Let There Be Light

Since we’ve been mooching off of Tom’s parents for nearly 2 months, we decided we should do a little sumpthin-sumpthin to repay them.

The existing stove vent.

So, we tore out a non-functioning gas stove in the family room and installed a solar tube.  What is a solar tube, you ask?  For the environmentally uneducated, let me esplain.

Demo of an asphalt roof is the opposite of fun.  Having bits of asphalt explode into your eyes is the (opposite of fun)^2.

Basically, you punch a hole in your roof, punch a hole in your ceiling, run a reflective metal pipe between the holes and you have yourself a solar tube.  They bring in lovely amounts of natural light and can be installed in a day.

Here, the new flashing is installed.  The roof area to be patched is huge because the flashing piece for the stove was enormous.

We bought our sweet daylighting system from Solatube – pretty much because they were the first company to show up on a Google search and they have a distributor in Tucson.  The 10” model we purchased was $325 ($350 w/ tax).  Did you just make a scrunchy face and think, “that’s kinda pricey” ???  Well, in the spirit of every infomercial ever made --  BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE…

Sorting through parts on the roof.  I’m starting to notice that I generally looked confused in photos these days.

If you act in 2010, you federal government will give you a tax credit of 30% of the cost of the materials.  That’s nearly $100 off!  AND, your state government might have credits as well!!  AZ will give you another incredible 25% off the INSTALLED cost. 

Tube installed and roof patched.  The plastic dome has a little reflector inside that points south to bring in the most light possible.  We are “cautiously optimistic” that our roof patch won’t leak – much.

The company we bought the tube from would have charged $500 to install it for us.  With tax credits, the final bill would have been $275.  Plus, I just found the same model online for $279, so I guess we could have saved another $50 by comparative shopping. 

Interior shot before the Solatube was installed.

Interior shot with the Solatube installed – this was taken at 10am, so the ambient light hasn’t even peaked yet.

And I say unto you, let there be light.

We’re very happy with how this product performs and the relative ease of installation.  I’m not sure the photos really demonstrate how well it lights up a previously dark corner in the room.  When we have a house again, we plan to install several of these – kitchen, bathrooms, & dark hallways will be the likely candidates.

Let us know if you have any questions.

-Jessie

Too Good to be True

FYI, this tile adhesive product SUCKS.

We had to tear down about 2/3 of the tile backsplash, grind the adhesive off the walls & tiles, and then re-place all of the tile with proper tile mastic. Thus the minor delay in posting finished kitchen pictures.

But, we worked until 2 a.m. last night to finish up the tile and get the kitchen functioning again.

This is the kitchen before Team Steiger was let loose.

And the final product!! I wish we could take our baby with us…

Now, just the facts, ma’am:

1) We installed 38 square feet of counter for a material cost of just over $1000 giving us a per square foot cost of about $27. Not too shabby considering nice counters at Home Depot or Lowe’s are advertised around $75/SF (installed).

2) BUT, we each spent over 100 hours on just the counters (this does not include demo of existing counter, carpentry to make the existing cabinets level, plumbing, or tile). If we had charged $80/SF, then we only would have made $10.00 per hour. Gonna have to get MUCH faster if we intend to supplement our income this way.

Close up shot of the polished aggregate. So shiny.

3) This was a sh**load of work. If you think you could knock out a project like this in your spare time, you are crazy. I highly recommend starting with something smaller and simpler, like a bathroom counter. That being said, it is doable for someone with a decent shop, common sense, and some medium carpentry skills. If you want to build your own counters, please feel free to contact us for some advice – we even have a spreadsheet of all the materials we bought and a log of the hours we worked. OR if you want to hire us (for more than $10.00 an hour!) let’s definitely talk. These were just too much work to do for free again (sorry Amanda).

This little deelio took several hours to build, but it’s way cool. Everyone who sees the counters thinks it’s the best feature.

And now, some lessons learned on this project. This might be helpful for anyone attempting a project like this but it’s also for our future reference before we forget. Thank you internet!

1) We originally used 1/8” strips of melamine to make the template and they SUCKED. They are way too flimsy. So, yet another run to the hardware store to buy 3/16” wood underlay (luaun) which worked quite well.

Zoiks! The curvy part of the sink took FOREVER to grind & polish. Curves are not my friend – not on my thighs and not in my concrete.

2) Don’t make an L shaped section if possible. It was a pain in the butt to maneuver. If I had a do-over, I’d change the location of the joints and avoid this shape.

3) Sure, the sink cut out looks awesome, but it was a lot of work. Consider choosing a large basin sink that is the full depth of the counter (like this one from IKEA), so the counter just butts up to the sink.

4) Everything has to be level. One of the tile hot plates had warped a little when it was grouted so it didn’t quite lay flat in the form. When we started grinding, there was a bit of lip to grind down.

5) We did 3 effing coats of slurry on the main counters. When I did the pass-thru section, I left the first coat on really thick and that did the trick. Thick slurry = more grinding but less work overall.

6) Anything cast into the counter (hot plates, cutting board, etc) needs to be masked off while grinding.

This is my token Architectural Digest photo.

There are probably other things, but honestly, I am tired of thinking about counters. Still, we are so damn proud of this project. We put a lot of effort into it, but I think all of it paid off – even if our theoretical hourly wage is crap.

-Jessie

ps. Photos of the whole project can be seen here.

Power from the Sun…

The solar panels are coming along. A bit slower than we would have liked since we have had some finish work and some gotcha’s getting the kitchen completely ready to go, but we’ll leave that for another post. In our last post, the solar cells were being soldered together.

Solar PV systems have a fluctuating power output based on how much sun is available, so they rely on a device called a charge controller to regulate the power that is produced. In most cases this is used to charge a battery (this is how we are going to use it). The charge controller is generally rated for a set amount of both voltage and current. In our case we have a charge controller that has a max amperage of 10 Amps and a max voltage of 100V. Our solar panel is two parallel smaller panels of 36 series cells each. A little math gets us to the fact that the panel will output 20V at 7.2 Amps in a best case scenario.  That is around a 140 watts of solar power.

So we have the strings of cells soldered together and the next step was to attach the cells to the panel. We used clear silicone adhesive to glue down each of the sets of cells

Fun with silicone… putting the strings of cells in place was a bit nerve wracking since they are so brittle.

The panel sections all connected down. There is still some interconnect wiring to be soldered in that is not shown in this picture.

The panel is a layered affair starting with an aluminum frame that I custom built from a scavenged frame of a broken hot water solar collector. I cut them down on a band saw to make L angle pieces and then cut and bent them to get the frame shown here.

Bottom side of the scavenged frame.

The frame in all its recycled/scavenged materials glory

Next we are putting down a piece of thin aluminum sheet metal (also scavenged) to provide some weather protection for the panel backing.

Sheet aluminum on top of frame.

The cells are attached to heavily primed and painted 1/4 inch plywood which goes on top of the sheet metal

The framing sections that hold the panel pieces in place.

Then panel sections are housed in a channeled frame that I made from ripped down 2x2 and 2x4 lumber. This was also heavily primed and painted.

This is the how the final panel will look with the addition of a sheet of Plexiglas on top.

There will be a sheet of 1/4 inch Plexiglas on top of this to protect the cells and the whole thing will be through bolted together with stainless steel bolts. Hopefully, we will get the panel fully assembled by the end of Saturday and the weather will give us some sunshine to mount this on the roof of the trailer and get all the internal wiring done.  Someone asked (sarcastically I might add :) about the weight of the panel. I think the whole thing is going to come out weighing around 30 lbs which is pretty good for that amount of power. I tried this out at twilight (literally… the sun went behind the mountains while I was setting the panels up) and was still getting 16.85 Volts and 1.36 Amps with no direct sunlight, so I’m pretty happy about that. We’ll see how this actually works once we get it all assembled.

--Tom

Ahhhhh, yeeeaaaahhhh

We are victorious!

The counter install went perfectly (as opposed to smashingly, which Maya pointed out could imply smashed fingers).

Tom’s brother, Peter, invited over a few hulk-like friends to execute the heavy lifting.  It only took half an hour to get everything installed.  I felt a bit useless just watching the guys move the pieces…

But I didn’t care, I was just so damn happy that everything FIT.

Now, for some detail shots:

We cast into the counter a glass cutting board and made a little slopey drain section that heads straight to the garbage disposal.

Can you pretty please admire how well the sink turned out?  When we slid this section into place and I realized it fit PERFECTLY, I was jumping up and down and hugging Tom.  Geez-US, what a huge relief.

Oh yes, more gorgeousness with the tile hot plate.

After the counters were poured, we decided to use a leftover bag of concrete and make a little counter in the pass-thru area.  The area used to have a row of these tiles, but we salvaged them and cast them into the counter.  This piece is not even waxed yet.

This is just a little sample shot of what the polished surface looks like.  It’s kind of shocking to run your hand across the surface because you know that the counter is made of rough concrete, but it’s as smooth as a granite counter.  Plus, this is just way more bad ass than granite, in my opinion.

We applied a second coat of wax….

and it’s so shiny, you can see my reflection.

And now, we move on to the photos of the whole beautiful thing:

Oh wait, we decided to start the tile backsplash.  Finished kitchen pictures will appear probably tomorrow along with our “lessons learned” on this project and some advice if you want to tackle something like this for yourself.

Instead of using mastic or thin set, we tried using a spray adhesive which seemed to work reasonably well.  It’s claims that you can grout one hour after placing the tiles, which is why it was purchased, but we found that claim to be BS (or GMS, right Chelsea?).

Even though we started at 8:30 am, we worked on the tile until it was finished at 1:00 am.  Hard core, right?  I’m pretty sure that’s the longest day I’ve ever worked.

Plus, it was COLD last night.  Any tiles left outside were starting to freeze to the table and little frosty bits of residue were accumulating on the tile saw.  But did we give up?  Oh no.  Tom got out his stash of cheap vodka (with blue food coloring) that we used to winterize our trailer water system and poured some in the tile saw.  I love how engineers always find creative little ways to fix problems.

Okay, I think that’s enough for today.  One more post about counters and then we’ll move on to new topics (finally!).

-Jessie

Am Nervous

Okay, tomorrow is the BIG day and I am getting nervous.  We have sealed & waxed the counters and they are being installed tomorrow.  If the sink opening doesn’t fit properly, it is MY fault and it will take a significant amount of finagling to get everything to line up.  We have 2 additional strapping young lads to help maneuver the pieces, so here’s hoping every thing goes smashingly tomorrow!

-Jessie

Almost There!

Almost where you ask?  Almost to the point of being able to install these damn counters and move on with our little lives.

This is day 1 of polishing using 50 grit & 100 grit diamond resin wet polishing pads.  The rain gear I was using was completely inadequate and I got soaked anyway.

Plus, it sprayed so much concrete residue in the air it left my hair gray.  You can see the red where my head band was.  Fun times.

On day 2 of polishing, I really got serious.  Don’t be surprised if you see this look on the runways for spring fashion week.  Men’s fishing waders, Teva sandals, REI rain coat.  Yeah, I’m gonna need a day of watching chick flicks, mani-pedi, even <gulp> shopping to get back an ounce of femininity back. 

The polishing reveals the aggregate in the concrete (pretty) but also brings up some voids (not so pretty).  This photo is after we’ve applied slurry TWICE.

So, with any luck, the third times a charm.  We had some leftover Sakrete mix, so I screened it through 3 layers of window screen to get out the rocks & most of the sand.  Add some water & color and you have yourself some fine lookin’ slurry.

The surface gets scraped off so there’s not too much sanding to do later.

What?  I look like I’m having fun here.  I think it’s because Peter was flipping Tom off with his blue rubber gloves on. 

The slurry process is best as a two person, Mr. Miyagi inspired operation – one applies the slurry in a wax-on, wax-off motion and the other scrapes a la “paint the fence.”

The left side of this piece is still wet so you can see how the final product will turn out when it is fully slurried, polished, sealed, & waxed.  Pretty, non?

-Jessie

The Other Project - Solar Panels

In addition to the concrete counter tops we are also working on building our own solar panels from rejected solar cells. These rejected cells are available for about 20% of the cost of an unblemished solar cell. These cells were rejected because they either have very small chips or had some defect when they were being manufactured. We got 140 Watts worth of cells from eBay for around $120.

The soldering station that I setup on top of a table saw, and one completed series of cells

So we are in the process of building a panel for these cells to go on the top of the trailer. There was an old non-functional solar hot water collector laying around so that has been dismantled and a lot of the framing is being cannibalized to make the new panel frame out of. We cut down the frame to make some nice lightweight aluminum angle frame and the backing sheet metal will be the new backing on the panel as well as re-using the glass front panel.

The first step for the panels was to figure out the cell configuration. We are going with two series runs of 36 cells which will give about 20 V of output power each. These will be connected in parallel to provide around 7.6 Amps of charging current for the trailer battery.

The back of a set of cells... the three pads are where the next cell is connected

Each of the cells had to be soldered together. To fit the panel dimensions this means that creating 8 sets of 9 cells in series, 4 of which will be connected in each half of the panel. There are three solder pads on the back of each of the cells that need to be connected. This turns into a lot of soldering and the cells are very fragile. I managed to get all of the series connections, but just barely. All of the spare cells that we started out with were broken by the time I finished.

Putting flux onto the pads for the next cells to be connected

Soldering the cells into the string

The next step is to put together panel mounts for the cells and then get the frame put together. We are going to be using heavily primed and painted 1/4 inch plywood for the backing. The next step is working out the detailing for the panel edging. We'll post some of the work on that after we get it prototyped. More to come.

--Tom

OK. Seriously. We Rock.

Today was the great unveiling of the concrete!

The first step was to pry off the sides of our forms.  This was a bit harder than it looks.  Especially in the areas where we, err, overdid it with the silicone. 

We flipped the piece over and then had to pry the base of the form off.  This was also harder than we thought it should have been.  Turns out, the spray adhesive we used to adhere the decorative aggregate was a bit stronger than we expected.  Our anticipation level at this point is ridiculously high.  We know the sides have turned out okay, but how will the counter actually turn out?  Are we screwed or are we awesome sauce?

Ta-da!  Awesome sauce, indeed.  It looks splotchy now, but just wait until I polish it up and make it shiny.

Speaking of polishing, I did a little test run today with some of the samples we made.  I was a bit smarter this time and donned full fowl weather gear.  If the polisher was a Care Bear, it would be Splashes-a-Lot.

All of the pieces have little holes all over the place.  This is okay – we didn’t screw up.  After I do some of the polishing, the holes will be filled with a slurry coat (cement & water) and then polished again.

When Peter got off work, he helped us uncover the two larger pieces and move everything outside for the polishing.  The sink knockout (my baby) turned out beautifully.  Unless, of course, we go to install it and it’s 6” off, then I blame Tom.

And here’s the whole sink section with cutting board and drain.  Isn’t it so pretty?

We used a furniture dolly to move the behemoths outside.  This piece clocks in at about 250 pounds.

I cannot express how relieved we are to have the counters out of the form work knowing that they don’t suck.  We have over 100 hours each into this project so far and while there’s still work to do, we are in the home stretch.

Yeah.  Evil wife + evil brother = Bad times for Tom.  Peter initiated the whole nipple clamping incident and he took the photos, but I guess I am implicated by posting it on the blog.  But just look at how much he likes it…

-Jessie

Those pour countertops…

Technically speaking we did the counter top pouring yesterday, but since we were so far behind on keeping people updated on how the form work was going we decided to break it up into two posts.

We started mixing the Sakrete 5000 psi concrete right around 10 AM. Out plan had been to do mixes of 3 bags per run, but we found that this was just too much material to get a good mix in the drum.  We also discovered after the first mix that we needed to have all of our initial amount of water ready and mixed with color when we started. The first load was a pain to get mixed right since we added the water in 3 smaller batches as it was mixed wit the color.  Lessons learned.

Masks were necessary for putting the dry mix in. I did a good job of watching Peter load most of the bags

The mix. It only looks like a drum full of baby poop…

The process that we used to fill the forms was to put concrete in up to the rebar level in the form and then use a concrete vibrator that we rented to consolidate the material and try and minimize the voids and air pockets on the bottom of the form (top of the final counter).

Jessie was the mix master and handled the color additives and water levels in the mix

The concrete vibrator… insert your own joke here, goodness knows we did through out the day

Then once we were happy that the concrete was consolidated we filled the form the rest of the way up and hand packed it to consolidate it down. We could have use the vibrator again for this portion, but it was a huge pain to maneuver and splashed concrete all over the place so we limited its use to the bottom where it was more critical.

Once the form was filled we screeded the top of it to level the material out and pull off any excess. Then the top (bottom) of the counter was trowelled as smooth as possible. A couple of people have asked why we didn’t just do a poured in place countertop since it would have minimized the form work that was needed. If you could see how many lines I wound up leaving in the surface of the counter you would know why we went with an upside down cast system. Trowelling concrete is definitely something that needs experience.

Packing the form to the top

Screeding – Which is a word that no spell check seems to know

Trowelling the finish in, not a good job for someone with any OCD tendencies. Must… make… lines… go… AWAY!

After trowelling we cleaned off the form edges to help make breaking the forms as easy as possible. Finally once the concrete has started to setup we clipped the wires that were holding the rebar cages in place and smoothed out those holes in the concrete.

Overall it took us right around 3 hours of pretty continuous work to get everything poured, finished and our clean up done. It seemed almost a little anti-climactic compared to how many hours went into the prep work up front.  It was definitely a frantic feeling morning though since we were having to keep mixing while we were placing and finishing concrete, and you always thinking about the fact that the concrete is curing and you are kind of under the gun time wise. Still with my brother and his sons help it went pretty smooth. We’ll find out for sure on Wednesday when we break the forms.

Tay being helpful as always :)

The pour all done. Now we wait nervously for four days

There have also been a couple of questions about how we are going to get all of this concrete in place once it is finished. The short answer is brute force. We have 4 sections to put in place with the L shaped piece that goes into a corner being the most awkward. The others are just going to be heavy. The total counter is around 800 lbs so figure each section is around 200 lbs more or less. Its definitely going to take some man power so we will be calling in some favors and paying people off with beer and pizza I’m sure.

--Tom

Last of the Prep Work

The last of the prep work has taken place over the last few weeks on & off with much help from Tom’s extended family.  Merry Christmas - now get to work!

We had some help from Kyle fastening the sides of the forms.  Every hole had to be predrilled & countersunk so we didn’t split the melamine.  We had no less than 4 drills with various bits going.

Once the sides were installed, then we had to tape off all the joints and seal them with a bead of silicone.  This gives the concrete a nice, soft rounded edge and keeps it from bleeding through the formwork.

The joints between sections of counter are connected with a piece of plexiglass which is also held in place by silicone.  Plexiglass is used so that if the joint ends up all wobbly, at least the pieces will line up with each other.  FYI, black silicone is used so that you can see where you need to clean up on the white melamine.

The form work is held in place by melamine buttresses.  These are screwed down into the pour table and also into the side wall of the form.  Using the right length of screw here is critical.

Ten year old Daniel got a quick lesson on using the drill press to pre-drill the side rails & buttresses.  Child labor laws, what?

Cameron (17, pictured) and AJ (12) were in charge of cutting and marking the pieces of #3 rebar.

Here are the sink & faucet knockouts installed.  Making the sink knockout SUCKED.  We tried to buy 2” foam, but there wasn’t any at multiple stores, so we thought, “no problem, we’ll buy 1” foam and glues pieces together.”  Sounds easy, no?  Except that 1” foam is really 1 & 1/16” and 2 different types of adhesive I used dissolved the foam.  Then the band saw I was using to make the cardboard template and to cut the foam was having problems so we had to stop to fix it.  THEN, the clear tape I put around the outside to make a smooth edge kept coming off.  Anyways, a lot of effort went into the sink knockout.  I’m still a little concerned that the edge will be a little bumpy in spots and will require a lot of grinding.  Tom had some better luck with the faucet knockouts, but not much.

Here you can see my purdy black silicone lines.  There is also a grouted tile that we are casting in place to be a hot plate (there will be one on each side of the stove).  The concrete sealer can delaminate if hot things are put on it, so this is a protective measure.  Plus, it will look cool.  The little white aggregates were ordered from a concrete place and are held in place with spray adhesive.  When the surface is polished, we should see this aggregate come through.

Another nice, custom feature that we have in the counter is a fixed glass cutting board and a slopey section to wipe food waste directly to the garbage disposal.  The cutting board caused quite a delay when FedEx lost the package (it’s been in Hagerstown, MD since 12/29) so we gave up on the original and ordered a different one which just got here yesterday.  We had to build the slopey section twice because we scribed it wrong the first time (Damn it!  We forgot that everything is upside down.  Our first major error due to forgotten upside down-ness).

Then we plopped down some foam blocks to support the rebar cages and held them in place with some wire.  The wire gets cuts after the concrete is placed.

And voila!  The fully prepped counter, just begging to be drowned in concrete.  Just outside the frame are three sacrificed chickens for the Gods of Cement, Aggregate, and Water.  On the morrow is judgment day.

-Jessie

Family Bet

If you recall, we made a little familial bet in August where everyone gave up something yummy until Christmas.  Four of us succeeded and two failed (Cameron & Tiffany, if you must know) and we renewed this bet idea, this time involving ALL of the extended family.

Tom enjoying his first beer since August – approximately at 10 am Christmas morning.  There’s just nothing better than getting lit while kids are opening Easy Bake Ovens.

Me & both of Tom’s sisters have given up sweets until June 15.  Ack!  What the hell was I thinking?  My only access to sugar for nearly six months is going to be fruit and coffee drinks.  If Tom is wise, he will keep plenty of these things on hand.

Four out of seven nieces & nephews joined us on a hike the other day.  Chelsea (19) has given up soda & ice cream, Cameron (17, top right) has agreed to run 6 miles a week, AJ (12, bottom right) has given up candy, and Taylor (13) has given up canned beverages AND has agreed to do ALL of his homework.  To add extra incentive for Taylor, I told him I’d give him my winnings if he makes it to June.

We found a few inches of snow in a shady canyon after we climbed about 2000 feet.  We also found two backpacks and several water jugs left behind by illegal immigrants which is extremely common in this area.

Tom and three other relatives have agreed to a specific amount of exercise each week.  If an adult fails in their mission, they have to put $100 into the pot (kids $50) which will be split by the winners.  With 5 kids and 7 adults, this could get interesting. 

This is a fun little way to encourage some healthy behavior in our family.  There’s nothing like some friendly competition to keep us honest.  Now, if I can only figure out some strategies to sabotage the rest of the group…

-Jessie

Happy holidays to you all…

Belated for sure, but we wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays. We’ve been blessed this year to be able to share time in a lot of peoples lives both family and new friends. Its been incredible trip for us so far and we have been blessed to make so many new friends along the way.

We’ve had a great Christmas in Arizona with all of the family in town.

I realize its nothing for our friends in DC who got a ton of snow, but we wound up with a covering of snow here a couple of days before Christmas. Very abnormal for Arizona and made it a bit chilly in our trailer.

We’ll make some updates shortly with some more info in the concrete countertop project. We hope everyone has had a great Christmas and that your New Years is even better.

--Tom

Progress and Setbacks

We have made some significant progress on the countertop over the last few days, but also struggled through setbacks at every step. We feel sometimes like we’re inventing the wheel, but we’re plowing forward.

Step 1 was to build a template using strips of 1/4” mahogany lauan underlay. We started with a sheet of 1/8” melamine which was truly sucktastic. It was so flimsy, we had a really hard time ripping it into strips.

Once you get usable strips, you lay a piece against the wall, then put another one in the front taking into account how much the counter will overhang the cabinetry. Tack these down and then hot glue the side pieces into place. Each piece is left intentionally 1/2” short in each direction so you don’t have to mess with cutting them exactly to length. This is an important step in the process because, guess what, the walls in your house are never true, and your cabinetry is never square.

We also used our handy dandy, super duper polisher of joy. You start with a 50 grit diamond resin pad on the wet polisher and work your way up to 3000 grit. It is wicked smooth when finished - we just kept rubbing the samples after they were polished. This is about what the finished color should look like, except we bought these shiny, white, small stones to place in the form. These will show up as larger aggregate when polished.

We moved the template outside and laid it out on 3/4” melamine to mark the cuts for the base of the form. Because the bottom of the form will be the top of the counter, it is quite important to flip the template upside down.

To keep things straight in our constantly confused heads, we made marks on the template when it was inside with black sharpie and then switched to red sharpie when we flipped it upside down.

The pieces were ripped using a circular saw with a jerry rigged guide. We couldn’t use a table saw because nothing in the existing kitchen is square. I should mention that it was WINDY this day. We were engulfed in mini cyclones of sawdust and every time we tried to move a piece, we were working against a sail.

Suckers – Cameron and Kyle thought they were visiting for a vacation, but we put them to work immediately.

We also built and leveled a pour table. This should have been an easy part of the process, but we tried building it on sawhorses first so it would be at waist height for all of the successive steps. Nice idea, but the plastic sawhorses we had deflected horribly as soon as you put weight on them (specifically, the weight of Tom). The pour table has to be level and can’t deflect when the weight of the concrete is on it (about 800 pounds for the entire thing).

So, the pour table was moved to the floor. FYI, this whole thing has to be done inside because concrete needs to cure in 50 degrees or warmer for 3 days. Tom had a fantastic time shimming the table – twice. First round was a learning experience, second round he got it right. We really enjoy doing things twice for no reason.

On one of our many, many, many shopping trips to hardware stores, I spotted this crazy vehicle. Do you think it’s blue book value is higher with the custom paint and bobblehead job?

-Jessie

Its all about the color…

First things first… to all our friends in DC… Brrr. Hope you are all enjoying the snow and haven’t run out of milk or toilet paper yet.

The concrete countertops are still moving forward albeit not as quickly as up to this point.  We had a somewhat no progress day yesterday trying to get form tables built.  The pour table is where we will be building the forms and pouring the counter tops. As you might expect they need to be pretty strong and they need to be dead level.

We are trying to build one long (16’x4’) table to pour all of the counter pieces on in one long form. There will be joints integrated into the form, but doing it this way allows us to make sure that the joints are going to be very tight when we install the counter. The issue that we ran into yesterday was finding saw horses and materials that would stay level and support the weight of the counter. The plastic saw horses that we started with bowed at the bottom of the legs and definitely were not going to be strong enough. We also were seeing some very serious crowning and rolling of the edges of the plywood either from them coming warped or from being stored on the floor raised on 2x4’s

So we are revising and revamping our table pouring plans as we speak.

We also ran into an issue with the colors. All of the samples came out too dark for what the “client” wants so we are searching for a pre-mixed color alternative. This will wind up being more expensive, but its important to get the color right since the counter will be around a while.  This is a big lesson learned for us. Agreeing on a color is a big deal and something that needs to be done up front so that getting materials in is not a critical path item that slips schedules.

We are still hoping for a pour date of December 26th, but we’ll have to see if that works.  So far we are one day behind our schedule and don’t know what out color will be or how long the material will take to get here.

The one bright spot from yesterdays adventures was that we worked some with the wet polisher on the samples and it makes for an incredible finish on the concrete. The aggregate comes up super easy and looks really beautiful and the surface polishes to a glass like finish. It pays to have the right tools. I wish we had some pictures of Jessie soaking wet after polishing up the samples, but the camera was absent from most of our work yesterday. We’ll take some pictures today, promise.

--Tom

Re-zult!

Fine, I admit it, we are awesome.

New sink with plumbing fixtures installed, functioning, and not leaking.  The faucet will have to be removed temporarily when we install the concrete so it can be mounted on the top of the counter.

Pretty new drains installed by master plumber, Tom.  I’m sorry to say that I don’t have any plumber butt pictures to show you.

There were only 1001 steps to get to this point.  But let’s see how we did with the goals we set:

1)  Return the kitchen sink and counters to a usable state in two days.

Check!  Finished by 3:00 pm on day 2.

2)  Go to the hardware store no more than three times.

Check!  Only went to the store twice.  We have a bunch of stuff to return, but we’ll have to go anyway to buy materials for the next step.

3)  No crying allowed (though whimpering while rocking back and forth in the fetal position is okay).

Check!  Although Tom slipped while screwing in some framing and drilled my hand instead.  No crying, but much swearing.

4)  Not call a plumber for help.

DAMN IT.  Failed.  The hot water shut off valve didn’t work at all.  Tom tried to change it out, but it wouldn’t budge and we were afraid that we would bust a pipe.  So, a plumber was called and he fixed it in less than an hour to the tune of $89 plus parts.  Gah! 

To fit the 3/4” plywood on the counter, I used my father-in-law’s table saw across the street and sherpa’d the piece across the street to my brother-in-law’s house.  It’s heavier than it looks.

Then we had to route a channel in the plywood so the sink would sit flush on the counter.

I got jiggy with the jig saw to cut out the sink opening.

I also popped the concrete out of the forms and set them up at the house with some of the coordinating items in the kitchen.  These are the three samples using increasing concentrations of the “buff” color.  Our favorite one is the middle sample.

Same thing, but using a “terra cotta” color.  I think these turned out too reddish to use in this kitchen, but I like the color.

After we were relaxing yesterday afternoon, Tom just bounded out of the recliner and RAN to the front door for no apparent reason.  He returned with our new wet polishing tool that we need to make the concrete smooth & shiny.  He had checked the UPS tracking online and it said “delivered to doorstep.”  This tool will require a bit of practice on our samples before we dive in to the real thing, especially since the instructions are of no help as they have been badly translated from their original language.  This is how we are supposed to replace the grinding wheel:

“Simple wheel replace:  accroding (sic) to inch/metric screw track offload/install grinders or cutting wheel with the face spanner.”

Huh?  Good thing we are mechanically inclined.

-Jessie

More Counters… and Sinks

Well with two days of leveling and re-framing cabinets to take concrete I would be very happy to never see a bubble level again. We have been busy however as the following video documents.

If your reading via email you can check out the video here. I’ll give special thanks to anybody who can tell me where I set down that Philips screwdriver after you watch the video.

--Tom

Part 3 – Plumbing Prep

I think I’d like to see the following question posed to readers of a home improvement, DIYDS (do-it-your-damn-self) magazine:

What most closely describes your feelings regarding home plumbing projects?

a)  Abject misery

b)  There’s always something that goes wrong

c)  They take way longer than anticipated

d)  They’re a great way to completely f*** up a weekend

e)  All of the above

f)  Oh Jessie, you silly moron, plumbing projects are easy and fun if you aren’t functionally retarded

While I do admit to being a complete moron, I still bet that 99% of respondents will choose option E.  And so it will likely go with our next step in creating concrete countertops.

Existing sink

The new shiny sink is deeper and the drains are in the back of the basins rather than the middle.

So, out with the old sink and in with the new.  All we have to do is move the garbage disposal to the other side of the dual basin sink, move the p-trap, lower everything by 3 1/2” (because the new sink will be mounted UNDER the counter), install a new sink & faucet, and possibly move a shut off valve if it conflicts with the garbage disposal.  Easy, no?

This little project is further complicated by the water filtration system (big blue tank).

Oscar, the most excellently large cat, was most excellently unhelpful while sorting through instructions. (Ladies – I know you’re impressed by Tom actually reading instructions, but let me tell you, he’s just looking at the pictures).

We have measured, assessed, reassessed, planned, schemed, sketched, computer modeled, calculated, consulted, bought way too many parts, and achieved new high scores in mental 3d Tetris.  Tomorrow we begin with actual work.  Our goals are to:

1)  Return the kitchen sink and counters to a usable state in two days.

2)  Go to the hardware store no more than three times.

3)  No crying allowed (though whimpering while rocking back and forth in the fetal position is okay).

4)  Not call a plumber for help.

Oh yes, our engineer blood still runs thick.  I drew some scale drawings to make sure the shut off valve will still be accessible with the new garbage disposal location.  Tom sat next to me on the laptop drawing a computer model in Google SketchUp.

Can it be done?  Will we achieve the ever-elusive state of plumbing bliss and enlightenment or will we be filing for divorce in the near future? 

-Jessie

Concrete Countertops: Day 2 – Demo and Prep

So with our samples poured and curing it was time to do some prep of the counters themselves. My brother took some time off to help us get through some of the heavy lifting, but had to channel the Hulk before he could start

We started by taking off the existing counter tops and Peter followed that up with taking down the tile backsplash around the kitchen.

After getting the existing counters removed we started working on supplemental framing and getting everything level to put on 3/4 inch plywood for a substrate that will go under the counter.

The 3/4 in. will provide load distribution for the counters weight and a clean level surface to place the counters on. The plywood that we got was a bit warped so Peter provided a “counter weight” so we could nail the counters in place to try and take the bow out of them.

We finally got all of the plywood in place and much of the counter is ready for countertops. Here is the end of the day hijinks, lead by Jessie of course.

--Tom

New Project – Concrete Countertops

Merry Christmas to us – we are building concrete countertops for Tom’s brother while we are in Arizona.  Prepare yourself for a Steiger step-by-step, how-to, oh-shit-we-really-screwed-up, oh-wait-it’s-not-as-bad-as-we-thought diary of events over the next few weeks (or months if it goes badly and then it might become a blog about tile or Formica).

This is the existing kitchen that we are working with.  The plywood counter on the left used to be the white tile you see on the rest, but it has already been demo’d there.

We decided that our first step should be making 8”x8”x2” samples for some colors that are available at the local hardware store, Sutherland’s.  We used some table saw action on a 12” x 8’ x 3/4” melamine bookshelf to make the pieces for each of our 6 test molds.

Always fans of good site organization, here is the Team Steiger prep table for the ensuing mess.  I geeked out earlier and calculated exactly how much we would need of each material to fill each test box – 11 pounds of dry concrete, 20 to 54 milliliters of liquid pigment (depending on which shade we were going for, and 2 cups of water.

Here is the loverly dry concrete mix.  The aggregate was a prettier array of color than we imagined, so it will be interesting to see what they look like when polished.  This 80 pound sack of 5000 Plus High Strength Concrete by Sakrete runs about $5 at Home Depot.

I scavenged some liquid medicine delivering devices to measure out the volume of color.  The color is pretty thick, so this process ended up not being so scientific.  Still, I felt like I should have a lab of beakers and increase my usage of the word “titrate.”

The pigment mixed with the water was fairly intense.  As you might guess, this color is called terra cotta.

The concrete mix for countertops is not flowable like you see when it’s rolling down the chute of a concrete truck.  We just picked it up by the handful and packed in the form.  Then we banged the box on the table to consolidate the material. 

We screeded the top with a scrap of 2 x 4, then troweled the top to make a smooth-ish finish.  When we make the real countertop, it will be flipped upside down so that the troweled area will be the bottom of the counter.  Interesting side note – spell check doesn’t recognize screeded or troweled – I’m not sure why these actions can be performed only in the present tense.

And voila!  We will let these little buggers cure for 4 days and then pop them out of the forms.  If one of the colors is acceptable, then we will plow forward and start on the real kitchen.  These samples will become our guinea pigs for finishing techniques and then likely be cast into the yard as weird pavers.

-Jessie

Fare Thee Well

Well, we started our 1100 mile drive to Arizona this morning.  We are meeting Tom’s family in his home town of Sierra Vista for the holidays.  It will be nice to see family we haven’t seen since March, but we also had to say good bye to our new family in Guinda, California. 

Mud slinging, father-daughter duo, Steve & Mari.

Meg, Tom, & Steve, finishing up the wall in the above photo.

We lived with Steve & Meg in their unfinished house, ate our meals together, and shared our little lives for about a month.  I experimented using their wood stove to make it multi-task to cook our dinners. 

We got to know their friends and their daughters, Mari & Annie.  This photo is at Trinidad Beach outside Eureka when we visited Mari & her boyfriend, Noah.

Tom, Annie, and Sarah finishing up the third corner of the house.  Craziness tends to set in at the end of a non-stop plaster day.

Ahhh yeah – a little Texas Hold’em in our home on wheels.  Lacking proper poker chips, we used a box of Steve’s tile spacers.  Not bad in a pinch.

Meg, Steve, Mari, Annie – thanks for adopting us and being open to having crazy strangers just show up on your doorstep begging to be put to work.  We love you guys and hope to see you again soon.

-- Mix Master Jessie

Eureka, I found it… and Arcata

We’ve spent the weekend hanging out in Eureka and Arcata in Humboldt county on the northern coast of California. Its been a fun weekend visiting with new friends here and getting to know the two towns.  Arcata has Humboldt State University in it and the two towns have a kind of funky hippie feel to them. Quite cool actually.

The north coast is beautiful with a lot of Redwood groves and varied scenery. We saw nice mountain regions, forests, rain forest and coastal beaches. Everything you could want.

We also took a quick trip out to Willow Creek to the farm that Annie a friend of ours lives at and got fresh right from the field cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and pumpkins. Its going to be a great salad.

Speaking of food, Noah, one of the folks that we are staying with, made homemade Manicotti for dinner last night and we had fresh Dungeness crab the night before for dinner… the food alone makes this an interesting place to consider living.

--Tom

Why I Like to Play with Mud

While we’ve been spending our time plastering walls these last few weeks, I’ve been thinking about why we like to play with mud.  It certainly isn’t glamorous and it’s downright uncomfortable sometimes – our hands are chapped and dried out from the clay, we constantly plunge our hands into cold buckets of water or plaster, little pieces of straw get wedged under our fingernails, our backs ache, our muscles are sore, it’s dusty, etc., etc.

So, why go through all the trouble?  For me, I get the sense I am creating something out of nothing.  We are using dirt from the site, some sand, chopped up straw from a few bales, and water to create the exterior surface of the house.  Imagine siding your house in $100 worth of raw materials.  What a novelty to create your own building materials basically for free.  I imagine that eating vegetables from your own garden has a similar amount of satisfaction.  It’s like every time I smear a handful of plaster on the wall, it’s a little step closer to being self-sufficient.  Like I’m a toddler again telling my parents “No! I want to do it myself!” 

It’s also a very forgiving medium to work with.  It’s easy to fix mistakes and it’s low tech.  We really just eyeball the wall surface to make sure it’s plumb – this will leave some variations in the finish, but who cares?  It’s supposed to look hand-made (not shitty hand-made like my junior high pottery class) but more artsy.  There’s just so much texture in every handful of plaster – squishy, gritty, slippery, cool, moist, fibrous – unlike anything I’ve touched before and it just feels good in my hands.

Does that make any sense or do you still think we’re nuts?

--Jessie

We are still alive… promise…

I know, I know. All of you were probably getting worried that we were captured by a radical right wing northern California militia or something, but have no fear. We are safe, sound and although a bit tired very happy. We have been working pretty furiously doing final finish earthen plaster on a straw bale house in the Capay Valley in California.  The project has been awesome and Meg has let Jessie and I kind of take over the exterior finish part of the house so we have been in full project management, work day mode.  We have 75% of the house plastered and are planning to get the last set of walls done this week.

I’ll be pulling together a couple of posts about some of the progress and a lessons learned post so we can remember later the good and bad of this project. In the mean time here is a small video of time lapse pictures we took while finishing the 3rd wall.

For those of you reading via email the video is available at this link.

--Tom

Will Build for Food

Finally -- we found a natural building project to work on!  Last spring, I posted on a straw bale listserv that we’d be willing to help on any natural building projects in exchange for a spot to set up our camper and food.  It’s been almost 6 months since we’ve really gotten our hands dirty and we’ve been completely absorbed in building rather than, say, blogging.

Welcome to Meg & Steve’s straw bale hybrid home.  What the heck does that mean?  The middle section of the house with the redwood siding is built using conventional construction methods that you might find in any average house.  The two wings of the house have a timber frame for the structure and straw bale walls that are in the process of being plastered by yours truly.

Here’s me doing some interior patching of the base coat of plaster.  In straw bale walls, the actual bales are coated with a fairly rough coat of earth plaster (clay, sand, straw, water) about 2” thick.

The bedroom already has the finish plaster applied.  Finish plaster uses the same ingredients, but the clay, sand, and straw have been sieved or chopped to be much smaller particles.  Pigments can be added to achieve a wide variety of finish colors.

This is the basic view of the main living space (the bed is just in there temporarily).  They have technically moved in, but they haven’t received their occupancy permit yet and will have to move all their stuff out before the final inspection.  The whole house is about 1200 square feet with 2 bed/2 bath, but with this open room, it feels bigger to me.

Steve really did a beautiful job on the Japanese inspired wood work.  This is just one of many pleasing details.

Here, Tom is patching some exterior base coat plaster that cracked at the window.  I think he’s actually filling some of the void with some long straw that is dipped in slip, twisted up, and packed real tight into the wall.  Slip is water with a little bit of clay mixed in.  When it dries, it helps give those wads of straw a little bit of strength and they’ll maintain their shape.

The solar array on their shop is more than enough to supply all of their power.  Their home is in the Capay Valley in northern California, about 90 minutes from Sacramento.  We’re really loving being here right now as Meg & Steve are great people and they’re letting us just cut loose with any part of the construction that we’re willing to learn.  We’ve experimented with some lime plaster, learned how to tile a shower, and tomorrow we’re going to start the finish plaster on the exterior.  

We get to learn some new stuff – they give us a place to camp and feed us yummy food with lots of fresh fruits and veggies from the nearby organic farms.  This is exactly what we need right now, so we’ll be staying for a few more weeks to help them finish up before their permit expires.

-Jessie

Fresh pumpkin pie and great people…

We spent the weekend in Sacramento with Jessie’s cousin Wally and his family. It was a great weekend to come in since they were doing a Friends Thanksgiving on Saturday night. This is such a great concept where all of the friends get together and have a very low key potluck style Thanksgiving dinner before all of the family Thanksgiving festivities takes over.

We had a great time and got to meet some fun people. They had a blow up bounce house which all of the parents chipped in on to entertain the kids and it was a huge hit.

This is not our pie… images stolen from here

I decided to take on making a pumpkin pie since the couple that we have been working with the last week gave us a pie pumpkin when we left for the weekend.  It turned out awesome. We got two pies out of the one 6-8” pumpkin and it was a big hit for desert. I have to say if I do this again I would make a fresh crust rather than a store bought once since I think it would finish the homemade taste up. We were having too good a time and didn’t grab the camera at all last night so no pictures. The one above is pretty close to how the pie came out.  Overall the first shot at a homemade none canned pie was a success.

--Tom

World’s Finest

So, here we are in Redding, California, home to not just one, not two, but THREE claims to the World’s finest things. 

First, we have the World’s largest sundial.  It’s actually a suspended pedestrian bridge over the Sacramento River and a mighty neat feature, if I do say so myself.

The deck of the bridge is made with translucent glass panels so as to not disturb the spawning salmon below by casting a huge shadow.  That seems kind of fishy to me.  Yes, I agree with you, I need some more coffee before I experiment with lame puns.

Here is Tom on the bridge ogling some fisherman.  He just thinks that waders are so HOT – he really can’t help himself.

 
Which brings me to our next subject – the World’s largest fly shop.  We briefly stopped at Mecca, but Tom restrained himself and didn’t buy too much.  And, just in case some wise ass writes in and tells me about an even larger fly shop in Lower Slobobia, the guy at the counter said they’re the largest in the U.S and probably in the world.

 
Then, we’re driving down the highway one day, and I spot a billboard that says – “Greenest Hotel in the World.”  What?  How the heck do they measure that?  First of all, it’s beige, not green.  This claim seems a bit dubious to me, but they have all the green essentials – recycled materials, low flow fixtures, PV, and they don’t allow anyone to shave their armpits.

Back near the Sundial Bridge, there is an arboretum with a children’s play area.  We liked these whimsical little huts simply made by weaving branches together.

Also in the children’s playground were these little tunnel things into a stand of bamboo.  It seems Tom thinks he’s a bit smaller than he actually his, because he got a little bit stuck in here.

There is a tile mosaic fountain in the arboretum with all sorts of plants and animals embedded in it.  Neat-o.

After two awesomely rainy days trying to explore Shasta-Trinity National Forest (which would be pretty sweet when dry), we gave up and headed west to Whiskeytown National Recreation Area for a hike up to Boulder Creek falls.  Sadly, the falls were not made of whiskey.

A tight rope walker I am not meant to be.  I am still excruciatingly slow at stream crossings.  But, I have a pretty good track record of staying dry, so bite me.

Cool, pointy tree we saw at the arboretum.  Can anyone identify this?

-Jessie

Green Eugene

Jessie and I were both pretty impressed with Eugene when we passed through there. The area is scenic, the University gives the city a lot of energy, there is a strong focus on biking and alternatives to driving around, and it seems from the couple of days there that sustainability and alternative energy are a big focus of the city.

A shot of campus. There is a lot of green space around campus.

There were solar panels and solar hot water heating on a lot of the buildings. This in an area that is actually somewhat overcast a lot of the year. Below are a few shots of some of the alternative energy downtown.

This office building is covered with 269 solar panels. Assuming 100 watts each (and they are likely 200 watt panels) they are generating a peak of 2.7 kWatts of power.

This was kind of a dive looking apartment that had been burned out, but even it was covered with solar panels.

This is a combined residential and commercial space downtown. They have PV solar, hot water solar (the roof in this shot) and water cisterns for rain water recapture.

This is the PV array on the residential and commercial space.

Eugene is definitely in the running as a new place for us to live. The one major problem that we have is jobs. Unemployment is around 10% in the city and doing some cursory searches there were not a lot of jobs that jumped out as being up our alley’s. We’re not ready to stop travelling yet at any rate so we will be keeping an eye on the Eugene area through the rest of our trip.

The University of Oregon campus was pleasant to spend time at. It has a lot of small green spaces spread around and the layout of the campus is walkable, but not cramped. We did a walking tour while we were there and realized its an easy campus to get around on without a car. In fact they discourage students living on campus from having a car. Here are some shots from around campus.

This is the new business college building. It has a beautiful atrium inside and those are solar panels for shade screen on the front.

This waterfall / sculpture was designed by a student who was losing her sight.

I think this was where the Computer Science department is located.

One of the smaller bike storage places on campus. I missed a shot of the one outside the largest lecture hall that can seat 550 students.

There are a few more pictures from our Eugene visit in the album here. 

--Tom

Shasta

Mt. Shasta is quite beautiful, but when I hear the word Shasta, I think of those stupid Fanta soda commercials.  “Shasta, Shasta, don’t you wanta?”

However, this was our lovely little FREE campsite in Shasta-Trinity National Forest last night.  You can just barely see the camper through the trees.

We were camped, perhaps illegally, in a pull out along a stream.  We would have loved to sleep with the windows open to listen to the gurgling stream, but alas, it was way too cold.  We both laid in bed this morning, under the comfort of down, waiting for the other person to get up first and start coffee.

Here I am cooking by headlamp to conserve battery charge.  When we get to Arizona for Christmas, we are probably going to get a new battery that holds charge longer and hook ourselves up with solar panels.  Now that the sun sets by 6, it’s a rather long period of time to entertain ourselves in the dark.

We have taken you up on your night time entertainment suggestions and went on a Wal-Mart scavenger hunt the other night (we also went to a U of O volleyball game in Eugene).  When we were hunting up our items, I saw Tom and jumped around a corner to take a picture of him.  This picture is not so funny, but Tom said there was a family behind me who was very confused by my actions and started looking at Tom like he was stealing stuff.

And here’s our baskets of goodies (Tom’s on top, mine on bottom).  I dominated this challenge.  We decided to give up when I was working on my last item to put away (ash tray filter) and Tom still had SIX of ten items to return to the shelves.  All too easy (said in menacing Darth Vader voice).

-Jessie

Roller Derby

I was flipping through a Eugene newspaper and found out that they have a roller derby team, the Emerald City Roller Girls. I think when we settle down, I want to be on a roller derby team. I just have to learn to skate, learn the rules, and increase my bad-ass factor. I also need a sweet name. In case you're not familiar with roller derby, the girls have names like Susan B. Agony, Agent Orange (for a chick with red hair), or Demi Gore.

I was trying to think of a name for me that incorporates Jessie/Jessica, red hair, or white skin. I'm not coming up with much yet. So far, I have Jessica Gimpson or Jesse Maims. Please send in some ideas so I can check this off my bucket list.

Vanna Fight?
White Lightning?

I don't know. I don't think my name ideas will strike fear into the hearts of many.

-Jessie

Go DUCKS…!

Well this weekend we got to see what a college town in full football fever looks like. Combine that with the fact that it was Halloween and there was a lot of energy around campus and in downtown.

We couldn’t get tickets to the game since it was completely sold out, but we did walk over to the stadium and cruise through the parking lot to see what all was going on in the way of tailgating.

This is the team coming in on the busses. Everybody on the street kind of went wild cheering as they drove by.

It was pretty amazing watching the number of people who were walking, biking and driving into the stadium. At 2:30 PM there was a constant flow of people coming in wearing their green and gold.

The tailgating was going on furiously when we walked around. I am always amazed at what gets brought in for tailgating. Tables, grills, whole smorgasbords' of food… that level of dedication is impressive. I tried Kinnear-ing some pictures during our walk through, but I suck at it miserably so most of them didn’t come out.

I did get a decent shot of the whole parking lot. Ducks fan’s like their football. 

Shortly after this the big nasty rain cloud you can see opened up and dumped on everyone. It was a soggy walk back to campus.  Apparently the game was very good and the Ducks took home another win so I can only imagine what the party scene was like last night around campus.

--Tom

Eugene Oregon

We’re spending a few days exploring the city of Eugene, Oregon.  It’s a potential new final resting place :) for us so we figured we would give it a look.  The city has about 200,000 people in the area and has the University of Oregon with around 25,000 students enrolled. It also is very bike friendly and has good fishing in the area, so its got a lot of what we are looking for in a new home.

We went to a lecture on campus last night for something to do so we could get out of the trailer. It was by a professor of physics, music and international relations.  An unlikely combination you’re thinking… you might be right.  The lecture included a very high level discussion of astral physics, Bach’s fugues and the social impacts of molecular biology.  We both found the experience a bit disjointed and also had a difficult time with the strong Hungarian accent. His overall point was that we have advanced our knowledge of science and technology at a radically faster rate than we have our ethics. This combined with the accessibility of things like molecular biology to everyday citizens can have negative impact on society. 

As I said the lecture wasn’t all that cohesive, but it was kind of fun, was free and is the kind of thing that we like about a college town. Always stuff like that going on.

The one complaint we have about the Northwest in general right now is the wetness. Its hard for things to dry out in a trailer when its like 95% humidity all of the time. It also makes for some very scary morning hair on Jessie’s part.

See what I have to wake up to every morning… 

We are going to be taking a campus tour today so we might have some pictures for tomorrow… assuming the rain holds off still.

 

--Tom

Seattle and the Northwest…

We just finished a nice weekend in Seattle hanging out with a friend of ours (Omri).  We found a nice RV park close to downtown that had a pool, hot tub and a sauna which was pretty nice to take advantage of.

We went out to some cool bars, ate at some nice restaurants, ate too much sushi and did an enjoyable hike on Cougar Mountain (insert your own joke here).

We’re in Portland now for a few days and then we are headed south into Northern California and perhaps back into Utah for a bit. Its amazing how fast time flies… it seems like we just left AZ last spring and now we are 6 weeks from heading back that direction for Christmas.

Its good to be back on the road again and hopefully our adventure will get more entertaining again shortly. Sorry that we don’t have any pictures from Seattle… we were slacking on the camera carrying.

--Tom