Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Building a garage-apartment with a pond view

Great job on the transfer switch. We put in a service-rated auto switch (since the whole house is setup for 20kw standby generator), but in your case I think you sized the solution appropriately. The only downside is keeping those gasoline generators fed...They get thirsty under a heavy load. Might want to look into a muffler kit for it, too.

Brettski, Mom & Dad did exactly the same thing (auto switch and 20 kw gen set).

They were thinking they made a mistake because the surrounding people said that the power hardly ever goes out. It went out 3x this year so far, with the longest time being about 1/2 day.
They are not regretting their decision now.

The genset runs on propane like the furnace and water heater. Auto start every week for a 15 minute run time. It's located about 100' from the main breaker panel in the house. We ran the wire in 2" plastic conduit to the house "just in case".

We are firmly entering the cold weather segment of construction. It appears that the unusual stretch of warm weather in the midwest has hit a brick wall and we will begin to see more seasonal temps. The wind was honkin' this past weekend and I am very pleased to report that it had zero effect on our progress or well being. Yeah, it really is nice to be buttoned up. Furthermore, when the sun is shining, we get some warming up since we are working upstairs.
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We have completely laid out all the construction lines for all the interior partition walls. Every floor, wall and ceiling line is chalked or penciled and ready for wood. All blocking is installed and marked. All plumbing locations have been verified and will work around all the supporting floor framing (this is a big deal when you're trying to squeeze in plumbing stuff in a small space). We also tied all the roof trusses together from one end to the other at the center and also at the 1/4 point on each side of center. The trusses span 27 feet and they needed some fine tuning to get everything at 16" o/c at every point across the 27' span. We used our leftover truss spacers for the 1/4-span points...they worked great. This snugging up of all the trusses will pay back when it comes time to install drywall.
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It's looking better and better. Are you planning on having an access hole to get up there once the drywall is hung on the ceiling?

What's the pipe (or conduit) for that is right above the lower surface of the trusses? (midpoint of both sides of the ceiling)

truss spacers

I may have missed it if you said it in previous posts, but do you plan to leave yourself any conduit with fishlines for future applications needing a feedline of some sort outdoors?

I'm a ham operator and the past 2 homes I've built I've made special conduit for antennas outside. Some of my friends (non-hams) have done the same thing and it's proven handy for things like DirectTV. You can have it terminate to a NEMA box mounted outside somewhere.

We have an underground maze of conduits that connects the house to the love nest to the shed to the dock. We did leave one unused conduit; it will be used for power to a pole with an outlet and a yard light. Past that, tho, there are no other conduits for any future stuff. I thought about it for the www, but wifi takes care of all that.
I do wish, tho, that I had installed one additional (empty) conduit between the house and love nest when we ran the power feed conduit....just in case. Oh well.

duh

I bet you will have the couches etc placed so you can look out the windows (facing the glass).

Looks like you added about 100 lbs of metal to the rafters and 2 ounces of chalk to the floor.

actually, the TV tuned into the Pond Boss Channel (PBTV) in the corner entertainment center
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you will note more focused views from the food side of the living space, during both creation and consumption

chalkaholic

Make sure your interior peak on your cathederal ceiling is straight.. I recommend using straight-flex tape for that peak or it will crack no matter what. Straight flex is rubber. I had plenty leftover from my house if your interested, you have to buy it in 100' rolls I think it's around $75 but well worth it..

I spent my Monday evening running a material list of lumber for the upstairs partition walls. I recruited Dski for the trip to Menards on Tuesday night to pick thru the piles and extract the arrows. They successfully landed at the project early Saturday morning.

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We spent the rest of the day hoofin' 'em up the stairs and stockpiling them in the living area. This, and preparing all the necessary tools, lighting, blah blah. The next morning, we dug into the pile.
I suppose I should admit that I continue in my pursuit of overkill and hair-brained schemes. Here's the deal.
When we built this thing, we used 28 ft long I-joists to support the second floor. There are no center supports, so the first floor is completely open and unobstructed. I really like it. The second floor is structurally sound and design-approved by the engineers at Georgia Pacific, but it does have some give when you jump in the center of the room. We're not talking trampoline here, but you can feel it. I knew this going in and I am not disappointed in the result. It will hold up a small pack of elephants so long as they don't jump up and down.
My only concern is drywall seams; particularly corners where the walls meet the ceiling. If I frame these partition walls conventionally with nails, it is possible (at least I think it's possible) that if the roof trusses move (ie; during extreme heat or extreme cold) and/or a significantly heavy point load should occur in one concentrated zone of the floor (ie; I install an indoor hot tub or something crazy like that), the roof framing and the floor will separate that ever-so-slight of a margin to crack drywall tape seams and corners.
So...what to do?
I meticulously screwed all the partition walls together, including tying the mass into the roof trusses above and the I joists below. Yeah, I know...nuts. I decided that 3-1/2" construction screws would exhibit far more holding strength than nails. I figure the additonal cost will run about $60 for fasteners. The additional labor time just gets racked up on my already overrun DIY time card. In the end, the difference was impressive.
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We only got one side of the structure framed, but the floor beneath it is solid as a rock; huge difference. I don't know how long this will last, or what other issued I might have created, but for now it is a very rewarding result.
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The part we just completed is outlined in blue

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There is so much junk on the horse (work top) that you can't put anything on it.

I see you brought the insulation also. ? for the roof or walls.

You could check on flexible seam tape. We use it here as every house has those problems due to Yazoo clay

So does that mean we can still have a hot tub on the second floor?

hot tub or small pack of elephants...but not both

Good thinking Brettski. The last time I had a small pack of elephants in a room with a hot tub things got out of hand and we lost our security deposit. Although it might not have been the elephants so much as the monkeys. They can't handle their tequila.

Then this other bit of news might be somewhat timely...
About this time last year, we finally got utility power pulled in some 2000+ feet underground and hooked up. Wow...what a neat concept to flip a switch and get light without a generator!
Well, we are into the next bitter-sweet upgrade: a septic system. Bitter cuz it's another multi-thousand dollar expenditure. Sweet cuz I am weary of not only using a porti-potty for our business, but the bi-weekly cleanout procedure is...well...getting pretty old. From previous posts, you may (or may not) recall that I had significant issues with getting a septic field area approved.
My original location plans dissolved with the perc test. Fortunately, I have a creative excavator/septic guy that has the right friends at the county. After a personal visit to the jobsite by the county players, we were granted a permit for a conventional system in the most unlikely spot...behind the gar/apt...and uphill. Shows to go ya, I had nary an inkling that the new zone was plausible.
This past weekend while Dski and I are screwing away (building the interior partition walls...come on!), my dirt guy is removing a couple dozen scraggly trees to open up the field area.



We are installing a 1500 gal tank to anticipate the possiblity of a house next to the gar/apt somewhere later in time. To maintain a "nearly out of control" budget, we are laying in the smaller septic field suitable to service only the current structure and leaving enough real estate for possible expansion later. It is a difficult decision, particularly since septic systems are quickly losing EPA acceptance. Even if we had the dough for the larger field, it would not guarantee that 15 years from now the county health dept would approve hooking up another structure to it, carte blanche. OTOH, the minimal cost to upgrade to the larger tank is an affordable risk.

That is exactly why I switched to ring tailed lemurs.

They are mello drunks.

1500 gallon tank
1200 sq ft of field











They managed to finish the installation just before the snow hit


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The only issue is the height of the main as it leaves the house. Since it was critical to start the run as high as possible to minimize the depth of the field, we planned the exit from the foundation at 10" below the top of the concrete foundation. The system is inspected and approved for use, but the inspector thinks I should consider some insulation and/or a heat tape for the first 20 feet of run from the house. During extreme cold, if a toilet has a slight leak/trickle of something similar, it could ice up and freeze. I'm still in the "lemme think about that one for a bit" mode.

So what sort of system did you end up going with, Brettski? I know pretty much nothing about septic options beyond what I've read here so I'm not sure what I'm looking at in your installation. I assume this option was the one gave you the best peace of mind about having it located near the pond. I'm going to have to go back and re-read your thread on septic near a pond.

Aside, congrats on the great progress you guys are making! This has been one of the coolest threads to watch on the forum!

While the septic installation team did their thing, Dski and I went about our business and continued framing the partition walls.



We had to pull up short of framing completion on Sunday to leave early before we got snowed in. We are driving the 2 x 4 PU truck with street tires and pulling a 16' utility trailer. Any snow beyond 4" deep becomes a risk for travel. Our neighbor made an unexpected appearance with a big...no, make that huge JD farm tractor with a box blade and scraped our driveway clear, but the wind has been honkin' and creating drifts. The last 600 feet of the drive is meadow and we barely made it out.
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Shot this short vid just before we cut out. One week ago we were standing on the boat launch taking a shower with pond water....crazy.