Category: homestead (Page 5 of 13)

Kitchen Counter Endcaps

After the kitchen counter top was in place, I still needed to finish the endcaps.

They come in a kit, with a couple of wood pieces to attach to fill out the side, and then the laminate pieces with some kind of heat-activated glue on them.

I attached the wood pieces with a finish nailer:

And then you’re supposed to iron on the laminate pieces, keeping the iron at a certain temperature…a little difficult when the iron you have has to be heated up on a stove. 🙂 :

Unable to get a good temperature, I think even too hot to where the glue wouldn’t stick, I ended up just tacking them down with pin nails, which at least for me, I can’t even see:

Then, you’re supposed to file down the edges flush to the counter top:

And here they are done! I also caulked around the edges just to make sure moisture is kept out as much as possible:

Bedroom/Library Internal Siding

We’ve also been able to continue with the internal siding. On to the bedroom:

And then the library:

We’ve also found a new place for the piano: out of the summer kitchen and into the library — hopefully it will be a better temperature environment for it, and hopefully fewer mice will make it a home now 🙂 :

And now, all of the internal siding on the external walls, except for the two closets, are done!

Fellowship Hats

And finally, one of the major reasons we are out here is for the close Christian fellowship. Here is a pleasing sign of one of those times, as we’re gathered together, and we are honored to be able to have those times here:

We are always very grateful to the Lord for granting continued progress on the house, and thanks again to those who make that possible, and we are most thankful to be able to live amongst people who seek Christ and desire to be full of His graces!

— David

With the kitchen siding in place, it was time to install the kitchen counter and sink.

Kitchen Counter Top

I decided to go with a pre-formed laminate one as it was going to be easier, more cost effective, and I believed better quality than if I were to try to make one myself.

Sue had decided she didn’t want permanent cupboards below the counter top, so my plan was to build bracing that attached to the wall studs, and this is what I came up with. There is a cross 2×4 attached to the wall studs, then the counter top braces extending from the wall on top of that, and then diagonal braces from the top brace to the wall stud:

For the corner, I just put braces across from back board to back board:

Once the bracing was completed, I tied the corners together with glue and the provided nuts and bolts in the pre-cut areas:

Here are the screws I decided to use to tie down the counter top to the top braces. They have a larger, flat head that I hoped would help pull the counter to the brace:

I had Sue sit on the counter and push down to get the counter to set against the top braces while I screwed it down, and here is the counter tied down to a brace:

And here is the counter top installed!

Kitchen Sink

We decided to go with a stainless steel kitchen sink, to be placed between two braces. When I initially measured, it appeared it was going to fit nicely, but I eventually ran into some issues…

When cutting on a laminate top, you’re apparently supposed to put tape down to help keep the laminate from cracking as you cut:

Then, you lay the sink down upside down, trace around it, then draw a cut line inside the trace line, the width according to the instructions that come with the sink:

I used a jig saw with laminate blade to cut out the main section:

Then used a coping saw for the back part as I couldn’t get close enough with the jig saw to the back cut line:

One issue I ran into was the sides of the hole ended up going over the bracing, and so I used a skill saw set to counter-top depth to make the initial cut of the sides, and then needed to chisel out the rest:

And here is a side completed:

Sadly though, on the right side, I apparently didn’t chisel down far enough in the corner, and it slightly cracked up the laminate. I ended up just gluing it and caulking it, which appears to have worked ok:

Another problem I ran into was that the sink tubs wouldn’t fit completely between the braces, so I needed to cut off a little of the brace siding:

And then, another issue was how to clamp the sides of the sink to the counter top. For that, I drilled holes and chiseled out a hole in the brace, and enough underneath to reveal some of the counter top so the clamp would have something to grab on to. You can see here at the top of the hole a little of the counter top exposed. Given the design of the brace, I could only really use one clamp on the sides even though you’re supposed to use two — I just hope that ends up being enough 🙂 :

Once all cutting, etc. was complete, I put down the caulk bead:

And then placed the sink in place, and clamped it down in a star-like pattern, starting from the inside clamps outward according to the directions:

And then I added more caulking from the outside, stuffing it under any slight gaps between the sink and counter top, and then tried to smooth it all out. And I put a couple of jugs of water to try to help keep pressing it down with the caulking cures:

To finish, I put in caps with caulking to plug the faucet holes:

And added the plumbing, which we plan to run into a bucket, at least for now:

So far after several days of the caulk around the sink curing, without using it yet, it seems to have sealed up. I guess we’ll know more over time and usage. 🙂

Birdhouse 2

Last but not least, young Abram Stonger made us another birdhouse, and here it is in place. Thanks to you, Abram, and a fine job!

And both birdhouses from the boys:

As always, we are grateful to the Lord for granting the resources, designs and abilities to continue to work on the house! We always pray our place will be one of worship to Him!

— David

We’re thankful to the Lord to be able to continue on the house! Thanks again to those who are helping make this possible, and thanks to Robert for his help!

The plan always was to seal in the bedroom so we could run separate heat in there, with the idea of using fewer resources for when we are sleeping, rather than trying to keep the whole house warm just so the bedroom is. And so, we added the doors:

To the library:

To the closet:

And to the bathroom:

And then we put in the bedroom internal windows:

Then, it was more great room/kitchen siding, which are now finished!

Electricity Through the Wall

Up until recently, we’ve had an extension cord running from our camper going through two slightly opened windows wrapped around the wall frame between the two windows, and we’ve had towels tucked in the openings to keep out the weather. Well, we recently discovered cold air was coming in between the sliding and permanent glass in the middle of the two windows. We put some towels there also to try to get by, but only until I could figure a way to pass the electricity through the wall.

In looking online, the only similar male to female things I could find were for RVs and were very expensive. So, I set out to see if I could figure out something a lot less costly…

Here is the metal, external wall plate with holes drilled through using the smallest bit I have:

And then L brackets attached, which will hold the male receptacle ends:

Here are the male receptacles and some foam seals:

And in place on the metal wall plate:

I attached the wire, which was just a 3-wire extension cord I cut a piece from, to the back of the male receptacle:

And put the male receptacle back together:

And here is the male end of the passthrough:

I then cut a hole in the internal siding and cut out a square to fit the electrical bracket box that the female receptacle attaches to:

And here is the hole on the external OSB wall:

And the square cut out:

And then the male end and wires through the hole:

And then the whole male receptacle installed and calked:

And here are the wires coming through on the inside:

And through the bracket box:

I originally attached the two wire sets to the top and bottom of the female receptacle, but thankfully discovered that without having the current coming directly in the top one but only the bottom one, the top female outlet was still active! Well, that would have been something if I had plugged in another active cord into the top one while the bottom one was plugged in. Thanks to God for letting me find that beforehand. And so, apparently I only needed to wire in the one set of wires to one of the female receptacles to make both outlets active, and then I just taped up the not used wire, keeping it there in case it was ever needed:

And here is the female receptacle in place:

And the cover plate:

Then, I plugged in the extension cord to the outside:

Et voila! Power on the inside!

And now, we can close both those windows completely to help keep the place warmer.

Homemade Amish Hat Rack

With the great room siding done, I really wanted a place for the men to be able to hang their hats when visiting, and so I set out to make something quick but useful for the larger sized Amish hats we wear.

And here’s what I came up with. Had to angle the backings to be able to fit on the wall as I hadn’t measured the wall width beforehand, but it worked not too badly:

Again, we are grateful to the Lord for allowing the continued work on the house!

— David

After some of the great room siding had been done, we’ve been able to continue on the house, with the assistance of Robert.

Closet/Pantry/Bathroom Ceiling

Next job was the closet/pantry room/bathroom ceiling. Here are the cross blocks:

And Robert working up there:

And the ceiling done. We can hopefully even store some things up there now as well:

Enclosing the Bedroom

We decided to go ahead and try to make the bedroom its own sealed-in room so we could have separate heat in there at some point, and so we needed the siding around the bedroom windows to go up, in preparation for installing the windows:

More Foundation Beam Work

After adding spacers to the south beam to level it some, I didn’t like how the end of the beam was torquing still a little, with the pier being very slightly tipped that way, and so I thought I might try replacing the pier bracket with a wider one so I could set the beam a little bit back on the pier and add a side spacer to help keep the beam a little more vertical. And here is that process…

Here the beam is raised:

And here, loosening and removing the bracket:

This is the bracket removed:

And the new one in place:

Again, I used the floor jack to push back the bottom of the beam. I also temporarily removed the hurricane clips from the beam and floor joists to allow it to maybe pivot back a little easier:

And here the beam is set back down with the 2×4 side spacer in place. Hopefully that will help!

Birdhouse

And finally, one other nice touch for this update: young Elijah, one of the Stonger boys, built us a birdhouse, which we put up on the south side of the house! Thanks Elijah, and nice job!

As always, we are very thankful to the Lord for providing for continued progress on the house!

— David