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 Friday, September 5th
Summer, a little late?
Finally a bit of hot and dry
weather for the final sprint. Every year we seem to have so many things
that must get done before closing off for the winter! Since Alain had a
lot of contracts this year, we didn't have as much time for the house,
but it helps to pay the bills. One of them for a new front door that
should be installed next week and another one for a new washer...
and shopping for it was a trip
in itself before we found Germain Lariviere in Laval. It's the only
store where they didn't look at us like we came from outer space with
our questions on electrical requirements. Of course, in all the stores
they could read the "Energy Star" label that gives an estimate of the
kilowatts per year the appliance would use under normal conditions.
That doesn't tell us if our inverter could take the maximum load of the
machine. At Germain Lariviere, Jean-Sebastien understood our special
situation right away and found all the numbers we needed. We also found
out that he plans on bulding his own house in a few years time and has
been following our chronicles for a while. With his precious help, we
chose an LG model that uses very little water and is very
energy-efficient. Once home, in order to free the outlets for the
washing machine, we had to connect the bathtub's faucet, a task that
was on hold since last Christmas.
Also about water: we have
decided where to permanently install the cistern. We started digging
into the side of the hill to position it securely and to protect it
from freezing. We'll have to empty it in order to move it, build a
insulated wall around it and then bury the length of pipe has to be
relocated.
The clean-up is done in the
shed. We spread the old straw as the first layer of the green roof.
Alain put a metal roof on the shed and a window to get more light in.
We must redo the insulation, again with straw, but this time instead of
piling up whole bales next to the tire wall, we'll screw 2X6 lumber
every 3 feet into the tires. Then, we'll fasten chicken wire onto them
and stuff it with 6 inches of loose straw and we'll cover the whole
thing with mud to keep the wind out. That way we won't have to fuss
with that every year anymore. On the East side of the house, we
finished the berm, put in the insulation, covered it with a billboard
and old carpets. A bit more mud on the wing walls and we'll be ready to
close it all up.
The Rocket Mass Heater is well
under way, we fired it up a couple of times just to be sure there are
no leaks in the horizontal chimney and everything looked fine. Only the
cob bench to finish as you can see in the photos section and I plan on
integrating a bread oven on the right side of the barrel. To further
improve our comfort during the cold season, we have to find a way to
insulate the windows to reduce the heat loss at night or when it's very
cloudy. On the first level, it's easy to close off the space in front
of the kitchen counter, like we did last year with some curtains. The
problem is with the second floor where the windows are over the
stairwell. We have to put something directly onto the windows
themselves. We were thinking of using sheets of clear polycarbonate, 4
inches inside the glass, but so far we've been unable to find any.
We'll probably hang thick curtains, but that will spoil the beautiful
view from our bed. Maybe I can figure out a way to open and close them
from our bed? I'll think about it some more and get back to you on that.
And a few brief news:
- Indoors, not much has changed. Some of the final mud
coat on the second floor walls, but we won't get into the lime plaster
this year I'm afraid.
- Nicole, who's been following our project since the
presentation at Mer et Monde, came to see us with 3 visitors form Mali.
Very interesting exchange with people from such a different world...
it's never cold over there!!!
- We rarely see Hortense and Noircie lately. Hunting
must be good: they only come in for a bite or two every other day and
not a mouse in the house.
- Our niece, Kim, spent a few days to give us a hand in
spite of her busy schedule. We're very proud of her achievements: she
participated in a young entrepreneur's contest and won the "Coup de
coeur"! If you're curious to see her creations, go visit her webpage: koukou.ca
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