Mid-week special - fireplace, siding measurements, & more plumbing

I met the fireplace installers on Wednesday morning. They extended the chimney an 2 more feet above the roof and added a metal plate around the chimney where it goes through the underside of the roof to trim it out and improve appearance. They also installed the final faceplate on the fireplace and made sure it was working properly.

Also, the chimney cap was bent to one side because of the snow load on it over the winter -- didn't even last the first season. They bent it back, but acknowledged they'll need to come up with a more durable solution before next winter.

That's a LONG way up. The 40' ladder is fully extended.

If you look carefully, you can see the metal bracket around the chimney under the eve.

Faceplate installed with fire underway. I kept it going for about 4 hours. Even without the thermostat and fan hookup, it throws off some serious heat.

While the fireplace workers were there, I took the time to get more official measurements on the exterior of each side of the Haus as I plan for flashing and siding. The pictures below show my chicken-scratch measurements along with a picture of the corresponding face of the Haus.

 

South side (front)

West side

 

North side

 

East side

I spent the remainder of the afternoon in the basement drilling holes for the plumbing stack for the upstairs drain lines to meet up and flow to the septic system. I ended up outrunning the Milwaukee holehog's ability to charge the batteries, so I took a break once and then called it a day about 4:30 pm.

The plumbing runs from upstairs will meet up in this horiztonal (1/4" slope per foot) 3" pipe and meet up with the vertical feed to the septic system.

The hole carcasses on the basement floor.

As I walked around the Haus taking measurements, I noticed a few interesting "issues" as shown below.

There was a mosquito pond in the back area being fed by our miniature glacier, so I dug a trench to drain it.

This is an *extremely* hardy sprout of some kind coming up right at the edge of the East foundation wall.  I could not pull it out, so I clipped it (but felt a little guilty as I did so.)

Hit stride plumbing ABS

Made good progress on the drainage plumbing today. The upper floor is essentially "plumbed," except for the vents, which I'm doing last.

The above picture shows the shower p-trap connecting up to the sink drain, and then running through the joists and over to the wall. Getting all these fittings and pipes hooked-up and with the right slope.

I decided to route all of the runs down the 1st floor wall. They'll converge in the basement wall below.  I got the holes drilled through the bottom plate, but ran out of 3" fittings.

ABS glue is pretty sticky/goopy when wet, but it peels off easily after it dries, even off of clothing (for the most part).

The snow has melted enough that I was able to drive all the way to the cabin. The 2018 construction season is officially open.

Memorial Day fumble

Went to Home Depot to return the hole saw pilot bit first thing in the morning, only to find out they don't carry that brand. "I guess I must have bought it at Lowes." Successfully returned and bought a new one at Lowes.

When I hit Sultan on the way up Highway 2, I rememberd I'd forgotten to grab the front door key (which had inadvertently gotten locked on Saturday.) So I turned around, grabbed the keys and got back on the road with a 40 minute delay from my original start time.

After arriving at KnArrow Haus, I went to put the new bit in the drill and realized only then I had bought a replacement bit for a 3/8" chuck instead of the 1/2" chuck. Shut down on any additional plumbing work.

To salvage some semblance of a productive day, I installed the rest of the exterior stair tread risers. (See above.)  This is thankless, knuckle busting work.

Then I spent an extra hour in holiday return traffic on Highway 2, finally arriving at Lowes in Monroe to replace the 3/8" bit with the 1/2" bit. Also picked up an extra can of ABS glue.


"Fumble."

Top floor plumbing continues

Made good forward progress on the drainage plumbing for the top floor toilet room, 1/2 bath, sinks, and shower...until the pilot bit for my hole saw malfunctioned at about 4:30 pm.  But with help from my #3 daughter, I was able to get almost finished with the drainage plumbing for the top floor.

On the right side of the pic above, I got the drain run for the sink and toilet in the master bathroom's 1/2 bath (toilet room).  Drilling through the top plate was a bear -- there were nails in the way I did not know about. Caused a bit of a delay getting them pryed out after I discovered them. And I still ended up drilling entirely through one of the nails with the hole saw.

The shower drain & trap are on the far right. It will connect up with the drain from the main bathroom sink, and then meet up with the main plumbing stack on the wall.  I was drilling holes through the floor joists to connect the shower p-trip through the joists when the pilot bit to my hole saw "failed".  (The set screw that keeps the bit proud of the hole saw failed, making it impossible to use the hole saws to cut more joists.)

Here's the unabridged time lapse of the work day and our walk out.

My able-bodied assistant lounging with the iPad as she waited for me to need an additional pair of hands.  (I really couldn't have done some of it without her there.)

I expect the snow will be melted out enough by next weekend that we'll be able to drive in.

This is the view from the winter parking area heading towards KnArrow Haus on May 26, 2018.

I placed a timelapse camera in the bunk room's window pointed down on the snowmobile and driveway to document the snow melt over a two week period.

Rough plumbing moves forward

The major victory for the day was getting the shower drain and sink drain installed. I'm planning to use 36" x 72" Wedi shower system for the shower room, so I placed the drain according to their measurement specs. The trough sink for the main bathroom will have two wall-mounted faucets, and will have one drain to the right side that plugs in to the right wall (below).

I aligned the main bathroom sink drain and the shower drain to be between the same floor joists. This saves drilling holes through joists and makes for a simpler junction in to the main stack.

 

The sink above approximates what I'm planning for the main bathroom.

"One of these things is not like the other. One of these things is kinda the same." 

I forgot about my mild dyslexia and promptly glued the the 45 degree elbow in the wrong position. (The one on the left is the "wrong" one.) So about $20 in fittings goes on the scrap pile, and I make another trip to Lowes -- which I'd have had to make anyway.

It turns out that it *really* helps to have 2 people on a plumbing job like this. It was just not going to work to try and get everything fit together with just me up there -- need one person on each end for these longer runs. So I taped the pipe to the fitting for measurement purposes, and will glue it up next trip when I have a helper. (My able-bodied assistant was running a daughter to a basketball fundraiser and first-appearance at a church dance.)

The upper floor plumbing in context from the underside: On the far left, you can see the correctly fitted drain for the toilet room. In the middle is the beginnings of a sink drain in the master toilet room that couldn't get fitted with a toilet flange because of the aformentioned dyslexic faux pas. On the far right see the the P-trap for the shower drain.

The P-trap for the shower drain (at the bottom), and the sink drain (at the top). They will meet up with a long-90 junction near the P-trap and then get routed through a few additional floor joists before meeting up with the main stack.

Made it up to the parking lot about 10am, just in time to hitch a ride in to the cabin from Jordan & Katie, who have a spiffy tracked ATV.

Looking East from the Yodelin winter parking area.

"In front of this rock I shall build my Haus." ;o)

The snowmobile is waiting for the garage to be cleaned-up before she can hybernate for the summer.

"The melt" facing East from the front porch.

"The melt" out the back door.

"The melt" on the West side of the Haus.

I left the Haus at about 6:30pm after about an 8 hour work day, interposed with a 30 minute lunch break/sun break. It was beautiful most of the day, with a healthy spring shower that lasted about 15 minutes around 5pm.

Spotted a beautiful "crik" as I walked down to the parking lot. If you look carefully, you can see one of the neighbor's cabins peaking out upper right.

Totally exhausted by the time I got home just before 9am. Can't remember how many times I scampered up and down the ladder--measuring, adjusting, and gluing. I tried to favor my left leg this time -- last time I favored my right leg, and it was sore for 3 days. 

When a full-time desk jockey masquerades as a tradesman on Saturday, the result is a lethargic Sunday of recovery. God be praised for His designated day of rest. I made it to church at 11:00, followed by a 2+ hour nap after returning home and a sedentary evening of convalescence.

The Melt is on

Olaf's snow melt predictor is back in action. Schmidt Haus is about 400 ft higher in elevation than KnArrow Haus and has about ~20 more inches of snow on average. It's a good gauge for what's occuring at the cabin. 

We took the snowmobile up to KnArrow Haus on the 10th of May and left it parked on the driveway so that it will be easy to get in the garage after the snow melts.  (After a semi-successful battery replacement.) We could probably have left it out near the parking area off the highway for another couple weeks, but knowing that I may not make it up reliably, I have peace of mind knowing it's on the door step. 

Our landing is visible once again.

The Western side of the Haus.

Remnants of a snowcave are visible looking down from the NW edge of the deck.

The first, faltering plumbing baby steps

Slightly overcast at the outset, but the day turned warm and partly sunny.

No need to dig out the snowmobile. Just pulled the cover off which had a little bit of snow on it. 

This is what happens if you fail to visit for a few weeks OR you have a mechanical breakdown during the winter. 

Instead of carrying it, I dragged the new cross-cut saw up to the cabin steps using the snow mobile cover. 

One piece of pipe and two fittings yielded the deeply satisfying result of a sink drain rough in. (Still missing the breather tube out the top and the connection under the floor to the toilet drain.)

The underside of the sink drain.

Here's the blow-by-blow of the day in time lapse accompanied by a deeply inspiring, but very appropriate sound track.

Verizon coverage is pretty darn good at the cabin, so I was able to listen to several live church conference sessions interspersed by 2 hours of randomized Pandora music.

Finally, here's a looking-North, month-long record of the changing view out the back window.

It warmed up so much by the time I left that I began sinking in as I walked back to the snowmobile from the cabin. The daytime temperatures are now often above freezing even though snow continues to be in the forecast in the coming week. It was nice working in the cabin with the temperature above freezing.