Crazed Pandemic Projects

 This really is a ponderous time. I gotta say I'm kind of glad I'm not living in my van right now. I'm sure I would've moved to Mexico or Guatemala again because these are trying times here in America. But then I would've missed out on the insane amount of unemployment welfare that the future gave to me to finish these house projects. So, I guess I did the right thing buying this house when I did. Imagine that: Oggy did the right thing for once. Maybe domesticity isn't so bad.

Ceiling Tiles

 

Tin ceiling tiles are not as easy as as nailing them up. The ceiling has to have a substrate of wood to hold the nails. And the ceiling joists have to be strong enough to hold that up. Then the edges have to parallel. Then the edges have to overlap in a direction that looks good. Then the lamps have to line up and the electrical has to be finished. Etc. etc.

The cost is about $7 each tile. But the shipping is $300. So the tiles might only cost $350 but the whole cost is closer to $800. I thought long and hard about going this route and decided it was now or never. So I bought them and installed them with a 5/8'' brad nail gun. The edges look rough. The edges aren't parallel. The metal got dented many times. The corners of the crown molding don't look good. It looks a little cheap even though it cost me $1000 and lots of time. I think a border of tongue and groove painted pine would've looked more classy. And the crown molding doesn't look very good and was impossible to finesse so it looked good. 

if the ceiling looks slopped that's because it is sloped to accommodate more insulation.

The unfinished look doesn't appeal to me. I will have to paint this.

Newest decoration

Tin Ceiling in kitchen looks good.

So, that's the last project for a while. I'm broke. unemployed, the country is besieged by zealots,  my knees are surely arthritic, my hemorrhoid's have returned with a vengeance, and interior decoration doesn't really appeal to me right now. I only wanted to finish the ceiling because the insulation dust was pouring down through the cracks in the foam board.

Wall Furnace

I had to splice the yellow Power Pile wire with 12 gauge wire because the correct crimp fitting had been changed for some reason to a male fitting when it actually GOES to a male fitting. So, that didn't work and it was too short to snip and put a new terminal on that wire, so I spliced two Female terminals on there.

 This mess is the wiring for the cozy wall furnace valve. This is older so it is basic. I'm not saying how I wired it is right, but it works. I had some trouble because I removed the critical overheat wire from the TH-PP terminal and misjudged where I got it from so I put it back in the TH terminal with the thermostat wire. My older notes did suggest this is how it was wired but it didn't work. This led to the pilot light working but the thermostat would not engage the burner. I battled it and you can see that the diagram in the manual sort of blurs where the hell the connections are for the power pile is. In fact, you can't even see where the power pile is in the diagram but it's in the lower left corner...it has a yellow wire coming from the center of a threaded unit in one photo where I had to identify what it is. That wire doesn't wander off to the left. No, it is terminated like in the unit on the right with the red wire that goes to the TH-PP terminal. That's the Power Pile.

So, the TH-PP terminal gets a wire from the Power Pile, AND a wire from the Pilot Generator, which is sometimes called a thermocouple which actually generates 500 millivolts from the heat of the pilot light. Pretty clever! And that terminal gets an overheat/blocked flue wire too. Now, if they called that terminal the TH-PP-OH (for OverHeat) then I wouldn't have been confused. But they didn't and I messed up when I put it all back together.

The TH terminal gets exactly one THermostat wire. This makes sense but also makes me wonder what the TH stands for in the TH-PP terminal that does NOT get a thermostat wire. I guess that TH means THermocouple, but am I the only one who thinks two different TH terminals that mean two different words is a mistake? Thermostat and Thermocouple...how am I supposed to know the top TH means Thermocouple? Especially when their own diagram calls it a Pilot Generator. Call it PG-PP. Right? Pilot Generator + Power Pile. Does that make too much sense? And the manual itself is not clear either. So, the terminal ID and the diagram are both crap. They figure only an experienced HVAC tech would wire this, but then they provide horrible diagrams? why bother? To tempt me into thinking I can do this myself. Like crimping lugs on wires is so hard?

The PP terminal gets exactly one pilot generator wire. Maybe the PP means Pilot Power? Maybe Pile Power.

That will still leave you with one Overheat/Blocked Flue wire and also one wire from the Thermostat. These two wires are connected with either a male/female crimp fitting, or just a wire nut.

As near as I can tell the overheat sensor is a normally closed circuit that will OPEN when it gets too hot. The Thermostat is a normally Open circuit that closes when the mercury blob (in my case) completes the circuit between the two wires.

The mini-split heater does generate heat and it keeps the room around 70 degrees, but I'm sitting here with blankets because a super dry 20% humidity and 70 degrees is not super comfortable. I'd prefer more like 75 and I'm not sure the split unit can get to 75 degrees. And even if it does, it will use electricity and wear down the unit, which is best saved for cooling in the summer. See? I had to decide if the wall furnace was going or staying and I decided it would stay. The minisplit also blows warm air out that kind of creates a draft I don't like. The furnace simply produces hot hot air that drifts through the room. It's superior heat.

So I sawed through the wall, connected new B style gas vent and then put the wall furnace back together since a wall exhaust exit with B vent is not so easy unless you cut a huge hole ,which I did not. I cut the minimal hole and there was no way to get the adjustable elbows through it and then back down onto the heat diverter where the gases exhaust from the furnace. So, I had to take the combustion chamber out with the heat diverter and then get the vent all situated and then put the combustion chamber and heat diverter UP INTO the stationary duct. It was a pain.

But it's all for the purpose of optimal heat in the house, using what I have, gas is cheap and the furnace worked all winter last year and I expect it to last this winter too. I could replace the valve but I treat the furnace like a temporary unit that I shut on and off each time I use it. I even turn the gas valve off, which I don't have to do since the valve on the furnace works, but the automatic shut off stopped working so I don't fully trust it. This means the pilot light comes on without having to depress the knob. Gas immediately goes to the pilot light when I turn the knob. I can tell no gas comes out when it's off, but is it such a big step to turn the hose valve off too? No, it's better to keep all the valves off, and when I want heat I turn both valves on, light the pilot light, turn the thermostat up, etc.

If this is confusing imagine how confused I was when I was looking at these wires.

Metal Roof

 This metal roof project took only 6 days to install, but it took 12 months to finally get a company to cooperate and do business with me. Jeez!

I have some comments about the metal roof. The critical part is definitely the measurements of the panels themselves.  On the alley slope I was 1/2'' off from totally perfect. The other side was actually perfect except for the width, which was not square and forced me to make a weird rip. It is a roof, but I didn't know to check the width in divisions of 16'' or I would've seen the last full panel was going to land in a spot that would make a terrible final ripped panel. I think the only way to start would be to rip the first panel or buy a 12'' panel to start with and make the last full panel end in a good spot.

But it's behind me. 6 days of work was agony on my old knees. The mind is willing but the body is wanting.

I will summarize this project at another time. If the measurements of the panels are right and even with a roof that is not square and has weird bulges and humps, it's still possible to push forward and get everything looking ok. A wise man said, "A roof is a rain deflection system." It's not waterproof. It deflects rain off the house. Something to ponder.

quirks

 what a battle trying to figure out what size furnace duct I have. turns out I have a 4'' exhaust that measures 5'' x 1''. That fits into a rectangular duct that is 5'' long but is called a 4'' duct since it has the same circumference as a 4'' round...then an adapter to accommodate a round vent pipe...which I plan to send through the wall.

the other important project was trying to stabilize the plaster. I go back and forth thinking the original plaster was flawed or got damaged but lately I think it's simply 90 year old plaster that no one ever tried to maintain or repair or clean or anything. Of course it crumbled. My plan is to stabilize it and finish it and let nature take its course. I'm not covering it with drywall ever. And I embedded rocks in it because that's what made sense.

Electrical goofs

 Just when I think I have a grip on how to wire residential outlets and lights I do something that makes me think again.

I think of electrical as a big loop. There is Hot...which is always hot because it's coming from the panel and is searching for a path to ground...which is supplied by an appliance or lightbulb that completes the circuit. I think of Neutral as only carrying current when the circuit is completed by an appliance. If a light is off or an appliance is not plugged in then I tend to think of the Neutral wire as carrying no potential current. This is contradicted by the nature of alternating current as a back-and-forth loop, but I ignore that to make the physical installation easier to visualize. The loop begins at the hot leg of the circuit panel where the breaker is. The neutral bar also leads back to the transmission wires so it's also a source of current, but I like to think of the hot wire as the 'start' of the power.

Plaster Wall

  My goal was to expose the electrical wires so I could replace them and it ended up as a project to rebuild a lime plaster wall. what a drag.

I'm juggling a few projects right now but I have to focus on the electrical wires. The walls are cosmetic at this point. The ungrounded aluminum wires are more important. Then the metal roof will arrive and I will get into that. But for the next week I have a chance to completely replace the old knob and tube wires with modern grounded Romex. It involved cutting several holes in the ceiling drywall but there isn't an easier solution. It's only a problem because I'm living in the house and cutting holes in the ceiling creates awful drywall dust and also lets the dust of 100 years into the room.

I think this house is closer to something I would call "Cob" and not true adobe brick. It's more like a dirt layer and then covered with lime mortar on the inside and stucco on the outside. I don't see adobe shaped bricks. This is amusing because I went to a village of cob houses and thought they were quite earthy. But the shape of this house is like an adobe house, but it's closer to cob or rammed earth or mud.

This is all relevant because with an earth house the walls need to be able to dry out as fast as the earth so cement interior walls would cause problems by trapping moisture. My goal is to repair the wall surface with something similar to the original so it will not only keep the dirt from falling out but will breathe.