Construction Update – 7.5.12
July 6, 2012 § 9 Comments
There has been *some* progress. The house is plumbed with the vent and supply lines (pictures to come soon). On the 4th I was able to finally stat putting up some roofing too. It was done pretty much in the heat of the day which isn’t a great idea… but I think we got the system down! We just got one of 6 sheets down but I got a good idea of how much more glue I need to get (it’s on order now) and we can figure out the best way to lay it down. I’m not sure how many times a person gets the opportunity to lay TPO roofing in their life if they aren’t a roofer so I think it’s pretty cool! Here are some pictures of that, sorry in advance for the butt pictures, mom did it!
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- This is the bathroom lav that I ordered. I got it for basically half price because they had it marked wrong in the book! Still it cost WAY too much but it is tiny and will fit perfectly!
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- We laid out the TPO roof to sit in the sunshine a few minutes and relax (it was in the instructions! because it hangs over the side vertically its tricky to make stay on the roof! A few almost booboos and we made it!
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- initially we needed to get the top part of the TPO stuck down but while it was folded back it kept wanting to slide off the roof. Dad laid across it while I painted the adhesive up top. Keep in mind it was in the mid 90′s out at this point and dad laid under a thick roll of dark colored rubber for probably 10-15 minutes while I got the surface ready. It got HOT under there. Thanks dad :)
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- The adhesive is kinda cool stuff, it just rolls on with a paint roller. We have to put it on both the wood surface as well as the TPO surface and let it dry before pushing the two together, sort of like a really strong rubber cement! The one I got is water based and thus love VOC as well. It was simple to use and worked great, if only there was no heat….
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- I was painting on the TPO over dad, maybe some consolation… nope!
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- In the bucket the glue is white then when you paint it on it turns an iridescent light blue color and then when it’s clear again you know it’s ready to stick together. Kinda cool stuff, and fool proof which helps me!
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- There will be 6 of these pieces across the roof. We got one and I had to order 3 more gallons of adhesive (I thought I had ordered 2 3-gallon jugs but apparently ordered 2 1-gallon ones, I could probably pay better attention :)). On top of this I will seal and screw down some 2×2 splines which will give ma an area to put some trellis material for growies and also take care of the seams every 6′ on center
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- Still lots to do but the first piece is the most daunting… I like the way it’s turning out! Non conventional but unique!
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- This will be another big part of my weekend. My wonderful brother welded me up a pallet ripper, I can’t wait to use it! It will save me HOURS on taking apart pallets which needs to step into high gear now!
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- We came up with this based on a video I had posted previously sent to me by my buddy Antonio. Apparently it works like a charm! I can’t wait to try it!
Update 6.12.12
June 13, 2012 § 17 Comments
I got my toilet, already I am slightly disappointed… I do think it is more of a customer service issue than a product error. They sent me the wrong unit. They sent me the electric version of the one I ordered. It’s not a HUGE deal because I will be tied to the grid for a while but it could certainly cause problems when I take it off-grid. The power usage is minimal but it still adds up, i have a lot of ‘minimal’ draws already… The other, more pressing issue is that the electric unit is a couple inches higher. I purposefully ordered the non-electric version because this needs to sit under my trailer, it was really close on the other one, it just means I have to jack the trailer up more, I already feel like it’s pretty high up… humpffff! The third issue is that the unit they sent is a couple hundred bucks more, i am thinking I got charged for those couple hundred bucks instead of the wrong unit accidentally being shipped, it’s easier to believe that the lady accidentally ordered the wrong one but at the correct price… I am going to sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning… it could go either way. Either way I am planning on having it on display at Boise’s Green Expo in a couple weekends.
To get my mind off that I moved back to the electrical. I got all the circuits run, at least until I ran out of wire. I need about 10-15 more feet to complete it! Oh, and to hook it to the board 
. It’s getting there and I think I have it down! Dad made mention of possibly doing the plumbing tomorrow, that would be sweet!
My roof doesn’t seem to have shipped yet, I hope it does soon so I can catch up on the exterior stuff relatively soon. All in good time!
Tomorrow is a work day for USGBC after my day job so no update, probably… I hope you have all had a wonderful day! Here are some pictures:
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- I had to meet with some people that I am hoping will by the last ‘big’ thing I have on Craigslist… my bedroom set. So my anticipation (over the toilet of all things) was prolonged! I was pretty excited to drive up and see it, it was a lot bigger than I expected though.
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- I opened up the box, still all excited. i have never actually seen a view INTO one of these things, probably because they are gross… but I wanted to see before it was all gross ;)
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- I pull it out of the box and the seat is flailing around because the damn thing is broke, already. I think it will work, I will need to get a little larger screw, the unit is made of fiberglass and the plastic screw completely ripped the fiberglass apart where it’s supposed to stay fastened. It’s totally awesome to pay $2,000 for a broken piece, but wait, that’s not all!
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- Before I get into the rest I will show the toilet unit thing, so people can see it. This is the dry fixture for the Sun-Mar Centrex 2000 and 2000 ne
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- It is black inside, surprise, I never even saw in enough to see that! It makes sense, the black part is actually removable and cleanable (hose-off-able).
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- and here is the shot I wanted to find (of a clean toilet) but couldn’t… Here is what it looks like.
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- all the stuff that comes with it!
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- Note that there are bags of sawdust (for low flow water units) just inside the taped part. Which you cut with a razor… I’m thinking it’s not the best placement. Then I read the bag and it’s for water fixtures, that was my first sign that I got the wrong thing, though I think it can be used in a non-water unit as well… its basically just sawdust. Sliced open.
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- The packing slip is for a Centrex 2000, not eh Centrex NE (non-electric) that I ordered. BUMMER!!! Thouroughly bummed with my $2,000 purchase. I am debating whether or not to suck it up, install it (it’s actually convenient since I am running the electrical now, I can run the electrical to it…) or piss and moan and return it, waiting several more weeks.
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- So, what to do when I’m disappointed… move on! I pissed and moaned for a bit but then i moved on to the electrical. First things first, i mounted the panel. Instead of recessing it into the wall I am face-mounting it to the wall in the electrical closet (in the front of the trailer under the goose-neck, accessed from the outside). That way I can run the wires through in one spot and have them accessible from the closet, instead of inside the wall, behind the built in dresser.
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- I ran as much wire as I had! I ran out JUST before I was done. I have a little bit of 4 wire left that I think I can use in lieu of the three wire. I just have about 10-15 feet more that I need (unless I decide to keep the toilet… then I will need a tad more. I have two three way switches, I think I get those now :)
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- More wires, tucked in their little groove. I will go through and put nail plates on and I am almost there! I still need to connect the circuits on the board, so close though!
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- Wires! :)
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- This is where the electrical goes out the house and into the panel. There are four holes on either side for the eight circuits that I will have.
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- I thought this appropriate
Daylight!!!
May 19, 2012 § 4 Comments
The trailer is out and in it’s new home for now. It was a close one pulling it out for sure but the math worked out in the end, we made it! We got it all leveled up on blocks, I was able to go around and trim the building wrap up and we hung 5ish rafters before we ran out of light. Tomorrow is another day!
Hoping to get all the rafters on, finish the building wrap, get the sheathing on the roof and possibly place the windows. I am going to be getting a late start tomorrow but late is better than never!
“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
H. Jackson Brown
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- Standing in the loft inside the shop, this was what the trailer looked like AFTER it was off the blocks. I really thought it wasn’t going to get out, I had no idea what we were going to do!
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- Another inch and I would have been screwed! (not really, we still had tires we could have deflated, but we made it!
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- Backing up the trailer to it’s new spot outside.
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- We got about 5 rafters put on before we ran out of daylight. That is going to add an extra challenge, in the shop I had light whenever I needed it and I used it, now that I’m outside the sun actually goes away.
