Insulation and Light

It was one busy weekend again. The weather was beautiful, probably one of the last warm weather weekends we are going to get this year and I had the unfortunate task of having to spend it working hard on finishing up some loose ends on the trailer in preparation for winter. The first order of business was going to Menard's and purchasing insulation and vapor barrier for under the trailer. The insulation was relatively cheap having decided to go with unfaced batts. Not only that, but currently there is some hefty rebates to be had for home heating improvements. What did cost a bundle though was the roll of 6mm black plastic I got for the vapor barrier. That itself cost $40 for a 8x80 foot roll! I know that this is not the best way to insulate, many trailer enthusiasts calling for actual mobile home under wrap, but money is important and as I have said in many posts, this home is temporary and so good enough fits the bill.

After purchasing the right material, it was then a matter of suiting up and putting it in which was not fun. I put on a pair of mechanic's coveralls (I once owned a Heavy Diesel shop) and a dust mask and proceeded to crawl under the whole house putting up batt after batt, enjoying the itchiness and dust and mouse nests. After a few hours I was done and was very dirty but happy with how easy it really was (up until suiting up I had been dreading the time it would take). Once the insulation was in place, I then proceeded to pull out the length of plastic I would need on the roll and pulled that under and pulled it into place and stapled it up. That whole process did not go to bad either. Once I was done I went and cleaned up which felt good but was not the signal for the end of the work day.

Next on the list was to skirt in that forth side that I had previously left open so I could have easier access to the underside for insulating. This took a few hours: digging trench, laying out 2x4's and cutting and screwing the skirt sheets in place and then laying pea rock in the trench to finish off the perimeter. The last thing I did was leave an access opening that I cut a piece of plywood to cover. Overall, the effect of having insulation was felt immediately that night, the temperature remaining warmer than it had been on previous nights.

Last on the list was digging a three foot deep hole at the top of the driveway and putting up a 16 foot tamarack pole that had been drying for a few months. On the top of this pole I mounted an outdoor floodlight that my cousin had given to me. I have not dug the wire in for it, but I did hook it up to an extension cord and tested it once it got dark and wow, it was like a mini sun was lighting up the yard and driveway. It will be hooked up on a switch in the house, that way it can be put on only when I want it on. It will be nice though to have if a person wants to work on a car after dark or do something in the yard.

Shed and Tank

This past week has been sort of busy. The first order of business was to get rid of the little 20 pound bottle of propane we have been using to heat and cook with. Having to have to fill it every week was getting to be a pain in the butt. In the beginning it was convenient, but now that the house is set up in place, it is time to get the big daddy tank brought in. I first called around to area propane dealers to find out what kind of rates were out there. They varied along with the costs of setting the tank. I went with one of the local companies, partly because they were cheaper, though not the cheapest, but partly because they are local and I actually know a lot of the employee's personally. I called, got an application, filled it out and returned it with a sizable check and the following week they arrived and set my tank where I wanted it. They were unable to bury the line right away due to their trencher being in the shop, so they said they would be back to do that next week. With the bigger tank I was also able to light the water heater. Previously, if I had lit it, the 2olb'r would be empty far faster than just heating and cooking with it. Now I am able to enjoy showers at home rather than trucking over to the parents which though close, is not always convenient.



Another area I focused on this past week was setting up a Shed In-A-Box. Menard's has got an interesting campaign going here. First I got a toilet In-A-Box and now I picked up a Shed In-A-Box. I would not have gotten such a temporary shelter if it had not been for my cousin who picked up two last year. Through his experience with them I was able to see how they would weather through the snow and cold and so far they are doing just fine. At this time I have all of our storage stuff, most of it in totes, sitting in my paintball staging building and that is not good since I have my big fall paintball game coming up in a few weeks and need the space. For expedience I went with this temporary storage shed so I could find a home for all that stuff and have it closer to hand by the house (the paintball building is on the other side of the property).


The shed itself is not priced to bad. I paid $140 for it (after tax) and it is 10x10 foot. I had a good area for it, back in the trees, a little out of site to the side of the house. Convenient for me, but not convenient to anyone just driving up the driveway looking for stuff to swipe. The ground here was already level so I opened the box up and started assembling this adult jungle-gym. There are a lot of pipes, bolts, covers and ratchets. All in all, pretty easy to assemble as long as you follow the directions and seems to be very solid and stable. It is anchored to the ground with large auger type rods that are over a foot in length. I plan to put down some pallets to set the stuff on for added protection besides the totes all the stuff is already in. I set up a little narrow table I had along one wall for a work bench too since I don't have a garage at this time. Quite a lot of space for little $. Hopefully mine works as well as my cousins have for him.

Pea Rock

This weekend I went to the local nursery and purchased half a yard of pea rock. Before doing so I called around for prices. A Nursery about fifty miles one way had the stuff for $25 a yard. The local nursery which is only several miles one way had the stuff for $55 a yard. I was not sure of how much I would need, but I figured no more that half a yard. Time is money and so I bit the bullet and went to the local nursery since they are closer and paid more for the product than if I had traveled further for it. Real nice folks there and if I was into plants, it was a very well stocked place. I am not though and so I picked up my purchase, or I should say they used a loader and dumped my rock in the bed of my truck and home I went.

At home I pulled out the shovel and started scooping rock into the wheel barrow and spent the next few hours filling up the trench around the skirting of the trailer. I must say that I was rather impressed with the finished look the rock gives to the edge. Hopefully now the people that I consulted that told me that this was the way to go to guard against frost heave damage were correct. After putting out the rock, I cleaned out the back of my truck and cleaned the construction material up that has been laying around the house. I got my tools put away and put out the lawn table and chairs and sat down for a cold one, pleasantly surprised at how well the house looks from the front yard.

Skirting

I celebrated Labor Day by laboring hard this weekend. On the agenda was skirting the base of the trailer and insulating underneath the trailer. I did not realize how bad the insulation was under the floor until I finally took the time sat. morning and crawled around under there. Insulation? There is pretty much none left. Over the years of this house sitting wherever it sat the animals have pretty much carted off every single piece of the stuff for their nests and so I am left with open joists. That should make the insulation easier than if I was cutting and piecing.

First though it was a trip to Menard's to pick up the material I would need to make this project a reality. Prior to leaving I worked up a build list. I purchased mobile home skirting which is actually vinyl sofit material. I got treated 2x4's for the perimeter and stakes to attach those to. I also got corner pieces of the vinyl and the insulation along with some other items for work around the house that still needs to be done.

Before any skirting could begin I had to finish the perimeter blocking. This trailer is very old and when it was derelict the snow had been allowed to do a number to the walls from weight sitting on them pushing them down on the floor joists. The outer parts of the joists needed some help in bringing them more level and so I spent the time in digging up the cement blocks I needed and proceeded to block up the perimeter. The floor joists are only 2x4, so you can imagine how cheaply they were working beyond the I-beam frame with that snow weight. In the pictures you will notice I have placed the perimeter blocking on its side which is not the best way to use cement blocks. This was done because the block I had available was used with chunks of mortar still on its surface and I do not have a chipping hammer readily available and so I was not able to set them the way they should be. Since this is only perimeter blocking, I opted for this expedient block pattern, figuring that they are not fully load bearing like the rest of the blocks that hold up the rest of the trailer. Once this tedious step was done, it was time to proceed onto the next steps-skirting and insulation.

Before insulating the floor though, I have decided to enclose three sides of the trailer with skirting. My thought for this is that it will help reduce exposure to the new insulation to elements and also reduce the amount of time that it is open to animal infestation. I plan to insulate on a coming weekend and then enclose the base with that forth side on the same day (Having previously prepped all the material to do so) so that it is all snug and good to go.

Prior to starting the skirting I spent some time web searching for cost effective (remember, this is a temporary home) and effective ways put the skirting on in frost prone area of the world. Based on the information I was able to glean, I started by using a plum line from the base of the trailer to the ground about every two feet. I marked this area so I would know where the front of the 2x4 should set compared to the flat surface of the trailer above where the top of the skirting sits. Once this was done, I laid the 2x4's on their side along these markings and proceeded to pound stakes in behind them. Once these were down a few feet I attached the 2x4's to them and then proceeded to dig a trench in front of them several inches deep. Once the perimeter was done in this fashion, I proceeded to measure and cut the vinyl sofit material and used screws to attach it to the frontage board on the trailer and the other end to the 2x4's. In this way I worked my way around, creating a nice finished perimeter of skirting to the trailer (for the three sides, leaving that forth one open for insulating in the very near future). The base of the skirting extends below grade into that trench I dug out a few inches. This is on purpose. Into this trench will be poured pee rock to ground level which supposedly will not damage the skirting with frost heaving, but instead move up and down around it offering less resistance than if it was dirt up against the skirt bottom. We will find out if this is the case or not.

Water

I mentioned a few posts ago about water, a topic I have not touched upon yet. Not to many years ago you could get a well drilled in our area for real cheap. Last year I contacted one of the local well drillers who is also a friend and the going rate in our area is an estimated $10,000 dollars for the well, pump, hookup, license and all other kinds of related stuff. Needless to say, that is a lot of money and that is one thing this jack pine does not have. So, I had to make the decision to go without a well for the time being, knowing that soon (before building is done) I will have to invest in this needed service.

Now the question that might be asked is how do I handle water? Well, lets look at it this way. Water is the elixir of life and so it is very important. You need it for cooking, cleaning, washing and drinking. With that established though, here is another point, it does not necessarily have to come out of the ground at exactly the place it is used. Now certainly there is convenience by having it do so, but as stated, it wont be happening here at this building site for a little while yet. Now, I have a temporary trailer (temporary as in a few years, not a lifetime) and so water needs to be available for all those fore mentioned things. How does one deal with water when its not readily available on site?

1. Go without which is not really an option.
2. Pound a well which is cheaper than a drilled well but labor intensive and possibly not as good nor usually legal anymore (though the legal part don't bother me-my land, my water).
3. Carry in jugs of water which is labor intensive and time consuming and not as easy to use for showering, cleaning, etc.
4. Build a cistern/storage tank that can be filled from a master tank and then plumbed into water supply system in the trailer.

I went with number 4, though a little more labor intensive, it is done in such a way that it only requires to be filled about once a week. What I did was locate two 30 gallon upright water tanks that my cousin had. These I bleached and then pressure washed out since they had been in storage for many years. In the bathroom is a space next to the sink for a washer/dryer area. There was perfect room for these two tanks to be set side by side. There were threaded holes in the lower sides of these tanks, so here I was able to use fittings to tee the two together with vinyl hose with a shut off valve. From there I drilled a hole in the sink cabinet and ran the tubing from the shut off valve under the sink to a shurflow on-demand RV water pump that I picked up locally and secured to the floor. From that unit, a tube proceeds out through the wall into the small closet area where the hot water heater sets. It tees off from their and feeds the hot water heater and the cold water supply line for the rest of the trailer.

The water heater is fairly new, a used one my cousin had that was only a few years old. We put that in with all new pex tubing to all the fixtures in the house and let me tell you, pex is wonderful to work with. With the proper crimping tool and fittings, it goes in fast and easy and looks good too, though you never see it hidden in the closet and under the counter tops.

In the top of the tanks is another threaded hole where I placed screened vent elbows so the tanks will work without the vacuum keeping them from emptying when the pump calls for water. When it comes time to fill them, I remove one of them and feed in the end of a hose which runs outside to my truck where I have a 55 gallon water drum that I can fill up anywhere I choose (usually my parents house a few miles away). I use a transfer pump that another of my cousins had to pump the water from the drum to the tanks in the house and there you go-water.

I use this water primarily for bathing, washing, cleaning etc. For drinking and cooking for now I have a separate water jug that sits in the kitchen. So far this process has worked well. I imagine that come winter, it probably wont be the easiest, but I am certain I will have plans in place to make the delivery and transfer of water easy and fairly hassle free.

Home Improvements

When I purchased this trailer a few years ago, there were a few windows that were broke in one way of a another. I have been fortunate to have a cousin (the same one who fixed up my electricity) who scrapped out an old trailer that by chance had the same type of windows as my ancient model. He kept a few different sizes that I needed and brought them over for me. Last night I removed one of the worst ones and put one of the replacements in its place. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole process went. It was just a matter of removing about twenty screws from the metal frame, pulling the old window out, cleaning the old window seal material off and cleaning the new replacement before applying silicone around its perimeter and then placing it in the opening so the frame was against the outside wall and then using the screws to attach it in place. Overall slick and fast, though in a way the ease highlights the simplicity and cheapness of the trailer building process. Regardless, I now have a working window without broken glass that cranks in and out. Later this week I will be tackling one of the other problem windows.

The other day I spent a few hours starting to block up the perimeter and boy, it makes a big difference. I started around the door which was not as level as it should have been and did not open or close easily. I tweaked the opening just right with the perimeter leveling and then worked on the door itself. I had not noticed before, but many of the screws that attach the long one-piece hinge were loose which allowed the door to sag down. I spent a few minutes tightening these back up. With the leveling of the perimeter wall just right and those screws being tight on the hinges, the door now opens and closes like a champ with no scraping on the bottom like it had been. It swings smoothly and the door latch catches perfectly. Now before winter I need to place some new weather striping around its perimeter and all should be good.

I did not get around the whole perimeter though because I ran out of block. This coming weekend I will be poking around to dig up some more. I know of a few places where relatives have stacked old block that is free for the taking. Free is always good, particularly on this project since it is only temporary.

Last night I noticed that the grass is starting to take; little green shoots are now poking through the hay. Just last night I had thought about going and filling up the 55 gallon water barrel to water the lawn since we had not had rain in a few days and according to the weatherman it was not going to rain for a few more days yet, but as usual, he was wrong. Because I had a wheel bearing to go install in my car, I opted to hold off and lucky for me, in the wee hours of the morning we had a proper soaking rain which beats the deluge of rain we have had with every storm prior for the past month. I can''t wait until the whole lawn is all green.

More Work

Well, this weekend was extremely busy getting the trailer up and going. The first order of business Sat. morning was getting materials together that I would need for the day. This involved driving to the local feed store and buying some grass seed and hay. My next order of business was getting some hay, so that once I put down the grass seed I could cover it up. Needless to say, I live in farm country but the problem is everyone now uses those big round bales that weigh a ton. Finding square bales that are of a size that can be easily carried around is next to impossible now days. Having failed in finding hay, I instead went to my uncles and picked up the drag for leveling and smoothing the yard and driveway.


After picking up this stuff minus the hay I went home and used the lawn mover to pull the drag around the yard for a few hours. It worked very well. After that, I put aside yard ambitions for the time being and instead focused on deck building. Rather than sinking posts into the ground, I instead opted for building a box frame that the deck could sit on. This is not a permanent structure, so I scrounged around for wood that could be used without costing me any money. For the stairs, I also cobbled together something that is solid and will work well for the next few years.


Sunday was seal the roof day. I used sealant and went around all the roof caps (furnace, vent, etc.). Besides that, I also made sure all the windows and doors were properly sealed. I also slid under the trailer and sealed up any holes with expand foam. While I was at it I replaced the water heater vent cap and connected the chimney to the new furnace which I had installed a while back but never finished (its summer!). I also set about starting to set in the septic line. Digging thru hard pan is not fun, let me tell you.

Monday came around and rather than go into work I instead took the day off and went back to the local feed bin and purchased a few bales of hay that I had lucked out on finding this past weekend. I sucked it up and paid their exorbitant prices and brought my purchase home. I then focused on finishing up the septic and also put in a new toilet. I had been given a 'Toilet in a Box' as a gag gift. Now let me tell you, its a neat idea. You get everything in the box: toilet base, back, lid, seat, guts and even a wax ring. The parts though are cheap but apparently work so far.

After septic and the toilet I decided it was time to put down grass seed. I dug out my old seed spreader, loaded it up and went to town. Once I had spread all of it I then spread the hay out over it and watered it all down. Hopefully if all goes well within the next few weeks I will have the start of a yard.

The next major job will be re-insulating the bottom and then sheeting the base prior to the cold weather hitting, which in this area of the world is soon. Its mid August now and for example the temp last night hit 43 degrees. That makes it a little chilly when you wake up in the morning. There are a few other minor projects to complete on it before I can say it is fully done. Over the next few weeks I'll be tackling those.