Happy Memorial Day

I got a bit of a late start, and the going was slow today.  I got caught up in a parade and had to take some back roads around.  I tried to make an early Home Depot run which was a bad joke.  It was even busier today than it was yesterday.  It was a nice day to drive around though.

I cleaned up the grill for a cookout today.  The cleaner worked wonders, though it stripped off the writing on the grill telling you which burner is the igniter burner and all that jazz.  Oh well.


Unfortunately the cookout never happened since the tank is empty.  Oh well.

I also went to Home Depot later after the bustle had died down.  It turns out the copper I got was the wrong type, I needed type M not type L.  So I got that swapped out so I could finish the rough-in for the gas lines.   I tried to solder the joints with my soldering iron.  That ended poorly.  The iron just doesn't have enough output.  It took several minutes just to melt the flux.


So I had to make a second trip to Home Depot for a torch.  I also picked up a flame retardant cloth since some of the joints will have to be done inside the home.  I did get the rough in complete though.  It looks like I miscounted the number of elbows I need, since I have an extra T and am one elbow short.  The end of the line is for the stove, next in is the water heater, the next is for the dryer, and then comes out of the inside of the home, the elbow turns it towards the center, where the main propane hookups are.  The last tee on the mousepad is in case I wanted a secondary hookup for a small portable tank.  The dryer and secondary source will be capped off, I am not intending to set those up immediately.


Not as much done today as I had hoped, but I should be able to get the copper soldered and hopefully get the last piece of PVC done tomorrow.

A bunch of odds and ends cleaned up.

Despite the light drizzle for most of the day, I felt much better.  Since I hadn't picked up the copper stuff yet, I worked on several little things instead.  I started off attaching the support for the underside outlets.


Next up was insulating the corner.


I also began assembly for the septic exit.  I just needed a warmer day to actually attach the piping, it was chilly today.


I began insulating the floor with the leftover styrofoam insulation I had.  The stuff is stupidly brittle and annoying, but oh well.  I haven't quite completed the plan for insulating the floor yet, but at a minimum, I know I will need an XPS layer (sometimes called EPS, extruded polystyrene) since it is completely 100% waterproof.  On top of that things get dicey. 


I had enough to put a layer down on both sides.


Even the back.  I will have to attach this with foam, since I don't want it to shift if I move the trailer, if it shifts, the jack points would no longer be directly on the frame rails.


Once that was wrapped up, I installed the z-flashing.  I am still a couple of pieces short, but they haven't had it in stock for a week or two now. 


The warp was real.  My plan to unwarp didn't work as well as planned, but using screws I was able to pull most of it out.  It left a mess where I had tried to use nails to pull it out.  I had a near miss, since I originally used 3" screws for extra reach, but 3" is long enough to reach inside, where I have things like plumbing lines.  I missed one of the lines by less than an inch.  I switched over to shorter screws after that.


It wasn't that late at that point, but I was running out of materials.  Also being Sunday before a holiday, if I wanted to pick stuff up, I had to do it early.  I had stopped on the way in to pick up the copper for the gas lines, but the parking lot was all the way out to the road.  Even if every register was open, it would have taken me over an hour to check out.  So I waited.  I now have the copper in the trunk ready for tomorrow though.  It should also be warm enough tomorrow to finish the last two PVC joints.

Unproductively hot.

It was hot today.  Really hot.  It wasn't supposed to be (my car read 94 when I got there, in Sullivan), and to boot, something I ate yesterday wasn't sitting well.  I didn't stick around too long today.  I decided to unload the tools in my car where I had AC blowing at me that were part of the haul I got from Barry last fall.  There were a few interesting ones.

I still haven't figured out what this is.  It kind of looks like a nut splitter, but there is no way you can hand split a nut like that.


When you squeeze the handle, it the splitter protrudes.


I should have gone through it earlier.  Would have been nice to know I had a tubing cutter in there...  I bought one.


The guy loved hammers.  There were like 5 or 6 of them in there.  From worthlessly small to large.  Likewise there was a set of 5 ball peen hammers. 


I am not certain what this is either, it looks like an arbitrary angle marker from a drafting set.


I had never seen a hand hole starter kit either.


The bits for it are in the handle.


Likewise, I had never seen a crescent wrench in this style


There were some drill press parts that won't do me much good either.


A tri-square, a rather fancy and old one.


Apparently the guy didn't throw things away when they broke.  He made a new handle for it...  There were actually a few of these.


Some rather serious scissors.


There were also more screwdrivers and nutdrivers and the like than would fit in the drawers of my toolchest. 

At that point, my stomach was unhappy again so I went home.  It was 82 in my apartment, so I finally broke out the AC.  All things considered, after being in the 70s in March, I am surprised I didn't need them until almost June, and even at that, I will likely turn them off tomorrow for a few days.




The spare bedroom window unit I am tempted to bring up to the property and install it in one of those windows and run it off the generator.  I can't just plug in the heat pump unless I wanted to make a custom set of wires for it, since it runs on a 240V circuit.  The idea is tempting.  It won't be enough to cool the place with the floor and ceiling uninsulated, but it might make the hot days bearable.  I need to finish the floor so I can install the paneling and circuit box and then run the whole house off the generator... 

Mowing mowing mowing.

Today was the last nice day until after Memorial day, so I decided to get the mowing down.  It really needed it.  The back yard was up to my knees in spots.


I was pleased to note that there have been no mice in the tractor.  The pepper spray appears to have been wildly successful.


The yard is mowed.  The phone camera didn't take motion shots very well, since I was using my phone while trucking around on the tractor. 






I kinda need to go around and clean up some of the rocks. 


And the other stuff too. 


I even got the back yard done.  It was still wet, but I couldn't have put it off realistically.


The now smoothed pile of dirt is filling in too. 

Productive day, insulation done again.

Despite only getting a couple of hours of work in, I got the new box installed and the insulation is back up. 



I also got the brace made for the underneath outlet box.  I haven't installed it yet since I haven't heard anything from the well guy about whether I need to run the water line as well. 


I also brought home the pieces for the drain line, since I haven't completed the PVC waste lines yet.  That said, it is 1030 so it won't likely happen tonight. I kinda passed out when I got home.

Wiring installed.

The main objective for today was to install the wiring for the well pump.  I called the well guy today at lunch, and found it is normally a 240V 20A circuit, and normally the circuit is installed where the pressure tank is installed.  It turned out that one of my spare chunks was the exact length I needed.


It is now completely installed and stapled in.  I haven't reinstalled the insulation, I need to pick up another electric box.


I also finished cleaning the far side.


I also had a couple of unfortunate casualties.  The FatMax is dead.  It actually spewed its own tape out and then seized up.  Thankfully I had a Harbor Freight freebie still up there.




Another failure was the tack tape.  Indoor/Outdoor my ass.  The tube and everything has completely come apart.


Something else for me to consider is that since everything is installed at the pressure tank, I should make sure whether they install the tubing, since the electric will have to run alongside it, meaning the long run across I might not need to install.  I might have to make another trip up there tomorrow to confirm.

Another rainy day. Found a serious flaw.

I started off with the styrofoam portion of the last section.  This was a pain.


It is done.  The last chunk that is open is so that the cleanout is accessible. 


I bundled up the remaining insulation and put it in the shed.  I have three and a half batts left if anyone needs it. 


Started marking the boards for the braces.  These are what the outlets will screw into from outside.  Basically it is just the 2x4s will screw into the joist, and the 2x6 will run underneath.  I didn't cut them since it was raining out and I didn't particularly want to run the saw inside.


I also started cleaning up.  It was messy.  There were little bits of insulation and cruft everywhere.


I bought a grabber on my last shopping trip.  It was worth every penny, so I didn't have to crawl around on the joists on my knees.


I tried using the shop vac to clean it up, but it kept trying to suck up the underbelly.  I will need to use the brush head for my regular vacuum it appears.


Hmm, problemo.  There are supposed to be 2 circuits running down to here, and there is only one wire...  I never ran the wiring the well pump.  Fortunately, catching it now means I only have to remove one batt of insulation.



I decided to try to get to the well drilling company to see what kind of wiring I need to run (12/2, 10/2, 12/3, etc), though they were closed since it is Sunday so I brought the next stage of plumbing home.  This is the part that comes in from the underbelly, the tee is in case I wanted to add a way to hook up external water in the future.