Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
The town inspector came by today to inspect the freshly installed pellet stove. It passed, but with a little story.
When the inspector was reading through the manufacturer’s installation manual, he couldn’t find the part that said exhaust vent clearances only need to be 9″ from windows and doors if a fresh air vent is used. The reason he couldn’t find it is because it wasn’t in there. When I realized this, I began to sweat. Then, I remembered that the updated version of the installation manual was online…that’s where I got those clearances from. I quickly went upstairs to print out the pages I kept telling him about. I ran back downstairs and gave him the paperwork. He approved the install with no more issues.
I really like this installation because we don’t need a protective layer between the stove and the floor, since it’s on the new basement tile. That’s pretty cool, as well as a money saver. Also, we used hardly any exhaust pipe. That’s another money saver.
After the inspection, I called the pellet stove place to complete the order for four tons of pellets. I wanted to make sure the stove would be operable before finishing and paying for the order. They will get delivered in mid September.
I also called the insurance company to inform them of the new appliance. They liked this and added $11 to the homeowner’s policy. Not bad…
On the way home from Home Depot today, I saw a sign that offered a cord of wood for $200. Boy, prices have gone up. Even pellets were about $2.50 a bag a few years ago. Now, they are averaging about $5 per bag. If you were ever thinking about getting into a new business, alternative energy is it. This stuff is HOT right now.
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Friday, August 15th, 2008
In my last post, I said that people need to start writing more. I said that our readers don’t care what we write about, just that we write. I even threatened to take my camera out with me this morning.
Well, guess what. I did just that. Since I had to go to the mailbox this morning to put some outgoing mail in it, I decided to enjoy a little walking tour with the good ol’ camera in hand. I know this feels like a Seinfeld episode (about nothing) but this is what I do.
After I put the mail in the mailbox, I headed back down the driveway. I looked at the ground and noticed all sorts of acorns laying there all spread out. Every day this happens. There is a big Red Oak at the end of the driveway that makes a huge mess. I think the squirrels are $%^& with me. I need to call a tree service to come prune a few trees, this being one of them. I hate having this messy tree for everyone to see. Maybe when it’s getting pruned, I’ll take some before and after shots.
Anyway, when I looked down at the driveway, I noticed some ants running around. I took a bunch of pictures of them, but they were too fast and the pictures came out blurry. They would’ve been really cool because they were close up. While I was down on the driveway, I decided to take a picture of an acorn so you know what I am talking about.
There are hundreds of these things. Every time I mow the lawn, I take out the blower to blow off the driveway. Within a few days, they are back. After taking the picture, I had to get up and run because a car was coming. That’s all they need to see…Gaulard laying down on the driveway taking more pictures.
Last night, I also mentioned that I was taking down some small trees in the woods along the driveway. My goal is to make it a bit lighter in there with some breaks of sun. I have to be careful not to take down too much, because I really like the trees. The last thing I want is full sun. I have already made a dent. I would say I am taking down anything smaller than 6″. Here are some photos of that.
As you can see, there is some filtered sunlight coming through. I probably have about 10-15 more trees to remove.
A few days ago, I discovered a faster and quieter way of doing this. Well, one way is quieter, but not faster. I am using a hand saw for some of them. Basically, I take the tree down and then cut the top leafy part off of it. I drag the stalk up and place it in the pile you see in the last photo. I drag the top of the tree down into the brush pile in the woods. I always need a good brush pile. You would be amazed at how fast a big brush pile collapses over time.
The faster way is to do what I described above, but with a chainsaw. I used to cut the wood into firewood right there, but that was noisy. I will do that all in one shot when I am done taking down the trees.
Here is a beautiful picture of one of the stumps.
Birch tree stump
At the bottom of the driveway, I noticed a new flower growing in the spot I just mulched. It was mixed in with all the others. It just bloomed so I thought that deserved some recognition.
After I took a picture of that flower, I walked across the front lawn to get some shots of a nice pink flower up there. I did that and then I took a shot of the Highbush Cranberry that we have growing. There are a few of these bushes and the berries are getting very red.
Highbush Cranberry
You see how nice that was? It was a big blog post about nothing and I think I got away with it. Well, we’ll see what people write about it to see if I really got away with it.
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Thursday, July 31st, 2008
From what I have been reading, it takes about a “season” for firewood to dry (or season) enough to burn. That’s about nine months. There are a bunch of factors, including temperature, if the wood is covered or not, stacked in sunlight or not, air flow, wood type and a bunch of other things. It also depends on if the wood is split or not. Split wood takes less time to dry.
I read that there is also a debate on whether it’s better to cover a pile of wood or if it’s better to leave it uncovered. Some people say it’s better to cover the wood because the rain water won’t get to it. Others say that covering it will only trap the moisture in and rot the pile of wood. Who knows…I leave it uncovered, except if it’s going to snow. I think the best thing would be to cover the pile with plywood. That way, no rain water gets on the wood, yet the airflow is maintained.
The reason I am talking about this is because, as you already know, we are getting a pellet stove installed in the basement. This leaves the fireplace in the living room able to burn regular wood. I am considering putting a wood burning stove into the existing fireplace.
For the past few days, I have been nibbling away at the wooded lot on the side of the house. There is a lot of land there and I think it could look quite nice if it was cleaned out. There are many large Oaks and Hickory trees, but many smaller Maples and Birches as well. I am taking down the smaller trees to open up the area and let some filtered sun come in. My goal is to clean it up to look like a park. I am cutting all the trees into firewood length pieces and stacking it up in back. The photo you see above is the actual wood. I am pretty sure this will not be burnable this season, but next season for sure.
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Friday, December 21st, 2007
I have a certain affinity for threshold moulding. I am not sure why. I think because maybe the first time I put some in, it looked good. Maybe it’s because I got lucky and matched the color stain I picked out to the floor…the first time. Who knows, but I do.
Anyway, today was the day to install the threshold moulding for the kitchen entryways. There are two of them, one about 30″ wide and the other about 70″ wide.
Yesterday, I picked up two oak theshhold mouldings from Lowe’s. They were about $10 and $22, respectively. I thought that was a little expensive, but who am I?
Today, I cut them to their proper lengths and drilled holes in them for the screws. I have to use screws this time because the tile is already installed. I really didn’t feel like smacking large finishing nails into the floor about an inch away from the new tile. That’s all I would need…me hitting the tile with the hammer or the vibration from the impact of the hammer hitting the nail head loosening the tile. Geeesh.
There were some extra steps I had to take to install this moulding. First, I had to cut a slice off it. This moulding is tapered on both sides, with about a quarter inch step on the edges. Since we installed half inch cement board, instead of the quarter inch stuff, the floor is a bit higher than it would’ve been. I had to take that into consideration with this moulding. I cut about three-quarters of an inch off of the whole length of the board, so the edge would sit flush with the tile.
Also, I had to drill holes through the moulding, so the screws could slide through. That was easy. The hard part (which I learned during the bathroom install) was to drill out a tad bit more with a larger drill bit, to countersink the screws, so they lay flush with the moulding. I did this with a little tool I made.
I grabbed a scrap piece of windowsill that I just cut. I put the drill bit that I was going to use, in the gun. I measured exactly how long the scrap piece of wood should be if I wanted the drill bit to stick out just enough for a tapered countersink hole in another piece of wood. Then, I cut the scrap wood to that length. See the photo above. To drill the holes, I just kept the bit through the scrap wood and went around drilling where the screws were going to go.
The tool worked perfectly. I stained, polyurethaned and waited for the moulding to dry. Then, I screwed it down to the floor.
Everything worked out just grand.
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Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Well, well, well. I think we’re going to do it. All that’s left with the house is to re-do the bathroom, kitchen and the back porch. Yeah, just the bathroom, kitchen and back porch….ya know, those cheap and easy projects.
We are going tackle the back porch first. The one we have is in pretty bad shape. It’s made with that Trex stuff…only, I don’t think it is Trex. It may be some knockoff, who knows. All I know is it’s gray and very washed out looking. Also, the porch may be a little crooked, which drives me absolutely mad. The railings are hanging on by a thread due to poor workmanship and the top of the porch collects water. The whole thing just looks really bad. Are those enough reason to get this thing done? (Oh yeah, the bugs out here are TERRIBLE! The current porch is pretty useless as is.)
As you may already know, I made our front porch. I am a pretty handy fella, but I just don’t want to do this one. The first reason is that this one will be screened in…meaning there will be a roof. I am really not in the mood to attempt to build that by myself. Also, I want it done quickly, so no messing around. It would take me about two years to get home all the lumber strapped to the top of my car again. I like to do projects little by little.
I am going to use a contractor that is a friend of my neighbor. He seems like he would do a good job of coming in a putting this thing up quickly. The porch will be 16′ out the back of the house and 20′ wide. There will be 6 sonotube footings, 12″ wide. There will be 2 main girders holding up 2×10″ joists. Everything will be pressure treated. For the floor, he will put down 6×1 5/8″ boards with a 4×4″ every 4′ to hold up the roof. The main beam holding up the roof will be a 4×6″. The roof will have to be built into the current roof, which is the tricky part…to me. I am sure it will take no time for these guys. Also, they are going to put in a set of 4′wide stairs about 4′ out from the house. Currently, the stairs are slapped right up against the house and very loose.
I asked that they don’t complete the railings and the screening. I want to do them. Those are things that I can take my time on. Also, I am going to tear down the current deck. My neighbor, Tim wants to burn it. I have to keep him away because it is pressure treated and I can use the wood for another project. Tim is disappointed, but still willing to help me.
I picked up the building permit from the buidling inspector yesterday morning and have to fill it in and drop it off so the contractor can draw his diagram.
Now, of course, you are going to see lots of pictures of this. I hope you are as excited as we are!
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