31 July 2015
We’re all going to
die!!!! Got a letter today from the
Vermont Department of Heath Radon Program saying that the radon detector that
we had in the house basement over the winter was so overexposed that they
couldn’t get an accurate reading, which probably means we have more than 30
picocuries of radon per liter (pCi/l). Gaack! (The EPA recommends mitigation action
whenever the radon level is above 4 pCi/l.)
A new radon detector also was in the mail, which hopefully will tell us
just how bad our problem is after a 30 day exposure. Meanwhile, the living dead continued
shingling the east wall. Having
one-of-those-days, I made three attempts to install the KOMA® block
and weather proof electrical box for the outlet outside the shop door, failing
miserably each time. This is not complicated
carpentry, but was well beyond my feeble capabilities this morning. Figuring mindless work was more my speed,
spent the rest of the day sorting, cutting, and staining shingles.
30 July 2015
Sonny and Ian finished shingling and putting the frieze boards on the
south wall of the garage / half bath / kitchen, then transitioned to the east
wall of the garage. I spent the morning
painting east wall trim, caulking the just-installed frieze boards, and
starting to install the weatherproof outlet box just outside the shop exterior
door. Unfortunately, right after lunch
the forecast cold front blew through, bringing with it a monsoon. Sonny and Ian spent an hour moving “stuff”
around in the basement preparatory to putting up more interior walls, but then
flew the coup. Glen Peck arrived with
the rain. He and I retreated to Delores’ dry and air conditioned confines in
order to thoroughly review the house electrical plan, which took all
afternoon. Glen offered several ideas
about how to rearrange circuits to lower the wiring costs and/or comply more
closely with the National Electrical Code / best practices, how to better light
certain locations, and how to reconfigure the sauna / walkway / electrical circuit
to use AWG 14-3 wire vice (very expensive and awkward to use) AWG 8-3 wire to
control the walkway lights from inside the house. [Technical Information Warning! In the
American Wire Gauge (AWG) system, the larger the number, the smaller the wire. The dash -2 and dash -3 indicate how many
conductors are in the wire, not including the ground wire. So a -3 wire has three conductors: Black
(always hot), Red (usually used as the traveler to wire 3-way switches together),
White (the neutral), and the grounding wire (Green). ]
P.S. Nary a mosquito seen today, even when I went for a cool-down plunge
in the lake right at dusk.
29 July 2015
Sonny and Ian continued apace, nearly completing singling the south wall
of the garage / half bath / kitchen.
Sean stopped by for an hour in the morning to review progress and
provide detailed guidance about sealing the floor of the porch (that actually
is over part of the basement, so waterproofing that area is a must do
item). I spent the day sorting and
staining the ends of cut shingles, with time out after lunch for a logistics
trip to Brandon. Marty and Merry came up the hill for BBQ chicken and zucchini
(marinated in Ken’s Northern Italian dressing), plus other fixin’s. They brought along a recently received 2014
Kingston Family Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc (from Chile) that slid down far too
easily. Had to eat inside (in noisy air-conditioned splendor) ‘cause the
mosquitoes were too bad out by the campfire, in spite of the repellant lantern
that usually is quite effective. Another delightful evening with good
neighbors… and good friends!
P.S. Saw the mosquito control
truck heading down Kate’s driveway, so threw caution to the winds and ran over
to physically intercept him as he was outbound, spraying away merrily. After promising the driver an option on our
first born male child (sorry ‘bout that, Tasi), he came through the cut-through,
then down to the house turnaround, and sprayed the bejesus out of Triangle
Square Circle. FINALLY!!!!
28 July 2015
Sonny and Ian set a
new productivity record today, in spite of horribly hot working conditions all
afternoon: 119 ft2 of shingles now are on the south wall of the
kitchen / half bath / garage as a result of their efforts. Not only that, but they knocked off shingling
early in order to move staging from the west wall and set it up where they are
working on the south wall. As soon as
the geese had landed, I took the Kubota down to Townline Kubota (formerly Giddings
Kubota) in Pittsford where they replaced the leaking seal on the backhoe left
stabilizer and buffed out the ding in the stabilizer piston (caused by a careless operator allowing a rock to impact the piston) that caused the seal to start leaking.
While the Kubota repair work was ongoing, I continued down to Rutland to
find that the Home Depot there had very little of the electrical paraphernalia
that I was after. Got back to Fern Lake
by 10:30 and spent the rest of the day sorting shingles, trying to keep up with
the Dynamic Duo’s demands. Sufficiently
rehydrated with Woodchuck Amber, swam across the lake and back to cool down
after work.
27 July 2015
Sonny and Ian finished
shingling the west wall of the house in the morning while I scrambled to get
the window and door trim painted on the south side of the garage / half bath /
kitchen. The crises of the morning was that Billie’s dogs somehow managed to
lock the doors after they were put in Corrie’s car preparatory for their
departure back to North Carolina.
Fortunately (considering the hot temperatures today), Corrie had turned
on the car air conditioning when she put the dogs inside. Unfortunately, the only key was in the
ignition… of course! A complete jerk
from the local AAA affiliate showed up an hour later and quickly jimmied open
the car. After lunch Sonnie and Ian put
on the west side frieze boards, then shifted to shingling where I’d been
painting while I shifted to painting where they’d been boarding. A longish swim after work took me up the lake
for a nice chat with Chuck Munger (owner of Green Mountain Garage, where I have
Delores’ and my automotive servicing needs attended to), who lives on the other
side of Marty & Merry. The lake temperature
is getting warm… very warm!
26 July 2015
A rainy morning,
perfect for making changes to the Electrical Plan based on advice given by Glen
Peck, vacuuming (with two different vacuums) Delores’ carpets (and even then
not coming close to removing all the dog hair!), and doing laundry in Brandon (discovering,
upon my return, that the dirty clothes hamper was still full). Gathered a Kubota-bucket load of small stone
left scattered about from when the septic tanks were put in and spread the
stone in the mud hole between the road and our mailbox. Thought about sanding and painting the four
windows on the south side of the garage / half bath / kitchen. Instead, finished reading Get What’s Yours – The Secrets to Maxing Out
Your Social Security by Larry Kotlikoff, Phil Moeller, and Paul Solman.
This is a MUST READ book for anyone approaching retirement!!!!
25 July 2015
Spent most of a
beautiful day sanding and painting all the unpainted corner, door and window
trim on the west side of the house.
Discovered that climbing up and down and up and down and up and down
three bucks of staging gives one a great workout. Spent the rest of the day in the lake, then
down at Marty & Merry’s for another fabulous, fun repast, joined there by
Kate, Corrie, and Billie.
24 July 2015
Sonny and Ian went on
another staging raid en route Fern Lake, bringing the final pieces needed to
finish the third buck all the way across the west wall. They then spent the day shingling while I cut
and stained per their requirements. I
also cut in the KOMA® blocks for the exterior light that will go
above the shop door and for the exterior weatherproof electrical outlet that
will be next to that door. In typical
good-service fashion, Goodro’s delivery truck showed up less than 3 hours after
I ordered some more KOMA® for the frieze boards. Larry Kaufmann
(owner of Long Ridge Concrete) came by late afternoon to repair the north
foundation wall crack that manifested over the winter. After Larry dug down to the footer, we
applied an adhesive membrane over the crack that, Larry assures me, will keep
any water from penetrating through the wall.
23 July 2015
Sonny and Ian here for
another fun day of shingling. Chree and
the dogs departed mid-morning for points south, i.e., Springfield via an
overnight visit to Chree’s parents in Connecticut. Soon after Chree left, Steve Poplawski
(Ryan’s Plumbing & Heating) arrived and, in short order, finished
connecting the water system. After just
a couple minutes of brownish water, the flow from the well cleared right up and
I drew off the first gallon for drinking.
During the 50% probability rain shower, the geese and I moved all the
“scrap” lumber (ultimately to become wall blocking) out of the shop and into
Bedroom #1 (the southern guest bedroom, under the sun room). That clears the
decks for continuing basement wall construction during the next rainy day. I spent the day staining the ends of cut
shingles that will be used for the last (top) course. The only thing that saved
my sanity was Ian’s MP3 player. Corrie
(Kate’s mom) said she enjoyed waking up to the Beatles… so maybe we’d better
turn the volume down a couple of notches.
With the Kubota, moved the pallet of shingles from in back of the house
to the garage. Managed to dump half the
load rounding the curve onto Kate’s driveway… and didn’t get the evidence
removed before Corrie and Billie (Kate’s grandmother) returned from their day’s
outing. Traded voicemails all day with the mosquito control commission… which
is almost as frustrating as them not spraying at Triangle Square Circle. Had to make an emergency run to Hannaford’s
after work, as Chree forgot to get ice cream when she was out shopping the
other day.
22 July 2015
CRAZY DAY!!!! Sonny and Ian
arrived per normal at 7 and got to work shingling. Just after 9, Glen Peck showed up with his
crew (Shawn Lathrop, Luke Charlebois, Mike Cormier, and Holden Yildirim). Over the course of the day they accomplished
many electrical tasks: lowered the main electrical panel 18″; repaired a wire lug
inside the main panel that obviously was broken at the time of installation in
2009… and was a potential severe safety hazard; ran the power cable from the
repaired main panel into the house; installed the control panel that will
switch power automatically from the electrical grid to the emergency generator,
when grid power is lost; installed the utility room electrical panel; ran two
UF 14‑2 wires to the septic system pump tank, connecting one to supply power to
the septic pump and the other to the septic alarm panel (which was itself
installed and tested); installed an electrical outlet for the septic alarm to
plug into; and, last but not least, wired the well pump to the well control
panel and then ran power to that panel.
Whew! Sean stopped by mid-morning
in the midst of the turmoil with the bill for Goose Creek’s labor so far this
year… not a small number. A severe
downpour just before noon also kept things stirred up. Found that the cover to the septic pump tank
(made of cheap plastic) has had a hole smashed into it already and several of
the (cheap plastic) lugs that the cover screws into are either broken or
cracked. Grrrr!!!! Sonny and Ian, lacking much needed electrons
while the main electrical panel was torn apart and under repair, helped out
with assorted (battery-powered) carpentry tasks in support of the electricians.
When Sonny and Ian were back in shingling mode this afternoon, Chree cut and
stained shingles per their requests. I
spent the early morning sorting shingles, then the rest of the day running in
small circles while making decisions about where the various electrical components
were to be placed, conferring with Sean, and checking on quality, hopefully
without being too obnoxious.
P.S. The mosquito control truck
made the rounds again tonight… and once again failed to come down our driveway
in spite of the large, bright orange painted sign up at the road that says,
“Please spray” with an arrow pointed in the right direction. Strongly worded phone call to follow…
21 July 2015
First thing after they
arrived, Sonny and Ian installed the C235 window that will be in front of the
kitchen sink. Then they put on another 7/8
of a square of shingles before a passing afternoon thunderstorm put the kibosh
to those activities. In a week they have
put on just about 4 squares. Chree went
into Brandon and Middlebury to do errands this morning and a lady driving an
ancient, rusty Chevy S10 pickup tried to back over the Prius in the Hanaford’s
parking lot. Damage to the pickup: some
red paint on the bumper. Damage to the
Prius: considerable. Moral to this
story…
20 July 2015
Sonny and Ian arrived
at 7 and got right to work shingling, shingling, a shingling they will go. By noon they had finished the course above
the lower windows (that one course took 5 hours to complete) plus three
additional courses this afternoon… yielding a full square applied today. As I
was doing some computer work in the RV about 9, looked over my shoulder and saw
a large doe eating our hosta, which is planted alongside the stone wall close
to the campfire pit. Approached (very
quietly) to within 20 feet without spooking her away. Chree and I sorted shingles in the morning,
did some carpentry work down at Kate’s pergola (open topped bench seat
structure on her dock) this afternoon, then built a 5 foot tall “table” to
extend the Kubota forklift’s reach up to where Sonny and Ian will be working
when they’re on the second tier of staging.
Lynne came for lunch, a chance for us to catch up on family news, and a
tour. Lunch included some “Delores brownies” that Chree made from scratch using
whatever ingredients were on hand and a great deal of imagination.
19 July 2015
Chree and I drove up
to Lowe’s first thing in the morning and spent a delightful (sic) 45 minutes in
their electrical department while a vigorous thunderstorm raged outside. Picked up Alverta as we headed back south,
who then spent the day catching up on house building progress since her last
visit. Glen Peck stopped by with his
friend, Brian Pray, as we were eating a picnic lunch. Gary will be building a house on Lake Dunmore
and wanted to see some of Jimmy Ploof’s handiwork. After lunch, Alverta made it down to the
waterfront and back under her own steam.
Returned her to Shelburne after an early dinner.
18 July 2015
A rainy morning… good
for working on changes to the electrical plan.
Chree and I played tourist in the afternoon, visiting The New England
Maple Museum in Pittsford, which bills itself as the largest (only?) maple
museum in the world. Check that item off
our collective bucket list. Then we did
a wine tasting at the Neshobe Winery and Brewery. We’re told that the beer they make is pretty
good. Lake temperature is up
to 78° and the water level has fallen 2″ over the past several days.
17 July 2015
Sonny and Ian went on
a raid of other Goose Creek building sites and stopping en route at Goodro’s
for drip cap and other materials. They arrived at Fern Lake with a truck full
of staging and, most importantly, staging work platforms to span the entire
length of the house west wall (60 feet).
While they were getting that organized, Chree and I drove (the 1½ miles)
down to Vermont Specialty Slate where we perused their offerings and took away
samples. Amazingly, we quickly came to agreement on the slate colors for the
porch, foyer, grandfather clock nook, cedar closet, and wine cellar nook
(Vermont gray), mud entry and half bath (mottled green and purple – looks
better than it sounds), and woodstove chase hearth (Vermont black). Returned to Fern Lake, we helped the
shingling effort by custom cutting, staining, and sorting shingles as needed…
plus hitting our head against the aluminum plank across the shop doorway and
retrieving Sonny’s wallet from the ground, where it wandered more than
once. The mantra for the day was “Use
the fours, Luke!” Marty, Merry, and Kate
came up for barbecued pork tenderloins, vino fino, and lively conversation.
16 July 2015
Sonny and Ian put on
nearly all of the shingles up to the tops of the lower level windows on the
west side of the house. Jim Laflam
stopped by mid-morning to inspect work done since his previous visit last August. Chree sorted the contents of several more
boxes into size categories, chanting all the time, “Use more 4’s, use more
4’s.” (Translation: we are awash in
shingles sized between 3½″ and 4½″.) I
helped with the sorting, made any cuts desired by the stapling team, and also
used a stapler for awhile. After lunch,
Sonny and Ian set up staging, attached the next run of Home Slicker®,
and were about to venture higher with the shingles when Sean stopped by. Sean
recommended that we install drip caps over all the doors and windows, something
that has to be done before the next shingle course is put on the west
wall. After much discussion (I can be
twice as hard-headed as anyone Chree knows), that recommendation was
accepted. Sonny and Ian will procure the
necessary material at Goodro’s tomorrow morning. In the meantime, they started work on the
south side of the garage. As Sonny got
to the third course in the area between the kitchen and half bath windows, I
remembered that we want to but a hose bib there. So I cut through the shingles in line with
the wall that will separate those two rooms and installed the 5/4 x 5½″ x 4¾″
KOMA® block on which the hose bib will be mounted. To verify that the block was mounted in the
right place, I drilled a hole through the center of the block and into the
wall. The bit kept spitting out sawdust
and never “broke through” into air. No
sign of the bit’s end inside the house, which one might expect with a 9″ bit
and a 7⅛″ total wall thickness. “Hmm”,
says Sonny and I together, “something ain’t right”. Being nobody’s boobies, our next step was, of
course, to use Sonny’s 12″ bit. Same
result. At this point Sonny did the math
and figured out that, with the house main level floor 11½″ above the garage
floor and the shingles starting 2 inches below the latter’s elevation with a 4¾″
exposure, we were drilling into the 2x8 sill plate. Which meant that the KOMA®
block had to be moved up two courses and all the shingles damaged by my
surgically precise cutting had to be ripped off the wall and replaced. Larry Kaufmann (owner of Long Ridge Concrete,
who did our foundation work) came by to see the crack in the north foundation
wall that appeared over the winter. He
will coordinate repairs with Sean.
15 July 2015
Sonny and Ian arrived
per usual at 7 and continued shingling, accompanied by a complete Beatles
anthology. The music made the job of
sorting shingles by size much more pleasant… which task occupied my
morning. Goodro’s delivered the
extension-jamb-less kitchen window mid-morning.
Chree and I went into Middlebury after lunch to do errands and consult
with Dr. Eric Benz, one of the partners at Champlain Valley Orthopedics, about
the right lower quadrant of my aging body.
Returning to Fern Lake, we found that the geese had put on just a tad under
a full square of shingles today. We also
found that Goodro’s had been back to deliver a length of KOMA® 6x6
corner trim.
14 July 2015
While Chree was still
abed this morning, Tim Combs (one of the Goodro’s owners) called to say that he
had screwed up the order for our replacement kitchen window… he forgot to
specify 6 9/16 extension jambs. More news to follow… but the window was not
delivered to Fern Lake today. Sonny and
Ian got here shortly after 7, having stopped at Goodro’s en route to get the
touch up kit needed to seal the edges exposed when cutting shingles to create
the starter course, finish course, and the two courses just below each
window. We had an official signing
ceremony for the first shingle put on the house (northwest corner). While Sonny
and Ian were shingling the area between that corner and the shop door, I spent
much of the morning staining starter course shingle edges while Chree sorted
shingles into their proper size groups. Mindless
work, but somebody has to do those jobs, and who better but the most
mindless lowest paid members of the crew.
After lunch, I put on the starter course between the shop door and the
sun room (southwest) corner. Ian and
Sonny, working together like a well lubricated team, nearly caught up to me
with the first course… and I had a 20 foot head start with, in theory, the
faster task. By quitting time, they had
put two more courses on that section, for a rough total for the day of ¾’s of a
square stapled into place. First guess
(assuming that rate is maintained) is that the house will be completely
shingled on 18 August. Second guess is
that the three of us will be stark raving bonkers within two weeks. Anyone up for a little wager on those two
outcomes? Glen Peck, owner of Peck
Electric, came by late afternoon to talk about electrical wiring work we want
done in the next week or so: lowering the main electric panel by 18″,
installing the utility room electric panel, running power from the main
electric panel (where the meter is) into the utility room panel, and, finally,
wiring up the well pump, septic pump, and septic tank alarm. Also want him to thoroughly review the wiring
plan I have put together to make sure all Electrical Code requirements have
been met.
13 July 2015
Off to Brandon right after breakfast to have the Tacoma inspected and the
lights / brakes on the trailer repaired.
That work was just finishing up at 8:30 when Dennis called to say that Steve
Poplawski was at the house to install the water lines but couldn’t find
me. So, instead of doing the other
Brandon errands that were on my list, boogied back to Fern Lake. Steve and I quickly determined that Dennis’
on-site expertise was needed to figure out where the air conditioning ducts, heat
recovery ventilation system ducts, and water lines needed to run so as not to
interfere with one another. Ian and
Sonny arrived at this point, bearing quantities of Goose Creek staging that
will be needed while siding the house.
While they were getting set up and started sanding and painting the west
side window trim (something that Chree and I wanted to do last week, but…), I
headed back to Brandon to do the errands missed earlier plus get the screening
that provides an insect barrier at the top and bottom of the Home Slicker®
(something else that was supposed to have been done last week). Got back to Fern Lake before Dennis arrived
at 11. With the HVAC and plumbing
deconflicted, had Sonny replace 4 of the shop north wall 2x4 studs with 2x6’s
so the water lines had room to be insulated and run to where they needed to
go. Steve finished hanging pipe shortly
after lunch and left. Using the revised
story board, Sonny and Ian finished marking the house trim to show where the
bottom edge of each shingle course will be.
Chree arrived at 2 from her babysitting sojourn. Sonny and Ian put the first (bottom) band of
Home Slicker® and bottom screen on the west and some of the south
sides of the house while I started creating the starter and finish course
shingles by cutting 5¾″ off the bottoms of two boxes (½ square) of shingles
(the 5¾″ pieces will become the finish
course at the tops of the walls; the remainders will become the starter course
at the bottoms of the walls). Plug that
connects my computer to electrons in the wall has finally failed. Running on rapidly dwindling battery
power. Call 911…
P.S. After I called the mosquito
control folks this morning and asked that we be treated ASAP, the spray truck ONCE
AGAIN went down Kate’s driveway and then down Marty & Merry’s driveway…
and passed us by!
12 July 2015
Hot day! At noon had to turn on Delores’ air
conditioning for the dogs… not that Shlomo spent all that much time
inside. Also the mosquitoes are
H∙O∙R∙R∙I∙B∙L∙E!!!! Finished putting together the telephone and TV conduit,
backfilled the trench (by hand!) until the conduits were buried in sand / small
gravel deep enough to put down the red Caution: Buried Electrical Line Below
tape and deep enough so that any boulders that got pushed into the trench
wouldn’t harm the pipes. Then finished the backfilling job with the
Kubota. Used a scrap piece of Zip System
sheathing to make a shingle sorting template, then sorted by size the contents
of three boxes of the shingles. First
impression is that Maibec has sent along a consistently superior product... which,
given the price they charged, is only to be expected. I find that having the shingles pre-sorted
greatly speeds up the process of putting them on the walls. Or maybe I’m just a die-hard Type A… Any who, each box, in theory, covers 25
square feet with a nominal 5″ exposure, so four boxes = 1 square. According to my calculations (and at this
point we all know how reliable those are), the house will need 19 squares of
shingles. Update at 11… or sometime next
month. Five o’clock swim was refreshing
for all three of us. Apparently I was so
dehydrated that half a G&T went straight to my head. Oh, dear, what am I going to do with the
other half?!?! After sending me 5 text
messages and calling me twice with no answer, Kate came over after dinner to
verify that I was still alive. Guess
Verizon’s signal is having a hard time penetrating through the mass of
mosquitoes outside.
11 July 2015
James arrived about 8
and continued work adding another course of rocks to the big retaining wall
between the house and the lake. Went
into Brandon to do a couple of errands and found no James when I got back an
hour later. So backfilled the power /
telephone / TV conduit trench as far as the southeast corner of the garage,
then moved several stumps to the hole next to the supply well that was dug to
capture tailings during the well drilling operation. May they rot in peace! Also moved a pile of excess 2 x 4 x 16
pressure treated lumber from in back of the house to by the woodshed, which
necessitated trundling down, and thereby completely blocking, Fern Lake Road
between Kate’s and our driveway. I was sure
there were no cars coming when I started out… and it’s a good thing Vermont
drivers are very patient when strange and unusual things are encountered along
the highways and byways. James came
back, explaining that his absence was to gather tools to repair the
mini-excavator, which had thrown a track.
Key to that repair was my using the Kubota’s backhoe to g∙e∙n∙t∙l∙y push
the track back onto the guide wheels after James had jacked up that side of the
machine with the excavator’s front blade and bucket. James complimented my backhoe operator skills
when the job was done, which made my day, week, and month! After lunch I cut to length the supports for
the new seats for Marty & Merry’s canoe, then attempted to install them,
discovering that the grommet washers that were on the bolts holding the old
seats in place were not the correct size… and the stainless steel bolts I
procured in Brandon this morning were too short. Back to the drawing board on that little
project! After James finished adding to
the big retaining wall, he rebuilt the stone wall that bisects our property
(and through which the septic force main was run). With Ploof’s big excavator, that job
literally took 5 minutes. After James
left for the day, I put two coats of Quikrete® waterproofing sealer
on the utility room floor, then took the dogs for a swim. Kate and I went over to Mark & Karen
Evans’ for their annual Fern Lake neighbors get together. Had a nice chat with Rebecca Makkai, author
of The Borrower and The Hundred Year House, both of which I
read, and enjoyed, last winter.
10 July 2015
Sonny and Ian were
here shortly after 7. In the morning
they knocked off a bunch of small projects that were low priority heretofore
but nonetheless needed doing: mid-span blocking that was missed when the
exterior walls were built, bracing for the shop and garage people door
thresholds, additional studs under a couple of roof point load locations, replacing
the ceiling over the porch, etc. Then,
just before lunch, the two geese took door and window height measurements
relative to the soffit. I worked all morning extending the power / telephone /
TV conduits and backfilling the first foot of part of the trench by hand (so
that there will be no big rocks bearing on the conduits). Ran out of PVC cement
with the 3″ power line conduit complete and with six joints left to glue on the
two 2″ conduits. Murphy’s Law in
action! Tom and Bret came to install the
tail piece in the return well for the geothermal system. (Technical explanation alert! A tailpiece is a length of pipe that extends
from where the return line enters the well down to 10 feet below the water
surface in the well, keeping the return flow from stirring up any sediments in
the well.) The F.W. Webb delivery truck
showed up again, bringing more presents courtesy of Ryan’s Plumbing and
Heating. After lunch, Sonny, Ian, and I
sat down with the measurements they’d taken to figure out the cedar shingle
story board, i.e., how much exposure each course will have so that the courses
will line up with the tops and bottoms of the window trim and tops of the door
trim with no course’s exposure less than 4¾″ nor more than 5¼″. That is a fairly complex task… but critically
important to having the house exterior look good. While Sonny and Ian built and
tested the actual story boards (really just long poles with marks for the
bottom edge of each course), I gave a tour to Mark Evans (neighbor from across
the lake) and his friend Bob Wilkerson. The
first story board poles didn’t work right, so we figured out where the problem
was (one key measurement was really 55¼″, not the 55¾″ we had used in our
calculations). At that point it was
Miller time, so Sonny and Ian will create a new and improved story board on
Monday. Dinner down at Marty &
Merry’s, with Kate also present.
Delightful company, as always, and (as they say around these parts) the
fixin’s weren’t too awful bad.
9 July 2015
Tyler, Jimmy, and
James got here shortly after 7:30 and, a few minutes later, Chree and I
witnessed a successful pressure test of the septic system, heralded by 36
lovely, same-height, mini-fountains spurting from the dispersion piping in the
leach field. After Tyler left, Jimmy and
James glued all the piping together (with the orifices pointed down). At this point we needed the two sheets of
Blueboard that we had stolen from the septic system project yesterday to cover
the water lines where they ran much shallower than expected. I had ordered replacement Blueboard
yesterday, so I called Goodro’s to see when they might be delivered. The answer was ambiguous enough that I
saddled up the Tacoma and went to get them myself. Met Troy and the Goodro’s boom truck (with
Blueboard aboard) just as he was pulling out of the lumber yard. Troy told me he was headed straight to Fern
Lake. So I reversed course. Troy also brought 5 figures worth 18
squares of cedar shingles for the house.
Merry Christmas, kids! With
Blueboard in hand (cover for the lateral distribution piping in the leach field),
Jimmy and James covered the leach field trenches with stone, filter fabric, and
part of Mount Ploof (the enormous pile of dirt once more inhabiting the area
between our driveway and Kate’s). Chree
left for a long weekend in Massachusetts babysitting Devin while Katy is out of
town. I finished digging the trench for
the power / telephone / cable TV conduits, uncovering and wrestling out of the
ground a 1½ ton rock along the way, then continued the conduit laying. After James finished putting grass seed and
protective straw on the leach field, he continued adding stone to the big
retraining wall on the west side of the house.
Normally he quits promptly at 5, so hearing him working away, I
naturally assumed that the time was shy of that hour. But when I finally looked at the clock on my
cell phone, I discovered it was 5:42 and I needed to be down at Marty &
Merry’s at 6, the dogs hadn’t been fed, and there was no water heated for a
shower. While I was still in the
(lukewarm) shower at 5:55, the dogs went crazy, a sure sign that we had
visitors. Yup, Marty and Merry here to
pick me up so we could go out to dinner together at Rosie’s Restaurant in
Middlebury. Setting a new record for washing, drying, and dressing, I walked
out the door (okay, so maybe I was still a bit damp) promptly at 6:00. As always, was great spending time with the
Lapidii… and I now can check Rosie’s off my Bucket List.
8 July 2015
Busy day today! Jimmy arrived along with a heavy rain shower
at 7:30 and began digging the waterline trenches from the wells to where they
enter the house through the basement wall.
Tom Roorda and Bret Williams (Tim’s son) from Spafford and Sons pulled
in about 8:30, bringing with them sunshine and an enormous drill with which
they bored two 2″ diameter holes through the north basement wall. Once the
trenches were dug and sanded, the Spafford’s folks put in the two 1¼″ water
lines (one from the supply well and one to the return well) and the 10-3 UF electric
cable that will power the supply well pump. To be safe, and also because Jimmy
had found a boulder just a few feet down and a few feet from the foundation
that he could not move (and we are thankful that that rock wasn’t in the
cellar hole!), we put 4″ of Blueboard over the waterlines for the first 4 feet
out from the foundation wall and then 2″ Blueboard for the next 20 feet (at
which point the lines were a good 6 feet underground). Fingers crossed that that is enough
insulation to prevent the lines from freezing… ‘cause no water = no heat with a
geothermal system. Jimmy left once the
trenches were dug. While waiting for the Spafford’s folks to finish doing their
magic, James used the Kubota to backfill the trench for the electrical conduit from
the house to the walkway. We put red “Caution: Buried Electric Line” tape over
the conduit just in case someone ever wants to dig under the patio. James really liked the Kubota! Then James backfilled the waterline trenches
with his excavator. I was headed towards the RV thinking of lunch and found a
strange delivery truck in the driveway.
“Can I help you?”, I said to the driver.
“I’m here to deliver a water heater”, he replied. “Oh, okay…”, says I. Assuming that said water heater was, in fact,
for us and would need to go into the utility room via the shop door, a door
that I had cleverly blocked with a ton (literally) of 2 x 4 x 16 lumber the
other day, Chree and I set to work moving that lumber into the shop... all 150 pieces of it. So much for lunch! While we still were engaged in that effort,
Dennis Senesac from Ryan’s arrived... 15 minutes early for our meeting. Understand
that Dennis has a well deserved, freely acknowledged, reputation for NEVER being on time for a
meeting. After getting over the shock,
we had a very productive two hour discussion about how the HVAC system is going
to be configured. While that was going
on, James started adding another course of rocks to the big retaining wall between
the house and the lake so that we can raise the backyard grade level up to
cover the septic tanks. Tom and Bret
returned and replaced the motor on the well pump (don’t know what they had put
down the well for the 72 hour 20 gpm test, but the new one is 1½ horsepower,
220 volts, 3 phase, 30 amps). They said
that both wells have about 35 feet of water in them (from the surface to the
bottom of the casing), which translates into approximately 60 gallons. Jimmy came back (twice) bearing 200 gallons
of water (each time), which he put into the septic pump tank. Other than the obligatory after work swim
with the dogs, I think that’s everything that happened today…
7 July 2015
Chree and I spent the
day window shopping for patio pavers, bamboo and slate flooring while the dogs
enjoyed Delores’ air conditioned splendor.
Took Alverta out to lunch at Pauline’s Café (her favorite dining
venue). In the small world department,
ran into Sean in the Lowe’s parking lot after procuring a few hundred dollars
worth of electrical devices.
6 July 2015
Went down to the
Rutland DMV office first thing in the morning and was able to change the vanity
plate selection for the Tacoma. While I
was gone Ian and Sonny snuck in the back way (via Kate’s driveway) and continued
their studly work in the basement. By
the end of the day they had completed all of the framing that we plan to do
this summer. Arriving back at Fern Lake,
I came zipping into the driveway to find it completely blocked by a large pile
of crushed stone… which Jimmy and James were busy converting into absorption
trenches for the leach field. Good thing
the Tacoma (unlike the Prius) really does have 4WD. The conundrum of the day is that I had been
told (but not by Jimmy) that Jimmy would be bringing in a truckload of water
for the septic system pressure test and Jimmy assumed that water would be
available onsite for that purpose. We
realized, too late to get the water today, that a truckload of water would be
needed. So we postponed the test until
Wednesday. Sonny taught me a nifty way
to enlarge a ¾″ hole in a plastic electrical junction box into a 1″ hole when
using a brad point bit. For his sagacity
above and beyond the call of carpentry, Sonny was awarded the “Old Indian
Trick” award at a formal presentation during lunch. Meanwhile, Chree spent most of the morning using
the Kubota’s backhoe to find big rocks where the electrical / telephone /
television conduits need to be buried. While she was jarring loose several
dental fillings, I ran new ¾″ conduit from the top of the walkway to the house
thru-wall sleeve. After lunch, Chree and
I installed several lengths of conduit in the trench she had created. In the evening, we attended the annual Lake
Dunmore / Fern Lake Association meeting.
5 July 2015
Right after breakfast sat
down with my house design computer program and a fresh brain, made a few tweaks
to the size of the pantry, slid the doorway to the living / dining room a foot
to the east and, voilá, we had a kitchen design that both Chree and I
like. Used the Kubota to reopen the
trench that Alex dug on Friday, then ripped out the conduit and wires from the
house to the head of the walkway. With much hard work plus many a swear word,
eventually got the reducer out of the wall so that a ¾″ PVC conduit can be
inserted… as per the original concept.
VERY carefully used the backhoe to dig down (and down, and down) between
the wire that keeps Delores in electrons and the conduit that currently feeds
power to the woodshed, finding the ends of the 3″ (main power from the panel to
the house) and the two 2″ (telephone and cable TV) conduits right where we left
them in 2009. Then Chree took over
excavation duties and extended the trench down the hill and around the corner
towards Grandma’s house. In between all
the dirty fun, cleaned and straightened up the basement… ‘cause you know how
fussy them geese are. The lake level is
6½″ below the top of the dock and still pushes the thermometer up to 75°, which
felt pretty darn good!
4 July 2015
Alex, Chree, and I
spent an hour in the house this morning, tape measures in hand, trying to
visualize kitchen layout alternatives. Everyone agrees that the original design puts
the refrigerator too far from the stove and primary food preparation
counter. Perfect solution not found, but
several possibilities crossed off the list.
Then we all adjourned to Charlestown, NH for the annual Tarrio family
picnic at Chree’s sister Anne’s house.
Chree, the dogs, and I got back to Fern lake at 7 pm, well sated with
good food and the latest family news.
3 July 2015
As usual, Sonny and
Ian got here at 7 and went to work putting up basement wall studs. I helped Sonny for awhile sheathing the
inside walls of the utility room. Rather
than cut into the final sheet of AC plywood to get a piece 16″ wide, I told
Sonny to use a “scrap” piece of BC plywood leftover from some past
project. Needless to say, unending grief
for my decision issued forth from all and sundry for the rest of the day. Welcome to the crew! Meanwhile, Jimmy and James continued putting
in the septic system force main, closing Kate’s driveway for several hours, and
then closing our driveway just when Chree was returning from doing errands in
Middlebury. Turns out the Prius does
pretty good as an all terrain vehicle, as she zigged through the woods to get
around the driveway blockage. By
quitting time the force main had been run all the way to leach field area and
both driveways were back to pristine condition.
Katy, Alex, and Devin arrived at 9. Soon thereafter Katy had her first
Kubota operating experience, successfully completing some tight-quarters
maneuvering. Alex dug most of the trench
for the conduit that will connect the house to the walkway / sauna /
waterfront. As soon as I got all the
wires connected and Alex backfilled the trench, realized that the conduit needs
to contain 4 wires (so that the walkway lights can be controlled from inside
the house, eventually), not the 3 that were in it. Not only will the conduit have to be
re-excavated, but it will have to be replaced with a larger diameter to accept
the 4th wire. C’est la vie
Doug! When Katy remounted the Kubota to
put it away for the night, Devin (now age 20 months) decided he wanted to drive
the “digger”, too. So he “helped” Katy,
but was a little frustrated when she wanted to turn the steering wheel in a
direction opposite to what he wanted.
Don’t think he’s quite ready yet for his CDL test. Burgers and dogs on the campfire and a
delightful picnic outside for dinner.
Chree and I slept in the house master bedroom (area) for the first time
overnight, which proved to be exceptionally pleasurable.
2 July 2015
The Goose Creek dynamic
duo arrived, per usual, at 7 and continued work putting up basement interior walls. The Goodro’s truck was here at 7:30 with the
AC plywood that will be used to sheath the interior of the utility room. I spent a couple of hours at the Middlebury DMV
office arranging for the Tacoma to become an official Vermont resident. While I was gone, Jimmy and James ran the 4″
pipe from the house to the septic tank, thence to the pump tank, ran the ¾″
electrical / alarm conduit from the house to the pump tank, ran the 2″ force
main up the hill 100 feet, and installed the 3″ vent line pipe up to where it
terminates in the woods between the patio and where the garden will be. Upon
return to Fern Lake, Chree and I tackled repairing the damaged waterfront
electrical line conduit, which took the remainder of the morning. Sean came by early afternoon. We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing
house design details. As usual, Sean had
some great ideas about many house design elements, including how to reconfigure
the kitchen to make it more user friendly.
For the house siding, we finally decided on clear white cedar shingles
produced by Maibec in Quebec, Canada and treated with one coat of Cabot H2BO
water bleaching stain. Sean placed an
order for 18 squares of those critters; you do NOT want to know what they
cost. Delivery expected Tuesday next. After three false starts and much palavering,
Ian and Sonny got most of the sound-deadening wall erected between bedroom #2
and the shop. By the time he left, Jimmy
had laid the septic force main up to just before Kate’s driveway and had
backfilled the two tanks and the trench to that point.
1 July 2015
I got up extra early,
broke fast quickly, then disassembled and pulled out of the ground the power
line that ran from the existing electrical subpanel to the top of the walkway. (That
line was going to be a major pain to dig around when putting in the septic
system force main… and, sooner or later (so why not sooner?) it would need to
be fed from the house utility room electric panel.) Sonny and Ian arrived at 7
and spent the day framing basement walls, finishing the studwork for the
utility room and bedroom #1. Jimmy and
James came at their usual time (7:45) and started digging the trench for the
septic system force main. The Camp
Precast Concrete truck showed up at 9:30, bearing, this time, the correct,
1,500 gallon, septic tank, which was quickly put into the ground. All this time the rain was coming down
steadily, making Sonny and Ian happy campers and Jimmy and James much less so. Jimmy’s day went considerably downhill when
his excavator tangled first with the sauna waterline and then with the electric
line that runs from the top of the walkway down to the waterfront. If you bet on the PVC conduit to have won those
encounters, you lost. Chree and I headed
into Middlebury to procure parts needed to repair that damage, plus do some
other errands. We stopped at Goodro’s to
stock up on 3″ deck screws (I swear Ian must be eating them…), and to order a
new, properly-sized Anderson 400 series
Frenchwood 54611 patio door for the sun room.
When we returned, Jimmy and James had departed for drier climes. Between the afternoon rain showers, Chree and
I wandered about talking design issues.
We also made a fabulous beef stew for dinner.
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