Catching Up

It has been a very long time since my last post. I let the "Tyranny of the Urgent" take over and just went from one day to the next. With the passage of time, much progress has been made & I am going to try to briefly bring the Blog up to date.

My June 2009 post shows the installation of our built in vacuum system. I had installed the outlets during framing but still had to hang the vacuum in the garage then get under the house to assemble the piping manifold system & connect up the low voltage wiring.

The next project was to install & plumb the baseboard radiators for our hot water heating system. We passed our final inspection with only the Jotul & Vermont Castings gas stoves for heat & only had the boiler operating for the indirect hot water heater. I had designed a good main system & wanted everything in & operating before Fall.

I cleared some space in my basement workshop & setup an assembly line to prep for installation through the flooring. After all the radiators were in place, I went back under the house & soldered up the copper pipe. My system design included separate zones for the Main Living space, Master Bedroom, West Bedrooms & Upstairs Bonus Room.

For some reason, the "add photo" option isn't operating, so I'll add photos later

More Landscaping Pictures

The first bath went well, but I may need to add some kind of back splash. This dog bath was a half price bargain. It had some flaws showing on the outside but our dogs don't seem to care. It is intended to be portable for outside use with a hose but we did a permanent installation in the garage.

Monthly Update

We made a big effort to get as many plants into the ground as possible prior to the onset of the Summer heat. There were a few very hot days late in May but we have had great weather for planting in June. Most days start with cool, overcast skies in the morning and any heat has come late in the day. Lynna had me use the tractor to till some beds. First I broke up the clay, then tilled in compost & finally a 3rd tilling to mix in coarse sand. The pure compost pile is gone now and only a small amount of sand and 50/50 compost & soil remains. I still haven't tilled my garden plot, but managed to find places for lots of vegetables in the beds I made for Lynna.

I cut, finished & installed the wood wrap on our Family Room & Master Bedroom windows then hung the blinds Lynna Lynna picked out. The blinds really help to keep the house cool on hot days & look much better than the cardboard we had been using!

When we framed the house, I had installed the ports for Lynna's built in vacuum. Recently, I spent a few days to complete the installation. I hung the new vacuum motor unit in the garage, then crawled around under the house hooking up all the piping to each port & brought the pipe out into the garage. Everything went smoothly & I managed to bring the pipe out into the garage perfectly in line with the Bonus Room pipe and Motor outlet.

Lynna wanted a dog bathing station in the garage. We found a unit that would work but Sonny is getting old & she thought a ramp would help, so I built one for her from scrap wood. I beveled the frame ends to fit & anchored the ramp to the tub with a pin. We tried the ramp out with both dogs & Sonny caught on right away. He was soon trotting up & down, showing a big smile & lots of tail wagging, but Peaches was wary & didn't trust the ramp. She preferred to just jump up over the side into the tub to get a treat. Only after much training was I able to get her to jump up from the end & put 1 foot down on the top of the ramp as she flew past. Oh well!

I found this little goldfinch lying on the deck just outside our Family Room French doors. He wasn't moving at all except for blinking his eyes. I gentlly scooped him up, then carried him out to the feeder tree. After a few minutes, he began to stir & turn his head around, so I held him against the suet cake holder until he grabbed it. He sat there for about 5 minutes, then flew off to join his buddies. Mission accomplished!