Got a light

I got out of work late today, but thankfully that meant I didn't have wait in line at Home Depot for a long time getting the box for the light.  I got the insulation pulled out and installed the box.


The light is fully installed.


At that point, it was getting too dark to work inside, so I also finished cutting the boards for the sawhorses.



I ended up using screws because these are the nails that it came with. 


Unfortunately today marked the end of the dry weather.  I wanted to get the yard mowed today, but the progress was more important. 

Paneling all but complete.

I didn't exactly get out early today, though earlier than normal, I managed to sneak out around 4.  I needed the extra time too.  I got the next couple pieces of paneling installed.  There is still one left, though more on that in a minute.


There are two reasons that last piece isn't installed.  I am still trying to figure out a way to get this in without cutting it.  I can't slide it in from the side since I need to start it from beyond the wall.  I tried dropping it in at an angle, but the piece of paneling is too tall.  I might have to cut it.  It wouldn't be the end of the world, it will be inside the cabinet.


There is one other issue, that thankfully I noticed before installing the paneling.  I never put in the electric for the light.  There is no light in the bathroom as it is today.  Oops.

Almost got the next piece of paneling done.

It was actually sunny in the afternoon, so I decided to make a go at the next piece of paneling.  The most complicated piece is all measured and cut now.  The car makes for a very poor stand.


It wasn't quite perfect.  I needed a little extra cut under the pipe, since it was a fitting right where the paneling is.


Other than that though it nearly fit perfect.  I do need to iron out a little bow in the paneling on the wall to the right, that is the only thing preventing it from sitting down in.


I also got my new high tech rodent repellent.  It is a ultrasonic emitter which supposedly hurts the ears on mice and a lot of pests.  We shall see if it was worth the money.  It was only 20 bucks though


It is actually supposed to be nice tomorrow so I am going to try to get out early.  We shall see though.  In other exciting news, I just heard back from the bank, and I finally got my loan.  I got 18k.  I asked for a little bit more, but that will be just fine.  I could make it work with 15k.  Time to get the ball rolling on the well and septic. 

Surprise... More rain.

I got a bit of a late start today despite getting up at a quasi reasonable time, I didn't get up there until early afternoon (I really didn't think I was on the phone for over 2.5 hours this morning, but the log says it was).  It naturally started raining on my way up, but it tapered off and I got a little bit of cutting done in between the spurts of rain.

I picked up the wood for the electric box.  I ended up getting cedar since it was actually cheaper than pine.  The only pine that they carry in a 1x6 is the clear wood for trim.  I don't mind the occasional knot in the wood, it gives it character as long as it isn't a structural issue.  So I got some cedar boards.


I also figured out that my chop saw isn't big enough for a 6" board.  Perhaps someday I will upgrade the saw. 


I got everything cut by hand with the circular saw.  This is how it is going to look.  There is intentionally no top piece.  I may someday put a door on it, but for now I am not intending to.  The panel sits inside the box


I started to get it all hung on the wall. 


Put the box up to it and realized I made a grave error.  You may notice that there is no lip on the right hand side.


That would be because I hosed up the placement of the cutout for the wires.  They were supposed to be 1.25 inches from the edge, but I measured in from the wrong side.


It is a reasonably simple fix, just extend the hole over, and the current hole will be covered by the panel itself, but it is still annoying.  By the time I get it right I will have three sets of holes from the brad nails I am putting in it.  Oh well.  The cedar was cheaper, but it still was 25 dollars of lumber, so I probably won't buy another set.  This is purely aesthetic, I can easily hang the box near the ceiling without it, but one the box is installed, there is no going back (at least easily). 

At that point I was mildly flustered so I went and started to cut pieces for the sawhorses, and then realized that the bill of materials for the plans I downloaded was both wrong and only for a single sawhorse.  I stopped on my way home and got more lumber, but it started raining when I got out of Home Depot (for the second time today) and I just went home.  It is still in the car, I will finish it tomorrow if I get dry enough weather. 

Yet another wet miserable day.

Today was supposed to be nice and partly cloudy when I wrote my post yesterday.  That was a lie.  It rained quite literally all day.

I went up to pick up some patio furniture, since mine kinda sucks, it didn't take getting blown around too well.  Unfortunately the dude put it out by the road and when I got there, someone else had already taken it.  Oh well. 

Heading over, it was only drizzling, so I decided to try this, so I could run the extension cord inside.  It worked until the wind picked up.  As you might imagine with my luck, it didn't last long.


I then assembled a cap.  One problem though.  You might notice that the cap extends further than the ceiling beam. 


I then took advantage of a slight lull in the rain and managed to make a shorter cap; it really doesn't need to be 4 inches deep.  PVC doesn't cut well with the jig saw, so I will need to hit it with the belt sander for a bit to smooth it out.  A lot.


I them moved on to insulation.  I got the next batt installed.


I also did the end.  I did it the most wasteful way, but I have insulation to spare, so I wasn't too worried.


I also cut off the remaining batts.  These are the last two that I will need.


At that point I was kind of scrambling for things to do.  I measured off the next paneling piece.


I also moved over to the electric.  I got a few of the breakers installed. 


At that point I went home.  At home I did some design work.  I am tempted to build some sawhorses.  I might make a slightly smaller set and shorten one of the required boards to an 8' board (Only make them 2' wide instead of 3 for example).  Still thinking about it.  Setting them up inside would allow me to saw inside, but that really does make a huge mess (I still haven't gotten it all up from when I did it in the second room...) and with limited airflow when it is raining, since if it is raining hard or there is any wind the door needs to be closed and the windows mostly closed so it doesn't come in.  I also did a little design work on the bathroom floor insert, and the mounting and trim system for the electric box.  I might pick up the boards for it tomorrow, since it is supposed to be miserable again tomorrow, and getting the electric in would be a huge boon.


On a side note, you may notice that it is 4AM when I posted this.  I tried my hand at some Indian food, and while it was nice and spicy and tasted awesome, I think I know how most of my family feels after eating a barrel of peppers.  I have been up a few times tonight.  Tomorrow (or I guess later today to be more accurate) is really going to suck.  I do hope to work on the electric tomorrow, we shall see how it goes.

Lots of paneling

I took today off, and I am glad I did.  It was a gorgeous day.  I had to call in for the demo this morning, but afterwards I spent all of it doing paneling.  It is mostly done. The far side of the house is completely done.


The front wall is mostly done.


This is the only part not done.


I also trimmed most of these poorly, so I went through and shaved it down even more. 


The scraps are being useful too.  This is the next piece.  It is going to be a real pain.


They were riding a roller up and down the road when I got up there.  It is at least smooth again, but if they don't pave it tomorrow it is going to storm again on Sunday.


Looking at my hours for the week at work, if I work a couple of hours this weekend I can not use vacation time for Friday, which I will probably do tomorrow.  I do hope to finish the paneling tomorrow, and start on the electric panel.  I might pick up the ceiling stuff too, though that needs outdoors.  I would like to paint it before I install it.  Once the paneling is done though, I can work on the ceiling as I get time and nice weather, and work on the interior wall when it is stormy out.

Despite late day at work, all paneling cut.

I didn't get out of work until 6PM.  Despite that though, I got all the paneling cut to height.  I don't mind cutting out boxes for outlets and that kind of stuff indoors if necessary. 


They definitely are working on the road still.  They beat up the end of my driveway.


I do have to remote in for the demo tomorrow, but have the most of the day off.  If I do work a couple of hours though, I don't have to use vacation time for the day, so that is something I might consider as well.  I hope to finish the paneling tomorrow, at least up to the back wall so I can start installing the interior wall.

Surprise! Storms. More nasty ones.

I took the truck today, thinking I was going to finish the paneling.  Ha!  Mother nature sure took care of that.  Last night it was supposed to be miserable on Wednesday, and then clear through into the following week.  I woke up this morning, and there are now "scattered thunderstorms" every day for the next 10, all 50% chance or greater.  Today went from hot but partly cloudy to hail.  Grumble.  I almost think I would rather have 90 and sweltering heat than storms.  I might have to bite the bullet and set up sawhorses inside the house.  I will have to vacuum before I put the flooring in anyways.

I do have more insulation though so I can continue even with bad weather.


I also picked up the electric panel.  Even though I don't think I will need it, I got the 24 space one over the 20.  I only need 16 slots, and chances of expanding the electric is very remote, but it was only 7 bucks more, so I decided better safe than sorry.


They took the signs down, and this is all they did to the road...  With the storms that came through today I am pretty sure a little further down is all ruts, so I am not sure what their end goal was.  Nevertheless it is still smoother to be honest.


Except where they got tired apparently.


With more hail and whatnot inbound, I decided to go to trivia instead.  It was pretty brutal.  We as a team did ok, but the sports round (typically my best contributions) we were one of the worst.  In the entertainment round the topic was movies.  I hadn't seen a single movie that was mentioned.  I probably should have installed more insulation...

Extra crispy, but the place is looking nice.

Saturday I wasn't feeling the greatest, so I didn't get too much done.  I did manage to go up and install some insulation though.  I got it installed down to the light.


I also filled in most of the gap in the middle.  This is the only gap that remains, until the electric is done.


I do have a piece to fit into that gap.


It was only a few batts, but I was done at that point.  I had run out of insulation, and it was too rainy to do paneling.

Today however I was feeling better and more motivated.  It was actually sunny for a change, so I went to town on the paneling.  I got cooked since it was hot and I took my shirt off, but it was worth it. 

It is extra satisfying when everything fits perfectly the first time.



I got the first 4 panels on that wall done.


The north wall (the back) was a real pain because of the density of things in the walls.  My jig saw has gotten a lot of work.  I can't really use the circular saw on this because a) it sucks and b) there is not enough support for it.  The jig saw I can hold it with one hand and cut with the other.  The circular saw is too heavy and requires some stability underneath it.  All my cuts have been with the jig saw.


That whole end of the house is done though.


I am also working on the floor kit for the bathroom.  I will be making a custom platform to drain the floor and fiberglassing it in.  I might poke my head up tomorrow and see how the paving is going.

Nasty weather today.

I got a message while I was at work that there was a tornado warning.  Checking the radar, it was of course right over Sullivan.  Thankfully, it didn't seem to cause any damage, I don't think anything touched down.  There was just a lot of rain.  And I mean a lot.  Thankfully, they put a bunch of pumps along Route 9 and the road was only minorly flooded.

I got up there and the creek was high.  Very high.  I didn't stick around too long with another round coming in.

Minor cleanup.

I didn't get out of work too late, but got interrupted by the rain.  The first thing I did was put blocks in at the light fixture.  It will now hold whatever you hang on it within reason.


I also finished stapling in the edges.  I am still on the fence about whether to bother switching to brad nails for the studs, but will likely just stick with staples.


I drew up and dimensioned the next piece, but because of the rain didn't get it cut.  When I plugged in the bug light though, the moth on it caught fire.  You can see the smoke coming out near the top.


They are closing the road for paving on the 6th and 7th during the day, so I will make sure that I don't take those days off.

Rained out

I did make it up to the property after work, but I quickly got rained out.  I started to staple up the paneling, but didn't get very far.


This would be why.  I forgot to unhook the nail gun so it slowly leaked out.  It was raining too hard to leave the door open, so I couldn't run the cord inside.


The staples don't stick out too bad.  I still think I might use brad nails on the studs though.


Another reason to leave.  South road was flooding on my way up.  It won't actually flood, but there was a ton of water running down an already steep and treacherous road.  Route 9 was flooded.  They are currently working on the banks, they might want to rethink their drainage scheme...