Fall 2012: Lights, loft closets and bathroom loft

Having passed my electrical "rough-in", inspection, I was then allowed to connect all the outlets, switches, breakers and lights.  I connected my generator to the breaker box for electricity, and below you see an example of the end result:

Next we'll take a little tour around the inside (which I cleaned up considerably).  This will give me a chance to show the lights on in the various areas, as well as mention a few carpentry tasks I decided to tackle along the way.  First we have the main entryway, all lit up with overhead recessed lights.  Immediately after that I show the kitchen/dining area, which is on the opposite side of the main floor, and has similar lighting:

This next one is a shot into the 'sunken' bathroom, also utilizing recessed lighting, but with an added ceiling fan/light, which you can't see.  What you can see, to the right of the bathroom entrance, is what looks like a built-in ladder.  It looks like a built-in ladder because that's what it is, but it's a "ladder stairway".  It leads to the bathroom loft, and folds up into the wall, latching flush at the same angle as the rest of that wall.

The next few pictures show a progression of how I decided to add closet space to the two loft bedrooms.  The first is from the bottom, and shows the floor joists just to the left of the top of the staircase.  Next you'll see those joists from the top, then the plywood covering the closet floor.  The last picture is from the bottom again, showing the closet studwalls, but also showing a light on in the peak of the ceiling.  That light was just added as a place-holder for testing the wiring, which I'll explain after these 4 pictures.

The loft bedrooms, as well as the main living space and the bathroom are all going to have ceiling fans with lights.  I don't have the ceiling fans yet, but needed the previously noted "place holders" until I found some fans.

The ceiling fans are important for circulating both warm and cool air, in keeping with the mindset of efficiency and off-grid type heating and cooling practices.  So there will be a total of (5) identical ceiling fans, which I found (new) on eBay for about $50 each, shipped.  Here's the picture from the eBay auction.  I should have them by mid-November.

The bedroom and bathroom fans will be operated with the pull cords you see in the picture, and the lights will be operated with a regular wall switch.  In the main living area, both sets of lights will be operated (together) with wall switches, which can be turned on at the top and bottom of both bedroom staircases (a confusing switch to wire for a DYI guy, but I managed to figure it out).  The fans will be operated (together) with a remote control, just like a TV or DVD player.  The peak of the ceiling in the main area is too high for pull cords, and I didn't like the idea of those knob switches, which are a hassle to wire and kind of expensive.  I found a set of (2) remote sets on eBay for about $20.

The ceiling fans are the last item I have to install before calling the electrical inspector back for the final inspection.  Along with all the indoor outlets, there are (3) outdoor grounded outlets, (4) sets of outdoor floodlights, (2) small balcony lamps, lights in the center of each half of the garage, as well as the required hard-wired smoke/carbon monoxide detectors.

My plan from the beginning was to make sure that even though this is an off-grid home, I didn't want switches to be in odd places, or have weird "rules" attached to outlets, as I've seen in a lot of my research.  I want people to be able to come in and turn on lights or plug in appliances just like the would in any other house.  That said, if I wanted to hook this place up to grid electricity, it wouldn't be a problem - and I may just do that someday, if I'm creating enough electricity to sell back to the electric company.

Next:  Plumbing!

Spring 2012: Electricity and Kitchen Counters

I've often said that electricians make too much, because I don't think the job is rocket science.  However, after wiring most of my house, I've decided that their experience makes up for the relative simplicity of the job at hand.  It probably boils down to planning and rules of thumb, more than anything else, but those two things alone are the difference between a professional taking a weekend to wire a house and a month for your average DIY guy.  Afterthought lighting and outlet locations, as well as tricky light switching are the time killers, but all in all, I'm still glad I did it myself.  I haven't had the rough-in inspection yet...still some loose ends to tie off, and I already know I'll fail the first inspection - most everyone does.

Before I could finish wiring the kitchen, I had to build the counter, because there are special rules for spacing of outlets in the kitchen.  It was about time to design the kitchen layout anyway, so this is the rough counter layout.  The stove and fridge will be on the right, against the half-wall.  The sink will be under the window - which may have to be changed out for one that opens.  I like the wide open area, and all the countertop space.

Mud-Jacking

Today the mud-jackers and I were finally able to coordinate and get this job done.  Mud-jacking is a process used to level garage floors that have settled more than a reasonable amount.  They drill holes in the slab and pump in a mixture of pulverized lime and water, filling in the voids and lifting the slab back where it's supposed to be.

I'm not even sure if I've ever mentioned it before, but the entire back 4' or so, and another 4' or so along the east end of the garage sank 2"-4" and cracked.  The front apron, typically at a slight downward angle from the garage floor, also sank a couple inches.  The apron posed problems aside from the bump you hit driving into the garage.  It's supposed to divert rain from the garage out into the driveway, but in this case it was pouring it IN the garage when it rained, and freezing my garage doors closed during a temporary winter day-thaw.

There's settling that you can expect to occur on this big a slab (48'x32'), but there was some severe negligence on the part of the concrete guy in this case.  Unfortunately, I have in-floor heating tubing in the garage floor, and there's always a chance one of the tubes can get nicked.  That happened in my case, so there will have to be some repair done for that, but thankfully they only nicked it in one spot.  Even with detection equipment, there's always a chance that can happen.

Mud-jacking:  $2000

Flat garage floor:  Priceless.

Unfortunate note:  Jim Geist of "Jim's Concrete" (Milaca, MN) was the guy that poured the frost footing and concrete slab, and also did the blockwork.  He did a decent job with the frost footing and concrete, but, as you've read, dropped the ball on the slab.  Further, when contacted regarding the warranty (industry standard is 10 years), he walked away, saying basically that I had no warranty in writing, therefore he wasn't about to pay even half the mud jacking costs.  So there's a BBB.MN file on him, and I just hope people check with them before hiring him.  I wasn't bright enough (or maybe I was too trusting) to check.

July thru mid-August 2011

Hello again, and sorry it's been so long.  The summer months aren't my favorite for working on the house because of the heat, and this year has been especially hot and humid...record-breaking, in fact.  Add in that I was called in for another contract project in early June, and I'm sure you'll understand.  However, I still get my bits and pieces in on weekends, and the last couple months is no exception.

First I'll show you the fixture I picked up for the bathroom - per the plans you saw in the last entry:

This was yet another Craigslist purchase, being one of many in the $100-$200 dollar range.  This one was in better shape than the others I saw, and one of the lower priced options, too, at $120.  This picture was taken right before I picked it up in West St. Paul.  I should probably note that getting my truck down there and back probably cost me $50+ in gas, but even with that it was the best option.  Another thing to note is that these things are HEAVY!  Two of us carried it down an old, narrow staircase, but I was responsible for the unload once I got up to my place.  I'll do some refinishing on it in my garage before I enlist a few of my buddies to help me get it upstairs to the bathroom.

Next I'll show you the not-quite-final on the outside finish work on the bathroom.  I still have to caulk the end caps and windows, then find a transition piece where the siding meets the shingles.  It will also need another eave fascia piece where you see the rafter nubs sticking out, then soffit, but that's down the road a bit.

I know it doesn't seem like much to accomplish in a month or so, but I did some internal stuff, too.  I played around a bit with my "poor man's" geothermal air conditioning, which seems to work but will take quite a bit more experimenting.  I also did a lot or rearranging in my garages to make room for the "mud-jack" people.  Mud-jacking, for those of you who don't know, is a process to level a garage floor (or any concrete slab) that has sunk, tilted, cracked and sunk, etc.  My concrete guy wasn't as attentive to packing the sand below my garage slab as he should have been, so along the rear and sides it sunk and cracked.  This is especially touchy because I have in-floor heating coils, which I hope are flexible enough to withstand it.  I haven't had a chance to get the mud-jackers in here yet, but I'll keep you posted on how that goes in a future blog.  ~Out~

Welcome to my Off-Grid Project Blog

Hello and welcome to the newer, easier, quicker way for me to keep you up to date on the progress of my off-grid home-building project.

If you're new to this blog, please feel free to visit the original website to get some background (www.wright-track.com/off-grid.html).  If you've been following the website to this point, you probably know I've been [trying to] keep a website updated over the last several years.  It was kind of like a blog anyway, with pictures and commentary about this project, but maintaining web pages was becoming a little cumbersome, and I found myself slacking off on those updates.  This blog will be much less work and will hopefully bring the fun back into it.  I may still update some of the web pages from time to time, like the 'mistakes and corrections' page, for instance, but for the most part, this will be it.

Progress to date:

Last fall is where I left off with updates, having closed up the 'Taj Majal Bathroom' framing for the winter.

I didn't do a great deal of work over the winter, because I was working full-time in St. Paul during the week, but I did get a few things done.  I insulated the bathroom ceiling and walls, put subfloor down in the storage loft area, and picked at the inside interface between the bathroom and the main structure.  With the interface, I was mostly trying to figure out exactly how the bathroom would lay out, so I could decide where to put the door, etc.

First I had to tear off the roof sheeting, then cut off and support the rafters that I decided would be in the way, rather than something I could use as part of the bathroom wall design.  The center rafter stayed, because it was actually one of the main supporting beams of the first 'A'.  Since I had put in the large bracing (straightening) planks awhile back, the remaining rafters didn't require much support.  The entry doorway was going to need a header anyway, and since it never hurts to add support, I used parts of the old rafters as joists to kill both birds with one stone.  I thought I had some pictures at that stage, but I can't seem to find them.  The next thing I did was continue the knee wall to the main rafter.

Layout came next, followed by installation of the windows.  I decided I wanted a lot of light in the bathroom, so in addition to the skylights, I found a big picture window and a couple big casement windows to border it.  Here is a picture from the edge of the woods, facing south.  That's Mark Olson in the picture, for any of you that know him.

The windows actually went in after deciding on and pursuing the bathroom layout, but the pictures looked better as a before/after kind of thing.  Just before installing those windows (all of which were purchased on Craigslist for maybe $300 total), I had been working on the layout and construction.  Below is a sketch of how the layout will look.

So that's where I'm at right now.  I'll have to add up the costs and get back to this.

Right  after completing the above, I acquired some sapling spruce trees from my buddy's island up near Remer, MN.  Watering saplings is essential, and kind of difficult for me since I have neither a well nor electricity to pump water.  So, with the 65 gallon water tank I already owned, I set up an automatic 'drip' watering system (Menards, $30).  I picked up another, larger (275 gallon) tank on Craigslist for $75 and as well as a gas-powered water pump for $20.  Hoses and attachments were another $50, and now I can get my water right from a nearby stream instead of from a neighbor or driving all the way to Princeton.  Fingers crossed that the trees survive this first season.  After that, I'm told they do fine on their own.  If anyone knows different, please email me!

I've also spent some time covering the rocks on my earth berm with heavy-duty landscape fabric (the kind they use for driveway underlayment).  I should have done it before putting them in the first time, but didn't think anything would grow in rocks.  My mistake - weeds (HUGE weeds) will grow in a minimal amount of dirt, and will spread like crazy.  I'll probably update the 'mistakes and corrections' web page to include that very expensive error.  The cost of having the rocks brought in is on the website, and that number will be at least duplicated when I bring in more rocks.  I thought about removing the existing rocks, laying down the fabric, then returning them, but that would be much more work and no less expense.  The rocks are free, so it's just hauling and placement (again).  The fabric, on the other hand, is not cheap, and I needed quite a bit.  Tally so far for the fabric is about $400 or so.  Yes, $400.

So there's my first blog entry.  As usual, there's more to come...