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. 

Season-to-date Snow-depth Chart

The chart speaks for itself.

Looks like the trend*might* be towards less overall snow accumulation, but "the melt" has not begun in earnest. More frequent snowfall is the trend over the last month and in the near-term forecast.

My shipments of bits and pieces for the porch and stair railing started arriving this week. For this weekend I'm torn as to whether I should go work on the plumbing at KnArrow Haus or tend to home beautification before our extended family descends up on us in a couple weeks for the nuptials of my daughter.

New Tools & Railing Supplies

Extracurricular family activities (basketball playoffs and wedding preparation) have grounded me the last two weekends from heading up to the cabin (along with some frigid, snowy weather last weekend), but I've continued to be pretty active acquiring some needed tools and supplies.

New Tools

I bought both tools below from Lowes (free shipping!) after looking at all the prices on-line, Lowes was competitive with other onlines sites, AND if I have any troubles they'll be easy to return to a local store.

Bought a new impact driver. Soooo much easier to use when driving screws -- for plumbing straps, some additional framing. And I'm going to need to use it on the railing, siding, ceiling planks, wall board, etc. 

As I documented previously, I somehow broke the fence on my miter/chop saw. And since it's an off brand, I cannot find a replacement fence. So I bought a new compound miter saw -- for cutting plumbing pipe and ceiling planks. 

Railing

I've been working evenings trying to figure out my design and strategy for railings on the front porch and back deck, and for the internal stairs and upper landing. Took me a long time to winnow down the choices to something I'm satisified with. 

I went with Schedule 40 black anodized aluminum pipe for all the railings, inside and outside. 

At first I thought I was going to have to settle for raw aluminum or galvanized steel, but I really wanted BLACK pipe with silver fittings (for that "industrial" look). The thought of having to buy pipe then take it somewhere to get it powder coated or anodized was not very appearling. I found the pipe at an industrial lighting (stagelightingstore.com) already anodized in black. They cut the 20ft pieces in 1/2 for me at no charge making them cheaper to ship. I bought enough for all the interior and exterior railing. 

Railing Fittings

I've ordered only the fittings for the porch and deck so far. But waiting to order the fittings for inside until the staircases are fully installed and the floors are in. Ordered everything from globalindustrial.com -- they offer fittings that look exactly like the posh/popular Keep Klamp fittings, but at a better price.

Fitting on the front porch from the post to the rail nearest the stairs.

T-fitting for the rail and post in the middle of the back deck.

Elbow fitting for outside corners on the porch and the back deck.

I'll use this fitting to mount the posts to the outside of the porch and deck.

These fittings will be used to mount the rail on the porch to the beam, and on the back deck to the side of the cabin.

Stainless Cable & Fittings

I've also ordered the cable and fittings that will be used to go horizontally every 4 inches in between the posts. After a fair amount of price research, I ended up getting the various pieces from several different sellers on ebay.

3/16" 1x19 Stainless Steel Cable Railing Wire Rope Grade 316 (500 feet). Plenty to do the exterior, but probably a bit short to complete everything inside.  The next size up was 1000 feet -- way too much. I'll purchase the rest after I know a more exact amount for the interior.

These secure the cables to the big angled wood beam on the front porch and to the sides of the house on the back deck.

These will secure the cables in the end post on the front deck.

These will will protect the holes in the corner where the cable routes through.

I originally wanted to do the swageless fittings for all the cable because they seem so convenient and look so nice. BUT they're A LOT MORE expensive. So I've settled for swaging the cable into the fittings on each end.

Cost so far for the railing materials:

• $1344 ($1080 + $264 shipping) for the Schedule 40 1-1/2" black anodized aluminum pipe.
• $410 for the pipe fittings.
• $410 for the 3/16" cable and fittings.

I'll have additional costs when I order the pipe fittings and cable fittings for the interior, but at least I've got the pipe and most of the cable to complete everything.

Stay tuned next for...

...the return to the miserable torture of rough plumbing the drains.

Rough plumbing and chickening out

It was a beautiful day. I did not have to spend more than 5 minutes digging out the snowmobile, and I pulled right out on the first try. A marked improvement over last time.

Another foot of snow since last week. And all the snow on the roof from last week fell off the roof and has created a major ice mound on the side of the haus.

I did a panorama on my camera to capture this, which is why the beam looks a bit odd.

Finally, I actually drilled a few more holes for rough plumbing. But then I got psyched out after I realized some of the plumbing runs will have to go through some major, structural glulam beams. Any time you're doing something for the first time, regardless of how many hours you've spent on YouTube learning about the task, the task takes at leat 5 times as long as it should.

Staring at the ceiling.
Head scratching.
Measuring.

The above picture is of the main floor ceiling.  The drain from the main bathroom sink upstairs will come down to the right of the major beam (with the blocking for the tie straps). But then that drain needs to go to the far wall and down to the main plumbing stack -- but on the far wall that's also a 5 inch structural beam that the floor jambs are nailed to. No going through that. 

It's frightening to think about drilling a 2 inch how through the beams. And besides, I'll need to get a Forstner bit for that -- a hole saw literally "won't cut it."

I've got the same problem with the drain for the main floor powder room sink with the beams in the garage. And with the kitchen sink...

Pondering.
Measuring again.
Chickening out. 

So, in all I got about 3 holes drilled in the upstairs for routing plumbing. Then I chickened out.

"Chickening out" looks like spending 20 minutes soaking in the sun on the front porch.

Another view of the ice and snow mound created by the roof shedding snow.

Our power meter, shown at the bottom left corner of the screen, is now covered with snow.

I love the clump of snow resting at the top of the skinny tree -- almost looks like an "ice nest."

View from the front porch out to the street and the snowmobile. 

Opposite view from above, looking from teh snowmobile to the front of the haus.

View of the parking turn around area that puts the No Parking sign shown at the top in proper perspective. You can see a snowcave someone has dug to the left of the sign.