It's sort of like an Amazon rain forest in here...

Last Thursday, which happened to be the Worst Day in Recent History (more on that later), the husband arrived at the house mid-afternoon to find it raining in the attic.

I should note that it wasn't raining outside, no, this impressive little indoor rainstorm was created by the combination of the near-freezing temperatures outside and the fact that our furnace vent doesn't - it merely stops an inch below the roof decking, letting all the nice, warm, humid air into our attic. Which of course then condensed on the decking, causing a little localized weather system reminiscent of the Amazon rain forest.

Remember this picture? That's our furnace pipe on the right, the roof decking all around, and the metal plate covering the hole where the pipe should exit to the exterior.

Now, I know, you're wondering why we didn't fix this back in November when we realized it was a problem - actually, we were wondering this too as we watched water drip from the attic. We had planned to do so, as part of installing the new metal roof. Needless to say, we haven't gotten to the new metal roof yet, so the venting issue hadn't been fixed. However, the rainstorm in the attic gave us a certain motivation to fix the problem, post-haste. We took the coward's way out and called our roofer. Best $75 we have spent so far.

Several hours and two trips to the hardware store later, we were the proud owners of a properly-venting furnace. Here's the sheet of metal that the roofer ripped out:

That flimsy bit of metal was all that was covering a fairly sizable hole in the roof where the furnace should have vented. It's almost rusted through.

And here is our beautiful new vent:

I know, it doesn't look like much, but there was a nice, steady poof of steam coming through the vent when I took this picture.

It's amazing the little things like a proper furnace vent that make you happy when you're dealing with a renovation project of this magnitude. And hey, now it only rains in the attic when it's raining outside!

The Ford Diesel Truck Convention

Today was extremely productive, although this is going to be another short post because, once again, I'm too tired to write something longer. Many thanks to Fuzzypony for helping us out again today!

Today was a truck-filled day. We used both our truck and Fuzzypony's (THANK YOU for the loan!) for everything - I have no idea what people do without big diesel trucks!

First, we unloaded Sean's new toy that we picked up yesterday (with Fuzzypony's truck) - an early 1990's model Craftsman GT 6000 garden tractor. It's not pretty, but it works well, has a 44 inch mowing deck and top speed is something like 20 mph. I shudder to think of the kids driving a riding lawnmower at 20 mph around the property... eek!

Note the maniacal grin. Good thing that's not a real tractor... ;)

Just after we finished that, the guy came to deliver the round pen we purchased. We got a good deal on the panels, and they're really versatile, so it seemed like a good thing to buy. More on that later.

Next, we took a load of roofing materials to the city dump. It looks like we have about another half-load of stuff to go, but we can handle that later in the week. We also talked to the local handyman, who agreed to haul all the metal off to the dump tomorrow. It's worth a little money to recycle it (about $6.50 per 100 lbs), but considering how much time it would take us to do it, we figured we're better off having someone do it for us and get the money instead.

Then, Fuzzypony and I took both trucks and picked up mulch for the sacrifice paddock for the horses. While we were doing that, the husband took his angle grinder and cut down the 6 metal posts that were all that was left of the carport demo. The carport is now entirely, completely gone, except for one load of trash and the bits we are saving to reuse. We still need to patch the places where the posts were, but it's done!

When we got back, we spent the next hour unloading and spreading the mulch we'd picked up.

Looks like an advertisement for Ford Diesel Trucks!

Fuzzypony unloading mulch to put it under the shed.

With the truck empty, we picked up the panels from near the front gate where they were dropped off and hauled them out back.

Check it out! Sacrifice paddock has been built!

It's starting to look like horses should live here, don't you think?

We still need to run the electric fence, install water troughs and feed buckets, and a few more things, but it's almost ready for the horses!

Weird picture of the day - Fuzzypony ran over this wrench with our magnetic sweeper, then ran over some metal shavings from where the husband cut down the carport poles with his angle grinder. The wrench was magnetized and the metal shavings stuck to it!

Carport demo

This is going to be a short post because I'm tired, but I really wanted to get it up because we FINISHED THE CARPORT DEMO!!!

The carport had to come down so we could get the electrical fixed - to make a long story short, electric lines from the pole can't go over a roof. Ours went over the second carport, and so it had to come down. We had planned on removing the carport eventually, but not quite so soon. However, we want to get the electrical stuff handled before we move in, and our electrician is available starting next Wednesday, so we had to do it now.

So, in pictures, the story of the carport demo.

The husband... on a mission... with a roofing shingle scraper. He tackled the back part of the carport first.

We tried both scraping the shingles and then removing the decking, and just removing the decking with the shingles still on. Here you see part of the front of the roof has been removed.

Whew! All the decking is off. You can see the power lines that we had to work around just over the husband's head. (And notice those sexy coveralls that he's wearing! Santa sure knows what to bring a guy who's remodeling a house!)

After the shingles and decking were gone, we started removing the joists under the decking. These boards are 2x6x16, so we saved them. We're hoping to use them on the new barn, when we get to that.

Using a 2x4 that we'd already removed to push down the last section of the roofing.

Tools in action!
See that enormous beam going across the entire picture? Turns out it was held up with three nails. It made a rather loud crashing noise when it came down... and the husband was triumphant!

One more to go... the perimeter of the carport was constructed of 6 4x10x12 cedar beams. We're saving the beams to use in the new barn. We're also saving the decking from the ceiling of the carport for roof decking for the addition, since it's 3/8 in. plywood in excellent condition.

And... it's gone! Well, not entirely... we still have to take down the metal support posts and patch the driveway, but that can wait.

We also have several HUGE piles of materials that have to either be hauled off to the dump or disassembled further and stacked. We have probably 50 2x6x12 or longer white pine boards, not to mention the beams and decking. We're hoping to use it for future projects on the house, because lumber is expensive and we'd just as soon reuse stuff than buy new.

Many, many thanks to both Foxfire and Fuzzypony for their help with everything. Y'all made the demo go so much faster!

This makes me feel so much better...

One of my favorite blogs, There I Fixed It, has a couple of really good ones today:

And I thought our electrical system was screwy...

Apparently I have been going about fixing drywall all wrong. Who knew?

Ah, I need that laugh... :)

New addition

So this post comes as a bit of a surprise, since we were thinking we'd be a one-dog family after our CCI puppy goes back for advanced training, but today we adopted a Great Pyrenees Livestock Guardian Dog.

We've been toying with the idea for a few weeks, because we know we have foxes and coyotes behind the property. While a donkey or llama might protect against those, there are also plenty of raccoons that would love to dine on chicken, and I know from friends' experience that donkeys don't guard against raccoons. Plus, we're bordered on two sides by public greenspace, which means that anyone could walk up to our fence and - despite locks and chains on the gates - steal the horses. Police say that the best theft deterrent is a big, barking dog. While our Malamute mix Elias certainly fits the big, barking dog bill, he'd probably just as soon eat a chicken as guard one. He doesn't bother the ones in the backyard, but he has gone after the ones at our barn even though he was on a leash, so he's not trustworthy around small foodlike creatures.

So, enter the idea of a Livestock Guardian Dog. Many of them are rare breeds, but the Great Pyrenees seems to be the most common. We've spent a lot of time researching the breed since we know they are independent by nature, and wanted to be sure what we were getting into. We contacted the local rescue, and found a number of dogs in Texas that might fit the bill. Then, as I was browsing on Craigslist the other day, I found an ad for a 6 year old female Great Pyrenees that was being used to guard goats. I contacted the owner, asked a few questions, and Fuzzypony and I drove out tonight to see her.

What a sweet face!

While we were visiting, she greeted us nicely and was happy for pets, but after a few minutes went off and patrolled her pasture.
Poor girl is covered in matted hair. All the brownish hair from Fuzzypony's hand on down are mats.

After she had finished her patrol, she came over and lay down in what was clearly her accustom spot. You can see how bad the mats on her haunches are in this picture.

Katie, as she was being called, was advertized as being a 6.5 year old purebred Great Pyrenees. The current owner had adopted her 6 months ago and was using her to guard her sheep and ponies from coyotes. In her past home she also guarded chickens and geese. She's not a wanderer or a fence jumper (GPs often are, apparently), and while she was very sweet to Fuzzypony and I, left us to go attend to her patrol duties. She seemed very laid back but with good guardian instincts. She let us look at her teeth, pick up her feet, and feel all over her body. She seemed in good weight but was absolutely covered in mats.

I called the hubby and we discussed. Although we didn't really want to get a dog until we moved to the new house, this one had all the skills we were looking for. So... I loaded her up in the back of the Volvo and took her home. Geez. I can't believe we have another dog.

At home, we took her around the backyard while our other dogs stayed inside. She marked territory and did a lot of sniffing around. We then let our dogs meet through the glass door - Elias was very excited (he doesn't like other dogs in his territory) but Reba seemed friendly. We let her out with Reba for a moment but Reba seemed a bit cowed by her, so we took Reba back in. We fed the GP (three cups!) and watered her, and then set up a bed for her in our outdoor shed. It's not fancy, but she's got several blankets, it's up off the ground, and she can see the entire yard. At her last home she had no shelter at all, so I figure it's probably a step up in her life.

After she had a chance to settle in a bit, we took her and Elias out to the front yard to meet on neutral territory. They sniffed a bit, seemed to get along, and then we went on a short walk together. She does NOT walk on a leash very well, but did OK for her first time out. When we got back, Fuzzypony and I set to grooming her... and grooming and grooming and grooming. She was very tolerant for all of it, simply laying there and enjoying the attention (and occasional treat).

After an hour of grooming, most of her neck ruff was brushed out. She's going to be a very poofy girl!

Pretty in profile.

Still a long way to go with the grooming, but definitely looking better (Elias is poking his nose in to see what's going on - he HATES being brushed).

The aftermath.

Over dinner we discussed names. Elias is named after Mt. St. Elias, the highest coastal mountain in Alaska (hey, he's a Malamute, that's what you get). We looked up the names of some mountains in the Pyrenees and decided that Anie (pronnounced Annie) might be appropriate. It will take a couple of days to see if it fits her, but so far it seems like it might.

I think she's going to work out well. She's a very gentle girl - she took her treats from my hand ever so carefully - and she likes to be with people, but she takes her job seriously. Tonight when we put her back out after grooming, she drank some water and sat by the back door for a bit, then took herself off to the shed for bed. I expect she's out there now, keeping watch. It's kind of comforting to know, actually.

Items for Craigslist

We cleaned out the shed this weekend and found a few gems that we'll probably put up on Craigslist for free. I just want them gone and not in the landfill if someone else has a use for them.

I've done my best creating cute captions that might encourage folks to come pick up these items, but if you've got any ideas, just drop them in the comments or send me e-mail. Remember, it's a personal life accomplishment if your ad gets posted on the Best of Craigslist.

Striped chair. Not sure whether it's comfy or not as we've not been brave enough to sit in it, seeing as how it's been in residence with spiders and scorpions for who knows how long. Bonus floral pillow included.

Car-top carrier with four bonus dents. There are also several small tears in the plastic that could be covered with duct tape to make it waterproof again, because we all know that duct tape fixes anything that can't be fixed with a hammer.

Trundle bed frame for drunken individual - it leans a bit port. Requires hammer to add a screw to make it level, if you want to use it for someone who's sober.

I'd say it's a bucket, but the dang thing has a hole in the bottom of it. If anyone actually used this to feed deer - which appears to be its intended use - they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, because we have deer the size of my horse and lots of them.

You could probably use this table for scrap metal. It weighs about 100 lbs. Go figure.

At one point this might have been an end table or an armoire for midgets. It needs some screws (ok, a LOT of screws) to put it back together, but the finish is in good shape, it's got all the pieces, and it's solid pine. Alternatively, you could use it for firewood.

And the piece de resistance... a free designer toilet seat! You could go to Lowe's and buy this beauty for $39.95, or you could get it for free here! Not-so-designer toilet is included in the deal. ;)

UPDATE on the toilet seat: I was just chatting to a friend (who shall remain nameless) who commented that his mother had the exact same toilet seat at her house. I pleaded the fifth about her sense of fashion, then asked if she might like another (because hey, how else am I going to get rid of this thing???). His response was "Please God no. Of course, knowing my luck, I'll be talking to her and she'll say, 'I got this great new toilet seat for the guest bath! Some lady on Craigslist was just giving it away!!' And then I will put my head through my desk." I almost hurt myself laughing... but the toilet seat is still up for grabs.

The Disney Christmas characters are also available for adoption. Please, for the love of whatever deity you choose, get them out of my shed. I managed to prevent my family from putting them up as decorations this year, but I may not be so lucky next year.

The electric onion

No, this isn't about the electric slide. It's about the house's electrical system, which continues to follow the model of an onion - you peel off one layer and find several others below it, all of which need to be dealt with before you can handle the original problem.

In this case, the issue is upgrading to 200 amp service for the house and consolidating the four existing panel boxes into one. When I type this, it sounds so simple. In reality, it is anything but.

Power comes onto the property via overhead power lines from the left front corner of the property. There is one telephone pole on the property, on the left side of the driveway, and then the lines connect to the roof line at the peak of the original brick carport. The lines then convert from the big black overhead cables to a single 100 amp cable that wraps around under the eves around to the back of the house outside of the utility room to where the meter and breaker boxes are located.

Now, there are a few glaring problems with this arrangement. Let me 'splain:

• Overhead power lines are NEVER supposed to go over a roof. At our house, they go over the second carport - the one on the left as you face the house.
  
• There should be a kill switch that disconnects power for the entire house, including the main breaker box. We have no such thing - so the main panel is always live, although you can kill off the sub-panels.
• Any cable run outside MUST have some sort of conduit on it to protect it from the elements and provide fire safety. The 100 amp cable that runs under the eves has none. It's either stapled to the eves or bundled together with other wires of unknown purpose/origin using zip ties, and then the zip ties are stapled or nailed to the eves. Awesome.
• Overhead power line clearance is supposed to be a minimum of 15 feet. Our camper, in the bed of our truck, is right about 10 feet, and we have perhaps 2 feet of clearance. Yikes.
• You are not supposed to have a meter on the back of your house, for fire safety reasons (something about the fire department being able to find it and cut power to the house). Did I mention that the existing meter is on the back of the house?
  

Since we have to move the meter/can, it makes the most sense to relocate it to the middle brick carport post, which is directly under the roof peak. That way, we can add a galvanized pipe up through the eves to get the necessary clearance on the overhead power lines, then run the wires straight down through the pipe to the new meter. No problem, right? Except that safety codes say that meters can ONLY go on an outside wall, and as long as the second carport is standing, that middle brick carport post is not on an outside wall. Which means that we have to tear down the metal carport. Doing so will also remove the problem of having overhead power lines going over a roof.

Yes, we were planning to tear down that carport, but we weren't planning to do it NOW. Heck, we're still trying to get tile in so that we can put important things like toilets back in the house (shocking, right?) But hey, demo is fun, so if anyone wants to rip off shingles or use an arc welder to cut off the metal support posts, c'mon out!

Once we get the carport down, we can get our electrician to put up the pipe and install the new meter on the brick carport post. While the electricity is off to the house, he'll also put up a new panel box with a main kill switch and four breakers - one breaker for the house, one for the guest house, one for the (as yet to be built) barn, and one for a special RV hookup plug that we'll also install on that same brick post. With breakers to each structure, we'll be able to kill power to any one structure while leaving the power to everything else on. Handy, no? And I figured that one out all by myself!

Once that's done, we'll run new wire and conduit through the attic (where it's supposed to be!) to the existing main panel box. At that point we'll probably stop, tear out the drywall where the panel boxes are now, label all the wires and hang the new panel box, then wait till we're out of the house for a few days (since the power will be off) and have the electrician come out and connect everything together.

Of course, I'm sure we'll find a dozen more "little" things that will need to happen before this is all done, and then of course we'll eventually have to tear down the overhead power lines that go to the wellhouse and the guest house and bury them, but that's somewhere on down the line. After all, we can only do 237 things at once!

Is there a spreadsheet for this?