This episode In The Beginning ,ITB, month 19 reveals progress in some areas and failures in others. An Our Country Cottage update has me staying over a couple of nights at our country cottage for the first time in over six months.
And now on with ITB, In The Beginning, month 19, February. More pictures, texts and emails sifted through to give the best recollection of how Our Country Cottage came to be.
This month was cold and snowy (February, go figure) with lots of challenges. There were seven trips made to Our Country Cottage, this month, some in weather I would have normally stayed home in, even in the city.
There were reasons I had to make the trip whether I wanted to or not, mainly when power fails. One such trip I made was shortly after a major snow storm. Keep in mind that roads are plowed in order of importance. The main highways will always be the first followed by the secondary ones etc. Well, Our Country Cottage access road is about third and fourth down the list. And the kilometre of drive is all on me.
It is a good thing to make note of the roads you travel on, to your retreat, and, the order in which they are serviced. Best done while you are not in emergency mode.
So I planned my trip keeping to the main roads as long as I could. As I turned off, on the first secondary road I realised that one lane had been cleared. The plow was a couple of miles ahead, making a return pass. I was lucky that there was no other traffic.
Then onto a lower priority road (read not plowed yet) where only several vehicles had driven, leaving me tracks to follow. The tracks became less and less numerous, until it was clear, I was following one track made by one vehicle. I was in luck, as he had gone where I was going, turning onto yet another lower priority road (read, lucky to be plowed within three days of snow fall).
The track went for about a Kilometre, or so, before it turned off into his drive. I was on my own. The road was poorly defined with the snow being nice and smooth cross the road and ditches. Just stay in the centre, between fences, poles or what maybe ditch edges.
My vehicle is a very capable four wheel drive unit, with good ground clearance. The eight or so inches of snow was doable. I remember informing our painter not to bother coming out as planned. That vehicle, a compact town car, would have had problems just following the tracks.
So with the driving conditions from the city to the country aside.
Even before my first visit for the month my site contractor reported problems with the solar/power system. The batteries were down to 43% and the gen wasn’t kicking in. So picture this, my contractor is trying to work on Our Country Cottage with a power system that he is completely unfamiliar with, asking me questions about the same system, that I have very little knowledge about, and I am trying to relay info from the contractor to my solar guy. What could go wrong?
On with the story..
My first visit of the month found the previous days power problems somewhat resolved with the batteries now being fully charged. On the positive side the railings were being installed on the stairs up to the master bedroom and around the upper landing. This made me very happy as without the railings, the upper landing was a disaster waiting to happen.
There was a short section of railing at the bottom of the stairs that was wrong. Don’t know if it was a measurement thang or a manufacturing thing, but the corrected section wouldn’t be installed till next month.
It was also pointed out to me that one of the side windows in the living room had a crack in it. Apparently these “pressure cracks” are not uncommon. I took the opportunity to take a picture of this three foot crack and to document all the other chips, scrapes and broken bits of window trim I could find to report to the window company and hopefully get fixed at the same time.
I took another trip up the following day, being somewhat nervous about the power situation, and found the garage door divider in the back bedrooms installed and the lighting fixtures were being installed.
And it was this day that I built the first fire in the masonry fireplace. I had bought some firewood from a gas station in the city with me. As this was the first time, I took it easy by making a small fire. It worked very well even with my usual over thinking the type of wood and the dryness and building the fire exactly as the instructions showed. I remember telling the contractors that the masonry heater was just that, a masonry heater and not garbage burning place. Only firewood of a specific dryness and wood type would be used.
Anyway, I took pix of the first smoke out of the chimney that day.
Three days pass and I am back. I note that the generator has run for 62 hours of the past 96 hours. The solar side of the power system had shut down again by a breaker being overloaded. This probably accounted for the high generator hours.
On the positive side, most if not all, of the light fixture were installed and working with LED bulbs I had supplied.
To get an idea of what the flu was doing on the chimney I put my camera on its back thru an inspection hatch at the bottom of the chimney. I took a series of pictures up the chimney along with pictures of the flu handle position. So now I know how far to pull out the flu when I need to.
I then built the second ever fire in the masonry heater.
A ceiling fan in the master bedroom was now in place and a false ceiling in the downstairs bedroom was installed to conceal the garage door and track when in the up position.
Four more days and we are edging to the middle of the month.
The gen is at 942.8 total running hours with the propane at 35%.
That’s another 54.4 hours.
Lots of controller pix taken, trying to figure out what is going on.
And, to my great relief, the solar control panel can now be, and was, relocated from the battery room, to the back hall. This is going to make things so much easier, not for just me but for my contractor, who has to feed me info when I am not there. Yay!
The cook top is in the kitchen and the laminate flooring has been laid in the garage loft.
A full week passes before I return. The gen is now over a thousand hours at 1005.4 and propane is down to 24%.
Outside, all the deck railings are done except for the front and there is an extension on the septic tank. Previously the septic tank hatch was just above grade and I was concerned that surface water might get in if there was a flood. Plus there was an electrical box and some wires laying on top. I also noticed that the excavator was gone and there was a lot of bare soil exposed around the hatch, cottage and up the slope to where the septic mound was to be and indeed might be.
The outside entrance to the battery room is a large metal hatch that can be opened entirely to get easy clear access to getting things like batteries in and out. In the hatch, there is a smaller man sized hatch which created a much easier man access. The whole hatch/man hatch was powder coated metal. This gets very slippery when wet, icy or snowy. In fact, after falling flat on my back twice, in less than five minutes, I asked if something could be done. The answer came in the form of a metal grid that was installed around the man hatch. It works great.
A stack of sheeting was on the ground to the east of the cottage ready to be installed in the crawl space.
Inside, the carpet had been installed on the landings and stairs up to the master bedroom. A crease was clearly visible running the full width of the lower landing. It stuck out like a sore thumb.
I took pictures and reported it. I was told that this was the last of the roll and that they would have had to order another full roll to finish the job. I replied that I thought I was dealing with and paying a carpet store, not an end of the roll discount warehouse. I was told that they would send someone out to fix it. And, by my next visit, it had been fixed.
Before my next visit, with the aid of my pix and info I managed to send to my solar guy, he figured out that a breaker had been under rated for our project. Some heavier wiring and a heavier breaker would be needed to correct the problem.
He said that they would cover the labour costs if I would pay the hard costs. As this project was a bit of an experiment, I agreed. I also believe that most of the problem was that we were still under construction and the place was still being heated by that little electric heater.
Three days before my next visit the breaker tripped again and the batteries got down to 39%. That is below the level that the inverter works, so, no power in Our Country Cottage.
Did I ever mention that this probably would have been done much easier in the warmer, spring, summer or fall, months.
It was about this time, in the week between visits, that the plumber was trying to get water into the house. Our first site supervisor had the well drilled and a pump put in along with the pipes and wiring needed to get from the well to the cottage. The pump wasn’t working and the only thing I had to go on was an invoice from the site supervisor with minimal details. Remember, this is the one that died in a car crash about a year ago. He had done this on his own, not involving the cottage supplier/ builder.
This wasn’t an uncommon practice, especially out in the country. He also arranged for the septic work too.
The cap on the well head was generic with no company name on it. I then remembered that when I first saw the well pipe sticking out of the ground I took pictures of it. When I found the pix they had a name of a company cast on it. I didn’t know if it was the company that drilled the well or made the cap but I found a phone number and I called them.
Yes, they were the ones that drilled the well. Great! I explained that the pump was not working and asked if they would come out and have a look. Things then seemed to get a little awkward on the phone and I was passed to their account department, where it was explained to me that there was money still owing on the job. The site super had paid most but not all of the bill even though I had paid him in full. I was told that they couldn’t do anything until the account was cleared up. Long story short, the account got cleared up and a crew was scheduled for later that week.
It has been a week since my last site visit, but as you can tell, stuff still happens in between.
This visit the generator is up to 1072 hours and the propane was at 50%. Some had been added, but again because of the high cost, not filled.
Oops! I said 172 hours in the podcast, but I meant 1072.
Inside, the carpet had indeed been fixed and looked brand-new. There was a wooden hand rail cap installed on the railing, also looking good. Just need that missing lower section of railing etc. Some areas of Our Country Cottage were looking very good, clean and ready to go. Very encouraging. I took more pix of controllers, etc, for further analysis.
My next visit was three days later but the system went down in between, again. Batts down to 40%. That dang breaker, middle of the winter thang. Reset the breaker, run the gen, etc.
So back on site and the well people were good to their word showing up with a two man crew and a specialized truck designed to deal with our problem. Pulling up 240 feet of pipe and wire with a bad pump on the end. It was a very cold and windy day but the guys were used to working in these conditions. They just went at it. My contractor and I would go out every so often to check on things, but even fully suited up, we couldn’t stay out long.
Turns out the original pump was cheap and not up to the task. It didn’t stand a chance. A new, stronger pump, and new wiring were lowered back into the hole.
While the pump was being swapped out and rewired the pipe was coiled on a large wheel thing, made for the purpose, on the back of the truck. The water in the pipe froze but, it would thaw again once put back in the ground, given some time.
So, it was no surprise to everyone else, once everything was back in place and the pump was turned on, that nothing happened, right away.
I noticed the pump pulled 2 Kilowatts when first turned on, then dropped to 1.3 Kilowatts. This related well to the 9 amps plus, while running, and 7 amps, when stalled, that the crew measured at the well head. They told me, give it two or three hours and it should be fine and they left.
After two hours or so my contractor and I tried again. Still nothing.
A hose had been run from the water inlet in the utility room along the back deck and out the west side of the house, so that when the pump ran we could run it for a couple of hours, to get rid of any sediment, instead of feeding it all over the house system.
The contractor helped me bring the hose (empty but very stiff) into the utility room so we could close the door while we waited. I think he then left.
While waiting for the pipe to thaw I found the sheeting in the crawl space was completed. This was not an easy task as the access to the crawl space wasn’t big enough for a full sheet to fit. So they had to be cut just to get them in. Add to that that the headroom was four feet, or lower, making it very difficult. Several rolling inspection stools were purchased, to help getting about.
I tried the well pump an hour later, nothing. After another hour, I tried several times with no luck using the solar controller reading as a guide. For these trials I had been hanging the hose just over the railing outside just in case it all happed at once.
I was bringing the hose in for the last time when I noticed some water dripping out of it. Good sign, I took it back out and turned the pump on again. Nothing. I brought it back in and in a combination of frustration and getting braver I turned the pump on while I was holding the hose. I got a trickle. I quickly took the hose out side where it stopped again. Being concerned about burning out the pump I turned to shut it off when I noticed a trickle that was starting to grow. Finally!
A mad dash to get the hose in position .. yanking it out of the utility room dragging it down the deck, trying not to get everything wet. (-27 you know) I got it back in position and it was flowing quickly now.
It was now dark. I let the water run for about two hours before I took an old drink bottle and filled it with the fruits of my labour. Nice and clear. I then turned off the pump, disconnected the hose from the inlet and pulled it back into the cottage, letting it drain on the way, and stuffed it down the hatch to the utility room.
A bit more work had to be done before the toilets and sinks can be used, but a major hurdle conquered, anyway.
As it turned out, this was the last day of the month, short month, February, and the next month gets worse.
Next..
An, Our Country Cottage Update.
Since last we spoke I stayed a couple of nights up at Our Country Cottage. My partner needed some books we keep at the cottage and there was a potential for transplanting a tree or something from the country to the city. As it turned out there was nothing suitable to be had.
Anywho, arriving before me, and wanting to check out the new plumbing facilities, the pump was turned on and my chance to see if Our Country Cottage was holding pressure was flushed away. Oh well, next time.
The main thing I wanted to get done was top up the batteries. It was getting close to two months and I like to do it every six weeks. They were thirsty, but still had plenty of fluid over the plates. I promise to do a care and feeding of batteries episode, once ITB settles down and stops sucking up all the time.
My partner left after a couple of hours and I was left trying to figure out what needed to be done first, so I could stay the night. After all, it had been over six months. Change the bed linens.
I took the duvet off of the bed and gave it a good shaking over the railing. I then stripped the bed and put all the linens in the washing machine, only the realizing that I had taken all fluids, including liquid detergents, back to the city during the freeze.
Well, they were in the machine anyway, so I ran it like there was detergent. Freshen them up, if nothing else.
While the machine ran I made the bed with clean linens that were in the drawer and put the duvet back on. Once finished I stood back to examine my handy work, and looked up at the ceiling fan. It was warm, so I knew I would be using it that night. I turned it on to see if anything was, um, resting on the blades. The ensuing plethora of falling bug carcases etc prompted another stripping and shaking out of the bed clothes. Also, mental note, turn on the fan first, before cleaning. Or better yet, vacuum the blades, maybe not. They are rather high.
The night past uneventfully. I did have to get use to those Our Country Cottage noises again. When you are by yourself deep in the country lots of things go through your mind.
It is nice this time of year, with the sun staying up so late and being up so early, hardly had to turn on a light.
The next day, I fired up the tractor and got mowing early. I widened the drive and cut some of the areas I didn’t have time for last time. The grass was taller than the hood of the tractor in places. OK, it is a sub compact tractor, but still.
Mowing that stuff took much longer, having to go over some areas several times. Because of the density of these mowables, I couldn’t judge some of my boundaries and high centered the tractor two or three times and only just getting unstuck, thanks to four wheel drive and a diff lock or what ever that, extra traction lever I press with the heel of my boot, is. It took the best part of the day and I still didn’t get everything mowed.
Another peaceful night shattered only a couple of times by OCC noises.
The next day brought a new problem, of the techy kind. I was going to update the system controller with a new software that had just been released. I was interested in getting it done as some of the problems it fixed, I had seen on my set up. Anyway, my netbook decided that this was the time it didn’t want to transfer any files to or from the SD card for me. Never happened before. I did as much as I could, collected logs and data from the controller etc.
I then did some pest control outside. Some more tidying up inside and it was time to head back to the city.
And I think that will be enough for this podcast
Sooooo….
Next podcast, Episode#19 ITB Month 20, maybe the worse yet, and another OCC update.
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Till next time have a good one.