Rock wall

One more outdoor project that I have been wanting to do for some time, and really wanted to complete before winter set in, was to build a dry stack retaining wall on the low side of the shop.  I have been planning a drive way to circle around the building from the start.  So every time I did any earth moving, I did it with that in mind.  That was all set pretty much where I liked it by October, but I did want to set the stone wall before I spread the gravel.

I was told about a local stone quarry that sells local stone for building.   The quarry is a bit far (almost an hour drive near Eddyville) and I figured I couldn't haul too much at a time. But the stone has the right look and is always available.  I ended up hauling 7 pallets in 3 trips; probably close to 8 tons.  I also had to make 3 trips (the opposite direction) for fine gravel for bedding and backfilling the stone.

I have been taking a pictures from a couple of spots since we first started.  One of these spots looks towards that side of the shop.  Here is a series from the beginning:

 

 

 

Although now all the plants are down and dormant, the bed between the trees on the left is filled with ferns and hostas that Jan moved from Virginia.  This should all look pretty spectacular in the spring.

 

Room Divider

This was the view of the Laundry/Kitchen end of our little apartment:

At the far left in this photo, the tall blonde boxy thing is a narrow book shelf unit from Ikea (back when we lived in Batavia) that we bought as a pair and have used in several configurations.  Although it's nice to see as much of our little place, we thought it might actually be better if we hid some of the clutter.  So a divider seemed a good idea.  Here's what we did:

The second shelf unit was added with custom spacers and shelves in between to accommodate the vacuum cleaner, computer printer, toaster oven, and electric frypan. 

Next I added plywood backer:

Deciding on what to cover this surface with was going to make or break the whole project.  We hoped to find interesting fabric.  So we visited Handcock Fabrics in Paducah, Ky. (about 50 miles from us). This isn't your typical Handcocks Fabrics like in every strip mall in the mid-west.  It is an independent store in the city that has the National Quilting Museum.    http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/
We did find something we thought would work.  It did.

We really like it.  Although the room is actually a bit smaller, now, it doesn't feel bad.  It defines the space better and does hide much of the utility spaces.  The living area seems a bit more formal, without including the kitchen (and laundry) stuff.

The Bath Room

As the drywall for the rest of the apartment was installed, the guys also hung green (moisture resistant) drywall in the bathroom.  I had marked out on the studs which areas I would cover with cement board (Hardie Board Tile Backer) and the places they should leave open for the heater, the medicine cabinet, and the exhaust fan.

I installed heavy tar paper across the studs to serve as a water barrier before I hung the 1/2 inch cement board in the shower area as well as behind the sink.  I covered the joints with fiberglass mesh tape and thinset mortar.

 I found a paint-on waterproofing membrane at Lowes. It's called Mapelastic™ AquaDefense (http://www.mapei.com/US-EN/product-detail.asp?IDMacroLinea=0&IDProdotto=1005593&IDTipo=182&IDLinea=102).  It probably wasn't necessary, but I feel better and it's relatively cheap insurance.

A few years ago, I found out about the Crossville Tile factory outlet store.  It's a real factory outlet with fantastic prices.  The other fortunate thing is that it is right by the interestate in Tennessee on our usual route between Virginia and S. IL.  Crossville Tile (http://www.crossvilleinc.com) is very high quality porcelain tile.  It is harder than regular tile and the color usually goes all the way through.   We made two stops there on moving trips.  We stopped with no set plan for tile.  It's a great place to wander and  be flexible.  There's always cool stuff there, cheap.  We got floor tile on the first trip and found wall tile we liked, but didn't have room for to haul it.  If it wasn't still available when we went back, we were sure there would be something equally cool.  It was still there the next time through.

A few design notes:
Remember, at the time the cement floor was poured, we were not planning to use this space as our residence.  If I knew we were going to live here, I probably would have stacked the washer/dryer next to the toilet.  But, when the plan was set in concrete, this was to be a more utilitarian space.
A utility sink was planned and remained in the plan.  It would be the only sink, so it needed to be able to handle a wide variety of tasks.
Years ago, I cleaned a Burger King for a job.  They had a room in the back that was all tiled and had a recessed area along one wall with a floor drain and a hose with hot and cold water.  It was the handiest thing!  Ever since, I have kept that idea in my head.  So the end of this bathroom is lowered with a floor drain.  Now it's our shower.  Works great!  In the future it will also be a great place to wash dogs or anything else.  I really like the way this works.  When we build our next house I'd like to slope a bigger area at a more gradual slope.
The water heater is located in the loft, directly above the shower area.  There is no delay waiting for hot water in the shower or sink.  No wasting water waiting for it to run hot.  I enclosed it in an insulated box to to further protect it from the (sometimes) unheated space in the loft.  This also helps hold the heat in.  After returning from a trip, I found the water still warm with the power off.

Unintended Blogging Delay

It's been a very long time since I last wrote here.   Like our friends at Cottonwood Meadow, (http://cottonwoodmeadow.blogspot.com/), (check out their home building blog!), time really got away from me.  Between working on our place and working on things to pay for our place, I just didn't seem to find time to write.  I'll try to catch things up.

At the last writing, the septic was installed and we had decided to live in the "apartment" part of the shop until we build a proper house.  The framing was finished and the plumbing rough-in, electric rough-in and insulation was next.  That all went fine, just slow, being fit in between building horse jumps. I contracted to have the drywall hung and finished.  I knew I was capable of doing it myself, but, also knew it would take me 2 weeks and the subs a few days.

The day before the guys were scheduled to hang the drywall, we had a lot of rain.  And good thing.  Water was pouring into the walls from the windows.  When they were installed, I was concerned with the way the builder flashed them, but figured he knew what he was doing.; wrong!  I spent the rest of the day digging out the foam insulation and sealing the cavities in the siding corrugation and caulking the hell out of the J channels around all the windows.  It seems to have worked.  Really glad I found out before the walls were closed in.

I left the window trim out until later.  I knew I could do it without a major disruption of living in the space and we needed to move into our new (somewhat temporary) home as soon as possible.

At the same time as all the house work, I had a contract to build several horse jumps for Fox River Valley Pony Club.  The first official jump built in the new shop was done in March.

Waste Water Treatment

We are now on track to live in the shop for a while.  The space that I had set aside for a cleaner, conditioned work space looked good enough, when I framed it in, to live in (for a while).  I had the foresight to rough in a bathroom from the start.  If we didn't plan to live in there, the bathroom space would have had a utility sink and a floor drain shower.  I figured I could get away with a simple grey water drain since it would never have anything worse than soapy water.  But now that it will serve as a real bathroom, with a toilet (I did have the foresight to rough that in, too, even if it was never used), we needed a real septic system.

My son-in-law, Jason's construction company has had a long relationship with James Killian of Kil-Con (kilcon.com) for waste water treatment systems for their projects.  He sells and installs the AquaKlear aerobic treatment system (aquaklear.net).  James was willing to give us a great deal on a system and work with us, letting Jason do the excavation and me do the main drain pipe.  He supervised our work and did the final hook-up and installation of the aerator.  Our contact at the Jackson County Health Department, Steve Williams, was great as well.  He came out to the site to check it out the day after I applied for a permit, and found the time to watch our installation even though it got pushed up a day shorter.

On this last trip, I also completed the water rough-in.  Since space is so valuable in the apartment, I installed the water heater in the loft above the bathroom.  It is enclosed in an insulated box; framed and insulated like a miniature room.  I got a start on the electric, as well.  The aerobic waste water system required a dedicated circuit, so that had to be done ASAP.  One other SUPER important thing I did was to hook-up a stereo tuner and Sirius radio with speakers at each end of the loft.  Now we can dance while we work.

The Shelves

One of the complications of this build/move is the fact that I/we have tons of stuff (even after moving 3 times)  in Virginia (in our house, in the barn, and in a box trailer), in a rented storage lock'n'store in Carterville, and still in Lola's basement and my old shop.  So it has been a priority to get stuff out of those places.  Much of it has found it's way into the shop:  The barn in Virginia is mostly empty.  My old shop is 85% moved out.  And the box trailer has been packed tight, moved to Illinois, emptied into the shop, and ready for another load.  Much of this stuff was randomly piled.

I started early last fall to build shelves to organize and store everything.  This project was interrupted several times.  The nice fall weather meant doing outside work first.  I also realized that it made more sense to build out the tempered workspace (now, apartment) before the shelves.  I finally got back to the shelves and Jan organized stuff and put things in the loft.

The design is a bit complicated, I'll admit, but they are very accessible, have a minimum number of posts, and really don't take up too much space.

With Jan loading stuff up into the loft space over apartment, it quickly became obvious a stair would be nice.  It was obvious to her, but, I bone-headedly struggled with the ladder.  Jason told me about the stairs his Grandfather has in his shop.  It is something between a stair and a ladder;  steeper than stairs but easier than a ladder.  So I built one.  Works well.  Next, Jan thinks we need a guard rail along the edge of the loft. Could be right.