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.

Dryer Vent

All the time I spent thinking about the bathroom vent brought me to think about the dryer vent as well.

I had installed the dryer vent very early on--well before installing the shingles on the north wall of the JayBee.

I installed it low on the wall, even though the dryer will sit on top of the washer in the house, because no appliance lasts forever and a possible future washer/dryer combo unit could still use this vent without having to blow upwards to vent. With my current washer and dryer stacked, though, it will require snaking duct hose down the wall from the dryer to the vent lower down the wall.

Here is the wall with the dryer vent, all insulated and protected with the vapor barrier.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought that the dryer vent wasn't quite right. If an elbow and round duct was installed on the inside of this wall, the washer and dryer would be pushed out from the wall by more than four inches. Too much real estate inside the house wasted.

I briefly considered buying specialized duct that is flattened rather than round and takes up less room, but I was worried that it would encourage the buildup of lint. (I know I should regularly clean all lint out of the dryer vent, but I rarely actually do so.) So, I am sticking with round dryer duct.

I decided I had to build a channel inside the wall so that part of the diameter of the duct can run inside the wall.

<sigh> I opened up the finished vapor barrier...

...and pulled out the insulation--at least the insulation in front of the wires. Hmm, there certainly are a lot of wires in this wall.

All those wires take up so much room in the wall that I can't push the dryer duct as far into the wall as I was hoping to. Nevertheless, I trimmed the vent stack to be shorter, and I built this channel.

I primed the channel and covered the back side of it with plastic--so the vapor barrier will end up being uninterrupted across this wall. I installed the channel in the wall, and I installed one of the elbows in the vent.

I insulated well behind the channel and insulated the rest of the wall cavity.

Then, I restored the vapor barrier.

Without extending the duct or installing it, I propped the duct and upper elbow in the channel to get a rough idea of how this will work.

While it looks like all this work and the special channel will only save about an inch of space, once the tongue-and-groove boards are installed on the wall, it will save close to two inches. I'm pleased with the results.

Bathroom Fan & Vent

Oh, my goodness--what a  l o n g  day! What I thought was going to be a relatively simple project ended up giving me fits and taking all day long to finish.

I had finished insulating this bathroom wall and installing the vapor barrier--but, I finally decided I should have a fan in the bathroom. So, I had to tear into what was already done.

The light is going to go here. (I didn't have to install the trim here that I installed on ceiling joists elsewhere in the house because the bathroom is going to have a ceiling installed on the bottom of these joists.)

The bathroom fan will be installed closer to the wall behind the light, on the other side of the ceiling joist.

I peeled back the vapor barrier and pulled out the insulation in the top part of this bay.

Then I drilled a hole all the way through the wall. It was well worth buying a three-inch hole saw to do this. I can't imagine how long I would have taken on this step without that specialized tool.

Here is the vent I planned to install.

I had read in reviews that it was a great little vent but that it didn't stop bees and hornets from nesting in it, so I added a piece of screen inside it.

I had to pound and pound and pound on the vent to get it installed in the wall. The hole was three inches in diameter, and so was the vent pipe, so it was a very snug fit. (Of course it would have been much better to have drilled a hole slightly larger than the vent, but I had purchased the largest hole saw available at the store I visited.)

I had started the four screws before pounding so I could keep the wedge pieces behind the vent aligned correctly. I cut the wedge pieces to give the vent a solid surface in one plane to butt up against, instead of trying to snug the vent up against the uneven shingles. The screws were loose, of course, and they kept falling out as I pounded--and getting lost in the foliage below.

Eventually, all the pounding split the wedge pieces. Aargh!

I had to hand screw at least the upper two screws because they were up under the overhanging eave, but the only screwdriver handle I had that was short enough to fit has lost something (magnetism? a ball bearing?)--whatever should hold in the screw bit, so the screw bit kept falling out and getting lost in the foliage below.

What a never-ending pain in the ...

Finally, it was installed.

I cut a short piece of duct and installed that on the vent. This duct will expand/telescope, so it is more than long enough to reach the fan once it is installed.

Then I re-installed the insulation...

...and the vapor barrier.

I am going to wait until later to install the fan so I have more maneuverability in this space for now. I will also have to drill a hole in the joist so the fan can draw power from the light fixture. The light and the fan will be controlled by the same switch.

Phew! Long day, but the bathroom wall is back to being done.

Trim and Ventilation 4

I finished installing all the trim around the roof, and it's all stained as well. I sure got lucky with the weather!

Today, with temperatures in the 70s, I spent the day up on the roof, drilling ventilation holes at the tops of the rafter bays, along the ridge boards. It took me quite a while to get a rhythm going because I was so afraid of being up on that roof, and worried that I would drill holes in the wrong places.

If there wasn't a house in the way, I'd have quite a view of the river!

The first few holes I drilled...

...with a long way to go...

Finally, with the sun rapidly going down, I finished drilling all the holes!

The trim gives the house a more finished look, eh?

Once the tarps were back on the roof, it sort of looked like a spaceship from the inside.

Next up: I have to figure out where the plumbing vent and two propane vents will go through the roof. I have to order the roofing. Then, it's on to installing underlayment and roofing!

Also, I met with an electrician today, and I think I have a lead on a plumber--finally. There could be a lot of progress made on the JayBee in short order.

Also see:
Trim and Ventilation 1
Trim and Ventilation 2
Trim and Ventilation 3
Trim and Ventilation 5


Not sure what this bird is, but it sure caught my attention today.

George and I went on a walk to the riverfront yesterday.