West end of wall

Top down section

We’ve gotten another section of the wall done.  This one’s a lovely celedon green.  Wadly’s off to shop and have coffee with a friend today so I’m not expecting anything productive to happen around the farm.

Here’s the west end of the wall as well as a top-down cross-section so you can see how the eps-crete infill wraps around the post.  In the future, when I extend the building west, the foundation will be extended.  I should have wrapped the foundation around the inside of the post as well.  Hind sight.  I also should have done my electrical run and fastened the four-gang box to the 6-6-10-10 before putting the infill in place.  Again, hind sight.  This stuff is easy to shape after the fact so I can run a channel for the conduit and box before I build the next wall.  It just would have been much easier to fasten it to the reinforcing wire BEFORE doing the infill.  This is definitely a learn-as-you-go project.

Terry and I got the posts and foundation in for the south wall of the bedroom.  As this is also the north wall of the sun porch, this is progress.  Not as much progress as either of us would like, but progress. We also picked up the additional lumber we’ll need for framing in the sun porch.  I still have to buy a new bit for the router so I can route in window openings.  Most of that I will do on the table saw or in situ with the skill saw, so that purchase can wait until the framing’s complete.

I still haven’t rounded up the 8″ stove pipe I need for the rocket mass heater.  I also haven’t worked at it very hard.  I can’t do much on that project until the sun porch is in.  Wadly is really resistant to the thermal mass run going along the wall so I’m going to wrap it into the corner around the radiating tank.  It won’t do quite as good a job heating but it will still be a huge improvement on our little radiant heaters.  The catalytic heater stopped functioning properly when we weathered in the break between the airstream and the living room.

We’re currently working on a full length awning over the garden window and door at the west end of the living room to replace the 8′ awning we moved from the slider (making room for the sun porch).  This job is a must as without it, that end of the building has no protection and we have no place to stand out of the weather while getting the door opened.  The 8′ awning was great but we really need one that spans the full length of the building.  We should have that done today.  We disassembled the 8′ awning the day before yesterday and got the framework for the new awning up yesterday.  Today we’ll get it roofed . . . assuming it doesn’t rain.

I was going to have Wadly cut a 8′ piece of metal roofing in half lengthwise to cover the top 6″ of the awning but I have just had a brighter idea.  I’m going to use billboard vinyl.  It will let in the light but still protect the garden window and door from glare.  Brilliant idea!  It will also make a softer transition to the polycarbonate.

One further plan for this winter.  We need to move the power from the pump house, which is going to be torn down and rebuilt, to its permanent location on the barn (which is now mostly weathered in and functioning as Wad’s shop).  I’d like to get that done before I have to change the power in the living room to make room for the rocket mass heater.  Moving the power in the living room is easy, it’s two 4-gang boxes connected by a 6′ length of conduit.  I have to move them down the wall quite a bit and swap the power connection from one end to the other.  Not a big thing, but it’s got to happen.