It's one thing to have a punch list where you know how to do everything on it, you just get at it. Then there's the kind I have where you figure it out as you go along. The fabled, every journey starts with a first step. Let me tell you, you can find a lot of reasons to put off that first step having had so many journeys' end at cliffs! Not only that, there are so many directions you can go on a long punch list.
I decided to end my mini vacation with something I had just done. Put another hole through a concrete wall. This time the septic.
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From 2012 taken from the upstairs porch
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In the picture above imagine a small 12x20 cottage above to the right. I built the septic to the specs of a four bedroom house. It's big. The pipe you see goes to the house. On the back wall, not visible, will be the inlet pipe for the cottage. Once again the smiley face routine.
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Not so lucky this time--the dreaded rebar.
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It's always easier the second time around. However I did find I had to add contouring to the top of the septic. As bad luck would have it, rain water was routing into the septic around the manhole covers. No big deal while not in use but I will have to address it down the road.
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Old and new intakes.
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| ST Thomas carnival |
Next up, something I have been putting off. Wiring the main breaker and bringing temporary power to the house. The heavy duty 100' extension from the shack had taken care of everything I needed regarding power tools to date. But with a utility room coming I needed to dig the ditch I had been putting off. Labor for temporary reasons always seems to hurt. The permanent electricity will be coming down from the power pole alongside the driveway in 3'' conduit buried 18" down. What I'm doing now is running #6 wire in 2" conduit, which I happen to have, buried for about 100' and then down through the forest to the house. 50 amps vs 200 later on.
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It took me forever! I think I was good for about 30' feet a day. Lol. Plus the giant tree above was dropping what the locals call stinky toes or some such. The small fruit is so hard I moved my truck afraid that the windshield might suffer. The drop down was near 50'. Thoughts of getting hit were unsettling.
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This is why god invented duct tape.
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Who knew pulling/pushing four #6 wires could be such a pain in the ass. Basically straight with a little bend at the top. Try as I might I would get maybe 50' and then nothing. I called my bud Cleon for advice. First, construction cord, a plastic bag and a vacuum. Suck the plastic bag through the conduit, attach cord to cables and pull through. It all worked until about 75' but I needed 100' !
Next I called another bud, George, who lives in Coral Bay. These are BIG steps for me calling for help! With two people, the way normal people work, the cable took no time at all. The last 100' down through the forest was a breeze. I did that alone. Everything into an exterior junction box where it was coupled to the main wires coming from the house. Finally the piece de resistance, the main breaker box, a total mess of wires,large and small,hanging out of the wall stabbing me every time I went by. Ultimately the box will be behind a picture. Why so large? It wasn't until the inspector told me I had to put another breaker/sub panel downstairs for all those circuits. Let's say I have a lot of room now.
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It's feeling like a house
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Now the question is, did I wire the house properly? With a lot of things still to be hooked up I only turned on the receptacles in the living room. They worked. Next I flipped the spots and rope lights in the living room. Truth is,I couldn't believe it. Those spots sat in a termite invested container for years and yet they still worked. A little rust here and there but working. At some point it will all be replaced by LED lights which are becoming more affordable. I bought the old rope they are practically giving away at Home Depot because it is dimmable and very inexpensive.
If it's not one thing it's another. When I turned on the power for the first time apparently it triggered all my GFCI breakers, or something, leading me to think I wired the kitchen circuits wrong.
WTF. After the usual freak out it was simply resetting each one. Then the real bad news--the frig doesn't work. The years of sitting in the container termite mound rusted out the only line that is not copper. Runs and looks great but does not get cold. Even the repair man didn't want it for free. Now it has to sit in place until the final driveway and stairs are poured. There is no way to get it back up the temporary stairs and across the ramp. It needs an appliance dolly. The oven works! Won't know about the dishwasher until everything in the kitchen is done.
Just a reminder what things look like when they leave a termite mound inside a container. Here's a sink.
I always have company....
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| baby |
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Momma
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Something easy. Hooked up the intake pipe if we should ever need a water delivery. I'm using the overflow pipes. Hopefully six inches of overflow pipe will offset ten inches of inflow pipe.
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They are on a cruise they will never forget.
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Some house keeping...sold the last 20' container. Did it's job for over seven years. Putting a peel and stick roof on it was the best thing I did. Never leaked despite the tropical environment.
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He got a deal....
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Back to the hard stuff, dealing with the stone tiles for the downstairs bathroom. Several problems all at once. First the floor itself is akin to lumpy gravy. For professionals it's no big deal assuming they have a ready supply of sand and cement to mix as they go along. The process is pretty straight forward. Lay a 1'' base of wet fresh cement followed immediately with the tile thin-set and tile. I've seen it laid out with strings so they know where they are at all times. I have no chance of pulling that off. My best shot is to pre level the floor as best I can and go from there.
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Reasonably level
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There's always a story. Years ago my buddy Roger came into possession of a lot of stone mosaic tiles from a failed construction project. Year after year they sat at one of his construction sites piled outside. Year after year whenever we walked past the pile I would tell him "you'll never use these, you should give them to me", smiling the whole time. Year after year he told me to f'k off. Five years on he calls and tell me to get them off his property! All right, my bathroom floor, just like in the pictures!
There's always a hook. What had happened over the years--the UV's had decayed the fiber backing and the stones fell off as you handled the tiles. Plus there were two kinds of stones mixed together. But they were free and on island.
After separating the two different stone types this is what I was left with. Now I have to make it fit the space. The spaced stones on the bottom left are one 12x12 spaced differently. If I stay consistent and space each stone individually I can make it. That's the theory! I'll use the other stone for the shower floor.
What a pain in the ass this turned out to be. The slightest imperfection in the underlying floor showed up in every placement. The chief reason the stones are all matted is actually to hold them in place until they are grouted. By laying them individually there is very little surface area for the thin-set to cling to. I literally had to go back and glue them in place with liquid nails that I had. Sure it worked but like I said what a pain. The matting material also acts as a leveling agent. What we have instead is a riverbed!
Of course I ran out of thin-set with just that little area to do. Where's the thin-set? On St Thomas of course and I'm not going there for just one bag. It will have to wait until I come back from San Francisco. The punch list is always growing.
Finally some info on a project:
This is not good news...
Hmmm, from the only on St John files...
The final project before boarding a plane for SF--getting all the cabinets squared away ready for the tile when I come back. You know there's always something. This time it was opening all the marble tiles and inspecting them. Yup, there was a problem. Now I know why I got such a good deal. What I looked at in the showroom and purchased years before was not exactly what I thought I was getting by the time it got packaged and delivered to my consolidator. There was a slight difference in about six of 24x24 tiles. Beyond natural differences. Ultimately it led to using one grouping on one side and the other on the opposite stove side. Plus they were sold as 24x24 but in reality they were 23.5 x 23.5. I'm such a rookie. Actually rube is probably the better word.
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| It's in the counter on the left side of the stove where the 23.5" screws things up. |
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| Dry laying the tile to figure out what pattern we like. |
I got a really good deal on this Calcutta marble because they only had 56 sq. ft. left and it was all or none for $5 sq. ft. Nothing I had previously looked at was less than $25 and certainly not 24x24. Sure we would love a slab but just how and at what price was I getting it to the house for a kitchen yet to be finalized. This way I had all the counters and back splash no matter how we laid out the galley kitchen. It's going to look killer despite some color and dimensional hurdles that I'll hide.
I liked flying like this....the upstairs bar and smoking lounge on a 747. Had the pleasure a few times.
