Making Progress And A Big Mess

Replacing Foundation Baseboard

Repairing Inside of Exterior Wall

It's been a few days since my last post simply because almost every waking minute has been spent at the tiny house working. I have white paint everywhere including my hair and eyeballs. But we have made significant progress, thank goodness. The week didn't start out good. One of our workers came down with  a bug that put him out of commission for the week. Another was unavailable on Monday and sick on Wednesday. Fortunately, we found someone who is good at carpentry, willing to do any kind of work, and was available. It set us back a bit but not as much as it could have.

I think I left it last time with a hole in the floor caused by water leaking in through improperly installed duct work. When we got into it we found a good amount of damage to the floor and wall. Actually, the base board that rests on the foundation was rotted in that spot. So that had to be cut out back to good wood so it could be replaced.

This is the mess we uncovered when we started investigating the buckled panelling below the cold air return. The black area below the lower left corner of the return is building paper exposed when the rotten wood was pulled away.                                                                                            

The soaked wood had to be dried out and we treated it and the replacement peices with a Borate spray.

 The new wood is the replaced piece that rests on the foundation and we used a piece of oak plank from the wall we took out to replace the outside wall board that was rotten. Once that was in place the rest of the area was framed in and reinforced. Getting the frame work in place was a bit of a problem. It was a very awkward area to reach. So Don, our worker and friend, after trying several different ways of doing this finally decided this was the only way.

We have often been grateful for Don's help, but, I think this goes above and beyond what most would do on a job. There just is no way I could do this.

I was uncomfortable just looking at him down there..

Blindly reaching for a screw because he couldn't sit up far enough to see where they were.

And done!! Poor guy. He was definately relieved to get out of there.

None of this damage would have happened if the installers of this outside furnace and a/c unit had done it properly. Like I said before, I don't know if  laziness or greed or stupidity was the cause of this screwed up mess but, off hand, I'd rule out stupidity. They'd have to be really profoundly dumb not to notice that the vent was sloped toward the house instead of away. Even stupid people know that water runs down hill. Or that duct tape isn't waterproof. That leaves lazy or greedy. Or, probably, both.  

 

Building Counters and Fixing Crappy Refinishing Work

I sort of left you hanging while we talked about Sage the Parvo survivor and days off and making soap and such. But, I'm excited about the progress on the tiny house and wanted to show you what has been going on. A lot of what we havehad to do has been fixing totally crappy refinishing work from the last few remodels on the house. I don't know of it was incompetence or laziness but most of it is horrible.

The counter that's going to be between the kitchen and living room is coming along nicely. As a matter of fact it's almost done except for the top. I've thought about using tile for the top but can't find anything  in our price range that I like. So we've decided to use regular laminate. We are going to do it ourselves to save money and because it's a nonstandard size.
                                                                       Anyway, here is the base going together:

This is the living room side. There will be a door on this side. A little unconventional, I admit, but better than trying to access a deep around the corner cabnet space that's under the counter top  from the kitchen side. Especially since there will be an eight inch counter top overhang on that side. I've designed it that way for knee room if the renter doesn't want to fit a table somewhere in the tiny living room or smaller kitchen.

This is the kitchen side and base. If it works out the way we expect we are going to round off the corners of the top for easier passage. I really hate sharp corners digging into my sides. The doors have to be made yet. All of this comes apart to put the flooring in place. I'll get it primed and painted while it's in pieces

This box descending from the ceiling in one of the bedrooms was very large for the area. A cube, about 2' X 2', with the bottom only 5' above the floor it was an awkward obstacle in the small room. Danny figured out it was covering the vent that goes into the laundry area on the other side of the wall.  

                                                                                                                                    

When we took it apart this is what we found. A lot of wasted space making an already small room even smaller.

So this is what we did. You can see, by the white walls that were under the boxed in area how much smaller we made the cover. Since it's also now angled and no longer hanging out in the room the space under it becomes usable again. The BOX IN THE CORNER no longer dominates the room. We'll cover the plywood with a bit of paneling and it'll get painted along with the rest of the walls and will almost disappear. At the very least it will be out of the way.  It's difficult to immagine what the "remodlers" who originally built the cover like that were thinking. 

It's getting late and I'm tired. I hope to show you the problem we found when we checked under some buckled paneling in a post tomorrow. Again, it was from an improperly installed furnace duct leaking rain into a wall. There has been a surprising amount of shoddy work done on this poor little house. Fortunately, none of it did extensive damage that can't be fixed.

Soap Making Mini Vacation

I took the day off from working on the house yesterday and just did fun stuff. Among other things I got to make a batch of soap. The scent for this one, our eighth batch, is Citrus Splash. I thought I'd share my process with you just for fun.

First of all, when we decided to start making soap for our local Farmer's Market this year I talked to a good friend, a soap maker. She invited me over for coffee and talked me through the whole process. That was an eye opener. I really didn't know anything about making soap even though I sort of remember mom making it.  I had some vague idea that it involved cooking something on the stove and a lot of stirring. But mom rendered her own lard and that may be where that memory came from. We had an old Charter Oak wood cook stove when I was growing up and that's my memory. Mom stirring a huge old pot on that stove. And it was connected to making soap somehow.

Mom's soap was just lard and lye. I must have been very young the last time she made it because my memories are so sketchy. I remember she had collected ash from the stove. She put them in a sieve and poured water over them so she must have been making the lye she needed. But I don't remember how much water or ash or, obviously, the amount of lye she got out of the process. Anyway, I do remember the finished product. It was hard and brown and didn't have any scent that I remember. But it cleaned good.

I make my own lard and lye soap now. I don't make my own lye or render my own lard and I put scent in it. Mine is hard and white and smells of Lavender and Eucalyptus and mint. It still cleans real good.

Yesterday's soap didn't have any lard in it at all. I used a four oil recipe for this one. This is everything needed to make a batch. Well, except for the mold and liner. Actually, here I've already mixed the lye and water and it's cooling.

The oil is weighed out and mixed prior to heating. Every measurement is by weight not volume.




The oil and lye solution is mixed together and stirred until ready. Then it's poured into the mold, covered, and put to bed for 24 hours or so. My husband made this mold out of scrap lumber and we line it with butcher paper.

Out of the mold but still wrapped in the liner this log of soap is just in the right stage to cut.

Unwrapped.

I need a guide to cut the soap into bars or they come out very uneven. I didn't have one so I repurposed on old bread cutting guide and it works great. Using every other slot the bars are cut exactly one inch thick and weigh between 4.5 and 5 ounces.

A crinkle cutter makes a really nice bar.

We don't have drying racks or much room to spread out so we're repurposing old plastic soda crates by turning them upside down. I can get two batches of soap on each case. By turning another one upside down on top the soap is protected from my kitties while it cures. The bars should be cured and ready to use in about four to six weeks. My house smells wonderful with all these scents from the curing soap bars.

                                                                    

Learning Life Leasons

 Sage is growing so fast. We've only had her 16 days but can already see how much bigger she is.  She is still not house broken but I think that's mostly our fault. We're so busy sometimes we forget that she is still a baby. She just can't hold it very long. Poor little thing. She's smart but stubborn. Now, when we take her outside, she wants to stay and explore. Last week, as soon as we put her down outside she made a beeline for the door. This week the world isn't such a scary place and there's lots of fun things to do. There's worms to stick your nose on and then bark at because they wiggle. There's bunny poop to eat (if you can grab it before the humans get to you). There's the big dogs to chase. Digging's pretty fun and so is watching squirrels. So, we've had to get her a collar and lead so she can learn some manners and to come when she's called. She doesn't mind the collar so much but being attached to the lead is just not right, in her book. We just put it on her yesterday and this is as far as we have gotten so far.

Which evolves into this before long.

But before you think she is being abused this is how she usually waits for her breakfast or takes a nap if she can sucker Danny or, sometimes, our friend Don into it.  Here she was waiting for breakfast and was just too tired to stay awake.

Here, all the other fur babies were fed and her breakfast was ready. She woke up instantly.   

My next post will be about a setback on the tiny house and the progress we have made.                                                                                                              

It's tough being Sage.

I'm sure Sage would be the first to tell you how tough it is being Sage.

"All the other dogs are jealous and they never want to play no matter how many times you ask. The kitties get so tense about a little tail pulling or when you try to join in on their wrestling.  You get scolded for the least little thing like a tiny little puddle on the floor just because you just came in from outside and really didn't have time to take care of business out there because there's so many things to do outside. The humans get so excited when you try to follow that interesting scent under the house. They're funny.  Sometimes, tho', you really need to get inside so quickly that you have to run to the door with your ears back so you can hear what's behind you. But that only happens when the big dogs bark or that screechy thing in the woods hollars. And you can't play with anything. Really, that electrical cord was just laying there. What's the point of the lamp cord if you're not supposed to pull on it? There was no need for the swat on the nose with the fingers and being pushed away and being called a bad dog. And if you're not supposed to chew on the firewood then it shouldn't be laying on the floor.
 Cat's are just way too snooty, laying up where you can't reach them and looking at you and then you get fussed at when you bark at 'em. They only play chase for a little while then they turn around and hiss right in your face and your nose almost winds up in their mouth because you didn't really have enough time to stop. Yuck! Did you know kitty breath smells like fish!?                 

Charming Sage and Saggy Ceilings

It didn't take Sage long to completely charm our friend, Don. He's helping us on the little house and saw Sage for the first time  since she has recovered. And within a few minutes this is where she was.

Snuggled up against his side under his coat, it didn't take long before her little head started to droop and her little eyes started to close. This is how she finished waiting for her breakfast.

Actually, one of our older dogs, Toby, really likes this new puppy. Toby is maybe 13 or 14 years old. He's arthritic and sometimes just doesn't feel very good but has always enjoyed playing with our two little six year old terrier type dogs (also rescues, but, then, so was Toby). I think, however, that Toby thinks Sage is a toy. A really fun toy. It's good for him to get all this extra exercise and he is having such a good time with her.

Danny and Don got the support beam up between the living room and the kitchen yesterday and today. It looks pretty good and has helped the ceiling tremendously. I'm pretty sure the half wall that was there was originally a full wall with a doorway between the kitchen and living room. Remember this house was built in 1940 when most rooms had walls between them. Anyway, whoever did the remodeling was really bad and didn't know much about what they were doing. They cut the wall down and didn't put anything in for support. It's a bearing wall which means that it's supposed to support part of the weight of the roof. Over the years with the wall removed and no brace installed the ceiling started to sag. They got most of the bow out but we are hesitant to try for more. We don't know what kind of damage forcing it further might do.

 The original ceiling was drywall with insulation above it. For some reason someone decided that 12x12 acoustical tile would be better so they put that up. Unfortunately, they didn't bother to take the drywall down and drywall is heavy. That was adding to the sag overhead. It's taken care of now but I am going to have to work a support beam into my plans for the counter between the two rooms. And painted and trimmed up the overhead beam will just become part of the charm of the cottage. 

Sage and Deconstruction

Sage is doing very well. She’s gaining weight everyday and is active and playful. Now we’re working on house breaking. It’s hard to do when we’re so busy with so many things, especially the rental house.



 We've made some progress on the house. Below you can see the old wall covering the chimney and, also, the half wall between the kitchen and the livingroom.

The old non functioning chimney was a hanging flue. It hadn't been used in years but for some reason was left in place and was just wasted space. Space that was desperately needed in the minute kitchen. It took up way to much space in this tiny house and the half wall was useless. It opened up the space somewhat but still caused the kitchen to be more cramped than necessary. Underneath the paneling was wallpaper and then just oak boards.

Taking all that out left us with a hole in the ceiling and one in the floor where the wall had come through. We knew that the ceiling was sagging in that area and would need to be supported. Whoever put that up didn't have a clue how to do it. Or was just too lazy to do it right. So, It's going to need a little more work than we thought. It's a hassle but not insurmountable.

Finally, here is the space with all that gone. Looks a mess, right? It is. But, I think it's going to turn out quite well. Cabinets, countertops, then new flooring we just got today. It's going to be a cozy little home. We're working there tomorrow. I think we'll start painting in the bedrooms while Danny and our handyman take care of this.

Found at the new house

It’s been a really busy week. I was going to write about the trials of buying a house from HUD but something happened at the beginning of the week that I wanted to tell you about first.

We went to the house on Monday to start work on it. Right after we got there we heard a sound like a puppy crying. Since this is in town I didn’t think much about it for a few seconds until I realized it sounded like it was right outside the window. Went to look and eventually Danny found it. A tiny terrified puppy curled under the furnace vent that goes into the house! We got it out and found a nearly starved puppy about eight or nine weeks old that someone had thrown away. Just put out to die and drove away. The poor little thing was so thin we could count her ribs and her abdomen was no thicker than her back bone. She wouldn’t have lasted the night.

I really don’t want to go into what I think about the disgusting sub humans that do this to the helpless creatures under their protection. There is no reason, no excuse, that makes it alright to be this cruel and irresponsible.

Anyway, of course, we couldn‘t leave her there. Stopped and got some puppy chow and took her home and fed her. Just a little bit so she wouldn’t get sick. Well, that didn’t work. She threw it up. Trouble is she didn’t stop throwing up. On Tuesday I called our vet and talked to them. We had already started giving her Lactated Ringers under the skin because she had stopped eating or drinking anything. The vet’s office said to just keep her on the fluids and worm her. We use fenbendazole wormer because it’s so safe and effective. Trouble was she couldn’t keep the wormer down.

On Wednesday evening she was still throwing up and had developed a fever. Up until that time her temp was normal. I called the vet’s emergency number and was told to give her an antibiotic shot and some of that pink wintergreen flavored stomach medicine and the Ringers that evening and bring her in first thing on Thursday. So we did. Thursday morning she was bright eyed and alert. Obviously, the fever was gone and she felt a little better. When the tests came back, though, we found out she has Parvo and was loaded with worms. Many, many dollars later (much more that we can afford) I brought her home with a lot of medicine and a 60% chance of saving her. Our vet did tell me that if we hadn’t started her on the Ringers and then called and given her that shot of penicillin she wouldn’t have lived until that morning. It’s now Saturday afternoon. We have religiously kept up with the fluids and meds. And this afternoon she had her first solid food since Monday. Danny cooked chicken and rice and she has had three teaspoons full an hour apart and has kept them down so far. The vet said she can relapse anytime so we’re not completely out of the woods yet but we’re very hopeful. We’ll feed her a teaspoon full every hour for the rest of the night and tomorrow she’ll get a little more at a time. If we’re lucky tomorrow will be the last day for the Ringers.

Whether or not we can actually afford to keep her (and it’s going to be very difficult ~ we have other dogs and cats, all strays) is immaterial. She was ours as soon as I picked her up and this quivering terrified little puppy snuggled up against my neck and whimpered and cried.

She is a bright little girl. Very loving and sweet. I think she’s going to be a wonderful companion and friend. Don't know what her "breed" is and it doesn't matter. She is brown with lighter brown markings and eyebrows. Her eyes are green. Her name is Sage.  She is home.