Sunday, August 28, 2011

Guess Who Has Water!

One of the Prep steps I was hoping to accomplish is to make the fancy 3/4 Ply I am using for my loft whitish on the bottom so that is better reflrects light and is a little brighter when you are in the kitchen. Lynne Palmer took the initiative and jumped in and did a great job coating the boards with a multi-step process that both shows the grain of the wood but has a light bright hue to it. Thanks Lynne, they look great!
We got the shower in place, putting a plywood sandwich under the shower structure. I am using a one piece fiberglass shower bought from Home Depot. I looked and actually purchased a multi-piece shower from Ace Hardware but after looking at it, it went back to them and I doubled my cost with this unit. As you can see we coated the back plywood water proof/mold resistant paint drilled the hole for the drain and slide the shower in. It fit snug and with a few shim's under the unit it was rock solid. Once we had it in place, I used foam to give it a custom fit bedding. As you can see from the photo below, Stet build a 2x4 stud wall with all the 2x4's on end and notched at the top to fit the ledge of the shower.
While I was working on the other walls, trimming some of the excess foam I used to fill the gaps on the ceiling plywood. I had Art Ray come out and work on the next stage of the plumbing. While I feel confident I could have done this, it would have taken me an entire weekend what Art did in three hours.
Plus he had all the cool tools and fittings that I don't have. I am sure if I did this part of the project, it would have cost me no less than three runs to Home Depot. Saved gas and helped out a local contractor and ended up with no leaks when we pressure tested it! So I now have a plumbed shower, hot water heater, water pump, and a place to hook up my catchment system from the gutters. Pretty dang cool if you ask me.





We started working on the other walls and now the inside is starting to get a little more closed in. I am going to take the Labor Day week off from work and I expect to move mountains during that week on finishing the cottage. After I leave on the 10th, I will return to pick the her up and see how "mobile" she is as we make the journey back down to Dundee. It freaks me out just to think about it.
Speaking of freaks me out. I was in the cottage working away and I needed to go back in the shop as I did, I encounter Stet and Art doing some unspeakable act. Then I realized Stet was just trying to circumcise Art. A little hinky but hey to each his own. But then I saw they were actually working on my pump fitting...whew!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Interior Prep

I have a great 12 volt fan that I can use but am not convinced that I need it. So we created a spot for it, wired it and then filled it with insulation, took some good pictures and then will seal it up and can go back and cut it out if needed. I will install the thermostat after we have put up the Tongue and Groove.


After installing the interior plywood we went in and moved all the plug boxes out the appropriate depth. I then went through and sprayed some foam insulation to seal those areas. As you can see I was a little more robust on the foam then I really needed to be but it is pretty easy to cut the excess off and I am very close to installing the hardware once the T&G is in place.
We are 95% done on the sheeting. The next step is getting the shower in place. Once we get that in place we will plumb the water and propane. This is progress!


Next weekend is building the deck weekend back in Dundee, OR. I am excited to see how that turns out. The move to Dundee is still scheduled for September 18th, 2011.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Interior Starting To Take Shape

We are making some significant progress before the big move down to Dundee, OR to finish the Cottage. The move will take place on the 18th of September. That leaves about 6 weekends to get the major components done. I have created a pretty specific punch list of the items I feel need to be wrapped up prior to moving the Cottage. While focusing on the major things there are some little things that can be accomplished or need to be accomplished. Last week we finished the entry point for the DC, Solar, and AC. While that ingress is not pretty it will be, we will build a chase to run those wire through.
Since we will be sheeting in the door side of the house, I had to install the outside porch light. You can see my lighting motif, which I had taken off a ship. More of those to come. I am pleased with the look.

We got both side walls done this weekend and feel like we made good progress. I expect next weekend we will deal with sheeting the ceiling space and then will start on the Tongue and Groove.

As I prep for the internal wall coverage project. I am going to use Organic Tongue Oil. It came out pretty well on test board I prepped.

I would also like to give a shout out to a tool that has really saved a ton of time in cutting out the outlet holes. This is been a champion of a product and it has multiple uses that have surfaced over the project. It is my Ryobi Roto Zip, I really have come to favor this tool.