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. 

KnArrow Haus Blitz Week - Day 1

This is a busy week. Going up to KnArrow Haus every day. 

MONDAY

Finished the shower rough-ins and began running PEX.

Downstairs shower rough-in with ceiling shower head and hand wand.

Upstairs shower room rough-in with shower head and hand wand.

Katie commandiered the hole hog and began turning the KnArrow Haus framing in to Swiss cheese.

Holes for outlets in the bunk room.

Wall mounted faucets plus bits and bobs

Today we finished the final bits and bobs of plumbing and electrical rough-in.

I mounted the rough-ins for the wall-mounted facuets. These have been sitting in our garage for over 2 years. I ordered them only a few weeks after we started building.  Unfortunately, the rough-in piece that's screwed to the wall has some rather fragile copper tubes sticking out from it. To protect the tubing, I put the faucet body and handles on -- I'll remove them to prevent scratches when we install wall board.

One in the main floor toilet room.

Two on the wall in the upstairs shared bathroom.

One in the master toilet room.

I also soldered the expansion pex fittings in each of the shower rough-ins, but I ran out of brass screws to mount them. Monday.

Katie mounted the ceiling fan rough-in boxes in the master bedroom...

...and in the bunkroom.

After some research and consultation this week, Katie also mounted the sconce boxes in the family room and in the downstairs, and a few miscellaneous power boxes in several rooms.

I purchased a kitchen faucet from Amazon that I've been eyeballing for KnArrow Haus.

This is a deck-mounted proxy for the wall-mounted model I bought-then-sold a few months ago.

On Monday we will commence drilling holes and running pex tubing through the walls. 

Plumbing rough-in begins, electrical continues

While Katie did some final tweaking on the electrical box rough-ins in the upstairs bedrooms, including the smoke detector boxes, I started in on the water supply plumbing roughins. The grand strategy in all this is to get all the locations fixed so that we know where to drill all the holes.  (I purchased all the supplies and tools for expansion PEX over the Christmas holiday.)

Downstairs bathroom sink

Downstairs bathroom toilet

Basement wet bar sink

Laundry room washer shutoff and drain

Main level toilet room

I'm take the week of July 4th off work to drill holes and run PEX and wires. 

Can Light Extravaganza

We contined the electrical rough-in by installing can lights in the mud room, great room (on Saturday), and basement (on Monday).

After mid-week Youtube research, Katie used fishing wire strung across the ceiling to help line-up each can on center.  We also moved a few switch boxes to better locations and placed a few more on Saturday before we ran out of steam at close to 8 pm.

First row of can lights that will be above the kitchen counter. 

Plan showing the planned placement for can lights from the top.

Because the floor joists are placed 12 inches on-center, we had to trim the mounting brackets on the cans because they're designed for beams 16 inches on-center.

Panarama of the day's work. 

The lights will be switched in two zones: One zone over the kitchen area. The other zone over the living area. And a ceiling fan in the middle of the two zones.

Although not clear from the picture, I completed roughing in all the switch and power boxes ont the kitchen wall.  In order to do so, we had to finalize the plan for wall cabinets, appliances, and shelves.

Kitchen plan. 

The island is intended to be on rollers so that it can be easily moved (and perhaps raised and lowered, as well...). I will mount pull-down power sockets in the ceiling to provide power to the island.

And here are the results of Katie's first solo workday at KnArrow Haus installing can lights in the basement. (So proud!)

Can lights *at* the North end of the basement.

View of can lights *from* North end of basement.

Beginning of Blue Boxes

I started installing the electrical roughin boxes today. So gratifying to finally be working on the interior after spending most of 2018 on the exterior.

Most of the boxes are installed in the basement and mudroom. And I made a dent in the kitchen, main floor, and upstairs.  I need to lock down our kitchen plan before I can located the rest of the boxes along the kitchen wall. Intsalling the power boxes made it painfully apparent that we need to clear all the cruft away from the walls.

I also finished up the railing bars on the back deck and front porch. I've been planning to put stainless steel cable between the posts, but I'm starting to rethink that, to at least get something up that's not unsightly, passes code, and is a lot less effort.

9 hour day, arriving at 10 am and departing at 7 pm. My feet hurt.

During the week I filed a letter with the county for "Alternate Means and Methods" so that I can run one of my vent plumbing stacks out the wall and terminate it on the wall, 10 feet below the soffit instead of running it through the roof.  The county uses the 2015 International Plumbing Code (IPC), which allows for the use of air admittance valves (often refered to as Studor Vents), but only if one vent stack vents to the outside. Crossing my fingers.  Here's the isometric drawing of the plumbing system that I had to do as part of the letter.

Deck Railing Extends to Back Deck

Katie, Sammie and I spent Saturday at KnArrow Haus getting the railing up on the back deck.

Still a little snow on the ground.

Katie is an accomplished site manager. 

Sammie is not much help.

I neglected to buy short lag bolts for bolting the brackets into the side of the house.  I'll grab some of those this week and finish up the railing next week when I start in earnest on the water-supply plumbing. 

Deck Railing Sprouts After Early Melt

The rapid snow melt that began about a month ago continued during the two weeks I was out of the country getting bitten by mosquitos. Knowing the road was drivable all the way to the cabin, I loaded up my trusty SUV on Saturday morning with all the plumbing supplies and railing fittings ordered over the winter. 

The Yodelin entrance where we rescued our snowmobile
 under 6 feet of snow just a few short months ago.

 No problem getting up to the cabin, and it was in fine shape.

I arrived about 10:00 AM and had a little less than 4 hours to work on the railing. We've gone 2 years with the perilous perch on the front porch and back deck. Aside from one cantanchorous bolt that I had trouble drilling the hole for and tightening due to its proximity to the staircase, the Key Klamp fittings went in surprisingly easily with stainless steel bolts and washers. The 96-tooth saw blade I bought a few weeks ago cut through the black anodized alumnium railing like butter.

I estimate only another day of work required to complete the railing on the front porch and back deck, and then probably two days to drill the holes and run the cabling horizontally between the posts. I will wait to install the stainless steel cabling with turnbuckles either when we start to entertain toddlers at the Haus or the building inspector calls me out.

For good measure, here's Olaf's Snow Tracker showing how this snow season stacked up to the previous five.  I'd call it "a compressed average": A late start with good snowfall and an early end.

Olaf snow update 30 April 2019

Not much new to share. Still waiting on the building department to approve my variance for venting the plumbing stacks with air admittance valves; and waiting for the snow to melt so I can drive up with all the plumbing supplies.

Here's Olaf's update on the snow season and snow melt.

When Schmidt Haus weather station at Stevens Pass measures about 30" of snow on the ground, the Yodelin roads open up to vehicles with tires. So if the melt continues, we should be able to drive in mid-May...maybe?

The Melt is on

The "Melt" is on at KnArrow Haus. But still hoping for one more good snow fall at the pass before Spring stakes its official claim on the snow for the year.

I've been preparing to get the railing installed on the front porch and back deck: I acquired a very expensive saw blade to cut the aluminum pipe, some additional Kee Klamp fittings, and some stainless steel lag bolts and through bolts to mount everything.

My building permit has expired, but I'm waiting another month to renew it since nothing is going on right now, and I'll only get a six months renewal that needs to last for the building season. When I spoke with the woman at the building department, I also broached the subject of using air admittance valves to avoid puncturing through the roof, so I'm working up a drawing for her so she can approve that.