to understand, but you don't want to obfuscate or confuse, either.  Incidentally, if the girls have asked such questions, they went to AnnaMarie.  Quite frankly though, I know a lot more about it than she does.  It's one of those things she'd just as soon not even think about.  It's there, it's a necessary part of life, that's it.
    So you prompt them to ask specific questions.  That way they are steering the conversation to their level of understanding.  "How does it all work?" "How do I get things started?" "How do you know what to put where, and when?"  "Why does Mommy's look different than Daddy's?"  All good questions.
   Since we're homeschooling I asked the charter lead from the district.  She told me about visible models that the district would even pay for.  Patrick and I could do the assembly together and we could discuss everything's names and functions as we go along. 
   We're really enjoying the time together.

Da Roof..

    Shelter really isn't shelter until there's a roof.  Roofing is one of the more rewarding parts of the building project---everything underneath is now protected from the elements, and you can get work done regardless of the weather.  First you have to get the materials up there, though.  I built a temporary stand-off since the roofing goes 3/8" past the drip edge, and put some stops so the ladder can't slide off.  Then it's a matter of shoulder loading the bundles of shingles----3/4's of them weigh 68 pounds, and every fourth weighs 76 pounds.  (one in four bundles has more shingles so it will work out to 4 bundles per square, a square being 100 square feet covered)  
    Hard to tell in the picture but it's 26' to the ground.

   I made a work platform out of scrap to hold stuff.  You need a flat surface to cut the shingles on.  There's a specific pattern to cut each starter shingle, working left to right from the roof's edge---that way the seams don't overlap.  Every 5 courses I snapped a chalkline to keep everything straight (or else when you get to the top everything looks un-even)

   The valleys......This roof has every challenge there is---steep valleys, gable junctions, roof to wall junctions, even curved rooflines.  I'm of the opinion there is only one correct way to roof valleys when using composition roofing, and that is to lace them.  The cheap shortcut is to put metal flashing down and simply cut the shingles at the bottom of the valley.  The metal tends to cook the shingles causing premature failure.  The shingles are cut right where the water flows.  Leaves and pine needles accumulate and get under.  Other than chimneys, valleys are the most likely origin of leaks.
    Three reasons roofers don't lace valleys----They don't know how (I exchanged free labor for an experienced roofer that DID know how for a roofing lesson) it uses up a lot more roofing material, and it takes more time.
    This steep gable comes right up against the pop-out roof, creating a snow-trapping funnel.  I put down this sticky sheet rubber stuff in the valley all the way up the sidewall, then flashed the vertical surfaces with lots of flashing.

September Lightning Pre-Position

     It was a bit ironic, just because I was working a 48 hour shift over the 9/11 weekend and concurrently on the bubble and rostered as a Technical Information Specialist (TIS) for the Urban Search And Rescue task force (just in case there was an attack)... Midway through the shift sometime after midnight got the call to report for something completely different, managing a military aircraft for fires up North.
   It's kind of a neat program.  If the private helicopter resources are exhausted, the large campaign fires can call up National Guard helicopters to fight fires.  The copters have to have a fire representative aboard trained as a Military Helicopter Equipment Manager (MHEM). 
    SouthOps set up a rental car for me.  My relief came in, I got the car, and started driving.  The helibase was in Tehachapi, only a few hours' drive, but I had to drive through and continue on another 6 hours North to Stockton to get my helicopter.
    Flew South and fought fire for a few days.  It was cool to see areas way off the freeways I'd driven by so many times before.  They re-deployed us up to Bishop, crossing the Southern portion of the Sierras right over Lake Isabella.  The fire in Bishop wasn't really much, so we then crossed over the central Sierras---the only landmark I recognized was 'Balloon Dome'.  It's gorgeous country and just goes on and on.  Flight following was hard---there's little radio communications in or out back there.
    Days' end always involved a small army of mechanics crawling all over the helicopter checking everything over.  It's big, can lift a lot, yet flies much faster than our 412 back home.

Free Building Materials!

    At work out by the airport dumpsters, there was this hunk of wood someone left there.  It sat for months.  I really don't just salvage stuff, unless I'm absolutely sure I can use it.  I figured, at least it could be firewood.....It had a deep weathered surface, was 7" X 12" X 8 1/2'.  Just looking at splinters I thought it was Douglas Fir, but it was very heavy.   So it sat in my yard for another year.
    Byron loaned me his table saw, which also sat for a year.  It will cut much deeper than the skilsaw most of the house was built with.  When I started making the cuts, a rich chocolate smell filled the cottage--a distinct old oak smell.
    It took a few hours just to cut the rough shape and the blade wasn't quite deep enough, so a sawzall finished the cuts.  The wood is so hard the circuit breaker kept popping and the wood burned as it cut.
    After trudging through the plumbing and fire sprinkler steps, doing some artsy work was a welcomed change. 

    I really like the contrast of the old weathered wood and the newly cut/deeply sanded oak.  It was very tempting to make the mantel oversized just to not waste the wood, but I think this is correct.  You can see the small dry rot section in the first picture.  Sanding some of this out made the bottom edge kind of crookedy, which I could have sawn straight---but I kind of like the feel now.  My brother Bob would call it 'organic' I think.

   Craigslist had this wetsaw listed for $50.  I bought a new blade (another $50) spent some time getting it working, grabbed the closest rock, and started cutting.  It's beautiful.  This will face the fireplace and chimney.
   The other free find are some large wood bifold doors that will fit the 8' closet space.  The whole 'repurposed' theme is NOT part of goal with this place,  but when you find really good stuff that fits and is free,  all the better

A Day At AirOps

http://flashovertv.firerescue1.com/Media/3128-A-day-with-San-Diego-Air-Ops-San-Diego-5-The-Battalion-the-Series

   This media crew from 'Flashover TV' does stories related to fire service things.  They came out quite awhile ago.  This is a little long but does a good job of describing our AirOps program

Mile Eighteen

  If you've ever run a marathon, one of the mental challenges is 'hitting the wall'.  Somewhere about mile eighteen or so, moving forward gets very difficult.  Things hurt, you've got a long way to go, you're tired.  You start questioning why you're doing this...There's nothing to do for it except keep on going.
   With electrical done and plumbing not started, I sorta hit that wall.  I'm close enough to being done that I can see everything that's left to do; looking at it all at once it's overwhelming.
    Nothing for it but to keep on going.
   I got the drain side of the plumbing done.  The wall heater and water heater go in next---then everything that penetrates the roof will be in place.  The paper and flashing is down.  Time to buy the roof.
   So loaded the old truck up with all the construction debris that can't be burned, donated, or recycled (mostly OSB scraps, tar paper, and various packing materials), got up really early, and went to the dump on my way to work.  How cathartic!  Worked the paying job for 24 hours, then straight to Ford Wholesale Roofing.
    I had already chosen and paid for what I needed.  That way they have it all ready in a pile ready to load.  40 year composition shingles, charcoal black.  You also need various flashings, tin shingles for where roof meets gables, starter course, ridge, tar, coil nails.  Pulled old truck in and the fork lift guy asked, "Are you going to take two trips or three?" Uh, we'll do it in one.  I know he's thinking quarter ton truck and 3,500 pounds plus of roof....I try to explain to him how often I've loaded 5,000 pounds of concrete in the thing...Neglecting to explain that's for a short trip instead of the hour drive and one mile elevation gain we face...
   So, he shrugs, lifts the entire load, drops it in the truck.  The rubber stops are resting on the axle; there's no spring left.
   Please, old truck, don't hit the wall.  You are WAY past mile eighteen.  For that matter, you're way past mile 26.  I'll reward you with some really good gas.
   Chug all the way home; the engine never pings once.  It takes four wheel drive low to make it up the steep driveway, but make it we do.  My truck's fortitude was inspiration to hand offload each 87.5 pound bundle to where they need to be--either upstairs or near the ladder. 
    I feel like that wall is now behind me and I'm looking forward to completing each remaining step

Haiti, The Most Fair Nation

   Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with The Dominican Republic.  It's such a good microcosm to make a point since everything is pretty much the same, except for an attitude that makes things different between the two countries.  Same terrain, same weather, language, people. 
   A good friend of mine does missionary work in Haiti.  He told me something very interesting---the Haitians are really just fine not having anything and living in poverty, but if you give one of them something extra, all hell breaks loose.  If someone gets the idea that somebody got something they didn't, fights will erupt, buses get overturned.  Getting ahead can mean losing your head.
   Since our children were very small we never did 'fair'.  One kid might get an extra cookie here and there.  Another kid might arbitrarily get to do something the other won't, and we've always given the answer 'we don't do fair here'. 
   Our kids get along great, and will share among themselves freely.
   There's an old saying, 'You can't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer'.  As the grocery workers prepare to go on strike yet again,  their big argument isn't how hard they work or the dangers of the job or the skills required to ring up bananas; their argument is how much their CEO makes compared to them.
   Well, then, go become a CEO.
   At the root is a misunderstanding of how new wealth is made.  CEO's have more power to increase the gross domestic product than all of congress and the executive branch combined.  Punishing CEO's to try to move money towards minimally skilled labor in the name of a liveable wage is very counter-productive.  You really are biting the hand that feeds you.   Labor laws and the regulations that come with them, in the name of 'fairness', inhibit budding enterpeneurs from advancing and creating new wealth, industry, and jobs. 
  In the case of grocery workers----their last strike drove shoppers to non-union businesses like Walmart and Target.  We didn't come back.  If you want to pay $2 each for an avocado to support 'living wages' at a chain store, go ahead.
   As Haiti can show, it IS possible for everybody to have the exact same amount, as long as that same amount is nothing.  That really is fair.  Just say goodbye to innovation, GDP growth, environmental protection, and the freedom towards greatness.
   I will take the unfairness and advancement through merit and hard work any day.  If you envy what someone else has, do you seek to take it away from them, or do what they did to achieve it?

Energized

Started doing the wiring.  The main panel is out at the power pole providing the temp construction power.  The panel in the house, technically, is a sub panel.  A good place to begin is putting in all the boxes where outlets and fixtures will be.  I picked up a copy of the National Electric Code (NEC) book to reference, so I can be code compliant.  You have to be able to walk through a house and turn lights on and off to light your way.  You have to have outlets placed so a floor lamp with a 6' cord can be placed along any wall.  There are wiring size issues, breaker size issues, and rules where ground fault circuits have to be.  Bedrooms have to have arc fault breakers.  Smoke alarms and CO detectors have to be on a breaker with lights so a dead circuit won't go unnoticed.

This is the sub panel with about half of the circuits in so far.  Neatness counts.  You want to try to balance the two 110v legs as best as you can...The challenge with this was, WAAY back when I ran the conduit through the foundation, it just didn't end up in the middle of the stud bay so it needed a custom offset.  I bought two 45 degree sweeps and kept cutting half an inch off of them equally until, put together, they centered with the panel.  I like how it looks.  Too bad no one will ever see it. 

This is a pretty fun stage of building.  There is no heavy lifting involved, you're deciding where lights and stuff will be, and you're figuring things out.  The project has truly taken on a life of its own.  Also it started raining and it was fun to be working 'inside' instead of having to just quit for the day.

There's An Inside Now

     For the fourth time since starting I needed to call in help.  Byron's been there for each of those times.  Cutting the driveway, getting the septic system in and level, concrete foundation pouring day, and now windows.
     We worked together to get the housewrap up.  This is a very critical stage, and doing it wrong is the source of leaks, woodrot, even termite issues later.  The websites I found made it clear that a cheap product applied correctly will far outperform an expensive product slapped up there.  I opted for expensive product applied correctly.
     Part of the challenge is the waterproofing is applied out of order with the order you do construction.  So you leave bottom edges unattached to properly slip flashing underneath when doing roofing and siding. 
     We used Tyvek housewrap.  We taped all seams.  We cut 45 degree angles over the window and door corners for supersticky flashing.  We caulked, caulked, caulked.
     We got a rhythm down for installing the windows and they all went well, though there are some new aches and pains after the heavy lifting and twisting.   Two funny things that happened---the housewrap comes wrapped around a 9' cardboard toilet paper tube so while Byron was way up a ladder I was able to whisper in his ear from the ground....Other funny thing was inadvertently sticking my head in freshly applied caulk.  Spent the day with silicone stuck in what's left of my hair, removed later with carb cleaner.
     I decided we'd work from the top down with the windows, and we got all of them except one 4x4 living room window and the sliding glass door in, both of which are off the porch.  Those I did by myself---not smart.  I really should have got help from a neighbor instead of relying on a series of clamps and braces.  No mishaps but took much, much longer and those things are HEAVY.