Progress Since Moving Day

Before the excavating company left me to my own devices, they leveled up the JayBee on stacks of cinder blocks.

They finished burying the electric lines that run from the pole to both the new shop and to the JayBee.

They also finished up the top of the driveway and made a nice little walkway to the front door.

After they left, I tweaked the leveling a bit to fix a low corner. Since I don't plan to ever move this house, I want it right before I anchor the house to the slab!

The electrician came and finished bringing the power from the power pole to the panel in the JayBee. 

I only have one working outlet inside the house at the moment because the prior electrician did not label a single wire he installed. I have a bit of work to do to get everything labeled before the panel can be all hooked up.

I found a plumber who said he could do the rest of the plumbing during Thanksgiving week, so I scrambled to get things ready for him. I stacked the tires more compactly under the JayBee to help give the plumber some maneuvering room.

Next came removing the axles and springs. Honestly, this had not even been on my radar. I just figured I'd leave the axles and springs attached--hanging out under the house. Once the plumber showed me, however, it was obvious there was no way he could plumb to the septic line under the house because the axles and springs were in the way. I could not find anyone who could do this work in the timeframe I needed it done, so I decided to do it myself. The thought of taking this on scared the livin' daylights out of me but, once I figured out how to disconnect the brake wiring from each axle end, I was on a roll. I bought an air impact wrench and a new face shield, and got all set up to start dismantling.

The air impact wrench worked great on all the nuts connecting the springs, but I could not maneuver it to reach the nuts holding on the u-bolts. For those, my arthritic hands had to make do with hand wrenches. It took me almost three hours to get the first one completely dismantled, but I did it!

Before letting all the axles drop to the ground, I propped them on boards and bricks so I could roll them to the correct side of the waste line while they were still up above it.

Finally, I got all the axles and springs off. The axles are stored up off the concrete, on pieces of plywood. I coated all the various nuts and bolts in a thick layer of grease and stored them away. See how the plumber can now access the waste line under here?

While I was sitting inside the JayBee, listening to a podcast and greasing up trailer parts, look who came to visit! I don't know his name, but he regularly wanders over from the neighbor's yard. Makes me wish George and Bear were still here to move into the JayBee with me.

I moved everything out of the end of the JayBee that has plumbing runs to make it easy for the plumber to get to things.

I installed the bathroom faucet and hung the sink on the wall...

 

...and hung the on-demand water heater.

I also installed the front steps--to make getting in and out of the house a whole lot easier. Railings and the rest of the deck to come--but probably not until spring.

Here's the bad news: The plumber did not show up, and he has not been in touch. The one phone number I have for him rings forever and then disconnects, so I have not been able to leave him a voice message. <sigh> I'm beginning to think I might end up buying some plumbing tools and doing this work myself. Stay tuned...

AWOL: Season Lost

Sorry, regular followers... I can tell that people have been loyally checking my blog all summer looking for updates. In spite of all of my plans and intentions back in the early spring for making great progress on my build, many other things intervened and took priority.

Below is my new daughter-in-law(!) standing in a canola field in England with her dog. Motivated by love (and no shotguns involved :-), my son got married. I had two weeks advance notice; yikes--that felt like a scramble, and I really had no responsibility for pulling it off.

Other family-related things and projects leap-frogged everything else and took priority and filled up my summer. Below is my last photo of George. This sweetie died during the third week of August. He had a good long life, but I do miss my companion of the last 19 years. When I feel up to it, I'll post a George tribute.

Now I'm trying to sort out some health-related things of my own. I'm not going to turn my blog into a litany of my health complaints but, so no one worries, just know I don't have anything life-threatening--just a shoulder that does not work, and a poorly-functioning thyroid. Both of these things really get in the way of making progress with house building.

It turns out that, if you leave anything alone for any length of time, nature tries to re-claim it.

While some of those photos may look like kudzu is trying to take over the JayBee, the worst culprits are actually grape vines.

I did finally manage to clear out the vines and shrubs that were crowding the JayBee.

I replaced the tarp on my tool/storage shed, so it no longer leaks.

I haven't yet repaired the interior of it, however.

Remember the latest/newest nest? This masterfully-built gem appears to be abandoned--finally. When I feel really confident I won't be displacing anyone, I will be removing the nest and crafting some kind of new nest arrestor to install...

I'm not really sure how much progress I will be able to make with what's left of the fall. After all, I will have to prepare the old wreck-of-a-house to survive yet another winter... I'm trying to keep breathing, put one foot in front of the other, take things as they come, and not get too discouraged.

Spring Reset

Finally: a day with no rain! Goal: get some momentum going with the JayBee project.

Not so fast. During the last few weeks of winter, I noticed that the JayBee was pivoting on its cinderblock foundation posts. This post is leaning into the hillside...

...and this post is leaning away from the hillside.

The tongue--obviously having shifted significantly left here--shows that the JayBee is pivoting.

I didn't think it was too bad because this other post has remained straight. Until I looked up under the JayBee today--and found out that only a tiny bit of the trailer frame is still sitting on the back corner of the post.

Goodness! I can't be running in and out of the JayBee when it's in this precarious position. The solution is not jumping out at me. I hope I think of something...  by tomorrow.

In the meantime, there are other issues...

Remember how I removed an old nest from the bathroom vent a few weeks ago? Today I went to install a nest arrestor on the vent. Look what I found (see photo below)? Arrgh! The momma bird was very unhappy with me even though I stood there only a few minutes. She's quite busy coming and going. At least this nest isn't right outside the front door. I think I can leave momma alone for this baby-raising season and still get construction work done.

Looking at this picture reminds me that this bathroom vent poses another problem as well. I learned while watching This Old House last weekend that a bathroom vent that shoots out air right under soffit vents will allow warm moist air to be sucked up under the roof, which will cause mold to form under the roof. Nice! Gotta find a solution for this problem, too.

One or more birds have been messing with the nest arrestor that sits on top of the vent for the air exchanger. No nest behind there yet but the other side of the nest arrestor...

...is covered in bird sh__--er, droppings--illustrating just how much time someone has spent fluttering around up there.

Before the snow flew late last year, I installed this tarp over the portable garage I use for construction storage. I thought it was a good preventative measure, since the tarp was beginning to tear at both ends of the seam that runs along the top ridge. Good thinking because...

When I went inside the portable garage today, I discovered that the entire top seam has let go. Yikes! Major repair job required.

Not a fun start to the building season. Lots of problems to solve.


We have had a lot of flood tides this spring. Fast moving, very full river.

I've been keeping an eye on the eagle nest up in the top of these trees. Haven't caught anyone moving in yet.

George is enjoying his spring.

See the theme? George is only looking up in some of the shots because I woke him up while taking the photos. In other words, pretty much all he is doing is sleeping and baking in the sun--in one spot or another.