Gail's Forum Posts:
9 Journal Entries:
109 Interview Answers:
109 Average Forum Rating: 3.40
My Construction Website Image from Gail's blog Subscribe to this journal... This journal has been viewed 34933 times.
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/25/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
August 22, 2010
A set of wooden stair treads occupied our Bay Area backyard for half a year while they were being refinished.
One of the biggest tasks of finishing our mountain home has been the
construction of permanent stairs. We have not reported our progress
since mid-May. Here’s what we’ve been up to since then.
While we’ve been able to construct the rough stairs using plywood,
OSB (oriented strand board) and MDF (medium-density fiberboard), we
wanted the finished stairs – especially the treads – to look as nice as
possible. Unfortunately, high-quality finished wood is enormously
expensive (Gail priced it at about $50 per tread).
Fortunately, Gail was able to find some inexpensive second-hand
stairs at a salvage yard. She believed that we could re-use the old
treads. It would require a lot of work, but our time is much more
plentiful than our finances.
June 2009: Steve, Russell and Dirk unload two flights
of antique stairs. The stairs ended up sitting in a corner of the
mountain house for half a year before we did anything with them.
The first task was to dismantle the old stairs, which were set very
solidly – and permanently – in housed stringers. Russell spent several
weeks ripping the two flights apart with hammer and crowbar. In the
end, he had a lot of scrap wood… and 14 viable treads of oak and Douglas
fir.
February 2010: Russell dismantles the antique stair
structures. While much of the wood was scrap, he recovered a set of 1”
by 10” by 34” treads that could be reused. Happily, our specifications
called for 1” by 10” finished treads.
At this point, we brought the treads back down to the Bay Area to
continue work. Over the next several months, our backyard would become
an outdoor workshop filled with wood, tools and sawdust.
With more available time during the day, Gail took over from here.
Out next challenge was that treads must legally be at least 36 inches
long… but the recycled treads were only 35 inches. Gail solved the
problem using a biscuit joiner she borrowed from our building inspector.
Russell took the least attractive tread and chopped it up. Gail then
used the biscuit joiner to splice an extra two inches onto each of the
remaining treads.
April 2010: Gail uses a biscuit joiner to splice an extra two inches onto each tread.
The next task was to use a router to create a bullnose (rounded edge)
on the left side of each tread. This was going to be Russell's job,
but he injured his shoulder. Gail volunteered to take over. The first
thing she did was improve the process.
Normally, bullnosed sides are created by mitering and splicing an
extra piece of wood onto the outside edge. This provides two
advantages:
The bullnose runs with the grain of the wood, instead of against it; and The finished tread has an extra leg that extends longer on the side. Gail decided that this was too much work. She argued that we should
simply bullnose the existing side, even if it ran against the grain.
She didn’t need the extra “leg.” She did a test and thought the results
were perfectly acceptable.
Normally, a side bullnose is achieved by splicing a
mitered piece of wood onto the end, with the grain running sideways.
Gail decided this was too much work.
Gail set to work. She used a 1/2” quarter-round bit to route one
side of the tread, then flipped it over and routed the other side. The
result was a nice edge rounded into a half-circle.
July 2010: Gail uses a 1/4”-bit router to create
bullnosed edges on the treads. She used clamps and scrap wood to create
a straight-line guide.
The treads, before and after bullnosing.
As she routed the treads, Gail encountered another problem: some of
the recycled treads were not cut at precise right angles. Russell had
to figure out how to fix this. He didn’t want to use a hand-held
circular saw; which would not cut precisely enough. He tried using his
sister-in-law Debbie’s table saw. The problem was that it was difficult
to slide a 36” long piece of wood along the blade without the board
slipping.
Russell finally solved the problem using his friend Dirk’s radial-arm
saw. With this tool, the wood remains stationary and the blade moves.
It only took a couple of trips to Dirk’s house after work for all of
the treads to be trimmed.
August 2010: Dirk (our volunteer electrician and
all-around handyman) trims the ends of the treads to exact right-angles.
The benefit of his radial-arm saw is that the blade moves, while the
wood remains in place.
Gail was able to finish routing the treads. Next, after filling in
all of the old nail holes, cracks and chips with stainable putty, Gail
used a belt sander, running several iterations on each tread from coarse
to fine. She completely eliminated any flaws from the biscuit splices
and router. By the end of the process, the treads felt like fine,
finished wood.
The treads, before and after wood putty.
August 2010: Gail uses a belt sander to make the
treads look as good as new. She sanded the boards continuously from
April through August, after biscuit-joining, after bullnosing and after
puttying.
Gail’s final task was to stain the treads. We discussed how the
ultimate color choice for the treads would cascade throughout the rest
of the house. It would define the color of the landings and
consequently the color of the hardwood floors. It would also make sense
to repeat this motif in the ceiling beams both upstairs and downstairs.
After a couple of samples, Gail decided on a dark shade of cherry.
August 2010: Gail stains the treads. After several tests, she ultimately settled on dark cherry.
With the treads now finished, sanded, stained and Varathaned, we were
finally able to take them back up to our mountain home for
installation.
The finished treads, all ready to be loaded into the van and taken up to our mountain home.
On the weekend of August 20, Russell began installing the finished
treads over the rough stairs. He was able to install the nine short
treads using wood glue, but ran out of time before he could screw them
in.
August 22, 2010: Russell uses wood glue to attached the finished treads to the rough stairs.
We still have more work to do. We need to install the three longer
treads on the bottom flight. We need to manufacture a fourth longer
tread on the lowest step, one with rounded ends. We need to create faux
steps at each of the three landings. And we need to install trim wood
to hide all of our mistakes.
But what we’ve accomplished so far looks terrific – and well worth the effort so far.
The stairs: before and after
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010 6:16:36 PM
August 2, 2010
Cameron relaxes in his newly-mudded, taped and cleaned bedroom
Gail made a solo trip up to our mountain home construction site
during the week of July 20. With no distractions, she was able to
finish taping and mudding both Cameron’s and Joss’ bedrooms. She
thoroughly cleaned both rooms as well, making them look more like
bedrooms and less like storage rooms.
Joss’ bedroom, also newly mudded, taped and cleaned
But our big work trip of the summer would come two weeks later. On
July 31, our younger son Joss left for his annual week-long church
caravan trip. (This year took them to the Navajo Nation in Arizona.)
As always, Gail and Russell took advantage of the no-Joss week to
schedule a longer stay up on the mountain.
Unfortunately, Russell has a work commitment that will necessitate a
trip back down to the Bay Area mid-week. But this also gave us a way to
invite our older son Cameron without subjecting him to an entire week.
We gave him a choice of a longer four-night stay (Saturday through
Wednesday) or a shorter two-night stay (Thursday through Saturday). We
were pleased that he opted to come up for the longer stay.
Lastly, we were joined once again by our friend Steve, at least for the first two nights.
Gail continued taping and mudding the drywall. Russell and Cameron
reconstructed the platform over the stairwell hole so Gail could get to
the large wall upstairs. She ended up completely sanding and finishing
that wall so we wouldn’t have to keep constructing and deconstructing
the platform.
Gail muds the outside of Cameron’s bedroom wall.
(Note how precariously her ladder is perched on the temporary platform
over the stairwell hole.)
Cameron – with Russell’s help – took on the task of hanging doors on
his and Joss’ bedroom, as well as re-hanging the door on the hall
bathroom.
Cameron, Russell and Gail (during one of her breaks) hang various doors
Doors are now hung on (from left to right) Cameron’s bedroom, the hall bathroom and Joss’ bedroom
Steve, as usual, spent the entire time outside: chopping, weed
whacking and spraying. By the time he departed on Monday morning, he
declared that he had successfully sprayed all navigable areas of the
property: all of the poison oak was either dead or dying. As a last
gesture, he even filled the back of his truck with our garbage drywall
scraps to take to the dump.
Steve finds it very therapeutic to whack away at overgrown manzanita with an axe
Steve’s truck as he prepared to depart
Steve has now left, leaving the three of us here for a few more days’
work. Tomorrow’s agenda: more drywall on the downstairs ceiling.
Steve has turned the southeastern knoll (“Woodpecker
Knoll”) into a dumping ground for all of the brush he has cut. Come
next burn season, we’re going to have a terrific bonfire!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
August 7, 2010
Gail offers a dish of water to her new friend, Maynard the lizard.
When Russell and Cameron left our mountain-home construction site to
return to the Bay Area on Wednesday, August 4, Gail got to spend a night
alone by herself. During her solo workday-and-a-half, she continued to
work on the downstairs ceiling. She installed what drywall she could
herself, including covering the plumbing chase that runs along one of
the glu-lam beams. She also taped and mudded the drywall that had
previously been installed with the help of the guys.
Gail tapes and muds the plumbing chase on the downstairs ceiling.
Gail also made a new friend. During one of her trips to the outside
washbasin, she noticed a particularly friendly lizard. Before long,
she realized it would appear every time she came outside. With
patience, Gail was able to get remarkably close to it. She set out a
water dish and the lizard was delighted. Gail named the lizard
“Maynard” – as in “Good stuff, Maynard” from the old Dobie Gillis
television show.
Good stuff, Maynard!
On Thursday, Gail was paid a surprise visit by our local friend
Dennis. Although he is no longer officially our building inspector, he
took advantage of a one-day substitution because our regular inspector
was out. Dennis went ahead and made a progress inspection, signing us
off for another six months. (Technically, he signed us off for having
finished the roof. Go figure.)
Dennis also commented that we are doing a better job than most other
homeowner/builders he encounters. He was especially complimentary about
the work that Russell was doing on the stairs.
Russell returned as scheduled on Thursday evening, this time without
Cameron. With one more full workday on Friday, we decided to devote
the entire time to finishing as much of the downstairs ceiling as
possible.
The first task was the “hell hole” that had frustrated Cameron so
much a few days ago. This time we took a different approach. Russell
cut a piece slightly too large. We brought it up into place, then
marked the exact points where it should be trimmed to. The process
worked like a charm, and we filled the hole almost immediately.
The “hole from hell,” drywalled at last!
The rest of the ceiling went similarly like clockwork. Russell
measured a piece and Gail cut it. Together we fit it into the ceiling.
While Gail installed it with screws every 12 inches, Russell moved on
to the next piece. By the end of the day, the ceiling was done.
The downstairs ceiling, drywalled, taped and mudded
Gail enjoys visible progress, so we set one more task for Saturday
morning before we departed. We decided to clean up the downstairs as
much as possible, then move the upstairs living-room arrangement down to
the lower floor. This involved relocating all of the tools, moving a
huge stack of OSB sheets over to the back door, then dusting and
vacuuming everything. We reduced the OSB pile by putting half of it
down as subfloor.
Finally, we moved most of the upstairs living-room furniture
downstairs, including one of the sofas, the coffee and end tables, and
the television and VCR. Gail was thrilled at how good everything looks.
Upstairs: before and after
Downstairs: before and after
It was a fulfilling end to a long week. With Cameron’s and Joss’
bedrooms cleaned out and a new living room downstairs, our mountain home
is getting more home-like every time we come up here.
August 7, 2010: The current state of our mountain home
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
August 4, 2010
Gail and Cameron try to figure out how to drywall a hole in the ceiling.
For the second part of the August marathon week at the mountain-home
construction site, Gail decided to make further progress on drywalling
the downstairs ceiling.
Meanwhile, Russell reserved Cameron’s help for a low-priority project
that was getting overdue. When the window shutters had been installed a
year ago, the upper and lower “stop points” had never been correctly
set. Now that the shutters were electrically powered, it was important
to set these points before someone accidentally wound the shutters too
far up or too far down.
Unfortunately, this involved manually removing every one of the seven
shutter covers. Then, Cameron (inside) would wind the shutters up and
down, while Russell (outside) would set the stop points. We spaced the
project out over a couple of days to reduce the tedium, and ultimately
finished all seven.
Russell and Cameron set the window shutters.
Gail, meanwhile, continued to get increasingly frustrated by the
downstairs ceiling. Due to both the octagonal shape of the house and
the wedged sections of the ceiling, each piece of drywall has to be
individually measured and cut like puzzle pieces. Due to slight
variations between the wedges, no two pieces are exactly the same. With
fresh memories of Gail’s near-nervous breakdown in July, Russell made
himself fully available to work with her on Tuesday morning as a team of
two (Cameron was still sleeping in).
Gail works on the ceiling (yes, she is straddling two ladders, one of which is half on the floor and half on a pile of OSB).
Russell measured and cut each drywall piece (the part that Gail hated
the most), then he and Gail together fitted and secured them. We were
additionally assisted by both the drywall lift and the portable
scaffold.
We made enjoyable and efficient progress… until Tuesday afternoon.
The next section included a hole in ceiling section No. 6, facing
southwest. This hole would need a trapezoid-shaped piece.
By now Cameron was up and available, so we gave him the task of
measuring and cutting the piece. He dutifully did so, then he and Gail
went to fit it. It was too large and didn’t fit. They trimmed it down.
Now it was too small.
Gail and Cameron try to fit a piece of drywall that is just slightly too big
Gail and Russell conversed privately and decided that we should leave
the job in Cameron’s hands as opposed to taking it away from him.
Cameron measured and cut a second piece, this time with Gail’s help. He
and Gail went to fit it. It was too large and didn’t fit. They
trimmed it down. Now it was too small.
Gail asked Russell to help. Russell and Cameron meticulously
measured and re-measured every side and angle of the hole. When they
tried to sketch the shape on a piece of drywall, they discovered that it
was physically impossible to construct a piece with those measurements
and angles.
While Russell sketches out measurements, Cameron glares at the still-unfilled hole in the ceiling.
This single hole ended up taking the rest of Tuesday afternoon, all
the way until dinner. Cameron finally got frustrated and quit,
declaring “This must be what hell looks like.” Russell and Gail
measured and re-measured the hole several more times, consistently
coming to the same conclusion that it was impossible to draw a shape
that had all of those specifications.
Mapping the “hell hole”: note the various outlines in black, blue, red ink, and pencil.
The good news is that we ended up skipping the “hole from hell” and
moving on to other sections, where we made further progress. The bad
news is that the “hole from hell” is still there, staring down at us.
The way it’s supposed to work: filling ceiling No. 5 with drywall “puzzle pieces”.
On Wednesday morning, Russell and Cameron packed to leave. Russell
has to return to the Bay Area for a work meeting. He will drive back up
on Thursday, leaving Cameron by himself at home. In the meantime, Gail
will stay up on the mountain by herself, continuing to tape and mud the
downstairs ceiling.
During a calmer time, Cameron and Gail enjoy lunch outside on the swing.
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
August 2, 2010
Cameron relaxes in his newly-mudded, taped and cleaned bedroom.
Gail made a solo trip up to our mountain-home construction site
during the week of July 20. With no distractions, she was able to
finish taping and mudding both Cameron’s and Joss’ bedrooms. She
thoroughly cleaned both rooms as well, making them look more like
bedrooms and less like storage rooms.
Joss’ bedroom, also newly mudded, taped and cleaned
But our big work trip of the summer would come two weeks later. On
July 31, our younger son Joss left for his annual week-long church
caravan trip. (This year took them to the Navajo Nation in Arizona.)
As always, Gail and Russell took advantage of the no-Joss week to
schedule a longer stay up on the mountain.
Unfortunately, Russell has a work commitment that will necessitate a
trip back down to the Bay Area mid-week. But this also gave us a way to
invite our older son Cameron without subjecting him to an entire week.
We gave him a choice of a longer four-night stay (Saturday through
Wednesday) or a shorter two-night stay (Thursday through Saturday). We
were pleased that he opted to come up for the longer stay.
Lastly, we were joined once again by our friend Steve, at least for the first two nights.
Gail continued taping and mudding the drywall. Russell and Cameron
reconstructed the platform over the stairwell hole so Gail could get to
the large wall upstairs. She ended up completely sanding and finishing
that wall so we wouldn’t have to keep constructing and deconstructing
the platform.
Gail muds the outside of Cameron’s bedroom wall.
(Note how precariously her ladder is perched on the temporary platform
over the stairwell hole.)
Cameron – with Russell’s help – took on the task of hanging doors on
his and Joss’ bedroom, as well as re-hanging the door on the hall
bathroom.
Cameron, Russell and Gail (during one of her breaks) hang various doors.
Doors are now hung on (from left to right) Cameron’s bedroom, the hall bathroom and Joss’ bedroom
Steve, as usual, spent the entire time outside: chopping, weed-whacking and spraying. By the time he departed on Monday morning, he
declared that he had successfully sprayed all navigable areas of the
property: all of the poison oak was either dead or dying. As a last
gesture, he even filled the back of his truck with our garbage drywall
scraps to take to the dump.
Steve finds it very therapeutic to whack away at overgrown manzanita with an axe.
Steve’s truck as he prepared to depart
Steve has now left, leaving the three of us here for a few more days’
work. Tomorrow’s agenda: more drywall on the downstairs ceiling.
Steve has turned the southeastern knoll (“Woodpecker
Knoll”) into a dumping ground for all of the brush he has cut. Come
next burn season, we’re going to have a terrific bonfire!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
July 10, 2010
Gail, Steve and the drywall lift all work together on the downstairs ceiling.
We are freshly back from a family vacation. This year we made a
driving trip to Southern California over the July 4th weekend. Our
week-and-a-half adventure included ATV riding at Pismo Beach,
Disneyland, Universal Studios and an invitation to the mysterious Magic
Castle. A splendid time was had by all.
Cameron, Russell and Joss with a friend at Disneyland
We returned with an extra half-week still ahead of us, so Gail and
Russell decided to spend it up at our mountain home. We drove up on
Wednesday, July 7, joined by our friend Steve.
It’s been said that for any task, you could find someone who loves it
so much they would gladly do it for free. During our time away, Steve
had actually made two day trips up to the mountain by himself. He drove
two hours each way just to whack weeds and spray poison oak. He is
happy to do it, and we are happy that he is keeping the terrain looking
so fantastic.
Steve vs. the weeds, some of which have grown more than five feet high
Gail’s task this trip was to continue drywalling the downstairs
ceiling. With Russell’s shoulder still healing, Steve volunteered to
keep himself available to help inside.
One of the many things we underestimated in selecting an octagonal
home was the amount of work it would take to drywall the ceilings. Each
wedge-shaped section has to be individually measured – no two are
exactly the same – with odd-shaped pieces cut to fit like a jigsaw
puzzle. Each piece then has to be lifted ten feet into the air.
Fortunately, Gail is using 1/4” drywall for the ceiling – much lighter
than the 1/2” material she used on the walls.
Three stages of the ceiling above the front door: bare, insulation and drywall
Gail ended up getting the alternating help of both Steve and Russell.
The heavy lifting was helped by the drywall lift. In addition, for
the first time Gail used a portable scaffold she borrowed from our
ex-building inspector, Dennis.
Even so, by Saturday morning Gail’s frustration finally led to a
nervous breakdown. The last straw was the large section next to the
stairwell cavity. Because the space is trapezoid-shaped (like every
space), the piece can’t be slid into place horizontally – it must fit in
exactly vertically. However, the vertical access is blocked by two
bracers that Russell had installed to support the upstairs joists.
Gail uses a borrowed scaffold to measure the most challenging space. (Note the small piece of bracer wood behind her head.)
Gail was so burned out after three days of drywalling ceilings that
she literally collapsed into a puddle of tears. Fortunately, Russell
justified his presence, helping to measure, cut and install the
challenging piece. We were able to get it into place by bending it
slightly (only possible because we were using the thinner drywall).
So it was on a less-frustrating note that we departed the mountain on
Saturday afternoon, July 10. For Russell, his two-week vacation is
over and he has to go back to his real job. For Gail, the downstairs
ceiling is about half done and she still has to do the other half.
The most challenging piece of drywall, finally in place. (Note the two bracers on left and right.)
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
June 21, 2010
Cameron, Joss and Gail use their combined personpower
(and a drywall lift) to install a sheet of drywall on the downstairs
ceiling.
Our past few weekends have been taken up by a couple of graduations
for nephews, as well as by the end of the school year for our sons.
With both Cameron and Joss now home for the summer, we decided to go up
to our mountain-home construction site for Father’s Day. We were joined
by Joss’ girlfriend, Rachel.
Russell has been getting increasingly distressing news regarding his
frozen shoulder. The normal prognosis is 18 months for recovery, but
Russell’s physical therapist told him he was getting worse, not better.
She referred him back to the orthopedic surgeon, who told Russell that
if he didn’t show improvement within a month, he would be getting a
cortisone shot. Furthermore, if a cortisone shot didn’t work, the next
step would be surgery.
Russell took the news seriously. He is now back on Motrin. Gail is
helping him with his physical-therapy exercises twice a day. He has
also committed not to lift anything at all with his left arm.
It was under this new regime that Russell and the family drove back
up to the mountain on Friday, June 18. With a crew of ten people minus
Russell’s injured shoulder, we would have nine capable hands to make
progress.
Joss, with his physical limitations, did more taping and mudding on
the interior walls. Rachel painted the upstairs bathroom floor. (Our
occupancy permit requires a non-permeable floor, which is usually
accomplished as simply as by putting latex enamel paint on the OSB
subfloor).
Balancing acts: Joss tapes his bedroom wall; Gail tapes the upstairs bathroom wall.
Rachel paints the upstairs bathroom floor
The upstairs bathroom floor: OSB subfloor, primer, and acrylic enamel paint
Gail did everything from taping to mudding to installing more drywall
on the downstairs ceiling. Once again, she enlisted Cameron’s help
lifting the sheets of drywall. After several labor-intensive efforts of
manually lifting quarter-inch sheets of 4’x8’ drywall up to the
10-foot ceiling, they finally used the mechanical drywall lift. The
tool made the work much easier.
Lifting drywall: the hard way and the easy way
Russell finished the last remaining piece of major framing. The
upstairs master bathroom and the adjacent laundry room share a closet
space. The upper part of the space will serve as a linen closet for the
bathroom; the lower part will serve as a storage area for the laundry
room.
Building a false floor to separate the two spaces has been a low
priority. But Russell is not able to make further progress on the
stairs, so he tackled this project instead. Once again, Cameron served
as his arms, helping to measure and cut the joists and OSB necessary to
fit the odd pentagon-shaped space.
Russell working single-handedly.
A false floor was built to separate this odd
pentagon-shaped space into a linen closet for the master bathroom upper
half) and a storage closet for the laundry room (lower half)
We celebrated Father’s Day on Saturday, as the boys cooked a gourmet
dinner of sausage-stuffed portabella mushrooms. This enabled Russell to
drive back home on Sunday in time for the workweek. Gail and the
young folk stayed on until Monday.
The summer has just begun, but it already seems to be passing swiftly
by. We have already lost the first half of June with school-related
events. We will lose the second half of the month when we take a
two-week family vacation. Gail is still hoping that we can get our
occupancy permit by the end of summer, but that depends on the schedule…
and Russell’s arm.
Our new camera captured this closest-ever photo of a young male deer (one of two brothers) walking by the house
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
May 31, 2010
Gail’s birthday present to Russell was a plane ride with Kathy (center)
Russell’s 51st birthday was May 21. Unbeknownst to him, for several
weeks Gail had been planning a surprise for him up at our mountain-home
property. She had gotten a lead on a local pilot who often took
building inspectors and real-estate agents up in her small plane to take
aerial photographs. Gail had arranged for the pilot to take Russell up
and see our mountain property from the air.
The original plan had been to surprise Russell on his birthday. Due
to scheduling conflicts, we were not able to go up to the mountain that
weekend. After two reschedules with the pilot, Gail finally broke down
and told Russell about the surprise. We made arrangements for the
entire family to go to the mountain on Memorial Day weekend. This would
allow us to celebrate Gail’s birthday on May 31 as well.
After driving up on Friday afternoon, May 28, we met Kathy at the
Calaveras County airport early Saturday morning. Despite her small
two-seater plane, she was willing to take each of us up in the air, one
at a time. Everyone except our son Joss took her up on the offer. It
was exciting to see not only our property from the air, but the entire
surrounding area in Calaveras County.
Kathy was able to take each of us up in the air one at a time in her tiny two-seater plane.
Kathy said that passengers tend to have two comments, and we all agreed with them:
There is a lot more wild and undeveloped terrain than there appears from the ground, yet There are a lot more houses tucked away in the mountains than there appears from the ground.
Our mountain home viewed from the north (the access road is like a backward “L” in the lower center);
After we said our goodbyes and returned to our mountain home, there
were still two more days to continue construction. Gail’s project is to
finish the interior walls. She enlisted the help of both our sons.
Joss, who is limited by his back, taped various walls. Cameron helped
Gail lift large sheets of drywall up to the downstairs ceiling to be
installed.
Joss attaches drywall tape to the kitchen wall;
Meanwhile, Russell – with his frozen shoulder – worked on an
additional bit of framing on the downstairs ceiling. In order to hide
some plumbing, he needed to install a box frame. Because he can only
lift one arm, Russell relied on Cameron to do all of the manual labor.
Cameron (left) frames while Russell supervises
Before and after: a framed box hides exposed plumbing on the downstairs ceiling
In the end, we enjoyed a long weekend of both work and play. Looking
ahead, we have several graduations coming up in the extended family,
which will occupy our upcoming weekends. But the summer is just
beginning…
The southern view from our mountain home. Russell
bought a new camera for his birthday flight. One of the unique features
of the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX1 is that it can take automatic panoramic
pictures!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
May 26, 2010
Gail installs drywall mud in one of the master bedroom closets.
A week and a half ago, Russell went up to our mountain-home
construction site despite having an injured and frozen shoulder. This
was not a good idea. At his next visit to the physical therapist,
Russell was informed that his shoulder is getting worse, not better.
So when Gail decided to go up herself on Monday, May 24, it was just
as well that Russell had to work. He would stay home and rest.
Fortunately for Gail, she would have the company of our two friends Dirk
(“the electrician”) and Steve (“the groundskeeper”).
Dirk has already gone far above and beyond his volunteer commitments
as our electrician, but there are a few more handyman-type jobs that he
is willing to help with. One of them is to install a venting system
from the second-floor laundry room to the exterior of the house. He had
actually started this project back in April, but decided to move the
location of the vent and opted to wait for another day. Dirk was
already at work by the time Gail arrived on Monday afternoon.
In order to fit the laundry vent properly through the
wall studs and into the first-floor ceiling, Dirk needed to relocate it
from his original location (left, April) one stud over and higher up
(right, May).
Steve arrived on Tuesday and spent his time working outdoors as
usual. Surprisingly, the county is still allowing burn piles at certain
times of the day. Our agreement with Steve is that he may chainsaw on
burn days, so this was a double benefit for him.
Gail spent her work days in the master bedroom. With all of the
drywall now installed, Gail started the meticulous task of taping and
mudding the walls. She also upgraded the bed in the master bedroom,
replacing the previous wooden frame with a set of under-bed drawers that
she picked up on Craigslist.
Gail (and friends) departed on Wednesday, May 26. She will have one
day at home before she heads back up once again – this time with Russell
and our two sons – for the long Memorial Day weekend.
In panoramas: the master bedroom, taped and mudded
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
May 16, 2010
The wildflowers are in bloom on the mountain.
We have talked before about the physical toll we have taken in trying
to build our own home in the mountains over the past four years. Gail
has experienced damage to her neck, shoulders, arms and hands. The
physical work has caught up with Russell as well. Mainly as a result of
lifting and carrying so much drywall over the past month, he has felt
increasing pain in his left shoulder.
After seeing his doctor, an orthopedist and a physical therapist,
Russell has discovered that he has a combination of inflammation and a
condition known as “frozen shoulder.” Unfortunately, the former calls
for rest, while the latter calls for exercise. As a result, Russell has
been given a prescription for Motrin, a regimen of daily stretching
exercises, and a directive not to lift anything heavy for the
foreseeable future.
A year ago Russell was walking 160 miles for his 50th birthday. This year, he can’t lift his arm higher than his waist.
Despite this setback, Russell had made plans to visit the mountain
with his friend Steve for the weekend of May 15-16. The date had been
questionable due to work commitments, but Russell decided at the last
minute (Friday morning) that it would be all right to go. We are
running out of burn days and chainsaw days; and we want to take
advantage of every opportunity.
Russell arrived on Friday evening to find Steve – as usual – already
managing a burn pile on the “Lost” trail. In deference to his shoulder,
the great weather (almost 80° F this weekend!) and the clock ticking on
burn days, Russell volunteered to work outside with Steve for the
entire weekend.
For two days, Russell tended burn piles while Steve hauled brush up
and down hills with his truck and trailer. They burned on the “Lost”
trail, the southeast knoll near the storage shed, and the southern trail
(which we are trying to rescue from being overgrown). Steve spent a
lot of time spraying the pervasive and newly-leafed poison oak.
(“Revenge,” he says, for him getting poison oak in his eye from the last
trip.)
Steve sprays poison oak on the southwest knoll. This photo gives an idea of what our terrain looks like before Steve does all of his massive work clearing it!
Russell tried to take it easy, but actually ended up overdoing it and
re-damaging his shoulder by throwing one too many branches onto a burn
pile.
Nevertheless, Russell also took some time on Sunday morning to
install the last two finished risers on the stairwell. That phase is
now done. The next task will be to install finished treads. This will
be a much more complicated project – first he will have to manufacture
the finished treads.
It was a gorgeous weekend, reaching 78° F inside and 76° F outside.
Everything is still green, and the wildflowers were in bloom all over
the place.
Steve was able to catch up on all episodes-to-date of the final
season of “Lost,” which will end once and for all next week. Russell
and Steve had their usual Sunday-departure lunch at the local Chinese
smorgasbord restaurant.
At the end of the meal, Russell’s fortune cookie fortune read, “Visit
a park. Enjoy what nature has to offer.” As Russell left to go home,
Steve asked if he could drive back to the property and take a nap under
a tree for the rest of the afternoon. Russell was happy to let him
indulge.
The current state of the stairs: finished risers and skirtboards. Next step: finished treads!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
May 1, 2010
Gail adds drywall mud to the upstairs living room wall
This entry should actually be called “The end of the end of May.”
For several months, Gail had set a target date for a major milestone of
our mountain-home construction. If we could earn our occupancy permit
by May 21, it would be exactly five years since we bought the property.
For the past several months we have been aiming for this goal: Gail has
been drywalling; Russell has been installing the stairs.
Within the past couple of weeks, it has become obvious that we are
not going to meet this milestone. First, the work has taken longer than
we had hoped. Second, Gail discovered through conversations with our
inspector that the requirements for an occupancy permit are more than
she had originally thought. Not only must all of the walls be
drywalled, but the ceilings as well. And not only must the finished
stairs be installed, but all railings and banisters as well.
With our calendars getting busier, Gail decided not to stress us out.
Instead, she has decided that we will continue working at the same
pace and finish when we finish. The “end of May” milestone is off the
calendar. Now she is aiming for the end of summer.
Nevertheless, Gail remains eager to go up to the mountain and do more
work whenever possible. She had availability on Monday through
Wednesday, April 26-28, and drove up by herself. (In the past, Gail had
been afraid to be up on the mountain overnight alone. She has gotten
over that.)
With the rough drywall now past inspection, Gail was eager to begin
mudding and taping. She spent her time working on the upstairs living
room, and got several walls finished. In between, she did more rough
drywalling on other areas of the house.
Before and after: Gail mudded the drywall in the upstairs living room
Gail returned home on Wednesday and Russell departed for the mountain
on Thursday. Russell had promised his friend Steve one more work trip
before the end of April. When Russell’s Sunday filled up, he decided to
take a day off of work and go up Thursday through Saturday instead.
Some initial rain gave way to a beautifully sunny weekend. As usual,
Steve worked outside the entire time. He is eager to run burn piles and
the chainsaw for as long as he can before the weather gets too hot.
This trip, he was able to get to one of Gail’s longtime requests:
cutting down some Douglas fir trees that have been blocking the southern
view.
Before and after: Steve cleared out some Douglas firs
(and other brush) that were beginning to block the southern view
(there's one more on the right that he is saving for a future trip)
As usual, Russell worked inside on the stairs. His task this time
was to put the finished risers and skirtboards on the lowest flight.
First, though, he had to finish off the sides of the rough stairs for
future drywalling. In the end, he ran out of MDF boards before he could
finish the final risers.
Before, during and after: Russell finished the sides
of the lowest stair flight, then installed finished risers and
skirtboards (he is also saving one more riser for a future trip)
As the weather gets warmer, our schedules are getting busier. We
believe that we have now seen the last of the rain for the season.
Steve especially is anxious to get back up again as soon as possible, in
the hopes that he can get some more burning and chainsawing in.
We end with a beautiful picture that Steve took (with
his phone) of a rainbow over the southern panorama, after what may be
the last rain of the season
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
April 18, 2010
Gail puts drywall mud on the stair alcove
Before we headed up to our mountain-home construction site for the
weekend of April 15-18, we had to deal with a couple of issues.
The first issue was the weather. After last weekend’s rainstorms,
the upcoming forecast called for clear skies and sunshine. Even so,
Gail called our neighbor Scott to make sure the dirt access roads would
be passable. So far, so good.
With this hope, Dirk and Gail drove up on Thursday, April 15. They
worked furiously in preparation for a visit from our building inspector.
The bad news is that Dennis showed up on Friday morning several hours
earlier than expected. The good news is that he approved our drywall
milestone. While there is still more drywall to install, Gail now has
permission to begin taping and mudding the walls!
Gail and Dirk struggle to get a sheet of drywall into the tiny downstairs pantry
While prepping the entryway for drywall, Gail came
across another woodpecker stash. She and Dirk found more than 50 acorns
stuffed into the wall.
The second issue was Russell’s need to cut his stair skirtboards.
The challenge was to find a saw that could do a double-mitered cross
cut. The two difficulties were that the cut was a partial cut only, and
the miter angle needed to be 45º downward to the right (most saws can
only cut 45º downward to the left).
The original idea was to use our friend Dirk’s radial arm saw. Upon
investigation, however, we determined that the saw would only miter to
the left.
Dirk recommended a local tool-for-hire facility, The Sawdust Shop ,
where one can rent tools by the hour or day. Russell visited the shop
and consulted with the manager. After rejecting a 45º router bit as too
expensive, the manager suggested simply using a jigsaw.
Russell has not found jigsaws to be precise enough in the past – the
blade tends to go out of line – but he decided to give it one more try.
As a backup, he also purchased a small Ryobi circular saw with a
reverse angle and left it unopened in his car trunk.
With this hope, Russell drove up on Friday, April 16. He eagerly set
up a jigsaw apparatus, using his metal carpenter’s square as a fence to
cut straight. The result was that the jigsaw still went out of line
and cut through the carpenter’s square. This ruined the jigsaw blade,
the carpenter’s square, and a piece of scrap wood.
(Both Dirk and The Sawdust Shop also suggested that Russell simply
install the skirtboards and risers with no miter cuts. Any unappealing
seams could be covered with putty and paint. Russell rejected this
idea, as over time the putty would probably crack.)
Russell was ready to break out the Ryobi saw, when he had one last
idea. The MDF (medium density fiberboard) for the skirtboards is fairly
soft. He decided to try using his current circular saw backwards
(pulling instead of pushing) to get the reverse miter cut. He did a
test on a piece of scrap wood. It worked perfectly.
Russell’s skirtboard solution – using a circular saw backwards – enabled him to get the unusual miter cut he needed
As a result, Russell was able to cut and install the skirtboards and
risers for the middle and upper stair flights. Gail taped and mudded
the stair alcove and much of the upstairs living room. Dirk, who had
previously declared that this would likely be his last weekend on the
mountain, completed his installation of the media wiring.
The stair alcove, before and after taping and mudding
The upper flight with the final skirtboard and risers;
The current state of the stairs: skirtboards and risers on the middle and upper flights
(One of Dennis’ inspector notes was that we had erroneously put
mold/moisture-resistant drywall in the hall-bathroom ceiling. This
grade of drywall is too heavy for ceilings; we had to replace it with
normal drywall.)
Our other friend Steve also arrived late Friday evening and spent
another enjoyable weekend burning brush. He burned five piles on
Saturday and several more on Sunday.
Our regular, obligatory photo of Steve has him with a burn pile on the northern knoll near the trampoline.
Saturday evening was another dinner out. This time, in honor of
Dirk’s last weekend, we went to Teresa’s Place in Jackson, an Italian
landmark restaurant that has been around since the 1860s.
It was another productive weekend, with Gail being the most productive of all. Her accomplishments between Thursday and Sunday:
Master bathroom: drywalled the walls of the vanity alcove Master bedroom: finished drywalling the two closets and the rest of the loft wall Hall bathroom: replaced the ceiling drywall over the bath Upstairs living room: finished drywalling the loft wall with the octagon window; taped and mudded the exterior walls Cameron’s bedroom: drywalled the closet walls and shelf Pantry: drywalled the walls Lower bathroom: drywalled one wall and the ceiling Stairs: taped and mudded the alcove
The living room loft wall, including the octagonal window in the parapet, is now fully drywalled
On Sunday, Dirk also gave us the news that he will need to come up at
least one more time, as he did not have all of the parts to install the
laundry-room exhaust vent. While this is bad news for Dirk, it is good
news for us, as we will have at least one more chance to enjoy Dirk’s
company and contributions.
A panorama of the upstairs living room, with walls taped and mudded
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
April 12, 2010
The hill, on a good day
“Never try to take a fortified hill.”
“An unfortified hill isn’t all that great, either.”
The weekend of April 9-11 was originally going to see our friend Dirk
up by himself at our mountain-home construction site. April 9 was Gail
and Russell’s wedding anniversary (22 years) and we didn’t know where
we’d be. As the weekend approached, however, Gail decided that she
would be happiest getting more work done toward the occupancy permit.
The first decision was that we would go up to the mountain. The
second decision was that we didn’t need a “private” weekend – it was
fine for Dirk to go up. With privacy gone, we extended an invitation to
our other friend Steve, who was delighted to join. In the end, we also
brought our son Joss and his girlfriend Rachel. The house ended up
being so full that Dirk slept on the sofa bed and Joss slept up in the
parapet.
The weather called for rain all weekend, and it did not disappoint.
The work agenda was set largely around Russell’s stair project. With
the rough stairs finished, his next task is to construct finished
risers and treads. First, though, the stair alcove would have to be
drywalled, which fell upon Gail. With Rachel’s help she finished by
midday Saturday, enabling her to move on to other drywalling for the
rest of the weekend.
The stairway alcove got rather crowded at times.
Here, Russell, Gail, and Rachel all work simultaneously on various
finishing projects.
The stairway alcove, before and after drywalling
Dirk continued wiring the house for phone and internet, as well as
finishing up the electrical work. He also gave Joss a few lessons in
home wiring.
Dirk shows Joss how to install an electrical switch box
Another crowded workspace: Gail, Joss and Dirk
install a piece of purple (mold and moisture resistant) drywall over the
hall-bathroom ceiling. Gail and Joss hold the heavy piece up (Joss
uses a large stick) while Dirk trims it to fit in place.
Steve was only too happy for the inclement weather, as it meant that
he could freely burn. He ran a total of five burn piles around the
property.
Russell was probably the least productive of anyone that weekend. We
had decided that for the finished stair treads, we would use recycled
oak and Douglas fir from a pair of old stair flights from a salvage
yard. For the finished risers, we would use MDF (medium-density
fiberboard), an engineered wood that is easy to cut and paint.
Russell planned to cut the side skirtboards from 3/4"x11-1/4” MDF.
He would cut the risers from 3/4"x7-1/4” MDF. (Although the actual
stairs are 7-1/2” high, the missing 1/4" would be covered by trim wood.)
A skirtboard adds a cosmetic finish to stairs (photo courtesy of stairsupplies.com )
Russell started out well, marking the skirtboards with a carpenter’s
square fitted with some brass stringer guides. The horizontal cuts (for
the treads) would be straight cut at 90°, while the vertical cuts (for
the risers) would be mitered at 45°. This way, there would be a single
seam right at the corner between the skirtboard and the risers.
Russell marks a piece of MDF to be cut into a skirtboard
It was when Russell went to actually cut the skirtboards that he
encountered a logistical problem. All of the tools he has – the skill
(circular) saw, the table saw and the chop saw – can cut a 45° miter
downward to the left . The skirtboards needed a miter cut downward to the right .
The skirtboard is cut like a miniature stringer.
While the tread side is cut straight, however, the riser side is cut at a
45-degree angle so it fits with the finished riser.
After further discussion, we surmised that Dirk’s radial arm saw may
do the trick. Unfortunately, this saw is in Dirk’s garage in the Bay
Area, so cutting the skirtboards will have to wait for another day.
The real adventure, however, did not begin until Sunday
midday, when Gail and Russell drove into town to purchase more drywall.
Because we had all of the seats in our van, Dirk was gracious enough
to loan us his van. In town, Gail purchased a whopping 20 sheets of 4’x8’ drywall – more than we’ve ever loaded into the van at a single time.
With Gail driving in the rain, we were fine until we actually entered
the property.
To set up the situation, we need to digress and explain. When we
enter our property, we first pass through a dirt-road easement on our
neighbor Scott’s property. Scott does not use this road a lot, so it is
not well maintained. In fact, lately Scott has been clearing brush
with tractors, so the road is actually pretty torn up. There is one
curve that has a fairly-steep incline – downhill when entering the
property and uphill when exiting.
It was going down this hill that Gail momentarily lost control of
Dirk’s van. Between the rain, the mud, the torn-up road and the
humongous weight load, the van began to skid and accelerate as we drove
down the hill. Driving a strange vehicle with extremely tight brakes,
it was all Gail could do to prevent the van from skidding off the right
side of the dirt road into a ravine.
Ultimately, we made it through intact, though Gail had to stop for several minutes afterward to compose herself.
Dirk's van had been loaded down with 20 sheets of drywall. We usually transport no more than 15 at a time.
But the adventure was not over yet. Steve said his goodbyes and
departed Sunday mid-afternoon. We were therefore very surprised when he
showed up back at the front door several hours later, soaking wet.
Steve had gotten his truck stuck going up the hill on his way
out. He had to walk over to Scott’s house for help. Fortunately, Scott
was gracious enough to bring out his tractor and tow Steve’s truck up
the hill. In exchange, Steve volunteered to walk all the way back up to
our house to warn us of the situation – a half-mile uphill in the
pouring rain.
The deal was that Scott was willing to pull the rest of our vehicles
up the hill, but we had to leave immediately. Scott was going to meet
us at the hill with his tractor in 15 minutes. Fortunately, Dirk and
Russell were almost packed and ready to go. Unfortunately, Gail, Joss
and Rachel had made plans to stay an extra night until Monday.
We held a quick discussion. The rain was supposed to continue
through Monday. Dirk and Russell would take Dirk’s van out. We felt
confident that we could make our way up the unfortified hill.
Gail and the teens would stay until Monday. If they found themselves unable to drive up the hill, they would contact Scott.
The three adult men drove out in Dirk’s van. Just before the
unfortified hill, Russell advised Dirk to pick up speed and hope for
momentum. Dirk made it halfway up and got stuck. He reversed back down
the hill and Steve got out. Dirk gave himself a bigger running start.
Though his van tried very hard to skid left and right, it maintained
forward progress. We made it all the way up the hill. By now, Scott
was standing by with his tractor, but he saw that he wasn’t needed.
Steve got back in his truck (parked near the exit gate) and began his
drive home. Russell and Dirk rewarded themselves with dinner at Eddie
Pappas’ restaurant in Pleasanton – one of Russell’s favorite’s from his
birthday walk last year.
Gail and the teens stayed through Monday, paying careful attention to
the weather. During a break between storms, they tried driving out at
midday. Just before the unfortified hill, the kids got out and Gail
gave the van a running start. After two unsuccessful tries, she saw the
kids getting drenched in the newly falling rain. They loaded up and
drove back to the house.
The next several hours were a waiting game until Scott had a break in
his work schedule to bring his tractor over. In the afternoon, Gail
was finally able to get the van out with the help of a tractor tow.
Everyone is now home, safe and sound.
The four adults have tentative plans to drive back up to the mountain
this coming weekend. For Steve, at least, everything depends on the
weather.
We end with our regular, obligatory photo of Steve
working outside. Here, he manages a burn pile (one of five) on the
southwestern knoll near the storage shed.
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
March 10, 2010
A rare sight: our mountain home in the snow
Russell and Gail had another schedule of crossing paths. Russell
drove home from our mountain-home construction site on Sunday, March 7.
Gail drove up the following day on Monday, March 8.
Gail’s continuing agenda was to install more drywall. She has been
frustrated by continuous rain leaks in the exterior south walls,
corresponding to Joss’ and the master bedroom. As a result, she has
spent the past several trips caulking when it’s sunny and testing when
it’s raining. Finally, she is finally reasonably confident that the
leaks have been stopped.
As a result, Gail was able to spend two days drywalling the master
bedroom. Though she did not have enough time to finish the room, she is
close.
A panorama of the master bedroom exterior walls, as taken from the parapet
The big news, though, is that when Gail awoke at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday
morning, she couldn’t see out the window. Her first thought was that
there was a heavy fog outside. When she took a closer look out the
window, she discovered a couple inches of snow blanketing everything in
sight.
Gail’s Tuesday morning view
Gail immediately threw on some warm clothes and ran outside with the
camera. For the next couple of hours she took pictures of everything in
every direction. The beautiful view was accompanied by a complete
silence in the air. It was an incredible morning. Gail even telephoned
Russell to say, “I’ll bet you wish you were here right now!”
Gail’s early-morning rise paid off; by 10:00 that morning the snow
had all melted. She ended up taking a whopping 182 photographs during
that trip.
Russell had just taken a panorama of the western view during his last trip.
Gail also observed an in-flight mating dance between two birds of
prey. She was able to get a snapshot of one of them when it landed in a
nearby tree. (Some quick research back at home later told her that
they were peregrine falcons.)
Gail’s photo of a peregrine falcon, compared with a reference photo from the Internet
All in all, it was memorable stay for Gail. This is the first time
she has gone to sleep with clear weather and woken up with snow all
around. (She has seen snow on the mountain a couple of times. For the
record, Russell has yet to have such an experience.)
Gail continues to make steady progress in drywall, still aiming for a
completion milestone in May. She has probably seen one of the last
storms of the season, as we expect the weather to slowly get warmer.
Gail gets a visit from an old friend
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
March 7, 2010
There is a six-inch gap between the middle landing of
the stairs (right) and the wall of the alcove (left). This space needs
to be covered by building a faux (false) wall.
On Friday, March 5, Russell drove up to our mountain-home
construction site for the third weekend in a row. Unlike the previous
two weekends, he was not joined by Gail, and the weather was not rainy.
Instead he was joined by Dirk, who drove up early Friday morning, and
Steve, who drove up Friday afternoon (Russell was actually the last to
arrive).
Dirk spent two days continuing his wiring work before departing
Saturday evening. His current task is to install non-powered “media
wires” throughout the house, including internet and phone lines.
Unfortunately, this means having to remove a lot of the insulation and
drywall that Gail has installed, as well as drilling into a lot of
joists and studs.
One of Dirk’s many ingenious devices is this long,
flexible drill bit (several feet long) that can be used to drill into
difficult-to-access places (Dirk uses it to drill through multiple
joists/studs in succession).
As usual, Dirk has put together a detailed plan after consulting with Gail and Russell.
For telephone , we plan to rely on our cell phones. The only land line will be a single phone in the laundry room for 911 emergency calls. For internet , the laundry room will serve as a central hub
for an as-yet-undetermined service provider. We ultimately plan to
enable a wireless router throughout the house, but Dirk is also
installing LAN cables into all of the major rooms as a back-up system. We have decided not to install any audio (speaker) wiring,
mainly because we have no idea where we will ultimately put any home
entertainment system. Instead we will rely on wireless or outlet-based
wiring in the future. As usual, Dirk was also overly optimistic in his time calculations.
He will need at least one more trip up here. Fortunately (for us), that
gives Gail at least one more opportunity to pull him into other odd
jobs suitable for a renaissance do-it-yourselfer.
Dirk at work – in this case, at the center chase downstairs.
Steve worked outside for the entire weekend. He was finally able to
get a burn pile going on Friday evening, which kept him outside until
9:00 pm. He was able to get one more pile going on Saturday before the
fog and humidity reached the point that the wood would no longer stay
lit. After Dirk departed on Saturday evening, Steve and Russell were finally able to watch the season-six opening of “Lost.”
Steve eats his dinner while tending to an after-dark burn pile
Russell’s task for the weekend involved the stairs once again. Our
stair plans call for a six-inch gap between the middle landing and the
actual wall of the stair alcove. This is due to the way the treads and
landings measured out, as well as the need for the upper flight to clear
a glu-lam beam.
Dirk had suggested that we install a six-inch deep bookcase in this
space, but Gail viewed that as “one more thing to dust.” Instead,
Russell decided to install a faux wall from the middle stair landing all
the way up to the second-story floor.
Another decision point was what to do about the open space on the far
side of the third (highest) stair flight, which runs parallel to the
faux wall. The original idea was to keep that space open for additional
air and light. However, our building inspector informed us that we
would need to install another stair railing if we did that. After
looking at the structure from all angles, Gail decided that the
potential for open space was not enough to worry about. “Go ahead and
cover it up,” she decided.
We debated about whether to keep this open space in
the upper-stair flight; it would require an extra railing. “Go ahead
and cover it up,” Gail decided.
Russell’s main challenge was to construct the faux wall so it could
be drywalled seamlessly behind the upper flight and across the landing.
He ended up using a piece of OSB plywood, to give the drywall something
to attach to on both sides. The project took all weekend, but it is
now ready for drywall. (But he did make the space a little too tight,
so we will have to use 1/4” drywall instead of the usual 1/2”.)
The building of the faux wall:The six-inch gap A stud frame is built next to the landing. In addition, mini
cross joists are installed to support a new double joist at the edge of
the second-story floor. The new double joist is hung. Russell learned from his previous
experiences that this must to be a double joist and it must be secured
with joist hangers. OSB plywood is installed vertically to cover the gap next to the
stair flight. Ultimately, drywall will be attached to either side of
this OSB. (Note also the OSB scraps installed over the landing studs –
this will enable the finished drywall to be uniform across the flight
and landing.) Finally, OSB plywood is installed horizontally to create a new second-floor subfloor.
Russell has now reached the point in stair construction where the
next step is to begin the finished woodwork. We are still trying to
figure out if we can reuse the wood from Gail’s salvaged oak stairs.
It may be a while before the next step actually begins.
We also carried in five doors that Gail had picked up on craigslist.
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
February 28, 2010
In the tiny downstairs half-bathroom, Dirk and Gail try to share space as they install fixtures and drywall
As we have mentioned in previous posts, Gail and Russell have almost-opposite working styles in the building of our mountain home. Russell
works methodically and meticulously. He will measure four times to cut
once. He makes detailed plans and preparations for what he expects to
accomplish on each trip. His joy is in working his way through a
particularly complex or difficult problem.
On the other hand, Gail tends to be more flexible, spontaneous and
opportunistic. She will measure once and improvise the rest. She often
changes her agenda once she arrives on site, moving from project to
project before any single task is completely finished. Her joy is in
seeing visible change as a result of her work.
This working contrast was especially apparent during our last two working weekends.
On Friday, February 19, Gail and Russell went up for a twosome
weekend. With his rough stairs now constructed (and corrected),
Russell’s next task is to install the finished treads and risers. In
order to do this, he will re-use wood from a couple of half-stair
flights that Gail picked up at a salvage yard. The challenge is to
dismantle stairs that were never meant to be dismantled – without
damaging any of the wood. After days of work, Russell only got halfway
done.
We first brought the two antique stairwells to the property in June, 2009;
Gail came up to take advantage of the unusually rainy weather. She
continued to work on repairing leaks in Joss’ and the master bedroom
exterior walls. At the same time, she continued to install drywall,
alternating between Joss’ bedroom, the master bedroom and the upstairs
living room.
In a moment of dry weather, Gail re-caulks one of the master-bedroom windows.
Speaking of salvage, we also transported a five-foot bathtub that
Gail found on craigslist. We are nowhere near being ready to equip the
master bathroom, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. Gail
figures she saved several hundred dollars with this purchase. Having
driven the van to transport the bathtub, Russell also went out and
purchased yet another 15 sheets of drywall, storing it upstairs in
Cameron’s bedroom.
Gail and Russell carry the master bathtub upstairs;
The weekend of February 26 was supposed to be a weekend for Russell
and his friend Steve. (Steve has been patiently waiting to watch the
Season-6 opening of “Lost.”) At the last minute, our other friend Dirk
decided he would also go up Wednesday through Sunday to do more
electrical work. At the even later last second, Gail decided to go up
with Russell to take advantage of another rainy weekend.
As a result, we ended up with another full house for the weekend.
Dirk had been happily working in solitude for several days when he saw
Gail unexpectedly arrive with Russell. He got the feeling that his
agenda was about to be reorganized.
Sure enough, Gail decided that this should be the weekend for
drywalling the downstairs and upstairs hall bathrooms. She wanted to
take advantage of Dirk’s “plumber hat,” as several fixtures would need
to be removed in order to drywall. Dirk was happy to oblige, believing
that “all progress is good progress.”
In the end, Gail and Dirk not only drywalled both bathrooms, they
installed a ceiling, a sink and a temporary door in the downstairs
bathroom (none of which is actually required for our occupancy permit).
Our first ceiling! Gail installs drywall above the downstairs half-bathroom.
Before and after: The downstairs half-bathroom (note the door!)
Before and after: The upstairs hall bathroom
Russell kept to himself, continuing to work methodically at
dismantling the old oak stairs. The good news is that he finished the
project. The bad news is that he injured himself when one of the heavy
oak treads fell over like a toppled tree and drove a rusty nail into the
top of his foot.
Steve kept to the outside as usual, working the grounds even in the
pouring rain – and enjoying every minute of it. He tried several times
to start burn piles, but the combination of rain and wet wood prevented
anything from staying lit. Between Russell limping around with a sore
foot and Steve limping around with a sore knee, the two guys were
certainly feeling their age.
Rain and wet wood: Steve tries (unsuccessfully) to start a burn pile.
We continue to make steady progress, though it means coming up in the
rain and leaving Joss home alone. We’ve already done that for two
weekends in a row; next weekend will make three.
A couple of panoramas of the finished drywall in the upstairs living room
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
February 6, 2010
Gail installs the higher pieces of drywall any way she can
In our race to obtain an occupancy permit for our mountain home, we
have recounted Russell’s progress building stairs – “two steps forward,
one step back.”
At the same time, Gail has been making progress installing drywall – “slow and steady.”
Gail went up to the mountain from Wednesday through Friday, January
27-29. Her task was to install some of the larger pieces of drywall
that need to go into the walls of the raised ceilings overhead.
Fortunately our friend Dirk was there to help her lift some of the
heavier pieces (when he wasn't doing his electrical work). During this
trip, Gail was able to make progress in both the upstairs living room
and the master bedroom.
Before and after: The upstairs living room
Before and after: The master bedroom
Gail did not have anyone’s help when she went back up a week later on
Wednesday through Saturday, February 3-6. Nevertheless, she continued
to cut and lift huge sheets of drywall into the walls of the raised
ceilings by herself. After successfully fitting an almost full-sized
sheet of drywall into the upstairs living room (a 4x8’ sheet of
half-inch drywall weighs about 54 lbs.), she exclaimed out loud, “You
go, Gail!”
Three views of Cameron's bedroom wall:
The upstairs living room:
By the end of the second week, Gail had completed Cameron’s bedroom
and the upstairs living room. But it was the non-drywalling events that
were the most challenging.
During the week in January, Gail arrived to find a pile of acorns on
the floor of the master bathroom. Her first fear was that rodents had
invaded the house again. It was not until she went outside that Gail
realized what had happened. A woodpecker had been storing nuts in the
foam insulation between wall sections. Eight exterior walls had gaps
stuffed with acorns.
Gail's January challenge: a pile of acorns on the master bathroom floor
An enterprising woodpecker had stuffed acorns into
every conceivable gap in the wood. Gail had to pry all of them out,
then fill the gaps with wire mesh.
The week in February presented an even greater challenge, when a
strong rainstorm system passed through the area. During her first night
alone, Gail was treated to downpours accompanied by howling winds. The
wind was the strongest she had ever experienced, and she was convinced
that one of the sliding glass doors was going to buckle. Everything
held, though the entire house shook all night.
Unfortunately, Gail discovered more water leaks in the master bedroom
and Joss’ bedroom. During breaks in the storm, she spent hours putting
bitumen and trim wood on the exterior walls, then caulking and painting
the interior walls. By the end of the week, Gail figured that she had
plugged 90 percent of the remaining leaks.
Gail's February challenge: continued water damage from leaks in the exterior walls
Gail worked outside installing bitumen and trim wood in the wall gaps, until the wind and rain prevented her from doing any more.
The leaks will need to be addressed long-term before Gail can
complete drywalling in the two bedrooms. Unfortunately, the only way to
know if there is still a leak is for it to rain. And when it rains,
it’s too inclement to fix the leaks outside and too wet to caulk the
leaks inside.
Gail figures that she will be spending a lot of time up on the mountain over the next several months.
Gail's “drywall boneyard” of leftover scraps. Time to go buy more drywall!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
January 31, 2010
A second nine-foot length of LVL is cut and ready for installation.
The way our friend Dirk describes it, he is watching a race to win an
occupancy permit for our mountain home. On one side is Gail, racing to
finish drywalling the interior walls. On the other side is Russell,
racing to finish the interior stairs.
At the end of the year, Russell thought he had taken the lead. He
had finished all three flights of rough stairs, as well as a new landing
on the second floor. He was already looking ahead to the finished
treads and risers.
The elation was short lived. Shortly after we posted our last web
update, we got an email from Dennis, our building inspector. Russell
had made two mistakes in his construction of the main-landing beam that
would not pass building code.
The first problem was that Russell had constructed the beam using a
single nine-foot length of 2x14” LVL (laminated-veneer lumber).
Dennis informed him that the landing edge needed to be constructed with
double beams.
Problem No. 1: The edge of the landing is constructed with a single LVL. It needs to be a double beam.
Russell would need to add a second LVL beam. Unfortunately, the
current LVL was bounded by the stair flight on one side and a set of
floor joists on the other. One of these would have to be disassembled.
Not only would it be nearly impossible to disassemble the stair flight,
but it could not be moved to accommodate a second beam. Russell would
have no choice but to take apart the floor joists.
The second problem was that Russell had supported the original LVL by
notching it over the structural glu-lam beams to create ledgers at
both ends. Dennis informed him that ledgers cannot be cut into more
than 25 percent of the wood. Russell had taken a 14-inch piece of wood
and cut away nine inches of it. In other words, he had basically
converted a 2x14 into a 2x5.
Problem No. 2: The LVL uses notched ledgers, but the notches are not allowed to cut into more than 25 percent of the beam.
Dennis offered two solutions.
One, Russell could support the soon-to-be double LVL beams with joist
hangers. The disadvantage: Russell would need to find and purchase
custom joist hangers for double 14”x1.75” beams set at a 22.5º angle.
(Simpson makes just about anything, but the question is: how much would
they cost?) In addition, the joist hangers would be visible in the
finished house.
Two, Russell could create new ledgers that did not cut more than 25
percent into the LVLs. The new ledgers would be 2x4s with a minimum
length of 12 inches. They would be secured to the glu-lam beams with
3.5-inch SD (strong-drive) screws.
The disadvantage: the double LVLs would need to be notched to
accommodate the new ledgers. In addition, the new ledgers would be
visible in the finished house.
After some consultation (with Dennis, Gail and Dirk), Russell opted
for the new ledgers. He decided it would be easier than trying to find
custom joist hangers. Even so, Russell and Gail had huge difficulty
finding 3.5” SD screws. We ultimately ended up getting 4” screws.
Russell went back up to the mountain on Friday, January 29. He was
actually preceded by Gail, who drove up during mid-week with Dirk to
install more drywall. When Gail drove down, Russell drove up; we met
for dinner in Lockeford. Dirk remained on site to help Russell with the
stair landing.
Dirk’s help ended up being greatly needed. Removing the old joist
hangers and cutting the joists was difficult enough. Cutting notches in
the old LVL was even more difficult. Getting the second LVL in place
was most difficult of all. We had re-cut the beam five times to get it
to fit. Every time we adjusted, the beam had to be removed then brought
downstairs to be re-cut. Every time it was dropped into place, we had
to knock the disconnected joists out of the way to wiggle the beam in.
Needless to say, this took the efforts of both men.
The LVL with the new, second ledger notch cut.
In addition, Russell had to install the new ledgers. Even after
pre-drilling the screw holes, he succeeded in cracking both pieces of
wood. The second try went better, and we ended up with some good-looking ledgers that won’t look unappealing in the finished house.
At Dennis’ suggestion, we cut the ledger to be flush
with the LVL. This makes the whole thing look aesthetically more
pleasing. (There is a third set of SD screws in between the two LVLs.)
We left the original ledgers in place for added support.
When he wasn't helping Russell, Dirk continued his electrical-wiring
work. He installed a dedicated outlet for the water heater in the
pantry, as well as a dedicated outlet for the heat tape on the pipes
outside the house. He also started wiring the house for future internet
access.
The repair of the landing took all weekend, up to the time that we
departed on Sunday afternoon. As Russell remarked, on the positive
side, the stairs now look exactly the same as before we came up. On the
negative side, the stairs now look exactly the same as before we came
up.
The finished landing, with two LVLs and shortened joists.
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
December 30, 2009
Russell installs the third and final flight of permanent stairs.
Our original plan was for the entire family to spend the week after
Christmas at our mountain-home property. Upon reflection, we decided it
would be unfair to take our sons away from their friends (and the
Internet) for an entire week. In addition, by Christmas all four of us
were recovering from colds. We compromised on three days, December
28-30. As an added plus, Joss’ girlfriend was able to join us for the
trip.
We arrived on Monday, December 28, shortly after lunch. The reason
for our early arrival was that we had a 3:00 appointment. Yes, AmeriGas
was finally going to come out and make the last connection to
enable our hot water! (Our plumber Curtis had already hooked up the
shower head last week.) It took Scott from AmeriGas less than 15
minutes to connect the pipe to the tank and check the house for leaks.
Gail turned on the kitchen faucet. “We have hot water!” she beamed.
That evening, Russell took the first-ever hot shower on the mountain.
Later, Gail took the first-ever hot bath. It would have been ideal,
except that when the bath level reached the overflow drain, water
started gushing out of the ceiling in the kitchen downstairs. Needless
to say, we will be putting in another “Help!” call to Curtis the
plumber.
We don’t have any photos of us using hot water.
Instead, here are three deer (a doe and her two yearlings) hanging
around the propane tank.
Hot water was only the first of many milestones this trip. On
Tuesday morning, Gail and Russell took down the “temporary” work stairs
(more than four and a half years after they were originally put up by
Russell’s brother-in-law, Matt). We had to take them down in order to
make room for the third and final flight of permanent stairs.
During this “in between” phase of stair installation, we required
some minor acrobatics to move between floors. On the lower floor, we
had to use a ladder to reach the middle flight of stairs. On the upper
floor, we had to step across a larger hole at the end of the upper
flight.
With the temporary stairs removed, we dealt with a hole in the upstairs landing (upper left) and a ladder downstairs
Meanwhile, Russell spent the day installing the last rough treads and
risers. Because this flight will require railings on both sides,
Russell constructed them three inches wider. By Tuesday afternoon we
were able to remove the ladder, and all five of us happily took turns
walking up and down the permanent stairs.
The third, lowest and final flight of stairs. These
are constructed three inches wider because they will require railings on
both sides.
Russell spent the rest of his time installing joists and a subfloor
on the upstairs landing. He was still working as everyone else packed
to leave on Wednesday afternoon, but the landing is now finished and the
upstairs sitting room is now four feet wider.
Constructing the upper landing
Meanwhile, Gail and Cameron spent Tuesday installing more drywall in
Cameron’s bedroom. Gail had purchased a huge drywall lift from
Craigslist and tried it out for the first time. Cameron made a huge
contribution in helping to finish his bedroom interior.
Cameron and Gail confer on drywall installation;
With a shortage of ladders, Cameron got creative in drywalling his bedroom
Joss and Rachel were stuck with dish duty every day, but the
availability of hot water helped immensely. The two also had plenty of
time for reading, playing games, going for walks and just spending time
together.
With Rachel using Cameron’s bedroom, both boys slept in Joss’ bedroom, which became “video game central”
All in all, it was a work trip filled with milestones, and a great
way to finish out the year. We continue to make slow and steady
progress towards gaining our occupancy permit. Russell now needs to
start on the finished stairs, while Gail still has several rooms to
drywall. Next May will mark five years since we first purchased the
property. If we can get our occupancy permit by the anniversary, that
will be a cause for celebration.
The Lee family celebrates another milestone, and another New Year!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
December 21, 2009
Our Noritz on-demand tankless water heater – all dressed up, but nowhere to go
The first time we ever laid eyes on our mountaintop property, Gail
remarked, “We have to buy this, even if I have to pitch a tent to live
here.” Ever since, the story of building our mountain home has been a
story of slowly becoming more and more civilized up here. Early on we
created a mental checklist of milestones, and one by one we have checked
them off.
We turned on our first outside water faucet in September, 2006. On
the same day, we switched on our first electric light. The advent of
electricity enabled us to install a refrigerator, microwave oven and
television set. We finally declared the house to be weathertight and
watertight in May, 2007, although we have been fixing it ever since. We
flushed a toilet for the first time a month later in June, 2007. And we
gained control over our climate (with a short-term solution, at least)
at the beginning of this year, with three portable air-conditioner/heater units.
As we have passed each of these milestones, our mountain home has
become more and more comfortable, enabling us to stay for longer periods
of time regardless of the weather. The last major milestone on our
list has been hot water. It has proven to be the most difficult, most
complicated, and most delayed of all.
Gail navigated a complex path that involved electricity, the gas
company, the plumber and some trench digging. The original plan was for
hot water before Thanksgiving. That did not happen. After a couple of
other reschedules, it was reset for the week of December 14th.
This latest schedule was important because the weekend of December
19th would be our friend Steve’s only opportunity to work on the house
for the next several months. Russell wanted to accommodate him, but we
had a family gathering scheduled for Sunday, December 20th. Russell
figured that with hot water available, he could work with Steve during
the weekend, get himself cleaned up and drive over to the family
gathering on Sunday afternoon. We put the date on the calendar as
“tentative.”
By Thursday of that week, the hot water had still not been installed.
However, both AmeriGas and our plumber promised it would be done on
Friday. Russell and Steve decided to drive up.
On Friday evening, the big moment came. Russell turned on the hot
water tap in the kitchen. Water came out. It was cold. Moments went
by. It stayed cold.
What followed were multiple phone calls between Russell up on the
mountain, Gail back at home in the Bay Area, and our plumber Curtis
somewhere else on his cell phone. (Multiple calls were necessary
because Russell’s cell phone reception was spotty and intermittent.)
Curtis had Russell check every step in the path. Was the water
heater turned on? Yes. Did the standby light go on? Yes. Was the
water-heater gas spigot opened? Yes. Was the house gas spigot opened?
Yes. Did the ready light go on when the faucet was turned on? No.
Aha. In the dark, Russell walked out to the propane tank down the
hill. The tank showed 120-plus gallons of propane. The tank showed 60-psi pressure. The copper pipe came up out of the covered trench to the
propane tank. However, the copper pipe was not actually connected to
the propane tank.
Once again, there would be no hot water this weekend. As Gail
discovered through subsequent phone calls on Monday, there had been a
major miscommunication between AmeriGas and Curtis. According to
AmeriGas, Curtis had told them he would leave the house unlocked so they
could conduct their safety checks when they installed the propane tank.
According to Curtis, AmeriGas told him they would not need access to
the house. When AmeriGas showed up to install the tank, the house was
locked. So they installed the tank, but didn’t connect it.
The problem is that AmeriGas didn’t bother telling any of us that
they had a problem and didn’t connect the tank. Instead, they told Gail
that everything was installed.
In the meantime, Steve and Russell had a productive weekend of work.
Steve worked outside as usual, continuing to clear brush and tackle
what was left of the huge fallen oak tree. (Our neighbor Scott had
spent 3.5 billable hours moving the tree trunk from the access road to
our northern knoll.)
Steve dismantles a tree on the northern (trampoline) knoll.
Russell worked inside as usual, building the third and final flight
of stairs. He was able to get all three stringers measured, cut and
attached to the hanger board. He has now gone as far as he can go
without dismantling the temporary stairs, which occupy the same space.
After some discussion, we decided to wait until next week to take the
next step.
Russell assembles the third flight of stairs, which will be installed once we take down the temporary stairs.
Russell never got his hot shower, but he went to the family gathering anyway. No one minded.
Our family of four is planning to return to the mountain during the
week after Christmas. According to the latest schedule, we will have
hot water next week. We’re not holding our breath.
Our 125-gallon propane tank – the loose link in the hot-water chain
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
December 13, 2009
Using a stringer and a gazebo rail, Russell envisions how the upper stair flight will connect to the second floor
Gail and Russell took advantage of the weekend of December 11 for a
“couple-only” weekend up on our mountain home construction site. Our
original hope of snow outside and hot water inside was replaced by the
reality of rain and wind all weekend. Fortunately, both of us enjoy
experiencing real weather.
Russell’s goal for the weekend was to finish installing the second of
three flights of stairs. He had already cut the set of three
stringers. Now his tasks were to mount them on a hanger board, move the
entire apparatus into place, then attach rough risers and treads.
Russell had constructed the first flight’s stringers using a
suggestion from a book: cut one stringer, then trace its shape for the
other two stringers. The problem with this approach is that any slight
error in the first stringer becomes magnified in the copies. As a
result, we had to do a bit of adjusting to each of the stringers.
For the second flight, Russell decided to measure and mark each
stringer separately. The problem with this approach is that each
stringer is slightly different from its siblings. As a result, we again
had to do a bit of adjusting to each of the stringers. Oh, well.
Gail uses her Dremel tool to make adjustments to a stringer;
The installation was further complicated by the fact that this flight
– the upper flight – was designed to be free-standing, unsupported by
any walls. Our building inspector informed us that the flight would
therefore require railing on both sides, “so no one falls to their
death.”
We were not enamored of installing a railing on both sides of the
flight, and ended up having a long (and drawn-out) conversation about
alternatives. In the end, we have decided to install a faux wall on one
side of the flight. While this eliminates the airy feeling of a
“free-floating” stairwell, the faux wall will be so small that it hardly
makes any difference to visibility. Russell’s future challenge will be
how to design and install the faux wall – but that is a challenge for
another day.
The upper flight before and after – we will ultimately install a faux wall on the far side of this flight
Even with Gail’s help, Russell was still screwing in the last treads
and risers when it was time to leave on Sunday afternoon. Nevertheless,
the goal was achieved.
The second flight: stringers, treads and risers
Gail’s progress this weekend was much more frustrating. Her
intention was to finish drywalling Cameron’s bedroom (formerly our
temporary kitchen). Unfortunately, Gail has already drywalled most of
the “easy” walls. What’s left are the troublesome spots where
Topsider’s kit walls come together. They are usually neither plumb nor
aligned. Gail’s solution has been to insert shims where necessary so
the drywall panes can intersect properly. She ended up spending several
hours on Saturday adjusting a single small piece of drywall.
Sunday didn’t go much better, as Gail only succeeded in installing
one piece of drywall. It was the last piece of greenboard to surround
the shower. (Yes, we are still hopeful that we will have hot water one
of these days.)
Gail's sole drywalling accomplishment on Sunday was finishing the upstairs bathroom walls
Gail’s frustration was further increased by the discovery that
several of our exterior-facing walls continue to leak when it rains.
Due to area winds, most rain comes in from the south and southeast.
This translates to Joss’ bedroom and the master bedroom. We discovered
two years ago that these walls leak, and Gail spent considerable time
coating, insulating and caulking all of the joints in all of the
exterior walls. So it was very frustrating to discover that they still
leak.
Gail has purposely avoided drywalling these two rooms because of this
concern. Now we will have to do further weatherproofing work. The
suggestion from our building inspector is to install bitumen at every
joint, then hide it with molding.
On the positive side, the inclement weather gave us an incredible
weekend experience. There were massive downpours of rain all day
Saturday, accompanied by huge and howling winds. We were also treated
to an incredibly brilliant lightning storm on Saturday night, with bolts
lighting up the entire sky several times a minute. We originally
arrived to a temperature of 44º F. By running three heaters upstairs
and two downstairs, we were able to get the house up to a comfortable
65º F.
All in all, we continue to make slow progress on our mountain-home
construction. Unfortunately, it often feels like every problem we solve
is accompanied by a new problem that needs further solving.
The two stairways are increasingly encroaching on each other;
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
December 11, 2009
The Altamont Pass (elevation: 1,009 feet) with a rare dusting of snowtherecord.com )
The week of December 7, 2009 saw amazing and record-setting weather,
not only in the San Francisco Bay Area, but throughout California and
the entire Western United States. It was described as a
“once-in-20-years” storm.
We awoke on Monday morning in Silicon Valley to see the mountains on all sides of us covered in snow. The Altamont Pass (elevation: 1,009 feet) , which connects the Bay Area to California’s Central Valley, received four inches. The city of Stockton (elevation: 13 feet) saw measurable snow (1/4 inch) for the first time since 1976.
Although Russell was going through a busy time at work, Gail toyed
with the idea of driving up to our mountain home to see the property in
rare snow. She actually had her things packed and ready to go, but she
changed her mind at the last minute on Sunday morning.
Gail was disappointed when Sunday night’s snowstorm was followed by
several days of freezing weather, which meant that the snow actually
stayed around for most of the week. As we started hearing further
reports, though, we were ultimately very glad that Gail had stayed home.
Valley Springs in Calaveras County (elevation: 669
feet), where we usually buy our last-minute groceries. All schools in
Calaveras County declared snow days for the week.thepinetree.net )
Our neighbor Scott told us that power was out in the area for two
days on Monday and Tuesday. Our friend Dennis actually tried driving up
to check on the property, but couldn’t make it past the entrance gate
at the bottom of the hill. The sub-zero weather had caused the initial
rain to create a layer of slippery ice on the unpaved road. A layer of
snow on top of that meant that the road was impassable. If Gail had
driven up, she would have been stuck in our mountain home with no heat,
no electricity, no water (our water pump is electric), and no way of
getting out.
The access road to our mountain home property
Our biggest concern was that we had a broken water pipe somewhere up
at the house. We had installed heat tape on the exposed pipes at the
step-up pump and the water tank, but the heat tape was electrical. With
the power out, there was no heat. On the other hand, the power outage
also meant that the step-up pump wasn’t functioning at all. We hoped
that one problem took care of the other and that there was no water in
the pipes to freeze.
Unfortunately, we were also scheduled to have our long-awaited hot
water installed on Wednesday. That was clearly not going to happen.
Our hope was that a second, warmer rainstorm due in the second half of
the week would melt the snow and allow access again.
Dennis was finally able to make it up to our property on Thursday,
December 10. There were still several inches of snow on everything in
sight. Dennis discovered that the pipe to our exterior faucet had
cracked, creating a fountain of water. He went down to the bottom of
the hill to turn off our water meter, and discovered that the main water
pipe was also cracked, spewing more water out at the meter.
Our only cracked pipe was on an exterior faucet, which created a small fountain
We had previously planned to drive ourselves up for the weekend on
Friday, December 11, and we decided to keep that plan. Our plumber
Curtis had rescheduled the hot-water installation for that day; he also
volunteered to fix our broken faucet pipe. We imagined a scenario where
we would drive up on Friday afternoon to find snow outside, working hot
water and electricity inside, and no broken pipes.
(Just to hedge our bets, though, we borrowed a truck from Russell’s
sister so we would have all-wheel drive. And we brought up a propane
heater.)
Our last bit of bad news was a phone call from Curtis during our
drive up. AmeriGas had decided that the weather was still too inclement,
and canceled their Friday appointment. There would be no hot water
this weekend.
By the time we arrived at the property on Friday evening, most of the
snow was gone. The weather forecast called for heavy rain and winds
all weekend.
At this point, the hot-water installation has been rescheduled for
next Wednesday, December 16. In the meantime, Curtis has installed the
flue for the hot-water heater as well as the exterior gas bib. He also
repaired the external faucet pipe.
And for an early Christmas present, Curtis also hooked up the faucet
in the downstairs kitchen. We now have running water both upstairs and
downstairs. It’s only cold water at this point, but it’s still enough
to make Gail overjoyed.
For the first time, we have running water downstairs. (If Gail looks cold, it’s because it’s currently 44º F!)
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
November 25, 2009
Curtis Jasper connects the bathtub fixtures. Note the water coming out of the spout!
Gail stayed alone at our mountain home for three nights for one main
reason: to get hot water installed before Thanksgiving. She had been
doing months of research and coordination, and all of it was scheduled
to come together this week.
Gail’s first decision was to get a tankless “on-demand” water heater.
Given that we would only be at the house on intermittent weekends, it
made no sense keep a huge tank of water constantly heated. Slakey
Brothers, a plumbing supplier in nearby Jackson, recommended Noritz as
the most-reliable brand. Gail settled on a box that would supply 7.5
gallons per minute at 11K-200K BTUs per hour. Our plumber, Curtis,
agreed to pick it up and install it, entitling us to a 30 percent
rebate.
Gail’s second decision was to power the water heater through propane.
She found a terrific deal through AmeriGas, also in Jackson. AmeriGas
would install a 150-gallon propane tank for free. The first three
years of tank rental would also be free. To start off, we would only
need to pay for the first tankful of propane, at $2.09 per gallon.
Given that our water heater and stove combined should only use two
gallons a day, that first tankful would last us about three years.
Gail coordinated an extremely-complex schedule of vendors that looked like this:
Monday, Nov. 16: Our neighbor Scott would dig a trench Sunday, Nov. 22: Curtis the plumber would install the water heater Mon-Tue, Nov. 23-24: Curtis would install the gas bib and exhaust flue Tuesday, Nov 24: AmeriGas would install the propane tank and gas pipe Wednesday morning, Nov 25: Dennis the inspector would check (and hopefully approve) the gas pipe Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 25: AmeriGas would connect everything together and conduct safety checks By Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, Nov. 26), we would have hot water.
We got off to a great start. By the time we arrived at the mountain
on Friday, November 20, Scott had already dug the trench. Curtis
arrived a half-hour after Russell departed on Sunday afternoon. In
addition to installing the water heater, he also helped Gail with
shower/bath fixtures in the upstairs-hall bathroom.
The pantry wall, before and after installation of drywall and the tankless water heater
It was at this point that the improvisation began. Our original
title for this web letter was going to be “Hot water.” As readers will
note, that is not the case.
As we reported in a previous entry, a tree had fallen across our
access road a few weeks ago. While most of it has been cleared away,
there are still large branches on both sides of the road. Gail called
AmeriGas to make sure that their truck would be able to get through.
They worked out a number of back-up plans, including physically walking
the pipe up to the house if necessary.
Gail was therefore surprised when Scott (a different Scott) from
AmeriGas showed up on Tuesday morning with a pipe… but no tank. Scott
had no problem laying the pipe and filling it with 60 lbs. of test
pressure. However, he also had several updates:
The pipe would need to hold pressure for a full 24 hours before Dennis could pass it for inspection. Scott guessed that the tank truck was 10 feet wide. He would need a
minimum road width of 12 feet for clearance, and ideally 14 feet. Given our location, AmeriGas would need two crewmen to install the tank, not one. Also given our location, the pipe trench would need to be filled back in before the tank truck could drive over the work area. Gail did some fast thinking. If Dennis could not inspect the pipe
until midday Wednesday, AmeriGas would not have enough time to come back
out Wednesday afternoon to finish the installation. Gail would have to
be present for the safety checks, but she would also have to drive back
home Wednesday afternoon in time for Thanksgiving.
Gail consulted by Russell via phone. Russell was skeptical that
AmeriGas should require 12-14 feet width of clearance. He pointed out
that this was wider than a normal car lane, and probably wider than our
entire road. Gail called AmeriGas, who also assured her that the truck
should not require that much road width. Nevertheless, Gail called
neighbor Scott, who volunteered to move the fallen tree out of the way
with his tractor.
Plan B started to come together. AmeriGas could come back out on
Friday to install the tank. Neighbor Scott could refill the trench on
Wednesday or Friday after the pipe had passed inspection. While there
was a chance that we could still have hot water by the weekend, the odds
were getting smaller.
Stages of the propane trench:
It was just about time for more improvisation.
On Tuesday afternoon, Curtis the plumber called. He had accidentally
ordered the wrong flue for the water heater. The correct flue would
not be delivered until next Monday. Curtis was very apologetic. He
volunteered to meet AmeriGas next week, so that he could sign off on the
safety checks in our absence. While it was now impossible to have hot
water by this weekend, we could at least have the propane tank
completed.
Our revised title for this web letter was going to be “Propane.” As readers will note, that is not the case either.
Dennis the inspector showed up promptly on Wednesday morning, 24
hours after the propane pipe had been pressurized. Dennis inspected the
pipe. The pressure reading was currently “zero.” Dennis was actually
very surprised; while a pipe may lose a few pounds of pressure, there
was clearly something wrong. Unfortunately, Dennis was not able to
approve the pipe for further installation.
After a phone call, AmeriGas Scott returned within an hour. Scott
was also very apologetic; he had used a new cap that obviously had not
worked. He changed the fittings and re-pressurized the pipe.
At this point, we are on to Plan C. The soonest that Dennis can
return to inspect the pipe is next Monday. Once that is done, neighbor
Scott will be able to refill the trench. Once that is done, AmeriGas
can return to install the propane tank, connect everything and conduct
safety checks. This will have to be coordinated with Curtis the
plumber, who will install the correct flue and sign off on the safety
checks. The exact schedule for all of this is “yet to be determined.”
In the meantime, we still have eight people coming up here on
Thanksgiving weekend. Fortunately, Gail had lots of time to do her own
work while she was waiting for things that never actually happened.
Gail installed subfloor and drywall in the utility room. This
enabled her to fill the utility room with all of the tools and shelves
that had previously been in the downstairs pantry and Joss’ bedroom.
The upstairs utility room, with new drywall and two racks of tools
Joss’ bedroom, before and after cleaning
Gail cleaned out Cameron’s bedroom enough to accommodate the futon
from the upstairs living room. This will serve as the guest room for
Joss’ girlfriend’s family this weekend.
Cameron’s bedroom, which we had been using as a kitchen and dining room, is slowly being turned into a real bedroom
Gail took the rest of the gear from the upstairs kitchen and packed
it away in the downstairs cabinets. She also swept and tidied the
entire house before finally departing shortly after noon on Wednesday.
The upstairs living room now has two actual sofas.
We are as ready as we can be for our big Thanksgiving weekend. Our
current hope is that we will have hot water by our next visit after
that.
Gail spotted a record 20 fully-grown wild turkeys wandering around on our property. Happy Thanksgiving!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
November 22, 2009
Building code dictates that each stair step must be accurate within 3/8” of every other stair step.
On November 20-22, 2009, the weekend before Thanksgiving, Russell and
Gail were able to enjoy a rare “couple-only” weekend at our mountain-home construction site. Originally, it was going to be a “Russell and
Steve” weekend, until Steve developed a conflict. Then it was going to
be a “Russell alone” weekend, until Gail decided to join him at the last
minute. Gail changed her plans for two reasons:
There is a chance that our sons Cameron and Joss, as well as the
entire family of Joss’ girlfriend, will be staying here on Thanksgiving
weekend. Gail wants to make sure we can comfortably accommodate eight
people. We are on the verge of getting hot water installed, hopefully in
time for Thanksgiving. Gail needs to coordinate a lot of the steps on
site. Russell was determined to make further progress on the stairs, a
critical path towards getting an occupancy permit. He hasn’t been able
to work on them in more than a month. Things didn’t get off to a good
start when we drove up on Friday afternoon. The road outside of
Mokelumne Hill was blocked by a vehicle accident – somehow a truck had
completely rolled over onto its cab. Ultimately, we were able to get
through.
The last time Russell worked on the stairs was in
mid-October, when he, Dirk and Steve installed the first two notched
stringers with a hanger board.
As anticipated, Russell’s stair work was regularly interrupted to
help Gail out. Most of this involved moving things. We had brought up a
second sofa for the upstairs living room, so we could move the futon
into Cameron’s bedroom. We had brought up several pieces of polished
slate countertop to put on top of the kitchen cabinetry that we had
brought up last weekend. We moved the temporary stairs from one side of
the LVL joist to the other, so that Russell actually had room to work
on the stairs. And we moved the temporary scaffold platform from one
side of the stairwell hole to the other, so that Gail could continue
installing drywall.
We had to move the temporary stairs from one side of
the LVL joist to the other, so Russell would even have enough room to
work on the permanent stairs. This turned into a very difficult task
with only two people.
Russell moved the scaffold platform from one side of
the stairwell hole to the other, so that Gail could drywall both
Cameron’s bedroom wall and the exterior living room wall.
Ultimately, Russell was finally able to complete the first of three
flights of stairs. This was the middle flight, between the two
landings. By this point, the steps were very straightforward. First,
Russell installed the third stringer, making sure that it was level and
plumb with the two previously-installed stringers. Second, he glued and
screwed the rough risers. Finally, he glued and screwed the rough
treads. Fortunately, all of the wood had already been cut during
previous visits.
Russell’s first (middle) flight of stairs – with stringers, risers and treads – completed!
Gail was also able to make good progress. She cleaned out the
downstairs pantry so that the water heater can be installed. She
cleaned out the upstairs utility room to accommodate all of the tools
that came out of the downstairs pantry. She drywalled all of the walls
surrounding the stairwell hole. And she even got to install her first
bit of drywall mud.
Gail cleans a section of polished slate countertop. She picked it up almost four years ago from freecycle.com .
One of the trickiest pieces of drywall was around the knee braces in the ceiling. It required a carefully-cut puzzle piece.
The stairwell hole, finished. Note Gail's first drywall mud in the corner.
While Russell departed on Sunday afternoon, Gail remained. She has a
tight schedule of meetings with the plumber, the gas company and the
inspector. She will return to the Bay Area just in time for
Thanksgiving, hopefully bringing news of hot water on the mountain.
Russell, exhausted but resting atop his first flight of stairs. One down, two to go!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
November 15, 2009
Gail with “the tree”
“Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”
We are simply not destined to have another “Russell and Steve”
weekend in 2009. Russell had actually scheduled two weekends with our
friend Steve at our mountain home-building site, on November 14 and
November 20. Steve has been waiting patiently to see the season-5
finale of “Lost” with Russell.
The first change was that Steve would now be unavailable on the
second weekend. The second change was that Gail decided to join Russell
and Steve on the first weekend. The third change was that our friend
Dirk decided to join Russell, Steve and Gail on the first weekend.
Dirk’s last-minute accompaniment was actually very fortuitous – Gail
ended up stuffing both our vans full of kitchen cabinets to transport
up.
We drove up as usual on Friday afternoon, November 13, caravanning
with Dirk. (We are not superstitious people, but “Friday the 13th”… )
In a first-ever occurrence, we bumped into Steve at a gas station on the
way up, and followed him the rest of the way. It was on the final dirt
road up to our house site that we noticed Steve stopped in front of us.
There was a very-large oak tree lying across the road.
Dirk contemplates the tree. Fortunately, its main
trunk fell alongside the road. Unfortunately, a couple of its larger
branches fell across the road.
With the approach of winter it was already getting dark. While Steve
immediately started attacking the tree with a hand-held hatchet he had
on his motorcycle, Gail walked up to the house to get the chainsaw. The
three men ended up tackling the huge tree with hatchets, axes, rakes
and the chainsaw (once we changed the ineffectively-dull chain). We
finally cleared enough of the tree to get our vehicles up to the house.
Russell and Steve try to tame the fallen tree with axe and hatchet
However, Murphy’s Law would continue to make appearances all weekend.
Steve’s agenda for the weekend was to burn as much of the previously-cleared scrub as possible. That was now changed; he would spend much of
Saturday continuing to dismantle the fallen tree.
Russell’s agenda for the weekend was to continue building the stairs.
That was also now changed, the circular saw had accidentally been left
at our house in the Bay Area.
Gail’s agenda for the weekend was to move the kitchen downstairs and
begin drywalling the room it had previously occupied – Cameron’s
bedroom. Because both of these tasks would involve a lot of heavy
lifting, she was actually happy that Russell’s agenda had been upended.
Dirk’s agenda for the weekend was to debug some wiring glitches in
the downstairs kitchen before (or while) Gail moved everything into it.
His schedule was only partially interrupted by Gail’s many
heavy-lifting projects. We actually succeeded in moving the two vanfuls
of kitchen cabinetry into the house on Friday night, getting that task
out of the way.
The downstairs kitchen wall, before and after
cabinets. Gail bought the set of half a dozen cabinets for $300 on
Craigslist; the sink alone retails for $1,200.
On Saturday morning, Gail and Dirk drove the now-empty van into town
to purchase more drywall. They came back with 19 sheets.
Unfortunately, while they were out, Steve succeeded in cutting through
the largest of the oak branches… whereupon it proceeded to fall into the
middle of the road. Unable to get the van up to the house, the three
of them tried to move the heavy branch out of the way, to no avail.
The van blocked – take two
Fortunately, Russell has the strength of 10 men. He succeeded in
moving the branch by himself. (Well, he did get some help from an
eight-foot-long 2x4 that he used as a lever.)
Russell and Dirk spent a subsequent hour carrying all of the drywall
into Cameron’s bedroom to be stored. With some additional sheets that
we already had downstairs, they moved a total of 22 sheets of drywall up
the stairs. Dirk summed up the project appropriately: “I think I’ve
had my fill of drywall for the rest of the year.”
In order to move all of the drywall upstairs, we had
to relocate the temporary stairs out of the way of Russell’s new LVL
joist. Unfortunately, the temporary stairs now obstruct further
construction on the permanent stairs.
Gail was able to start drywalling the outside of Cameron’s wall
(overlooking the stairwell hole), thanks to a temporary platform that
Russell set up. She did have yet another encounter with Murphy’s Law
when a sheet of drywall fell down and landed on her. Fortunately, she
had enough reflex to leap across the stairwell hole – otherwise we would
be recounting a very different story today.
Gail also succeeded in dropping a crowbar down the stair hole, barely
missing Russell’s head as he just happened to be walking underneath at
that moment.
Russell constructed a platform across the stairwell
hole, which Gail fortunately leaped across when a sheet of drywall fell
on her
Steve succeeded in getting a burn pile going. Dirk succeeded in
troubleshooting the kitchen circuits, although the kitchen plumbing
still needs additional work. Russell spent most of his time helping
Gail, when he wasn’t lying down from overworking his heart.
We also had several meetings. Our plumber Curtis came by (with his
entire family) to discuss some additional plumbing work for the water
heaters. Out neighbor Scott came by to discuss some trenching work for
the propane gas line.
Russell and Steve were able to watch the season-5 finale of “Lost” by
parking themselves in the back bedroom with a television set. We were
also invited to another delicious dinner at our friend Dennis’ house on
Saturday night – especially gracious because we kept increasing the
guest list on him and his family. Russell taught Dennis’ daughter yet
another European board game – “Lost Cities” – and ended up giving her
his copy.
Russell moved the dining-room table and chairs downstairs. Dirk even relocated the chandelier.
All in all it was a very productive weekend, in spite of Murphy’s
Law. While Steve had to depart early Sunday morning, Dirk was still
hard at work when Gail and Russell departed on Sunday afternoon. He
didn't end up leaving until 8:00 that evening. (Dirk also recommended
the title for this blog entry.)
The result of the weekend’s work: Cameron’s wall is almost finished. This really closes off the house!
Next weekend Russell plans to come up by himself. Or maybe Gail will
decide to join him at the last minute. Russell plans to work – finally
– on the stairs. Or maybe Gail will preempt his schedule with yet
more heavy lifting.
Russell’s next challenge: his stairwell construction
is now blocked by the temporary stairs, as well as by relocated stacks
of plywood
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
October 27, 2009
Gail has posted a list of milestones we must complete to get our occupancy permit
Even though we have now passed the major milestone of rough-electrical inspection, there is still a ton of work to do in our
mountain-home construction. We are one step closer to getting our
occupancy permit, which now requires the following checklist items:
All drywall complete. A functional kitchen. One functional bathroom. Stairs complete. Gail must feel like she’s on a roll (or she really, really likes her
new Dremel Multi-Max tool), but the day after we drove back down from
the mountain after a weekend of work, Gail turned around and drove back
up again. This time she went up by herself, arriving after lunch on
Monday, October 19.
This was only Gail’s second time spending multiple days up on the
mountain by herself. She was much more comfortable this time around,
perhaps because we now have electric shutters installed all around
(including over the front door). She had nice working weather, using
the three portable heaters to keep the house warm.
Gail had been frustrated over the previous weekend by not having
enough time to do all of the drywalling she wanted. This time, she set
herself a goal of spending three days doing nothing but installing
drywall on the downstairs exterior walls.
Three stages of finishing a wall: insulation, vapor barrier, and drywall
The back door wall, before and after drywalling
Gail’s tasks consisted of fixing the insulation where necessary (the
addition of electrical wires meant that much of the previous hard
insulation no longer fit), attaching a vapor barrier, then cutting and
fitting the actual pieces of drywall. Gail figured out an ingenious way
of lifting 7-foot by 3-foot pieces of half-inch drywall above the
picture windows all by herself.
Gail lifted large pieces of drywall overhead by using
two ladders and a “ledge” made of scrap wood (visible at the upper-left
edge of the window)
Gail's biggest challenge was drywalling the corners.
Due to Topsider's non-uniform manufacture, wall sections did not match
up uniformly and were not plumb.
A finished corner. Note that Gail used a single
strip of drywall on either side of the window to straddle the corners
(red circle). On either side above the window, there are still two
pieces marking the corners (yellow circle). Gail will smooth these out
during the taping-and-mudding process later.
By necessity, Gail also spent a considerable amount of time
rearranging everything that we’ve been storing downstairs. This was
partly to make room for working on the walls, and partly because she
wants the downstairs to start looking like a living room. She also
cleaned up her working area every few hours, to prevent herself from
choking on all of the drywall dust.
Gail’s arms finally gave out midday on Wednesday. She cleaned the
area once more and packed up. Although she did not completely finish
drywalling the entire downstairs (as she had originally hoped), the
progress she made is visually stunning.
The results of three days’ work. The downstairs sure cleans up nicely!
We seem to be on a productivity roll, and we can hardly wait for our next opportunity to make more progress!
Another sign of the changing season: the leaves are beginning to turn color!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
September 27, 2009
Steve and Dirk enjoy breakfast before beginning a day of work
We have been unbelievably fortunate to have the help of our friend
and amateur electrician, Dirk. Dirk has stretched the boundaries of
friendship, joining us at our mountain-home construction site
continuously over the past several months, driving his own van loaded
with wires and electrical gizmos, and crawling around in tiny spaces to
pull wires.
We are certain that Dirk had no idea what he was truly in for when he
originally volunteered to help, and this has undoubtedly turned into a
much bigger project than he ever imagined. Nevertheless, he continues
to contribute his time and services, compensated only by Gail’s great
cooking and a chance to sleep out on the deck among the stars and fresh
air.
With a milestone electrical inspection approaching in October, Dirk
decided to ratchet his efforts up by even one more level. Packing his
van and cooler, he arranged to spend an entire week up on the mountain –
with or without us – from Tuesday, September 22 through Monday,
September 28, in order to complete the last electrical work.
For the first half of the week, Dirk was joined by Gail, while
Russell remained in the Bay Area to do his real job. With her elbows
and shoulders slowly healing, Gail assisted Dirk as they graduated from
pulling wires to connecting outlet boxes and appliances. One highlight
of the trip was their successful installation of ceiling lights over
what will eventually be the kitchen downstairs. Entertainment for the
evenings included all three “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.
This downstairs storage area will someday be our kitchen. In the meantime, at least we have an overhead light!
While Gail departed on Wednesday, September 23, Russell took her
place and drove up on Friday, September 25. Russell was joined (as
usual) by our other friend Steve, who spent the weekend (as usual)
clearing brush around the roads and habitable areas.
One of Gail's requests was to have some low-hanging branches pruned. Steve was happy to oblige.
With his own knee and elbow slowly healing, Russell tried to make
further progress on the construction of the stairs. He was able to
arrange workspaces so that he did not need to kneel on the floor, using
the stair landing, sawhorses and a picnic table to measure and cut wood
standing up. By the end of the weekend, he had successfully cut the
first set of rough stringers, treads, and risers.
One disadvantage of sawing while standing up: What happens when you exceed your reach?
While the guys did not have the benefit of Gail’s great cooking
(Russell’s contribution was frozen TV dinners), we did get to enjoy
Russell’s great collection of DVDs. (We watched the Beatles' movie
“Across the Universe” and further episodes of the HBO miniseries “From
the Earth to the Moon.)
Upstairs, Dirk's last wiring task was to install a
light over the stairwell. The only way to do this was to stretch a
20-foot ladder from the stair landing to Cameron's bedroom wall.
Downstairs, we had to completely clear the center chase (not easy!) so Dirk could install switch boxes and outlets
Dirk described his own electrical progress as “slow and steady.” He
professed that he was not making progress as rapidly as he wanted,
possibly distracted by the beautiful weather and ambiance of the
location. When Russell and Steve departed on Sunday afternoon, Dirk was
still hard at work. If he is anything like Russell, he is probably
looking forward to some private time of peace, quiet, and solitude up on
the mountain.
We are already getting ready for winter, moving everything from outside into the gazebo
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
September 13, 2009
Gail with Russell, post-accident. Between the two of us, we have one uninjured arm!
At the end of July this year, Gail was diagnosed with tendinitis in
her elbows and shoulders. She was advised to stop doing any heavy
lifting or manipulation work for the foreseeable future. On September
11, Russell was involved in a biking accident that resulted in a
sprained left knee and four stitches in his left elbow. As our son
Cameron remarked, “Between the two of you, you only have one good arm.”
Unfortunately, we were due to go up to our mountain-home construction
site that same day. It would be difficult to cancel the trip, as our
friend Dirk had already arrived and our friend Steve was already en
route. So we went anyway.
Dirk and Steve were very gracious and understanding, offering to do
all of the heavy lifting for the weekend. This included offloading all
of the lumber that Russell had bought for stair construction. It also
included a huge and heavy double-sink vanity that Gail had picked up for
the master bathroom. While the lumber would be stored downstairs, the
vanity had to be brought upstairs and down the narrow hallway to the far
side of the house.
Steve and Dirk carry the double sink (hard) and heavy vanity (harder) up the stairs
Dirk and Steve did a terrific job. Even better, the vanity fits just
about perfectly into the space in the master bathroom. Gail was
thrilled.
The master bathroom vanity in place. A perfect fit!
Russell’s original plan for the weekend had been to continue building
stairs. With his physical limitations, he would not be able to cut and
measure stringers. However, he decided that he could still work on
bolting the landing posts to the concrete floor.
Russell, bolting the posts to the concrete floor. He
tried keeping his left knee extended to minimize further injury. It
didn't work.
Frustrated at not being able to get more work done, Russell also
spent a few hours limping around the property spraying poison oak. He
came to regret this. By Saturday evening his left knee had swollen to
half again its normal size. Russell spent the rest of the weekend lying
on the sofa.
The rest of the work crew was much more productive. Steve, as usual,
spent the entire weekend outdoors tending the grounds. He continued
clearing the overgrowth on the main road, taking four trailer loads to
the dump.
Steve brought up another ladder to reach the overgrowth on the main road
Dirk and Gail finished wiring the upstairs parapet. Even better,
they did the whole thing with wire left over from previous work. We had
perfect working weather, including a dry lightning storm (in the far
distance) and even a few minutes of rain.
By Sunday morning, Gail and Russell decided that they were in no
physical condition to do any further work, so we departed early. Dirk
and Steve stayed on to continue work – Dirk in particular wanted to
finish wiring Joss’ bedroom closet.
Our next inspection is due in mid-October, and we really want to have a lot to show for it.
The two stair landings, completely finished
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/24/2010
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
August 30, 2009
Russell constructs the second landing for the stairs
Following our week-long “August marathon” of mountain-home
construction, our schedule was due to get very busy for the next two
months. Nevertheless, Russell was feeling very restless about his
progress (or lack of progress) on the stairs. After months of planning
and work, only one landing had been built. So Russell decided to take a
weekend and drive up by himself on Friday, August 28.
Another reason for the trip was that the weather continued to be
gorgeous – not too hot and not too cold. Unfortunately, Russell spent
the next two days working mostly indoors.
The task at hand was to build the second of two landings for the
staircase. While the first landing had been relatively easy at 37.5
inches high, the second would be 75 inches high. Russell estimated the
task at half a day’s work.
The lower landing (on the right) is 37.5 inches high. An upper landing (on the left) needs to be built 75 inches high.
Unfortunately, the task ended up taking all day. This is because in
the middle of construction, Russell decided to take a shortcut and
deviate from his plans. (Yes, the same plans that he has spent months
drawing.) Unlike the lower landing, which is tucked into the corner of
the alcove, the upper landing is set in from the alcove by six inches.
This is to accommodate the upper flight of stairs, which must be moved
six inches over so it doesn’t hit a glulam beam on the second floor.
The six-inch gap will ultimately be covered with a faux wall.
The upper flight of stairs needs to be six inches in from the alcove, so that it won't hit a glulam beam on the second floor
The stairs and landings were meticulously spec’ed and drawn out after months of work
As he was constructing, it occurred to Russell: why not simply make
the upper landing six inches wider? Then it could tuck all the way into
the alcove. By attaching to the alcove wall, it would be more secure.
The extra six inches would ultimately be hidden by the faux wall
anyway.
It wasn’t until Russell had the upper landing cut, built and installed that he discovered why it shouldn’t wasn’t
Russell's first upper landing. He built it six inches
wider than required, so it could attach to the left wall of the alcove.
This turned out to be wrong.
Russell stood and looked at the monster that he had created. He had
no choice but to dismantle it and start over. It was currently Saturday
afternoon. The reconstruction ended up taking the rest of the day.
Ultimately, Russell went back to the original specification of his
plans. The landing was re-cut six inches shorter and re-installed. The
gap was filled by a couple of sticks that secured it to the alcove wall
anyway. The upper landing was finished.
The upper landing, corrected. Note that it is now six inches narrower, attached to the left wall by a couple of sticks.
Russell learned a lesson from all of this. When he spends months
painstaking planning out every last detail, it’s probably better not to
suddenly try changing things at the last minute.
Both landings are now installed (along with a vapor barrier). All we need now are some stairs!
[Worldtrippers
home] [Mountaintop
home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
August 9, 2009
Our nephew Blake checks that the first stairwell landing is being constructed squarely
For the last weekend of our August week marathon, we were joined not only by our eldest son Cameron but Russell’s sister Joanne and her family. In order to have two full nights at our mountain home, they left late on Friday, August 7th and arrived at 10:00 PM.
On Saturday morning, all four of them were willing and able to pitch in and help. The two children helped Gail and Cameron cut and install some more drywall, particularly the mold-resistant “green board” behind the shower in the upstairs bathroom.
Gail, Alison and Blake look on as Cameron cuts drywall
Joanne picked up where she had left off during her last visit, removing the packing adhesive from all of the shutter boxes that have now been installed.
Joanne carefully and laboriously peels a layer of plastic film from every shutter box
As he has done in the past, Joanne’s husband Matt volunteered for the most physically demanding tasks. With the ceilings now lowered in both of the upstairs bathrooms, we need the exhaust fans installed. Before this could happen, though, we need exhaust pipes fed to the exterior of the house. And before this could happen, we need holes drilled in the outside walls.
Matt took on these tasks, using a four-inch hole saw that our friend Dirk had loaned us. Matt drilled the “easy” hole first in the master bathroom, and it’s a good thing he did. Although he had a balcony to stand on when drilling the hole, he discovered that it was too small. Although the flexible pipe is 4” inches in diameter, the vent itself is 4-1/2”. Lacking a 4-1/2” hole saw, Matt had to use a Sawz-All to widen the hole.
The “easy” wall. At least Matt had a balcony to stand on, although he ended up having to widen the vent hole he drilled.
Gail models the amount of wood and insulation that needed to be drilled through
And that was the easy hole. The difficult hole needed to go through Joss’ closet to vent to the outside. Unfortunately, there is no balcony outside of Joss’ closet. The working configuration ended up including Matt standing on a fully-extended 20-foot ladder, with Gail and Joanne holding a rope between balconies to provide him with a safety line. Russell provided extra ballast at the bottom of the ladder when he wasn’t taking pictures.
The “difficult” wall. While Matt perched atop a 20-foot ladder to drill a vent hole outside of Joss’ bedroom, Gail and Joanne held a rope across the balconies to provide extra safety.
The view from the inside. The exhaust pipe for the hall bathroom had to pass through Joss’ closet to reach the outside
The task was much more difficult and precarious than the pictures indicate. Fortunately, Matt seems to have no fear of heights or edges (unlike the rest of us), as he has previously demonstrated during the original house raising and roof installation. Learning from his first effort, he sawed a 5” hole and covered the slack with caulking. He even caulked part of the exterior wall where the lamination is starting to come loose (more questionable work from Topsider, our kit house manufacturer).
The exhaust fans successfully installed in the upstairs hall and master bathrooms
As he has been doing all week, Russell spent most of his time in front of the PC, still trying to finalize the stair plans. Every time he thought he was ready to begin building, he would find one more error or change that needed to be addressed. He ended up with 22 pages of plans, covering every flight and landing.
Russell spent most of the week staring at a PC screen
It was not until Saturday, the last full work day, that Russell was finally able to begin building the first landing. He worked on it all the way until Sunday morning when we finally had to pack up and leave to go home. Fortunately, the landing is as solid as a rock.
Gail's brother-in-law Steve, who passed away earlier this year, was an accomplished wordworker who used to come up and help build. In memory, Russell is using Steve's tools to build the stairs. Steve will continue to be a part of our mountain home construction.
The first stairwell landing (finally): 37.5” high and built like a rock
There was also time for relaxing and socializing. Russell played several boardgames with the kids and Matt. Cameron took his cousins on a hike and for target practice with the pellet guns.
Cameron takes his cousins target shooting with air soft pellet guns
On the wildlife front, the kids met up with our wandering flock of wild turkeys, who actually came through the property twice. Joanne also spotted a young buck deer who wandered through the same knoll.
The wild turkeys wander past our car. They're getting big!
After more than a week, we are very sorry to leave the mountain, the mountain house, the forest and the clear weather. It feels like we are just on a roll of high productivity. Unfortunately, our upcoming weekend calendar is getting busy with church camp, family events and the start of school. With any luck, we’ll still be able to make a few trips in September before the weather turns.
Russell and Gail enjoyed one last sunset the evening before we departed
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
August 7, 2009
Cameron, working from the bathtub, installs a toilet bowl in the upstairs hall bathroom
On Monday, August 3rd, our friends Dirk and Steve said “goodbye” and departed our mountain home construction site. Gail and Russell would have a few days and nights to themselves before we had additional visitors.
Though the weather continued to be gorgeous, we still had the Knight fire, which had been burning all weekend several miles away to the southeast. This left a continuous ring of black all the way around the horizon.
The ash from the Knight fire left a ring of soot around the horizon
On the wildlife front, we discovered a nest of baby finches in the tree right outside our living room balcony. We were also treated to our usual sightings of dragonflies, bats and raptors in the sky. (Russell has bought a 1.5 acre bug zapper hanging light, so we can spend evenings outdoors without being bitten by bugs.)
We discovered a nest of finches in a tree right next to the house
We took the time to slow down work tasks and enjoy ourselves a little. Knowing that she had to rest this trip, Gail had brought up her oil painting supplies and spent some time painting. Russell was practically glued to the PC for several days, trying to complete his stairwell plans so he could start building.
Gail was able to paint for the first time in years
We did go ahead and lay down some sheets of OSB in the kitchen (Cameron’s bedroom) and living room, where furniture legs were constantly falling into the wiring chases. This gave us a chance to rearrange the living room furniture to make the sofa bed more usable. We also repaired the futon that Russell had scavenged from a Stanford University move-out day years ago. The metal frame had finally buckled from constant use by the big guys, Steve and Dirk. We installed a wooden frame instead.
We haven't even finished the house yet, and we're already rearranging the furniture!
We were also visited by both our building inspector Dennis and our plumber Curtis. Dennis looked over Russell’s stair plans and made some suggestions, but approved them overall. Curtis came at Gail’s request to answer some questions about the installation that he had done almost two years ago. (Curtis has actually been spending most of his time in the Bay Area lately. Due to the economic recession, he hasn’t done any residential work in Calaveras County for the last year and a half.)
Gail and Curtis Jaspers talk plumbing
On Wednesday, August 5th, Russell left Gail alone on the mountain and drove back to the Bay Area for a work meeting on Thursday morning. When he returned on Thursday evening, he brought our oldest son Cameron for the second weekend. (Our youngest son Joss is still away on church caravan.)
On Friday, Russell and Cameron took on the task of installing a second toilet in the upstairs hall bathroom. For the last two years, we have been relying on the single toilet downstairs, which (as Gail has constantly stated) is very inconvenient in the middle of the night. While he was here last weekend, Dirk hooked up a spigot to the water intake pipe. The site was ready for installation.
The upstairs hall bathroom, all ready for a toilet
Russell was very excited about teaching Cameron the finer art of toilet installation. In fact, he was so excited that he left out an important step. While demonstrating the use of ABS cement on the toilet flange, Russell accidentally glued it to the waste pipe without trimming the pipe first. As a result, the flange stuck out of the floor by several inches as opposed to being flush.
Russell spent the next half hour hacksawing the flange back off. Cameron was most likely not impressed.
The toilet flange, correctly installed (after a half hour with a hacksaw)
Fortunately, the next steps went very well. Cameron screwed the ring to the floor and installed the bowl.
Almost there. Unfortunately, we hit a snag after the bowl was installed.
Unfortunately, when we tried installing the tank, we discovered that one of the carriage bolts was badly threaded. We tried forcing the nut with several screwdrivers and several larger pieces of metal. All Russell succeeded in doing was slicing his hand open on a piece of metal.
Fortunately, Russell’s sister Joanne was driving up that night with her family. She was able to stop at a hardware store and pick up a replacement bolt. At 11:00 pm Friday night, the second toilet was finally installed.
The upstairs toilet, finished at last!
We will have a full house again for the remainder of our week. The weather continues to be terrific, and we are looking forward to the company.
Sunset reflected in the house windows… just gorgeous!
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
August 4, 2009
In our Web letters about our mountain home construction, we have tended to gloss over much of the electrical wiring that our friend Dirk has been doing. This tends to short-change his hard work, but frankly we don't understand half of what he's doing.
In an attempt to give credit where it is due, we finally asked Dirk to write his own Web letter. After reading it, we still don't understand half of what he's doing. But here it is anyway…
“That sounds like it would be fun.” And with those words, I start on the biggest home electrical project I have ever taken on.
The goal is simple: design and install a wiring system for the Lee’s home that is functional (provides light and electricity where needed) and meets code (the rules specified at national, state and sometimes county/city levels). “Code” means the wiring system has to pass one of several inspections. Fortunately for me, the local inspector will answer any question I have ahead of time.
The challenge in joining the “build a house in Glencoe” project comes from a few factors:
the wiring system is partially installed,
there is only one sheet in the house plans for the electrical system showing where switches and outlets should go, and
requirements from the home owners keep evolving.
The electrical supply comes into a residence over 3 wires – to “hot” legs represented as the black and red wires, and a “neutral” white wire as seen in the main electrical panel. This arrangement allows for two voltages to be available in the house: 120 volts for most lights, appliances and electronic devices; and 220 volts for heavy-duty usage such as the clothes dryer and floor heating. If you connect something between either hot wire and the neutral wire, you get 120 volts. For 220 volts, you connect the load (something that uses electrical power) between both hot wires.
There is also a fourth wire that you find extending throughout the house. This is the safety “ground” wire, which is either bare or insulated with a green coating. Under normal operation, the electricity flows through the hot and neutral wires, never the ground wire. The ground system is connected to a long, copper rod driven into the ground (hence the name for this wire) and is establishes the “zero” volt level in the system. As part of the electrical safety system in the home, the metal water pipes and gas pipes are also connected to the ground system.
A peek into the electrical panel shows the different wires coming into the house. The black and red wires are “hot” legs. The white wires are “neutral” legs. The green wires are “grounds”.
The National Electrical Code (NEC) specifies the amount of electricity (measured in amps) that a specific size of wire can carry. Wire sizes (or diameters) in the U.S. are measured in gauges. For the main electrical system, you work mostly with 14-gauge wire, which is limited to 15 amps; and 20-gauge wire, which can handle 20 amps. For a few bigger loads (such as the dryer and water heater), 10-gauge wire is used and can supply up to 30 amps.
The wires in a home are run in cables that contain a ground wire, a white (neutral) wire and a black (hot) wire inside a protective insulating jacket. If this cable is made with 14-gauge wires, then it’s referred to as 14/2 (the ground wire isn’t counted) and the cable has a flat profile. If you add a red (second hot) wire to the cable, it becomes 14/3 and the cable takes on a round profile.
In recent years, to help everyone keep track of the wire size in cables, in California exterior jackets of 14-gauge cables are colored white , 12-gauge cables are colored yellow , and 10-gauge cables are colored orange .
In California, cables are color-coded by gauge
The wire to be used dictates the capacity of each circuit breaker you need to install in the electrical main panel to protect the system. Most hot wires are black and are connected to a breaker; in some case you will also see a red wire, usually in a 220-volt circuit. Neutral white wires all connect to a bar together, followed by all the ground wires that connect together on their own bus.
Dirk's configuration of the electrical main panel is a work of art. Each circuit breaker is labeled and color-coded.
Electrical panels are arranged so that the two hot legs alternate in the locations where breakers can be installed. This means that for any 220-volt circuit, you need two breakers installed side-by-side with the handles tied together. You can use a 14/3 cable for a “home run” from the panel to the first switch or outlet in a circuit, and split a second circuit off the red wire, sharing the white wire. However, to keep from running too much current over the white wire, these two circuits must be on opposite legs.
Beyond needing to put circuit breakers on the right legs, modern circuit breakers come in single and dual configurations. The latter are called tandem breakers . Tandem breakers can both have the same amperage, or they can have different amperages. If you are putting in 220-volt circuits, you still need to have the breakers side by side. In one case, we needed two 20-amp circuits for the kitchen and a breaker for the dryer. So a quad breaker was used, with the breakers arranged as 20, 30, 30, 20 amps and the second and third breaker handles tied together.
A close-up of the electrical panel, showing several of the breaker handles tied together
The panel in the Lee home has “spaces” for 20 single breakers or 40 tandem breakers. The house needs 32 circuits to keep everything running. It takes some planning to organize the circuit breakers in a panel. (If you start a home in 2009, there are new code requirements for the circuits in bedrooms that mandate arc fault circuit breakers, which don’t come as tandem breakers.)
So how does one decide what makes up any single circuit? There are no hard and fast rules for the overall house. However, the NEC has a whole bunch of requirements for the kitchen . The counter top outlets must be split evenly between two 20-amp circuits. Then the refrigerator, microwave oven, dishwasher and garbage disposal must all be on their own circuits.
Each bathroom needs its own 20-amp circuit as an outlet for hair dryers, curling irons, shavers and so on. A space heater in a bathroom to keep you warm after your bath also needs its own circuit.
After that you ground outlets and lights together, trying to keep the use of each circuit below 80 percent of its maximum at any one point in time. That’s 1440 watts for a 15-amp circuit. (The breaker trips if you use more than 1800 watts on a 120-volt circuit.)
As you run cable through the house, you don’t start every outlet and light circuit at the main panel. It would cost too much for wire, and you’d never get all the wires into the panel. So cable is run to the first outlet, then the second, then the third, and so on. Sometimes it makes sense to branch out to two outlets (or switches) from one outlet.
Dirk pulls wires to create a “home run” circuit from the load to the electrical panel
The NEC has rules for how many wires you can put in an electrical box. The math is funny, as all the ground wires don’t count after the first. The gauge of the wire has an impact; you can’t put as many 12-gauge wires as 14-gauge wires in a standard single outlet box (called a 1-gang box ). And the presence of a switch or outlet impacts the calculation. It’s all based on the interior volume of a box. Fortunately, 1-gang boxes come in several depths, and once you get to 2-gang boxes (and there some 3- and 4-gang boxes in the house), the wire limit problem goes away.
Here is a 1-gang box on the right and a 3-gang box on the left
This specific project has also had a few non-code challenges.
Without a diagram, I have had to reverse-engineer the installed wiring.
There will be free-standing air conditioners/heaters in each of the three bedrooms and family room that use 12 amps when used as heaters (they need to be on 20-amp circuits).
There is a 220-volt electric radiant floor heating system that will be installed on the first floor, and two upstairs bathrooms that needed to be planned for in the main panel.
Would you believe the location of the top of the stairs is an electrical issue? Yes, it is – it changes where light switches have to go.
Gail and Dirk spent a lot of time reverse-engineering the previous wiring – trying to figure out why certain cables went “hither” instead of “yon”
By the time this is all done, the Lee’s home will have lights and outlets where they need them, a sign-off inspection report, and a friend who has an expanded electrical knowledge base.
Dirk in his element – in this case, the tiny crawlspace closet between the master bathroom and the laundry room
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
August 4, 2009
In this panorama, Gail (who is afraid of heights) installs an electrical “pancake box” in the vaulted ceiling (for a fan), while Dirk stands by
We have now been wiring our mountain house for almost two years. (It’s been almost three years, if you count from the time that we first brought power to the house.) Back in October 2007, Gail’s brother-in-law (and professional electrician) Jim estimated that we would need a couple of weeks to completely wire the house. After more than a year of intermittent work, Jim’s health and other obligations finally prevented him from continuing to help. We were stuck with a half-wired house. Fortunately, our friend (and unprofessional electrician) Dirk has stepped in to complete the job.
Dirk joined us during the first weekend of our August marathon week to continue the electrical wiring. He has brought a meticulousness and attention to detail that does Russell proud.
Dirk installs an outlet box on one of the exterior corners
The wiring work has consisted of pulling wires from the electrical panel (outside of the downstairs pantry) to pretty much every electrical outlet, switch and electrical fixture in the house. Romex wire comes in various types:
14/2 (flat white) wire is used for regular 15-amp, 120-volt circuits
14/3 (round white) wire is used for three-way switches
12/2 (flat yellow) wire is used for 20-amp, 120-volt circuits
12/3 (round yellow) wire is used, again, for three-way switches
10/2 (orange) wire is used for 220-vol circuits
(The first number refers to the wire gauge or thickness. The second number refers to the number of wires in the casing.)
A stack of Romex wire
Part of the art of wiring is determining which devices (and how many) should be daisy-chained together onto the same circuit. Should each room be on its own circuit? If so, the downside is that if the circuit goes out, the entire room is without power. Should half of a room share a circuit with half of another room? If so, consideration must be paid to how much total electricity is likely to be pulled at any given time.
Ultimately, each circuit must end at the electrical panel, a connection called a “home run.” Jim and Gail spent countless hours drilling large holes through joists and studs in order to “pull wires” from the panel to the rooms.
Drilling 3/4” holes through studs is not fun! (One of the contributing factors to Gail's current tendonitis)
Unfortunately, the work they did was not completely documented. When Dirk stepped in, he was faced with a number of wires that left the panel and went nowhere. He was faced with a different set of wires that connected fixtures but didn’t go to the panel.
Not all of the current circuits made sense. Because our temporary kitchen is set up in Cameron’s bedroom, we were constantly tripping the circuit breaker for the refrigerator and microwave. We gave up trying to run them at the same time, and actually put the microwave downstairs so it would be on a different circuit. Separately, we were constantly tripping other circuit breakers from running the portable air conditioner/heater units throughout the house.
As a result, Dirk and Gail spent countless hours tracing every single wire in the house, marking what it did and where it went. They spent countless other hours unpulling wires, drilling new holes, and re-pulling wires. Again, Dirk has brought a meticulousness and attention to detail that does Russell proud.
The original switch box by the front door: a mess of unmarked wires.
Dirk has done a number of wonderful things that have made Gail do happy dances. He has created a full electrical plan for the house. He has installed at least one 20-amp power outlet in each bedroom. We can now run the AC/heaters, refrigerator and microwave (as well as other devices) without constantly running downstairs to re-set the circuit breakers.
The original pantry wall (the hole at the bottom connects to the electrical panel outside the house). Our original electrician, Walt Perreira, hooked up a single outlet box to give us power.
A panorama of the pantry wall and ceiling, showing all of the “home runs”
Dirk has now confirmed every “home run” throughout the house. He still has a list of no less than 87 “to do” items, everything from wiring the radiant heat pads to wiring the outside lights. (Russell has a crazy idea of installing three different types of lights: white for the porch lights, yellow for bug lights, and red for animal viewing.)
One of the tasks still remaining is to “screw cap” and “pigtail” all of the circuit boxes.
Dirk has been patient and easy-going, a complement to our other friend Steve (and a good counterpoint to Russell’s intense and impatient work style). The only downside is that when the three men get together and talk about engineering, Gail starts to roll up into a little ball.
But that’s a small price to pay for the amazing productivity and generosity of our volunteer work crew.
Dirk and Steve with Gail – the finest work crew that Mike's Hard Lemonade can buy
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
August 3, 2009
Gail and Russell use crowbars to pry apart Cameron’s bedroom wall
The beginning of August is usually a very productive time for us in building our mountain home. The days are long and the weather is sunny. In addition, our youngest son Joss is gone for an entire week with his church caravan. This gives us an opportunity to go up to our mountain for a longer period of time. This year, we planned and provisioned for nine days, from Saturday August 1st through Sunday August 9th.
By the time Gail and Russell arrived Saturday early afternoon, our friend Dirk was already there and working on the electrical wiring. Our other friend Steve showed up soon after, ready to clear and haul away more brush.
Gail received some bad news earlier in the week: she has developed tendonitis in both elbows, her right shoulder and her left thumb. This was undoubtedly aggravated by too much heavy lifting of drywall and floorboards lately. Gail has vowed to refrain from doing any heavy lifting for the next month. While she brought books and painting supplies to occupy her time, she was clearly frustrated by the situation. Fortunately, she was able to provide pitch-in help to all of the other workers.
Russell’s priority for the first few days was to rebuild Cameron’s bedroom wall. As we have previously recounted, the wall was framed and built 16 inches over the stair alcove. We didn’t realize the consequences until we started to design the stairs: we missed the minimum requirement for headroom by several inches. As an alternative to moving the entire wall, we decided to move the wall joists from underneath the floor to on top of it.
Cameron’s original wall, which protrudes 16 inches over the stairway alcove. The wall is constructed normally, with supporting 6” joists underneath the OSB subfloor.
Russell estimated that it would take two hours to remove the old joists and two hours to install the new ones. He had underestimated by several hours.
First, we had to cut and install the new joist. (For obvious support reasons, we decided to install the new joist before removing the old one.) We originally planned to use 2x6s doubled, but discovered that we didn’t have any suitable lumber on hand. Fortunately we had some 2x8s, so we used those instead.
Gail uses wood glue on the 2x8s to create a double-joist.
Once the new joists were in place, we trimmed and plumbed the old studs and reattached them.
The sill plate has been removed, as well as several inches from each stud
Finally, we removed the old joists from below the floor. This ended up being the most difficult task, as Russell had installed the old joists to be as permanent as possible. The task was finally finished Monday mid-day. Fortunately, the result looked as if the wall had always been designed that way.
The new 2x8 joists have been installed. Note that there are currently two sets of joists: one above the OSB subfloor, and one underneath it. (Note also the temporary braces we installed, to prevent the new joist from falling over the edge!)
The critical path to completing the house is still the stairs. While Russell has yet to install a single piece of the future stairwell, rebuilding Cameron’s wall is a major milestone towards that goal.
The final wall, with the original joists removed from below the OSB subfloor. It looks like it was designed that way!
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
July 26, 2009
Russell saws through one of the bathroom ceiling joists, as Gail (reluctantly) holds the board steady
We have entered that period of summer that we normally call “the marathon,” when we try to be extra productive by traveling to our mountain house construction every weekend during the warm weather. As usual, we left our sons at home for the weekend of July 24-26th. And as usual, we were joined on Saturday by our friends Dirk and Steve.
As each worker arrived and settled in, everybody assumed their usual positions. Inside the house, Dirk and Gail worked on electrical wiring. Russell worked on construction. Outside the house, Steve worked on the overgrown scrub.
Russell’s agenda had been decided last weekend, when we discovered that the bathroom exhaust fans would not fit in the current four-inch ceiling joists. Russell would need to re-route the joists to run lengthwise instead of crosswise, so the exhaust hose could run to the exterior of the house. In addition, Russell would need to add a second layer of joists to make the ceiling thick enough to accommodate the fans.
To help Russell figure out how to re-joist the ceiling, Gail and Dirk drew this handy illustration of the exhaust fan on the bathroom wall
It took almost all of Saturday just to complete the hall bathroom. The master bathroom is even more complicated, with its zigzagged combination of 22.5º, 45º and 90º angles. Russell got less than halfway through the second bathroom; the rest will have to wait for next weekend.
The joists being re-engineered
First, the cross-joists had to be cut where the fans and exhaust hoses would be installed
Then, new joists were installed lengthwise, creating a chase that would keep the ceiling structurally sound
Finally, a second set of joists was installed directly below the first set. This expanded the ceiling space from 3.5” to 7”, enough space to install the fans (someday). Russell only finished the hall bathroom; the master bathroom will have to wait for a future trip.
Outside, Steve worked on clearing the main approach road of overhanging branches. Gail helped on the main road as well, raking several hundred feet of rocks from the dirt road. In addition, Steve made two runs to the dump on Saturday and three on Sunday. (Unfortunately, we heard later that Steve’s truck overheated during his drive home.)
Gail had a weekend of very bad luck. While raking rocks, she developed a large blister on her hand. While installing a spigot on the water supply line in the upstairs bathroom, she stood up under a cabinet and developed a large welt on her head. Finally, while standing outside chatting, she was stung on the arm by a yellow jacket.
On the wildlife front, we were visited once again by our flock of wild turkeys, which came by early Saturday morning at 6:30 AM. Gail was so excited that she set the alarm clock for 6:00 AM on Sunday morning. Rising bright and early, she made herself a cup of coffee and snuggled under blankets next to the panoramic windows downstairs. Unfortunately, the turkeys never made a return appearance. The only other life Gail saw that early in the morning was Dirk. (There is a straight line there, but we’ll just leave it at that.)
The flock of wild turkeys on Saturday morning. Sadly, they did not make a return appearance on Sunday.
Once again, Dirk and Steve outlasted Gail and Russell, who had to depart at Sunday noon for obligations back home. But no worries – we’ll be back up here again next weekend.
In a gesture of compassion, Dirk and Steve volunteered to wash dishes before Gail injured herself further. We don't quite understand the pose.
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
July 20, 2009
Russell marks the possible stairwell footprint with masking tape
We have previously recounted all of the time and trouble Russell has endured trying to design the interior stairs for our mountain home. After several iterations, he finally arrived at a plan that was approved by our building inspector.
We have also recounted how Russell spent the last weekend up at the mountain installing the remaining shutters. This was not the original plan.
Russell’s original plan was to begin mapping out the stairs. He actually started doing this on Saturday morning. He got as far as marking the location of the first landing when he ran into yet another glitch.
To recap, the main issue is back during framing, Russell had moved Cameron’s bedroom wall so that it hangs over the stairway alcove by 16 inches. Unfortunately, this created a limitation in headroom that Russell did not discover until he started to design the stairs. The solution was to make sure that the landing under this section is no higher than a 40 inch elevation. This would ensure a clearance of 80 inches below the second floor, which has an elevation of 120 inches.
To be sure, Russell’s plan has the landing at 37.5 inches. This should have created a headroom clearance of 82.5 inches, passing the building code requirements with several inches to spare. In reality, it did not.
The current stair plan includes a landing (upper right) that is elevated 37.5” off the ground
On paper, Russell had failed to account for the fact that the second floor is supported by 2x6” joists. In other words, the second floor does not have a true elevation of 120 inches. It has an actual elevation of 120 inches minus the 6-inch joist, or 114 inches. As a result, the headroom clearance over the second landing is actually only 76.5 inches, below the 80-inch minimum.
The landing (blue) has headroom of 82.5” from the second floor (yellow), but only 76.5” from the joist underneath (red)
Russell and Gail spent quite awhile brainstorming what to do about this latest glitch. The simplest solution would be to revert back from 7.5” risers to 8” risers. While we would be allowed to do this because we are grandfathered into the old code, both of us hated this idea. Our current construction stairs have an 8” rise and they are exhausting to go up and down all day.
The other solution would be to physically move Cameron’s wall 16 inches back. Both of us hated this idea even more. In fact, Gail said that she would rather live with 8” risers than spend up to a week moving Cameron’s wall.
A panorama of Cameron’s wall. Unfortunately, it is the single largest wall in the entire house. Russell estimates that moving it would require several days’ work.
Unable to come up with any better ideas, we decided to punt. Russell spent the rest of the weekend installing shutters; it was not until Sunday afternoon that Dirk had time to join us for a second brainstorm. This one was more productive.
The trick would be to reduce the amount of space that the joist takes up under the second-story sub-floor. The current culprit is a 2x6” double-joist. Russell suggested replacing the 2x6”s with 2x4”s. This would only gain us 2 inches, and we needed 3.5 inches.
Cameron's wall where it overlaps the alcove. The wall is supported by a 2x6” double-joist.
Russell’s idea: replace the 2x6” double-joist with a 2x4” double-joist. Unfortunately, this would only gain us 2 inches.
Gail suggested laying a single 2x4” joist horizontally instead of vertically. While this would gain us 4 inches, Russell did not believe the resulting wall would be structurally sound. A 2x4’s bow (horizontal sag) is much weaker than its crown (vertical sag).
Gail’s idea: replace the 2x6” double-joist with a 2x4” single-joist laid horizontally. Unfortunately, this would make the wall structurally unsound due to potential bowing.
It was Dirk, listening to this banter, who had the magical “aha” moment that led to a breakthrough. “Why not move the 2x6” double-joist from below the subfloor to above the subfloor?” The idea was brilliant. We could still secure it structurally at both ends. On the outside, it would be attached to the exterior wall. On the inside, it would be attached to a new subfloor joist that had yet to be built.
Dirk’s idea: Move the 2x6” double-joist from underneath the sill-plate to on top of it . We have a winner!
Everything depended on whether this new scenario would be approved by the building inspector.
On Monday, after we returned to the Bay Area, Russell sent an email to Dennis describing the situation and asking for approval. By that evening Dennis had written back. “I have no problem with that.”
It was “happy dance” time once more. There are still several details to be worked out, including how to remove the current double-joist, how to make room for a new double-joist, and exactly how to attach the new double-joist to the exterior wall.
The main point is that we still have an approved plan with 7.5” risers. That is, until the next glitch rears its ugly head…
Russell's emails to our building inspector tend to include elaborate illustrations. Yes, we believe he is detail-oriented enough to build the stairs!
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
July 19, 2009
Gail looks on as Dirk wires an outlet downstairs
Russell’s original plan was to go back up to our mountain home construction site last weekend, July 10th. However, as a result of our previous trip (when he was clearing one of the trails), Russell contracted a fairly extensive case of poison oak. It was so bad that he also infected Gail just from coming in contact with her. Given his rash, his need to avoid sunlight and his lack of overall mobility (itchy legs), Russell took a weekend off.
Both Russell and Gail did come back up on Friday afternoon, July 17th, leaving the boys at home. They were joined on Saturday morning by both Steve and Dirk. There are a million tasks that need to be done, and everyone promptly set about to their individual to-do lists.
The temperature outside was 101º F in the shade and even hotter in the sun. By the time we got up in the mornings the temperature was already 80º F inside the house; by running all three air conditioners continuously we were able to keep it at that level all day.
Nevertheless, Steve spent the entire two days outside in the hot sun doing hard physical labor. He cleared brush until his axe broke, then picked up a hatchet and cleared some more. He made an astonishing seven runs to the dump and back with his truck and trailer. He even hauled away the old scrap insulation that Gail had torn from the ceilings more than four years ago, as well as some scrap metal that was onsite when we originally bought the property.
Steve prepares one of the last two shutter curtains (the front door) for hanging
Dirk continued to work on the electrical wiring, largely trying to figure out what his predecessor (Gail’s step-brother Jim) had done previously. Among other things, Dirk was able to install light switches (and lights) in both the downstairs and upstairs bathrooms. His next big project is to map out a detailed wiring schematic for the entire house.
Dirk lays out his electrical wiring schematic
Gail continued installing drywall. With the interior walls as far along as they can be (until we pass the wiring inspection), Gail turned her attention to the inside of the exterior walls. Because of our previous bad experiences with water leakage from sideways rain, Gail decided to line every exterior wall with a vapor barrier before putting up drywall. She also decided to put wire mesh across all gaps between wood panels as an extra deterrent against rodents.
Gail takes a break after drywalling her first exterior wall (the upstairs sitting room)
Russell was finally able to finish installing the last two shutters, calling in help at various times from the other three workers. We now have shutters around the entire downstairs perimeter.
The front door shutter… finished!
The bathroom window shutter… finished!
We also had time to enjoy ourselves. Gail made a delicious dinner of tri-tip steak (with locally-made “Chaka’s” marinade sauce) on Saturday. In honor of the upcoming 40th anniversary of the moon landing, we watched several episodes of “From the Earth to the Moon.” (Gail was unnerved to be surrounded by so many analytical, engineering-wired men.)
On the wildlife front, we had an entire flock (rafter? congress?) of wild turkeys come meandering through the property twice in two days.
Only weeks ago, our entire kitchen was a tiny workspace. Now, we wonder how we ever functioned without all of the space!
Unfortunately, the weekend ended on a down-note, at least for Russell. Gail and Dirk informed him that building codes require externally-vented exhaust fans in both the hallway and master bathroom ceilings. Unfortunately, Russell constructed the ceilings with 2x4” joists – not enough space for the fans or hoses – and he doesn’t want anything protruding into the parapet above. The only alternative will be for him to drop both ceilings by installing an additional set of 2x4” joists below the first set.
So we actually have a million and one tasks, but this one will have to wait for future trip.
The upstairs bathroom now has a real light switch (and a real light)!
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (2)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
July 5, 2009
Gail installs drywall on the parapet – the hottest part of the house during the hottest part of the day
On July 2nd, our family of four – Gail, Russell, Cameron and Joss – took our (now) traditional drive up to our mountain house for the long July 4th holiday weekend. Unfortunately, it was 6:30 PM before we got out of the Bay Area; with the holiday traffic we didn’t arrive until almost 10:30 PM.
With two full work days, Gail went into overdrive with her drywalling. She spent the entire weekend either up in the parapet installing drywall, downstairs cutting drywall, or carrying drywall up two flights of stairs to the parapet.
A panorama of Cameron and Joss helping Gail install a particularly large piece of drywall.Gail closes up the parapet (the hole is for the octagonal window)
The good news is that by Sunday morning, just about the entire parapet had drywall on the inside walls. (She can’t install the outside until we’ve passed the electrical-wiring inspection.) The new barriers block out both light and noise, adding welcome privacy to both the master bedroom and Joss’ bedroom (where both boys currently sleep).
A panorama of the parapet completely drywalled (the octagonal window frame is to the right of the center pole)
Russell set himself a much less ambitious agenda, tackling a list of odd jobs that have been building up for awhile. With Cameron’s help, Russell built and installed a shelf in Cameron’s bedroom closet (just as Joss did in his own bedroom awhile ago). Cameron’s room is currently being used as our kitchen, but the extra shelf helps.
Ever since we moved the kitchen into Cameron’s room two years ago, Gail has had to deal with a challenging lack of counter space. This is because we have a four-foot-long wooden food box sitting directly on top of our only six-foot table.
For two years, we have had to cook with almost no counter space
So the three men built a wooden stand just for the food box. As part of the redecoration we had to rearrange the entire “kitchen,” including drywalling the closet (Gail, of course) and installing the aforementioned closet shelf. But the result is that we now have the entire six-foot table for counter space, as well as several extra shelves.
Cameron's closet is part of the temporary kitchen
Joss and Cameron build a stand for the food box
With the food box on its own stand and the addition of two new shelves, we can finally use all six feet of the folding table
Russell’s best achievement for the weekend – and our most positive news – was the stairway alcove. Previously, Russell had measured the distance between the alcove wall and a glulam beam at 64”. According to his proposed stair design, the uppermost step would therefore nick the glulam beam by two inches. Although our building inspector approved this design, Russell wanted to double-check his measurements.
This required cleaning out the entire alcove, which we had been using to store all of our tools, equipment and planks of OSB. With the alcove finally cleared out, Russell was able to take more precise measurements. This time, the distance came out to 66”. Incredibly, we have “gained” the exact two inches that will give us full clearance for our stairs! It was Russell’s turn to do a happy dance. Of course, all he has to do now is actually engineer and build the stairs.
The stairway alcove, before and after cleaning
Cameron and Joss got involved in their own project. Using scraps of lumber and OSB, they built four movable “walls” to use in their airsoft pellet-gun fights. Mom and Dad were happy to see their teenage sons enthusiastically motivated by a project, and happy as well to see the scrap lumber being put to good use.
Joss and Cameron build a portable wall (“Lee 1414” is our project number from a Topsider shipping crate)
We enjoyed watching fireworks off in the distance from the mountaintop (best viewed with binoculars) and had two breakfasts out – one in Mokelumne Hill as part of their Independence Day celebration, and one at the nearby American Legion Hall. Gail even found time to grill hamburgers for our Independence Day dinner.
On the wildlife front, we saw four deer in four days – two of them right up near the house. Russell also got his best photos yet of a jackrabbit, as it hopped all the way from the access road to the trampoline to the tree swings to the shed.
Russell's best photos of a jackrabbit
We finished the long weekend by stopping for an early during our return drive on Sunday. Russell wanted to share a favorite dining experience from his recent birthday walk, at an atmospheric Pleasanton restaurant called “Eddie Papa's.” Gail and the boys kept the waitress in constant entertainment as they arm-wrestled at the table.
Russell pronounced the entire family weekend “a blast.” We accomplished a lot. At a moment when Gail was covered with white drywall dust and Russell was covered with sawdust, he remarked to her, “How many other families do you know who can do what we do?”
Happy Independence Day!
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
June 29, 2009
Russell studies Topsider's blueprints for our mountain house
Thanks to our friend Dirk, the wiring installation for our mountain home is now proceeding rapidly. As a result, the critical path for an occupancy permit is now the finished stairs. And while wiring was Gail’s domain, the stairs are Russell’s responsibility.
None of us knows anything about building or installing stairs. And while we could pay someone several thousands of dollars to do it for us, there is a certain challenge in building them ourselves. Furthermore, Gail did some reading and decided that Russell matches the exact profile of a good stair builder: analytical, meticulous and detail-oriented. Not to add any additional pressure, but Gail kept saying – more than once – “You know, the stairs are going to be a showcase of the finished house!”
For four years we’ve had temporary stairs, first assembled by by Russell's brother-in-law Matt in 2005 (the alcove is in the background)
There are stairs indicated in our blueprints from Topsider, but Gail doesn’t like them. They show a set of four flights (with three intermediate landings) that wind clockwise as you go up. Gail doesn’t like them because they have too large a footprint downstairs. She wants the lower floor to be as unobstructed as possible, especially given the huge walls of panoramic windows.
Topsider's blueprints call for stairs that wind clockwise as they ascend from the lower floor (left) to the upper floor (right)
We investigated spiral staircases, which have a very small footprint. Unfortunately, residential building codes state that if you have a spiral staircase, you must have a second staircase for fire safety. We actually investigated building a second staircase outside leading up to the deck. Ultimately, we rejected this for security reasons.
Instead, we decided to design a staircase that would fit into the alcove next to the front door, with as little protrusion into the downstairs as possible.
So during our long week up on the mountain in June, Russell took an initial look at the stair alcove. In fact, when he wasn’t derailing Gail and Dirk with door hanging, he was derailing them with long discussions about stairs.
The alcove is 114” wide by 36” deep by 120” high. Current residential codes require steps that are 36” wide (minimum), with a 7-3/4” rise (maximum) and 10” run (minimum). Fortunately, we are grandfathered into the old code, which has more lenient requirements of 8” rise (maximum) and 9” run (minimum).
Initially, Russell thought the stair design would be easy. Under the old code, we would require a total of 15 steps to reach the second floor. Simply compute how many steps will fit into the alcove, add a landing, make a 90º turn and add the remaining steps to the first floor. Simple, right?
It was not until we actually taped out this design on the floor that we ran into “Glitch No. 1 .”
Back when Russell framed the upstairs, he had to move several walls from the blueprint spec in order to work around the center pole of the house. One of these walls was Cameron’s bedroom, which originally lined up with the north wall of the alcove. As built, the wall now protrudes 16” over the alcove.
“Glitch No. 1 ”: On the north end of the alcove (right side of drawing), Cam's bedroom upstairs protrudes 16” (red) over the alcove opening (blue), limiting headroom
The problem is that the proposed stairwell landing would be 48” off the ground. This would leave headroom clearance of only 72". Residential code specifies minimum headroom of 80”. Oops.
Scenario “A”: the landing (on right) does not have enough headroom
Back to the drawing board. Russell’s scenario “B” involved adjusting the stairwell 16” over. This caused two problems. First, the lower landing would now protrude much farther into the lower floor, which Gail wanted to avoid. Second, the uppermost step encountered “Glitch No. 2 .”
On the other end of the alcove (the south end), the second floor has both a joist and a glu-lam beam. Because the upper flight will reach the second floor here, it is critical that the tread clears both the joist and glu-lam. Under scenario “B,” the last tread would cut into the joist. Oops.
“Glitch No. 2 ”: On the south end of the alcove (left side of drawing), the stairs can’t extend past the point where the joist (red) and glu-lam beam (brown) intersect (yellow circle)
Scenario “B”: The stairs have been shifted 16” over. Unfortunately, the upper flight cuts into the glu-lam beam and the lower flight’s footprint is too big.
Undaunted, Russell designed scenario “C,” which now had three flights and two landings – one on each end of the alcove. He actually drew this one at home, phoning the instructions to Gail and Dirk on the mountain. They measured everything out, even holding up some scrap pieces of wood to check site lines. Everything looked good.
Scenario “C”: A moment of success!
It wasn’t until Gail returned home that she began to have second thoughts. Wouldn’t it be better to have 7.5” rises instead of 8”, especially as we got older?
Russell explained that 7.5” rises would require 16 steps, not 15. Unfortunately, there was no way for scenario “C” to add that one extra step. It couldn’t go on the lower flight, because that would reduce the first-landing headroom below the minimum. It couldn’t go on the second flight, because the alcove was not wide enough. And it couldn’t go on the third flight, because the extra step would hit the glu-lam beam upstairs.
Gail resigned herself to 8” rises. Russell saw it as a challenge.
Over the next several days, Russell looked at additional landings, winders, and even curved steps. Each of these alternatives was rejected. (Russell has enough of a learning curve just building stairs; creating a curved stairway would probably make his brain explode.)
Russell created more than a dozen different stair scenarios, all of which had problems
In the end, Russell created two new scenarios with 7.5” rises, both of which were questionable. Scenario “D” added the 16th step to the upper flight, letting it cut into the glu-lam beam. Scenario “E” kept the same upper flight, but turned it at an angle to avoid the glu-lam beam.
Two scenarios with 7.5” rises, requiring an extra 16th step.
Russell emailed both drawings to Dennis, our building inspector, with the related questions:
Are we allowed to “nick” one of the steps to avoid hitting the glu-lam beam?
Are we allowed to construct a flight at an angle less than 90º?
Amazingly, Dennis’ answer to both questions was “yes.” He would approve either design.
For now, Russell hopes to proceed with scenario “D”. Secretly, he hopes that he measured something wrong and there is actually an extra inch or two between the alcove and the glu-lam beam.
He will find out on July 4th weekend, when he will return to the mountain with a tape measure.
Gail has already picked up two stair stringers from a salvage yard. We hope to re-use the treads and risers
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
June 21, 2009
A full house on the mountain: Cameron and Joss with their cousins; Gail and Russell with the grown-ups
The week of June 16-20th saw the most people staying up on our mountain since the original “house raising party” more than four years ago.
On Tuesday, Russell drove up by himself. On Wednesday, he was joined by Gail, Cameron and Joss, as well as by our friend Steve. On Thursday they were joined by Russell’s sister Joanne, her two children and their cousin, as well as by our friend Dirk. On Thursday evening we had 10 people staying at the house.
Somehow the sleeping arrangements worked out. Gail and Russell were in the master bedrooms. Cameron, Joss and their cousin Blake were in Joss’ room. (We brought up and installed another bed – an extra-long twin that Gail had picked up from Craigslist – that became Cameron’s new bed.) Joanne and the two younger girls were in sleeping bags downstairs. Dirk slept outside. Steve started out sleeping outside, but a “large animal noise” in the dark drove him into the house and onto the futon.
Joss and Cameron and the new sleeping arrangements (they're playing a PC game against each other)
With the temperature in the mid-90s, we had all three portable air conditioners running. (They have been working terrifically as both heaters and coolers.) We had a very productive week, although we always wish that we could have gotten even more done.
Russell started out with a goal of hanging the final three security shutters, over the front door, back door, and bathroom window. Unfortunately, he underestimated the time it takes to stain and install trimwood, hang the rails, drill wiring access holes and hang the shutter boxes. With help from Steve and Joanne, he ended up installing three sets of rails, setting two boxes and hanging only one curtain.
Joanne and Russell (with Dirk's help) hang the shutter box over the front door
Gail and Dirk, who had intended to proceed with wiring, constantly found their agenda usurped by Russell. Both the front and back doors needed to be re-framed to accommodate the shutters; Gail, Cameron and Dirk ended up spending all Thursday morning getting the back door to open and close properly. But as the unflappable Dirk remarked, “I don’t care what kind of progress we make, as long as it’s progress.”
Cameron and Gail try to figure out why the back door won't hang straight
When Steve wasn’t helping Russell, he spent all of his time working outdoors. He made three more trips to the dump with trailers full of brush. He weed-whacked and axe-chopped. (He also wanted to chainsaw, but we nixed that due to the hot, dry weather.) And he got his clothes and equipment covered with poison oak.
Steve tackles weeds that are as tall as he is
When Joanne wasn’t helping Russell, she helped with the massive amounts of used hardwood flooring that Gail has been scavenging. We had several hundred square feet of flooring that needed to be de-nailed, sorted, stacked and tied together. With an increasing need for floor space downstairs, Russell and Cameron took a lot of it down to the shed for longer-term storage. Even so, the lower floor of the house is still filled with wood.
Joanne helped bundle flooring wood
But the major milestone of the week came courtesy of Dirk, who apparently dabbles in plumbing as well as electricity. Aware of the number of people who would be invading the house, Dirk came prepared with the equipment and tools necessary to connect our first interior running water! Joss volunteered to do the actual work. Dirk was a terrific mentor, helping Joss to connect both the faucet and drain for the upstairs bathroom sink.
Dirk gave Joss a crash course in plumbing
This is a huge milestone. Until now, we had still been filling and storing gallon jugs of water, as well as draining our used water into a bucket. Gail did yet another happy dance.
There was also lots of time for fun and enjoyment. Russell got all of the kids hooked on “Dominion,” a card game that ended up getting played over and over again. The trampoline and tree swings got a lot of use. And the three boys enjoyed several skirmishes in the woods with their air soft pellet guns.
Steve, Joanne and her family departed on Friday. That evening we experienced the double-whammy of a flat tire on the Prius and a cracked radiator on the van. Our friend Dennis put a short-term fix on the van with some epoxy, while Russell and the boys departed on Saturday to get a new tire.
That left Gail and Dirk on the mountain, where they were finally able to make some real progress on their original agenda of wiring the house. As usual, Dirk was the “last man standing” on Sunday, putting in several more hours of productive work by himself even after Gail left.
Sunday, June 21st, marks the first day of summer. Either our car troubles or our work accomplishments foreshadow the coming season, and we certainly hope it’s the latter.
When you have your own mountain, you get to do fun things like ride around on the back of your van
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
May 16, 2009
Dirk and Gail discuss what needs to be done to finish wiring the house
As we have been reporting for some time, the current critical path in our mountain home construction is the electrical wiring. Wiring must be completed and approved before we can get our occupancy permit (and home insurance and a mortgage refinance).
Unfortunately, our original plan – relying on Gail’s step-brother Jim, a licensed electrician – has fallen through due to health and scheduling considerations on Jim’s part. We have been able to stall for awhile. Our inspector has found other things to sign off on during our regular inspections… but at some point, it will come down to the electrical. Gail has drywalled one side of each interior wall… but the second side can’t be drywalled until the wiring is approved.
This late in the process, we decided that it would be too late for us to try to learn everything necessary to complete it ourselves. Having run out of other options, we were willing to bite the bullet and hire a professional electrician. Our friend Dennis tried to put us in touch with some electricians, but most of them would prefer to scrap everything already done and start over.
A better solution was literally right under our noses. One of Russell’s long-time friends, Dirk, is a software engineer who is already happily semi-retired. We actually get together with Dirk about once a month for dinner. Unbeknownst to us, Dirk has actually done rewiring for several friends’ homes over the last several years. Even more unbeknownst to us, Dirk had been waiting patiently for us to invite him up to the mountain house to help out. We finally had a conversation about this, and Dirk was more than willing to come up and manage the rest of the electrical installation.
So on Friday, May 15th, Russell, Gail and Dirk all caravanned up to the mountain. Dirk hit the ground running, helping Russell to transport, unload and stack more than two dozen sheets of OSB that Gail had picked up on Craigslist (future subflooring).
Dirk atop a newly made stack of OSB
Russell and Gail had wildly different agendas for this trip. Russell was here to begin a 12-day, 160-mile walk to celebrate his 50th birthday. After spending Friday night, he departed on Saturday morning – literally walking down the road and off the property with a backpack and walking poles.
Russell departs on his 50th birthday walk
(You can read about Russell’s big walk on his separate blog here .)
Meanwhile, Gail and Dirk embarked on a different adventure, tackling the electrical wiring installation. Dirk immediately took charge, demonstrating his expertise and experience. He brought some incredibly cool gizmos, including a hand-held device that would “beep” whenever a circuit was successfully completed. He helped identify and label all of the “home runs” (master wires that go all the way from each room to the breaker box). And he continued to pull more wire. The overall result was that Gail spent the weekend doing “happy dances.”
Gail and Dirk pull wires near the stairwell
Dirk's electrical work freed Gail up for other tasks, including prepping some second-hand floorboards for future use
Dirk was still hard at work when Gail departed late Sunday morning. He estimates that with one or two more long weekends, we will have the bulk of the electrical installation completed. With summer approaching, we can easily manage this. There is literally now a “light” at the end of the tunnel!
When we last left Dirk…
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
April 17, 2009
Gail installs the first drywall downstairs – on the wall separating the kitchen from the pantry and bathroom
We were not able to visit our mountain home building site for the entire month of March. We have already documents some of the reasons why, including our electrician (and Gail’s step-brother) Jim’s health problems and our son Joss’ continuing migraines.
Sadly, our lives were further put on hold when Gail’s brother-in-law Steve passed away on March 12th, a little more than a year after being stricken with brain cancer. Steve and his wife Debbie (Gail’s sister) were members of our original “house raising party” back in April 2005. In addition, Steve, Debbie and their son Eric spent many weekends with us up on the mountain, from tent camping to helping with construction. Russell has known Debbie longer than he has known Gail, so he played an active role in the memorial service.
The second week in April was Joss’ spring break from school, so Gail made a point of scheduling a long overdue trip back up to the mountain. Other than a one-hour stop in the beginning of April, Gail had not been to the mountain house since January. So on Wednesday, April 15th (Income Tax Day), the three of us – Gail, Russell and Joss – drove up for a two-night trip.
Gail’s agenda was to install more drywall (we drove up with an empty van to buy more sheets at the hardware store). Russell’s agenda was to clear more brush, given the unseasonably warm weather. Joss’ agenda was to try out his new soft air pellet gun (a sniper rifle complete with scope).
But our first priority – which we attacked on Wednesday evening after we arrived – was to try to take care of our rodent problem once and for all. When Russell was last here at the beginning of April, he was disappointed to see yet another mouse run across the floor of the master bedroom. (It’s a good thing Gail wasn’t there). We have come to the conclusion that the mice must be getting in through the crawlspace above the downstairs bathroom, which is currently covered with plastic sheet. (We have come to this conclusion because Gail has sealed or sprayfoamed every other possible crack in the house).
So in the fading sunlight of Wednesday afternoon, Russell went up on a ladder (Gail refused). Sure enough, the space was filled with rodent droppings. In addition, Russell shined a flashlight into the space and Gail could see all kinds of light from the outside of the house. Once the area was cleaned out, Gail attacked it with an entire can of spray foam. Needless to say, nothing is going to get through that space now. We went to be on Wednesday feeling a little more safe and secure than usual.
The crawlspace above the downstairs bathroomBefore : There is a small hole in the insulation on the right side, just perfect for rodentsAfter : Gail has filled the hole with an entire can of sprayfoam!
On Thursday morning, we were pleasantly surprised when our friend Dennis came by for a visit. Due to various organizational changes at the Calaveras Building Department, Dennis is now our building inspector once again. Dennis performed a visual inspection of our progress, signing us off for another six months. In addition, Dennis consulted with Gail on how to make further progress on the electrical wiring.
(We have accepted that Gail’s step-brother Jim will most likely be unable to finish helping with the electrical installation. Our choices are to finish the work without Jim or formally hire an electrician. We haven’t decided which course of action to take yet – Gail estimates that the wiring is about 80 percent completed to date.)
As Joss practices with his new air soft pellet gun, Gail chats with Dennis – once again our building inspector!
On Thursday afternoon, we were further surprised when Debbie and Eric drove up as well. We had extended an informal invitation to Debbie earlier in the week, but we really hadn’t expected her to take us up on it. The trip turned out to be a welcome opportunity for Debbie and Eric to get out of the Bay Area for awhile.
Debbie had not seen the mountain house since before we had started framing, and she was astonished and amazed at what we have accomplished to date. Everyone pitched in to do more work, both inside and outside the house. Eric was able to shoot target practice with his .22 caliber gun and ride a dirt bike around the property. On Thursday night we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset and watched a tearjerker movie.
Eric, Gail and Joss (up on the parapet) install a huge piece of drywall on the upstairs living room wall
It was great to be back up on the mountain. We spent a wonderful couple of days with both friends and family. We are still hopeful that we can get our occupancy permit before the end of summer, but it will require us returning much more often than we’ve been able to do lately.
In the meantime, Gail is off to spend a week in Louisiana to help with post-hurricane rebuilding. And Russell has his 50th birthday coming up in a little more than a month.
Debbie clears scrap lumber on the south side of the house – coincidentally, this is the same spot where her husband Steve used to meditate every morning when he visited the mountain
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
April 4, 2009
Steve loads his six-foot trailer for a run to the dump
While Gail has not been able to travel to our mountain house lately due to various scheduling conflicts, Russell and our friend Steve have still been dutifully (and happily) going up every couple of weeks. With interior work on hold, the two men have enjoyed working outside, tending to various areas of the 50-plus acres.
Steve’s only available time in April was the weekend of April 4th. Unfortunately, Russell had to be in town that Saturday evening. The solution was for Russell to take two days off of work, drive up Thursday and drive home Saturday. This enabled Gail to take a day trip and join Russell on Thursday. (Unfortunately, she pretty much had enough time to drive up, look around, then get back in her car and drive home again.) Meanwhile, Steve arrived on Friday for a 24-hour trip.
On their last trip, the men got rid of some piles of brush by burning them. Unfortunately, it took most of a day to burn, which meant that they could generate yard waste faster than they could get rid of it. Furthermore, the weather on the weekend of April 4 called for both sunny skies and high winds. Burning would be out of the question.
Steve solved the problem by bringing a six-foot trailer hitched to his truck. Gail had located a waste dump 15 minutes away that would accept unlimited yard waste. The agenda for the weekend was set.
Steve and Russell ended up making six trips to the dump, with each trip taking about an hour to load up the trailer, drive there, unload, and drive back. The result is a visibly cleaner area around the house. The southwest knoll (where the shed is) is now completely free of Manzanita.
When we bought the property in 2003, the southwestern knoll was relatively clear
As far as the house itself, Gail and Russell brought up a sofa bed that we had been storing in the garage, and Steve and Russell successfully moved it upstairs to the living room. (We had been using a futon that we had gotten as a free discard, but it was getting so uncomfortable that it was actually hurting our backs to sit in it).
In the upstairs living room, an old futon has now been replaced with an almost-new sofa bed
For such a short trip (for Gail and Steve at least), it turned out to be a very productive weekend.
The southwestern knoll – another panoramic view that we are able to enjoy for the first time in several years
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
March 1, 2009
Russell tends a burn pile
As we continue building our mountain house, the current critical path in construction is the interior electrical wiring. Unfortunately, this task has been delayed for a couple of reasons. First, our electrician and brother-in-law Jim has been sidelined by ongoing health problems, including pneumonia and emphysema. Second, Gail has been occupied with our son Joss’ increasing migraines, his school absences and the required make-up work.
Russell continues to have available weekends to go up to the mountain, but there is less for him to do inside the house. Instead, he has been devoting his time to working outside. This is just fine with our friend Steve, who is only to happy to join Russell if it means working outside in the natural beauty.
When we first bought the property, Russell’s hope was to take a hands-off, “maintenance-free” approach to the land. We would let nature grow, self-select, die and decay naturally. Besides, 50 acres would be a lot to maintain continuously. Unfortunately, six years later we have had to re-think this strategy. New fir trees have begun sprouting up in inopportune places, threatening to cover up our panoramic view. Weeds and scrub – particularly Manzanita – have increasingly encroached on the trails and fields, creating a fire hazard as they surround the house.
So Russell and Steve have begun tending the grounds and clearing the brush during their last several trips. Russell bought a wood chipper in December. But while the chipper works for small yard jobs, it is nowhere near able to process the huge piles of brush that we have been cutting.
In preparation for Russell and Steve’s work trip on the weekend of February 27th, Gail signed up for a burn permit. The process was much easier than we had thought. You basically fill out a form, write a check, and mail it in. In return, you are given a burn permit good for six months. On any given day, you call a phone number to find out whether it’s a permitted burn day or not. With the weather forecast predicting rain for the weekend, we pretty much knew we would be able to burn.
A beautiful sky, conducive to burning
Russell spent the weekend setting up and maintaining two burns: one at the top of the mountain, near the house; another on the southwestern knoll near the shed. Due to the very high winds on the mountain, Russell ended up having to babysit the fires continuously to make sure nothing bad happened. In between, he was able to finish cutting and installing OSB on the parapet subfloor.
We had to move the burn pile that was up by the house – the original pile was right on top of the septic leech field
The burn pile on the southwestern knoll by the shed
Steve’s time was not as productive. His plan for the weekend was to cut more brush for the burn piles. However, late Friday evening when he first arrived, he immediately got his truck stuck in the mud on the northern trail approaching the house. After an hour of trying to pull it out with his comealong, he finally gave up and walked to the house in the dark. The following morning, we were able to free the truck by using a couple of boards to give the tires extra traction.
Unfortunately, only a few hours later, Steve proceeded to get his truck stuck yet again in the mud, this time on a trail southeast of the house that the boys’ have named “Bunny Flats.” This time, not only did boards not help, but Steve also ended up breaking his comealong. Ultimately, he had to walk over to our neighbor Scott, who used his tractor to pull the truck out of the mud.
After these mishaps, Steve considered continuing to drive around on the back trails. Russell's advice was simple: “Drive your truck to the top of the hill. Park it by the house… and leave it there.”
Steve predicament No. 1: With his truck mired on the north trail, we used 2x6s to get traction
Steve predicament No. 2: With his truck mired on Bunny Flats, we had to call on our neighbor Scott and his tractor
We never did end up getting rain that weekend. And while the two burn piles were successful, there is still a lot of brush to clear, even on just the two small spots that we had been concentrating on. The weather so far has been very conducive to working outdoors, but we are also expecting a very hot – and dry – year in 2009.
The southwestern knoll, before and after the burn – not quite cleared yet, but getting there
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
February 8, 2009
Russell with a piece of the “parapet puzzle” – each subfloor piece had to be custom-cut (usually multiple times)
For the past year and a half, Russell’s main task – and headache – in our mountain house construction has been framing the interior walls. The octagonal shape of the house has added to the complexity. With a normal house, everything is at 90º angles. With an octagonal house, walls can be 45º or even 22.5º degrees against each other.
Framing the upstairs walls has been even more difficult due to the vaulted ceiling. This has added additional vertical angles of 15-20º to account for the slanted roof and its supporting knee braces.
And most difficult of all has been the parapet – a quasi third story set above the upstairs hallway and closets. Framing the parapet has had all of the difficulties above, plus the added complexity of trying to construct around the center pole and the knee braces themselves. We chronicled the spaghetti-like joist construction in our blog of October 17, 2008 .
The interior framing is now pretty much completed, with a few exceptions. One of these exceptions has been the need to construct an OSB subfloor on top of the parapet. Remembering how difficult the parapet was to frame, Russell was not looking forward to flooring it as well. However, Gail mentioned that this was one of her critical paths in order to continue wiring and drywalling.
So on Friday, February 6th, Russell made a trip up to the mountain. (Gail’s schedule has offered her less opportunity. Unfortunately, while our son Joss has recovered from last year’s spinal surgery, he has now begun suffering from debilitating migraine headaches.)
Joining Russell was our friend Steve. Still out of work, Steve asked for another opportunity to whack at things. As a result, Steve spent the weekend outside, clearing brush.
Steve clears brush, using a newly-acquired garden cart that Gail picked from Craigslist
Meanwhile, Russell began cutting pieces of 1/2” OSB to create a subfloor for the parapet. Not only did he have to avoid the center pole and knee braces, he also had to straddle the joists that ran in a hundred different lengths and angles. He spent more of his time measuring, cutting, remeasuring and recutting pieces than actually installing them. The average piece had to be recut three times, resulting in very sore knees from continuously climbing up and down the ladder.
Anatomy of a puzzle: floorbaord pieces had to be cut to straddle the oddly-angled joists, as well as the center pole and knee braces
By the end of the weekend, Russell had finished about three-quarters of the parapet. He was actually still cutting and installing on Sunday morning up until the time we had to leave. Frankly, the floored parapet looks pretty good. Now in his groove, Russell can’t wait to come back up and finish the job.
A panorama of the parapet, before and after
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
January 19, 2009
Joss, Gail and Cameron take a break on the deck in the warm January sun
With our sons Cameron and Joss now in college and high school respectively, their trips to our mountain home construction have become fewer and farther between. First, they are now self-sufficient enough to be left alone for days. Second, they have their own social lives and better things to do than hang around with their parents.
But with drywalling now proceeding at a rapid pace, Gail wanted the boys to see how the house is visibly changing. In addition, we wanted them to have the opportunity to drywall their own bedrooms. So on Saturday, January 17th, we took advantage of the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and traveled once again as an entire family.
Gail tried to give the boys a balance between enjoying the weekend and contributing to the work. Joss helped install both drywall and a new shelf in his bedroom closet. Cameron helped drywall the upstairs hallway, as well as lug heavy sheets of drywall up the stairs with dad to give mom a break.
Joss installs a shelf in his bedroom closet
Meanwhile, due to the unseasonably warm and sunny weather, Russell tried to work outside as much as possible. His spontaneous and self-assigned task for the weekend was to dismantle a large crate that has been obstructing our western panoramic view for the past four years (since the kit house was first delivered in March 2005).
A large crate, which originally held our windows, has been sitting on the western side of the house for the past four years
Russell began his task with hammer and crowbar on Saturday morning. Before he knew it, he was joined by Cameron (no doubt prodded by Gail to go and help). By Saturday afternoon the crate was gone, and we beheld the gorgeous panorama that we had first fallen in love with six years ago.
Cam and Russell worked for several hours to dismantle the crate
The western panorama, which we are fully able to see again for the first time since 2005
Little by little, our mountain house is looking less like a construction site and more like a home. By the time we departed on Monday, there was drywall on one side of almost every upstairs wall (we can’t install the other sides until the electrical wiring is done). Rooms are actually separated from each other!
As a further symbol of this transformation, Russell took the base of the dismantled crate and has re-cast it as a new front porch for our mountain home.
Joss relaxes – in a living room with real walls!
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
January 3, 2009
Gail installs drywall in the master bedroom closets
Gail and Russell celebrated the New Year by – what else? – going up to our mountain property to continue building our house.
Back on “Black Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving (when stores hold huge sales) we had tried to get some portable heaters at Fry’s Electronics; they were on sale for 75% off. We didn’t bother going there until early afternoon, and by then they were completely sold out.
We were surprised to see them on sale again after Christmas. This time, we took Cameron first thing in the morning, waited in line before the store opened, ran in and grabbed three heaters. (If we had been five minutes later, they would have been sold out again.)
The big question was whether these heaters would be adequate for the mountain house. So on New Year’s Day morning, we left the boys asleep in bed and drove up in the van with three heaters.
We were treated to crisp, sunny weather, book-ended by a gorgeous fog in the mornings and evenings. We plugged in the heaters and let them run automatically with their built-in thermostats. We were pleased to find that the house held a comfortable ambient temperature inside.
A panorama of the southern view on New Year's Day evening, as the fog rolls in
The same panorama the following morning, as sunlight melts the fog away
We also continued our construction work. With the electrical still on hold, Gail continued drywalling one side of each framed wall. This time around, she tackled the master bedroom closets.
Russell had intended to work outside with his wood chipper, but his agenda was soon superseded by Gail’s. Because of our high ceilings, we had framed the closets with a large interior space above each closet door. As Gail drywalled, she decided that this was wasted space. She asked Russell if he could reframe the closets with an additional door above the main door, to access the extra space.
The master bedroom closets, before and after drywalling
The reframing of the closets required several steps. First, we removed the electrical wiring from the vertical studs above the closet doors. Second, we removed the studs themselves, essentially creating another opening in the wall above the closet doors. Third, we installed a new set of horizontal joists at the top of the closet doors. This essentially lowered the ceiling of the closet, while creating a floor for the new space above.
The master bedroom closets, before and after installing the new shelf
It was a bit of work, but the closets were greatly improved. Gail also drywalled the master bedroom and half the hallway; Russell ultimately had some time to chip wood outside.
Russell constructs a frame of joists to lower the closet ceiling
Our friend Dennis invited us to dinner with his family, and we spent New Year’s Day evening teaching our hosts how to play the “Settlers of Catan” board game. Overall, it was a relaxing yet productive trip – and a great way to ring in the New Year.
Oh, yes... the Soleus LX-100 portable air conditioner/heater, regularly $400 but on sale for $100
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
December 20, 2008
Joss with the remnants of the previous snowfall
December 2008 broke some weather records in the Bay Area. We are still in a drought with rainfall well below normal, but there have been some unseasonably cold days and nights. On the weekend of December 12th there was rare snow up on our mountain, but we weren’t able to go there due to scheduling conflicts.
The weather forecast snow again on Friday December 19th, so we made plans to go. We even talked both of our sons into joining us; Cameron was already home from college and Joss was out of school after Thursday morning. Unfortunately, as we got nearer to the date, the forecast changed from “snow” to “rain.” Gail wanted to go up anyway and the boys didn’t mind.
We ended up traveling in two vehicles. Gail and Cameron drove up in the van, specifically so that Gail could buy some drywall. Her electrical work is pretty much at a standstill; our electrician step-brother Jim is still out with pneumonia. However, Gail can go ahead and begin drywalling one side of the walls without interfering with future inspections.
While Gail came up to work, the three guys had come up to relax and play. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way. The guys spent much of the time hauling drywall in from the van and up the stairs. Nevertheless, Gail worked the lion’s share, not only installing the sheets but cutting and stuffing insulation where necessary.
The guys unload drywall from the van.
When we arrived on Thursday afternoon, the inside of the house was 40º. Six hours and three heaters later, we got the temperature up to 60º and it stayed at that level for the rest of the weekend.
While Gail worked on Friday, Russell ended up driving into town to buy even more drywall, taking advantage of the empty van. Lowe’s hardware store kept giving him $10 coupons every time he made a purchase, so he kept going back in and making more purchases. All told, we bought nine sheets of 5/8” drywall (for the bathroom/utility room walls) and 19 sheets of 1/2” drywall (where we won’t need as much soundproofing). The van was so heavy that it took Russell three tries to drive up the last hill to the house.
Russell and Cam hold a sheet of drywall in place while Gail fastens it to the stud.
We never did get to see snow, although it rained Friday and the ground was constantly covered with frost. By Saturday the weather was sunny and clear again. In the meantime, Gail was able to install seven sheets on four walls, and she can’t wait to do more – as soon as her hands and arms are no longer sore.
Gail installed drywall on four walls
(1) The utility room/living room
(2) The master bathroom/living room
(3) The hall bathroom/Joss’ bedroom
(4) The master bathroom/master bedroom
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
December 7, 2008
Russell with his wood chipper (he wanted this photo taken because he figures the chipper will never look this clean again)
When we first bought our mountain “kit house” back in 2003, little did we dream that we would still be working on the thing five years later. The advantage is that we have been able to work continuously for the past five years without spending a lot of money. Everything from the wood to the glass was shipped with the kit. We have only had to pay for the metal hardware and the various things that Topsider screwed up.
Unfortunately, we have now entered the stage where we are starting to have to pay for things ourselves. While we spent almost nothing to do the interior framing, we have had to pay for all of the electrical wiring ourselves. As the work increasingly starts to hit our pocketbook, we have had to slow our pace down. And with the current economic downturn, we are having to slow down even more.
Even as we have been concentrating on the house and its construction, we also have to worry about the 50-acre property itself. We recently paid a couple thousand dollars to have our dirt access road re-graded. And much of the land has become overgrown with tall grass, Manzanita and tree saplings. This is an increasing fire hazard, and we have to start dealing with it.
The southwestern knoll (the one with the shed) in 2003.
For the past several months, Russell has had his eye on a 250-horsepower wood chipper as our next major purchase. He waited patiently until his Christmas bonus. The day he received his bonus – Friday, December 5th – we drove up to the Lowe’s hardware store near our property and bought the chipper.
Our original plan was to spend a private weekend up on the mountain with just Gail and Russell. At the last minute, however, our friend Steve inquired about joining us. Steve recently lost his job and he needed a getaway – not only to de-stress, but to take out his frustrations with a chainsaw. With a request like that, how could we refuse?
We were also joined by our local friend (and former building inspector) Dennis. Dennis had some free time this weekend and offered to help Gail make further progress on the electrical wiring. So on Saturday morning, Gail and Dennis worked inside the house, with Dennis making suggestions and offering some best practices.
Gail continues wiring the house with Dennis’ help
Meanwhile, Russell and Steve worked outside. Steve chainsawed and clipped Manzanita bushes; Russell put them through the chipper. It was a surprisingly sunny and warm weekend for November. We worked in short-sleeved shirts and enjoyed the sunshine.
Steve lets out his frustrations with a chain saw.
In the evenings, Steve had no problems watching the “chick flicks” that Russell had brought for Gail. Gail was getting tired of constantly watching “movies where things explode,” so she – and the guys – greatly enjoyed “27 Dresses” and “The Notebook.”
In further variation, we skipped having our usual Chinese restaurant lunch in town on Sunday morning. Instead, we attended the local monthly pancake breakfast at the nearby American Legion Hall, where we chatted with the locals and neighbors. It was a perfect way to end a perfect – and productive – weekend.
The southwestern knoll, after a hard day’s work
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)
Posted to octagonaltopsider by Gail in Cupertino, CA
on 8/17/2009
November 7, 2008
Shelly, our latest inspector, examines our current work
After six months of illnesses, funerals, and other delays, we finally reached our next building inspection deadline. The current milestones were the interior framing and the electrical wiring. Originally due back in May, we had received an extension from our building inspector, Randy.
Now here we were in November, and we still weren’t ready. Russell had largely finished the interior framing, other than a few trim pieces that weren’t subject to inspection. On the other hand, Gail still had quite a bit of work to do on the wiring. To be fair, our electrician brother-in-law Jim had been largely unavailable lately due to a new job and pneumonia.
Gail’s plan was to get as much done as possible by November, have the inspector yellow-tag whatever was missing, then finish the work afterward. On Tuesday, November 5th – a rare mid-week trip – Gail drove up to our mountain house building site to meet the inspector.
Gail drove up a day before the actual inspection so that she could do some additional work. On Wednesday morning, she received a visit from Dennis, our previous inspector and now good friend. Dennis did a “pre-inspection” of the work, pointing out places where Gail had used the wrong wiring gauge and making other suggestions.
The actual inspector showed up on Wednesday afternoon. Randy was out sick, so Shelly came instead. The two women hit it off wonderfully. Shelly complimented Gail on her willingness to be a “do-it-yourselfer.” Her overall comment was, “It looks like you’re doing a lot of good work here. I’m giving you an extension for another six months.”
Gail was ecstatic. The framing was signed off as completed, and we now have until May, 2009 to finish the electrical wiring.
Gail is now much more accustomed to being up at the mountain house by herself, so she stayed an extra night. She spent Thursday morning working outside, raking leaves and cleaning up the access road, before driving back home, just in time for the weekend.
Our building permit is slowly getting checked off!
[Worldtrippers home] [Mountaintop home]
Comments (0)