Socks for a pattern 3/4/2023

I meant to make a pattern to sell from the last fine pair of socks I made, but I forgot to take enough pictures as I went along, so I have to remedy that problem.

I found this neat self-striping yarn on an etsy store, and figured I needed a new color to go with my brown shoes. I think this color will do. My ADD got bored with the "iron soot" socks, since it was all the same color all the time. Self striping gives you something to look forward to (the next color) while you are knitting. At least for me...

Made on 000 needles, 8 st/in, 24 st to start on the toe, expanding to 72 st for the foot. Yarn is Paton's Kroy Socks, "super fine", 75% wool, 25% Nylon. You need the nylon to keep it from wearing from friction in your boot all day. Or I guess you could do bamboo, if you wanted to keep it "all natural".

I cheated the system and got lights 3/8/23

We just needed more light. Working in a small closet trying to chink with a 500 degree worklight burning your neck just isn't working. I bought a thick extension cord, cut off the plug, disconnected the hot and neutral from my breaker box, and stuffed the end of the extension cord in the lugs instead. The other end goes to the temporary power pole in the yard. It seems to work ok. I can run almost all the lights in the house - many of them are LED's in the closets. I put at least one bulb in every light fixture just to be sure they all work. I found out they don't all work - the stair lights and a closet light that is on the same circuit as the stairs, so I missed something somewhere. And my 3-way switches are all wrong - only one end of each of them work. So I think I got bad advice. I'll have to check my wiring and see where I went wrong.

But it's a good start.

Chinking over the stairs 3/13/2023

Can't get my scaffolding close enough to the wall because the stairs are in the way. I tied this ladder to the wall with a winch strap, just to be safe. And my wife suggested working from the top down, which is also a good idea: do the suckiest parts first - which are the highest rows - then everything after that will seem easy. I now have 4 rows complete.

Now we have to stop and think for the next one because there will someday be a hallway at the top of the stairs, and we probably need an outlet on the wall there, so I need to install it before we chink any further.

Prepping for more chinking 3/18/2023

With the hardest top rows of logs over the stairs completely chinked, I could turn my attention to finishing the lower logs. I had to break up this wall into two sections - upper and lower - because I ran out of polycryllic. You don't have to put a finish on the logs, but everyone wishes they had after they live there for a few years. I guess dust is the big complaint - rough logs love to collect it. So rather than deal with that headache later, we decided to just go ahead and poly the logs now. Some folks like them extra shiny, so they put a high-gloss poly on them. We did a test spot in the closet and found out we don't like our logs to glare at us in the spotlight, so we went with a Matte finish, which is hard to get in gallon pails, so I had to order it online and wait.

I received the poly this week and quickly sanded and put a couple coats of the stuff on the bottom logs.

After that, I had to install nails and tidy up the insulation. Once the nails are in place and the insulation is pushed back firmly into all gaps, I can go back and look at the large gaps - more than 4" - and install metal lath to give the chink extra support.

How I do the lath is:

1. place nails and insulation in all gaps. For gaps smaller than 4", I go back with a hammer and bend all the nails until they are vertical.
2. For gaps larger than 4", I go back and bend every other nail back into the gap.
3. cut a long strip of lath a bit larger than I think I need. Then place the strip of lath in between the forward facing and bent nails.
4. trim the lath to fit nearly vertically in the gap using an angle grinder. Don't let the top of the lath bend towards you - harder to chink that way.
5. push the forward facing nails back into the gap to hold the lath in place.

Sanding Joists 3/26/23

As a first time home builder, I didn't know you should sand and stain the joists before installing them. And at every stage, I kept thinking, "I'll get to them eventually..."

Now my wife is mudding the walls and needs these finished before she can finish, so I started sanding them yesterday. It is a pain in the behind. For now, I'm just sanding them from the drywall back a few feet so I can apply polycrylic to them so she can mud the drywall. But I have to eventually sand all 31 of them. Would have been easier on the ground, but at the time it was 30 degrees, and we didn't want to wait for better temperatures.

They were nice and clean when I got them, but I wasn't ready to install them. My supplier gave me such a good deal ($80 each vs $320 each from one of the big box stores), that I had to take them right then. So he delivered them, and I stacked them up behind the house while I finished the roof and the subfloor. I think they were stacked for about a year before I got to them, and by then, some of them had weathered and gotten a lot of dirt and stains. I could have at least sanded them at that point. But....rookie mistake.

Grading property by hand

Got the trench for the sewer and power lines installed for cheap. Guy came back for $100 and pushed the dirt all back into the trenches. But you have to wait for it to settle before you can smooth it over. Sometimes, that can take months. Or I guess you can hire a roller and pay $$$$.

But I had this big heavy log (about 200 lbs) just laying out back, so I decided to roll it myself. Have to take care because there are cleanout plugs every 50' on this sewer trench. But anyway, I use a pick to break it up, then a rake to smooth it over somewhat. Then a shovel and the wheelbarrow to haul the excess over to a low spot near the street. Then roll the rest smooth. I wanted to sprinkle grass seed over it to help it along, but wife says to just wait and let the weeds come in, and eventually we'll get to it.

I didn't want to stop work on the cabin to do this, but when summer comes, and the weeds REALLY take over, these little lumps and hills are going to be a big problem every time I need to mow. Might as well save myself some energy and get it all flattened out now while I still can...