22 September 2018
Mike, Pikey, and Zach here most of the day
roofing away. They finished putting panels on the east side and half of the
north side. Chree and I continued
stuffing Delores with all of our worldly goods plus a few tons of food.
20 September 2018
Visited with Mike Many while walking Shlomo this
morning. Mike recommended raising the
cupola base a few inches in order to accommodate the metal roof ribs and hip
caps. Back at the barn, careful
measurements showed that the cupola, as built, wouldn’t have fit right even
without the ribs and hip caps interfering.
Who designed that thing? So added
2″ to the cupola’s foundation on the top of the barn roof, which should (note I
said “should”) solve the problem. Will
have to cut off and remove the eight ¼″ x 7″ tie-down bolts and replace them
with ¼″ x 9½″ threaded rods. Loaded a
bunch more “stuff” into Delores, including $107 worth of petrol.
17 September 2018
Charles Goodrich came by mid-morning and took
away all of the Goose Creek tools and staging.
Very sad! I really had grown fond
of the chop saw… and the 20 foot aluminum plank, though heavy, was very popular
with the roofers. Only things left are
the wall jacks. Jeff Many (Mike Many’s
cousin) and Ryan Tarbell (Jeff’s son) from Green Mountain Door arrived late
morning and spent many hours installing the barn’s 16 foot wide by 8 foot high
overhead door, operated by a Liftmaster® ½ horsepower door opener. Jeff
even programmed one of the Tacoma’s HomeLink® transmitter buttons to
operate the new door… and gave me a key fob for the Kabota that does the same
thing. So high tech! Gave the Kubota a bath, amongst other
preparatory tasks for our upcoming annual logging trip to Calais, as Chree only
likes to operate a clean log skidder.
16 September 2018
Mike Many and crew here in the morning and
finished putting the metal roof pans on the south-facing roof, then got a
little more than half of the east-facing roof done before being diverted to
other pursuits. Alex, Katy, and Devin
headed back south at 11 after another most enjoyable visit.
15 September 2018
Katy, Alex, & Devin arrived in time for
breakfast to commence a short fun-filled weekend visit: swimming, canoeing,
kayaking, Frisbee golf, croquet, shooting, barbequing, the obligatory heart’s
game, and a very interesting tour of the Omya marble quarry in Middlebury. Mike
Many, Mike Many, Jr (Pikey), and Zach Saxe (who lives at the north end of Fern
Lake) got here about 9 with the first pieces of metal roof edge trim. Unfortunately, things went a bit downhill
from there, as Mike and crew struggled until nearly 1 o’clock to get Mike’s
forklift started, said forklift needed to hoist the coils of metal roofing
material onto the de-coiler stand so that they could fabricate the roof pans. The guys returned about 2 and started putting
roof pans into place, getting the east half of the south-facing roof done by Labatt
Blue time.
14 September 2018
Finished putting in the overhead door facing
trim and applied a coat of paint, mostly to the Koma®. Built a small workbench at the back of the
barn. Lake temperature still a
refreshing 76°.
13 September 2018
Ripped the 1x8 Koma® that was
delivered last week to a 6¼″ width, that being the theoretical width of the
overhead door facing. Why “theoretical”
you ask? ‘Cause the actual facing width measurements
varied between 6⅛″ and 6⁹/₁₆″. Using
many quick clamps, was able to install the horizontal, very floppy, 16′ top
trim piece by myself. Also put in the
right-hand vertical trim piece.
12 September 2018
Finished running 14-2 wire for all the lights
this morning. Wired up the 3-way switches correctly first try! All lights
shining brightly except for one interior light (for which I need a junction box
part from Lowes) and the two exterior lights (to be installed in conjunction with
shingling the barn). Took all afternoon to install the eight wood “wedges” that
will help anchor the cupola. Reason it
took so long to do that relatively simple task: having cut the 45° angles for each
wedge correctly some time ago, decided today that they were wrong, so cut them
the other way, only to discover that (1) they now were wrong (spatial
orientation is so not my strong suit!) and, (2) cut again the
original way, they now would be too short.
Grrrr! So had to fabricate all
new pieces. The original pieces were
created using the Goose Creek table saw… which I no longer have. Doing the same work on my radial arm saw: not
nearly so easy or safe… but I got ‘er done without losing any fingers. Chree made my pre-prandial whiskey and ginger
extra strong tonight. I didn’t complain…
11 September 2018
Two major problems solved today!!!! Ray from R.V. Medic in West Rutland came up
this afternoon and quickly diagnosed, then repaired, Delores’ ailing main cabin
air conditioner. Well worth the $200
service call / repair cost. (Divorce is so
much more expensive!) Of course, this
means that the weather in Calais in a couple of weeks will be well below
freezing… Surprisingly, taking out the barn’s southeast window without damaging
the flange was not at all difficult; hardest part was removing the Vycor®
from the window sill… that stuff sticks like there’s no tomorrow! Pulled out the faulty 12-2 wire and found…
nothing obviously wrong! Ran a new wire
to the outlet and no more ground fault, so we be smilin’! Chree helped me take out and put back in the
window, which now looks and operates just as perfectly as when originally
installed.
10 September 2018
Took Delores down to Green Mountain Garage in
Brandon for her annual inspection, which she passed handily. Ran (until I ran out) 14-2 lighting circuit
wire in the barn, getting the two lights in the loft area glowing brightly.
9 September 2018
Attacked Delores with our carpet cleaner. Rediscovered that the settee actually has
some vibrant colors in the fabric. After
removing many tanks of really, really black water, Delores looked and smelled
habitable again. Fitted Delores with an
electronic pest deterrent device “guaranteed” (in very broken English) to keep
mice, other rodents, and even mosquitoes away.
We’ll see… Also finished painting
the barn soffits and fascias. Sunday
sauna at six five.
8 September 2018
Spent the day cleaning inside Delores. Trust me, you don’t want to know the gory
details. On a positive note, some of the
mice did use the toilet… they just forgot to raise the lid first. They also chewed a hole in the fiberglass
shower enclosure. I mean, really!!!!
7 September 2018
Today was plank moving day… and by the end of
the day the Goose Creek 20 foot aluminum plank sure did get heavy. Says on the label plate that the plank is
rated for 500 pounds. Obviously what
they meant is that the plank weighs 500 pounds after being lifted and carried a
dozen times. Started off moving the
plank around to each side of the barn so that all the seams between the soffit
boards and between the soffit and the fascia could be sealed with Phenoseal®. Also used Red Devil Onetime® lightweight
spackling, aka “fluff”, to fill in the pin holes created when Steve and I
nailed up the soffits. Then around I
went again with the plank, sanding the soffits, fascias, and feature
strips. Then around I went putting the
final coat of paint on the whole works… until I ran out of paint with just the
east side left to do. Chree liked the
“frosted” look that resulted when I brushed the paint onto the north-side soffit
with my hair. Took the tarp off Delores
and discovered that it has been mouse and chipmunk party time inside the RV for
the last 11 months. Unfortunately, the
rodents, after totally trashing the place, forgot to clean up after
themselves. Also, when they needed comfy
bedding, the critters chewed chunks out of the mattress. Recommendation: buy stock in Procter & Gamble,
the company that makes both Mr. Clean® and Febreze®.
6 September 2018
Steve came over again this afternoon, soon after
a cold front rolled through, giving us a spot of much needed rain and then
drastically reducing the temperature and humidity. We put up the soffits and soffit vents on the
south and north sides, saving the latter for last as that side is the most
visible. Which side, of the four, came
out the best? Dedicated blog readers
will be right with their first answer: the least visible south side. Oh, well, that’s why they invented Phenoseal®
caulk. In the 20 minutes just before
G&T time we also put up the ⁵/₄ x 2¾″ Koma® trim that butts up
against the soffit on the wall side all the way around the building.
5 September 2018
What was your brain doing at 3:18 this
morning? Mine was having an epiphany, to
wit: perhaps the hot side of the electrical outlet under the southeast barn
window is coming in contact with the still damp and very narrow wooden outlet
box embedded in the concrete wall, causing the outlet to ground-fault. Checked that theory after breakfast only to
find, alas, that my brain needs more sleep.
Steve Ingram came over this afternoon to help put up the soffits and
soffit vents on the west and east sides of the barn. Glad we did the less visible west side first,
as there were a few areas that will need lots of caulk lessons learned
with that initial effort. Heat index hit
100° again this afternoon, which made the 75° lake feel just fine at quitting
time, thank you very much.
4 September 2018
Houston, we have a problem
disaster!!!! Wired in the outlet that is
under the southeast barn window and, as soon as I restored power, the GFI that
protects that circuit popped. Checked
all connections and found nothing wrong, which means my worst nightmare likely has
come true: the wire that runs to that outlet must have been damaged under the
window as we forced it around two sharp 90° bends and through the piece of ½″
EMT that “protects” the wire from stray nails.
Bottom line: that wire run will have to be replaced and, at this point,
the only way to do that is to remove the window… which, you’ll recall, was put
in to stay forever. I need a hug… and to
shoot the barn’s designer! Soon after
discovering the foregoing, carefully measured 27 feet of wire to run to the
last outlet in the barn (under the northeast window), got it hooked up at the
feed end and stapled into place, only to find that the wire was 12″ short at
the load end. Enough to make a grown man
drink heavily weep! Nothing for
it but to rip out the too short wire and try again, achieving success the
second time around. Also ran the last lighting
circuit wire into the electrical subpanel.
Under the cover, where no one will ever see the professional quality
workmanship, the inside of the subpanel does look very nicely done.
3 September 2018
Took four of the MDO soffit boards over to Steve
Ingram’s this morning so that, using his table saw, we could rip them into the
two pieces that will fit either side of the soffit vents. Shlomo, recognizing a golden opportunity when
he saw it, snuck off to the lake three times while Steve and I were doing our
sawyer thing. While Shlomo was drying
off in the sun back at our place, I ripped my stock of ⁵/₄ x 6 Koma®
into two equal sized pieces using ye olde portable circle saw with rip guide,
convinced the whole time that I didn’t have enough linear feet for the trim for
which they will be used. Finished the
sawing the last board and realized that I’d screwed up the math again
ended up with way more linear feet of trim than will be needed, which is
another way of saying I cut two very expensive Koma® boards that, if
whole, could have been returned to Goodro’s for a substantial credit. The bruise on my rear end should fade away
someday… Giving up in disgust on
carpentry for the nonce, turned my hand to electrical work, installing the rest
of the outlets that are imbedded in the concrete walls. Then I fabricated and installed the front,
mid-span vertical support for the southern set of loft shelves, ‘cause that
support will have an outlet flush to its front face. That done, realized that I was way overdue
for some quality cooling-off time in the lake, accompanied, of course, by a
certain black doggie.
2 September 2018
This was RV power day. First step was to very, very
carefully use the backhoe to excavate the 10-2 UF wire (UF = underground feed,
which means the wire can be direct buried vice having to be in a conduit) that brings
power to the RV. Only had to dig up the
section of wire that was between the main power pedestal and the south edge of
the driveway (where the wire enters a conduit that runs underneath the asphalt). That digging went pretty smoothly until I got
to the top of the little hill where the pedestal is located. There the wire plummeted downwards; ditto the
end that once was connected to the electrical subpanel that was on the main
pedestal until last Friday. I dug and I
dug and I doug some more, getting halfway to China before the wire leveled
out. Seems some IDIOT ran the RV wire UNDERNEATH
the 4″ conduit which connects the main pedestal to the house!!!! What was he thinking?!?!? Wire finally freed from the bowels of the
Earth, next step was to feed it through the conduit that was inserted into the
barn’s western concrete wall just for that purpose. Except that some IDIOT was cheap, cheap, cheap and put in a ½″ diameter conduit
(which he had in abundance left over from past projects) instead of buying the
¾″ that would have made pulling that very stiff, solid core wire so much
easier. What was he thinking?!?!? No need, again today, for a workout at the
gym. By sauna time, the RV wires were
connected in the barn’s new subpanel, the main pedestal was cut down to size,
and the trenches were backfilled.
1 September 2018
During our morning constitutional, had a nice chat
with Mike Many while Shlomo was playing chase with Mike’s dog, Mindy. Mike has ordered the steel for the barn
standing seam roof. Hopefully the metal
will arrive this week… Finished trimming
off the rafters whose level cuts were below the bottom of the outlooks. Then painted flat black the middle 4″ of the outlooks
and rafter level cuts in the middle 12′ on each side of the barn. This is a trick that Perry taught me long
ago: painted black where the soffit vents are installed, the rafters and
outlooks become invisible when you look up through the vents. Then put the final trim pieces on the bottom
of the cupola. Once again the Kubota’s
forks were very handy, raising the cupola high enough for working comfortably
underneath.
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