Construction Journal Entry Week of 6/16/13

6/18-20/13 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

On the way I stopped and visited with Uncle Charles. He had just celebrated his 88th birthday so I had a piece of his birthday cake while I visited with him. I arrived at Camp Serendipity at 11:30. The mosquitoes were thick. It looks like it's going to be a bad year for them. After lunch and a nap, I shot some videos around the property in preparation for making a video about my water system.

While I was up at the spring, I discovered to my dismay that the spring was leaking badly. The water was coming out from under the concrete spring box and so much was flowing that there was no water coming out of the overflow pipe. Fortunately the water level was still a little higher than the plumbing take-off, so it didn't affect the flow of water to the cabin. But if it drops any lower, I could have a real problem. I need to do something about that leak before that happens. It's always something.

Next, I got Cindy, the loppers, out and cut away branches and brush from the driveway and the lower and upper roadway. I wanted to make it a little easier for Moonlight Tile & Stone to be able to get their truck in and up to the cabin. Then I got out the rope I use to tie up Rosy, the rosebush, and laid it out so I will be ready to tie the bush up before the Moonlight guys get here.

While I was in the crawlspace getting the rope, I saw that I had caught a small mouse in the trap down there. At first I thought it was a shrew, but after a closer look, it was a small mouse. The shrews have been able to get into the crawlspace without me ever figuring out how they did it. But I thought all the mouse holes were plugged up. Maybe this one was so small that he made it in the same ways the shrews did, or maybe he scampered in behind me when I went in or out of the door. Who knows. But now I have something else to worry about.

On Wednesday, after I had had my breakfast, I cleared everything off the tops of the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom vanity. I un-plumbed and removed the old temporary sink from the bathroom and brought it out to the back porch. Then I cleared away stuff and cleaned up so that I was ready for the countertop installation. I swept off the front porch and tied up Rosy. The trap in the crawl space had not caught another mouse.

Around 10:30, Dave and Salvatori from Moonlight Tile & Stone arrived in a big van. I went down to greet them and brought along some bug juice for them to use. At first they said they wouldn't need it, but as soon as they got out of the truck, they got swarmed and they changed their minds. They were wearing long-sleeved jackets, but they smeared the bug juice on their hands and faces.

I thought they were going to send three guys in two vehicles with the stones being carried in a pickup. That way the pickup could go all the way up to the upper roadway. But this van was too big to make it around the hairpin turn and up the hill. Dave and Salvatori said they would just carry everything up by hand. They backed the van up to the hairpin turn and pulled out a ramp which ran down to the ground.

I helped them carry up some of their tools but mostly I just watched them as they worked. The notch I had made in the log wall to receive the stone was not quite wide enough. So I got out my Bosch vibrating saw and cut the notch a little wider. Everything fit well after that.

The holes for the faucets had not been cut and Dave asked me what spacing I wanted. I was unprepared to answer him. I had thought those holes would have already been cut. We talked about the options and what they would imply. Since my main concern is getting faucets that will function properly at low pressure, it seemed to me that individual faucets for hot and cold would give me more flexibility than a single integrated faucet. So I chose the wide hole spacing. I hope that was the right choice. I'll talk to a plumber at McClendon's next week and find out.

At the final stage, after Dave had installed a narrow ledger behind the stove, and he was about to install a splash behind the stove, the ledger came loose. It fell to the floor, and broke into three pieces. When Joe had described to me how he intended to make that splash it didn't quite make sense to me. This breakage was just about what I was afraid might happen. Dave and Salvatori stopped work at that point and took the broken pieces back with them. They will figure out a stronger way to install that splash.

I gave them a set of keys to the place so that they can come back while I am not there and finish up the installation. They left about 4:00.

Except for the problem of the stone breakage, I was very happy with the installation. I took some pictures of the finished work.

After they were gone, I leveled the stove to match the height of the countertops and then tacked the plywood backing back on the back of the peninsula. Then I went down and untied Rosy and finally put the drawers and most of the stuff back into the cabinets.

On Thursday morning I made careful measurements and drawings of both sinks so that I could make sure I get all the right parts and advice from McClendon's in order to trim out the sinks. I also jotted down a few questions I don't want to forget to ask them.

I turned on the valve for about an hour to water the giant sequoia named Brian. It had been raining a lot lately and the ground was pretty wet so I figured that the rest of the sequoias wouldn't need to be watered this week.

Finally, I got my cordless drill from the truck and finished screwing the plywood back onto the peninsula. Then I set three more mouse traps on the first floor, just in case I get invaded, and left for home at about 1:20.

I got down the road a quarter mile or so and realized that I had forgotten my watch. I turned around, went back, and went up to the cabin to get my watch. When I came out I saw that Bert had come for a visit. I went back in and got two trays of left-over gravy in case Ernie was with him. Ernie didn't show up so Bert got two trays to himself. He was a happy dog. And, except for the leaking spring, the mouse, the broken stone, and the mosquitoes, I was a happy man.



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