good to see progress. This reminds me so much of our beginnings. Water pressure, you may have a pressure reducer on (or in) the camper which is highly recommended. The camper inside connections are typically not reliable and having a pressure reducer helps against flodding. Screws, get yourself a strong magnet and before you do any more ground work collect the screws. 14 years after we build our barn I am still using the screws that I picked up back then. They come in handy and they are not cheap anymore.
When I was a kid my parents had a couple of additions built onto our house and the contractor had my brother and I drag around a big magnet that he had with a piece of rope to pick up all of the nails they dropped. I’ll bet your daughter would be good at that too.
Small steps lead to big journeys Jay, you'll get there in no time and look back fondly on all the memories you've made along the way. Not an excuse at all, but the reasons for all the screws is probably cos they dropped loads when working at height and couldn't be bothered to go up and down to pick them up. Once finished for the day the last job should have been to clean up after themselves, but personal litter like the tobacco can is just pure laziness IMHO. I'm sure you'll soon have it all neat and tidy and not give it another thought as you charge on to the finish. Take care and thanks for sharing with us all. Happy Holidays to you and all your family.
Contractors should clean up after themselves, that is just basic stuff. If I didn't clean up after myself on a job I would be called back in off the clock to clean up my mess like a child. I cannot fathom that nonsense.
I feel your "pain" about trash like bottles or cigarette butts, same on my building site. But that's the only blame I have for the construction company, at least the building part is perfect ;-)
I'm in a house building process myself, and it seems that the problem in the video from 5:30 and on is repeated internationally. I hate this. My father collected 10 boxes of brand new (unused) nails. Trash everywhere. So I solved the problem (kinda). I placed the bag of trash on the site and told them that any trash I find from the workers they will have to pick it up, including mine 😂 It helped a lot but not completely. Oh, and I hate cigarette buts everywhere. Not all, but most contractors are uneducated. I have seen it on many construction sites. Best regards from Croatia 😊
Maybe its there, and just blended in.... But it appears they did not install a drip rail over your garage door. Hopefully it's there and I just cant see it. Typically don't need it when you have a small eave above, but there is no eave on that side of your building. Congrats on the progress!
Same when they built my shop, screws everywhere. Around the shed but also on my lawn. No referrals from me and I advise everyone not to use them. Tradies need to pick their game up.
Thanks for sharing the small but yet annoying issues(messes) you are having with subs. Im planning on doing a 30x30 +/- garage with living above in the next year or so. For the screws, take the saving from the electric hookup and get a roller magnet or a hand held magnet from Harbor Freight, I think the roller one you can deactivate the magnet with a switch on it and if not, I am pretty sure the one Lowe's sells has the switch and get your daughter to pick them up. In turn, pay her .05 a screws/nail or do the math on poundage(average of 20 fasteners and figure how many per pound) like a scrap yard and pay her! For larger Bolts and such give her a dollar! I have found even quarters, my daughters are more responsive when they receive something tangible! Now A question about the propane usage, I am not sure if I missed a video here or there with the holiday activities, but how are you venting the CO2 out? And I have had that issues with the poop-shoot as well in the summer when emptying my tanks at home since my sewer clean out next to my camper parking location. I used some dawn to try and kill the smell!! it helped a little.
I have one of those magnet push rollers. Just got it out of storage. As far as carbon dioxide/monoxide, we have a detector working but I honestly don't foresee it being an issue. The volume of air is just too great and the shop is not sealed shut. It's not drafty in the shop but it's by no means air tight.
@BPo3Homestead Awesome and glad you were able to find the magnet! I typed this up before I saw all the dip cans, I would get your daughter to pick them all up for a Dollar each after school each day! Thats good to know to. I have only used my campers propane 2 or 3 times before a Squirrel made a snack out of my hose at the tank! I don't think we have used the hot water yet since we have a Starcraft 17BH and use it weekend or long weekends that have bath houses. It doesn't have any slide outs and with the 5 of us, its cozy, for sure. I enjoy your content and don't want to read on yahoo CO2 got the 3 of yall. And at the end of the day, if you find it an issue, you just crack ur garage bay door and throw a floor fan to help circulate it out. Merry Christmas and and happy new year!!
Man I've thought of and researched it all, I promise. I know there are many ways to achieve what I'm after quicker and more efficiently but they are all another expense I can't afford right now. We have very little budget room for any other major tools or implements that aren't already in our budget spreadsheet so I've got to work with what I currently have through winter. Budget is the main limitation that steers our progress. The weather and material availability during times of good weather are the second limitation.
I'm going through something similar right now, had contractors replace my roof, did siding on the house, then stucco and concrete guy currently doing stucco and concrete work on my property here in New York. Its like a war zone, they cant work every day in NY because of the weather. so they come when its warm enough and not a rainout. so just garbage all over. work materials all over, all the metal and screws strewn all over. Every time they put metal lath to hold on the new stucco they'd hammer in these anchors on my house and garage, so many things fell off the shelves that I'm putting back up and working on my own jobs when i can but having to find things that i need that fell off shelves. Oye!!!
Did you have a good pressure inside the camper before? There might be a flow restrictor or pressure reducer to keep from blowing the lines in the RV out from the higher City water pressure
Embarrassing moment here. The water pressure issue was because I forgot that I left the shop yard hydrant slightly running because I hadn't confirmed the pipes wouldn't freeze at 20 or below temps. It was running for a full two days and I forgot all about it because I had a 100' hose on the hydrant to keep the water away from the shop. I shut off the hydrant and pressure in the camper is good. My brain capacity has been at max lately and I have forgotten about a thing or two along the way. But, I have since confirmed that our water run does not freeze with a night low of 19 degrees and a slow drip is not necessary.
Suggestion , take the savings of your electrical hook up and hire a proper machine to grade the lot to it's final grade add enough (3 to 4 inches) of concrete screenings in all the appropriate places of walking and driving so no more mud ..... your tractor is not the right equipment for the job that needs to be done . FYI be aware of the sewer gases being discharged out of the trailer sewer stack ! Keep up with the good work ..... homesteading is hard , and if you hire the crappy jobs out to contractors , ( grading ) you can focus on the other jobs
You mentioned the smell from the flexible sewer hoses, I hope you realize that by using the camper inside an enclosed building, you will continue to have sewer gases inside the building because the camper sewer system has an open vent through the camper roof. The system has to breathe just like a regular house and those gases will be trapped inside your garage building. Sewer gas is Hydrogen Sulfide, which can contain Methane (odorless), Ammonia, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxides, and Sulfur Dioxide. You may not notice it until the weather warms up, but remember that Methane is odorless and makes up the majority of the sewer gas. Also. whatever you do... do not leave the black-water dump valve open. You may know this already, and if you do "Great" but so many people don't and they don't realize what problems this will cause later. Use your favorite chemical treatment or powder and Let the black tank fill up and then dump it, just like you would while camping. My wife and I have been using campers for 30 years. We do leave our gray-water valve open a lot while hooked to sewer and We've have never had an issue with that, but we never leave the black-water valve open! P.S. You may want to check on Methane gas detectors (or a natural gas detector might work) for the garage just in case. Keep the family safe!
Fun thing about Hydrogen Sulphide - its toxic in large concentrations, and when it is in lethal concentrations you can no longer smell it! The other gasses are just 'seasoning', but are dangerous when they get to high enough levels to displace the oxygen.
Seams to coming along as well as can be expected. But with your current water pressure, have you decided what you will to the house? Sounds like 1 inch all they way with 3/4 inch risers
Embarrassing moment here. The water pressure issue was because I forgot that I left the shop yard hydrant slightly running because I hadn't confirmed the pipes wouldn't freeze at 20 or below temps. It was running for a full two days and I forgot all about it because I had a 100' hose on the hydrant to keep the water away from the shop. I shut off the hydrant and pressure in the camper is good. My brain capacity has been at max lately and I have forgotten about a thing or two along the way. But, I have since confirmed that our water run does not freeze with a night low of 19 degrees and a slow drip is not necessary.
With all the lumber that was dropped off by the guy with the mill. Could you build a disposable deck to help lessen the problem you have with all the mud? Around access doors, between access doors, on the edges of the lean-to almost like a mini dock with the jeep/truck parked between them msave getting mud inside.
Should have saved all the branches and loppins rather than burning them, its what the 'pioneers' in the 1700's and 1800's used for road bed. In soft ground it got stamped in and eventually rotted - if the road was important the branches would last long enough to get waggons in with rock and gravel, if not it all just went back to nature. 'Log corduroy' is the more academic name for it.
25 at night, I know what you mean. Here in Perth we are also getting 25 at night. Centigrade that is 😁🤣. I know this is after the fact and you now have power.. In the army, we would dig a small hole to put the Gen set in, and a fancy hose over the exhaust into another small pit with gravel. It dropped the noise levels down tremendously. I agree with Frank below. get a magnet and pick up the screws. They will come back to bight you in the future if you don't. Maybe a job for your little darling, if she can spare the time from her play adventures.
You should have put a bathroom in your shop with knowing you were going to live in the shop until your house is finished. This would service you all alot better and you wouldn't have to worry about your black water in the RV. Just an idea.....
In that first section you sound so dog tired. When you get that tired you start making mistakes - painful, expensive or both. As several people have said - use a magnetic sweep (or just any big magnet) and cover it with a thick plastic bag - which makes it soooo much easier to remove the screws, metal shavings and other small junk - which is just waiting to stick into your fingers. DAMHIK. If you have plastic peanut butter jars (or similar plastic jars - Costco salsa jars for instance) you can just pour all the loose fasteners in there to sort later. Once you get a few you can use them to store your own bulk fasteners, the advantage of smaller plastic jars it they don't shatter when dropped on concrete (I did break one big one with a coupls of pounds of screws and bolts in it once).
good to see progress. This reminds me so much of our beginnings.
Water pressure, you may have a pressure reducer on (or in) the camper which is highly recommended. The camper inside connections are typically not reliable and having a pressure reducer helps against flodding.
Screws, get yourself a strong magnet and before you do any more ground work collect the screws. 14 years after we build our barn I am still using the screws that I picked up back then. They come in handy and they are not cheap anymore.
looking good
When I was a kid my parents had a couple of additions built onto our house and the contractor had my brother and I drag around a big magnet that he had with a piece of rope to pick up all of the nails they dropped. I’ll bet your daughter would be good at that too.
Small steps lead to big journeys Jay, you'll get there in no time and look back fondly on all the memories you've made along the way. Not an excuse at all, but the reasons for all the screws is probably cos they dropped loads when working at height and couldn't be bothered to go up and down to pick them up. Once finished for the day the last job should have been to clean up after themselves, but personal litter like the tobacco can is just pure laziness IMHO. I'm sure you'll soon have it all neat and tidy and not give it another thought as you charge on to the finish. Take care and thanks for sharing with us all. Happy Holidays to you and all your family.
Contractors should clean up after themselves, that is just basic stuff. If I didn't clean up after myself on a job I would be called back in off the clock to clean up my mess like a child. I cannot fathom that nonsense.
I feel your "pain" about trash like bottles or cigarette butts, same on my building site. But that's the only blame I have for the construction company, at least the building part is perfect ;-)
I use a rare earth magnet to pick up screws out of our parking lot. Installers drop them.
Your car tyres will thank you, the tyre replace not so much.
Thanks for another great video
Get a wheeled magnetic pickup tool you can just roll I around and pick up metal.. roofers use them
I've got one.....in our shipping container. It's looking like this friday we should be able to make some progress on unpacking that stuff.
I'm in a house building process myself, and it seems that the problem in the video from 5:30 and on is repeated internationally. I hate this. My father collected 10 boxes of brand new (unused) nails. Trash everywhere.
So I solved the problem (kinda).
I placed the bag of trash on the site and told them that any trash I find from the workers they will have to pick it up, including mine 😂
It helped a lot but not completely.
Oh, and I hate cigarette buts everywhere. Not all, but most contractors are uneducated. I have seen it on many construction sites.
Best regards from Croatia 😊
Maybe its there, and just blended in.... But it appears they did not install a drip rail over your garage door. Hopefully it's there and I just cant see it. Typically don't need it when you have a small eave above, but there is no eave on that side of your building. Congrats on the progress!
Just J-channel. It's working as intended, so far.
you'll probably still have some "sewer smell" in the shop, because of your roof vent which is designed to let sewer gas out of the waste system.
Not as much as I thought I would. When the sun is up and it's not raining, we keep the doors wide open.
Same when they built my shop, screws everywhere. Around the shed but also on my lawn. No referrals from me and I advise everyone not to use them. Tradies need to pick their game up.
Thanks for sharing the small but yet annoying issues(messes) you are having with subs. Im planning on doing a 30x30 +/- garage with living above in the next year or so. For the screws, take the saving from the electric hookup and get a roller magnet or a hand held magnet from Harbor Freight, I think the roller one you can deactivate the magnet with a switch on it and if not, I am pretty sure the one Lowe's sells has the switch and get your daughter to pick them up. In turn, pay her .05 a screws/nail or do the math on poundage(average of 20 fasteners and figure how many per pound) like a scrap yard and pay her! For larger Bolts and such give her a dollar! I have found even quarters, my daughters are more responsive when they receive something tangible!
Now A question about the propane usage, I am not sure if I missed a video here or there with the holiday activities, but how are you venting the CO2 out? And I have had that issues with the poop-shoot as well in the summer when emptying my tanks at home since my sewer clean out next to my camper parking location. I used some dawn to try and kill the smell!! it helped a little.
I have one of those magnet push rollers. Just got it out of storage. As far as carbon dioxide/monoxide, we have a detector working but I honestly don't foresee it being an issue. The volume of air is just too great and the shop is not sealed shut. It's not drafty in the shop but it's by no means air tight.
@BPo3Homestead Awesome and glad you were able to find the magnet! I typed this up before I saw all the dip cans, I would get your daughter to pick them all up for a Dollar each after school each day!
Thats good to know to. I have only used my campers propane 2 or 3 times before a Squirrel made a snack out of my hose at the tank! I don't think we have used the hot water yet since we have a Starcraft 17BH and use it weekend or long weekends that have bath houses. It doesn't have any slide outs and with the 5 of us, its cozy, for sure. I enjoy your content and don't want to read on yahoo CO2 got the 3 of yall. And at the end of the day, if you find it an issue, you just crack ur garage bay door and throw a floor fan to help circulate it out. Merry Christmas and and happy new year!!
This guy looks like that wood working guy
Have you thought about a big roller to drag around behind the tractor to try and level out the clay? Instead of the box blade. Maybe compression.
Man I've thought of and researched it all, I promise. I know there are many ways to achieve what I'm after quicker and more efficiently but they are all another expense I can't afford right now. We have very little budget room for any other major tools or implements that aren't already in our budget spreadsheet so I've got to work with what I currently have through winter. Budget is the main limitation that steers our progress. The weather and material availability during times of good weather are the second limitation.
I'm going through something similar right now, had contractors replace my roof, did siding on the house, then stucco and concrete guy currently doing stucco and concrete work on my property here in New York. Its like a war zone, they cant work every day in NY because of the weather. so they come when its warm enough and not a rainout. so just garbage all over. work materials all over, all the metal and screws strewn all over. Every time they put metal lath to hold on the new stucco they'd hammer in these anchors on my house and garage, so many things fell off the shelves that I'm putting back up and working on my own jobs when i can but having to find things that i need that fell off shelves. Oye!!!
Looks good. And it looks like Cookie Monster's house...
Don’t worry jay you may have everything done by the time you’re sixty. One day at a time 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Did you have a good pressure inside the camper before? There might be a flow restrictor or pressure reducer to keep from blowing the lines in the RV out from the higher City water pressure
Embarrassing moment here. The water pressure issue was because I forgot that I left the shop yard hydrant slightly running because I hadn't confirmed the pipes wouldn't freeze at 20 or below temps. It was running for a full two days and I forgot all about it because I had a 100' hose on the hydrant to keep the water away from the shop. I shut off the hydrant and pressure in the camper is good. My brain capacity has been at max lately and I have forgotten about a thing or two along the way. But, I have since confirmed that our water run does not freeze with a night low of 19 degrees and a slow drip is not necessary.
Been there, done that. 😂
Suggestion , take the savings of your electrical hook up and hire a proper machine to grade the lot to it's final grade add enough (3 to 4 inches) of concrete screenings in all the appropriate places of walking and driving so no more mud ..... your tractor is not the right equipment for the job that needs to be done .
FYI be aware of the sewer gases being discharged out of the trailer sewer stack !
Keep up with the good work ..... homesteading is hard , and if you hire the crappy jobs out to contractors , ( grading ) you can focus on the other jobs
The tractor may not be the correct machine for the job, but it's what I have. I have a tractor and much more time available than money.
You mentioned the smell from the flexible sewer hoses, I hope you realize that by using the camper inside an enclosed building, you will continue to have sewer gases inside the building because the camper sewer system has an open vent through the camper roof. The system has to breathe just like a regular house and those gases will be trapped inside your garage building. Sewer gas is Hydrogen Sulfide, which can contain Methane (odorless), Ammonia, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxides, and Sulfur Dioxide. You may not notice it until the weather warms up, but remember that Methane is odorless and makes up the majority of the sewer gas. Also. whatever you do... do not leave the black-water dump valve open. You may know this already, and if you do "Great" but so many people don't and they don't realize what problems this will cause later. Use your favorite chemical treatment or powder and Let the black tank fill up and then dump it, just like you would while camping. My wife and I have been using campers for 30 years. We do leave our gray-water valve open a lot while hooked to sewer and We've have never had an issue with that, but we never leave the black-water valve open!
P.S. You may want to check on Methane gas detectors (or a natural gas detector might work) for the garage just in case. Keep the family safe!
We haven't had any smell in the shop and the doors are usually open sun up to sun down.
Come on Jay. You know this is a problem. No need to be so dismissive. Just say thanks and move on (and hopefully vent the trailer properly).
Fun thing about Hydrogen Sulphide - its toxic in large concentrations, and when it is in lethal concentrations you can no longer smell it! The other gasses are just 'seasoning', but are dangerous when they get to high enough levels to displace the oxygen.
Correct, black tanks need to have enough liquids in them to drain completely, otherwise the solids tend to collect in the bottom of the tank.
Seams to coming along as well as can be expected. But with your current water pressure, have you decided what you will to the house? Sounds like 1 inch all they way with 3/4 inch risers
Embarrassing moment here. The water pressure issue was because I forgot that I left the shop yard hydrant slightly running because I hadn't confirmed the pipes wouldn't freeze at 20 or below temps. It was running for a full two days and I forgot all about it because I had a 100' hose on the hydrant to keep the water away from the shop. I shut off the hydrant and pressure in the camper is good. My brain capacity has been at max lately and I have forgotten about a thing or two along the way. But, I have since confirmed that our water run does not freeze with a night low of 19 degrees and a slow drip is not necessary.
With all the lumber that was dropped off by the guy with the mill. Could you build a disposable deck to help lessen the problem you have with all the mud? Around access doors, between access doors, on the edges of the lean-to almost like a mini dock with the jeep/truck parked between them msave getting mud inside.
Should have saved all the branches and loppins rather than burning them, its what the 'pioneers' in the 1700's and 1800's used for road bed. In soft ground it got stamped in and eventually rotted - if the road was important the branches would last long enough to get waggons in with rock and gravel, if not it all just went back to nature. 'Log corduroy' is the more academic name for it.
I guess he wouldn't want to spread the beetle infested timber around much though. Can see why he went with a steel shed though.
25 at night, I know what you mean. Here in Perth we are also getting 25 at night. Centigrade that is 😁🤣. I know this is after the fact and you now have power.. In the army, we would dig a small hole to put the Gen set in, and a fancy hose over the exhaust into another small pit with gravel. It dropped the noise levels down tremendously. I agree with Frank below. get a magnet and pick up the screws. They will come back to bight you in the future if you don't. Maybe a job for your little darling, if she can spare the time from her play adventures.
Hit 40C in Sydney today. No sign of promised 'cool change'. Now if there was only a way we could send hot & cold by Internet........
❤❤🎵🎵
You should have put a bathroom in your shop with knowing you were going to live in the shop until your house is finished. This would service you all alot better and you wouldn't have to worry about your black water in the RV. Just an idea.....
This spring the camper comes out and we plan on building a lofted apartment with a full bathroom, kitchen, and laundry.
In that first section you sound so dog tired. When you get that tired you start making mistakes - painful, expensive or both.
As several people have said - use a magnetic sweep (or just any big magnet) and cover it with a thick plastic bag - which makes it soooo much easier to remove the screws, metal shavings and other small junk - which is just waiting to stick into your fingers. DAMHIK.
If you have plastic peanut butter jars (or similar plastic jars - Costco salsa jars for instance) you can just pour all the loose fasteners in there to sort later. Once you get a few you can use them to store your own bulk fasteners, the advantage of smaller plastic jars it they don't shatter when dropped on concrete (I did break one big one with a coupls of pounds of screws and bolts in it once).