Drawers

The drawers are in less faces.

The space in the middle is 24". The right size for a dishwasher, but I will put in a small
rollout, butcher block island.

It's so nice working with trued equipment. These drawers were a dream to make. Made to the
specifications, they fit first time. Made of reclaimed wood, with plywood bottoms.

The garbage/recycling bin is about 2' x 2' x 2' and hold four small bins. I used this design in
my last house, and I really liked sliding open a drawer and just sweeping the crumbs right
into a bin.

Kitchen Counters

The kitchen is starting to come together.

The two cabinets are made entirely from scrap and reclaimed wood. It's embarrassing
to have a shop space as big as the rest of the house, but damn it's nice to have a shop.

Still need to make the drawers, but it's great to have a counter at the right height
after 3 years. Top is a maple butcher block, backsplash is new maple. 24" gap in
the middle is sized for a dishwasher. I don't plan to get one, but thinking of future
owners. I plan to slide in a small, roll-out kitchen island.

Didn't take long. Celebrated by making an apple pie.

Bench Dog

While waiting on some items to finish the kitchen cabinets I moved on to work on some workbenches for the basement shop. These benches are to be built almost exclusively from scrap. Since most of the scrap I have is cedar, it will have to do. Not usually a good choice for tough use situations, this cedar makes up for it with its comodious dimensions.

Workbench frame gets lagged together in a make shift jig.

The lag bolts (24 per) were left over from the deck when the design changed and I'd already ordered the bolts. The plywood for the end panels is left over from the roof (although I need one more sheet).

What a difference having reasonably good tools and some space in
making a series of the same parts.

Gradually I am getting a handle on the basement. I've burned for heat just shy of two cords of scrap wood. With this project I'm making space out of stuff that was taking space.

Tight joints.

Milled parts actually match!

First one of six awaits finishing out and a top. Each is 4' wide by 30" deep.

24 linear feet of clean counter. Lasted about 12 seconds.

Just Venting

I thought I needed a venting system for the stove, but it turns out not to be a requirement. Some pet peeves about kitchen vent fans:

• Noisy
• Obtrusive
• Noisy

This one is custom made. The grill is from Detroit or someplace, and the frame by my local stainless shop. The fan is a Panasonic 350 CFM. The thing is slim, elegant, and quiet as a snoring mouse, but under some or all conditions it will reverse the stove venting and suck smoke into the house. Oops. I think it will be fine in the summer, when I need it to remove the heat and the doors are open. Even in the winter, as long as there is a good fire going it works well.

Frame held in place while I figure out how to drill through stainless steel. Cobalt.

Like all Panasonic fans, smooth and whisper quiet. Shown on temporary risers that
will be replaced by 2010.

My first duct work.

Finished product.

Danger!

There is a lot of required signage for a solar system. This isn't some of it. I just had
fun putting these up. My neighbors think these will make good targets during hunting
season. A bullseye on the danger sign will likely take out the inverter.

Chill Out

I'll admit I may be taking this part too far. I specifically designed the kitchen to have several features:

• The stove would be in the middle of the house for even heat distribution.
• The sink would share a wall with the bathroom plumbing (an old-fashioned idea).
• And the fridge would be in its own box on the north wall, and coupled to the outside.
  

Mini-room for the fridge makes use of space below.

Thus this separately insulated box in the kitchen. I am awaiting two adjustable passive air vents that will form the bug-proof holes to the outside. One bottom as an inlet and up top to vent the hot air from the fridge. Refrigeration is a big energy user. I can run the fridge and the water purifier off of solar and batteries for 36 to 48 hours in the winter. I hope to reduce usage and extend emergency time with this system. However, it is possible that there could be many unanticipated consequences too humorous to mention here.

Waiting for parts. Once the two vents are in, then the fridge just slides right in.

Street Legal

Sometime between Christmas and New Year the commuinty development elves came and moved my street number from in front of the old trailer. This wasn't initially obvious as the street number contains some secret, emergency response coordinate system. It is also designed to accommodate some future carving up of this farmland into 1/8-acre plots and the necessary 5-digit house numbers. Fortunately sanity prevailed. Well sanity as far as it goes. I think I should be #12 Vesper Lane. A simple address for a simple life.

Passive House Performance

The house is performing well. During a recent cold spell, the house would drop from 70 F to 62 F overnight with no heat source despite exterior temperatures in the 18 F range. I'm heating with wood scraps left over from construction. Mostly cedar. I estimate I could heat the house with one cord, and certainly not more than two cords in a season. Other houses of similar size in the area might use up to 8 cords of wood a season.

The passive solar element has also had a workout. With a cold snap with clear skies, I've had the house heat up from 62 F to 68 F with out any heat input other than the sun.

The roof angle is 30 deg., the winter solstice sun angle. Shown here the noon sun from
the four upper windows casts light on the concrete panels. Heating them so they can
radiate heat later.

The house is also nice because the heat is uniform, no blowing vents, and there are no drafts.

Pantry

The pantry is to be fitted between studs in the kitchen wall.

Framing is made from old cedar and treated with linseed oil
giving it its dark patina.

In keeping with the open plan of the house, the pantry is open
and accessible.

Finally Final

Solar Power: Step 78

Step-by-step, one small piece at a time the system comes together. The special quick connects came in, but one wire ended up too short, and so I have another on order. Nonetheless, the panels all were producing 70 volts per series pair. They are now wired into the DC breaker panel.

The panels covered for safety. There is no way to turn them off, so
when the sun shines they are "hot" and can potentially cause a shock.

I needed help to raise the panels and put the legs on. In theory, they will not have to be touched for 20 or more years. Panels are quite inefficient converting only about 10% of the power that hits the panel. In 20 years I'll bet 2 panels of this size will replace the 10 I have now.

The panels up and working.

Inside the electrical shed work continues. The inverter weight 66 pounds. I had to build a shelf to place it on while I bolted it to the wall. All that remains, I think, is one solar panel connector, two battery cables and wiring it into the AC side.

The inverter (left) installed, and awaiting twocables coming from
Apache Junction, Arizona.

Final Failure & the Simpsons

I told the inspectors I wouldn't be back until Wednesday afternoon, but when I arrived I found 3 yellow sheets of paper stuffed in my front door jamb. I failed my final inspection on 3 counts.

1. The inspector couldn't enter the building.
2. There needs to be 3' of flat runnout at the bottom of the stairs, and some of the gravel had sunk down a bit.
3. Lack of adequate hold-down on the porch roof.

Items 1 and 2 could have been handled had I been there. In fact there is nothing left to approve inside, but the inspectors have every right and are naturally welcome to make sure they caught everything. The reason I know that there is nothing left inside is that I had a final inspection 3 months ago in order to get occupancy and at that time there was a list of items to complete: front and back handrails, porch lights, finish siding, and a couple of little nits. Nothing about the porch roof structure, which was finished at that time.

Frankly, I've worked hard keep from using Simpson Strong-Ties in visible locations. The reason being that most of them are as ugly as sin, and meant to be used inside walls and covered over. On an exposed structure like a porch they really can detract from the look. Their popularity stems from the combination of increasing code requirements and cheaper construction methods and materials. Use a Simpson Strong-Tie and everyone is happy because the burden of failure falls on them. It's a CYA sort of thing.

I was delighted when my first final list made no mention of additional hold-downs on the downhill side of the porch roof. The engineer had made much of the uphill connection at the house, but was silent on the lower portion. In the absence of direction my builders had fastened them with a single #10, 4-inch, stainless steel deck screw. My real frustration at not being there for the latest final inspection was that I might have been able to distract him or at least point to the last inspection report and kept the focus on those few items.

When I described the whole situation to my octogenarian neighbor, Roxy Nelson, he laughed. He had commented to me long ago that he thought the roof was liable to blow off in a stiff wind. As a machinist he had used plenty of metal in his place, and he was skeptical about my solution.

I did finally look up some data and the likely uplift on each rafter is 350 pounds. Trying to find the pull-out resistance of the screw was more difficult, but it seemed clear that 350 pounds was a stretch. Moreover, it seemed clear that the real point of failure would be the screw pulling through the cedar. So, in the end the house may be uglier, but safer.

Solar Panels (photos)

Today I finally got to put the panels up...or rather down. The rack system I bought from Uni-rac, "the leaders in the industry," but it had some issues. The panels have legs to raise them to the requisite angle, but it's not really possible to install the panels on the raised rack. Here's why:

• The panels themselves provide the third arm of the triangle. Without the panels in place there is no real frame. A catch-22. Can't install the panels on the floppy rack. Can't make the rack stiff without installing the panels.
• The panels clamp from the top using special clips. The panels must be held in place to install the clamps.
• The clamps between panels hold both panels and thus two panels must be done at one time.

After trying to do this at an angle, I gave up, layed the whole mess down and installed them easily in minutes.

A rack of solar.

Every time I turn around I find I need another specialty part. Most recently I opened up to find the panels have specialty, quick-connect electrical cable pre-wired. Quick if one has this kind of cable around. I don't. It's now on order.

The panels look diminutive because the electrical shed is 10' tall at
the face. The panels are 3' x 5' each and the two racks together is
about 30'. The panels weigh perhaps 30 lbs. each, so I'll need help
raising them.

Adding DC (photo)

I've started working on the solar system. It's not really a good time of year to be doing solar, but I've had the panels for over 2 years now, and I'm interested to put it all together. Besides, it does add a battery backup component, which is a good thing to have during winter storms.

On the left (gray boxes) is the AC side. On the right is the start of the
DC (solar) side.

Exterior is Finished (photos)

There was a bit of a delay waiting for new cedar planks to cover the back wall. We ran out of salvaged, cedar barn planks, but it was amazing that we got 3 sides done in old wood.

Jordon (top) and Jason put the final plank in place.

The back (north) wall gives a sense of what the house would have looked
like if it had all been done in new wood. Dull, uniform, and lacking in
character.

The final house with its back to the north wind. It was a conscious
choice to have no windows (only skylights) on the north side.

First Bread (photo)

It finally got cool enough to try baking bread. The results were quite good, but the house got quite warm.

It takes a small inferno to get the oven to 450 F (Photo: Alice Brawley-Chesworth)

Made in the Shade (photos)

The south porch is covered.

The house looks like it has been there for 40 years.

Extreme eastern view.

Ready for Final

I finished installing the front and rear porch lights and the rear handrail. This completes my tasks prior to final inspection. As soon as the porch roof and siding are done, I will call for final inspection. Even though I've been living in the house for over 6 weeks now, completing these last couple of items was a big relief.

Getting Closer (photos)

West side complete.

South face nears completion.

If you squint you can see the finished house.

If It Weren't for Re-work... (photo)

I like it in the dark, ask any of my friends. That's why I hadn't really planned for front and rear porch lights. I thought I would put them in after final and after some experience living in the house. No dice. Front and rear lights are required, I think because of the associated stairways.

Thus I was forced to tackle the problem early. It involved removing a couple of panels and figuring how to get to a switch for the rear light. The front one will be automatic with a motion sensor, and a manual override in the attic. Should be complete tomorrow.

New switch for outside light..