Compost Bin

Composting yard and food waste seems to me to be a pretty easy thing to do. I grew up on a farm in the Midwest where we had to take care of our own trash. We tossed food waste to the chickens (when it was chicken type food) and table scraps went to the dog. If it burned, we put it in the incinerator. If it didn't, it would be piled up behind a shed somewhere until we had time to take it to the dump. Was it environmental or "green"? I doubt it. But anyway....

We wanted a compost bin to take care of our food waste and yard debris. I found plans for a 3-bin compost system online through the Oregon State extension office. I made a couple modifications based on available space.



I built a two bin system with removable slats in the front for access. Wire mesh on the sides and nailed in slats on the back.

I figured out a kick-stand to hold up the lid. This way it won't bash you on the noggin or flip over and rest against the neighbor's fence.

Here is the bin in action. oooooh - look at it go! This year I've dumped the majority of the yard leaves in the bin. We should have a good crop of dirt for the garden beds next spring.

Basement - The Long Haul

Jacq and I recently worked out a few different floor plans for the basement space. Nearly 640 sqft. of potentially awesome living space is available to us down there (here?).

We use our basement now for laundry, pantry and storage of a few things. D has her Nintendo with some games and there is an ironing board and a couple work benches. Bad lighting and worse paint jobs.

The biggest and most tedious item on the list is sealing the basement from the environment. I have a few leaks or seeps through the walls that are mostly taken care of with proper downspout management and directing the water away from the foundation.

Basement as it is today.....

Awesome basement of the future!

We'll chop this up into phases the first of which will be the downstairs bathroom. This is needed as our upstairs and only bathroom now is in desperate need of a complete tear-out remodel.

First set of quotes are coming in now. To do the rough plumbing for the new bathroom. Stay tuned...

Laundry Chute

My daughter's closet floor has a big hole in it. This is, of course, the laundry chute accessed from the hallway with a flip down door.



I built a box around the door and hole in the floor. she can use this box as a shelf inside her closet.





I have not replaced the broken latch yet. I jammed a screw into the latch so we can open it.

Insulation

OK - I'm back.... We decided to insulate our house. Between the federal stimulus (30% or up to $1500) and the state winterization program (~$500) it really wasn't that much moolah to knock it out.

I had the insulation company remove siding top and bottom to blow in the insulation instead of blasting 3" holes all over the house.



Siding removed in order to access the sheathing underneath and drill holes for blowing in insulation.


They drilled holes in the sheathing - this is plugged after insulation is blown in then the siding replaced. We only had one piece of siding completely shatter and they replaced it without any bother at all. You can see that there is no insulation inside this wall. Effectively, this wall had an R-value of about 4 maybe 5. After blowing in R15 insulation, we should be much warmer this winter.



There were, of course, a couple spots near the chimney that they couldn't get the siding off so I authorized the plug treatment here. I'll seal & bondo the plugs so they aren't visible after painting. We were lazy and missed the last couple weekends where outside temperatures were above 70 degrees - we'll paint in the spring....


Magellan Insulation Inc. did the work. They were fast and efficient. Little mishaps here and there didn't really amount to much. They didn't know that my upstairs windows are pocket windows and they drilled into the cavity where the window goes when open. We also had a board under the kitchen sink fall off and the cabinet was filled with insulation.


The attic did have about 4-6 inches of insulation most of which was at or below the level of the rafters. Upgrading to R38 insulation (18" above rafters) is like snuggling under your favorite blanket.

The last thing to do is to take a thermal imaging camera around on a really cold day in January. This will identify cavities that were missed. I can then decide whether it's worth it to go back and fill them or not.