Dave Lotte

With the rough in inspection for the electrical inspected and PASSED, time to cover everything up !

All the pre-cut wainscotting has been reinstalled,  now getting drywall put up.  Some trim pieces of wainscotting yet to install....

Going to be very interesting moving into the Earth Sheltered Hobbit Home....

During the last month,  since it is May,  the temperature has swung up and down.  For one week, its nice and warm,  next week it is 0 C and then the next week it is 27 C  then its back to nice and warm....

In the old farm house whenever the temperature changes you feel it the next day.

Nice and warm -  yeah ! Turn the heat off,  enjoy.
Next day, freezing.  Darn.  Turn the heat back on for a week.
Jumps up to 27 ? Turn the heat off again, and the humidity rises and the house gets hot enough to affect sleep.

The new home ?

With the dehumidifier still running,  it is holding at 66 F ( 19 C )  ..... constantly.  No change all month.  The humidity has finally dropped belkw 40 % - concrete is drying out.

0 C ? For a week ? 66 F and it feels warm when you go inside.
27 C ?  For a week ? Feels cool and dry inside.

Today i noticed it went up 2 degrees to 68 (20 C )

Nice.

Good thing the chair rail is basicly a half wall...

Gives me a solid place to store the leftover wainscotting pieces.

Later on i will decide if i would like to surround the entire dining room or living room instead of just the exterior walls.

Had to put a new top on the "Meighan" wall.  Probably spelt it wrong too. 😂😂

New top, all 4 walls in back porch are done,  all thats left is the living room wall.  Final trimming out will be done later.

Still working on it.

While i wait for the inspectors schedule,  i am still working on the wainscotting.
3 largest walls in the back porch are mostly done, bit of fine tuning and trim needed - but so far so good.

I have had some people tell me i should throw out the cut off boards of wainscotting putting in part boards looks ugly - about 18 - 20 inches off EACH board.
I do not agree.
Figure the back porch is the best place to use part pieces.
So far, 28 - 37 inch verticals done with cut offs - which equals 86 feet of board - or 9 - 10 foot planks.
Severely reduced the amount of garbage being thrown out as well, and suitable for a workshop or storage room.
Main house is all single planks.

Now to number each board and take it all down for the inspector - but it is ready to go !!

So much for that idea...

Nice warm spring day out, and in a regular house, open up all the windows and let the warm fresh air in.

This year - this house not a chance.

You see, the house has been slowly cooling off - despite my on and off - part time heating attempts - the lowest it has reached was a cool 43 F ( 6 degree C).  Keeping in mind there is no full time heat source out there and it takes time to heat up 100 tons of concrete once it gets cold....

Now.  For confirmation.

All my research is telling me, that it takes about 100,000 BTU's per hour to heat up the entire house by 1 degree.  - want to warm it up by 3 degrees ?  100,000 BTU FOR THREE HOURS  ....
Spent the weekend out there finishig off some details - one big time consumer is the wainscotting - burned through an entire 20 lb. Tank of propane - 500,000 BTU  was used up ( estimated ) - the temperature in the house ?  Is now 5 degrees warmer.
Now.... back to opening up the windows....  i can't.

Nice warm - HUMID day outside - say 60 % humidity outside with the house sitting at 45 % humidity - if any windows were opened right now, all that moisture would hit the cold concrete - condense and collect.  My walls would be dripping wet.  
I am already getting condensation on the OUTSIDE of my windows - warm moist air condensing when it touches the cold glass outside.

On the plus side - now that it is warm outside, every time i go out to work on the house - it is getting warmer in there, and i can stop heating it when it reaches about 65 F  ( 18 C )  for the summer.
At that point, i have the option of opening the windows, but then if it gets up to 34 degrees this summer, i kinda want the house kept cool, so why loose the cool by opening the windows ?

Side note - 20 pound propane fill up ... 20 $  wainscotting all cut to size for dining room and long wall of master bedroom.

Did not know this....

Ever since i enclosed the Hobbit Home,  and started dehumidifieing, there has been a spot on one beam - and only one beam - that was turning silver - about 12 inches long....
Of course, me being the home owner and concerned with mold, mildew or rot, had to look into this more closely, as the silver colour has now spread to about half the bottom of this one beam.

Turns out, it is a natural process, and highly sought after, as it adds character and a certain beauty to the wooden beams overhead.

Will have to keep an eye on this - but all info points to leave it and love it.

Still here.

Sick as a dog for the last three weeks, so not much accomplished.  Did find out that with a constant below freezing temperature outside, and nothing running inside,  the minimum temperature so far in the Hobbit home is about 44 F or 6.6 C

Will have to go out and warm things up just a bit though.... - to be on the safe side.

Its starting to make sense now....

I have been told by " alternative builders " that there is up to 600 gallons of water in my new floor that was poured not too long ago.
Now that the build is progressing and i can run the dehumidifier with the on board storage tank ( not draining into the gravel floor ) I am getting about 1 gallon a day ( dumping 8 litres every 2 days ).

Edit :  The humidity levels are holding steady at 41 % - no lower.

Now, contrary to the advice from ALL of the " normal" home builders - who are telling me it is o.k. to lay flooring on top of a freshly poured concrete floor - i will give it a bit more time before that next step.

Estimated 600 gallons - 1 gallon per day = 600 days.

This makes sense now, as the general ( but not followed ) rule is it takes about 2 years too dry out a concrete floor.

In my last post, I had picked up all the doors i needed for the Hobbit Home.

Now for the bad news.  Lesson learned...  MEASURE EVERYTHING !

When i went into the Stratford ReStore,  they had 5 doors marked at 36 X 80, but only 3 of them were 36 inches wide.  The other 2 doors were 32 inches wide.  Not a big deal, very noticeable - picked out the 3 I needed and went home, after notifying the staff ....

Then went to the London ReStore picked up the 2 glass doors and took them home, only to realize that one was 5/8 th of an inch shorter than the other !  All of the glass doors had the same label on them ( 24 x 78 1/4 ).

Luckily,  after taking both back to the store,  they still had a couple of these doors in stock,  and was able to exchange the shorter door for the matching size.  The replacement door did have a door knob hole drilled through it,  but the large round slider handle fit in nicely...

It all  worked out in the end, but i could have been stuck with mis-matched doors....

Spare bedroom closet doors installed , locking bathroom door installed,  locking master bedroom door installed - spare bedroom door ready to hang after routering out hing points.

Now... to get walls 😁