The house itself is just a bit too small.  We also have no general outside storage.  The lawn mower, roto tiller and other equipment lives under a tarp when not in use.  That is less than ideal.  I would also like a separate space for my home office.

To answer all those concerns and more, I decided that a small outbuilding should be constructed.  Nothing major, something long the lines of 200 square feet or so.  That was the size at the beginning of the planning process.  The final size is 640 square feet and I fear that it may be too small.

Floor plan, barn project

The floor plan is pretty simple, the first floor is on a slab and is 20×16 feet, the second floor is also 20×16 including the stairwell.  I wanted to get maximum use from this project, therefore, I build in several options not normally found in an outbuilding:

1. The first floor slab is 8 inches thick, insulated and has PEX embedded for radiant floor heating
2. The walls are all 2×6 construction, for the added insulation space.
3. All doors and windows are double glazed.
4. The walls are to be insulated with spray in foam.
5. The second floor will have radiant tubing installed under the floor.
6. The major building face is oriented to true south, solar thermal panels will be mounted on the south facing roof for space heating.
7. The roof pitch for the south facing roof is 55 degrees, for best winter solar gain.
8. Under the stairs will be located a 12 KW propane generator for backup power to the house and battery charging.
9. A large lead acid battery bank will reside next to the north wall on the first floor.

All of these things point toward using solar heating, using the slab as heat storage for energy collected during the day.  The theory is, at night time, the floor will release its heat into the structure, thus keeping it warm.  The overall floor was just under seven cubic yards of concrete during the pour. The specific heat for concrete is 0.18 BTU/lb/°F.  Seven cubic yards equals 27,405 pounds of concrete.    Thus, a temperature rise of 1 degree F equals 4932 BTU of energy storage.  If the solar panels can raise the temperature of the slab from 40 to 100 degrees F in one sunny day, that represents 295,974 BTU, which is significant.

The plan is to have about 94 square feet of solar collector, which should easily handle this amount of energy collection on all but the cloudiest of days.

The batteries will be primarily charged from the grid, however, they can also be charge by the PV panels in the event of a prolonged power outage.  If the solar panels cannot charge the batteries for whatever reason, then the backup generator will kick in and charge them.  The backup generator will hopefully be used vary sparingly, it is a four cylinder, air cooled unit.  In the winter (which is when most of the power outages occur) the waste heat from the generator will also heat the building.

This project is already underway, but I am going to break up the posts into general topics, like footings, slabs, framing, etc.

Once upon a time, this blog was a happening place. Then, like so many other things, the house renovation and the blog where put on hold. I could have continued blogging about other things, but made the decision to stay on topic and post nothing.

Situations have shifted, slightly, for the better.  We are back to doing some things here, although money is still tight.  I will therefore revive the blog, which is no small task. The software and database are woefully out of date.  The front page design, template and overall look leaves lots of room for improvement.  I also intend to go through past posts and make corrections or delete as appropriate.

The new, revised blog will be about home improvement.  I am going to do away with any tool recommendations, as they often become a place were anyone with a gripe will come and post about their issues with that particular tool.  When I read those comments, it often seems the tool owner is not following directions or is generally trying to do something the tool manufacture had not intended.

I look forward to inviting you all back in and posting about such things as our zero energy barn, construction of which is underway.  I will also post our plans for the final push to finish renovating this house, which includes such things as a building front porch, replacing siding, renovating the old bathroom, finishing the fireplace hearth, adding backup power generation, etc.

Thanks for reading.

Update: Well, new data base, somewhat stream lined content, not all the old posts made it over, new template, updated ad interface, etc.  Looks like the back office upgrades are done.  Now, back to the task at hand.

With left over materials from our last solar job, I fashioned a base using 8 inch sonotube, 3 inch PVC conduit and an 80 pound bag of ready mix.

Scientific Sundial, mounted

I knew were a large rock, by large I mean car sized, was in my yard,  I found it the first year while digging trenches for drain pipes for the gutters.  I dug down with a post hole digger and placed about 18 inches of sonotube on the rock.  I also drilled into the rock a little bit with a masonry bit and put a 1/2 inch rebar into the rock, pinning the sonotube footing in place.

Then I filled the sonotube and the 3 inch PVC with ready mix concrete.

I waited two days.

Scientific Sundial, about 5 pm

Using the Solar and Moon calculator App for my android phone, I determined that solar noon was 12:57:58 pm today.  I don’t thing that two seconds will make that much difference, so at exactly 12:58 pm, I aligned the 12:00 noon analemma with the shadow made by the Gnomon.   This sundial is now aligned to true north/south.

The motto means “Life resembles a shadow“

Concord Grapes on the vine

I picked several pounds of these, destemed them and washed them:

Concord Grapes ready to be juiced

Using a potato masher, I smashed them up as best as possible, then put them on the stove.  Brining them to a low simmering boil for 10 minutes, I mashed them again.  Then, I strained them through a metal strainer to get rid of the seeds and skins.  Finally, I strained that juice through cheese cloth and ended up with about two quarts of grape juice.

I must say, the grape juice is pretty good, slightly tangy but yummy.  I found cutting the grape juice with 1/2 water made it taste better.  Also, my wife is planning to make grape jelly with the juice, as we have lots of it, and having homemade grape jelly, just like the home made strawberry jam, will be welcome in the middle of winter.

Fast forward to this summer.  I was researching sundials for some other reason when I came upon a company called Scientific Sundials.  They looked really cool, and they are completely customizable.  I ordered one and it showed up yesterday via US Mail.

Scientific Sundial

I’ll be making a mount for this one and putting it up when I build the new front porch.

1. The zoning laws had changed.  The deck no longer met the required setback from the road for the front of the house and I wanted to get clarification on what I was allowed to do.
2. We decided that we were not going to replace the deck in kind, but rather install a covered porch along the front of the house, which will require more money.
3. Lack of time.

After last fall’s mix up when installing the footings for the solar system, I wanted to be sure that we weren’t going to run afoul of the town code enforcement officer.  I reviewed the situation and he said what we were planning was fine, reducing the encroachment into the required setback is always welcome.

removal in progress

So, last Saturday, I got busy and removed the rest of the deck.  What I found explained quite a few things.  I think it was constructed around 1980 or so.  First of all, not all the wood used on the deck was pressure treated.  Several supporting members were full of carpenter ants.  Secondly, the deck was not properly attached to the house, it was nailed to the siding.  Thirdly, no flashing was used, so the ledger board was extensively rotted.  In fact, it is so bad under the front door that the rot made its way into the rim joist.

pile of junk

I used the trusty skilsaw, sawsal and 10 pound sledge hammer to get the job done.  In the end, I had a pile of mixed wood, some treated, some rotted, some not.  I took the stuff to the town transfer station, which charges $0.05 per pound for C&D material.  It ended up costing me $64.00 to get rid of everything, which works out to 1,280 pounds.

Front deck removed

Apparently I wasn’t quite tired enough, so I also got out the chain saw and removed the two overgrown rhododendron bushes as well.  The front of the house looks a little bare right now, but I kind of like it.

Fortunately, the rotted rim joist is one small section and it doesn’t seem to affect the sill plate.  I will examine the sill more closely when we get ready to replace the rim joist.

In the coming weeks, I will get a building permit and put the front porch on before winter time.  It will be nice to have this project done.

This year, I went to fire up the trusty rototiller (Yard Machines 21A332A700) to start working on the garden and I spent quite a while pulling on that rope with nothing to show for it.  It turns out, there were several problems.  These are the basic trouble shooting steps:

1. Check the fuel.  Gas goes bad after a while, bad gas will smell funny.  If the gas has sat in the tank all winter, drain it out and replace with fresh gas.  Check the carburetor, most have a drain bolt on the bottom, drain about 1 tablespoon of gas out.  If the unit has a fuel filter, check that too.
2. Check ignition.  Remove the spark plug and check for damage.  Check for proper gap.  The spark plug should have slightly grey/brown ash on it, that is normal.  Black gunk indicates a more serious problem.  If several attempts at starting were made, the spark plug should have a slight coating of gas on it and the cylinder should smell like gas.  Wait about 5 minutes then ground the spark plug on the engine and pull the starter.  You should see/hear the spark.  If not, there is an ignition problem.
3. Remove the air filter and be sure that the choke plate is closed.
4. After several starting attempts, the carburetor throat should be slightly wet with gas.  If not, there is a fuel problem.
5. If everything looks normal (fuel and ignition okay) then the flywheel key might be bent.  This could happen if the engine was stopped after hitting something.  In many cases, the fly wheel key can be replaced.

Briggs and Stratton 6.5 HP engine with flywheel cover removed

With the rototiller, I found two problems, no gas and no spark.  The gas problem was due to a clogged carburetor port.  I took apart the carburetor and blew out all the ports with 35 PSI compressed air to make sure that no other junk was stuck in there.

Briggs and Stratton 6.5 HP engine ignition coil

The ignition problems were due to a mouse nest under the fly wheel cover.  The mice chewed through the insulation on the kill wire.  I tried to re-insulate the wire, but there was still no spark.  I replaced the entire ignition coil.  Briggs and Stratton has a good web site where one get know how and order parts directly.

I also installed a new, properly gapped spark plug.  Total cost of repair, about $40.00.

Last summer I began to notice a small area in my front yard where the ground was beginning to subside.  I really didn’t think too much of it at the time.  This spring, the area had grown into something like I used to see in the cemetery, which made me wonder.

Depressed area in the front lawn

It may be a little difficult to tell from this picture (it is hard to take a picture of a depression), but the area is roughly six and one half feet by three feet and it is down a good 6 inches in the middle.  I drew a box around it.  It faces due south, which also makes me think it is man made.  I was always told that graves should face east, but apparently that is not necessarily so.

European settlement began around here in 1680, the town itself was founded in 1703 and land ownership can be traced back the “Great Transfer /Groote Transport) land grant in 1728 by the crown.  This general area was a part of at least two farms dating from around 1810.  It would not be at all unusual for there to be a family grave or burring ground somewhere on the property.  Many times those graves were unmarked, the information passed down from one generation to the next.  The original farm house was across the street where the field is now, the foundation stones and wells still exist.  This area is about 75 feet away from the old house. I believe that house was abandoned sometime in the late 1940′s in favor of the one at the end of the street.

I will ask down at the farm house and see if anyone knows anything.  If another spot like this develops nearby, it is almost certainly a burring ground.  Lends new meaning to “Knowing where the skeletons are.”  What to do about it, I just don’t know.

All in all, the yard is in pretty good shape.  I took a day in February, after the double blizzard, and picked up all the branches.  The white pine lost three large branches.  Today, I got out the trusty Toro Lawn mower and cut the grass for the first time.  There was a lot of leaves stick and other debris that I mulched up too.  That is going to make excellent compost.

Before things get too far along, I need to repair all the damage done when installing the solar system last November/December.  Basically, I need to rack out all the stones and reseed a around the footings and where the trench for the conduit was dug.

If it is the solar systems, then they are supposed to be tax exempt for ten years, according to this New York State real property law.  So, I suppose it is time to mosey on down to the town hall and see the tax assessor, find out were all that value has come from.  Honestly, the outside of our house looks the same way it has for the last 3 years.  I have done very little to make it look better or even good, for that matter.