Category — work-in-progress

A couple of days ago we picked up the construction drawings-in-progress. I’m still in the process of making notes about them to send back to Bob (and John, who is also working on the project), but I just had to share this image:

We’re getting to the point where we’re making final adjustments to the plan. Bob sent along some of the details based on our last meeting for us to review. I think we’re getting there!

Upstairs bath

First, the upstairs bathroom. Early on we had discussed using glass block to partition the shower and tub area from the toilet and sink area, and then using a sliding glass door to close the partition and give the toilet area some privacy when someone is in the tub. Without going too much into details, Bill and I decided that such an arrangement really wouldn’t work for the way we live, and the extra expense for a feature we wouldn’t use was dumb. (Although I really would like one day to have a good place to use the stainless steel barn door hardware.) What we ended up with is a little more traditional layout, with a drop-in tub instead of an alcove one which means we’ll probably have some tile. I am really not looking forward to picking out tiles, because there are just too many to choose from (and nearly all of it is beige). Decoration aside, I think this layout will work really well. I would open the shower door the other direction, though (hinges north).

Accessible Bath

We’ve spent a lot of time on M’s main bath. Most ADA-style bath layouts assume the person is either totally independent in their wheelchair or totally dependent, and M is neither. We really struggled with arranging things for the way she lives now (needing very short distances between fixtures so she doesn’t have to walk far nor stand long) and planning for the future (be sure that her bath could accomodate her, a wheelchair and an assistant). Therefore, we’ve got the bath arranged so she can use it now, and will plan on modifying it when the need arises. There will be plumbing in the South wall so that there is space next to the toilet for a chair and a helper. (Should we have “Future Sink” put on the plan for the bids?)

Basement fireplace

Making appliance selections as early as possible gives one the opportunity to design the space for the object. We knew we wanted a wood-burning fireplace in the basement lower level, and we knew that it would need a chimney. Everything seemed to work out with the fireplace on the east wall, until we realized that the chimney would go right past the east window in our bedroom. When we decided on this fireplace, we looked at the installation instructions and determined that while the chimney can make certain bends, it would probably be easier to install (and possibly a more effective chimney) if we were to put the fireplace in the corner. This is fine with us. We don’t mind sitting with our backs to the windows in winter evenings

Here’s what the chimney will look like. We love the metal tubing, and aren’t interested in boxing it in stone or anything.

Oh, and look for the zeppelin! (Or, more properly, dirigible.) Here’s a possible model — the USS Akron.

(I had to do it)

After getting the well permit a week ago Friday, and giving the deposit check and copy of the permit to the well driller last Friday, today (Tuesday) was well day. It came together surprisingly fast, once we got all the paperwork settled.

I met Ben and Ken from Cribley shortly after 9am. They had already started, but about the time I got there they decided to move the rig to someplace a little less precarious. The dirt was quite soft from the rains we’ve had recently.

Instead of all the photos this time, I made a short (2.5 minute) video of the sequence of events. It’s my first multi-clip movie (and there’s no soundtrack) so it’s not great, but it gives you an idea of what happened.

First, they drilled into the dirt with a 9″ segmented bit. They pumped water along the shaft to bring the up the sand, clay and gravel in the hole (it’s gotta go somewhere). It takes a good deal of water to make a water well… Every 20 feet or so Ken would add an extension to the drill rod while Ben was shoveling solids from the drain pan. After about 100 feet they started checking the character of the solids thrown out. They drilled until they got a certain kind of gravel which indicated underground water.

Yay, water!

When I asked how the could tell “my” water from the stuff they were using, Ben said they couldn’t, not really. Not until they put the casing in and started to test the capacity of the well.

Ok. So then they put in the casing. This is 5″ PVC pipe. The first 4 feet was normal (and capped at the end) then there was 10 feet of “screen.” This is specially-modified PVC pipe that has .020″ slots cut in it that allows the water to fill into the pipe. After that they were solid again. As they lowered each section, they glued the PVC pipes together with PVC cement.

After they put the casing in, they filled around it with Well Gravel. This is specially sized to be bigger than the slots in the screen, so that the screen doesn’t get all silted up too fast. They put in about a dozen bags (I lost count), then ran an air hose down through the casing to force water up. “This is your water,” Ben told me.

Once our water started to run clear, they started piping in bentonite, also called “grout”. It’s used to provide a cushion between the dirt and the well, as well as keep groundwater from getting down to the screen.

Once the bentonite came out of the top of the hole, they were pretty much done. They did a little bit of sampling with the air hose to determine about where the pump should go in the well (I don’t know that result yet), took a water sample (Ken drank deeply, and survived), and then cleaned up. In the end, the well is about 127 feet deep, and will produce about 50 gallons per minute.

I carried the sample to the county office, and in a few days we’ll learn the arsenic and nitrates levels.

It was another fine day to be out at the lot — I took quite a few pictures of wildflowers, and saw the reason we won’t be using our new well for irrigation:

Update 21 June: If I’m reading the form correctly, the arsenic and nitrates are at acceptable levels, so no mitigation will be needed

This morning we met the excavation company (Kovalak, as you can see on the backhoe) and one of the county sanitarians at the lot so we could get a new location for our septic drainfield. Jim Sr. and Steve (it’s a family business) were already there and had gotten their equipment ready a short while before our appointment time.

We walked out to about where we wanted to put the field (at least about where it was on the proposed site plan), and started digging. It’s kind of on the hill; there is a bit of a broader, lower area south of where we were but of course it’s farther from the house.

It was interesting to me to watch this digging stuff. The claw (I’m sure there’s a technical term) makes a hole just as wide as it is, straight down. Steve said that they could go 20 feet deep with that particular machine. Plus, machines are cool! I can’t imagine trying to dig a hole that deeply with a shovel, and this only took a couple of scoops to dig 6 feet down.

Gratuitous shot of dirt in the scoop. Hey! You would have taken it too.

Shortly after Jim Sr. started digging, Steve the sanitarian arrived. His job is to make sure that there is permeable sand at least three feet deep underneath the top soil, in an area big enough to develop two drainfields (one now, one to be built 20 or so years later) that will suit the house. We have a two bedroom house, but it’s big enough to hold four bedrooms, so that’s what size the fields will be made for. Steve’s measuring the start- and end-point of the sand layer. In this hole, it starts about 7 feet under grade (which is rather deep). It’s usable, but it would require us bringing in loads of sand to fill in the drainfield once it’s built.

This is the type of dirt we’re looking for — sand the consistency of brown sugar. It’s alluvial, left over from when the glaciers receded from this area. (At least I think so. I’m not a geologist.) This area was farmed, but I don’t think plows dug ten feet down, so this is a handful of prehistory.

After the auspicious beginning — the first hole was ok (not ideal because of the depth), we hit a few snags. We went south, we went west, we went east… To the west the holes showed wet clay — which means any sand would have been too saturated to be useful as a drainfield. Similar problems were to the south — we were digging awfully close to a swale that leads into the creek to the southwest. Eventually we focused on the eastern edge. Drainfields in our township have a 10 foot setback from the property line. I thought it had to be 30 feet, but that requirement is for buildings. Lucky us! Bill is standing on the eastern boundary, and we’re using Steve’s measuring tape to figure out where to dig next.

Here are three of the test site mounds. The first one (I think) is the one to the right.

After we figured that our best chances were to the east, Jim suggested we take a sample right on the 10-foot mark (ten feet inside the property line). He’s been doing this over thirty years; there’s some experience talkin’. The mound nearest to the camera is a good one (the sand starts about 2 feet under the soil), the next mound up and a bit to the right (where Steve the sanitarian is measuring) is the second good hole (also a bit on the shallow side, which makes for easier building of the drainfield). Jim is digging a third hole to triangulate a roughly 4000 square foot area of good dirt. Luckily for us, it was also a good hole, and Steve will be sending out the official letter in the next week or so.

Once Steve the sanitarian left, Steve the excavator got into the backhoe and started to fill in the holes. We don’t want our neighbors or the deer getting hurt!

Bill painted this property boundary marker florescent orange to remind us (as though we could forget!) that this is the starting point for laying out our drainfield. From this marker, draw a line due west. Along this line, starting 10 feet from the post, is the north edge of the drainfield approval area. The constructed field should be 32 feet wide (east-west) by 50 feet long (north-south) (the sizes are from my notes, we’ll get the real values in the letter). The marker is at the corner of two of our neighbors’ lots (“E” and “F”).

While Steve was refilling the holes, I took a picture from the bed of the trailer towards the main digging area. You can hardly tell we were there.

The drainfield is farther away from the house than we originally planned (both to the south and to the east), but in the end it may work out better for our construction budget. We won’t have to dig as far down to lay the piping, we won’t have to bring in as much fill sand to cover the piping, and the location is at a lower elevation than the floor of the basement (I think — in any case it’s lower than in the original) which helps with the whole gravity thing. It is a little disappointing to not have the drainfield where we’ll be able to see it from the back patio. We’re intending on planting prairie on it. However, I’ll take being able to build the house over a slavish devotion to design.

Besides, we can put more prairie in other places.