The journey of building our new home!

Saturday, August 6, 2022

8.6.2022

Jim met someone this morning with a craigslist sale. While he was in town, he stopped at the little hardware store and got the fittings he needed to complete the condensation line run...

All connected to the outside line...

The lines from the rooms are now shortened and connected...

No more bucket inside to catch the water - it's dripping outside!

Drowning out another cicada killing wasp nest. Jim has been vigilant about these and they are about gone.

Cutting the angles for the rake on the front of the lean to...

He got the rake up but then a shower came through...

Time for church anyway!

High 89.7/Low 66.8

Friday, August 5, 2022

It was a day with a few pop up showers in between those bright blue skies, so Jim planned an inside day today. One of the last pieces on the air conditioning system is the condensation drainage line. Right now, he has the lines from both units into a Y connection and dripping into a bucket on the floor (you can see it hanging on the left side of the picture). Today, he made special blocking and attached brackets so that he could run the lines close to the ceiling...

A better picture of the blocking and brackets holding up the line...

Working on the back wall is not easy because of all the wood in the way. Plus, all the lines have to be at the right degree of slope so that the water will run downhill until it goes outside.

He's rounded the corner and the line is over to where he needs to make a connection to the pipe leading outside. He needs another piece of pipe - that may be an agenda item for the morning.

High 85.3/Low 69

Thursday, August 4, 2022

8.4.2022

Mom and I left this morning to go to my printer and run some errands. Yet again, we found the trashcan knocked over (very heavy because it's full of wood) and trash bag all opened.

Jim went down and got the trail cam disk and downloaded the pictures - we do have a bear! You can see him going through the trash at the far left of this shot (ignore the date stamp!)...

And walking away after eating our trash - look at those glowing eyes on the right side of this pic...

Jim texted our next door neighbor - he had been sent this picture of the bear from another neighbor. It's really big!

I called the town, who said they had multiple reports of the bear and gave me a number to call the area agent of the NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation. This guy said there have been multiple reports at a trailer park farther down our road as well as other sightings. Our neighbor was out of town, so he wanted us to go and make sure his trash cans were okay.

Once Jim was able to get to work, he was outside working on the lean to. He took down one section of scaffolding...

Starting to work on making blocking for the front...

Attaching blocking...

An air conditioning update - it got warm today and is supposed to rain. We turned on the AC in both bedrooms mid-morning and left the doors open. The entire living space feels wonderful! All Jim's hard work definitely paid off. We still like the mountain air so will have the windows open when possible, but it's so nice to have it when you need it!

High 90.2/Low 62.8

Wednesday, August 3, 2022

8.3.2022

It was sort of a lion, tiger and bear day here. When Mom and I went to the little store in town this morning, we discovered that our big trash big had been knocked over and a bag of trash open in the yard. This is the first time this has happened so we're not sure what could have caused it. Jim later put new batteries in the trail camera and set it up to watch this area.

The next issue is cicada killing wasps - yes, that's a thing! We started noticing these piles of dirt in the yard and giant wasps going into holes they've dug.

It's hard to get a good picture that shows scale - this is one Jim killed so it's curled up but you can see how huge it is!

This is really hard to see but this is actually one of the wasps carrying a cicada! Apparently, they sting them which paralyzes them and then they bring them into the hole to feed the larvae. Ugh.

Jim put his small strong nozzle on the end of the hose and flooded out the holes and flattened them. He probably did this to 25 different areas!

Some dead bodies...

The nature lesson is over and it's back to the pole barn! Jim started putting up the siding and incorporating it into the existing building...

Figuring out all the angles and making the cuts...

Looking good...

We were one piece of siding shy. It would be expensive to get just one piece so Jim is piecing the last one together.

Next piece up...

Putting up the next piece - just one little piece to go!

High 85.5/Low 60.8

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

8.2.2022

Jim was out working on the pole barn lean to blocking on the back side...

Fitting the end gable piece...

Attaching...

Next is fitting a nailer so that he can attach the J-channel for the siding...

Nailer all in place...

Putting on the J-channel...

Channel all in place...

After taking time to clean up and put all the tools away, Jim spent a bit of time in the yard doing some trimming.

High 85.6/Low 65.5

Monday, August 1, 2022

8.1.2022

Always the perfectionist, Jim wasn't quite happy with the fit of the siding panels he put up, so he redid them this morning. Then it was on to blocking on the end...