I’ve started prepping for Jon’s arrival (July 2nd +/-).
We’ve pulled the trailer out of the (garage/Storage unit/C-Cans.
AT disconnecting the roof compressor
First, we had to disconnect the mini-split unit, bleed down the compressor, and disconnect the components on the roof. Then we pulled the trailer out a couple of feet to disconnect the skirting around the back of the trailer and carefully pull it out.
Trailer out baking in the sun.Need to clean out for Jon.
At the family meeting last Saturday Jon asked me to take some pictures of the power pole behind the trailers. I went out to do that on Sunday and discovered the problem below.
Before mowing
The wet, wet spring we are having has resulted in a burst of growth of the undergrowth. Need to get the weed-eater out.
A couple of hours later the results are shown below.
After photo
What follows are close ups of various pieces.
Close up
Below is the PVC pipe emerging from the ground and entering the box below the Meter. Appears to be 3 inch PVC.
Input piping, 3 inch PVCMeterInside breaker box Left of the Meter.Output of breaker box that runs to back of C-Cans
When I was last here it was early April in the middle of the snowstorms. It is now mid-May and the weather couldn’t be different. It is now upper seventies – low eighties and spring has definitely sprung. Last month, after the Snowpacolypse, we moved the Starlink antenna up to the roof.
Putting Starlink on roof.
After we moved the antenna, we started working on the Front Deck. I had long planned on an expansive front deck, on the north side of the house to be shaded during hot weather. I had planned to move the ramp from the trailer to run along the font of the house for easy access.
Front Deck Underpinning
Above is the underpinning of the deck. The white PVC pipes are clean outs for the plumbing drains. The next picture shows the cement pad for the NE stairs
Cement pad for the stairsNote colors are misleading
The above shows the stairs on the NE side of the porch. Note that the steps and the deck are the same colors, just a difference in reflectivity.
Front Deck showing ramp
The white ramp is painted to protect the strand board. It will be covered with planking running crosswise.
Last week I saw a turtle climbing up the slope from the pond between my house and Jills. According to AT it wasn’t a snapping turtle (shape of jaw is different).
Turtle
The turtle was very skittish and so rather than perching it on a fencepost, I herded it back towards the pond.
I’ve got another update on Jill’s house. It’s a couple of weeks later. Progress has been slower than Jill & AT would have liked, but most of the difficulties have been worked out progress is back on track.
The cabinets have been all set, in place and fixed to the walls, and the window trim molding is in place.
Country Kitchen Window MoldingsUpper Window Moldings
The gas powered, flow through Water Heater has been installed. It is the same one that I have installed and seems to work just fine.
Water Heater
The yellow piping is the propane input the clear plastic piping is the hot & cold water lines.
Water Heater
We’re on the second day of calm, almost not wind and the major focus of today is continuing work on the siding.
Siding
The goal for today is to try to get as much of the siding as possible up before the winds start up this afternoon.
More siding
The siding is precut with 2 pieces (one for each side) stepping up in 6 inch increments. Once the sides are on working on the South wall (with all the windows, and doors, and the support beams) will begin.
And More Siding
This is about 3:00 pm, and the winds are picking up. I think we will be shutting down for the day shortly.
Jill has left, flying off to Texas and SoCal. She is expected back in early April. I have taken it upon myself document the progress AT makes on her house. Here is the progress made as of Monday February 27th.
Exterior view from the North.
View from North
If you zoom in you can see the bedroom window to the right of the door. To the left of the living room window you can see a piece of wire that will run out to the mini-split compressor.
View from the South is next.
View from South
From the South, you get the views of the pond, the horses, and in the distance, Evansville and Mount Casper. We will wait until closer to Summer to decide what kind of shading will be required. Shading will be required because the heat gains from all the windows will be impressive. On the right is a sample of the blue siding that will be on Jill’s house. Visible in the background are my solar panels and the corner of my house.
Going inside, to the left is the bathroom, laundry, utility room, and closet.
Bath and laundry room.
Note the round shower is awaiting assembly. Below the window is the electric auxiliary heater. It will provide additional heat when showering, and additionally, when the temperature goes below what the mini-split can extract. To the right on entry is the bedroom.
Open bedroom.
The bedroom is open to the living room. Right now it is mostly storage during construction. Next up is the living room.
Living Room
The spot in front of the opening to the bedroom is where her sofa (currently in C-Can) will probably go. In the center of the ceiling is the fan (less blades). The white strips are the lights, and they can be remotely adjusted. On the East side of the main room is the kitchen.
Kitchen
This is a view looking Eastward into the kitchen. The hanging light over the sink is one purchased on our trip to Ikea in the Denver area. The cabinets are along the East wall and North wall of the kitchen, with a corner cabinet with rotating shelves. a better view of the cabinets is below.
Cabinets in Kitchen
Jill ordered a farm sink to fit in the open spot in the counter under the window. It arrived today.
Farm Sink
The farm sink will require some understructure to support it. AT’s plumbers have refused to install/warrantee them because of the those complications.
I apologize for the time between updates, but things are in quite a state of flux. My house is basically complete, other than finishing up the interface between my backup power and Jill’s house.
Jill’s house is progressing nicely. The electrical work is mostly done, most of the wallboard installed and roughly half of the mudding & taping is done. The ceiling fan has arrived, and the mini-split unit is waiting in the C-can to be installed.
The well water reverse osmosis plant remains an issue. While I was down in So. Cal at the end of December the mini-split unit was powered down and somehow did not get restarted. As a result, the reverse osmosis plant froze, and significant damage was done due to freezing. I’ve exchanged emails with tech support at RainDance Systems and we’re looking at $500. – $2,500. for new pumps, filters, etc. I was considering just replacing the entire system (~$13,000.) but got a surprising amount of pushback during the weekly call on Saturday evening.
For the past few weeks, I have been driving a couple of miles down to Yellowstone Hwy to the fresh water supply point and getting 4-500 gallons of water for $5.00 and pumping it into the FW supply tank in the C-can. It’s turned into about a weekly process and is fairly routine (when the weather isn’t into negative numbers). I could continue that for the next couple of months while we make progress on Jill’s house and other possible developments on the site. I may just continue as we are for the short term and wait to see where we go from here.
The other issue going on is modifications to the solar power installation up on the hill. I am modifying the solar collectors to attach to the sides of the C-cans. That is the optimum angle from sunrise to ~ 10:00am in the morning, and on the other side for evening. That will free up some square footage in the Orchard and Garden areas, as well as providing room for possible expansion of the barn area assuming we remove the trailer as planned this summer.
After visiting with my other two sisters last September, my next younger sister Jill decided to build a tiny house up on the ridge behind my house. She is using AT as the contractor and her grandson Johnny has moved up to Wyoming to apprentice to AT.
Last month they broke ground and started construction. It’s a tiny house/studio on a 20×24″ slab. She spends part of the year with family in Texas and part in CA with other family, so this is basically a refuge of her own.
We ran water and power out from my basement up to Jill’s house and ran her main drains down to my septic system. We deliberately sized my septic tank and drain field for 4 bedrooms, allowing for my 3 bedrooms and Jill’s bedroom.
Roof Rafters
The back wall was built in AT’s garage and the front one was built in my garage while I was down going on the cruise with Jan & Mike; so, the walls went up quick. Here they are almost done with the rafters.
Finishing the Roof
Here is what was completed, on the last day of December 2022. The roof is roughed in and covered with chip board. It really does look like a “horse shed, with appliances” as AT phrased it.
It’s mid-December and time for an update on various projects.
Jill’s tiny house continues to progress.
Jill’s slab looking SW
The slab has been poured and cured. The blue line is the water line coming in from my basement. The white fittings are various drain and vent lines.
Insulating Jill’s Slab
Johnny is insulating his grandmother’s slab; 24 inches down. Now that the slab is insulated and backfilled AT will be erecting the walls and wrapping them with house-wrap to weatherproof the exterior.
Jill’s sewer tie-in to septic system
Also, not pictured, is the power run up from my house to Jill’s.
We expect the walls to go up this week. Jill and I are in Southern California waiting to go on a 3-day cruise to Ensenada with Jan & Mike and Terry & Voula.
I left on Monday, a day before I planned, to outrun a large storm that descended on Monday evening dropping 6-8 inches of snow. It’s planned to continue until Wednesday dropping close to a foot of snow.
After the cruise, I will drive up to Steve & Irene’s house to see them and spend the night. Tuesday morning, I will pick up Jill and we will drive back up to Casper with the first load of her belongings.
We are making progress, making progress however slowly it seems. On the closing of my loan on the house I have reviewed the updated Interest Rate Disclosure document and should be ready for Closing next week. It turns out that most of the three-week delay was caused by Appraisal Companies unable to locate comparison properties that weren’t connected to the power grid.
The replacement inverter has been received and installed, restoring us to full power.
Power System
After last week’s cold weather, progress is proceeding on Jill’s house.
Early Nov Snow (note snow on solar panels)Jill’s Foundation last WeekMore foundationReady for Pouring this Morning
This shows the rebar and piping installed and ready for cement pouring.
Pouring cement for the slab.More Pouring
They got the slab poured, smoothed out and covered to keep the cement from freezing before it can cure. By next week it should be ready to start construction.
It wasn’t all good news, however. Below is a view of the plant that died. It was a bit of tropical greenery that was included in the flower arrangement that our realtors gave up when we moved into the condo in April 2003. When all the flowers had died, I noticed that the greenery has started roots, so I planted it.
Sic Transit Gloria
It had survived ever since but I let it get chilled in the process of moving into the house and it has finally died. That leaves the senior plant in residence the Christmas Cactus that we budded from the house on Aries Drive in 1977.
This is being typed on November 16th. We still have not closed with Rocket Mortgage after 3 weeks. I got a call-back from my Acct Manager at Rocket, and he explained the issue. So far, I have had 3 separate appraisers show up to walk through, take pictures, etc. The problem is that none of them can find an equivalent house (new construction, 1400 sq foot, metal roof & walls, on well (with reverse osmosis plant) and powered by solar cells) to develop comps with.
Rocket has escalated the issue and has some mid-level managers involved with trying to resolve the issue. I am expecting one or two more appraisers over the next week or so.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been on half-power from the solar arrays. When I was working on the electrical system to get approval from the County Building Inspectors, I discovered that batteries went into self-protect mode. I did some further troubleshooting and discovered the Inverters DC battery input were shorted together on one of the two inverters. I disconnected the faulty inverter and was able to bring up 120 of the 240 VAC. Fortunately, the side that remained up was the MBR, and most of the Kitchen and Living Room.
I contacted Signature Solar and reported the issue. I forwarded pictures and video of me measuring the shorted inputs. It was immediately escalated to second level response. After a week of nothing heard, I called up and rattled their cage. Last week I received a FedEx shipping label. That same afternoon I packaged up the bad inverter and shipped it off. Later that week I was notified that the replacement would be shipped shortly. Latest info that it should be delivered on Saturday.
The good news is that I have demonstrated that I can go a day, or even two with heavy overcast with only half of solar panels. Once I get the replacement inverter, I can bring the full power back up in the house.
The past week or so Jill’s tiny house has moved forward. The goal is to get the foundation poured before the weather gets too cold, and erect the structure early in the spring.
Jill’s Foundation
Also, we dug the trench and ran the water line from my crawl space up to the foundation.
Water Line Running Up to Jill’s
Finally, we got the washer and dryer installed. Note the dryer is electric and needs 240VAC, so it is waiting the new inverter.
Washer and Dryer
In a Catholic school cafeteria, a nun places a note in front of a pile of apples, “Only take one. God is watching.” Further down the line is a pile of cookies. A little boy makes his own note, “Take all you want. God is watching the apples.”
