New Entrance to Plumbing Manifolds, Venting and Nailing plates

The road is closed near the freeway to repair a culvert badly damaged in flooding a few years ago. Until now, we've all been gently driving over it.  The county website says they'll be replacing the culvert with a full-on bridge. (http://www.co.chelan.wa.us/files/public-works/documents/construction/715(7).pdf)

With three backhoes in play, they're clearly serious. 

For the rest of the Summer and much of Fall we'll be getting to the Haus over an entrance and bridge that are normally blocked-off.

The narrow, temporary detour bridge with a 10 ton weight limit.

I focused Saturday on finishing up the plumbing venting run, which is now run in to the bunkroom. I'm hoping the inspector will allow me to do the pressure test with it terminating there, provided I extend it above the roof afterward.

We hauled up a 4x8 piece of plywood and cut it to fit in the utility room so that we have a firm mounting surface for water manifolds and water heaters. 

We stopped at Home Depot for a piece of plywood to use as
a stable mount for the plumbing and hot water heater.

This is the backside of the plywood with the water lines running in to it.

The hot and cold plumbing manifolds with provisional labeling.

I nearly finished getting all the hot and cold water lines attached to manifolds, but I ran out of PEX expansion rings. Will have to finish it up next trip. 

Katie spent the day cleaning up, adding plumbing support straps to the horizontal plumbing runs, and installing nailing plates throughout the house.

I was hoping to install the shutoff valve for the my plumbing in the house, but the Ford compression fitting requires bigger wrenches than I had available.

Lights, Venting, and Closets

We've had a friend up this week helping us with the electrical work at the cabin, which is now mostly finished except for a few odds and ends that will get mopped up over the next couple weeks.

Light switches, power outlets, ...

...and lights!

I spent the day intending to finish up running the plumbing vent for the downstairs drains to the upper bunk room wall.  As I was reviewing my plan to route the vent, I realized that the fan in the bathroom needed to be relocated closer to the wall to allow room for the register in the bathroom. So after, moving it over -- including tripping an electrical circuit because it was wired up -- I got back to routing the venting.

The vent from the lower floor, from the kitchen sink,

and from the powder room toilet now all converge.

I ran out of 2 inch vent elbows, so I couldn't go any further today. But I did get the all the holes drilled to get the pipe routed up in to the bunk room, where it will exit out the side of the house and terminate above the roof.

You'll notice I avoided trying to go through that glom of wood framing in the corner.  Where this corner of pipe sticks out there will be storage cabinet covering it -- the savings in effort seemed worth it.

While I was busy with the plumbing, Katie and her sister, Amy, were busy upstairs in the master bedroom adding a closet that will have twin bed on top.

The plan for the closet.

Katie's and Amy's victorious day of closet building
using math, miter saws and hammer drills.

The roof of the closet will have joists running out from the wall creating a twin bed platform.

Fireplace finish-up & Ventilation Fans installed

We met our fireplace vendor at KnArrow Haus today to *finally* get the installation completed, over 2 years after it began. The installation failed inspection last year due to some wires touching the exterior of the box; and they also installed an additional chimney segment above the roof line that tipped to the side after the first snow.  Today, they...

• Added 2 braces to anchor the chimney to the roof
• Replaced the chimeny cap with a new one that should withstand and shed the heavier snows
• Rerouted the wires in the fireplace box to go underneath on the wall instead of up the side

The only thing remaining is to hook-up the low-voltage display/controller and fan -- which is waiting on the electrical rough-in.  While they worked, Katie cleaned-up and moved stuff away from the walls to get ready for the electrician, who will start next Monday.

I finished installing the Panasonic Whisperline ventilation fans on each level, so they'd be in place for the electrician next week:

The basement's 240 CFM fan will extract air from the bathroom and laundry room.

The main floor 340 CFM fan will extract air from the bathroom and from the ventilation hood over the range.

The top floor 340 CFM fan will extract air from both toilet rooms and the shower room.

All three fans will separately vent through the wall to the outside. Except for the basement, the ventilation conduits will be exposed -- I'm planning to use the better-looking and hardier spiral pipe typically used for dust collection systems. But, I'm not planning to install the vent pipes until next year.

KnArrow Haus Blitz Week - Days 4, 5 & 6

Worked until 4pm on Thursday, the 4th; then until exhaustion on Friday and Saturday.  Got epic amounts done:

• Finished all the water-supply plumbing runs to every fixture and down to the wall where the main comes in through the floor -- the only things remaining are to hook-up all the lines in to the hot and cold manifolds, connect to the water main, and install the hot water heater.
• Mounted the first ventilation fan between the floor joists in the laundry room ceiling, and planned where to mount the fans for the other two floors. 
• We added a joist to the fireplace shed roof after the fireplace installers hacked it up the first year.
• Katie got pretty much *every* electrical box mounted -- electrical outlets, switches, sconce boxes, can lights, ceiling fan boxes, thermostat locations (one on each floor), etc. There was a lot of mind-changing, rethinking, and repositioning.
• We drilled the holes for the ceiling sconces on the ceiling of the front porch overhang and found the wires Bryan installed last year. 
• We finally corrected the scaddywampus garage door tracks that the installer ran through our framing walls. Moved the brackets, and cutt off the ends. 
• Designed the master bedroom closet and bunk bed.
• Managed to celebrate a birthday and Independence Day.

During the week, I ran out of PEX twice and expansion rings once, and managed to replenish sufficiently to complete the week. 

Here's the pictorial account:

Water lines from the upstairs bathroom shower and double sink running through floor joists.

The water lines from the master bathroom and toilet room.

The upper floor water lines running down the sheer wall on the main floor. 

The upper floor water lines running down the sheer wall on the main floor

The upper floor water lines running down to the basement and in to the laundry room.

All the water lines terminate on the left side of the laundry room wall. 

 

This is where I left the roughins for the kitchen sink and dishwasher on Friday.

And here's are the kitchen sink and dishwasher rough-ins at the end of Saturday.

The refrigerator icemaker and toilet room rough-ins on Thursday.

The refrigerator icemaker and toilet room rough-ins on Friday.

The rough-in for the main floor toilet room sink was completed Saturday.

Fishing and routing all of the PEX from the upper levels through the sheer wall on the main level while avoiding a major beam proved challenging.

This is one of the final projects, to connect all of the water lines to manifolds,

and then to the water main, which comes up through the floor.

Drilled the holes through the Ipe ceiling in the front porch overhang.

Drilling holes above your head is no picnic. My shirt pocket was full of sawdust,

and I found some in my ears this morning.

A late night design for the master bedroom closet and bunk bed.

Closet doors on the front, open shelves on the side, and a bed on top.

Thus concludes 6 straight days of work on the cabin. I'll be up again mid-week to meet the fireplace installers who will add stays to the top of the chimney to brace it, install a new chimney cap, and route the wiring so it passes inspection. We also have a friend-electrician scheduled to complete all the work by the beginning of August. And the plumbing should also be completed and ready for inspection at the same time. Katie is going to start getting bids on insulation.

KnArrow Haus Blitz Week - Day 3

Katie continued making Swiss cheese of our framing, while I finished up the PEX plumbing to the upstairs: 1 shower, 2 toilets, 3 faucets.

This was my brilliant idea to move the toilet shutoff from the back wall to the side wall, which avoided having to navigate around the HUGE beam underneath the wall or having to navigate around some very tight corners. Brilliant.

Routed the PEX around the corner. Victorious. 

This is the master toilet room. Notice the in-wall, in-line shutoff valves for the wall mounted faucet.

Expanding the PEX to make connections on the double-sink wall. 

The plumbing to the double-sink wall. Also note the in-line shutoff valves to both sinks and the shower. 

The PEX emerging through the ceiling of the main level from the upper floor. (Tomorrow, I'll focus on routing the PEX through the floor joists and down the kitchen shear wall.)

Unraveling the PEX coil hanging from the ceiling.

Katie paid a visit to the Northern edge of our property.

We took a birthday trip to Leavenworth after we finished at the cabin and enjoyed an 83 degree dinner on the patio at Gustav's.

KnArrow Haus Blitz Week - Day 2

Late start this morning due to a Lacross camp for one of the kids.  After arriving about 1:00 pm to overcast weather with spotty drizzle.  I nearly finished all the downstair plumbing until I ran out of PEX elbows.  (PEX bends, but not as much as I had planned...)

PEX to the toilet shut-off.

PEX to the washing machine shutoffs and to the garage hose.

PEX to the basement wet bar.

PEX to the bathroom sink.

PEX to the shower.

View from inside the bathroom, showing where the water main emerges from the slab.

Even though I ran out of elbows, I planned and drilled quite a few holes in the upstairs bathrooms and through the floor for routing the PEX. The one perplexing problem was how to route PEX to the toilet room shutoff valve, which was sitting on top of a major beam -- no good way to go up through the beam, or around corners. I finally came up with the brilliant idea to move the shutoff valve to the sidewall -- the PEX will route underneath the floor and up in to the wall, totally avoiding the big beam.

We gave a tour to some neighbors who are building a few lots up from us, then pulled away about 8:00 PM.

Notice the sign on the right. This road will be closed to repair the culvert until Fall.