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.

 

What's Happening Inside?

This has been my plan since the slab was poured.

As you know, if you have read these entries from the beginning, the plan has evolved.  But when the slab was poured, I was committed to the placement and layout of the bathroom, the placement of the work space wall and power in the floor for the table saw.  This is still the general layout.

Every time we make the trip from Virginia to Illinois, we need to bring as much of our stuff as possible. So, even before we had a place to put it, stuff was piling up.  So, I started building the shelves on the West side (top of floor plan).  I soon realized that I needed to build the wall that the shelves abut, first.  I probably could have just built the short section that attached to the shelves, but it seemed more efficient to build the whole room first.  So the stuff got piled a little higher.

We did spend quite a bit of time working there this Fall, but the progress inside was interrupted repeatedly.  The last couple of entries explain a couple of the things that were a higher priority: the outside stuff needed to get done while the weather was nice, and the wood stove needed to be found and installed before the weather turned too cold.  The inside work went slow, but I did get the power breaker box installed, power brought into it, 2 ceiling lights working, the work space/bathroom framed out and the lowest shelf built.  The long list of things to be done next inside the shop includes: finish shelves, wiring, lighting, plumbing, and drywall.

During our most resent trip, Jan spent part of the time getting to know her new twin Granddaughters in Minnesota.

 

When she re-joined me and saw the new walled in space, she said, "We could live in here."  I was more than a little bit shocked.  But the more we talked about it, the more sense it made.  Our very first plan was to build an apartment in the end of the shop to live in for a while.  That plan was much bigger; something we could rent out later.  We abandoned that idea as too much of an expense and we would not want rental property attached to the shop.  We  had settled on buying a camper trailer to live in during the next phase; either building a spec house or our own.  Standing in that space in the shop, we realized that it is basically the same size (maybe bigger) as we were considering for a camper.  

The only major thing we would have to do to make this a livable space versus work space, is to install a septic system.  As a shop, I planned to use the bathroom strictly as a grey water set-up (utility sink, shower), but had roughed in a toilet for possible future up-grade.  I am hoping that a septic system can be installed far enough down the hill to serve our future home as well.  I did consult with our septic guy about a system for our house (not really looking at hooking to the shop at that time).  He said the site was do-able, but, we will need to clear and build the driveway and clear the house site in order to gain access to the place where the septic system would go.

The space that will become our temporary home will easily revert to work space when we move on.  The only permanent thing will be 6 feet of base kitchen cabinets that will serve as our kitchen and later be storage and bench space.  This will also give us a place to keep (and use) much of our furniture, helping with a potential storage problem.  One other good thing about this:  living within the shop, in 300 square feet, with no real kitchen, and a funky bathroom will be MAJOR motivation for building a real home.

Heat for the Shop

I have figured all along that I would heat the shop with wood.  I've done it in the past and it makes lots of sense.  A woodworking shop generates almost enough wood waste to keep it heated.  And I have an unlimited supply of firewood on 20 acres surrounding the shop.  I will have the back end of the building closed off  10 foot deep and the full width for cleaner and conditioned space.  That space will be able to be heated and cooled mechanically, so the heating in the main space is less critical. I had been looking for a stove on eBay and Craig's list and in classified ads for a while.  I finally found a beautiful stove on Craig's list, but it needed a little repair and was an hour and and a half away in Centralia.  I bought it anyway.  It was made by the Curtis Co. in St. Louis. I spent a day or so repairing it and a couple more installing the flue and chimney.  When Jan came back from Minnesota, she built the first fire.  Later, I'll install a ceiling fan up high over the stove to push that hot air back down and help circulate it.  I also plan to close the walls behind it with cement board and (probably) tile.

A walk in the woods.

Here are some photos I took when we went on a walk down into Moss Hollow the Monday after Thanksgiving:

Fall is the Best Time to Plant Trees and Shrubs

Fall is the Best Time to Plant Trees and Shrubs

It"s also the best time to find bargains on plant material.  I had been resisting buying any more plants, since we will be moving all our stuff 800 miles, but just couldn't stop myself.  We had another trip planned to So. IL. the end of October.  With Hurricane Sandy on it's way, we got out of Dodge.  We took both my truck and Jan's car.  A week later, she drove on to spend a couple weeks with her daughters and new twin Grand-babies in Minnesota.

A few days before we left, I saw that the Leesburg Home Depot was closing out all their nursery stock cheap. I couldn't resist.  I bought a bunch of azaleas and rhododendrons.  I also started digging and dividing the perennials that we have collected or moved from our last place in Georgia.  Pots filled the floor of Jan's back seat and the entire back seat and floor of my truck.  We usually leave Mr. Q (my parakeet) with our landlord, Walter, but since we planned to be gone for about a month and were quite sure his power would be off for an indeterminate time (remember Sandy was on her way), he rode with me.  He actually seemed to enjoy the ride.

Jan planted the azaleas and rhododendrons in the "island"  under the big walnut trees between the driveways.
We planted the first load of perennials, day lilies, bee balm, cone flowers, daisies, along the new board fence.  And 5 burning bushes went in the ground by the gate and at the end of the shed.  Earlier, I planted 3 bargain trees from the Carbondale Lowes (pink dogwood, coosa dogwood, redbud) along the inside of the fence. 

Actually, before we planted anything, we built the three board "Virginia" fence and hung the gates.  The space between the gates, at the end of the "island" (right behind Jan in the photo above) will be a horse jump/sign.  I have my eye on a large cedar tree near by for this.  Hopefully next trip.  Next year, with the fence painted black, the jump built, and all the plants growing, it will look amazing.