5/10/10 Monday. Got the additional ventilation parts I needed and squared accounts with Central Fabricators.

5/11-13/10 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I stopped at Mike’s on the way to pay him for the installation of the septic drain line. I was surprised to learn that there was no charge. Kari told me that it was included in the septic system installation which was already paid for. That was a pleasant surprise. Kari also gave me a couple of jars of her homemade jam. Another pleasant surprise. She also recommended a drywall installer, a carpenter, and a couple of laborers I could call when I needed help. I thanked her for that.

On the way, I noticed that workers were installing power to the Bartholomew’s. Evidently they have given up on being totally off the grid.

I arrived at 12:15 and was promptly greeted by Bert and Ernie as usual. The weather was beautiful – not too hot – and the mosquitoes were not out yet. It was a perfect time to finish the job of installing the next 60-foot section of copper water pipe.

When I went up to the cabin, I noticed that the ceiling boards I had stained were still not quite dry. I concluded that one coat of stain was going to be enough. There will be no weather or sun on the underside of the eaves.

I went to work and spent most of the afternoon digging the trench in the woods to get it ready for the water pipe. I worked until my body let me know that I had had enough for one day. Age has started to take its toll.

Next, I unpacked the in-line duct fan I had bought. I temporarily wired it up and tried it to see how loud it was and how much it vibrated. It is loud enough that I definitely want it installed in the crawlspace to minimize the noise. I read in the instructions that it wasn’t supposed to be installed within eight feet of the ground. Since the crawlspace is only 6 feet deep at the location I want to install the fan, this presented a problem. I decided to call the manufacturer in the morning to find out more about the restriction.

Finally, I did some measurements to figure out exactly where the vertical ventilation duct had to go. It had to go between a pair of rafters. It also had to go between a pair of loft floor joists, and it had to go between a pair of main floor joists and miss the main floor beam. It seemed pretty clear that a six-inch duct could meet all these constraints, but I would have to make more precise measurements to be sure.

In the evening Ellen told me that I had gotten an email from Convectair with the design for electric heating units they recommended for the cabin. She composed a note to Brian Kemly for me forwarding the Convectair email so that he could begin putting a proposal together for me.

On Wednesday morning, I called the fan manufacturer and learned that the restriction did not apply if the moving parts of the fan would be inside ducting. The restriction was simply to keep someone from sticking their hand up into the fan blades if they were open.

Next I did some more precise measurements for the duct siting. Another constraint was the hollow log in the loft that the duct would run through. The duct will be 6-inch and the inside diameter of the log is 8 inches, so there is some flexibility in where the duct is inside the log. I want the extra space to be away from the wall so that I can use it to install switch boxes in the log so they don’t interfere with the duct.

After drawing a couple six-inch circles on the loft floor and drilling small holes through the floor at the centers of the circles, I suspended a plumb bob from a wire going through the holes. That showed me how the duct would run down through the joists and avoid electrical wires already installed in that location. It also showed me where the pipe would go through the bedroom closet floor.

I drilled another small hole in the closet floor at the center of the duct location and then went down in the crawlspace to see whether there would be any interference down there. There wasn’t. The pipe would be centered nicely between the joists and away from the beam. The installation seemed feasible with no problems. I still need to figure out the sequence of installation of the various duct sections, but that will be fun for later.

Next I went back into the woods and resumed my trench digging. I finished it up so it was ready for pipe shortly before noon. Before I went in for lunch, I carried a 60-foot coil of 1-inch copper pipe from the crawl space to the head of the trench in the woods.

After lunch and a nap, I installed the pipe in the trench. I lashed three long 1x2s together to make a tripod over the end of the existing pipe. Then I used a block and tackle and the tripod to suspend the coil of new pipe so that one end of the new pipe was aligned with the end of the old pipe so I could sweat the two ends together without having to wrestle with that coil.

I shut the water off at the spring, opened the air valve up there so the pipe could drain quickly, and then disconnected the hose from the end of the existing pipe. It took a while for all the water to drain out. When it did, I used the propane torch to remove the coupler connecting the hose fitting to the end of the old pipe.

Then I sweated the new pipe to the old pipe using a new coupler. When that was done and checked using my handy dental mirror, I sweated the hose fitting assembly to the other end of the new pipe. That assembly was not quite cooled off by that time so I used a pliers to handle it.

When the soldering was finished, I lowered the coil by relaxing the block and tackle. Then I removed the choker from the coil, and rolled the coil downhill in the bottom of the trench to lay the pipe out into its final resting place. That was a very gratifying, rewarding and fun piece of work. I was very happy to see that shiny pipe lying in the bottom of the trench.

The next thing to do was to re-establish the water flow through the new pipe. This turned out to be more exasperating than I had planned on. When I opened the water valve at the spring and closed the air valve after the hissing of escaping air had stopped, I went back down to the bottom and expected to see water gushing out. I was disappointed to see that there was only a dribble coming out. I covered the end of the pipe with my thumb and didn’t detect any air pressure which would indicate that the water was on its way. I didn’t have any loops in the plumbing so I was really puzzled.

I went back up to the spring, let some more air out of the air valve, and plugged up the overflow pipe with my hand to build up some head pressure inside the spring box. Back down to the pipe I went again, to find only a slightly greater dribble.

So I went back up to the spring, not knowing exactly what to do differently. I did the same things again except this time I held my hand over the overflow for a longer period of time and built up quite a bit more pressure.

This time when I went back down, I was happy to see a strong gushing stream coming out of the end of the pipe. Then after a little bushwhacking, I connected the gushing pipe to a length of hose connected to the supply pipe going to the cabin and my plumbing system was restored.

I spent the rest of the day backfilling the trench. I got about half of it done before I quit for the day, very tired, but happy to have gotten that project finished before the bugs came out and before the weather got too hot. I was happy to discover that the pressure in the shower was noticeably higher than before. The smooth copper pipe offered less flow resistance than the hose that it replaced had.

On Thursday morning I finished backfilling the water line trench. Then I took up the four tarps that I had piled the dirt on and laid them out on in the sun on the upper roadway to dry them off. Then I went back into the woods and rolled up four old hoses that had been used for my water supply in the past but which had just been left there, some for three or four years. As I took each hose up, I carried it to the high rock and up the ladder which was still up against the peak of the roof, and draped the hose over the roof of the cabin so that one end was hanging down over the front porch and the other end was hanging down over the back porch. The idea is to get the hoses as empty and as dry as possible before I store them away for whatever their next use might be.

With those hoses out of there and the trench covered, the woods up to the spring are pristine again except for my chip-covered trails. They should stay that way from now on.

By the time I finished with the hoses, the tarps were all dry, so I folded each of them up and stored them under the front porch.

Before I quit for the week, I made measurements of the spaces between the rafters on the Grid 1 end of the roof so that I can make wooden bird blocks. I’ll try to make them at home to save working time at Camp Serendipity. I plan to install ceiling boards under the eaves where I have the scaffolds already set up, and the bird blocks will keep birds from nesting on the ceiling boards. I can re-use the bird blocks as I install more ceiling boards in the future. That way, I won’t have to disturb any nests as I go.

I left for home at 2:10 feeling very good about getting that water pipe installed and about my plans for installing the ventilation system.

When I got home, I saw that Brian had responded to my email and that he had asked me to call him. I called and we discussed the heating plan. He said he would put a proposal together and he said that he would like to make a trip up to Camp Serendipity to help me with various electrical questions and problems. I am eagerly looking forward to that.