The Pump House

On the advise of a friend, John H., we stopped working on the house and turned our attention to building a pump house and bringing the well to life. After all, we’re not going to finish the house before it starts to freeze (this is October!). So the question is, would we rather be further along on the house or have running water? Water by a landslide!

Masonry Furnace Foundation

Before leaving the house project, we needed to build the foundation for the future masonry furnace, a firebox surrounded by 20 tons of rock and concrete. I was overwhelmed by this little project, having never laid block before and knowing all the concrete it would take and that we would have to mix it. So, I called on some friends and got some much appreciated help from John H. and Chris A. We spent a long day building the block foundation over the footing we had already poured. Chris mixed, and John and I laid block. We filled in the block with rebar and concrete and just got the last course laid before ending for the day.

 

 

 

 

You can surely tell that we are not professionals. But it turned out pretty good and I doubt it’s going anywhere in the next 100 years.

For those interested (I know, none of you guys really care about this part, but maybe there will be someone, someday, doing what I’m trying to do and just maybe they’ll find this helpful; so, deal with it), I’m including some details about the concrete mix:

Previous to the pour, I had paid for a load of gravel and a load of find masonry sand to be delivered. I then purchased bags of Portland cement, masonry cement, and lime. The mixture for mortar that I used was 12 sand, 4 cement, and 1 lime. We mixed the mortar in the wheel barrow and mixed the concrete in the rented mixer. The concrete recipe I used was based roughly on 16% water, 11% cement, 26% sand, and 41% gravel for a 3500 psi mix. I had to convert this to 5 gallon buckets that would work for the mixer, which held a maximum of 6 cubic feet. Converting to cubic feet gave me .9cf water, .7cf cement, 1.6cf sand, and 2.5cf gravel. Then, I did a rough conversion to 5 gallon buckets: 1.3 buckets of water, 1 cement, 2.4 sand, and 3.7 gravel. However, since I really couldn’t be lifting these buckets all day, I decided to move to shovel-full measurements and so finally ended up with 1 bag Portland cement (95 lb. bag, or .67cf), 17 shovels of sand, 15 shovels of gravel (this was not enough, but I was having trouble mixing; should have been closer to 26 shovels). The best order I found was to add the sand, then cement, then some water, and finally to shovel in the gravel.

The next day, Connie and I mixed more concrete to finish filling in the blocks and forming and pouring a cap on the top. You’ll notice the 9” x 9” flue tile we cut at a 90 degree angle (using a masonry blade on my skill saw) and placed in the block, sticking out the side and up through the top. This is the air channel that will eventually feed into the side of the firebox, which we’ll build using fire brick. We’ll also need to build and install a blast gate—a future project that we’ll wait to tackle until after we’re in the house. If we get into the house at all this winter (2010-2011), we’ll use electric heat. The masonry furnace will need a few months of curing before we fire it up so I’m hoping we’ll be able to use it next winter (2011-2012).

Floor Joists

With the foundation completed, we were able to finish framing up the floor joists. Decided to do 24” spacing for the floor joists. I hate springy floors. But, since the joist spans are only about 10-1/2 feet, I felt that 24” centers were fine. The joists, of course, are resting on the beams, which in turn, are resting on the posts. It felt great finally getting above the ground.

We were about done (about two joists short) when we decided to halt the house and start the pump house.

The Pump House

Just when we thought we were done with digging through the mud, we were back up to our knees in muck and rocks.

“Digging” is a relative term here in Missouri where a more appropriate phrase would be “rearranging rocks.” I don’t know what’s worse, digging in wet muck or rock-dry dirt. For this project, we needed to dig out a water-filled trench that had the 1” PEX water line to the house and 1” electrical conduit to feed the pump. Although we weren’t going to connect the pump to the house, I wanted to get all of the underground work done (again) so we don’t have to tear anything up later.

This is a great picture of Connie: My foreman, partner in crime, most loyal workmate, and eternal sweetheart. What she puts up with! And what a worker she is!

 

 

Finding the stubbed lines, and renting a great little trencher (little by backhoe standards), we dug the trenches and prepared to pour the pad for the pump house.

 

The pump house pad is 5’ by 6’. This small of a pour (less than a yard) needs to be done by hand. So, we rented the mixer again. It took about three batches, but we poured the slab.

 

We were advised by the pump man to put the pump house right over the pump. This would save the cost of a “pit-less adapter.” The only issues are that you have ensure the pump house doesn’t freeze and you should leave some kind of access in the roof (or a removable roof) in case of a need to remove the pump in the future. We settled on a 1hp Gouls pump, a pretty hefty high-end unit with a five year warranty, but which typically lasts 15-20 years. The well was 440 feet, the pump was set at 300 feet, the static water level is 180 feet. The pump will make 70-80 gallons per minute. The pump will only dray 10 gallons per minute. He also installed a 36 gallon pressure tank. When all connected and turned on, the gauge reads about 60psi.

We ended up with a 1” pex line out to a hydrant next to the pump house, a 1” pex line to the (future) house, and 1/2” pex line to the trailer, all connected with shut-off valves. We also took the time to install a poor-mans drain: a number 10 can in the center of the slab filled with gravel and 3” sewer and drain pipe out the side. All in all, it turned out ok.

We then built the walls using typical 2x4 construction, a 4 in 12 roof pitch shed roof, a 2x2 foot opening framed in the roof, and sheathed with 1/2” OSB. I decided to frame in a closed soffit to be consistent with the house design.

We finished framing the building and did the rough electrical. We’ve installed 3/4” TG OSB on the roof and are ready to insulate and finish. Decided to use 1/2” foil faced closed-cell insulation board as a finish for the inside. I’ll tape off the joints and seal the cracks with caulk to try and keep the bugs out.

The Dogs

Thought it would be fun to include dogs at play—at least one dog at play and the other just standing around enduring the other dog at play. Sammy is the black one and come evening, he gets pretty playful. Buster is the big white lug.

We also had a beautiful sunset tonight that I tried to capture.

 

 

 

 

 

Water In All its Forms

Well, we’re heading into our first real frost tomorrow night. It’s about 10 days late this year. We bought 22 bales of straw to stack around the base of the trailer as a skirting to try and fend off the cold. We now have running water!!!! YEAH!!! and so we were able to drain the trailer water tank and dismantle the external water tank system. We’ve insulated the 1/2” pex as it leave the ground and connects to the trailer and stacked hay around the North side. We’ll need an additional 30 bales, I’m afraid. Hopefully tomorrow, we can finish insulating the pump house the day before the expected freeze. Always a race.

We really appreciate our well. What a difference to just turn on the tap and get an unending stream of clean, drinkable water under pressure. No more driving 10 miles and filling three 55 gallon barrels, then pumping them into the 200 gallon tank, then filling the 40 gallon tank under the trailer every 3 days. Now we can even drink out of the tap. Amazing! It felt more like a real homestead when we turned on that pump.

Drilled a Well, Beams, and at Home in the Trailer

We now have a $4,000 pipe in the ground. We decided to drill the well now, even though we’ll need to finish the cottage before the pump and pressure tank can be installed. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Thankfully, there’s more to this than what you can see here. It was fun watching the big drilling rig come in, set up, and drill down 440 feet. At about 400 feet, the driller said he hit the “Roubidoux” (pronounced ruby-doo here in the Ozarks) aquifer, which produces about 50 gallons per minute minimum. However, the well we put on will only draw about 10-15gpm. He drilled down an additional 40 feet to allow sand to settle and the water to clear. It was pretty cool seeing tons of crystal clear water gushing out the pipe towards the end.

The drilling is done with something like a very large hammer drill connected on the end of 20 foot lengths of steel shaft. Huge amounts of compressed air are then pumped down into the hole blowing the debris out the top. It was the compressed air that blew the water out the top, the aquifer filling in the water behind it. Here’s what the drill looks like in action:

Here’s a couple of additional “well drilling” pictures. Sorry gals, this is for all of us little boys:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building

We’re back to working on the building. After pumping out the water in the holes that the posts were set in, we filled in each hole (with a shovel, of course), then took down all of the braces and batter boards. Next, I marked the posts using my laser level so that they are all in the same plane. Using a jig made from three pieces of plywood stapled together and a skill saw, I cut off the posts leaving the long posts in the corners and one each along the front and back walls.

Finally emerging from the ground, we cut and placed the beams on the short posts. Beams were made by nailing 3 or 4 2x10’s together, depending on the span. Then, as a precaution, I installed 2x6 braces on each post connecting each side of the post to the beam, as shown here:

Now that’s a nice beam! You can see the 4 2x10’s comprising the beam and one of the braces connecting the post to the beam. These are now installed on each side of the beam for each post. I used 16 penny nails in my nail gun to tack the braces in place, then drilled and inserted 1/2” carriage bolts, two per brace. Finally, nailed 40 penny galvanized nails, six to eight per brace. It shouldn’t go anywhere and I know, I over-build. Here’s most of beams up:

You can see the long posts on the four corners and one each in the middle of the front and back walls. The first beam (closest to the front) is for the porch.

Although this picture doesn’t show it, I’ve finished all of the beams. Tomorrow, a friend with a tractor will be out to smooth the dirt between the beams so when the crawl space is done, we can lay plastic on the dirt and not cut through it with rocks.

Our Life in the Trailer

So far, the trailer has been pretty comfortable. The weather has been pretty nice, only into the low 40’s one night so far, so the furnace is keeping up. It’s still a bit cold in the back of the trailer where the bedroom is. We’re really trying to not have to stay here through the entire winter, or at least that if we do, it will be a milder winter than last year.

Here’s Connie and the Skip-Bo cards (she’s probably winning). We’re up to about 115 games since September 2007. She’s ahead by six games.

In the spirit of fair play, I have to include a picture of me:

 

This was the good one. Sorry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, we got a new dog. Meet Sammy. He's a, well, a dog. Not absolutely sure of his parentage. But I’ve been accused of having questionable parentage myself, so we can’t hold that against him.

 

I like this picture better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connie likes this one better. So, I wisely added both of them. Just to stir things up a bit, vote for your favorite. We’ll see who’s right.

 

 

 

Finally, here’s an updated picture of our home site early in the morning as the well is being drilled.