Our House

If you look back through the posts from last fall you’ll see I mentioned using Shark Bite pex fittings in my replumbing of the laundry room.  I am such a huge fan of these fittings.  They are more expensive than standard pex fittings, but they require no extra tools and the fittings can reused innumerable times.

The laundry room move changed the length of the hot and cold water runs to the Airstream, shortening them by about 5′.  I didn’t have to buy a thing.  I cut the lines using a hammer and sharp butcher knife against a wood block (produces a clean end necessary for a good seal), undid the Shark Bite fittings and slid them on the newly cut ends.  Rerouting and reconnecting the lines was a few-minutes-zero-cost job.

In this one plumbing change, the fittings paid for themselves.  I’ll be able to use these fittings again when I’m done with the current application.  I see this as money well spent.

Terry (neighbor) manning the shovel

With the debacle of the shop move fresh in our minds, Wadly, Terry and I moved the laundry room out of the way of our new building project.  This building was light enough to sling with straps, something the shop wasn’t.   Terry swung it around and placed it on blocks at the back of the Airstream, accessible but out of the way for the new construction.  After a day of rest I reinstalled the metal roofing we removed prior to the move adding new tar paper underneath.

I’ve got the stakes in the ground to run my leveling string for the new foundation.  Wadly’s got brother Tom’s cement mixer.  I’ve got my floor plan and my building plan and everything but the concrete and rebar which I won’t pick up until we’re ready to pour the grade beam!  It’s time to get out the shovels and get to work . . . weather permitting.

I am having a heck of a time getting Wadly to agree it’s time to start building up on the ridge.  He’s always been reluctant to embrace any kind of change that involved work or discomfort, though he is getting better.  While I’m waiting for him to come around to my way of thinking, I’m planning and working to get other projects done.

I’m trying to not build anything that I will later need to deconstruct.  I view build-to-tear-down as a waste of time and materials.  Because our current accommodation is a collection of scabbed together re purposed buildings connected to an ancient Airstream trailer, we don’t stay warm enough in the winter, nor do we stay cool enough in the summer.

The current layout

We’ve gone back and forth on how to make us more comfortable and save on heating costs without wasting money.  We considered replacing the Airstream with a 10′x32′ SIP box, but I really hate SIP, the  box would have to be deconstructed when we finally move up the hill and it would be costly.  In my view, that’s three strikes.  Additionally, the new building would be on the south side of the living room which is totally the wrong side for the bedroom and bathroom.   The Airstream’s there and I hate its location in relation to our living room.  Any windows on the south side of the living room would look right at the Airstream and would be pointless.

New layout sans laundry and Airstream

So I came up with what we think is a better plan.  Why don’t we build a single 12′x36′ building on the north side of the living room to replace the laundry room (separate building), bedroom (separate building) and bathroom and kitchen function of the Airstream?  With the Airstream gone I could have south facing windows in the living room.  Sounds like an excellent plan!  And, when we finally move up the hill, the SIP living room could be deconstructed and this new single building could be the back side of a really nice greenhouse and could serve as guest quarters.

And what makes this idea even better, I can build the bedroom end of the new building first, move our bedroom furniture and my desk into it then move the old bedroom building (old 8′x16′ construction shack with no insulation in the floor and a roof that leaks if it’s not wearing a billboard vinyl hat) away to finish the construction of the remainder of the building. No camping while we build, no inconvenience.  Nice.

Once the rest of the building is done and the kitchen and bathroom are finished we can move the Airstream away, deconstruct the laundry room and put a couple nice big picture windows in the south wall of the living room so we can enjoy the view and the sunlight.  Brilliant plan.  And to make the plan even better, it gives Wadly a bathroom just steps away from his new shop in the barn!  How great is that?!

The weather’s been the typical “is it spring yet” diva.  One day it’s 75° and I’m running around with the truck windows open and the next it’s cold and depressingly wet and Chuck won’t come out from under his sweatshirt.  Welcome to the northwest.

The shop after the leantos had been stripped off and before the guys started lifting it.

A lot has happened since I posted last.  Wadly (venerable spouse), Terry (neighbor) and Lorr (son) jacked up the shop to move it from its original resting place.  In the process of putting the trailer under it to move it, the shop got bumped and crashed to the ground on top of the big log rounds that were holding it up.  This abrupt descent crushed in the floor in two places.   Picture me, your humble home builder/planner and semi-dutiful wife doing a happy dance around the now dead shop.  Wadly promised it would go away once he had the roof on the barn and his shop set up therein.  The welsher changed his mind, deciding he would move it to the back of the barn (in full view of the someday new house).  Ha!  Guess karma showed him.  Lorr, Terry and I are all snickering behind our hands.  Wadly’s pretending not to notice, but as he’s the one who tipped the shop of the blocks, he can’t say much.

The new plan is to deconstruct the old shop in place.  I’m ready with weenies and marshmallows for the bonfire.