Chapter 20...Pex Is Awesome...Drywall Is Not

Off Grid...Chapter 20 We had a very productive end of the week. First of all let me tell you that we have been successfully running on our own "M&L Power". Mike had to make one modification so far because we kept popping 60amp fuses. He fixed that and everything is good. When Mike perfects our system I will give you all the details. Thursday- 8-14-08 Mike ran most of the pex plumbing for the bathroom. And the kitchen. He used the pex tubing and ran them through the walls. The blue is for cold water and the red is for hot water. We also finished wiring the master bedroom and the kitchen for electric. Today was also mowing day at our other property. It took us a little longer than usual because Mike had to put the sharpened blades back on the mower and I had a lot of weed eating to do. At least there was no beaver dam this week. Maybe they moved down the creek. I hope. We got back home and started sheet rocking the bedroom. Our first 3 walls. Friday 8-15-08 Today we had to make another Lowe's run. Sometimes it seems like we live there. We had a big list with a lot of little things to get. When we got home we started working on more plumbing. Mike had to start "connecting" the pex piping. This is how you connect pex piping. First you cut the pipe down to the size you need, then you put crimp collars over both pieces of pex, and then put a Tee or an elbow inside the middle of the pex pipe. Slide the crimp collars over the Tee or elbow then with a crimping tool you crimp the ends. That's it. Pex with a connector. Another piece added to the cold water. And Mike crimping it. Then we hung more drywall. We had to stop and go back over to Nicole's to finish the plumbing on her bathroom sink. Last time we ran out of parts. Mike got that done and now Nicole can paint and tile her bathroom. Saturday- 8-16-08 Today was an awesome day. We got so much done. First we sheet rocked the back wall and side of the bedroom. Then we put sheet rock on the bedroom/kitchen wall. And more. After we got the sheet rock done on the bedroom/kitchen wall I was able to put the insulation in. This is my favorite job. I love doing insulation. I even told Mike to stay away from my insulation ha, ha. I finished the kitchen wall. Before any questions come up we are only insulating the bathroom, kitchen and bedroom interior walls. The front of the house was sprayed with insulation. We are "not" putting insulation in the exterior walls that are surrounded by dirt. The reason for this is we are more concerned about keeping the house "cool" in the summer since we have no air conditioning. We will have no trouble keeping warm in the winter because we will have a propane fireplace. So this is intentional although not conventional. Mike finished installing the sheet rock in the bedroom and then he showed me how to tape the walls for Spackle. I did great on the walls I could reach but then I had to use the dreaded scaffold to reach up high. I'm not really sure what my problem is with the scaffold but it makes me really nervous. Mike was making fun of me because, after all, I'm only about 4 feet off the ground. I told him he has to tape the high spots. This is Mike doing a much better job. We also hung the bedroom door and we made a last minute decision. We have a nice sized opening at the top of all our interior doors and we have no windows in those rooms. So we are thinking about installing some kind of decorative glass above each of the doors. At least this will give us some lighting and we thought it would look nice. Here is our door. Looking at this picture it looks a little crooked. We have to check that today. I didn't look bad when we hung it. Then Mike started spackling the bedroom. Overall, we had a great day. Sunday- 8-17-08 Mike started off the day by installing the drain pipe in the back wall for our washing machine. Then he installed the vent pipe in the bathroom. He also cut down some of the pex pipe, added connectors and crimped it all together and then stapled them to the wall. Now everything is getting neater. Sunday 8-17-08. We started to sheet rock the front of the kitchen wall and then we got to the angled wall which was a headache. If you remember when we put the original wall up there was no plan to do an angled wall and doorway so now we have to modify. Mike had to add some "scrap" 2x4's and back cut the sheet rock to make this unusual angle work. We got the one side done. Only 3 more to go. Mike got tired of doing small boards with lots of cuts so we decided to put a full bathroom wall up. We are using green board for the entire bathroom which is waterproof. First we had to add some scrap to screw the green board into. Our first board is up. Can anyone see what I forgot? Oh yeah, we have to take that board back down so I can put the insulation in. Oops. We also installed one sheet of green board on the back wall. Thankfully we don't need insulation on that wall. We are really moving along. Mike thinks we will be finished with the "inside" of the house in September. That's good because we need to be out of the motorhome before it gets cold. As usual, we hope you are enjoying our story. Lisa and Mike