Raising the Roof

The long awaited moment has arrived.  I think we finally have a roof!!!

First the trusses are put into position.  Then the logs are carefully lowered into custom-made cradles bolted to the trusses.

Then the rafters are laid horizontally across the logs.



Then longitudinal joists are laid across the rafters, with blocking between the joists.  At the far end, they are laying the plywood sheathing across the joists.  Heavy roofing felt will go on top of the plywood to waterproof the roof until spring, when we can lay the slate!

Factoring In Feng Shui



Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese architectural and decorating method/philosophy which works to maximize good Chi or energy in one's environment.  It incorporates many philosophies and methodologies.  Some aspects use the Chinese zodiac, others a system of numerology, and it incorporates a world-view in which there are 5 main elements which compose the world around us, fire, water, stone, wood, and metal.  It aims for balance and symmetry.  It divides the world into yin and yang attributes, yin representing calm, peaceful, restful, and quiet, while yang represents warmth, activity, excitement, and stimulation.  Then there is a whole system of views on what makes good chi and bad chi, how to promote, encourage and direct chi.  I don't pretend to offer a comprehensive description of feng shui, but just a brief description which I hope will whet your appetite.  There are of course, numerous books written about various aspects of feng shui.  Here's another blog which you might enjoy:  http://openspacesfengshui.com/

While I can't say that I subscribe to all the complicated algorithms employed by feng shui practitioners, I can say that on the whole, the end result is quite pleasing.  Most of us have had the experience of going into a room and feeling immediately comfortable and at ease.  On the converse, you may have entered a room where you immediately had a feeling of unease or discomfort which you couldn't really put into words, or understand why you felt that way.  A room with good feng shui will most often feel inviting even if you can't articulate exactly why that is.  Some feng shui "precepts" almost seem like common sense, for example,  balancing the use of the 5 elements.  Using sensible proportions of wood, stone, and metal elements can create a harmonious blend that is naturally appealing.  The use of water features is very feng shui, but entirely universal in appeal.  Other aspects, such as positioning elements predominately in one zone of a room depending on the orientation of the room by the compass, are more difficult to appreciate.  Nevertheless, the overall effect of good feng shui is pleasing to the eye and the senses, and, who knows, perhaps does increase one's positive energy.

In planning the layout of our cabin, I took into account some feng shui principles.  I oriented the cabin with the mountain at the back of the cabin, symbolizing the Black Turtle.  This places the front door facing East.  To the East is a stream, and Luna Lake.  When I superimposed the pa kua ( the eight Trigrams) over the house plan, with the North triagram oriented toward the front door, it was most interesting!  I saw that the Water direction on the pa kua was toward Luna Lake.  The Fire direction, toward the back of the cabin, was where the massive forest fire came over the mountain last summer and burned right up to our property line.  The Lesser Metal direction, to the left of the front door, faces a carport last year that I built out of metal shipping containers.  The Big Wood direction, to the right of the front door, is where a balcony constructed of wood protrudes from the side of the building.  Pretty freaky, wouldn't you say?

We took particular care with the kitchen.  The kitchen is dominated by fire energy due to the cooking stove.  We avoided placing the sink too close or opposite to the stove due to the natural clash of these two elements (water extinguishes fire).  We kept an open configuration to allow free circulation of chi.  We will use slate tiles (earth energy) for the floor to help balance the fire energy, and to balance the yin and yang.

It is very important to have a water feature, as water brings very good chi.  Our water feature is going to be a spa on the deck outside the kitchen door, with a little waterfall,  if everything goes well.

The one area of concern is the bedroom.  One rule is not to sleep under a beam (or ceiling fan) as this creates bad descending chi.  We have lots of beams.  With all the rules regarding bedrooms, such as "make sure you can see the door from your bed", don't position the bed so your feet are pointing out the door", "avoid putting the headboard under a window", there is really no good place to put the bed!  Oh, well.  I guess you can't have everything.

Lighting It Up

Getting ready to put up the roof trusses

Most of us never pay any attention to lighting fixtures.  As long as a light comes on when we flick a switch, we don't care where that light came from, as long as it's bright enough for us to see.
Designing and planning a new house, however,  forces us to think about light.  When you start to pick your light fixtures things suddenly get very complex.  I know a little about light.  From my exposure to photography (pardon the pun) as a hobby since  I was in my  teens,  I know about direct light, indirect light, and diffuse light.  I know about color temperature, e.g., incandescent light vs florescent light vs daylight, and how that is described in degrees Kelvin.  From Human Physiology and physics, I know about light intensity as measures in lumens, and contrast.
Nowadays we can light our houses with incandescent bulbs, florescents, halogen lights, and, most recently, LED lights.
There are myriad light fixtures to choose from: recessed lights, flush, semi-flush, pendants, track lights,  spots, floods, sconces, table lamps, torchieres, and chandeliers.

This is the ceiling of a chapel illustrating four different types of lighting: pendant lamps, recessed can lights, indirect lighting and spot-lights.

There are dimmers.  There are remote controls and programs to control lighting.
Then there is style or theme.  There's Art Deco, Contemporary/Modern, Rustic, Cabela's, Victorian, Asian, and on and on.
There's even medical considerations.  Many migraine sufferers cannot tolerate florescent lights.  As we get older, our retinas are less sensitive, so we need more light to be able to see. 
Personally, I like to have more than one choice in lighting in any one area.  To my wife's great chagrin, when I remodeled a bedroom in our old cabin, I put in 4 light circuits: 1 for recessed lights, 1 for ceiling fixtures, 1 for track lights, and a spot above the bed for reading. Overkill?  Maybe.  But in our kitchen in Tucson, I can turn on recessed mini-floods on a dimmer, or a wraparound florescent fixture and the room looks completely different depending on which lights are on.
I estimate we will have about 42 different lighting fixtures in the new cabin, and for each we have to make decisions.  I want to have a modern/contemporary look for the inside of the cabin.
Here's an exercise:
The loft will have a high ceiling with exposed beams, trusses and wood paneling.  It is about 20 X 20 feet.  I have to guess what it will look like since the roof isn't actually up yet.  Here's what I think it will look like looking up at the ceiling.

I was going to put 4 pendant lamps hanging from the ceiling to get the light source closer to the living area.  However, the nice lady at the lighting store suggested 4 double floods, mounted on the sloping ceiling, and directed downward.  I balked at first, thinking it was going to be too hard to change the bulbs when they burn out.  I've seen too many older persons come into the hospital with broken hips or worse, from falling while trying to change a light bulb. 

For Pendants:  Pro's  Lights closer to the floor.  Con's  Draw attention away from heavy wooden trusses and logs which are supposed to be the visual focal point of the room.  Space too cluttered with 4 pendants and 2 ceiling fans.

For Floods:   Pro's  Don't draw attention away from heavy wooden trusses and logs.  More open space.  Con's   Lights are hidden among strucures in the ceiling.  Direct lighting, casts harsh shadows.  Hard to change bulbs. 


Then I had an inspiration.  I found a new LED PAR 30 flood rated at 60 watts which actually consumes 15 watts.  It costs $35 at Home Depot.  However, it saves $285 over the life of the bulb!  It lasts 50,000 hours!!  That's longer than I am going to be alive.  I will never have to change the bulb!  Eureka! That's the solution.  Now I just have to come up with an extra $1000 in the budget for light bulbs.

Bonus Photos!:

Maybe I should call this the Mud-blog

The Shower Valve Showdown

We are planning on closing the cabin every winter and spending our winters in Tucson.  Our usual modus operandi is to drain all the pipes, and not to heat the cabin in the winter.  That requires that every pipe drain to the lowest point in the system.  We do have occasional mishaps.  We discovered when we built the addition to the old cabin, that one-handled pressure balancing shower valves cannot be drained, and they freeze and crack.  This caused a huge mess when we turned the water on in the spring and there was water spraying out of the broken valve running down the inside of the wall until we located the problem.  Now we have to disassemble the valve and remove the cartridge every winter when we close up.

Pressure-balancing valves are one of the great advances in plumbing of the last few decades.  Before, when there was a drop in pressure on the cold water side, you suddenly got more hot water and less cold water, leading to sudden scalding.  They are now used almost exclusively in new construction, in fact it is very difficult to buy a non-pressure balancing shower valve anymore.  National building codes require use of pressure-balancing shower valves in new construction. 

Therein lies the problem.  We are being told that we have to have  pressure-balancing valves installed in our new cabin, which we know are going to freeze and break the first year.  We are told that we will have to use a compressed air purge system,  which I don't trust, and is a huge hassle.  We are fighting to be allowed to use a non-pressure-balancing valve.  I managed to find one at a local plumbing store and was told it is a Chinese rip-off of an old Delta faucet design.  Very simple - you lift the handle up to turn on the water, left for hot and right for cold.  That's exactly what we need.  My wife doesn't like to mess with 2 handled valves and they aren't allowed either by building codes.

I decided to put a Chinese Delta to the test, to have ammunition to fight this.  This is not a trivial matter.  The shower valves have to be nailed or screwed to the studs before the shower is installed, and you can't go back and change them, at least without tearing out the whole shower!  Here's what I did.  I screwed the valve into a 4X4 post in the usual orientation, and hooked up a water supply to the valve.  Then I turned on the water to let water flow through the valve.  Everything worked as intended.  Then I turned the water off, and disconnected the water supply to mimic draining the system.  Being careful not to tip the valve, I carefully put it into position in the back of the upright freezer, to simulate conditions it would be exposed to in the winter.  After a day, I removed the frozen valve and let it thaw.  Then I reinstalled it on the post, and hooked up the water supply.  It came though with flying colors!  No cracks, no drips.

With this information, I can now go to the Building department and demand they let me use the non-pressure balancing valve.  What is at stake here is our personal freedoms.  What business is it of theirs what we do in the privacy of our own showers!  Fellow Americans, rise up!  Let's fight the liberals and Socialists who would deprive us of our basic personal freedoms!

One last thing - I'm putting everybody on notice.  No flushing of the toilet while I'm taking a shower!!