The Straw House Blog - Home of Glen, Gil and Declan Hunter

Who was that masked man?

Joanne here - a new voice. We had a few more visitors this weekend. On Saturday the president of Thermotech Windows stopped by to take a look and get some pictures. We had broken a lever on one of our front casements and he brought a replacement. He said he’d keep our spare window in mind and suggested we post it here. Window anyone?

Mike the roofer also stopped by to check out the completed soffits and discuss eavestroughes. We didn’t work on Sunday - family event at Aunt Joan’s. On Monday we were back up and were joined by Nick (my dad) who came all the way from Grimsby and spent the day sanding the big double beams in the gallery. I finally got a few pictures since I stupidly missed getting any pictures at the beginning of February when he and Anna (my mom) came to visit. We didn’t even do a blog entry that time! They came all the way from Grimsby, helped out, and we went out for a wonderful dinner for Glen’s birthday and there has been no record of it. It’s been bugging me since then so I’m happy to have finally put it in the blog.

Glen and his dad were working on the bathroom. Today they got the glass in the doors which means we really have a usable bathroom now! Donna and I applied another coat of urethane to the outside bathroom walls and doors. Then I started sanding the posts with 120 grit—I got five done, only twenty-three to go.

At the end of the day Ian showed up, he hasn’t been out here for a couple of months so he was seeing some big changes. Later this week Glen’s cousins Phil and Steve are coming out, Phil to work and Steve to visit (I’m not sure that Steve’s all that handy). The plumber’s supposed to be out tomorrow or Wednesday to fix a few problems. When that is done we can put up the drywall in the kitchen and back bathroom.

Posted by: Glen: April, 21, 2003

Another Job Completed

We have soffits and fascia!.

Posted by: Glen: April, 18, 2003

Pictures from Sunday

Well I had hoped to do an entry about Sunday sooner than this, oh well.

This Monday I gave our landlord notice that we would be moving out as of the end of May. So we’re committed. The bathroom’s looking pretty good, Dad got one of the doors fitted, and a good portion of the plumbing is done. We now have a toilet and a sink. Unfortunately there seems to be some issue with the water pump and we have no pressure or hot water. Simon’s working on that though, and promises results before May. We met with Andrew the plumber and discussed various plumbing related issues with him. Hopefully we’ll have a people bath, and a dog bath very soon. The shower won’t be installed for a couple more months as the shower base was a special order and might not be in until June.

The major to-do list now consists of kitchen cabinets, final stucco, drywalling, and sanding/sealing the posts.

Posted by: Glen: April, 16, 2003

New Homepower

There’s a new issue of Homepower out. It has a big article on a house with a massive solar system and all kinds of monitoring software. Looks like the Maui stuff, but I haven’t had a chance to read the article yet.

We’ve been getting between 10 and 11 amps out of our panels on the sunny days but we’re only barely keeping ahead of our requirements - and that’s with no fridge. We need to get the wind generator up to give the batteries a boost. The tower was recalled though and isn’t back yet, and the wind generator was recalled and is now going back to the factory for a retro-fit. All of which is moot though since we haven’t got any cable run, and won’t be until things thaw a bit more. Obviously we’re going to have a problem in the shoulder months when we have the heat and the fridge going at the same time. Although once we turn the heat off we can put the inverter back into Search mode, that’ll save us a little.

Posted by: Glen: April, 14, 2003

A long soft road

Just when the driveway dries out we get 12” more snow. Then that snow melts, and the driveway’s back to a muddy rutted mess. Mom and Dad can’t get in anymore with their Subaru because the ruts are so deep that the car bottoms out. We don’t have any problem but then I haven’t taken the snow tires off the truck yet.

But the big news is the working toilet! Joanne is a very happy camper right now. The plumber got most of the rough plumbing done yesterday, and I hooked up the bathroom sink. We still don’t have hot water but maybe next week. Sunday I’m going to install the exhaust fan in the front bathroom. Dad’s been working on the doors and windows of the bathroom, so we’ll have a bathroom with privacy.

The installation of the soffits and fascia continues, but there’s only one guy working on the job so that probably won’t be done until next week.

We ordered our appliances today through a store in Peterborough. Our criteria for appliances is a combination of energy efficiency, quality, and cost. We chose a Kitchen Aid fridge and stove, a GE front loading washer and an Asko dishwasher.

Today we took exciting pictures of plumbing!

Posted by: Glen: April, 12, 2003

Some good news

The plumber was at the house yesterday, and he should be there today. We might have plumbing for the weekend. Mom and Dad are going into Peterborough today and they said they’ll pick up the glass for the doors and windows (of the bathroom), so we might even have a bathroom with privacy. You know, versus, “I’m going to the bathroom, everybody go to the opposite side of the house.”

The engineer from Bell called this morning and she said they can put in a phone line to the house. It’s going to cost us $2,400.00, and given that the driveway is nearly 1km long that doesn’t seem so bad. In comparison Ontario Hydro wanted $35-$50 per metre to bury their cable. Bell’s going to put in three test boxes along the road just in case something happens and they need to test the line. They’re going to run 3 pairs to the house so we can have a maximum of 3 phone lines. That won’t be going in until mid-May. Right around the same time as the septic bed.

I think we’re going to bite the bullet and give our notice on the apartment for the end of May.

Posted by: Glen: April, 09, 2003

A fine winter day

However odd it might be having a day like today in April, it was a beautiful one. Just above 0C, blue sky, bright sun, and everything coated in ice. Everything was glittering like fields of tinsel.

We got a late start at the house because Dad found some nice cedar boards in his basement that we had missed, and that gave us enough to finish the outside walls. So we had to do the plane, joint, rip and rout process all over again. So Dad and I (but mostly Dad) got the last boards up on the outside bathroom walls. Mom spent the day with a paintbrush in her hand sealing baseboard, bathroom walls, and priming the dog bath. I (finally) put up the outside backdoor light, and worked on the dog bath and bathroom. After Mom and Dad left I sanded the bathroom walls and got one end stained.

The house is passive solar, and it has been designed with the sun in mind, but it really is amazing the dramatic effect the sun has on the house. The temperature (and comfort level) goes up about 5 degrees and the solar panels were producing 10 amps. Sweet. Plus the whole house just lights up, it’s so much brighter and inviting.

Posted by: Glen: April, 06, 2003

At low ebb

There are times working on this project when I just don’t feel like we’re getting anywhere. The task is so huge that, as close to the end as we are, it still seems like there is way too much to do. Our Easter move in date is long since history, we’re looking at the end of May right now. Our landlord wants six weeks notice on our apartment so if we want to move in at the end of May we have to give notice next week. It’s a bit of a gut check to give notice when we have no appliances, no water, and the whole place is covered in dust. We really can’t afford to bring in any help at this point, so it’s all up to us.

Here’s the laundry list for today:

Mom put the first coat of urethane on the bathroom walls, and the Wiremold conduit covers. She applied stain to the shower back wall since Dad’s experiments showed that fibreglass will adhere to stained wood.

Dad worked on the outside walls of the bathroom. It looks like we’ll have just enough of our wood to finish.

I put the third coat of drywall mud on the back walls, sanded the outside walls of the bathroom, and built the dog bath.

Dog bath? You can see it in the pictures.

Posted by: Glen: April, 05, 2003

April in Ontario

Not a lot of work got done today, lotsa driving around in fairly crappy weather. Over the course of twelve hours about 8-12 inches of snow fell around southern Ontario. Our driveway has 12” of snow on it, and it hasn’t been ploughed. I managed to get in with the truck, but it wasn’t fun. So the roofing guys weren’t there, the plumber couldn’t get in, and Joanne is stuck in Toronto, since all Go trains were cancelled this afternoon. The weather people are calling for more of the same tonight.

Dad and I went into Peterborough to pick up our Wiremold conduit and glass for the doors. We got the conduit but the glass place was closed, probably due to the weather. So, as has become the norm for this project, we’ve pretty much lost a week. Good news though, we were hoping to do the outside window trim in Western Red Cedar, because it would match the doors, and because it contrasts with the grey exterior stucco so nicely. Turns out that the quantity we need will only cost about $300. For the interior window trim we’re going to use either our own oak or maple.

Dad’s got the cedar up on the outside face of the south end of the bathroom, we’ll stain that tomorrow. He also did a test of laying the fibreglass over the stained cedar. It sticks fine, so after we finish staining the shower wall we can apply fibreglass.

Posted by: Glen: April, 04, 2003

Soffits

Mike and the guys started on the soffits today, they got most of the way down the east side. The soffits are silver aluminum, the fascia is silver Galvalum. So everything should match.

Now if we could just get the plumber out there we’d really be moving along.

No word from bell today.

Soffit picture courtesy of my Dad.

Posted by: Glen: April, 02, 2003