Getting back on track

Wow, it's been a stressful couple weeks. I did a lot of research online about roofing and insulating, and ended up calling a couple roofers to come take a look at our problem. I really needed to get back to work and decided it'd be better to spend the money to have an expert take care of the problem.

I ended up getting a fantastic deal with a referral from one of my dive buddies (thanks Marty!). Jim Fick (& Company) reroofed the addition almost in one day; they finished up in about an hour the next day. Now we have a roof that should be leak-proof and is guaranteed for 30 years if we have a problem.

Here you can see how the water ran down the valleys, hit the tips of the shingles and then followed the top of the shingles outward. That's how we ended up with water under our eaves.



While we were at it, we moved the tube sky light away from the valley so we don't end up with problems down the road. Jim put down Ice & Water Shield on the eaves and valleys (even though he said I didn't need it), removed the metal valley flashing and did a "California cut" shingled valley instead. I'll try to post some photos of that when I'm up there tomorrow finishing up the tube sky light.



With the roof finished, I took some time to go diving today, and then came home to start digging the trench for the french drain and downspout drain.

The trencher made fairly quick work of digging. It took me about 90 minutes to do all the trenching in the back of the house, but then it was too dark to see. I'll finish up the digging tomorrow morning, then we'll start laying gravel and pipe. With any luck, this will resolve our issue with water in the crawlspace, but the crawlspace probably won't completely dry out until summer.

Water, water, everywhere

You've probably been wondering why I haven't posted much lately. Well, the other day I poked my head into the new crawlspace and wondered why the plastic vapor barrier looked all smooth. I looked underneath it and about pooped my pants...



The water was just about to the top of the footing! Now, up to that point we had not put the gutters on because we were focusing on other stuff (like the kitchen). We've had lots of rain since we put the roof on five months ago, and the crawlspace was always bone dry, so I didn't think it was going to be a problem. When it rains, it pours, so to speak, because once the crawlspace started leaking it hasn't stopped.

Needless to say, we put the gutters up over the next two days. If you haven't put up gutters in the rain and dark before, you should try it sometime. It's a great time!

So then off to Home Depot for a water pump we went.

Pump #1: Small Utility Pump

The guy at Home Depot talked me into this little number. I misread "1/12 HP" as "1/2 HP". Heck, I didn't even know they made pumps that underpowered. This thing was really fun to use. The 6' hose that came with it was super stiff and kept wanting to coil up, and you had to put oil in it every time you started it.

It probably would have been fine if any of the following were true:

1. It was submersible
2. It had more power
3. It could support longer intake and discharge hoses
4. You didn't have to put oil in it every time you started it
5. You didn't have to shut it off immediately when it started to suck air
6. It didn't take 30 minutes to get it to prime
7. You enjoyed crouching in a cold, wet, muddy crawlspace futzing with crappy pumps

We spent the majority of two days moving this little princess pump from puddle to puddle, Jen faithfully unplugging it when it started to suck air, and I moving the intake and keeping it clear of debris. Then we'd wake up the next day to find the crawlspace full of water and start the whole charade all over again.

Mercifully, the pump refused to prime on the third day, and I could barely get it stuffed back in the box fast enough to return it to the place from whence it came.

Pump #2: "Intellipump"

Boy, we were excited about this baby. It was so smart it could actually sense the water! Now we were cooking with gas!

As soon as I walked in the door, I unpacked our new savior and headed for the crawlspace. Ever so tenderly, I toed for the deepest spot and dunked this Einstein of pumps. It jumped to life and pumped with a fervor I'd never seen before, and then... it stopped.

"Hmmm, that's odd. I mean, it's nearly completely submerged," I thought. "Surely, it must be doing some kind of super smart start-up water sensing routine."

No amount of futzing would make the pump stay on for more than 15 seconds. The manufacturer was closed for four more days, and Home Depot was closed early for New Year's. We were left to make the best of it with our new not-so-intelligent guest.

Rather than just sit idle while the crawlspace filled up, and not willing to spend another several hours in the crawlspace, we plugged the pump into a power strip by the bed and took turns flipping the strip's power switch on and off every 15 seconds. The lights would dim slightly when the pump kicked on, and then would go bright again when the pump shut off. This was our signal to flip the switch again. We kept this nonsense up for about four hours until neither of us could stay awake anymore, but we manage to get most of the water out of the crawlspace.

Eagerly, we peeked into the crawlspace in the morning to see if the water had finally stopped. Sadly, that was not to be the case, so we packed pump #2 back up and headed to Home Depot.

Pump #3: Sump Pump

After four days of monkeying around in our new Olympic Mud Wrestling Pit, saving money was not really my first priority. I wanted this to be over. Our plan was to install a sump on each side of the crawlspace, which is divided in half by a pony wall sitting on a footer.

I decided 1/2 HP pumps would be overkill, so we got two 1/4 HP pumps instead. We also got two check valves and two 25' flex discharge hoses. The Depot didn't have sump liners shorter than 36", so we got those at McLendon's.

Once we got home, we headed straight for the crawlspace with our new pumps. We were able to very quickly get the majority of the water pumped out so we could start digging the sump holes.

The first hole wasn't too bad, and I was able to get about 18" of it buried. I drilled about 30 holes in the liner and surrounded it with gravel. We put the pump in, plugged it in, and everything worked perfectly.

Onto the second hole, and things weren't so easy. I hit very hard clay and rock after only 8", and the area around the hole was quickly eroding. I found it was better to just stay in the hole because standing around the hole hastened the erosion.

After about 90 minutes of digging with little headway, it because apparent we were going to have to make it work at a shallower depth. Here's me standing in the hole:



After hauling ten 5-gallon buckets of gravel (2 at a time) from the driveway, into the house, through the bedroom and down into the crawlspace, the second sump hole was as good as it was going to get. I don't know what a 5-gallon bucket of gravel weighs, but it's pretty darn heavy. Two of 'em at once is twice the fun.

Here's a parting shot of the first sump as we returned to the actual living space of our home:



The sumps should keep the water level in the crawlspace in check and allow us to focus our energy on preventing the water from getting to the foundation to begin with. I had 6 yards of washed gravel delivered today, and I requested a utilities check. As soon as the utilities are marked on Monday, we'll be renting a Ditch Witch and putting in a French Drain (a.k.a. trench drain) all the way around the house. If this doesn't stop water from getting into the crawlspace, I don't know what will.

As if water in the crawlspace wasn't enough, we're also having problems with the roof. We're getting water build-up under the eaves, and I thought it was due to condensation from the attic space, so I got the saws-all out and cut out the 2-1/2" hole vents we made...



... and used some leftover primed 2x2 to construct a custom screen that would allow more air flow.



However, after a little investigation, it turns out the water is probably making its way under the felt because of the way we roofed the valleys. More on that later, but it looks like I'll be re-roofing the valleys and eaves soon. =(

I'll end this novella with a funny story. In the middle of the night, Jen awoke to me reaching over her and fumbling around for some unseen object in my sleep. She asked me what the hell I was doing, to which I replied, "I'm looking for my tape measure." She said, "I put it in your tool pouch." Apparently that satisfied me, and I stopped looking for the dream tape measure. I guess slaving to the house doesn't stop when you go to sleep. =)

The whirlwind has passed

Dad headed down to Sacremento today after a three week marathon of home projects. We did a lot of stuff that I can't remember, but here's a quick recap.

We emptied the laundry room and installed the underlayment and vinyl flooring. We also ran a 30-amp 220V circuit for the dryer and installed the dryer vent.





The washer had been shaking like crazy even after we leveled it, so we built some feet out of leftover hardboard and sheet rubber. We used a holesaw to cut the feet, then used a Forstner bit to create the pocket, and put rubber in the pocket and on the bottom of the feet. This all but eliminated the shaking and keeps the washer from walking during its spin cycle.



On the two non-rainy days we had, we finished installing the weather barrier and gable siding on the addition and shed.







We had a mysterious appearance of water above one window to the left of the slider. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from because there was no sign of water in the attic, and it appeared to be coming in from the eave (and then under the moisture barrier onto the window).

Because we've had some pretty major rain showers with no leaks since putting the roof on, I'm guessing this is just condensation. This assumption is based on:

1. We used a 19" overlap on the roofing tarpaper, which makes it nearly impossible for water to get under the paper.
2. The roof vent and skylights were papered, shingled, flashed and sealed pretty darn well.
3. The water only appeared when the weather dropped below freezing this past week.
4. Some parts of the ceiling were not insulated at all because I was waiting to finish a little electrical.

To test our theory, and to check a big task off our list, we rented an insulation blower from Home Depot and blew in 30 bags of cellulose. It's a messy job, but I liked it a lot better than dealing with fiberglass batts.



This morning, as we were packing up the blower, we noticed that the door to my Jeep was open. Apparently, some poop-butt punks tried to jack my ride last night and left me with a broken window. Just something else to fix, I guess. =)

Concrete, trim and lights

I was planning to dive this morning, but Holly bailed on me. Instead, I finished up the last chapter of Diving into Darkness and mixed up some more concrete samples.

Previously, we just used gray Portland cement and some Sakrete pigment. This time we used a 1:1:3:5 mixture of white Portland cement, quartz, sand and pea gravel. We mixed up one square with no color, then one each of brown and charcoal. The mix was much thicker than before, so I vibrated it for a lot longer to get the air out.



After making a run to Home Depot to get some underlayment for the laundry room, more trim and the remaining pendant lights, dad resumed working on the window trim.



I climbed up into the attic to cut the holes for the pendant lights above the kitchen island. After installing the ceiling boxes and poking wire into them, I went back to the kitchen and hooked everything up.



I think that might actually be the last of the electrical (besides a tiny bit in the shed). I was afraid the pendant lights might seem obtrusive with our low ceilings, but they actually look great.



Tomorrow, we'll mix up some more concrete samples using fine quartz instead of sand and install the laundry room underlayment. Then we'll hit Home Depot again for the gable siding and rent a roller for the vinyl. With any luck, we'll have the laundry room and alcove all done tomorrow.

A few more tasks completed

To prepare for installing the home theater cabinet, we ran some coax, CAT5 and speaker wire into the wall behind the TV. It all terminates nicely into a configurable wall plate:



Because our TV fits so snugly into its space in the cabinet, we decided to rip open a hole in the back for air flow at the last minute:



The two supervisors assigned to coordinate the installation, Jen and Thora, kept a watchful eye on us to ensure everything went according to plan:



The new cabinet really cleans everything up, despite the junk we have all over the room. I just need to treat, stain and finish the drawer faces, and then I can install the two large drawers in the bottom of the cabinet.



Today we bought a whole bunch of trim, then came home to run the 30-amp 220V circuit to the new clothes dryer location. After that, we installed the shower door in the new bathroom:



We hung a chandelier over the dining room table last night, but I don't have a photo of that yet. Our next big task is to build the concrete countertops. We're quickly running out of time, so we need to decide on the type of aggregate to use and then build some more samples.

The dovetail jig

I've always wanted to get a dovetail jig because I love the way dovetail joints look on drawers and boxes. I finally had a reason to buy one yesterday, and Rockler just happened to have a Christmas sale on theirs for $99.

Warning: This post is really more for my benefit than yours. The instructions for the jig were sort of cryptic, and it took a while to figure out what I was doing. This is my attempt at creating something I can refer to later. =)

I decided to use through dovetail joints because the front of the drawer box will be covered by a framed face. Otherwise, a half-blind dovetail joint would be preferable to hide the ends of the tails. Illustrations can be found on Wikipedia.

The first step was to create a "clamping shim." This is basically a piece of material about 1/4" thicker than the stock you're cutting, and its purpose is to raise the template high enough so your router bit doesn't cut into the metal jig. The manual greatly overexplained this step and caused a lot of confusion.

Next, center your stock in the template, ensuring that the outer tails (i.e. the top- and bottom-most tails on the drawer side) are far enough from the edge of the stock to allow room for the pins. Adjust the side stop to mark this position for the other sides.

Now hold a piece of the front/back stock perpendicular to your drawer side, up against the template, and make a scribe line on the piece to be cut. Set the router on the template and adjust the depth so that you will remove the scribe line. I used the 8º bit and brass guide bushing included with the jig.

Cut all the drawer sides first. The manual stated that the outside of the drawer sides should be facing the jig, but I couldn't figure out how this would make any difference.


The only thing being cut in this photo is the vertical piece.


The tails cut into a drawer side.

When all the sides have been cut, switch to the straight router bit and replace the tail template with the pin template. Mount your stock vertically in exactly the same position as the drawer sides -- do not adjust the side stop.

Adjust the template to position "F" for the first cut. This will almost certainly create a fit that is too tight, and you will need to adjust the template backwards, one mark at a time, until the fit is perfect. Then you can make all other cuts without further adjustment.

Cut the fronts and backs with the inside of the drawer facing the jig. Unlike the sides, this cut is not symmetrical, so the position is critical if you have routed a channel for the drawer bottom.



Here's a shot of the assembled joint, prior to any gluing or sanding:



We didn't want the drawer bottom channel to be visible from the sides of the drawer, so we routed a channel in all the drawer pieces prior to cutting the dovetails. Using the router allowed us to stop the channel about 1/4" short of the ends of the drawer pieces.

Here's a shot showing the router set up in the plunge base with a 3/8" straight bit and fence adjusted to put the channel about 1/2" from the bottom of the drawer sides.



When assembled, the channel on all drawer pieces aligns and is ready to accept the 3/8" bottom piece.

Custom home theater cabinet

We started work on the cabinet to hold all the home theater stuff the other day. It has two upper spaces to hold the front speakers, two side spaces below that to hold the stereo equipment, two large spaces for drawers, and two center spaces for the center speaker and Xbox. We used 3/4" birch veneered plywood and birch edge tape.

First, we made the outer box:



Then we built all the inner pieces and glued/nailed them in place:



Here's a shot of the cabinet with a couple coats of ebony stain. Later that day we added a coat of satin polyurethane.



Then we headed to Rockler to get a dovetail jig. More about that in the next post.