Journal of Progress--May 21-27

Monday, May 21, 2018

Don actually started this day by cementing in a post to have the electrical meter attached to.  For $3465, Rocky Mountain will sell us electricity if we dig across two Juab County roads at our own expense and then take the electricity from this post 220 ft up to the house.  We never knew the electrical company took rural customers for such a ride  We have one friend who got a quote of over $100,000 to have electricity brought to his home.  He's gone solar which was also expensive but not as much.  It cost us $26 to have our phone installed.  Evidently someone thought long ago that everyone should have access to telephones and it was subsidized to make it possible.  It seems that no one thought everyone should have access to electricity.

 This is looking across the two roads we have to go under to the pole with the transformer on it.

Now this is looking back from the electrical pole to our meter box pole and house.  The phone company has buried some cables right next to the telephone pole so we will have to be careful of those when we dig.

While digging, Don found this Bayer aspirin bottle and this iron whatever it is.  No one has been able to identify it for us yet.

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From Don's journal:  Decided to build the front (east) wall in three sections: the bedroom wall, the entry section, and the kitchen wall. Got the bedroom (according to Barbara's records, this wall was actually done on Saturday but the pictures are installed here) and entry built and erected, and installed diagonal braces in the west wall porch section and the bedroom wall, AFTER they were erected, which is very hard. You have to hold the saw up in the air and make diagonal cuts, part way through the studs, over and over and over, then chisel out the scrap. And that’s the EASY part! The hard part comes at the bottom of the wall, where you can’t make the cuts with the saw. Instead, you have to chisel out the mortise, bit by bit, with a chisel. My chisel has hit a lot of nails, and is really dull. No way to sharpen it, so I just have to use it. Long, hard job, but I did eventually get it done. The easier way is to make the cuts while the wall is lying down, before erecting it. But I couldn’t be sure the wall was square without standing it up, which I did by myself. Extremely heavy job that hurt my back. So I certainly did not want to lay it down again after marking it for the cuts, just to make the cutting easier, then lift it back up again! By myself.  Neighbors gone except one that has a slipped disc.  Not going to ask him to help with a heavy lifting job.

 Looking out of the bedroom window.

 Building the stabalizers.

 Front door

Kitchen wall

Finished in time to lay out and build the third section, the kitchen wall. I finally got smart and built in the diagonal brace before erecting the wall. Couldn’t do that without installing all headers first, which are heavy. Left erecting that section for tomorrow.

Work took lots longer than I expected, due to constant interruptions. Had to talk to various officials on the phone, plus had a visit from the Blue Stakes staker, who turned out to be our favorite phone company installer Alex. Hand another visit from the County Roads Department Superintendant about our need to cut two unpaved streets temporarily to lay cable for the power company.

Saw this little rabbit across the street.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Once again, had to erect a wall section by myself. Got smart this time and used a home-made gantry crane. Nailed a couple of 2x4s together in an A frame. Backed the van up within fifteen feet of the wall. Still not close enough to use a come-along. Didn’t want to get closer, to avoid any possibility of the wall going past vertical and falling ON the car. Found a rope and tied it to the wall, the gantry, and the come-along, which was mounted on the van’s trailer hitch. Tacked short pieces of 2x4 to the rim joist, to prevent the bottom plate from sliding off the foundation. Also tacked a 12 foot 2x4 from the top of the center section running diagonally to the rim joist at the other end of the kitchen section I was about to erect. Hopefully, this would prevent the wall from going past vertical. Then I wound up the come-along, pulling the gantry A frame toward the van, which pulled the top of the wall UP. I didn’t get it all the way vertical, but I did get it up high enough that I could tip it the rest of the way by muscle power, without hurting my back. Clamped the two sections of wall together as high up as I could reach, for safety.

The bottom plate of the wall was not exactly where it needed to be, but a little “persuasion” with a hand sledge moved it into place nicely. Fastened a temporary diagonal brace from the top of the unattached end of the wall to the rim joist, then started checking for plumb and straightness. With a little bit of minor persuasion, everything came out right, and I was able to nail the wall in place along the bottom plate and up the side where it was clamped. Now that wall is done!

I was hoping to start on the fourth wall, the south wall of the house, today, but my design calls for a kitchen window over the sink, and another one in the living room area. Windows require headers, which are made of 2x10s, and I have used up all my 2x10s. I’m going into Salt Lake tomorrow anyway, so I put off building the fourth wall, and decided to build the center “bearing wall” instead. This wall also has headers (actually beams), but these are made of 2x12s, which I do have, or which I can build separately. About then, a neighbor came over to see if he could help, and we got the wall built in a couple of hours. 

Minor hitch: the opening for the dumb-waiter to the root cellar is not where it’s supposed to be. It’s off by about 8 inches, necessitating extra framing. Ran out of chalk for my chalk line, and I don’t know where my extra chalk is, but we worked around it. Took longer, is all. I’ll buy some more chalk tomorrow, rather than spend the time looking for it. Got the wall built, and installed one of the two diagonal braces. I’ll need to flip the wall over to install the other one, which I cannot do without help.

Rest of the day called on account of rain. Got everything under wraps by 5:00, just before the frst thunderstorm hit. Whew!

Wednesday, May 23,2018

This was a city day with doctor appointments, laundry, and grocery shopping.

Thursday, 5/24/2018 

Spent all day yesterday in town, shopping, but forgot to get chalk line chalk. Also forgot to take my library book to return, and the propane tank to fill. Left half our clean laundry at daugher’s, so we have to go back to town today to get it.

Right now I’m sitting on my porch, looking out over the “million dollar view”, listening to the birds getting ready for the evening, and just enjoying myself after a good day. Lovely! The hills to the west look like they were cut out of cardboard. The closer hills are so green after a week of rain! I can hear some of my neighbors talking, but the acoustics are so good here that it’s impossible to tell which neighbors I’m hearing. The local birds are easier to identify, even though I don’t know their names. There’s just the slightest chill in the air, but I’m still comfortable in my tee shirt. Life is good!

Friday, May 25, 2018

Framing “minor hitch” turned out to be a major hitch, as the dumbwaiter was where it’s supposed to be: the previously built east wall containing the main entry isn’t where it is supposed to be. Had to move the bearing wall, after trimming two stud bays off of it, then had to move the entry framing in the previously erected east wall. Fortunately, I had built the wall in three sections, so I only had to free the middle section, move it over eight inches, then build in an extra stud bay to fill in where I moved it. The framing looks a little strange, but is stronger than it otherwise would be, and the strangeness will be covered up with drywall, so it will not show. I’ll still have to do some tricky framing at the west wall. I intend to frame in a stub wall to make a small alcove for Barbara’s desk, which will hide a support post for the header. Seems like a lot of work, but at least now the bearing wall is on top of the main beam where it belongs. Home Depot says they can deliver i-joists in whatever length I want, in four days. They can come from Tooele, which is closer than other stores. Now I have to decide whether to get them in 30 foot or 15 foot sections. Will pray about it tonight. But I don’t need to worry. Tomorrow I’ll go to ReStore and look for living room and kitchen windows. Once I have them, I can frame the south wall, and order the joists. They cost about fifteen percent more than solid lumber, but are six times as strong, and much, much lighter. This last is very important to a septuagenarian on an eight foot stepladder!

I filmed Don moving the entry wall using his large clamp and hand sledge.  It was cool but I got the camera angle wrong and it didn't show it.

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Built the stub wall for Barbara’s desk alcove, which also disguises the support column for the bearing beam on the west end of the bearing wall. It was lots harder than one would think. Built the bearing beam, which is just as heavy as I can manage by myself. Got it up and discovered it’s 1/8" too high. Choice: take down the beam and shave it an eighth inch, or demolish the stub wall and rebuild it an eighth inch shorter. I shaved the beam. Found a straight 2x4 and clamped it to the beam for a sawing guide. Worked great, but ran out of time to put the beam back up.

We had to go into Provo to shop for windows. Just as we were leaving, ex-bishop Rowley showed up to look at our apricot tree, which apparently has an infestation of borers. He prevents them in his trees, so doesn’t know what to do about an established colony. While here, he pruned the tree for us, using a chainsaw on a pole. Cool! Took out several hundredweight of dead wood. The tree looks awesome. Most of the heavy wood he took out was on the downwind side, the side the tree leans toward. You could SEE the tree springing back. Happy tree! He says he’ll come back this winter and take out about a third of the live growth, which will make it even happier and healthier. Meanwhile, he has promised to investigate the borer problem. Since he has an advanced degree in fruit tree management, and is part of a family that owns millions of trees (it’s what they do for a living), I’m confident he’ll find a solution, if there’s one to be found. His price for all this? He wants some shoots for grafting. He LIKES our tree!

Also, had to interrupt my housebuilding work to make a water run. Doesn’t take long, but running the water out of the transport barrel and into the trailer tank does. The spigot and hose are 3/4", designed for working under pressure, which we don’t have, Just a couple feet of head, from the back of the utility trailer to the tank in the Airstream, which is also designed to accept a two-inch pressure line. So the water runs slow, and there’s no way to know when the tank is full, until water starts running out onto the ground. So you have to just stand there and watch it! Can’t wait until we get a real water tank buried, the pressure pump installed, and electricity. Oh, and a pickup truck and transport tank, too. All that, and build the house too. I’m beginning to doubt that we’ll be living in the house this winter, but we should be able to get it closed in, at least.