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.
31 August 2018
Power to the People, Baby!!! Rob Cormier and Chesley Deering from Peck
Electric got here about 8:30 and proceeded to do their magic, resulting in 242
volts of electrons flowing into the barn two hours later, with the entire
installation in full compliance with the National Electrical Code. Yes, you read that right, 242 volts… apparently
Green Mountain Power was being generous today… and so much for my concerns
about voltage drop using 6 AWG wire for the hot leads. After the guys left, I put the penultimate
coat of white paint on what will be the exposed side of the soffit boards. Then I ran some electrical wire, getting
three outlets and two lights working by whiskey drinking time. Turns out that the wooden outlet boxes I
inserted into the south and west concrete walls are about ⅟₃₂″ too short for
the receptacles I bought. Doesn’t sound
like much, but doesn’t fit means doesn’t fit.
However, a little work with the flush cut saw and a chisel soon
rectified that small problem.
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