![]() |
Home || Art | Books | Boats | Garden | Orchard | Homestead | Sew-Knit | Music | Hiking | Blog || Contact |
Construction |
ManyTracks' House and
Home by Sue Robishaw and Steve Schmeck
Rebuilding ~ Changes ~ Upgrades |
ManyTracks Home |
The nice thing about building your own is that you feel free to upgrade, rearrange and change your mind. The challenge is that you are always changing and wanting to change your surroundings to match. It is both fun and frustrating. But it always feels good when it's done. Including those needed repairs that happen over time. It is a project that is never finished. |
|
1999 - Greenhouse Rebuild - The cedar posts that held up the original attached greenhouse had rotted away some years ago. Literally. The portion in the ground was completely gone. Very active soil we were told. How nice. The room was being supported by the roof and walls. It was due for some attention. This time we poured and laid a cement and stone foundation (and floor). It is a very secure room now! The plants and I love it. This is actually our second rebuild. The first had been made of recycled materials and not so well constructed. When we rebuilt we again built of wood and it lasted quite well except for those fickle cedar posts! We have used recycled glass and windows for all of the incarnations. (For information on using the greenhouse click HERE.) | |
|
|
1999 - Front Wall Rebuild - from wood wall to brick wall... | |
|
|
|
Spring 2021 -- Over the following years we continued to repair, replace, upgrade as needed or the mood struck us, as is the way it is with an owner built home, but really, not too much major on the outside (or at least I don't remember it!). But in the summer of 2020 we finally dug in (literally) for a major roof, and some wall, job. We didn't do the entire roof and walls (we didn't want to have all the fun in the same year!) but it was a good large amount, fixing some leaks, mouse entrances, ant issues, and replacing insulation with a better system. Following is our summer's adventure with the house.
|
2020 - Major Roof Work, or "How We Spent Our Summer" July 24 -- House Roof Repairs Adventures
We had already decided this would be the summer for roof repairs and reconstruction (entry room and greenhouse). Our wonderful house is 35 years old, created and built with a lot of enthusiasm, not much money, and even less experience. In spite of that it has done us well so we aren't complaining at this year's work. We've done some repairs and upgrades in years past, but it's been awhile. It was hard to get the shovels out and start unburying what we'd hoped would never need to be unburied again, especially when we didn't know just where or what we'd find. But we had the extra incentive thanks to the mice. We've had mice in the not ever quite finished add-on pantry and root cellar from the beginning. A few now and then, mostly in the winter. It wasn't much of an issue to trap and move them until we got around to putting the final touches on that back area. When we had two super hunter cats they no doubt kept the numbers down, too. But this year we've had a mouse explosion - not just in the back but in the main part of the house - 4 to7 a night - nicely spaced about an hour apart. Noisy mice, trap eating mice (we live trap), cute but sleep-disturbing-irritating mice. And a wonderful much-loved cat who is a moderate but not overly enthusiastic hunter. Besides, mice inside aren't as exciting or interesting as mice outside. Apparently. And if we thought it was hard to track down a leak, well, trying to figure out where a mouse, or many mice, were suddenly getting in turned out to be ridiculously difficult and frustrating. But this was a challenge that really needed to be solved. So as soon as the garden, orchard, firewood, spring chores were caught up our attention turned to the house. We hadn't planned on this year's record heat, which has slowed us down, but we've adjusted. We had some fairly good guesses for mice entrances, and the leaks, and other more common construction issues. We'd just take them one at a time, and figure it out as we went along. After all, that's how we had built the house and that worked out fine. Sure, we'd do many things different if we built again, but we didn't want to build again. Considering that option, repairing was more enticing. And we've always enjoyed working on the house together. We just had to decide where to start. While we weighed pros and cons, levels of importance, this and that, a bear came along and decided for us. In the middle of the night a number of weeks ago some noise woke me up. Being used to this by now, I got up without even waking all the way up, to take care of the noisy mouse. Steve woke up, too, and when I said something to him about "another mouse" he replied, "I don't think it's a mouse" as he looked out the clerestory window at a very large black bear, busily digging for ants and making a mess of our carefully arranged tarps covering one of the known leaks. The bear apparently didn't care for the sudden lights and noisy humans and took off, and we decided where to start our work, which we began soon after. The repairs would also take care of a lot of the ant problem. We'll never get rid of the ants, of course, but we don't need to encourage large populations by the house. From the inside we stopped up possible mouse entrances as we discover them, including making a new cat door after I watched a mouse simply trot in that easy entrance. Lilli wasn't at all impressed with the new arrangement but after a few adjustments decided it would do. Another (we're pretty sure) entrance was unearthed along our west roof-wall edge, now blocked with cement. So the numbers have gone down, but not ceased completely. But there's hope as work continues. And we look forward to the day when the entire house is repaired-reconstructed-reburied-regrowing, and the inside is mouse and ant and rain free. Meantime, work is coming along and our mornings (before it gets too hot and when it's not raining) are committed to our house. Though the mosquitoes are apparently not taking time off this summer (this is their kind of weather!) the numbers have gone down so we can even work sometimes in the (sometimes) cooler evenings. Apparently we have gotten somewhat used to the unusual heat since a few days of wonderfully "normal" U.P. temperatures in the mid 70's actually felt cool! We've sure enjoyed those days. August 3, 2020 -- Update
We had a healthy batch of new toads born this year (about 3/4 inch long now) and I'm sure they (and us) will be happy when we're done and they can hop around in peace without worrying about being stepped on, dirt thrown on, weird stuff in their way, and humans forever moving them or trying to direct them where they don't want to go. Same for small snakes and a lone chipmunk. One is never alone up here! August 10, 2020 - Looking Better!
August 20, 2020 - Roof Work Finished
August 23, 2020 - Entry Hill Work Begins
August
29, 2020 -
A Step of Success Digging and more digging - but the bottom finally emerged, down farther than I thought it could be. After removing a number of layers of foam, both insulation and barrier, it was great to find the bottom waterproofing plastic in good shape. Underneath, the boards were in good shape as well except at the bottom front edge where there had been a long term leak which rotted the boards in that area, and the rotted structural posts where they were in contact with the wet dirt at the bottom. We knew about both (though not the extent) so it wasn't a surprise.
The big question now was could the center post be jacked out
successfully to get it back in line enough that we could just rebuild
the bottom of the structure and not have to tear off and rebuild the
entire thing. We had co Of course, this isn't really it. There's a bit of work to do now, with concrete and new boards, to repair and rebuild the damaged bottom area, replace the insulating foam with new dry pieces, cover with new waterproofing membrane (the original design has the waterproof barrier under the insulation not on top of it, resulting in waterlogged not-very-insulating styrofoam), and then, finally, reburying. It seems like a lot but knowing where we're headed and having a plan makes it feel quite do-able, which I'm sure it will be. Having temperatures finally back to U.P. cool makes it easier as well, even if we're having to play cat-and-mouse with the scattered rain. But the rain has encouraged the recently reburied roof to grow. And it turns out there was plenty of buckwheat and oats left after the chipmunk had collected his share, so we have a healthy crop of both growing along with the more recently seeded rye grass. It will be a lush pasture soon! So all in all, a good day, topped off with a trip to town for a traditional dinner out at a favorite restaurant (Happy Birthday, Steve!).
It certainly brought back memories! Gathering the tools, remembering the
formula, mixing cement, sand, gravel in the wheelbarrow. I mixed and
Steve hauled many wheelbarrows of concrete when we were building the
house so many years ago. It wasn't all by hand (though there was quite a
bit of that) since the main footing pour came by truck (remember that,
Nancy?!) and most of the other concrete was mixed in our reliable and
much appreciated green cement mixer . Later when we added
Thi
Maybe not as tasty as some sandwiches but it certainly was welcome! First a second layer of new plastic over the old (just in case), then 2" of new insulation, kept dry by the main waterproof layer of sturdy EDPM. Before the dirt goes on we'll cover that with some closed cell foam that will help protect the EDPM from roots (and chipmunks and such). This is one secure wall! And certainly will be better insulated. The styrofoam and beadboard that we removed, which were on top of the waterproofing not under it, the way the whole house was built, were at various stages of waterlogged. That was the standard system of the time - now we all know better.
Mid-morning we started in digging. Though it was still windy we had another beautiful day with enough clouds to keep us cool (and we are very much appreciating having good U.P. temperatures now! Even if we do have to wait for it to warm up in the morning). It was a pleasing rhythm - dig, stomp, dig, stomp. By noon the dirt was well up the wall! Wow, this was going faster than I thought it would.
September 8, 2020 - The New Hill is Finished!
September 13 - the final odds and ends completed - and now we can cross this one off our lists!
September
15, 2020 -
Lush Roof
maybe we should consider adding a goat to the roof.
October
8, 2020 -- Beautiful Octo The changing colors of fall is such a magical time, and every year is so different. This year seems to be a lot of golds and browns with subtle small patches of red, and still a lot of varied greens. After a rainy spell we've had wonderful sunshine and been making full use of this great October weather to fill the woodshed and get the potatoes in the root cellar. Steve's been in daily contact with chainsaw and wood splitter (and so appreciative of the good tools that makes that big project go better!). I drop in to the project to help stack - a fall ritual I love. My time is, as is often the case, in the winding-down garden (mostly digging potatoes recently) and getting the young orchard trees ready for winter. It's a great time of year to be outside. But we realized it is indeed "that time of year" when the weather can change rapidly and if we wanted to do another outdoor video while the temps were mild we better take time out to do that. Plus the beautiful leaves have a tendency to fall fast some years. So this was the day. To get some of that beautiful red maple color for our backdrop we took to the roof. It was fun to be up there and not be digging or hauling dirt! We enjoyed our morning musical interlude as a start to this beautiful day - hope you do, too. Here is the YouTube LINK (or click on the photo). The rest of our day was great, too. The woodshed is now full (hurray!) and there is a very good start on next year's stack in the field. |
|
* * * * * * Copyright © by Susan Robishaw |
"Homesteading
Adventures -A Guide for Doers and Dreamers"
Enjoy these articles and want to help support the website? Feel free to leave a tip! Updated 04/07/2018
|