Hello again fans of Middle Earth and those who are interested in the ways of building Hobbit homes! Welcome once again. Glad to have you back.

Well the Editor and I decided to take advantage of the long holiday weekend and mosey on over to Block Island for a couple of days for a little rest and relaxation. Try to get away from it all. I have to admit it was the Editor’s idea and a really good one at that. The forecast wasn’t that good but the weatherman got it all wrong and we had great weather.

I don’t want to go on ad nauseum about a weekend getaway but there were some points of interest that you might find interesting. Nothing of note on the Hobbit house front so to speak so don’t get your hopes up.

We got there on a Friday morning around 10am. Had breakfast at Ernie’s overlooking the harbor and went for a walk towards the jetty. As we step up to the jetty another couple with small children informs us that there is a dead whale on the beach! You had to see this thing to believe it. It was huge….and it was dead alright. It stunk to high heaven. They were in the process of dragging it down the beach to bury it in the sand with an excavator. Check it out.

At one point the guy flips this monster over and the stink was incredible.

Just as an aside: As we’re walking towards the monster we see this guy swimming in the water about 50 yards away from this thing. I mean what would ever possess you to get into the water with a creature that size decomposing yards away from where you’re going into the water?????? Bizarre. Absolutely bizarre.

Went to the Southeast lighthouse. I wanted to see the windturbines that were off the coast of the island. To our surprise a bunch of guys and girls were paragliding. Crazy stuff. Check it out.

These guys were from Boston. The one guy we talked to said he once stayed airborne 5 hours. Flew from Ellenville, New York to Millerton, New York. The guy said it’s about $9000 to get the kit. It was fun to watch them.

And for all you birders out there we saw an American Oystercatcher near the Great Salt Pond over on the Block while we were kayaking. Very cool looking bird. And I believe a bit rare this far North. Didn’t get a picture of it though. Great weather for kayaking.

 

 

Met with a few stone masons this week to try and get some pricing on what I need done. Also got a price for my mini split heat pump. Seemed a bit high. Have to get another price.

Have a great week and enjoy your Columbus Day.

See you soon!

Jim

Lady Galadriel Elf Queen of Lothlorien: And what gift would a Dwarf ask of the Elves?

Gimli the Dwarf responds: Nothing. Except to look upon the Lady of the Galadhrim one last time, for she is more fair than all the jewels beneath the earth.

Legolas the Elf who is part of the Fellowship along with Gimli asks later on what he asked for from the Elf Queen.

Gimli replies: I asked her for one hair from her golden head……she gave me three.

 

I asked the other day for an apple cinnamon muffin that the Editor made up at her school with the children in her class. She came home with three……

And that my friends is how the brain of a Lord of the Rings nerd works. A line from the movie pops up into my head and then I apply it to a real world situation. Or vise versa for that matter. Yeah, I get it. I know there’s something wrong with me.  So you just have to bear with me. Maybe someday I’ll snap out of it. Probably not any time soon though so don’t hold your breath.

Welcome once again to the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog! Glad to have you back as always.

So son Terence is doing well over at Manhattan College in the Bronx. He has found that he has developed a taste for the chocolate milk at the school cafeteria. He may have already gained a couple of pounds. I hope he’s learning something there at school, as well. That would be nice. Isn’t that what college is supposed to be about? I better not have to go into my pocket to outfit this kid with a whole new wardrobe cause he’s gained too much weight or there’s going to be hell to pay.

So I got this app called Spotify for my phone. It’s really great. You can download music of all kinds into your phone. It really is unbelievable.  You create a playlist of whatever songs you want and store them on your phone. Then you can listen to commercial free music while you’re working. It’s great. I downloaded every Beatles song the other day. Most of them anyway. So I’m over at the house listening to this Beatles song that I’ve always liked and I’m listening to the words and they just struck me as very strange. ” A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the national trust.”  From “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” What does that even mean? And how does something like that even pop into your head? I thought weird stuff popped into my head. Those guys thought of some really strange stuff! I’m actually thinking I’m going to be alright.

So on the Hobbit house front we had Jeff the mason stop by to help us out on finishing a couple of items.  At the four corners of the house I wanted to finish the exterior of the concrete with a product called  Sika 1-2-3. I needed this done before I start the siding and the horizontal trim work below the windows. So the timing was pretty good. Check it out.

After he applies this to the wall and it dries a bit you put a horizontal broom finish on it. It gives the exterior of the house a little texture if you will. Check it out. It’s not fully dried here.

So now I can begin the horizontal trim and the siding without having to protect it from the mess you make with the Sika. We’re good to go.

The other thing he did for me was on the inside of the house. In the hallway we had some serious honeycombs in the concrete. If I remember correctly it was basically the last truck of the day got a little tight at the very end. ( Honeycombs are not something you eat. In the world of concrete this is a void where the concrete did not consolidate properly leaving a void in the finish.) I had to set up a scaffold for him to work from. He used a product called structolite with cement added to it. You apply that to the ceiling and then trowel it til it’s nice.

If you look closely you can see the honeycombs in the ceiling. You can’t just patch the spots or the ceiling will look stupid. You have to patch the whole ceiling.

This isn’t a very good picture of how it came out. It looks good though. I had always planned on doing this regardless of the honeycombs. That’s why there are no design details in the hallway. I wanted to be able to show people the different ways that you can finish concrete.

I spent the day doing a bunch of odds and ends. One of which was getting the window templates made for the curved window trim. Hmmm. That took a lot longer than I thought it would. (Like most things at the Hobbit House.) I also continued my quest with the electrical. Which is starting to come together pretty well.

Oh yeah, one other thing I completely forgot about. Went over to that Mother-in-Law’s house for dinner Wednesday night. You know, to pay a visit and all. Actually the Editor made the meal and Mother-in-Law did the side dishes. So I get there and my Mother-in-Law is walking around in a nightgown. What’s up with that? So I said to her, “Are you going to get dressed for dinner?” I mean, it was 6 pm!  I don’t understand. Why do I always have to be the bad guy and state the obvious. I’m getting these dirty looks. I really don’t know how I get myself into these situations. Now it turns out she’s going to come over on Wednesdays and cook for us. (She is a pretty good cook though.) But if I get home on Wednesday and have to watch her traipsing around my house in a  nightgown the deal is off! That’s crazy. Why did I agree to this again?

See you soon!

Jim

Another picture.

 

 

Hobbits have been living and farming in the four farthings of the Shire for many hundreds of years. Quite content to ignore and be ignored by the world of the Big Folk.

Middle earth being, after all, filled with strange creatures beyond count.Hobbits might seem of little importance. Not renowned as great warriors nor amoung the very wise.

In fact it has been remarked by some that Hobbits only real passion is for food. A rather unfair observation as we have also developed a keen interest in the brewing of ales and the smoking of pipe weed.

But where our hearts truly lie is in peace, and quiet, and good tilled earth.

For all Hobbits share a love for things that grow. And yes, no doubt to others our ways seem quaint.

But today of all days, it is brought home to me: It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.

 

Bilbo Baggins on Concerning Hobbits.

 

Keep it simple. Right? Pretty good advice from an old Hobbit who has quite a tale to tell! And I welcome you once again to the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog! TA DA!

Enough with the hats and horns Jim. You ain’t there yet. Not by a long shot.

Alright already I’m just trying to get my motivation going that’s all. Is there a problem with that?

Hmmmm. I guess not.

Alrighty then.

Just a quick story.

You ever see someone do something and as you’re watching you’re thinking to yourself, “Who the heck showed this guy how to do that???!!!” Had one of those moments the other night.

The Editor and I went early over to Mckinney and Doyle for dinner on Saturday. Nice place right in town about 5 minutes from the Hobbit house. It’s hard to get reservations there cause it’s so popular, but if you get there early and there’s room at the bar you can sit down and have dinner right there at the bar without making a reservation. Not bad if you don’t mind an early dinner. So it was great as usual. I had the brook trout and the Editor had the ultimate burger. So we’re at the end of the bar looking down the length of the bar. So you can see everybody who’s there. Okay Jim let’s get to the point soon you’re losing us. Okay! So this guy two seats down from us gets this little loaf of bread. (Everybody gets a little loaf at the start from their bakery…so good.) Then he starts to cut slices of it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone mangle a piece of bread like this guy did. I mean this was a massacre. Like of epic proportions. And you get a special bread knife to cut the bread with as well!! I found myself starring at this guy cutting his bread. Luckily I caught myself and would just glance every one in a while to make sure that I wasn’t imagining what I saw. It was as if this guy was cutting a loaf of bread for the first time in his life. Hadn’t a clue. The pieces that he was cutting weren’t even big enough for a pigeon to eat if you can wrap your head around that one. Oh yeah and forget about buttering your bread. Not a hope.

I guess you had to see it.

Yeah.

It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion I tell ya.

Maybe I didn’t explain it so well.

Not really.

Well let me tell you about my adventures over at the Hobbit house this weekend. At least I have a few pictures to throw in there to help with my lack of explanation expertise.

Here we go.

So the main focus of this weekend was going to be figuring out the radius of the exterior trim around the windows. Remember I’ve got this Ohio connection. Remember? Yeah so the guy tells me all I have to do is send a template of the radius made out of rosin paper and we’re good to go.

It’s a Hobbit house people. Nothing is easy. On top of that we’re trying to get some Passive House aspects incorporated into the house as well which makes it a double whammy. Needless to say the exterior trim is not the outside radius of the window. There’s a build up there….some of which I haven’t even installed yet. Said build up is the exterior trim deal for the window. It’s quite involved. Let me show you what I did.

The first step believe it or not was to build a table saw bench so that we could rip down the 4×8 sheet of Azek trim we need. I should have made it a little wider but I wanted to minimize the width as much as possible. Check it out.

I made the base long so I could nail it into my platform so it wouldn’t shift as I push the wood through the saw. Here it is set up.

I’ve never owned a table saw but I like this one so far. It’s a Bosch. Very light and easy to set up. It also has some good safety features to prevent kickback. Nice.

So trim of any style is not my forte. I’m more of a woodbutcher if you will. So trim is a little more time consuming for me than maybe for a guy who’s really into trim work. Plus that’s not what I do every day of the week to begin with. Doing curved trimwork is a little out of the ordinary as well so maybe it’s not just me.

In a nut shell: The idea was to trim out the extensions with ripped pieces of 3/8 Azek and then trim the opening inside and out with 1×2 Azek. A series of pictures.

The inside 1×2 helps cover the air sealing tape we used to air seal the windows. This is a critical technical aspect that know one will ever see. “Keep it secret…keep it safe!”

I purposely left out the sill because of time restraints. Remember it’s a three week lead time to get the arch trim manufactured. I screwed the 1×2’s in so I could take them out and put the sill in later.

So now I’m ready to do my template out of rosin paper. I did it but I’m going to redo it next weekend. Definitely a learning curve on this one. First I put the paper up using 8penny nails to hold it tight.

Next I cut back the bulk of the paper that I didn’t need. Which you can see in the above picture.

Just being honest here. It’s not a perfect arch. The original window is but the trim definitely is not. What to do? I used a 3/8 inch spacer block and cut the paper back 3/8 of an inch back from where the edge of the trim touches the paper. This way the trim that I’m going to have made in Ohio will cover up the trim that I’ve just installed leaving a 3/8 reveal when you look from the inside of the house out. Hmmm. I lost you didn’t I. Sorry. Needless to say my rosin paper template is not perfect. So we will tell the manufacturer to use the smallest radius they come up with for the template. This will cover any imperfections. Like I said: Keep it secret. Keep it safe.

Not bad for a first try.

Stay safe and I will see you next week.

Jim

check out the roof.

 

The green trim blends in nice. So simple. A simple life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were men once.

Great Kings of men.

Then Sauron the deceiver gave them rings of power.

Blinded by their greed they took them without question, falling into darkness.

Now they are slaves to Sauron’s will.

They are the Nazgul, Ringwraiths neither living nor dead.

At all times they feel the presence of the Ring, drawn to the power of the One.

They will never stop hunting you…..

 

Aragorn telling the Hobbits what it is that is following them.

 

So just keep in mind sometimes it’s the question that is at the heart of the matter.

 

They should have asked more questions. Don’t you think?

Let’s not go there Jim.

 

Welcome once again to the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog!  Had to get a little Lord of the Rings stuff in there.  It’s just me. Every once in a while I sit down to do this and a line from the movie won’t leave my head. It’s just what happens when you’re a Lord of the Rings nerd.  What can I tell you.

So I had a minor panic attack the other day. That’s always fun. I wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, finish up and go to wash my hands and there’s no water coming out of the faucet. So that woke me up really, really fast. The first thing that went through my mind was that I somehow left the water on out at the pool when we closed up the pool last weekend. Like, OH MY GOD I JUST RAN OUR WELL DRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I was more than  a bit concerned as I put my shorts on at 3am in the morning. Moped accidents are one thing, running your well dry is quite another.

I have to give you the short version here cause it’s way too involved. The bottom line is when I had the well hooked up over at the Hobbit house the well guy said you shouldn’t use a water softener to treat the water. (You can contaminate the aquifer with salt over time! I never knew that.) So back at my home I have a water softener and I wanted to see how much water came out of the machine when it ran through it’s cycle. So I set up a 5 gallon pail to see how much salt water comes out of this thing. Well. It overflowed the 5 gallon pail and as it was doing so Ethan happened to walk into the garage after a night out on the town. He shut the water off as this was happening because the garage was flooding. After I went down there at 3am I saw that the valve was in the off position.

So I fixed it.

Then I went upstairs to wash my hands…..and the water is all kind of foamy. Great. And guess what it tastes like? Just imagine taking a large tablespoon of salt and swallowing it.  Do it. Imagine it. They wouldn’t even do that on that show “Survivor”.  I did it. That woke me up again. What a morning.

Hobbit house anyone?

Yeah. So  I finally bit the bullet and got myself organized over at the Hobbit. It was a long time coming to be honest. I made a bunch of shelves in the closet and did a decent cleanup. It looks really good in there now. I  took a picture of it but I’m having trouble getting it into my blogs photo library. If I get it to go I’ll put it in. It’s a worthy picture as far as I’m concerned. Even if it doesn’t sound like much. Shelves with a bunch of crap on them! Yeah can’t wait to see that one Jim!!

I did start my initial foray into finishing the front of the house. A lot of little stuff has to get done so it doesn’t seem like much but it really is quite a bit. Let me show you.

So really all it is is putting the filter fabric up and then attaching the horizontal 2×4 PT to the front of the house. I used 8 inch long timber lock screws to hold the first 2×4 in place screwed right into the studs. Remember we’re going through a 2×4 then 4 inches of styrofoam before we get to the plywood sheathing.

So I’m putting three pressure treated 2×4’s together here. The last one I put on I used 4 1/2 inch exterior grade screws to install it. So I made sure that first one I put on with the timber lock screws was on really good. Everything else is hanging off of the first one.

The last 2×4 has to be level. Pretty much on the money or things might look stupid and we don’t want that. I used a little stick and my 4 foot level to get it nice.

I’ve also been working on the electrical in the morning. I finished up the dining room wiring this weekend. Not much to see there but it was satisfying nonetheless.

So the plan for next weekend is to try and set up a template for the curved trim around the exterior windows. There’s a company out in Ohio that will custom bend Azek trim. They just need a template and they will take care of the rest. Very reasonably priced as far as I’m concerned. It’s a three week lead time so I really need to try and get that done. Part of the critical path if you will.

Enjoy your week!

Jim

PS: And make sure you don’t drink the foamy water coming out of your faucet!

 

 

 

Hello again fans of Middle Earth and others interested in the ways of Hobbit house construction. Welcome to the continuing saga of Hobbit Hollow!

The media. It’s really insane. I’m just so glad that it was a nice day today and was able to enjoy the great out of doors with the Editor. Otherwise I might have subjected myself to the 24/7 coverage of hurricane Irma. I mean I do feel bad for all the people who are directly affected by the storm. Hurricane Harvey survivors as well. But good God can the media report on anything else besides the storm? It’s as if the whole world is on standby until the hurricane peeters out. I mean how many shots of a reporter in a raincoat getting rained on can one take? “It’s raining now! Watch out for coconuts! They can become projectiles!” Didn’t like 6 million Floridians evacuate Florida? The chances of a coconut hitting a reporter were probably a lot higher than for hitting anyone else. I mean it would have been pretty cool if they had coverage of flying coconuts smashing into high rises or something like that. Or even if a reporter had to dodge a couple of flying coconuts. Now that would have been interesting. I know what it’s like to be in the rain though. Not that big a deal. Wasn’t there a huge earthquake in Mexico? Like a really serious 8.2 on the rickter scale earthquake?

I don’t know. I guess it’s just me. I do hope the damage isn’t similar to what happened in Texas though. That wouldn’t be good.

Say some prayers for those affected.

So on another note ( And I know I’ve mentioned this before.) I’m not a very good maintenance guy. You know. House maintenance. For instance I have a water softener and I forgot to fill it with salt for a month. Or two???? I forget. You  get the gist of it though.

But there are some things that should not be forgotten. It’s not that I had forgotten. It was never really far from my mind. It’s just that I am a bad maintenance guy. That’s all .So yeah I forgot to call the guy to clean out my septic. Okay!!!!  It’s not really that big of a deal. Unless of course you’re my Father -in- Law who has his septic pumped twice a year. I did wait quite a while though. Seven years to be exact. Okay so it’s a while but if you  know anything about septics you would realize that the micros in the septic system actually break down and quote  unquote eat the bacteria. Therefor a septic system that has the right stuff going into it is actually self sustaining and actually never needs to be cleaned. (We have the right stuff going into it okay people.) Tell that to my Father-in-Law. Believe it or not he says to the Editor, “I was wondering when you last had it cleaned.” Who worries about another guys septic????

Actually I was kind of worried. I’ve been waiting for that horrible phone call from the wife. You know. Oh my God that septic is backing up into the House!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I figured I better get this thing cleaned out before the winter.

It was kind of funny. I had Jude uncover the septic tank opening and put the dirt in a wheelbarrow. The guy from the septic tank cleaning service called my wife outside after  he finished up. He knew. “How long has it been since you had your septic cleaned?” The Editor plays it cool: “I really don’t know.” Then he says, “It was kind of thick.”

Hmmmm. I guess that’s bad.

But were starting off the Fall season with a freshly cleaned tank!!! Woo Hooo!

I’m kind of excited.

That took a bit longer than anticipated. Sorry about that.

Gotta pick up the pace. I actually have to wrap this up now.

I started the electric this week. I’m trying to do one room of lights per weekend. This way when it gets cold and dark out I can work on the inside. Check it out. The high hats I cast into the concrete ceiling work!

Guess what? That picture didn’t make it into my library. I’ll show you next week. I did put the final layer of styrofoam on the front of the house. This is now the ultimate thermal bridge free house. If you don’t remember hopefully next week I’ll try to enlighten you to thermal bridge freeness.

A couple of pictures.

This is how I scribed the insulation to fit the wall. In this instance anyway.

Have to put one more piece above the door and we’re done.

See you soon!

Jim

 

Darkness crept back into the forests of the world.

Rumor grew of a shadow in the East, whispers of a nameless fear, and a Ring of Power perceived.

It’s time had now come…..

 

Rings of Power people. They’re not good.

 

And welcome once again to the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog……where  it seems we talk a lot more about other things than construction.   Let’s see where this post takes us shall we? Oh yeah and thanks for stopping by.

So as I was saying last week we had a little  incident over on our moped tour of Block Island. It really wasn’t an accident. I wanted to take a break and lay down on the side of the road next to my wife and look at the beautiful blue sky.  It just would have been a lot nicer if I had done it in a different way. You know like pulling off to the side of the road.

Accidents are always kind of a surreal experience. The worst part of the whole thing  was knowing that my children witnessed the incident unfold. At least Jude did. Why did it have to be Jude? The Editor and I are both lying there on the ground checking to see if all of our body parts still function and then knucklehead Jude pulls up laughing hysterically. “You should have seen the way you guys flew off the bike!!!!” I mean our son doesn’t even ask if we’re alright. Or have a look of concern on his face. He’s just laughing at the side of the road. Kids. At least the stranger who stopped asked, “Are you okay?” And I didn’t answer him cause to be honest I didn’t know if I was. Three weeks later and I actually finally do feel about 97%. The Editor took it really well though I have to let you know. She was laughing  almost as much as Jude was. Accidents. Yeah. The main thing is nobody got seriously hurt. It was a close one though.

I’m just so grateful that that Mother-in-Law of mine wasn’t there. I don’t know if I could have taken her digs at me if she actually got to witness my stupidity. That would have been bad. Really bad.

Let’s get back to Hobbit houses though shall we?

So yeah the walkway path up to the roof. I didn’t really show a very good picture of it. Terence and his friends finished the rough part before he went off to college. Check it out.

So the idea here is to bring in the excavation contractor and fix it nice. I think if he uses some of the stone on the property and brings in a little topsoil he can make this really look nice.

So the main focus of this weekends work was to get the exterior trim framing in place. This is really no simple task. So the controlling factor here is the stone that we are going to put underneath the windows. Let me show you what I mean.

So what I did here was attach a series of three pressure treated 2×4’s to the wall using various sized screws. This creates a shelf on the outside of the house. Underneath that shelf will be stone. Above the shelf will be Cedar shakes. So three 2×4’s creates a 4 and a half inch void for the stone. Which should be plenty. Therefore the door trim has to clear this shelf and the trim that goes with it.

Not really sure if you’re getting this. Bottom line is I have to build the trim out seven and a half inches. (For a few additional reasons that we don’t need to get into.)

So how did I do this?

Let me show you.

The first thing I had to do was create a circle template. Actually two templates that I could sandwich a two by 6 between. This was done using the router and cutting out the plywood which I had done previously. Remember I had one circle already secured to the outside of the house.

Once I had both pieces cut out I put them on top of each other and then used a strip of two by material to layout where the studs were going to go . Check it out.

 

After this I cut my pressure treated 2×6’s to the correct length and put them into place.

Take the next piece and lay it over the top and nail it in place. What I did was nail it with 8 penny commons first and then I added two 2 inch decking screws to each side so the plywood would never be able to pull away from the 2×6. It worked really well. This thing is solid.

So here’s how it shaped up.

I made this thing in three separate pieces. This way I would be able to lift it by myself and get it out the door. Also once the first piece was on I just flipped it over and screwed the other sheet of plywood right to the 2×6.

After that it was a simple matter of taking it one piece at a time  and securing it to the original template that Terence had affixed to the house previously.

This will add a layer of depth to the house.

What I have to do next is laminate plywood onto this frame so I can finish the styrofoam on the outside of the house. I’m going to use 1/2 Azek for this. It will last forever.

A couple of other things of note. Picked up Terence from Manhattan College Friday night. It’s Labor Day weekend here in the states and him and his high school friends are going to meet at Syracuse University. We meet the Editor at Fiesta Mexicana in Brewster for a little reunion so he could tell us about his adventures.

Did any of you get to see the eclipse? Terence’s teacher got the viewing glasses and gave them out to a bunch of kids. He brought a pair home for the Editor. They said it was really cool. I didn’t think that you would be able to see much being that we were not in the direct path. They were saying that we were in a 70% zone. I was at work at the time. It was as if a cloud passed by for the most part.  They said with the glasses you could really see what was happening. Supposed to get another one in 2024 I think that passes across the northeast. I’ll be prepared next time.

Enjoy your Labor Day people! See you next time.

Jim

 

 

Whoa! What’s up Jim? Where’ve you been the last year and a half??? Just for the record I’ve been extremely busy and been doing battle with this God awful computer! Laptop and desktop. It’s like a total double whammy. Okay people so just bear with me and have a little sympathy for the guy who’s just too lazy to go to Best Buy and see the geeks over at the Geek Squad. I know it’s all my fault I get it. Someday, sometime, somewhere I’m going to fix this thing so I’m over and done with it. And I’m not saying I’m going to do it now either. I want to get aggravated even more than I am now. How do you like that!!!!

Hey Jim?

What?

Are you done yet?

Yes, I’m done alright. At least for now.

Hey. And Thanks for stopping by to all of you who are reading this. I’m really glad you’re here. I’ve been kinda getting frustrated with the whole computer thing and all. Really a minor detail in the scheme of things. We all have bigger things to worry and get aggravated about I know. So I apologize for the lack of posting over the last couple of weeks.

A couple of unrelated items before we get to the Hobbit.

So you ever been to the beach before? You know like a public beach? I mean it gets crowded right? So you try to get there early so you get a good spot and set up your camp. You know, so you can spread out a bit so other beachgoers don’t invade your personal space. I mean you know it’s going to get crowded but you don’t want someone to be right on top of you. What is it with some people and their invasion of your personal space? Why don’t some people get it? I mean it’s America right? Ya gotta give the guy next to you at least 3 or 4 feet. Right?

The Editor and I get to the beach at 830 and set up our camp. We’re the first ones on the beach. It was great. After a while people start coming in and it’s starting to fill up. I mean this weekend was perfect beach weather. Then  all of a sudden this old couple puts their blanket right on top of ours. I mean I’m talking 15 inches away. There’s plenty of room everywhere and they plop down basically right on top of us. I mean this guys feet were right where my head is going to be in an hour when I want to take my nap. So annoying. Then the next day same thing. I set up my beach umbrella and then a few hours later a huge group sets down right next to us. The guy sets up his chair in the shade of my umbrella!!! Then he asks. “Is it okay? The bubble over my head is “If you get any closer you’re going to be in my lap!”(There was something else in the bubble over my head but this is a family friendly blog.) Then I hear the Editor chime in, “Oh that’s fine! Thanks for asking!” My head almost spun off. I mean if you have to ask if something is fine and you’re a grown man you know it’s not fine. End of story.

Moral of the story. People are annoying.

Oh yeah, and we went over to Block Island a couple of weeks back as well with the whole family. What a great time we had. One of the things we wanted to do was rent mopeds and ride around the island on a nice morning. Such a beautiful island. Anyway we rent the mopeds and go through the safety stuff and all. It’s a little tricky, I have to admit. So the whole time while we’re driving around the Editor is on the seat behind me saying how worried she is about one of the kids crashing and getting hurt. I was like: Are you crazy nobody’s going to crash!!Guess who crashed?

Me.

And guess who was on the seat behind me when I crashed?

The Editor.

I’m such an idiot. I mean I really am.  Of course it happened about 5 minutes before we brought the mopeds back to the rental place. Not going to go into the play by play right now people. I was just trying to make the turn before I had to stop for that car that was coming towards me up ahead. Bad move. I hit the only concrete curb on the whole island. Unbelievable. We went flying. The moped landed on my ankle. I’m still in pain two weeks later. Didn’t break anything though. And the Editor seems no worse for wear. Thank God.

My true dopey colors came out as you can see. Hey! Riding mopeds on Block Island is fun!! I wish I had the time to go into every single thing that went through my head in about a second and a half. The human brain. It’s incredible. I’d still be writing.

Let me show you a few things from the house.

I’ll try and get some more detail next week so you can see exactly what we did.

I found it for him later on and reattached it.

If you notice Georgia and the Editor painted the skylight trim.

Well. I have a whole bunch of other stuff to tell you but it’s going to have to wait til next week. Hope to see you then!

Jim

PS. Dropped Terence off at Manhattan College Thursday, as well. Starting his freshmen year. Wow.

Good luck T!!!!

 

Sorry friends….computer problems. We’ll catch up soon I hope.

Jim

Welcome friends of old and those from distant lands! Glad to have you all back for another installment of the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog!  Getting into the technical details of the exterior now. Hmmmm. Things are a little more complicated and time consuming than I thought. And on top of that I hit a nail when I was using the router and ruined the bit I was using. Of course the local lumber store didn’t have the bit I need to finish. It figures.

So we had the Europeans pay us a visit at the old homestead this past week. Scandinavians more specifically. Two of Ethan’s friends by way of his studies in Cambridge, England to be more specific. Sandra from Sweden and Mia from Denmark. What a pleasure it was meeting them and having them stay for a few days while they toured the U S of A. They got a taste of the Empire state and of Hobbit Hollow while they were here. Europeans. They’re so interesting. I gave them the tour of the Hobbit house. The house was a mess. Sorry ladies. Kind of have a lot of stuff going on over there right now and the inside has become a bit of a storage room. I think they got the gist of what it’s going to look like. Here they are with Ethan in front of the house.

What a nice time we had with the girls. they’re heading up to check Boston out and then going to Brooklyn. Brooklyn???? Really?

Good luck girls and you both get a free week at the Hobbit when I’m done.

Hmmmm. That might not be for quite a while. Stay tuned!

So as I was telling you last week I began the exterior trim of the front door. It’s quite involved. When you actually start putting it all together it’s really quite a lot. The devil is in the details and there is a whole bunch of stuff to consider.

The bottom line is I have to make a circular frame to hold the door trim away from the house in order for it to clear the stone and the siding. You’ll get it once it’s all put together. I had Terence secure the first circle to the house. We’ll secure the frame to this one after we make the frame. First I have to get a new router bit.

So this next picture shows you the trim with filter fabric behind it. The filter fabric is there so that moisture doesn’t get trapped between the wood and the styrofoam. We will put this on the whole outside of the house.

Well I have the siding coming in this week. Hopefully next week I can set Terence up with preping the North side.

Gotta go. Have a great week!

Jim

 

Welcome friends of Middle Earth!. Yes the story continues……as did the quest to destroy the Ring. As does the quest to finish this house.

We’re going to finish it one nail at a time people. That’s how it’s going to get done. We’ll get it done. Patience is a virtue people. Hang in there for me.

Still having trouble downloading my pictures. I got rid of a bunch stuff on my phone and still no results. It’s getting excruciatingly annoying. I started trimming out the front door this weekend and I really wanted to show you what I did. It’s a multi step process. Took step one this weekend. Next week another.

But like I said lets backup before we go forward.

So did you ever do something that you thought was a good idea but at the same time you know somewhere in the back of your head your thinking this could really backfire? Like you’re really going to regret doing this later on.

Had one of those moments this weekend.

The idea was, and it was a good one, to make an oldies playlist for the barbecue this weekend. You know on my phone. The Editor’s father flew in from Arizona this week and we were getting together. He’s 85 and I figured he might like to  hear some of the oldies songs from the fifties that he grew up with. I mean those 50’s songs are classics. But there was one critical element that I kind of miscalculated on. You know  of what I speak ……That Mother-in-Law of mine was there too. I mean what was I thinking. And I knew she was going to start singing I just wasn’t thinking that it would be with that kind of volume. You want to talk about off key. Forgetaboutit! I actually brought a wheel barrow out to help her  carry a tune. Didn’t help. It didn’t give her the hint either. It only got worse after she drank a half a pitcher of margaritas.

Roy Orbison will never be the same for me.

Oh yeah here’s Rocky.

I really felt bad for this guy. We got him out safely after a bit of a struggle. (See blog post from two weeks ago.)

Oh and guess what the trade winds blew across the Atlantic the other week? Georgia flew in from Spain and arrived at JFK! She took the New York City subway to our little job on 61st street and her and I had a little snack at an outdoor cafe to celebrate. And was it nice to see my daughter again. So glad she’s home!

Boy it’s good to have her back.

So one of the things we did the previous week was the infamous blower door test. Very interesting. So for those of you who are not learned in the ways of blower door testing let me enlighten you.

Hmmm. Not really that easy. What a blower door test does is measure the air infiltration rate of your house when it gets depressurized.  In simple terms it measures how much your house leaks.Why is this important? Because a leaky house creates drafts. If your house is drafty the insulation you put into your house will have a limited effect on either your heating or cooling bill. So this is a huge component of Passive house design. Your air leakage rate has to be extremely low. The rate we are looking to get to is .6 air changes per hour at 50 pascals of pressure. Most houses built in the United States are probably closer to 6.0 or ten times the rate that we are trying to achieve. Actually, the new energy code for New York is 3.0 someone told me. So we are trying to get to 5 times better than that.

So how is this all done. (And I’m going to run out of time so I’ll be brief.) So you hire a guy who does blower door testing that’s step one. So what he does is seal off an exterior door to your house and hook up a fan to the shroud he’s put over the door.

Check it out.

Once this is secured he turns on the fan and the fan is blowing air out of the house. So as the fan tries to blow air out of the house air has to get sucked into the house through any openings in the house that air can get through. It’s that simple. There’s a monitoring device attached to the fan that measures the air flow rate.

So he starts it up.

I was actually pretty excited to see how we would do. …and kind of nervous too. I mean this is huge. If we fail the test it’s like getting punched in the gut. Like getting the wind knocked out of you. Like how did we get it all so wrong kind of thing.

So yeah I’m a little nervous.

So Terence and I are standing behind him as he is watching the monitoring device. He turns to us and says, “I’m not really getting a reading.” Terrence and I look at each other and grin. Yes. ” Open up a window I need to check something.” Terence opens a window and air rushes into the house.

He shuts off the fan. “I need to go to the smallest ring” he says. What he does is make the opening for the fan smaller so that it creates a greater sucking force on the inside of the house. Check out the opening on the fan now.

So once he sets this up he says, “Man you’re not going to have any issues heating this house. There’s barely any leakage.” Then we start trying to find a leak. We eventually found some minor leakage in each of the 4 skylights. 3 of them had a single leak and one had 3 small leaks. So our blower door results were great. (.69) Just missed getting to (.6). The good thing is we know where the leaks are. Once we seal these up good we should definitely get to the number we are trying to achieve.

On another note Terence started the insulation on the outside of the house. Check it out.

We are going to put 4 inches of this stuff on the outside. One layer at a time. We used 2 and a half inch screws with metal washers to hold the styro to the sheathing. It worked really well.

We left a gap between the windows and the styrofoam to be spray foamed after we were done. I’ll show you next week what I’m talking about and why.

I made a mistake with this trim and it broke while I was installing it.

Out of time people. Gotta go.

Oh yeah and guess who took home the biggest piece of cake at the end of the BBQ?

Need I say?

Have a great week!

Jim