Happy Halloween, short update.

Only a quick update today.  As in the past couple of years, no trick or treaters, and the apartment was empty.  My car and truck were the only two vehicles in the parking lot when I got home.  

I took Barry's advice, picked up some more mouse traps and put sunflower seeds on them instead of (kind of in addition to) peanut butter.  When I got home, I worked on plumbing (shocker!).  The kitchen stack is now ready to be fitted.  It won't be warm enough for a while to do that.

The rest of the plumbing parts (the last manifold most notably) should be in tomorrow.  I also intend to start making a winterization checklist tomorrow.  

Tim did get back to me, got me a contact with an unconventional mortgage company.  They aren't a normal bank, their funding is different, and they don't do classic mortgages, they tend to be more tailored.  Tim got his home refinanced through them since he could get a mortgage where he paid on it twice a month so it didn't accrue interest, and things like that.  I am not sure if they will help, but I can give them a call.  At this point it will likely be next year before I do anything, but mortgages can take months to go to closing, so I am not intending to just sit idle on that front.  

Mice win this round, even it up at 1-1.

I didn't do much up there today, though I did go up during lunch.  A lot of trees came down.  I came across almost a dozen sizable trees that had come down on my way up.


The power went out yesterday, and wasn't restored until this afternoon.  They had Hubbard road blocked.  Thankfully I came in the other side.


Thankfully, no major damage on my property.  A bunch of stuff like this: a branch that hit the ground so hard it buried itself almost an inch and a half in the mud.


All my leaves are gone.  All in one fell swoop.  A few days ago, most of these trees still had almost all their leaves.


I was in for a rude surprise when I got there.  One of my traps had been blown clean off the block it was sitting on, but none of them had been tripped.  The mice had clearly been around though.  They win this round.  So much for my plumbing plans... 


Most of my work today after work was done at home.  It wasn't warm enough to do waste line plumbing, so I brought everything home where I can work in the second heated bedroom.  The first thing I did was paint my insulation, so if I ever have to look at it again, I can differentiate hot and cold.  I was a little surprised I couldn't find them color coded in the store, but nothing a couple cans of spray paint couldn't fix.


The humongous box finally came in handy.


My hands look like I murdered a member of the Blue Man Group.  This was after I scrubbed a lot of it off.


I also got all the plumbing marked and got the AAV assembled.  It was after 9 at this point, I decided not to fire up the chop saw.


I spoke with Barry, and he recommended sunflower seeds as bait, he said it worked much better than the peanut butter on his traps, so I might pick some up tomorrow and get them put out.  Time to up the ante.

The return of the plumbing.

It was wet and rainy all day, so I stayed inside.  I think I found the issue with the waterproofing, the seams are leaking. 


This puddle is in the back, there is no way it is caused by the front leaking.  The sides are perfectly dry.  This means that the tape isn't watertight like it is supposed to be.  I am not sure how to fix that to be honest.


The first thing I did was put out the mouse traps.  I have three traps down by the trailer.  One by the front of the trailer, one by the door, since they frequently hide around the tires, and one in the tractor.  I also put one up in the shed over by the tools (where I had the poison the first time).  I also put the poison in the shed. 


Today I worked on plumbing (surprise surprise).  Since I didn't like the idea of running the chop saw in the rain, I decided to work on the supply lines instead.  Pex is actually really easy to work with.  Both manifolds are installed, and the branch lines are installed up to the tee. 




One of the crossbeams is in the way.  I will probably take a few chunks out of it.  I considered cutting the whole thing out, but decided against it. 


Since I don't have the floor or wall in, the rest of the supply line plumbing will be a challenge.  This goes back to the whole order of operations thing.  The plumbing requires the floor be installed.  The floor requires the plumbing and insulation be done since I did the underbelly first.  an annoying circle, because I did things in the wrong order.  I think I might start building the center wall anyways.  I have everything in my car in case I get bored tonight and decided to do the kitchen drain line.  I also picked up a bunch of stuff at Home Depot, including an exterior light and exterior boxes along with the wire for the generator plug so I can finish that stuff up, since it is primarily what is preventing me from insulating the walls.

Slab cleaned off, damage assessment complete.

So I went and disassembled the two carports.  I should be able to make one out of the remains next year if I want to put one up.  This is the remains of the one that blew over into the back yard.  This one just had a few bent poles, the canopy survived.  The other one the canopy got shredded and was dragged up to my tarp graveyard by the shed, but most of the poles survived.  This is the first one, I apparently didn't take a picture of the pile with them both on there.


I also went to install the lights on the plow blade.  Looks like I might have to make a bracket for it.  These are both adjusted to their extremes, one in each direction of the mounting plate it came with.


I also went and tested all the power tools today.  The circular saw ran a little sluggish spinning up, but seemed to be fine.  The jig saw started up, but there is something wrong with the motor, it is all but worthless now, though to be fair it was a POS before it got rained on.  The chop saw squeals and makes other unsavory noises, but seems to cut ok. 


There is a piece missing on the chop saw, the clamp.  I will get over it.


The air compressor doesn't run right, but it runs.  It shakes like hell now though, which it never used to and the tank drain plug is seized up (I almost never used it anyways).  The nailer jams a lot more often now, but still works fine.  It has a lot of rust on the springs and the loading mechanisms though, so I will have to monitor it.  Heather's brad nailer and stapler works great.  It has a little rust on it, but nothing serious.  In short, everything still functions, but they all probably had their lives shortened a bit.  That is a major relief. 


I came across another couple of mice nests today.  One was in the push mower.  I never got around to fixing it, so it has sat all summer, and there was a nest with 4 mice in it.  I got three of them, the last one ran away too quick.  I also found another one in the wood scraps pile.  It has been eliminated.  When I was installing the lights on the plow blade though, I smelled a mouse nest (they are very dirty animals and their nests stink) and found that they decided to build in the engine of my lawn tractor. 


I think it is time to rectify the problem.  They ate all the gloves I had out the last few days, but the tractor is the last straw.  This means war.  I couldn't find the little pellet mouse poison, this was all Home Depot had.  All of them will be out tomorrow.


I finished cleaning off the slab.  I am not going to bother putting up another carport this year.  It is November in a few days and I would have to take it down once it started to snow anyways.  Everything still out is waterproof, since we are supposed to get another round tomorrow. 


In all, I think the damage is limited to maybe a couple hundred dollars, which isn't too bad, all things considered.  There were a few things I couldn't find in the dark, like my carpenter square and all my spade bits.  Those are not salvageable.  The regular square isn't really usable anymore either.  It is hard to read with the rust on it.  I lost a lot of fasteners, all the bolts and everything I had are rusted up, but thankfully the screws and nails I bought in bulk all survived (the screws come in 25 lb boxes, which run around 75-80 dollars a piece). All of my bits and quick release magnetic bit holders are toast.  Even today I couldn't locate most of the bits.  Mice ate all my gloves (except for the one glove that had a mouse in it). 

I also started to prepare for winter in my apartment when I got home.  I finally got around to taking out my air conditioners, since I cracked and turned on the heat a couple nights ago when my apartment hadn't gone above 53 all day. 

Regarding the loan dilemma, I still haven't heard back from Tim on his loan guy.  Glenn, the investor I mentioned, is out.  He is thinking of buying a house, so he doesn't have the cash to spare.  I spoke with Matt briefly (he actually reads my blog and talked to me :) ), he is a possibility, though I haven't heard anything definitive. 

I did some thinking while I was up there cleaning today, and I think the probability of me having the place livable in less than a month with no time off is around 10% at this point, so I think the loan stuff might be put on hold until spring.  While I can't save up enough to cover the septic, I can easily cover the well that way.  It also means that I need to get started on winterizing the place, and things like fix the driveway need to be done because it can't be cleared in its current state, the ruts will swallow a snowblower or the front of the tractor.

Damage assessment.

We have gotten a lot of rain the past couple of days.  I have seen reports of over 5".  My creek bears that out.  Three days ago it was all but dry.  This is what it looks like now, and we just got more rain, and will get some more tonight.


A few more things blew around, but nothing too bad.


The tarp mostly held.  It came off on one end, but mostly held up.


I also noticed that one of the windows had its screen start to come out.


I took some time and hosed down all my tools with WD-40 today and did a damage assessment.  The hand tools handled the water better than I expected.  There is some rust on them, but it doesn't look fatal.  A few of them didn't make it, my file is toast for example, but the hammers and screwdrivers made it.  A lot of the bits are gone, I couldn't even find them in the dark.  The generator started up and ran just fine, the lights seem to be ok.  All the power tools are in the car trying to dry out.  I will try them out tomorrow.  I will have to replace at least Heather's nailer, it got drenched and infested with mice, who chewed on it a little.


I haven't come to any conclusions on the loan issue.  I have found a couple of trailer parks that I need to call tomorrow.  I also did some research on the gofundme option, and that isn't viable. 

Potential Future Options

In case it wasn’t clear at the end of the last post, I have hit a major crossroads with the project.  I am evaluating my potential options going forward.  I have two main concerns.  The first is my apparent inability to get a loan for the septic and well, and the second is whether or not I can complete the work before snow flies. 

These are the paths forward that I see:

Cultivate other contacts for a loan.  One of my coworkers, Glenn, sometimes invests in small startups.  Tim knows a guy from a non-centralized bank.  

• This would be the ideal situation, but both are low probability.

Complete the home, refinance the mortgage on the land and get an equity loan. This requires that the home be completed before I can go in for the loan, it also requires an assessment be done.

• Pro – This would consolidate the loans. 
• Pro – It would be on a mortgage, which would have a better interest rate than I have on the land loan (and could get with a personal loan).  It also gives me a longer term, though I would hope not to have to use it.  This likely would result in the best terms for the loan.
• Con – Tiny homes are still a novelty in this part of the country.  This carries a lot of risk.  
• Con – If I don’t get the right assessor, he might value the home at less than 20k based on its size, or see it built on a camper frame and appraise it like a mobile home (which I have seen for free on Craigslist up here before...)  I really don’t know.  If either of those happen, I won’t have enough equity to cover the septic and well.  
• Con – Even if I do get a favorable assessment on the house (say 30-35k), most banks only lend equity up to 75-85% of the assessed value.  With a 30k assessment + 40k for the land, that gives me a value of 70k, minus the 24k I still owe on the land, I am pushing the limits of what I can get in an equity loan.  There is a good chance that unless everything is best-case scenario, I will still need a supplemental personal loan.
• Con – mortgages take months to get to closing, and I need to finish the house before I can start the process.  This would push me out until next spring at the earliest, possibly next summer or fall.

Bring the tiny home to a mobile home park and rent a lot.

• Pro – Don’t need the septic and well until later.  This gives me time, gets me out of my apartment, and will drastically reduce my living expenses.
• Con – Doesn’t actually solve the problem.
• Con – I still have to pay rent, though as noted, it would be much cheaper.
• Con – Mobile home parks are uncommon.
• Con - The size might also be a problem.  I might have to get an exemption from another town to haul it there.  Just because it is a park doesn't mean it is exempt from zoning laws.
• Con – Requires the trailer be completed.  Meaning tires, trailer brakes, lights, etc.  I am already wavering on whether I can complete the home this year, this would guarantee I can’t.  
• Con – It means my home, where I need to work, would be far away from the shed and my tools (what ones I have left anyways).  I don’t have interior space to sacrifice for a workshop either.

Try something like a gofundme page.  To be honest, I don't really know a lot about this kind of thing other than they exist.

• Pro – Not a loan.
• Pro – Could potentially bring in revenue from places where tiny homes are more popular and appeal to people more amenable to the idea.
• Meh – This would also publicize my tiny home effort.  This requires a lot of the details be made public.  Not sure if this is a pro or con.  
• Con – 31k is a sizable goal.  
• Con – A lot of unknowns.  Could potentially involve me digitizing a lot of my plans to give people a reason to bite.  Might have to advertise it, etc.
• Con – No guarantees of getting anything; potentially not viable.

Complete the tiny home and save up for the septic.

• Pro – Only need a small personal loan.  I got approved for one already.
• Pro – Only would accrue a minimal amount of debt.
• Con – Would be stuck in my apartment, paying rent for another year or potentially 2.  I have run the numbers and this does cost me more than the interest on a loan.

Complete the tiny home and sell it.  Build another next year.  As long as the size is about the same, I wouldn’t have any issue with the building permits or anything like that.

• Pro – no loan.  I would have the cash required for at least the septic from selling the home.
• Con – As mentioned before, these are still a novelty type thing in this area.  There are a lot of towns that don’t allow them.  Many people in this area shun mobile homes in general (even though modern ones are as good or better built than a modular).  What kind of market is there for one of these here? 
• Con – It would require the tiny home be truly complete – meaning the trailer brakes will have to be fixed, tires replaced, etc.  All the things I am intending to put off would have to be completed.  This significantly increases the scope of work I need to do.
• Con – Timeframe.  This means next fall is a best case scenario.  I also have to keep in mind that my building permit is only good for a year, it would have to be finished by September next year. You may notice some conflict with those statements.
• Con – This might just be my laziness, but the thought of doing all this again is rather daunting.  It wouldn’t be as bad; I have learned a lot, but that is still a ton of work.  
• Con – I assume that I can get almost 30k for the home.  There is an inherent risk here.
• Con – Liability.  I am not a carpenter/plumber/electrician, nor do I have a PE (professional engineer) license.  I could do some basic testing of these systems, but if there are problems in a year or two, I could be liable for that.  I don’t know the legality of this avenue.  It is one thing for me to have to deal with the plumbing if I own the place.  If there is something that doesn’t meet building code but I did it anyways for space constraints or whatever reason, am I on the hook for it?  I would sell it in as-is condition with no implied warranty, but houses are a fickle thing legally.

Complete the tiny home and sell it, Use the money to put down on a real home next year and include the well and septic in that transaction.

• Pro – I get the real home in far less than the original 5 year plan.
• Pro – Everything is wrapped up in a conventional mortgage.
• Con – Everything that applied to the above scenario applies here.
• Con – I would need to get another building permit.  I don’t believe it possible to get everything in the works before next September.
• Con – This kind of screws with the whole “get out of debt” long term plan.  I would be taking on a large mortgage while still having the truck payment, student loans, etc.  Originally I wanted to pay off my debts before I accrued a large mortgage.
• Con – Similar to the previous con, this eliminates the “cheap living” situation.  A full-sized house will have full-sized bills.

I also originally had another option: get an excavator and do the excavation work myself to reduce the cost, but that plan isn’t feasible.  The excavating is a rather small part of the cost of the septic, less than 3k, and is only a small part of the well, only about 1k.  To add insult to injury, Barry said he doesn't think his excavator will break the old foundation.  If it is thin enough, it might be able to lift the corner and break off chunks that way, but that is unlikely. 

Miserable day.

I wasn't intending to do any work today since I thought the owner of the building was going to pop in at 6.  He hasn't shown up yet as of posting this (6:51PM).

I did stop up at the property today, since I wanted to make sure the underbelly was watertight.  I noticed the last time it rained that there was a little that had leaked in the front, but since I hadn't taped it up yet, I kind of ignored it.  I got quite the surprise on my drive up there, the storms coming through today were really nasty.  I had a branch come down on my car while I was driving up there.  Thankfully no real damage, just a few scratches and some of the plastic molding around the windshield broke, but when I got up there, my heart sank a bit.


The picture is out of focus because I didn't have my camera with me; I wasn't intending to do any work today, so I took it with my phone which doesn't focus.  You can still clearly see that the carport toppled over.  As for a damage report, I didn't do a thorough check, but the chop saw went for a ride, my circular saws were both out, the jig saw was out, most of my hand tools were out (my hammers, screwdrivers, chisels, clamps, pliers, etc), my carpenter square and level were out, the grill is totaled, I could smell propane everywhere so I am not sure if the tank is busted or not, but I did turn the tank off.  The generator looked ok, but likely took a beating as things crashed around, so it could conceivably be damaged.  Thankfully my drill, reciprocating saw, sander were all inside.  The PVC pipe was undamaged, and my brand spanking new light took a tumble but looked ok.  Uggh.

To add insult to injury, the front still leaks.


I tarped up what I could in the driving rain.



Heather brought up something that I had only briefly considered before.  If I do get the loan, and don't make it up there this winter, my financial situation would get rather dicey really quick.  I had a quick look at the terms when I applied, and since the longest they offer is a 5 year loan (on 31k) I am looking at almost a grand a month once I get the loan.  If I don't move out, I can't count on the 775 I pay for rent, and 300-400 I pay for utilities to cover that.  I was expecting to have to cover it for a month or two, but if I don't move up there this winter and do get the loan, I might be eating a lot of plain chicken patties with nothing on them this winter.  It wouldn't bankrupt me, I make enough to cover it, but it makes things tight.  I have a message from TD bank with them wanting me to call them back, I am not sure that I do...

UPDATE - TD Bank would only approve me for 15k, which is the same as the other lenders, and won't cover the septic.  Things are not looking good.

Quick Update

I haven't heard anything from the bank yet, so I did more plumbing.  I got the washing machine side done, leaving only the kitchen sink for the drain lines. 

Obnoxious joint complete.

I got another late start, I went to a party after working yesterday and was there for a while.  Apparently the bees were out in force today, one of them stung me in my armpit (I was lying down doing plumbing), and doomed almost a half dozen that I saw flying around.

The first thing I did today was I decided to put the blade on my tractor.  It doesn't bolt up quite correctly, I was only able to get three of the four bolts in, but that should be plenty. 


Much to my surprise, power is definitely not an issue.  I will definitely have to get extra weight for the back though, especially since my tractor doesn't have a locking differential.  Still though, I was able to level out one of the humps in the driveway without too much trouble.  It took a few passes, the blade didn't bite well enough to get it all in the first go, but pushing it was not an issue.  If I can bulldoze with it, I don't think plowing will be a problem.  I had to use first gear for bulldozing, but I think I will be able to plow a little faster.


This is the only thing that concerns me.  Because the blade was designed for a garden tractor, which has much larger wheels and is higher off the ground, this is all the clearance on the blade that I have.  You can't really tell by the picture, but it is only about 4 inches.  Something else that bothers me is that the added weight accentuates the problem that my tractor has no brakes.


When I was playing with it, I noticed that the swivel is seized up, but I can probably free that up, it looks like the cable is too stretched as well.

Because I tested it before reinstalling the hood, the plug for my headlights was flopping around...  Right next to the muffler.  Oops, my bad.  I wanted to make a splitter for it anyways since the built in headlights are awful and I want to install something better.


I will probably get some tire chains and a lot of weight for the back, but while I am still concerned about the general health of the tractor, it seemed to handle the blade just fine.  I might still pick up a cheap snowblower or see if I can poach Greg's since he is moving and won't need it (it isn't big enough to do the whole driveway, though it would be possible in a pinch), but I don't think that I will need to come down and pick up the 4-wheeler.

On the plumbing side (grrr, I hate plumbing) I tried once again to get that troublesome joint together and once again failed.  So I got angry and "fixed" the problem with my reciprocating saw.  With that old crap out of the way, lining up a new line that fit together wasn't so bad.


Outside of the last joint, it all went together nicely too.  Looking at this picture, this all better be water tight, since if it isn't, I pretty much will have to completely rebuild the plumbing.  Likewise if anything leaks in a few years, I don't envy the plumber I would call to fix it.  Everything seems to be be all fitting and no pipe, which will make repairs very difficult. 


The last joint met at the correct angles, but kept pushing itself out, so I screwed in a block into the joist to hold it in place until it cures. 


I also dry fitted the laundry side.  I have enough fittings that doing this one should be easy.


I hope to finish up the laundry side tomorrow.  I don't think I have enough fittings to do the kitchen which will be the last piece.

Once again, I hope that I can come close to finishing the sewer tomorrow.  The good news is that the source lines I don't have to worry about temperature, the crimper works at all temperatures. 

Nice but frustrating day.

I got a bit of a late start, I haven't been sleeping too well, and slept in today.  I also had to make a Home Depot run, since I decided that despite being able to physically push the two pipes together I didn't really want to put that much stress on the pipe.  I tightened up the 3" line, the double 60 is a bit shorter, and the flat part up by the flange is a little shorter.  I had to whack one of the 60s to do it though. 


Most of the day was spent screwing around with this damn joint.  Apparently the Nibco wye fittings are really tight on the inlet.  Twice I failed to get this joint to work. 


Even wrenching on it hard enough to rip out the straps.


In the end, I ended up splitting the pipe going into the wye and pulled the whole 3" assembly out so I could get better leverage.  I basically had to lean all my weight on it to get it to go together properly.  The other wye was similarly obnoxious, so I installed the pipe into that one too while I was at it. 


I got the dry fitting done for the shower drain.


I had hoped to finish the sewer lines today and work on the supply tomorrow.  I forgot to post it yesterday, but I did the detailed design of where I wanted the manifolds and the like for the supply lines.  In case you have forgotten since yesterday, I really hate plumbing, especially given that I should have done it from the ground up instead of top down. 

Good progress and a nice day for a change.

No update yesterday since I didn't get out of work until 7PM, and decided not to go up.  Today however was really nice.  I used an appointment with the bank as an excuse to leave at 2:30, even though I was done at the bank before 3:30.  I should know how it goes Monday.  I applied for a personal loan.  The interest rate is high at 9.25%, but I don't really have a choice.  The longest term is 5 years, and I hope to have it paid off in 3. 

I took the extra time and went up and got a fair amount done compared to recent updates anyways.  It was a nice day, so I was able to cement all the way up until I left.  Something I noticed when I got there is that the Good Stuff Pest block foam isn't very good at blocking pests.


I also got tired of the pipes in the wall being not in the wall, so I rigged up a quick brace to keep it in the wall until I know where the cross beams for the sink and whatnot are going to be for the final version.


The sink drain is complete.


The drain line is really starting to take shape too.  Despite how it looks in the picture, I did dry fit the connection into the wye, it will meet.  The second wye is for the shower drain, and the little blip on the corner is for the spare venting I wanted to install.  The last wye is for the laundry drain.  I have one more not pictured for the kitchen.  It turns out I am going to have a lot of spare fittings.  Good thing I still have all the receipts. 


I also drew up where all the lines are going to go for the source.  Thankfully it should be easier than the PVC.  I hate plumbing.  The 2" stuff isn't too bad, but the three inch stuff sucks.  They take forever to cure, and you have to hold it good and tight until it is a little bit better than set, otherwise the pipes push out.  The 2" pushes out as well, but not nearly as bad.