Jay Gaulard - My Personal Blog

Visiting the Bethel Inn Resort in Bethel, Maine

November 2, 2018

One of my favorite pastimes is to travel around and visit different hotels and inns. Most of the inns I’ve seen and learned about have been located somewhere in New England. My favorites to date are the Blantyre in Lenox, MA, the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge and the Spring House Hotel on Block Island, RI. Click on those links I just shared. I think you’ll be pleased with what you’ll find. Those inns are huge and wonderful and beautiful all in one. If I had to pick one to run away and retire to, it would have to be Blantyre. It just suits me well.

I may have to add another great inn to my list, but I’m not sure about it yet. On the way home from our recent visit to North Conway, NH, we stopped off in Bethel, Maine. I’ve been eyeing this town since we moved to Maine from Florida. It’s out there in the middle of nowhere and it’s got lots of money. I simply don’t know what’s not attractive about that.

Anyway, the town of Bethel is somewhat built around the Bethel Inn Resort. There’s the inn and then a town green with a gazebo in it right next door. There are tree lined streets with old houses that are in nearly perfect condition. Main Street has restaurants situated on it and there’s pretty much everything else a small town offers nearby. Bethel is an out of the way, exciting place. I just wish it wasn’t two hours away from where we live.

While we were there, we decided to take some photos. This isn’t unusual for us. We did visit the inside of the inn, but it was so quiet that I felt strange about taking pictures. I will tell you that it was very nice. The word “elegant” comes to mind. It’s upscale and much more than what I was expecting. I didn’t know if it was going to be a country inn where everyone goes to kick back and relax or an exclusive one where only those who are “in” go to spend their days. I’m still not sure about which one it is, but when I find out, I’ll tell you.

Here’s the front of the building. Don’t worry, this isn’t all. It’s actaully quite expansive.

As I said, there’s a green and a gazebo near the inn. I took a photo of the gazebo for you. Everyone loves gazebos.

Toward the center of the green was a fountain. I admit that I had a bit too much fun taking photos of the water. I’ll summarize all that fun with just a photo or two.

And finally, this is the fountain farther away. This image shows the corner of the green.

That’s about it. It was a quick stop. We almost ate dinner at a restaurant right across the street from the hotel, but decided not to. We instead ate at Sunday River Brewery. That was a good dinner.

If we make it back to Bethel, you can count on many more photos. As I said, it’s a pleasant town and I wouldn’t mind exploring it some more.

Visiting the Christmas Loft in North Conway & the Jackson, NH Covered Bridge

November 1, 2018

Now that I’ve shown you all those wonderful photos of the inside of Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, NH, I think I need to turn my attention to the Christmas Loft. I’ve seen photos and video of this store online and I thought it was worthy of a visit. After all, what’s wrong with Christmas 365 days of the year? I’m just glad we visited the area during the cooler months. I couldn’t imagine browsing through Christmas items in July.

The Christmas Loft is about a mile south of the rest of the stores. The entire drag of North Conway is a few miles long, but most of the touristy stuff is up north, where I showed you yesterday. Up in that area, cars are packed, bumper to bumper, slowly moving on their merry ways. Down near the Christmas Loft, there’s a bit more breathing room.

Even though I saw photos and some video of the inside of this store, I wasn’t quite sure of the layout. I thought it consisted of a small village on the inside and then just a few little trinkets to buy. I was right about the village, but there is a lot more to purchase than just a few trinkets. It’s Christmas all over the place.

This is the entryway, leading into the store. I threw a few lollipops in here as well because I like them.

After entering the store, we were led to its center. That’s where the village is. It’s basically a miniaturized version of a real Christmas village, if there’s such a thing. It’s actually really neat. I enjoyed myself as I took dozens and dozens of photos. I’ll show you the highlights here.

Even after entering the store, I didn’t quite understand the layout. I was too busy looking around the village to figure things out. After a while though, I did realize that the village was at the center of the building and if I walked through any of the doors of the village shops, I’d enter the rooms where the Christmas items are held. It was like the village was at the center and a “U” of stores surrounded it. Here are some of the more interesting items I found in the various rooms.

One of my favorite areas was where there were small village buildings all set up. There were quite a number of scenes. Some of them were of the Dickens Village variety and there were others too. These are some of the buildings I liked best.

There was even an entire room dedicated to Christmas lights. Of course, I took some photos of them.

Here’s a model Santa Claus for you. He was about three feet tall and enclosed in a large case.

If you’re into those small villages, you can really have a lot of fun in this store. They not only sold the ceramic village houses, but the small figures that go with them as well. I don’t think these are to scale, but I’m sure people do something with them.

I saved the best for last. I love nutcrackers and there were a whole bunch of them at the Christmas Loft. I was in my glory. Take a look at these.

There was so much more, but I couldn’t take photos of it all. It’s definitely worth a visit and I wouldn’t mind going back if I’m ever in that area again.

After a few hours of walking around and visiting the highlights, we decided to leave. After all, we had another two and a half hours of driving. We also wanted to take some photos of the many wonderful things we saw on the way in. During the trip back north, we stopped off at the Jackson, NH covered bridge. This is a big attraction and we definitely had to stop to take some pictures of it.

I should have known there would be a tourist trap on the other side of the bridge. Yes, another general store. This one was called Flossie’s and it was very cute. Unfortunately, they didn’t want us to take photos of the inside, so I only have two from the outside to show you.

The entire area is so beautiful. I haven’t ever spent any time in New Hampshire, so I was pleased. It’s a great state and I look very much forward to exploring it more in the future.

My next post will be very brief. On the way back home from this trip, we stopped off at the Bethel Inn Resort in Bethel, Maine. It’s a wealthy area and it’s worth the stop. I took some photos of the outside of the hotel and a few other random things. Until then – thanks for reading!

Visiting North Conway, New Hampshire & the White Mountains

October 31, 2018

I’ve had this trip on my mind for some time now. Like many other folks out there, I tend to do much of my traveling via Google Earth. When I’m not actually in the car driving somewhere nice, I like to use “Street View” to see what an area looks like. I have fun doing this. It gets me out of the house, so to speak.

I’ve been visiting North Conway, NH through my computer for a while and just the other day, I suggested that we actually head out to the real place. North Conway is approximately two and a half hours from where we live, so it took a lot to get me up and motivated to do something like this. If you aren’t aware, one of my least favorite activities is sitting in the car driving. Can’t stand it. But, for the greater good, I made the trip and was excited about it.

There were two things I wanted to see in this town. First was Zeb’s General Store and the second was The Christmas Loft. Both are situated right there on the main drag, so getting to them wouldn’t be too challenging, once we landed in town.

I’m always surprised at how places actually are when compared to how they appear on the computer. Usually, an area is very recognizable when compared to a photograph, but because of the wide angle lens Google uses for the mapping program and because of the lack of ability to discern topography, I’m usually pleasantly surprised when we make it somewhere in person. It always looks better.

For the first part of our trip, driving through the White Mountains was utterly beautiful. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. We left our house and drove west on Route 2 and then when we arrived in Gorham, NH, we made a left and headed south. We entered the White Mountain National Forest and that’s when the adventure began. Maine was nice and so was New Hampshire, but nothing compared to the size of the White Mountains. Here is Mount Washington, right at the base of the road that leads to the top. I had to pull over to get some shots of this.

Mount Washington is actually the small peak behind the big one in the front. Here’s a better shot of it. It’s the one with the snow and antenna on it.

And because I’m such a whiz when it comes to photography, I put together a really hard to see panorama of the entire view. I still haven’t figured out a better way at displaying these things.

Once we entered the park, we quickly realized that there was no shortage of beautiful views. I kept wanting to pull over to take them in, but I realized that if we did that, we’d never get anywhere. Time was passing quickly and I wanted to get into town to see what it was all about. Although, I did snap a shot of a tunnel that went under the road, so bikes could pass by without getting hit by a car. I thought that was pretty cool. I kept seeing people ride into this lowered area in the grass and disappear and had to see what it was about.

About a half hour later, we got sucked into another beautiful view, so we were forced to pull over for some more photo opportunities. This is Mount Washington from the south, looking north. nice, isn’t it? The location is called the Intervale Scenic Vista.

And here’s another panoramic shot from that location.

It’s just so nice.

Okay, enough of that. Let’s get into North Conway now.

When we finally made it North Conway, we parked and I immediately jumped out of the car to take a photo of the Main Street while it wasn’t that busy. Check it out.

We parked near the town green, which is right near the North Conway Train Station. I saw this online too and I really wanted to see what it looked like, as well as what the trains were all about. So that’s where we headed first. We walked straight across the green and went into the station.

Inside the station, tickets are sold for three different rides. One is about an hour, one is about two hours and one is about five hours. The last one travels all throughout the mountains and must be so much fun to experience. As far as the rest of the station goes, it was more of a gift shop. It contained everything you’d expect it to. Stuffed animals, shirts, small rocks and all the rest. It even showed off different model trains and the such.

Here’s the ticket booth.

And here are some of the colored stones.

I’m really trying to keep these photos to a minimum because I have about a million of them.

After we were finished looking around inside, we went out back to take a look around. There were all sorts of trains out there, along with some autumn decorations and of course, the train tracks. Here are some festive pumpkins on a wagon.

And here are the train tracks themselves.

In this next photo, you’ll notice a sign that says, “Stay Off the Tracks.” I saw that right after I was on the tracks. But this is the coolest train of the lot.

When we were finished up with the trains, we walked into town. The first thing we saw was an old time 5&10 cent store. I thought that was so neat. We used to have one of these in the town I grew up. I miss that place. It seemed to have everything. We used to go there after church on Sunday mornings. This one has been operating for almost 80 years.

After walking around a bit, looking at things, we made it to one of the reasons we visited in the first place. Ah, Zeb’s good old fashioned general store.

We went in and discovered that the store sold pretty much everything under the sun. From jellies and jams to candy and soaps, there was a very wide selection. We actually got sucked into buying some candy. We purchase a pound of licorice for $8. Can you believe that? The tourists we were.

I’m going to post some photos of the store here without description. I’m sure you’ll get the idea of what things were about just by looking at them. This is part of downstairs.

Here’s some of what was upstairs.

And finally, here are two photos of the candy that was downstairs. There was so much more, but you get the idea.

I’ve decided that I’m actually going to leave this post here. I have so many more photos that I’d like to break things up a bit. For my next post, I’ll focus on visiting The Christmas Loft and the covered bridge and general store in Jackson, NH. And then after that, I’ll write one about Bethel, Maine. It’s just too much for this one post. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

Riding the Chairlift at Sugarloaf For Homecoming Weekend

October 29, 2018

This post is a few weeks late. My apologies. I have had a huge folder full of photos sitting in front of me all this time and I’ve been procrastinating so much every time I look at it. Last night, I decided that today is the day. Fellow Mainers and interested parties around the world must see what Sugarloaf looks like in the fall. I feel as if it’s my duty to show it off.

Each year, Sugarloaf Mountain hosts what’s called “Homecoming Weekend.” This weekend is full of events and small shows. The skyride is open and inside the lodge, all sorts of stuff is going on. There’s a book sale that we went to and purchased a few books from and there’s also a pretty good sized art and craft show. The book sale was organized by one of the local town libraries and the art show was organized by UpCountryArtists. Overall, the weekend is a lot of fun for many people and each year, we look forward to going to one event or another up there. It’s fun to drive to that area and it’s always a good time walking around the mountain.

This year, I took a whole lot of pictures. In this post, I’m going to post what I think is interesting. I hope you enjoy viewing the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. It really was an entertianing day up in that crisp mountain air. There’s nothing like Maine air in the autumn.

The book sale was on the bottom floor of the Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel. As I said, we purchased a few books from that and then climbed up to the top floor to leave the hotel through a secret exit I found. Before leaving though, I thought I’d remember the moment by taking a photo of one of the hallways. I wanted to show you what the inside of the place looked like.

For a hotel that’s overrun by skiers in the winter, it’s pretty nice.

After we exited the hotel, we noticed a pretty sweet looking hot tub. Check this out.

How nice would it be to relax in this while it’s snowing on you? I mean, c’mon.

The art show was held in the main lodge. In one of the big rooms they hold events like this in. It was a very nice show. We really only spend a few minutes at things like this because it’s not in my nature to randomly purchase things. There was some quality workmanship though.

Here are two fairly lousy shots of inside of the show.

I think what’s more interesting to me is the huge beams holding the ceiling up, but that’s just me.

After the show, we went outside to check out the scene. Of course, there were tons of people out there, milling about.

The main event for the day was really the sky ride. That’s the whole reason we went up there. I’m not sure about everyone else, but I do enjoy climbing mountains during the fall. To get to the lift, however, we had to walk past all the restaurants and the shops. Here’s a sign for The Bag & Kettle Brew Pub. I thought that looked interesting.

And here are a few of the shops. As we passed by, we saw a bunch of people gearing up for some zip-line fun. They were all getting into their harnesses. That’s something I may try in the future. I may not too. I’ll have to see what type of mood my old age brings me.

Luckily the chairlift that was in operation was the big quad. I’m glad it wasn’t one of those smaller two-person ones. I was so excited to get on the lift to start climbing the mountain because it’s been so long since I had done that. He we are riding up the lift.

Well, that first one isn’t of us. It’s of a few random people who were in front of us.

I have about 100 photos of our time on the lift. I’m going to show you only the more attractive ones. I’ll pare things down to just a few photos. They can get tiresome after a while. While we were on the lift, everything was beautiful, but after we got home and I went through my photos, I realized that I took the same shot like 50 times. Hey, it happens.

Here’s a nice one of the western Maine mountains.

Here’s one of a dead tree that I found intriguing. The mountains are in the background as well and I think they make this somewhat of an attractive shot.

When we made it to the top, we saw that there were a good amount of people up there. I was surprised at that because it wasn’t like there were tons of people down at the base. The views were pretty though and I don’t use what word often. If I only had a beer in my hand. That would have made everything better.

Here’s a shot of some of the people who were wandering around, along with the sweet view of the western Maine mountains. Isn’t it interesting how they turn blue, the farther away they are?

And here’s the base lodge and all the other building that we came from.

The biggest issue we faced during the entire day was the long line of people who were waiting to descend the mountain on the lift. On our way up, folks who were walking down the mountain warned us of the wait, but since we were already on the lift, there was nothing we could do about that. Apparently, ski lifts were meant to bring people to the top of the mountain, not to the bottom. So there are some weight considerations to take. While we were able to fill every seat on the way up, we were only able to fill every fourth seat on the way down. That created a line with a wait time of about an hour. It wasn’t that bad though because we met a fellow amateur photographer who we spoke with the entire time. That was fun.

Here’s a photo I took while we were descending Sugarloaf.

After we made it to the bottom and walked back to the parking lot where our car was, we noticed a few things that caught our attention. First was a huge plowing machine that had monster truck tires on it. Check this out.

And just to prove how large the tires were, I stood next to one. I know, I look especially dorky in this picture. Please be kind.

The other really neat thing we saw was a spool of cable that is used for the chairlifts. How often do you see something like this?

And that’s about it. After we left the mountain, we stopped in Kingfield for some lunch at Longfellow’s, like we always do and then we went home. Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good day. The weather was beautiful and sunny in the morning and then turned overcast later on in the day. We’re used to that though because that happens all the time up here. Until next time!

Hiking Pico Ridge – the Cliff Above Clearwater Lake

October 15, 2018

So far, this autumn has been very nice. It’s been dry and just the right temperature. There were a few hot and humid days thrown in there about a week ago, but they passed quickly and we returned to our regular temperatures. Around 40 degrees at night and 55 during the day, although last night was pretty chilly. Colder than 40 degrees. People around here have already begun burning their firewood. I can understand their eagerness because I’ve begun to burn mine as well. I mean, it’s just sitting there, after all. And I have tons of it. There really is nothing better than relaxing in front of a wood stove with the fire going.

Since autumn days are hit or miss, you have to take the sunny ones when you can get them. Yesterday was perfectly sunny. Today, it’s raining, but yesterday was one to write home about. Because of all the sun, we decided to head up to the “trail near the cemetery,” which is otherwise known as Pico Ridge trail. It’s a relatively short trail that traverses up a hill past a small local cemetery, continues to climb a small mountain and ends up at a cliff that overlooks Clearwater Lake. This is one of my favorite hikes because it’s so short. I get the feeling of being outdoors and having done something, but I don’t have to put that much work into it. If you know me, you know this is the way I roll. I really don’t like long hikes. I do them, but I don’t particularly like them. I’ll never admit that to anyone though.

Have you ever hiked to a cliff with your camera, all excited to take pictures, and found that you kept taking the same photos over and over again? That’s what I felt like yesterday. There’s only one view to be had and that view can be captured with one photo. Yesterday’s view was spectacular and as I stood there snapping away, I wondered how I could mix things up. I did manage to get some diversity, so I decided to write a post to show you some of the photos. There aren’t many, but they’re pretty nice.

Here’s the view from the top of the cliff overlooking Clearwater Lake in Industry, Maine.

And here’s a nice shot I got with the sun in it. I was all the way zoomed out and my aperture setting was F11, so I managed to get the starburst effect I was after. You can generally capture the starburst effect with an aperture setting smaller than F11.

Here are some oak leaves I thought were pretty. There were just hanging out next to me so I took a picture of them.

If I had to guess, I’d say this is Mount Blue or Tumbledown Mountain. I’m probably wrong with both of those guesses. It sure is pretty though.

Off in the distance, we saw two wind farms. One of them was the Spruce Mountain wind farm and the other is called Record Hill Wind in Roxbury, Maine. Here’s a photo of the one in Roxbury.

It’s neat to watch those turbines spin off in the distance.

I just took a look through the rest of the photos and I think if I post any more, things will get repetitive. So I guess I’ll leave things here. I do have lots of pictures from our recent visit to Sugarloaf Mountain though. We even rode the ski ride up to the top of the mountain, so stay tuned for that. Thanks for reading!

Filling the Trench with Stone Dust

October 3, 2018

Do you remember the time I told you that I had to do some concrete cutting at the back of our house? If not, you can read the post where I describe the process I undertook here. Basically, the person who built this house poured the concrete pool deck right up against the pine board and batten siding. I’m guessing things have been this way since the house was builtin the 90s. When we first moved here, I took one look at the situation and knew it shouldn’t be like that and I knew I had to fix it. Finding the motivation to do such a thing was the challenge. I finally found that motivation this summer and cut the concrete about a foot and a half away from the house. I’ve got some photos of that in that post I linked to above.

To make a long story short, since I cut the concrete away from the house, I was able to use the opening in the foundation to shovel sand into the basement, which filled it up. Since that basement encapsulation project was recently completed, I thought it would be wise to fill the trench I dug out back so one of us didn’t fall into it over the winter. These things happen. Besides one of us breaking a leg, my primary concern was rot. The concrete pool deck and fill sand underneath it was right up against the house before I dug it away. In back of the siding was the band joist, which, as you can imagine, would be a real pain to replace if it was too far gone. So needless to say, I was nervous about what I’d find after I cut away the rotted pine siding.

I used my circular saw set to a specific height to cut a straight line across the siding. Take a look. I’m impressed that this part of the project came out so nicely.

Looks pretty good, right? When I cut that siding away, I couldn’t believe the the joist was still in such good shape. I will tell you that the material that was up against the siding rarely saw water from rain. We have a rather large overhang from the roof above, so that may have saved the wood. Still, with all the moisture that comes from the ground, burying wood siding with a band joist behind it is never a good idea.

The challenge I was faced with was how to keep any further moisture that emanated from the sand I was about to use to fill the area with away from the lumber under the house. I decided to go with a 30 foot long, 16 inch high piece of aluminum flashing. I figured that if I nail that right up against the house, moisture won’t be able to penetrate it an the wood would stay dry. So, I picked up a nice 50 foot roll of flashing and did my best to make things straight.

As you can see, I’ve got some good overlap with the flashing. It covers the entire band joist and part of the foundation.

To make things look nice, I screwed up a few 2×4 pieces of pressure treated lumber and then stained it dark brown to match the house.

And yesterday, I ordered and had delivered ten yards of stone dust. If you don’t know what stone dust is, it’s a coarse sand that packs really well. It’s actually the byproduct of crushed stone and it’s perfect for driveways and is oftentimes used as a base under concrete and blacktop. Since we have a gravel driveway that needs topping and since that gravel is terrible in the winter when in conjunction with a snowblower, I decided to top the driveway with this stone dust. First though, I needed to fill in the trench. I woke up at about 6am today and did a bunch of shoveling. The trench has been filled. Check it out.

You should have seen me out there packing the sand down, layer by layer, by walking on top of it in really small steps. Too funny. Anyway, I got the job done. Now all I need to do is a bit of caulking and then nail up a piece of batten to run along the top of the 2x4s. There’s a gap left behind from my cutting. I’ll do that when I get around to it. It’s not critical, such as filling in a dangerous trench was.

I’ve got about seven yards of stone dust leftover for the driveway. I’ll take my time to spread that out. I think I’ll order 18 more yards next summer for the rest of the driveway. I enjoy having sand on hand. I think I’ve become addicted to shoveling. It’s actually quite peaceful and it gives me something to chew on if I get bored.

Thanks for reading!

Encapsulating a Crawl Space is the Only Way to Go

September 30, 2018

I just went downstairs to visit my freshly encapsulated crawl space and was shocked. I was shocked by the absence of smell. Have you ever smelled a crawl space that hasn’t been encapsulated? If you have or if you’re living above one, you surely know what I’m talking about. It’s like smelling dirt. Ugly, wet and rotting dirt. That’s the only way I know how to put it.

It took about two hours to lay down the final pieces of plastic sheeting and to tape them up to the rigid foam insulation, but I did it. This entire project has been much tougher and longer lasting than I anticipated. First, I had to muster up the energy to even start the project. That took about four years.

Filling In a Basement Crawl Space

Covering Basement Crawl Space Floor With Plastic Vapor Barrier

Then, I had to figure out what I was going to do and how I was going to get any fill I ordered into the area. That took about a day.

Cutting Some Concrete

After that, I had to order 20 yards of sand and actually shovel that sand down into the crawl space and smooth it out. That took about three weeks.

I Finally Filled the Basement Crawlspace with Sand

And finally, I had to encapsulated the entire crawl space with insulation and plastic. That took about a week.

The job is almost entirely complete. I’m expecting delivery of a dehumidifier next week. That will remove any remaining humidity from the area and then we can enjoy some easy breathing. No more waves of musty odors coming from who knows where. It’s going to be so nice.

Here’s what I did to encapsulate the area down there. I had to think of a way to stop any moisture from condensing on the concrete block walls. The air is humid and warm, the walls are cool, you know what happens under those conditions. Wetness. Moisture. Dampness. Whatever. I decided that one inch rigid foam insulation would work best to hide the cool walls during the summer and would even help out keeping things warmer in the winter. I bought a case of construction adhesive and put blobs on the back of the boards and then placed the boards up against the walls. I had to creatively use tape and small strips of rigid foam to keep the boards in place, but I managed it and those things are now permanently there. That adhesive is solid.

I taped all the rigid foam seams and used Great Stuff spray foam for any corners.

Mind you, the ceiling of this crawl space was previously insulated with closed cell spray foam that acted as a vapor barrier.

Anyway, once the walls were finished, I just had to roll out my 6 mil plastic sheeting and cover the floor. My plan was to tape the plastic about a foot up the walls to make things extra good. I did that, but for some strange reason, the plastic pulled and sort of sloped. It’s not a big deal and it won’t harm the performance or goal of the vapor barrier, but I wish it didn’t look like this. If this cheaper plastic begins to degrade in a few years, I’ll purchase the good stuff and cover the walls straight down first and then lay the floor down flat. I’ll worry about that later though.

I can’t even begin to tell you how much cleaner it is down there. I just went down there with my camera to take these photos and miraculously, I don’t need to take a shower. Incredible. Here are a few more photos.

I still have to figure out what I’m going to do with the dryer vent. I may run it through a wall upstairs. We’ll see.

Since I didn’t want any moisture from the walls to leak out from above the rigid foam, I used the canned foam to seal those areas.

Okay, okay, I may have had some extra foam and had to use it up. I decided to cap off the tops of the cement block walls with it. The more foam, the better.

Here are two more shots of the seams. I’d say the area is completely sealed. I made it my mission to seal any cracks anywhere. Now, any moisture from the walls will simply slide down behind the insulation into the sand. From there, it’ll just absorb into the earth. There’s no floor under there. Only sand and dirt.

It’s kind of hard to wrap my head around the idea that there’s no way for moisture to get up through that vapor barrier. I guess that’s why they call it “encapsulation.” I can tell you that last night, the humidity level was 84%, right after I was done with the project. Today, I’m sure it’s much lower. I can feel that it’s dried up down there. I’ll measure it tomorrow. As I said, I have a dehumidifier coming next week and that’ll suck any excess moisture right up. The humidity level needs to stay below 50% to be sure no mold and mildew grows.

Actually, I’ll write another post after I get that machine. I’ll take some photos of my little hygrometer. That should be fun.

Check this out. I took a video when I was sitting down there a minute ago. It’s basically a 360 degree view of where I’ve been hanging out for the past month. A guy can get attached to an area like that. It’s weird. I sort of miss it down there. Luckily, we have another section to do in the spring.

Encapsulated Basement Crawl Space

Thanks for reading!

I Finally Filled the Basement Crawlspace with Sand

September 13, 2018

Did you know that basement crawlspaces were a “thing”? They are. There are people around this world who deal exclusively with them and there are websites dedicated completely to them. I should know. I just ordered some specialized tape from one of these websites. Crawlspaces are a hot topic on Youtube as well because they go hand in hand with the ever-popular subject of home insulation and to a lesser degree, the semi-popular structure of the home.

Okay, here’s the deal – crawlspaces are disgusting areas of a house that no one ever wants to spend any significant length of time in. Because of this, they’re often neglected and aren’t set up properly. This is especially true for older houses that aren’t up to modern coding standards. Many basement crawlspaces are damp or downright wet places that are breeding grounds for mold and rot. If you don’t attend to an area in this type of condition, your house can collapse. It’s true. Forget about the mold for a minute – your house can actually collapse. It can rot away right under your feet.

So, what’s the primary cause of mold and rot in a crawlspace? Many people think it’s water that accumulates under a home in the winter and spring. Since water tables are usually elevated during these times of the year, houses that were built in locations that are prone to either flooding or lack of drainage can have more than a foot of water sitting down in the basement for months. The truth of the matter is, most of the damage is actually caused by condensation during the humid summer months. Crawlspaces are notoriously cool and when the humid air from outside flows into these cooler spaces, the humidity condenses on anything it can and simply soaks what it touches. Think about taking a cold can of soda from your refrigerator and leaving it on your countertop at noon in July. Within an hour, you’ll have a puddle of water surrounding that soda. Now think about humid air flowing into your cool crawlspace 24 hours a day all summer long, via a vent of some other sort of air gap. All that wood down there is getting soaked to the core. And the insidious thing is, you can’t even tell it’s happening because the wood looks and feels dry. You have to use a special tool to measure the moisture content of the wood.

Our house had two issues. First, because it sits low in a high water table location, the basement would fill with about a foot of water during the months of April and May. This was just a given and I let it happen. When we first moved here, I freaked out when I saw this and I tried to pump the water out with a sump pump. That stupid thing ran all day and all night for weeks until I realized that the effort was futile. The basement kept filling up to that level, so I unplugged the pump and let it sit. It’s been that way for years. When the ground thawed, the water disappeared until the next year.

The second issue we had down there was general condensation and moisture. Apparently, there were quite a few gaps in areas that there shouldn’t have been and those gaps were letting air in. I mentioned in a previous post that we have two areas of the cement block foundation that had missing cement blocks. One of these openings was under ground and the other had the dryer vent sticking through it. Neither were sealed and when I went into the crawlspace to inspect the area, I found sitting water directly surrounding both of these spots. Also, any copper pipes above those areas had water dripping from them. Condensation is real and it works fast. It can create a four inch deep puddle overnight.

Another area of condensation was the concrete walls of the foundation. Those are generally cooler than the outside temperature, so they’re always wet. The condensation combined with groundwater leaking through the porous concrete can do a lot of damage. And finally, the dirt floor of the crawlspace itself is just plain terrible. It’s wet when it seems dry. Water incessantly evaporates from it. The problem is, covering it with plastic to stop the evaporation does little if the other issues I discussed are still allowing groundwater and condensation to infiltrate the area under a house. It’s a real mess that needs to be tackled aggressively.

I knew a sump pump didn’t work. I actually had two of them down under and they both didn’t work. The only alternative I had was to fill the crawlspace in with some sort of medium to raise the floor above the top of the outside water table. Essentially, to fill in the pond. The problem with that was, I didn’t have the greatest entry points. I considered filling five gallon buckets with sand or gravel and walking them down into the basement for about a year. Then I thought better of it. If I had tried that, none of you would have ever heard from me again. I would have jumped off a cliff half way through.

After cutting that concrete from the back pool deck (read about that here), I decided the best way to go would be to fill the basement with sand by shoveling that sand through both of those missing cement block holes I mentioned above. It was a thought, but I had no idea what type of effort would be needed until I started doing it. So I ordered some sand.

I first ordered ten yards and when the guy delivered it to me, he said that he gave me 12. It was a lot of sand and it took me about a week and a half to shovel it into a wheelbarrow, walk it around to the back of the house, dump it next to that small opening and then shovel it into the hole. Then, when I couldn’t fit anymore in, which usually took about five wheelbarrow loads, I’d have to go down into the basement to spread it around. I have no idea how many loads I had to walk around to the back of the house, but it was a horrible experience. I felt weak, it was hot outside and it was backbreaking labor.

After I finished moving the first pile, I called the sand people back and had them deliver another one. In all, I had 24 yards of sand delivered and I shoveled it all into the wheelbarrow and then shoveled it through those holes in the foundation. It was hundreds of wheelbarrow loads and I got it all done in less than three weeks. There were times when I was out there in the dark, leaning against my shovel, wondering when I would fall over. I didn’t though and as I sit here today and write, the crawlspace is chock full of all that sand. I still can’t believe it. By the way, the reason I ordered sand was because it was cheap at $11 per yard and because it shoveled easily. It also packs well.

I think I raised the floor above the water table. Take a look.

I used to be able to squat down there. Now I have to crawl and my back scrapes up against the ceiling. That’s what I wanted. For a before-view of the area, check out these photos.

Filling In a Basement Crawl Space

I still can’t believe I fit 24 yards of material down in that basement. My initial estimate was for about eight yards. It’s always more than I think.

Now that the basement has been filled and the water table issue has been dealt with, I’m tackling the condensation problem. To do this, I’m going to, what they call, “encapsulate” the area. That means that I’m going to fill in any air gaps that exist in the entire basement and then line the walls with rigid foam insulation and the floor with plastic. I already sealed the two fill holes with four inches of insulation and some very messy looking spray foam. It may be messy looking, but it’s good and solid and no air is leaking through. I’ll trim that later.

Again, that’s four inches of foam, which will give me an r-value of 20.

As I was sealing these two openings, I noticed that I could see daylight coming through from under the sill plate all around the house. All of these small leaks combined would probably equal a decent amount of humid air leaking into the basement. Since I had some of that foam sealer left over and since I have an itchy trigger finger, I decided to use up the rest of the can, sealing some of these leaks. If you ever have to use that foam for any reason, I suggest that you wear some arm and hand protection. I got a little on my arm yesterday and the foam dried. I had to shave part of my arm last night to get it off. Don’t tell anyone. It’s embarrassing.

Here’s what an unsealed sill plate looks like.

And this is what a sill plate looks like after it’s been sealed with the foam sealer.

Since I ran out of foam, I went back down today with four tubes of siliconized caulk and finished the job. I went through everything with a fine toothed comb, so I know it’s solid and there are no air infiltrations. The next step is to purchase about ten sheets of 2-inch thick rigid foam to attach to the walls using construction adhesive. This will make for a warmer basement in the winter and will create a vapor barrier to block all that moisture that comes through the walls from outside. It will also hide that cool cement surface so if any humid air does manage to get in, it won’t condense on it. I’ll tape any seams so the insulated surface is solid. After that, I’ll cover the floor with 6-mil plastic sheeting (on top of the existing plastic) and then tape that plastic to the insulation on the walls. Doing this will seal the area and no moisture from the floor or walls will be able to permeate the airspace. As a matter of fact, just by sealing the sill plate and the missing cement block areas, I can feel it drying out a bit down there. It’s incredible.

I’ll have to go to the store to get the insulation. That will cost about $30 per sheet. I ordered 12 10-ounce tubes of construction adhesive for about $56 two days ago. I also ordered a 10’x100′ sheet of 6-mil plastic for about $52, as well as a 4″x180′ foot roll of special “crawlspace” tape for about $80. Actually, it’s a 3-roll pack and it allegedly sticks to anything.

As for moving the sand around the crawlspace, most of it was straightforward. I threw each shovel full and eventually most of the basement was even. For the areas I couldn’t reach with my throwing, I built a sled to help out. I purchased a hard plastic tub from Tractor Supply as well as a pulley and some rope. I tied the rope to the tub and then snaked it through the pulley. I attached the pulley to the wall where I wanted to dump the sand. Then, I’d fill the tub, pull the rope and watch as the tub slide across the floor. Again, this was an awful experience that went on for far too long, but I got it done. I also feel a bit like a genius for coming up with the whole pulley idea.

After I encapsulate the basement, I’ll take some photos and post them here. If you have a crawlspace that’s wet, this is what you have to do to fix the situation. There’s no other alternative out there. Sump pumps can only do so much. Eventually, you’ll have to engage in some hard labor to get dry again.

Thanks for reading!

Installing a Rinnai EX38CTP Direct Vent Propane Wall Furnace

August 23, 2018

I am so excited today. I’ve been talking about having some sort of new heater installed in the house for the longest time and I finally bit the bullet and tackled the project. I almost didn’t do it, but about a month ago, I was at a friend’s house and he showed me his beautiful heat pump. I got all jazzed after seeing that. If you’re not familiar, these heat pump contraptions perform both heating and cooling and they’re allegedly very efficient. And there’s some sort of new technology that allows them to work up here in Maine all the way down to temperatures of -15 degrees. After looking at that setup for a little while though, I decided against it. I didn’t want to have to go through the trouble of having some higher amperage wiring installed and I really didn’t like the high-ish price of the unit (plus install) of about $3300. It wasn’t terrible, but the thing is, heat pumps use electricity and I’m not a fan of using electricity, even if the overall cost is less than some other heat source. I grew up having a healthy respect for what electricity costs and I just can’t seem to get over that. I’ll admit, my entire avoidance is completely irrational. I know that.

So, what did we get? A Rinnai EX38CTP Direct Vent Propane Wall Furnace. It’s so cool. I’ve been wanting one of these things for the longest time. I’ve read about them online and I’ve watched what videos are available, which really isn’t a lot. I’ve also heard tremendous things about this company and the technology they use.

I was going to initially purchase a unit online and install it myself, but then I thought better of it. First of all, what the heck do I know about propane? Nothing. I could surely have installed the unit myself, but I’m not sure we would have slept well at night at all. The idea of propane leaking out of either the tank or one of the lines doesn’t appeal to me. And since the installation cost was only a few hundred dollars and since the propane company I used is an authorized dealer, which got a pretty good price on the unit, I was happy to have them take care of everything. I did feel a bit guilty watching the guy do all the work, but I guess that’s what you have to do in situations like this.

Okay, so here are the reasons I decided on this wall unit. First of all, it’s vented outside. I bought gas logs for our fireplace when we lived back in Connecticut and they were terrible. The propane vented inside the house and I felt sick every time I fired them up. I’ll never do that again. This Rinnai unit vents outside and the combustion is sealed inside the unit. It also doesn’t use a pilot light. To ignite the flame, the unit uses electronics. It’s pretty slim and doesn’t take up a lot of room either. While it’s larger than we thought it would be, I did get the largest model available and it’s still smaller than some other alternatives.

As I mentioned above, this brand uses a lot of electronics and their claim to fame is that their thermostat detects temperature changes of a half a degree. That’s not too important to me, but I’ll take it if it’s included. We had a 100 gallon propane installed at the side of the house and the propane company ran the line from the tank, through the wall and to the wall unit. Everything was done perfectly, all the way up to the little bead of caulk the installer applied around the exhaust ring and the propane feed line on the outside of the house. It’s those details I love. But what I really love is that this is an independent heater unit that’s not connected to anything else in the house. If we wanted to, we could have more units installed in other rooms, but between our pellet stove, wood stove and now this propane furnace, I don’t think that will be necessary.

The real reason I’m psyched about this thing is that we won’t be freezing when we wake up in the morning anymore during those really cold nights over the winter. Our pellet stove is, well, let’s just say, less than stellar, so we turn it off at night. Also, the wood stove has issues with transferring its heat from one room to another overnight, so this propane furnace should fill the gaps quite nicely. As I was telling the installer, I haven’t owned something with a thermostat since moving to Maine and I’m going to be completely spoiled. I’m not going to know what to do with myself.

The entire job, with the until included came up to $2280. I also had to fill the propane tank for about $260. I have no idea how long a tank of propane will last, but it should be pretty good if we rely mostly on the pellet stove and the wood stove for the majority of our heating. I’m planning on using the propane unit just to keep things warm at night and to warm them up in the morning, if need be.

Let’s get to some very nice photos I took during the process.

I took this photo of the wall before any of the action occurred. It’s a central location in the downstairs living room.

This is the back of the Rinnai furnace. I took this right after we unboxed it. I think the installer was outside working on the tank and propane lines. That tube looking thing is the intake tube and the exhaust tube connected together. They came apart later on.

This is the entire interior propane feed line.

And this is a more up close view of the shut-off valve for the propane.

The only things this furnace requires for installation is a three inch hole for the intake/exhaust and a one inch hole for the propane feed. Here’s a picture of the exhaust hole after it was drilled.

This is a more up close view of the intake/exhaust hole that leads outside.

I’m not sure if this is a sleeve or a collar or what, but this is what goes in the hole for the intake/exhaust.

Next, we have the coupling connector thing that gets connected to the intake and exhaust tube that runs through the wall.

Here’s the unit, getting ready to be connected to the piping and propane.

Finally, we have the installed furnace. I think it looks pretty good. I got the beige instead of the white because I thought the beige would blend somewhat better with the rest of the house. Also, notice how it plugs right into a regular wall outlet. It doesn’t use that much electricity at all. Basically, it just needs power for the electronics and for the fan to blow the heat around.

Okay, enough of that. Let’s take a look at what’s outside. I’ll start off with the propane tank. We placed it at the corner of the house so it’s easy for me to snowblow a path to it in the winter.

This is the interior of the propane tank, where the gauge and the regulator are housed.

This is the back of the house. You can see the yellow propane line running across the bottom of the siding. It’s not too pretty, but maybe I’ll fix that one day somehow.

Finally, we have a few propane connections (elbows) and the direct vent exhaust port.

We fired the furnace up and it worked great. Heat poured out of it and it didn’t make much noise at all. I’m excited to see how it performs over the winter. I’ll give you an update then. Thanks for reading!

Cutting Some Concrete

August 21, 2018

I believe the job of filling the basement crawlspace in with dirt has officially begun. The hot and humid air has left the building and in its place is much cooler air that’s conducive to hard labor. My body reacts well to cool air. I can think better, fight better and actually get things done. I trust my body because when it’s time, it has a tendency to pick itself up and just do things. The guilt of sitting around dissipates and chores get checked off my to-do list.

A few days ago, I was down in the basement doing who knows what. I was crawling around on my knees, because the basement is only about 3-4 feet tall. I think I was making sure everything was okay when I noticed that we didn’t have just one cement block opening in the foundation of the house, but two. When we first moved into this house, all I saw was the one opening that the dryer vent pipe used to let the warm air escape to the outside world. To my surprise, the far side wall had an opening as well. This discovery was actually very heartening and I’ll tell you why.

The house we live in has a little water problem down in the basement. When the house was built, the builders dug out an area to place the foundation. That area is only a few feet deep. The thing is, when they dug the trench and set up all the concrete, they never back-filled the area they dug, so the basement’s center area has dirt that’s higher than that around the edges. Please see this post for a better idea of what I’m talking about.

The problem is, in the spring time, the outer area of the crawl space fills with about a foot of water. This is because of the high water table in our area. When we first moved in, I covered the dirt floor of the basement with a huge piece of plastic to stop some of the moisture from getting into the air, but as I’m sure you can imagine, that did very little while floating in all that water. I decided a long time ago, the only cure to this little problem would be to fill the basement in with something like gravel or dirt. I figured that if I could raise the basement floor up a foot or two, the top of the water table would stay underground and after that, I could line the walls and floor with plastic and create what’s called an encapsulation. I would encapsulate the entire crawl space area and any water issue we once had would be a thing of the past.

The only problem is, or was, that I had just one small opening to shovel sand into the basement. The reason for my joy regarding that second opening was that I now had two openings. That would somehow make things slightly easier. Moving 20 yards of sand from the driveway into the basement would still be an excruciating experience, but it would be marginally more simple when it came time for me to crawl downstairs to move all that dirt around, while hunched over like a troll. Instead of moving the dirt from one area, I’d have the luxury of moving it from two. Either way I look at this project, I know it’s going to be awful, but I enjoy putting a positive spin on it. After all, I did dig out an entire basement back in my heyday.

I was facing an issue though. That second opening into the basement was covered up by the concrete patio that surrounds our pool. This, in and of itself, is a huge problem because that concrete butted right up against the wood siding on the house, which was rotting out because of the moisture being transferred to it. It was a bad situation that I waited almost five years to address. But, as I said, the cooler air has inspired me to get back to work and just a few days ago, I fixed the problem. To see how the cement touched the siding, take a look at this post.

I knew I had to cut the concrete to keep things looking professional. I didn’t want to go busting through it with a sledge hammer because then I’d be buying a new patio when I was finished. If I could cut it, I could get rid of the waste and then simply dig out any soil that was touching the wood siding of the house.

I called a tool rental company down in town and asked if they had a concrete cutting saw. They did, so I drove down to pick it up ($50 rental for half-day). I knew I should have taken photos of all this, but I forgot because I was so excited about getting things done. The saw looks like a chainsaw with a huge round blade attached to it. It’s really a marvel because it cuts through concrete like butter. The entire job only took me about 20 minutes to complete and after that, I was ready to do some digging.

Here’s a photo of the concrete that I cut.

And here’s the trench I had to dig to get the sand that was under the concrete away from the house. Yes, it was all pure sand under there. No dirt, which was nice.

That digging look longer than I anticipated. It was exhausting in itself. Much more difficult than I anticipated.

Here’s a photo of the wood siding that was rotting away under the concrete. Let this be a lesson to you. Never let dirt or concrete touch your house siding. It’s not a good situation. Now I have to inspect the band joist to see if that’s rotted too. If it is, I’ll replace it. I’m good like that. There’s nothing I enjoy more than jacking a house up. Luckily, I’ve done that before too.

The real reason I did all this work was to get to that opening I mentioned above. Check it out. It’s one cement block’s worth.

The great thing about this house is that the cement blocks that were used for the foundation are 12 inches wide and they’re filled with concrete, so the entire foundation is really solid. The bad part about that is that I have to shove sand past 12 inches, instead of something much less substantial. Oh well. It’s a trade-off, I suppose.

After I was finished bashing apart the concrete that I cut, I pushed those pieces into the basement. Then, after digging up all that sand, I pushed that into the basement too. I consider that the beginning of my filling the area inside. I also called a local sand and gravel place and ordered ten yards of what they call “bank run sand.” That’s sand that’s been dug up, but not screened, so there may be some rocks in it. As long as I can shovel it into a wheelbarrow, that’s fine. It was cheap at $11 per yard and with free delivery, the entire ten yards cost just $116.05. I estimate that I’ll need 20 yards, which might just do me in. We’ll have to see about that.

In my next post on this topic, I’ll head down into the basement to show you my progress. I have a feeling that you’re just as excited about all of this as I am, so I’ll try to help out any way I can. Thanks for reading!