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[egon]

The walls were logs. Due to ignorance and economics they were too small in diameter. There were too many leaks in the winter. To try and rectify this situation I placed a vapour barrier on the outside. Put on 2x4 staps every four feet with 1-1/2 in. rigid foam insulation between the straps. Covered this with cedar siding. Were the covering met the projected log ends I used foam to fill in all the gaps. Made a lot of difference in heat retention. The nicest thing about it was the logs would act as a heat sink in winter or summer.

Egon

[egon]

Perhaps this picture will show a little better.

Egon

[DocsknotInn]

I didnt realize those were full logs behind the fireplace photo. That must have been a LOT of work. There is a company here now that takes Cedar logs and cuts them in half, hollowing out the log a bit and filling it with the insul foam. They are flat on the back and you can put them on a inner wall to make it look like a log cabin inside. Just a facade. Dave

[Pat]

Egon, Better late than never? (Or is it better never than late?) Anyway congrats on the house. I have a question about the picture with the bird bath. How much did it dress out to?

Hey, I got pains in both my knees just looking at all your tile work.

I did so many Mexican saltillo clay tile pavers without proper knee pads that I have lost well over 1/2 of the feeling in my knees.

I bet you weren't too happy about having to go back and insulate the outside and change the looks of your labor of love.

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you I wish we were doing all the work on the current house project ourselves. It could easily take me 10 years or more to do it myself. This one had better be the last one because of the apparent exponential growth phenomenon I have noticed. Our first house we owned instead of renting was about 800 sqft (9 year time out to live on sailboat) then our second house was nearly 1500 sq ft. My wife's attic "tea room" above the master suite is about the size of or maybe a tad larger than the first house. So I have to nip this trend right here before it gets entirely out of hand.

Did you build or buy a ready to go house this time? Have you "customized/personalized" it much yet?

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

Pat:

It did'nt dressout,just ate, as I don't hunt.

For some reason I required a knee operation last spring. Doctor called it a Classical Hockey Knee whatever that means. Don't play hockey either.

Building another house is not in my plans. When we moved here it was considered but the lake land construction would have severely dented my meagre pocket book.

We purchesed a house in town. Three stories, drive in basement that is used as a shop area, oak and maple floorsand built in 1934 with wood from the builders woodlot. We are the third owners. The previous owners did serious upgrading including turning the attic into the third floor master bathroom with a huge hot tub we never use.

I've redone some floors, replaced some dubvious wiring and added some more of my own. Did quite a bit of work in the basement walling off areas and putting up drywall.

Backyard has had a metal Kiln shed added and a few changes in landscaping with more to come.

Finally got some farm wood dried and will start redoing the second floor bathroom.

Egon

[slowzuki]

Added more dubious wiring or just plain wiring [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
replaced some dubvious wiring and added some more of my own

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[egon]

Everything I do is" DUBVIOUS IN NATURE" and often subjected to change.

Egon

[Pat]

Egon, No offense intended RE shooting Bambi. I am not philosophically against hunting but don't participate much. In three years, I have shot one bunny (we ate it) for doing what a bunny has to do, eat the lettuce in my wife's garden. I will and have shot destructive varmints, including feral cats.

My prevous house was a 1928 Spanish Mediterranean style stucco with red tile roof and wrought iron decorations. It was lath and plaster with coved ceilings. That was the house that taught me a lot about maint. How to plaster, restore old windows and doors, use new products to repair old houses (thin epoxy for wood rot and bondo for missing material) and so forth. I learned a few things about termites and other wood destroying organisms and the clever practices of Terminix. Original wiring was in rigid conduit (2 wire system). Had 4 sets of French doors with true divided lights. I only broke one or two panes per door removing and replacing old putty.

The garage was inaccessible by modern full size cars, being in the back yard and requireing a turn difficult to make in any thing approaching a family sedan since WW-II. It bacame a shop, and some previous owners had replaced the garage door with French doors.

How does the knee like the upstairs master bedroom? My wife started out wanting a single floor home so we ended up with 3 levels. She justifies that as being OK because the master suite is on the ground floor and there is no "essential" space in the basement or the attic (AKA upstairs) so we could do just fine on only the ground floor.

Do you have an aversion to getting into hot water with your wife? Hot tubs can be nice and they can be a royal pain too. We may put one in a nook outside beside the sun porch later on. I'm going to be quizing my HVAC guy tomorrow as regards the prospects for using rejected heat from the A/C to heat a hot tub. Properly insulated and with a good insulated cover (also keeps out dirt) they aren't such bad energy hogs. Fussing with the chemicals is still not my favorite thing. Someone should invent a practical low cost automated chemical maint system for hot tubs.

Your pretty ambitious in the maint and renovation department. I envy all you really handy people. I am still trying to develop some skills to the point that I can earn one of my favorite compliments, "it doesn't look like you did it."

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[egon]

Pat:

I'm not anti hunter. It's just to much trouble gutting, skinning and then makeing the proper cuts. My desire for hunting ended rapidly after four of us had the pleasure of carrying out a moose through stream and up hill and for several kilometers.

My knee works fine now. Still run up the stairs. Hot tubs require water tests. Done too many of those.

Did you use heat to remove that old hard putty. I had a few windows that required glass replacement when I removed and painted the sunroom windows last summer.

And I'm just like you, I really admire skilled people as my skills are minimal at best.

Egon

[Pat]

Egon, I used heat to break some of the panes and some I had to break by other means. I tried to use a shield kinda like a piece of wide metal Venetian blind piece used to keep paint off something when painting an adjacent objetc. Some of the putty was OOOOOLD and rock hard. I also bought one of those electric drill mounted putty chaser thingies but it didn't come close to being a keeper.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]