You could show how neatly you've done the job.   

I have Kidde and have them hard wired.  Maybe this will help.  Page #2 for wiring.  There may be a better page I didn't look further.



http://www.kidde.com/utcfs/ws-384/Assets/i12080_Sheet.pdf

Hello!  It has been quite some time since I have posted any pics.  I always kid myself into thinking that I have time in the spring, but the reality is that I hardly got out to the house at all during April and May.  But now it is summer, and school is over - the kids are pretty excited, and so are the teachers!  So, here is what I have accomplished since the end of school.


The shingles in the peak are in place, and I have already put a coat of bleaching oil on them..  we are waiting on some trim pieces to install , and i still have the final coat of paint to do..  I am waiting to put the roof on the porch till everything else is done, including loading the drywall for upstairs - that will be a lot easier before the roof is in place! 

the shingles on the first floor still need a coat of oil.   

Yesterday I decided that it was time to tackle the meter base and the electrical panel..   I am tired of firing up the generator every time that I need to use the saw! 

hopefully, this will be agreeable to the inspector.. i am going to stop to see him this morning on my way out to the house..   the panel is in place in the basement, and now I just need to start feeding the lines into it..   ( i should be careful about using that word "just"   it gets me in trouble every time! )

There is plenty of shingling on the other three sides of the house to keep me busy.. but, at least we are getting an idea of what the finished product will look like!

well, I spent the better part of the day running cable between the panel and the meter box..  maybe it would be more accurately described as fighting the cable - and losing miserably.   Today was one of those days when lots of things just did not go right.  But, later in the afternoon I went over to see if my neighbor could lend a hand, and eventually, he went back to his garage and returned with a coil of copper  cable.. that made all of the difference.  We pulled the alum. wire for the third time, and in less than an hour, we had the job done..  thank God for neighbors!   He would not let me compensate him for the wire.. i guess that I will have to bake him a loaf of cinnamon / raisin bread! 

So the inspector is due to show up tomorrow..  the cable is in place.  the panel is grounded, and  an outlet next to the panel is wired..  that should be enough to give us the ok, unless he happens to be concerned about anything..   

Today things got off to a better start.   Maybe it was because we slept in just a bit!   The inspector spent about half an hour looking over all of the electrical work and then gave me a sticker.. how about that!  now we just need to get PPL to come out an hook us up!  it will be so much nicer working without the noise of the generator..   so the only thing left to do is to run one more circuit for the exterior outlets and lights..   the inspector asked me to put the smoke detectors on a circuit with a light..  I had originally planned on having them all on their own circuit.  the reasoning behind the request is that we might not recognize if there was a fault on the smoke detector circuit, but if we find a light malfunctioning, then we will know that the circuit needs attention..   
any thoughts on this idea??

I don't know where the time went!  For most of the summer, up to this point, I have been working at school in the morning and then heading out to the house project after lunch.  Usually, I get to spend 6- hours out there, and most days have been pretty productive.  Of course, there are those few when nothing seems to be going as planned, but we have been able to keep them to a minimum.
so here we are, hoisting sheet rock up to the second floor.   Those big doors on the second floor come in quite handy! 


the first few went up easy - by the end of the day, the 10 footers got a little heavy.   The inspector gave me the go-ahead to sheet rock the ceiling on the second floor, so that was the goal for this particular weekend.

a number of years ago i built a bike rack for the basement of the dorm where we live at school.  This spring it fell off the wall, and no one seemed particularly interested in getting it back up on the wall, so i took it out to the house and turned it into a "temporary" kitchen counter.   it really is temporary, we just are not sure how long temporary means at this point!   a piece of osb covered with some luan and 4 coats of varnish later.. this is what we ended up with.   the shelf unit is above the counter is one that i built many years ago.   this is the fifth house in which it has seen use.   it is getting a bit beat up at this point, but it will serve for a time, along with the counter!

i read an article in Fine Homebuilding in which the author advises never to move into a house that is unfinished..  but ours is going to be unfinished for quite some time, and we were really ansty to get out there and stay over night.. so, i surprised my wife by stopping at Penny's on the way out to the site a few weeks ago, and i tried to make things look as home like as possible!  it worked

now - this has yet to prove itself, but we are not planning on heating the house for the next year or so.  we will put a wood stove in and possibly use it for vacations, but that is about it.  with this in mind, i decided that i did not want to put in a pressure tank and run water throughout the house.   instead, i installed a pump right on the well..   the pump comes from Maine - bison pumps..  it is not cheap, but it is going to give us the water that we need, and I have a plan ( as yet untested)  to pump water up to the attic where i will install a tank ( just arrived this week)  from there, i will feed a line down to the toilet below.   and possibly to the shower ..   the pump is a deep water pump ( 200 feet)  but i only have it down 32 feet.   our well is 300 feet deep, but the water level is just 15 feet down ( 50 gal per min)   at this point, i am still pumping out rusty water.  we will be gone for a while, so, hopefully, all of the sediment will have a chance to settle down..  and then we can begin testing out my plan!  if all else fails.. at least we can take a bucket of water up to the bathroom to flush the toilet!

the panel is looking a little more organized than the last photo that i submitted...   i was surprised when the inspector told me that he wanted the smoke detectors to share a circuit with something else..   i guess that the logic is that if they are on a circuit by themselves and the circuit goes bad, we might not realize it right away..  so I tied them together  with the canned lights that i just installed in the kitchen..  they will get a lot of use..   

you might notice the 4 circuits in the panel that have the arc fault breakers..  any circuit that is in a bedroom has to be protected by an arc fault breaker..

one more pic of the kitchen.   one of the next projects will be to cut in the sink and begin the DWV plumbing..   notice the lights.. i may have gotten a little carried away with the lights, but they will certainly make for a bright working space!

today i finished up putting the final coat of paint on the trim which we finished installing earlier in the week.  it felt good to get the scaffolding down and out of the way..   the plan calls for a small hip roof with an inset balcony, but i am leaning heavily towards leaving the whole thing open as a second floor porch..  of course, that means coming up with a way of protecting the porch underneath.   the prevailing wisdom is to go with a rubber roof..  but, i am tempted to borrow a pretty time - tested idea from boat builders..  what about fiberglass?  plywood boats are covered with fiberglass all of the time, and it seems to hold up for a long time.. if i put down plywood and then a layer of epoxy and then glass the whole thing..  it won't be cheap, but I can do it myself, and it will cost about a 3rd of the price for a contractor to come in and do rubber....   i will let you know how it works out

ok.. last pic for tonight..    we have matching trim for the porch posts which we will install after we cover up the posts with 1x..  there is still a lot to do, but we are pretty happy with the progress that we made since the middle of June..   I wish that i had the entire day to work, but the heat here in PA ( like most of the east coast)  has been pretty nasty the last few weeks, so in some ways, it is just as good to be working in the afternoons and evenings.. for the most part, i can find some shade at those times.. 

It's been hot here too but breaking a bit now. 

The place is looking great, Poconos. 

Really nice!  Love the trim, the French doors, you've done such a great job putting everything together.  That was a nice surprise you made for your wife, fixing up the bedroom all cozy & homey    We've been living in our cabin that has ongoing construction that we've been doing in stages -- when we have time & energy 

thanks,  Glenn and Sassy.  time energy and money seem to be the 3 constraints   but, i think that we have done ok so far at managing all three.

I do not know if this helps, but we have some "Ablution Units" (shower trailers) over here in Iraq that have fiberglass floors coated with anti-skid epoxy paint.  They are the only shower trailers that do not have to be re-decked every 2-3 years.  Those with glue-down sheet vinyl floors ALWAYS leak.

Fiberglass ain't cheap, but as long as it is kept painted, I do not see why it would not work.

Mike

P.S. I love the detailing of the house.  I prefer the craftsman style homes because I do not have the temperament for gingerbread (makes me want throw things) even though I love the look.

thanks for the info on the fiberglass..   i just got off the phone with a fiberglass dealer, and he said that many folks have put it on roofs..  you are right, it is not cheap, but the fact that I can do it myself makes a big difference..   i think that i will go with 10 oz cloth..  we will see how it works out!    as for the gingerbread..  i grew up going to a place on the Jersey shore called Ocean Grove.. the younger kids called it ocean grave - lots of older folks sitting on the porches -  it is filled with victorian houses from the late 1800's, and that definitely left an impression on me..  of course, this house is out in the country, so the trim will be minimal, but i love the look as well..   if you stop by for  a visit, please don't throw anything at it    and - best of luck to you and your mission in Iraq!

Quote from: Onkeludo2 on July 23, 2010, 11:48:37 AM
I do not know if this helps, but we have some "Ablution Units" (shower trailers) over here in Iraq that have fiberglass floors coated with anti-skid epoxy paint.  They are the only shower trailers that do not have to be re-decked every 2-3 years.  Those with glue-down sheet vinyl floors ALWAYS leak.

Fiberglass ain't cheap, but as long as it is kept painted, I do not see why it would not work.

Mike

P.S. I love the detailing of the house.  I prefer the craftsman style homes because I do not have the temperament for gingerbread (makes me want throw things) even though I love the look.

  I could see Glenn throwing things, too, if I asked him to do gingerbread detailing!  Hope all is going well for you - I see a lot of returning veterans from Iraq & Afganistan in the ER I work at - be sure & sign up - they say they've promised you guys health care for 5 yrs, isn't it?  Unless there is a service connected problem. 

Just to clear things up, I am not in the military and never have been.  This is my fourth year over here as a GASSC (greedy-arse-scum-sucking-contractor) as we are jokingly known.  First couple of times I was over here I did a lot of outside-the-wire work (2005-2007) building Iraqi Army bases, Iraqi Police stations and border forts.  These two tours are 100% inside-the-wire tracking the money.

Sassy, as a contractor, I am lucky to have health insurance through the end of my contract date...not even an option for COBRA as we are technically paid by overseas companies.  Currently fighting #$%gna over some of my wife's claims.

I have the utmost respect for the Soldiers and Marines (even a few of the Sailors and Airmen) that put themselves between me and the bad guys.  Would never take credit for what they do.

Mike

That's right - I forgot you'd mentioned that in the past...  so what do you think of what's going on there?  I respect the servicemen who, in most cases, join the military out of patriotism, and now, many are joining because there isn't any other work to do...  I could go over there as a contractor & work as a nurse & make lots of money - it would be interesting just to be able to see what is actually going on because I don't think our news media tells us a whole lot 

Anyway, don't ant to hijack this thread, sorry - we can continue this conversation on off topics if you care to... 

Sassy,

I was not ignoring you.  I fell asleep before you posted and did take it to an off-topic thread just now so ask away...

Mike

nice looking place.  has that classic look.

thanks CBC- how are things in NH?  are you making progress in terms of beginning your project?   we are coming up to the lakes region this week -  looking forward to a break in the action   although we will be working on some projects with my son part of the time..