Chapter 22...Kitchen Install

Off Grid...Chapter 22 Going back to Thursday 8-21-08 Today was the the first day all week that it was just Mike and I. We work the best when it is just the two of us. That's how we really like it because, as you all know, we're best friends. We went down to the house and finished stubbing out the plumbing in the bathroom for the water heater. Then we were able to finish installing the smaller pieces of sheet rock in the bathroom. Mike hates installing all the smaller sections because it is very time consuming and it doesn't feel like you get anything done. After a lot of grumbling we "finally" finished the bathroom. Next we started on the kitchen wall. See now that looks like we are getting something done. After we got that wall done Mike showed me how to spackle. This is how it is done. After the sheet rock is installed on the wall studs the seams have to be taped. Then you spread the sheet rock "mud"(very smelly stuff) on the tape and scrape off the excess. You also fill in all the screw holes with mud and scrape that off. Let it all dry about 12 hours, lightly sand it all, and then repeat the whole process 2 more times. So far we haven't done any sanding which means we have a ton of finish work left. Yuk! While I was spackling, Mike was working on the transoms above the doors. We made extra work for ourselves by deciding to put the decorative glass above the doorways but I think Mike and I will be very happy with them. Mike had to cut 2x4's to make a frame for the glass and then he covered it all with sheet rock. The bathroom transom is done. The bedroom transom. Now all we have left is the other bedroom transom. That's for another day. Mike also finished working on the sheet rock for the angled wall that goes into the bedroom and we fixed the bedroom door. This is everything we did today. It was a very good day. Friday- 8-22-08 This morning we went down to the house and started the electrical wiring for the dining area. Mike likes to install wire for each room individually so that each room in the house has it's own circuit breaker. We run wire in all the outlets and switches. Then we run a wire for an overhead light in each room. After that all the wire goes back to the breaker box. The front wall of the dining area is done. Now we only have the living room to do. After the wiring, we started to sheet rock the front wall. This is Mike using a jigsaw on the sheet rock to cut out the electrical boxes. We finished most of the front wall today. We had to stop and go to town. We had to pick up more insulation and also go to our other property to mow. A few hours later we made it back home. Yeah! When we got home Mike's daughter, Nicole, stopped my with her son A.J.. She needed to borrow our compound miter saw so she could finish the trim in her bathroom. A.J. is 10 and really excited about the house. He can't wait to stay over. I briefly explained how the solar works and he was amazed and thought it was very cool that we have no electric bill. After they left, Mike and I moved the kitchen base kitchen cabinets from the 2nd bedroom back into the kitchen. Mike is "really" tired of sheet rock so he wants to do something different. It is taking a long time for the 2 of us to do the sheet rock but we are saving about $45.00( so far we have bought 65 boards) per board for a professional to come in and hang and finish sheet rock. We bought small plastic nail in protectors to put on the bottoms of my base cabinets. We are putting these on because my cabinets aren't solid wood and this will protect the bottoms in case the floor ever gets wet. We got all the cabinets lined up and ready to install tomorrow. Saturday- 8-23-08 This morning we started installing the base cabinets in the kitchen. We installed 6 base cabinets and a utility cabinet. Then we moved on to the upper cabinets. We used the top of the utility cabinet as our marker for the top cabinets. We placed a 2x4 across the top of the utility cabinet and to the corner, made sure it was level, and screwed the 2x4 into the wall. This made it much easier to lift the cabinets up to the 2x4 and screw them in place. Almost finished with the upper cabinets. Later on we finished installing 16 cabinets. We still have one more for above the refrigerator but we have to wait. Sunday- 8-24-08 It was nice walking into the house and seeing all the kitchen cabinets done. It kind of gives you a boost to see some type of finish work on the house. We started off by installing 2 small 2x4' by the corner carousel cabinet. This is in preparation for the installing the plywood on top of the base cabinets for my counter top. We used 2 sheets, 4x8, of 3/4 inch thick finished plywood. We measured the plywood and cut two pieces for each section of the counter. The plywood is now 1 1/2 inches thick and ready for tile. Some people like to use backer board for their counters but we never have and have never had any problems. As Mike likes to say, "If it ain't broke don't fix it". Mike started the template for my kitchen sink. He then drew it onto the counter and used a jigsaw to cut a whole for my sink. This was a very slow process. While he was doing that I did a little more spackling. Mike says I did a good job and that I seem to have a knack for it. I think he just doesn't want to do it ha, ha. Actually I like spackling. Mike says I like a lot of weird jobs when we build. It's OK at least one of us does. This is my sink and faucet installed. Of course we aren't hooked to water yet but it's in. It makes us feel better. I love it. I haven't had a big sink in years. The motor home has a double sink which I hate because I can' fit my big pans in the sink when I wash dishes. I love to cook so I use a lot of bigger pans. I also hate the single lever faucets, again in the motor home. They are a pain to clean because the connections for the levers are really hard to clean "all around them". Next we started on sheet rock again! I can't wait until we are done. At least we had a day away from doing sheet rock. We put up 4 smaller boards and called it quits. We decided to take the rest of the night off and kick some butt tomorrow. Later on we took a ride on the 4-wheeler and on our way back up we saw a raccoon eating apples in one of the apple trees. I love raccoons. They are like little burglars with their masks. A cow was right below the tree where the raccoon was in hopes of a fallen apple. We watched them for awhile. It is amazing how many animals we have on this property. Must be all the apple trees. So now I have more competition for apples. The cows are eating all the apples they can reach and the raccoons are eating the higher apples. I better hurry and start picking. That's all for now. We have a really busy week coming up. We are trying to paint the interior within a couple of weeks, get the flooring done, install the appliances, and do the counter top. We better start ordering everything. I am glad you are all enjoying the story. Have a great day. Lisa and Mike

Chapter 19...Motorhome Ramps And Wiring The House

Off Grid...Chapter 19 Good Morning everyone. Sunday- This morning we got an e-mail from Nicole, Mike's daughter. She finished tiling and grouting her vanity top. She did great. We started our day by leveling our shipping container. That took some time because we had to jack it up and either dig some dirt out or add some block. We finally got it level. Of course all the cows were there this morning checking it out because we did something "different". Then Mike decides he wants to move the motorhome on the side where the building used to be. This way we can finish graveling our parking area and finish seeding the rest of the yard. We have to get grass growing before the winter. We knew that Mike had to do some grading in that area because that section of our land is very un level. The motorhome is 40 feet long and we want to make sure we are not too high in the air when we park it there. First Mike had to scrape the existing gravel off that area and then start grading. This took a long, long time because we only have the tractor and it's not really meant for grading. After he was finally finished he put the gravel back on top and then we moved the motorhome over. It was really, really uneven almost like we were going to go flying down the mountain. So, we made some ramps to put under the front tires. We were still slanted forward so Mike moved the motorhome and we dug out about 1 foot of dirt under the back tires. We are still way too high. Mike had to start all over again(this is now many hours later) by moving the motorhome, scraping the gravel away, re grading, and then getting more gravel to put on top. By the time he thought it was good enough it was getting dark. We moved the motorhome over got it as level as we could and called it a night. We are a little high in the front but we are level. Monday- We left our front blinds open and we woke up to a beautiful view. We are now looking at the same view we have from the front of the house. Howard, the cow owner, came by with his brother and a friend. They had to work on some perimeter fencing where some trees fell. While they were out doing that the man from our propane company stopped by to see the house and figure out how to run our lines. They will be back next week to bury our tank and run the lines to the house. After everyone left Mike almost got us both killed. We had the trailer attached to the 4-wheeler and we loaded it up with the extra metal re bar and concrete boards that the concrete company left behind. We get it all strapped down and we start down our driveway. We are going to store all of this in the barn. We get through the steepest part of the driveway OK and then because the trailer is so heavy it starts pushing the 4-wheeler forward as we are sliding on the gravel. Mike is doing all he can to keep us from losing control when the trailer starts to jack knife. Oh we are in so much trouble now. Finally Mike is able to get us stopped and I get off. Mike tries again with out me on the 4-wheeler with him. He jack knifes as he is headed for the ditch. Not good. The trailer gets stuck on the back tire of the 4-wheeler and Mike is able to stop. We decide to unload all the stuff from the trailer onto the side of our road, sound familiar, because it is just too heavy. We push the 4-wheeler around until it is straight and Mike takes it to the barn while I walk. "That was exciting, let's not do that again". After our trailer fiasco we hook the trailer to the jeep and go to David's, the farm supply, to get more "stuff". We hung out with David and his family for a couple of hours because 1. they are all really nice and 2. we were in no rush to go back and work. It was a rough weekend. Last week we told them about the great bargain we got on kitchen cabinets and they went to Lowe's on Sunday and got kitchen cabinets for one of their daughters', Leslie. She is thrilled. His wife Terry told us we could stop by anytime at the house and pick fresh vegetables from their garden. I thought that was really nice of her to offer. We finally went back home to relax. You know after our long day and we heard someone coming up the driveway. It was Howard with his wife, Ivalee, and their son, Eric. And they came bearing gifts. They all got out of the truck with a big basket of fresh vegetables, canned beets, homemade jam, and the largest head of cabbage I have ever seen. Yum, time to make soup. Howard also gave me a big bucket full of green beans that he picked. they also brought us some frozen beef and Ivalee said "don't ask about it". As long as I didn't name it I'm OK. We had a really nice time with them. Ivalee and I can talk up a storm and while we were doing that Mike and the men went down to get the metal we left on the side of the road. They loaded it into Howard's truck and took it to the barn. Just as they were getting ready to leave we all saw 3 deer on the hill. Mike got a beautiful picture of the sunset. Tuesday- Our propane is scheduled for next week so we have to get another delivery so we can get back to working on the house. Mike placed the order and I tried to track down my gas appliances. After lunch our delivery arrived with 40 sheets of sheet rock, 10 sheets of waterproof board(for the bathroom), 28 more 2x4's and 3/4" plywood for my counter top. Now we have so much stuff in the house that it all gets in the way when we work. It's a mess. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day. Wednesday- Today we really need to get back on track. We started out by moving everything inside the house into the office area, the only room that is sheet rocked. Now we have room to work. First we wired the bathroom. We completed the last wall, and installed the electric wires and boxes in the kitchen. We also cut out the correct openings for our doorways into the master bedroom and the bathroom. We still have to add one more 2x4 across the tops. The last thing we did in the house was start the plumbing in the bathroom. We are using pex tubing instead of copper for the first time. It is much more cost effective and also much easier to work with. There is no cleaning and soldering the pipes and you can run it through the walls. Now all we have to do is finish the wiring and the plumbing and then we are ready to sheet rock the house. Now that's going to be a job. Tonight we went back over to Nicole's to help her finish the sink installation, the plumbing, and put her mirror on the wall. We got most of it done but we were short some plumbing parts so we will have to go back Friday to finish. Lisa and Mike