Friends of old, strangers from distant lands!! Welcome to another addition of the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog!

Pleased to meet you. So glad you regulars have made it back. For those of you who are looking in at the blog for the first time my apologies. It is a construction blog but probably not in the true sense of the word. To be honest I’ve never even read a construction blog or any other blog for that matter. Not that I don’t talk of or explain the ways of Hobbit house building and construction techniques I use in building a Hobbit House. I kind of veer off the path if you will and lose myself in tangential stories completely unrelated to the world of construction. Usually it winds up being about some stupid incident I was involved with in one way shape or form. Sometimes it’s some crazy thought passing into one ear and coming out of the other. Which happens to me more than i’d like anyone to know. It’s okay though. The Lord of the Rings nerd in me leads me whichever way it wants to take me. Very little control over that part of my brain.

The holidays. Everyone has officially landed back home from hither and yon. Georgia from Madrid, Ethan from California, Jude and Terence from their respective colleges. The Editor and I picked Georgia up from JFK airport Saturday around 7:30. Traffic was ridiculous. Where in the heck are all these people going? The New York Metropolitan area traffic. It’s totally out of control. But I digress…..

It’s always tough getting things done after Thanksgiving. You pretty much got to give in to it. There’s way too much to get done. I actually did go out and pick up a few things I need for the house. But as far as working over at the house that was not part of the equation this weekend. Kinda knew that was going to happen.

So like I was saying the blog goes off in a different direction every once in a while.

You ever see the movie “The Godfather”? You know the original one with Marlon Brando.

Like there’s another Godfather movie Jim?

What do I look like an Almanac???

If you’ve never seen it it is a classic.So in the movie this guy Johnny Fontaine, a singer slash movie star wants this role in an upcoming movie that would be perfect for him. It’s like the perfect part. It would make him a star. The producer slash executive says he won’t give Johnny the part because Johnny messed with his girlfriend a few years back. So he’s mad at Johnny and he will never get the part and the exec knows it’s perfect for Johnny. So Johnny goes to the Godfather and asks him to see if he can help him get the part.

So the Godfather sends his consigliere  out to “talk” to the producer. So they chat and during the chat the producer shows the consigliere his prized horse which he bought for $600000. Now this is in the late 40’s so that’s a lot of money. It’s a lot of money today too!

Where we going with this Jim?

Hang in there. There’s gold at the end of the rainbow.

So the producer tells the consigliere that he’ll never give the part to Johnny Fontaine. Never. And that he’s not afraid of the Godfather and his people. The consigliere tells him that’s too bad.

So the scene cuts to the next morning in the producers bedroom. He wakes up and notices something wet on his hands. He pulls the covers back and there is the head of his prized horse in the bed with him. He starts screaming hysterically.

Johnny gets the part in the film.

So the other nite I went to bed and pulled the covers up to my chin. Then I noticed something wet on my hand and kind of solid. So just like the producer in my head I’m thinking what the hell is wet on my bed. I get out of bed and flick the light on. To my absolute horror I see that the cat has thrown up a fur ball right where I sleep and I’ve stuck my hand in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I start screaming hysterically.

That my friends is a true story. The screaming included.

It was too long Jim….way too long.

If you saw the movie you’d think it was funny. Actually, I just googled “horse head scene from the godfather.” I was screaming just like the producer. It really is a visual. If you get a minute check it out.

The point is is after this happened to me I thought of that scene in “The Godfather”. And that’s why the blog is kind of fun.

Right????

Oh well. Johnny Fontaine got the part and I got to clean up a fur ball.

So Ethan went out to California. He wanted to see the redwoods. Check out this picture.

He said they say one of the trees they believe is 1500 years old. Almost as old as a Numenorean King.

Oh yeah on a side note. My Father-in-Law stopped in from Arizona the other day. Asked me if I wanted a beer. I’m not much of a beer drinker so I took a pass. His idea of a beer and most peoples idea of a beer are two different things. check it out.

It’s a generational thing…..and those are just the emptys!

Enjoy your week!!!

Hobbit hollow Jim

 

 

Welcome friends to another edition of the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog! Had a little snow the other day and had to go out back to fetch a snow shovel from the Hobbit shed. Took a picture of it.

The proportions of this shed seem a little more in tune with the movie than the house. If you’re into the whole micro house thing this size place would probably work fine. It fits into the hill nice.

My apologies from the get go people. I’ll have to make this one short and sweet.

The Dwarves work on the exterior is now complete. Wow. What a nice job they did. It took some time but the final results are very satisfying I must say. I really haven’t been to the house much as of late so I haven’t been able to take some really good pictures of the stonework. It came out really nice though. Something that you can actually stand back and take a good look at and marvel at the craftsmanship that went into it. A lot of time as well. Very cool. A few pictures.

I meet with Scott the stonemason Saturday and talked to him about the fireplace. He said he should be able to get to it sometime in January. That would be awesome.

The hour is late and Gandalf the Grey rides to Isengard to seek the council of Saurman the White.

For that is why you have come……..

……..and I must be going now..

…..until we meet again.

Jim

It’s a jungle out there people. It truly is. Only the strong survive.

Christmas Tree Shops. Yes the Editor and I did some Christmas shopping the other day and I tell ya it was ugly. (I didn’t know the Editor could walk so damn fast. I almost lost her in the Food Court!) Thank God we went early. I can’t even imagine the zoo like conditions that were just a few hours away. The people working there were quite pleasant believe it or not. But man what a feeding frenzy. Have to go out one more time just to mop things up so to speak. (I’m going to do some cardio training this week so I can keep up with the Editor.) I don’t know how people do it. Or how people like it. Hmmm. The holidays. You could really spend quite a bit of time going off about them. But it’s neither the time nor the place.

Welcome friends of Middle Earth and those interested in the ways of Hobbit House building. Welcome.

So like I was saying the holidays are upon us and time is of the essence. I only have a few moments here to get this blog post done. A few items to note. Update on the stone. The front of the house is now complete and he is nearly done with the back. Probably two more days I’d have to guess. The weather is supposed to stay warm so I’m really hoping he is able to finish up. My excavator guy also graded out the front and set my 2 inch electrical line back to the garage area. Check it out.

I’m going to have the stonemason do the fireplace as well as long as the price is decent. I came up with a pretty nice design. You know with Hobbit Houses and Middle Earth in mind. I have to have an iron guy make me a curved lintel out of steel….to sit the stone on. The picture I drew is pretty cool. I think it will really have a nice impact on the room.  One of the things I did this weekend was clean up the living room so I could start the framing for the fireplace. Check it out.

So my big ticket item came in this Friday in the mail. My Zehender Heat Recovery Ventilator that is. I had it dropped off over at my Mother-in-Law’s house cause they give you one of those long time frames on the delivery. I think it was  from 2 am to 6 pm. Which worked out really well cause my Mother-in-Law never sleeps. She stays up all night figuring out ways to bug me. She quote unquote gave the guy a $100 dollar tip for unloading the truck. Seems a bit excessive to me. He had a lift gate and a pallet jack. What’s up with that???? She said, and I quote, “It was a lot of stuff!!!!!” I use the exclamation points to indicate volume here people. That came out quite loud. I forked over the $100 a little reluctantly.  I really just wanted to get my stuff and high tail it out of there so I could look at the stuff. Which is pretty cool.

It actually took three trips to get it all over to the house. There is quite a bit. I spent over an hour just going over the invoice and making sure everything was there. It’s going to be very interesting to put this system into the house. I really can’t wait. The guts of the system is this ventilation box which hangs on the wall.

Just the short version here. Basically what this machine does is bring fresh outside air into the house while expelling stale air from the bathrooms, kitchen, and mechanical room. This system runs continuously. When you shower, cook, or have a party at your house there are boost switches you can hit to increase the fan speed on the system so more fresh air comes into the house. The beauty of the system is that inside of that box is a device that transfers the energy of the incoming air to the outgoing air with 90% efficiency. Translation. In the winter time the incoming air is cold. The outgoing air is warm. They intermingle when they go through that box and the heat of the outgoing air is transferred to the incoming cold air. It’s that simple. The high efficiency of this unit means that your heating bills will stay low.

One other important fact. The reason we need this type of device is that our house is completely air sealed. It is almost impossible for air to get in or get out once the windows and door are shut. This is why we have to bring in a constant supply of fresh air.

Pretty cool.

That’s what a Passive House is all about people.

I hope you all have a great week. Take it easy and watch out for little old ladies on social security.

Jim

 

PS: A few more pictures for the road.

 

 

And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost…..

Of the One Ring

 

Yes people. somethings should not be forgotten. Many things perhaps. Maybe some things that were never learned. But I digress. How was your Thanksgiving! I hope it all went well, you know, the family get together. It’s always a bit of a mixed bag isn’t it?  Hmmmm. Keep it secret….keep it safe as Gandalf said long long ago.

And so we shall.

Welcome again to the never ending saga of Hobbit Hollow. I really do hope you enjoyed your Turkey Day. For those of you who are outside of the United States it really is a great tradition. Being thankful and celebrating what you have in one way shape or form. No gifts either. That’s kind of the best part. Keep it simple. Just bring that bowl of succotash. Ah succotash. I miss it. Haven’t had it in a dogs age either. Gotta look up a recipe for it one of these days.

It’s funny what you think of when you’re writing a blog about construction. So many things pop into your head. Like succotash. To be honest I really don’t know where to begin. Needless to say I didn’t get the chance to work on the house this weekend. Had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving as usual so that is always a bummer. What are you going to do.

Had my old friend Mike pay me a visit over at the house on Saturday. I gave him the grand tour. It was great seeing him. It was really nice taking a break from everything and just spend a few hours talking about old times…..and new. He heads down to sunny Florida now for winter. You lucky dog you. That was a really nice afternoon. Thanks for taking the time to stop by. We’ll have to do that again when you and Diane are back in Jersey later next year. Enjoy your time down south Mike. You deserve it.

For the record the stone guy is working away. He’s just about done with the front of the house. Heading towards the back Monday. The weather is in our favor this week so hopefully we will get it all done before the cold weather sets in. That would be fantastic. I have to design a fireplace for the guy and get him to give me a price. It’s not going to be a real working fireplace because this is a Passive House. Totally air sealed. Can’t have any  drafts. I’m going to put those fake electric logs in there. The ones I’ve seen look pretty good.  I was thinking of doing a stone fireplace with a huge piece of rough sawn lumber on top for the mantle. I have a neighbor who has his own saw mill. Might be able to get him to cut me something really heavy looking. The only problem I see is I need the fireplace to have a significant arch. This would probably have to be made out of steel. Especially since we’re talking stone on top of this. It’s going to  be the focus on this end of the room so it’s going to have to be done right. Gotta put a couple of sketches together and try and figure this one out.

Not really a very good picture because there’s too much shadow. I’ll try for a better shot next weekend.

So yeah I go get the Sunday morning donuts every week. I usually try to get one per person and add an extra for diversification purposes. I always seem to blamed for a lack of choice. The main problem is nobody winds up eating these things so I always seem to be left with the task of finishing off the balance. That’s why the one donut per person rule is critical. Any more and my waistband would be a ring of jelly donuts. I’m not kidding.(It’s also why I’m such a huge fan of stretchy pants.) So usually I arrange the donuts on a plate with a knife. This way if you want to try more than one it’s sanitary. You know what I mean. You can’t maintain your appetite if someone takes a chunk out of a donut and just leaves it there. It’s unsightly. Hence the knife.

Check out what twiddle dum does.

I mean really? Who on God’s green earth would ever cut a donut like that. This is what I have to deal with people. How do you even pick up the piece that you cut and cram it in your mouth. But whoever did this didn’t even leave a legit piece of the donut intact. As far as I’m concerned this donut has been destroyed. It’s useless to me. We’re definitely going to have to start enforcing the donut laws we have on the books. If you do the crime you’re going to have  to do the time. Jude.

Oh yeah. Took a picture of that faucet I replaced in my powder room for the special people who were coming over for Thanksgiving. It was a lot smaller than I said it was. The door opening was only nine and a quarter inches across. (I didn’t tell you this last week but once I squeezed myself in through the door I couldn’t get out. The Editor and Terence each had to pull on one of my legs to pop me out of the vanity.) Check out the size of this thing.

When I look at it now it’s amazing that I was even able to get in there. I might be able to get some side work as a contortionist. Hmmm. I wonder if the Big Apple Circus is hiring. Maybe I can pay for that fireplace with a little side work. (In the center ring watch as overstuffed man gets inside and out of vanity with basin wrench clenched between his teeth!!!!!!!!!!!) Gotta love the big top.

Well I’m glad you are all hanging in there. enjoy the upcoming holiday season and have a good week!

Take care.

Jim

PS: Just finished watching the Carolina Panthers beat the Jets in a game the Jets should have won easily. Another horrible Jets loss. My point is we went over to my sister-in-laws house to watch the game. She serves us pigs in a blanket. I happen to really love pigs in a blanket……..but she didn’t have any mustard. How can I eat pigs in a blanket without mustard??????

One more picture for the road.

The company I work for did two of the five jobs down there.

 

 

 

Alas friends of Middle Earth the holiday season is upon us. Much to do and little time. So we’re going to keep this short.

Oh yeah. Welcome to the continuing saga of Hobbit Hollow. The journey continues.

So yeah the holidays.

Having a big crowd this year for Turkey day. So when you have a big crowd you have to go the extra mile with the house cleaning. Damn holidays. The grease buildup on our range oven is ridiculous. Went through a whole can of wet wipes trying to get that under control.  I actually broke out into a sweat with all the elbow grease I put into this oven cleaning. Turns out we have a Kitchen Aid oven! I thought we had a GE.  It’s something I really didn’t need to know. It’s all because “special people” are coming over. Like I said. Damn holidays.

I also was forced into switching out the faucet in the downstairs powder room.  It really looked pretty bad. What a pain in the neck that was. What made it so hard was the fact that it was a two door vanity. 30 inch vanity means the two doors are about 14 inches across maximum. So this 200 pound man has to get in there  on his back with a basin wrench. You ever use a basin wrench before? Broke into another sweat trying to get this faucet off with the basin wrench. What an ordeal.

So the sink was kind of backing up anyway so I knew I was going to have to take apart the drain and unclog it. No big deal really. I open up the drain and inside the drain I find one of Georgia’s paint brushes! This thing is like a foot long! How that got in there I’ll never know. It was one of those moments when you’re like. “What the hell????”

So it was good. I shed about five pounds getting ready for Thanksgiving. I probably won’t have to wear my stretchy pants this year. You know the pants with the elastic waistband so you don’t have to undo your belt buckle when you overeat on Thanksgiving. So that’s great.

Give a shout out to whoever invented stretchy pants. Good job.

Get to the blog Jim you’re running out of time.

So I am out of time so I’m just gonna give you the visual.

It really changes the look of the house doesn’t it?

My excavator guy also was there. He finished off the patio area on the side and secured my walkway path to the roof. Check it out.

It’s a really nice area there now. Nice barbecue area.

Blog fan John wants me to build some sort of carriage house there for Gandalf and his horse and buggy.  Take it easy John.  I’m a busy guy but I want to finish this thing before the end of the century.

Worked on the electrical. Set up the exterior boxes for the lanterns that will go on either side of the door. It took a while. Worked on some interior framing and electrical the rest of the weekend. We’re getting there people.

Have a great week and enjoy your family and friends this Thanksgiving. There’s much to be thankful for.

Jim

 

Seven rings were given to the Dwarf Lords. Great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls.

 

Yes people. The Dwarves have finally arrived at Hobbit hollow to work their craft. ”Tis a craft my friends. The Hobbit house would not be complete without a touch from the dwarves.

In my mind it is the dwarves influence that gave way to the design and construction of Hobbit houses as it were. How could it be any other way?

Welcome friends of Middle Earth! Ah yes. It has begun. The stone facade is finally on its way. Hopefully the weather will hold for another week or two. I never had the opportunity to watch someone assemble a stone wall. It’s slow and tedious work though. It reminds me of doing a jigsaw puzzle that you  have to assemble but none of the pieces fit and there are none in the box. (Not a very good analogy) You have to have the vision to see where things go and how they might fit together. You must have to have a pretty good eye and imagination to “see” what might fit where and how certain stones might be chiseled to fit in.

So interesting to see it go up. I stopped by every night after work to see how far he got. It’s slow though. I thought he would have gotten a lot farther then he did. He also is using the stones from the property which was a huge concern of his and mine as well. Searching around the property to find stones is no small task. It sounds like a plan but you really need a lot of stones to put a wall like this together. And quite a few are useless. To wide or round or whatever. He has quite a sample though. Check it out.

 

He brought an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) to the house so he could load them up and drive them to the front. Pretty good idea.

So yeah. I really like the way things are coming out so far. Using the stone from the property was really the way to go. It’s such a nice blend. I’m actually rethinking how I’m going to finish the door trim. We”ll see. I’m not sure a bright door trim is the way to go with the stone. Might have to do a sample or mock up of a few different things. It’s important to get this right. Let me show you what he did so far.

It’s cool the way he’s working  the steps.

I’m hoping he finishes the front of the house this week. Sounds like the temperature is going to hold for another week and a half. It changes the whole look and feel of the house. Maybe I’ve been staring at that styrofoam too long. It really is looking good.

On another front my excavation guy dropped off his machine the other day. Looks like he’s going to start this week as well. I have to give him a call. I have to finish getting my stuff out of the garage too.

On my end I got a bunch of little tedious odds and ends done this weekend. Not much to show for a days work. I laid out the wall in the master bathroom in the wrong spot way back when when I did the original layout. My fault. I didn’t notice that an electrical line came throught the ceiling outside of the wall line. I had to take the whole wall down and replace it. What a pain in the neck.

I also wired the common bath lights. One of the high hat lights is messed up. The internal wires and the part of the fixture that holds the bulb is missing. No idea what happened there. It’s as if the whole thing was ripped right out. Even the screw where the wingnut goes is gone. (Kind of hard to explain.) Hmmm. Not sure how I’m going to fix it yet. Oh I’ll figure it out.

I’m getting real close with the electrical. Probably two full days and we’re done and ready for inspection. If I get good weather next weekend I’ll be working on the exterior trim though. Have to utilize my good days outside as best as I can.

The heat pump is working great by the way. Keeping the house at a toasty 62 degrees. Good thing I had them do the installation when I did. It got down to 18 degrees the other night. Brrrrrrr! Can’t have my water tank freeze.

So I had to go see my sister the other day up in Orange County. I took the Palisades Parkway up from the city. What  a nice drive. I stopped at a scenic overlook.

See you all next week!

Jim

PS: Walked by a job I did quite a few years back on 63rd between Central Park West and Broadway. Right next to where we are working right now. Just a few pictures of the art in architecture.

The colors really make it special.

 

It is what will come to pass if you should fail.

The Fellowship is breaking, it has already begun.

He will try and take the Ring.

You know of whom I speak.

One by one it will destroy them all.

 

The Elven queen Galadriel on the fate of the Fellowship after Frodo has looked into the Mirror.

 

Hello there friends of Middle Earth glad to have you all back again for another week of the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog.

So it is true. My head definitely feels a lot better after I stop banging it against the wall. But the Jets won this Thursday night….and played pretty well beating the Buffalo Bills soundly. The Bills are pretty good too.  So hope remains…..while company is true. Hey. Maybe the Jets can turn things around in the second half of the season. Who knows? Now all I have to do is patch the hole in the wall in my living room.

Hmmm. Maybe I should wait till the season is over. Why practice patching holes in the wall. Ya know there’s going to be at least one more hole by the end of the season. It’s the Jets remember?

Sounds like a plan Jim.

So I get home the other day and walk into my bedroom to find this.

So yeah. What the heck is going on with this picture? I was wondering the same. Turns out the Editor got a bunch of smokey 20’s. Like they really stunk of cigarette smoke. Bad. At least as far as the Editor was concerned. She actually put the money in the washing machine. Small load permanent press setting. This was taken during drying mode. You never put your money in the dryer. Especially 20’s. Jackson’s face gets distorted at high heat. And an arrow appears through his neck. Google it. It’s true.

So in other non blog related news the college boy came home. Just for a little r and r and to put the dorm room beind him for a day or two. It was nice seeing him.

It was really nice seeing him.

So  a few items of note. I had the Mitsubishi heat pump installed this week. Pretty awesome. It’s working like a charm. Check it out.

So this does heat and cooling for the Hobbit house. Hobbits love their creature comforts. Staying warm in the winter and cool in the summer is crucial. It’s a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. It’s on a pedestal so that snow won’t interfere with it operationally.

It’s weird but I had the temperature in the house set at 62 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday. It felt like an oven inside the house though. So oven like that I thought the unit was actually malfunctioning. It was around 50 degrees outside. It felt like 80 degrees inside though. I shut the unit off.

When I first heard about Passive House I read an article stating that you don’t need to heat your home nearly as much because there are no drafts and the house retains heat so well. Therefore you can live in a Passive House with a much lower setting on your thermostat. I think this is true. I actually brought a thermometer into the house to check the temperature on Sunday. Really just to make sure that the unit was  working properly and that it wasn’t overshooting the temperature I had set on the thermostat. It stayed at 62 degrees the whole time. I was sweating while I worked on the electrical. Pretty cool.

So  Terence and Ethan came over to help me with a couple of things. One of which was finishing off the walkway path up to the roof. Not that we finished it but I had them top off the walkway with gravel . This way in the spring I’ll be ready to go with the bluestone I want to use for the path. Here they are having at it.

It’s not that steep but it’s still takes quite a bit to get a wheelbarrow up this slope.

 

The other item we took care of was cleaning out the garage. My excavation guy should be here in a couple of weeks to demo the garage. Got to get the minor stuff out of there. There was actually quite a bit. It took most of the afternoon to get everything organized.

Gotta come up with a good garage design. I wonder what kind of car a Hobbit would drive? I kept a gang box and saved the extra styrofoam I had.

Going to use the styro under the slab for the shallow frost free design.

By the way the stone mason is supposed to start Monday weather permitting. This should be interesting. Kind of nervous about the stone to be honest. It’s such a big deal and you really don’t know how it’s going to look. It’s also really hard to describe what I want. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh yeah. I put an addition on the house on the other side of town for my Mother-in-Law. So she can stay over after she cooks for us. It’s nice. Check it out.

I think she can fit in there. It just gets a little smokey when we turn the pellet stove on. I don’t think that will be an issue though. She used to be a smoker. The bird’s had no problem raising a whole family of four in there over the summer. There’s only one of her.

The only issue that I can think of is that the money she owes me for my overpayment for dinners is that the cash might smell a tad like a fireplace. Hmmmm.

No worries. I’ll throw it in the wash!

Have a great week!

Jim

 

 

Will you look into the mirror?

What will I see?

Even the wisest cannot tell, for the mirror shows many things.

….things that were

….things that are

….and some things…that have not yet come to pass.

 

The Elven queen Galadriel talking to Frodo Baggins.

 

You have to look yourself in the mirror….And think about what you see.

Welcome again  Free Folk of Middle Earth to another installment of the Hobbit Hollow Construction Blog! Lord of the Rings geek in me coming out in full force. It cannot be helped people. So sorry.

Would you look in the mirror???

So for all you non Lord of the Rings fans the mirror is actually a basin in which, Galadriel pours water. Once the water is still and you look into it you will see things. Things that were, are, and some things that may not yet have come to pass. Get it. Got it….Good.

I actually picked one up the other day. You know for the Hobbit house. So when people come over I can offer them a look in the mirror. I found it on Craigs List. Pretty cool.

So I got the water into it and took a look.

I saw the future. I was lying in my bed and saw my daughters cat on top of me choking me with it’s little paws around my neck. Weird. Even weirder. I heard this hideous cackle in the background. It sounded like my Mother-in-Law.

For the record  I threw the mirror out. Who wants to look into something like that anyway,right?  So stupid.

That is a true story though. I think that dopey cat is trying to kill me. No comment on the Mother-inLaw thing.

I just had the unfortunate experience of watching my dreaded Jets lose again to the Falcons. Did you ever hear that joke about the guy who was banging his head against the wall? No. Okay. So this guy is banging his head against the wall and his friend comes over to him and says to him why are you banging your head against the wall? The guy replies: Because if feels so good when I stop. That’s sort of how I am with the Jets. I’m so glad this game is over. I can finally get back to doing something constructive. You know like looking out the window and watch the rain fall.

I have to stop watching. I really do.

Oh yeah one more thing before I get to the blog.

I guess this isn’t part of the blog. It’s something else. Skip ahead  if you want to read the blog.

So I’m not a meat eater. Not that I’m a vegetarian either. I just don’t like chewing meat. I have enjoyed steak a few times in my 54 years but most of the time it’s just chewey and I’m not into that. (For the record I do really love burgers and chicken. I just want you to get the right picture that’s all.) So if you’ve been paying attention we have that Mother-in-Law of mine over for dinner once a week or we go over to her house. It’s not far. (I’m still trying to figure out how I got roped into this)

Let’s get going Jim it’s going to be Thanksgiving soon.

Right. Got it.

Anyway she made stuffed pork chops this week. (You have to keep in mind she’s a swamp Italian. They don’t know that the only thing that you’re supposed to stuff is a turkey.) They were really good. But like I said I don’t like to chew very long. So one of the pork chops got stuck in my throat.

You ever see that emoji with the big bug out eyes. Well that was how my wife’s eyes were. I mean I wasn’t nervous or anything. I could breath but this damn pork chop wouldn’t go down.Then the hysterics start. OH MY GOD CALL 911!!!!!! I indicate to Ethan to slap me on the back which he does but it doesn’t help. Then my Mother-in-Law starts with the give him the Heimlich maneuver. She comes around the table to give me the Heimich. In my head I’m thinking, “If this was serious I would definitely be dead cause there is no way a 79 year old woman who has a bad arm is going to be able to do the Heimlich successfully.”  My wife on the other hand is calling 911 and then I coughed it up.

So that was an exciting dinner. At least that part of it was. Then I was screamed at by my Mother-in-Law about going to get checked out by a doctor. For what?? I choked on a pork chop. Hmmm. Maybe I should go to the doctor and bring one of those pork chops with me. See what he thinks.

Actually she didn’t scream at me. But if you were there you would have thought that she was screaming. Everything comes out very loud.

Needless to say I didn’t finish the rest of my pork chop. The stuffing was a nice touch though I have to tell you.

Let’s start the blog part of the blog shall we?

So the non blog part took a lot longer than expected so I’m going to be a little brief.

I did a lot of little things this weekend which set us up for success with our upcoming subs if you will. First I wired the breaker for the mini split heat pump as well as the breakers for the exterior GFCI’s (short for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter outlet) on the front and back of the house. The exterior GFI outlets are nice because now I don’t have to run an extension cord through a window to work outside. The GFI’s  took time to wire though. It was a tight squeeze into the outlet box. Check it out.

So I set these outlet boxes and the wire into the concrete way back when when we poured this like 8 million years ago. Everything worked nice too.

The other thing that I wanted to get done was secure the conduit for the mini split heat pump on the roof. This involved some formwork and extending the pvc pipe up there. I wanted to make it solid so someone wouldn’t step on the pipe and possible mess things up later on.  The 2 inch pvc is for the copper lines and the 1 inch pvc is for the 10/3 wire for the unit. Check it out.

After I poured it I threw small stone on top of the concrete. I kind of wanted to see how it would come out.

The other issue I had was setting up the exterior conduits for the excavator guy. I needed to expose them so I could show him which ones I want going where kind of thing. Let me show you a visual.

So the 2 inch horizontal is the power going to the garage. The 1 inch horizontal is for walkway lighting and tree lighting. The vertical 2 inch is for a generator if we lose power. The other two vertical 1 inch I don’t know what they’re for. At least  I can’t remember. The worst part was the digging. When I was done I felt like I had been beaten severely. I took two Advil right after that…and crawled to my truck.

I also set the 2×6 front and back to indicate the final grade and separate the grade from the gravel which will be next to the house. Forgot to take a picture. You’ll get it once it’s done.

I also wired the lights in the mechanical room and started the kitchen lights which is a pretty big task. During the week I also taped the second coat of tape where the exhaust unit is going to be in the living room.

Will call Monday about the mini split install. Oh yeah check out this picture I took at the end of the day.

Enjoy your work week!!!!

And make sure you chew your food properly!

Jim

Does it seem as if time is flying by right now or what? I don’t know but another weekend has come and gone at record pace it seems to me. Maybe it’s the weather? It has been unseasonably warm this October here in the Northeast. The weatherman said the other day that we are on schedule to have the warmest October on record this year. The Fall colors are finally here as well. Much later than usual.

Not really sure why I’m mentioning this but welcome and I hope everything is going alright in your neck of the woods so to speak.

I’m hoping to get the stone guy going in a week or two as well as  the mini split  heat pump. Gotta get that straightened out early this week. I did get a good portion of the prep work done for them this weekend. I should be able to finish what’s needed next weekend if the weather holds up. We shall see.

A short story before we begin.

Mother-in-Law made dinner again for the record. Chicken parmigan. With the homemade gravy. Or sauce if you live in Northern Italy. It was really good. But I don’t think I’ve ever explained what happens to your innards after partaking of my Mother-in-Law’s gravy. Put it to you this way. Your not going to be able to sit at the dinner table all that long. You’re going to have to sit somewhere else. You are catching my drift are you not? But then something happened that the gravy did not intend….It did not have its intended effect. Which was  kind of weird. I mean this stuff works like a charm. I was actually, on a subliminal level, surprised at the lack of said usual effect. Which is a good thing.

Then we said goodbye and went to bed.

I awoke with a start! Something is wrong. I broke out in a sweat……and then I realized the gravy had a delayed reaction. I bet you she’s been experimenting with this stuff so it would hit me when I’m in my car on my way to work. It’s sick.

Needless to say I was late for work. Through no fault of my own I might add. But what boss is going to believe a story like that? “I had my Mother-in-Law’s chicken parmigan last night!”  Yeah, okay, right.

I need some sort of food taster or something. Probably could find something on the internet.

Let’s get going shall we?

Yes.

….and so we shall.

So the main focus this weekend was to prep the wall where the mini split heat pump is going to be installed. This device is a wall mounted unit and has to get attached to the wall where the hallway is. Therefore I have to finish the wall in order to install it. Meaning sheetrock. I wanted to use 12 foot boards and stand them up vertically. This way there are only vertical seems in the sheetrock with no quote unquote “butt joints”. Butt joints are much harder to tape and hide than a tapered joint.

The first order of business was to finish framing the wall over the hallway. I had never studded it out. It was all ladder work so it was kind of slow.

Once this was done I used a 1/2″x4’x8′ piece of sheetrock directly over the center of the hallway. I held it in place with a ledger board square and tight to the ceiling and then scribed the ceiling on the board. The other thing I did was make sure that board was vertically plumb. This was because the adjacent boards on either side are going to go from floor to ceiling and if the first sheet is off it’s going to be really hard to cut out for the electrical switches.

I was by myself when I was installing this so I wasn’t so sure how the 12 foot boards would be installing them by myself. The curvature of the ceiling definitely does not make it easy. How did I do it?

The first thing I did was take the cutoff from the first sheet and screw it in next to the first sheet I installed as high as it would go to the ceiling and keeping a tight joint. Then I scribed the ceiling line onto the sheet. I also took a measurement from the ceiling down to the floor at this point.

Next I went to the 4×12 sheet marked that measurement on the new sheet and aligned the scribed cut sheet to this point. I cut this out. Then I went back inside and took measurements for the electrical boxes. I put them on the board and cut them out as well.

After that I carefully picked up the board off the table I had it on and walked it into the house. I lowered the bottom onto the floor and pushed the top into place.

For the record: The first one went in nice but I wasn’t careful enough with the second one and it snapped in half as I was standing it up. Very annoying. Luckily Ethan was helping out later on that day and picked up another sheet for me. He also gave me a hand installing it. A few pictures.

You cut the circle out in place. In other words you put the full sheet in and then cut it out with a sheetrock saw and a utility knife. So a circle is a little different. In order to cut it out I had to make a series of saw cuts in the sheetrock so they would break off nice when I cut them out with the sheetrock knife.

I know I think I’ve lost most of you with the details. Sorry. But sheet rocking the walls of a Hobbit house is not going to be easy.

We also did the leveling base for the compressor for the mini split heat pump. I wanted it to sit on a gravel bed. I had Ethan dig up the dirt on the roof and then I built a little frame that we set level for the compressor. Then Ethan filled it in with gravel. Check it out.

I put two layers of filter fabric down so we don’t get any grass growing through there.

The last item I my agenda was to set up a 2×6 out front to indicate the final grade of the front lawn. I’m going to have the excavation guy come in and grade front and back and put gravel on the house side of the 2×6. Check it out.

Running out of time.

Enjoy your week!

Jim

PS: Aragorn’s knife:

That’s Elvish for “Foe of Morgoth’s Realm”

One last shot:

 

A little Lord of the Rings trivia to start. When the Fellowship goes to the Elven realm of Lothlorien they are given gifts. Aragorn’s gift was a curved hunting dagger from the first Age of Middle Earth. There are words inscribed on this knife in Elvish. What were they???

I’ll give you a few seconds to think about the answer to that one. In the meantime welcome friends to another installment of the Hobbit Hollow Construction  Blog! Oh yeah, and don’t try to look it up on your phones people. Either you know it or you don’t. Answer: “Foe of Morgoth’s Realm.” I’m actually thinking about putting that inscription over the door to the Hobbit house. It’s really a Silmarillion thing. I’m a huge fan of that book. The history of the Elves essentially, and their battle with Morgoth. (The First Dark Lord of Middle Earth.) If you don’t have a good imagination don’t bother. I’m the only one in my house who has actually finished it. It is a bit dry. There are some really terrific stories in there though and it really shows you the genius of JRR Tolkien. How he wove everything together. The history, races, the blood lines. There are things in the Silmarillion that you’ve seen in other movies as well. Star Wars and the Harry Potter series being the most memorable. He was a visionary.

Hmmm. Got a little lost there for a moment. Was thinking about Feanor. The greatest  Elf that ever lived. He created the Silmarils. The mightiest works of craft ever made. Ultimately leading to the demise of the Elves.

Hmmm again. Let’s get started here before it’s Christmas.

Oh yeah. Had to have that Mother-in-Law of mine over for dinner Wednesday. At least she did the cooking. Got to admit she is a good cook. Had the pot roast thing going. Don’t worry I picked up the bill for the groceries. Got to give little old ladies a break. I didn’t know pot roast was so expensive! $50 bucks for a pot roast. I gotta stop by the supermarket and check that price out. Seems kind of high. And there weren’t any leftovers either. You gotta watch these little old ladies. They’re always trying to get over on you.

So we watch Jeopardy and then it’s time to say goodbye. (Praise the Lord!) Then the Editor blurts out, “Hey, there’s one blueberry muffin leftover ma! Why don’t you take it home with you?” The bubble over my head is, ” Why in the hell is she offering her the last blueberry muffin when I’ve had my eye on it all night!” So I put my frown face on. Then my Mother-in-Law says, “No, no, no, Jim or Ethan will eat that! I don’t want it.”  Smiley face is back on and I’m thinking, well now, what a surprise she’s finally doing the right thing for once! Then out of the blue the Editor doubles down, “No, they’re not going to eat it just take it!” Mother-in-Law, “Oh, alright.”

Need I say another word??????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like this was some sort of plot just to aggravate me at the end of a long day. And the kicker was, and I not 100% sure of this, I think she had a little old lady grin on her face as she went out the door.

That my friends is a true story.

The pot roast was awesome though.

I really missed eating that blueberry muffin. It was like we were friends.

Oh check this picture Ethan took the other day over at the Hobbit.

He put it on Instagram. I think the caption was something like,”Stopped by Middle Earth on the way home the other day.” The lighting makes it look good.

Anyway upward and onward with Hobbit house construction. Was only able to do a few things this weekend because we went to see Terence on Saturday for parents weekend over at Manhattan College. What a great time we had. We also got to see my nephew Travis run at the Manhattan Invitational Cross Country meet. I believe this is the biggest Cross Country Invitational in the country. It’s a great sport. I ran cross country for three years in high school and ran at this meet as well. It brought back a lot of memories. If you’ve never seen the start of a big race it really is exciting to watch. There were about 160 boys in this race from about 20 different schools. There’s one long starting line that everybody lines up on. The starter shoots a gun off and everybody takes off and tries to get in front of the pack before getting into the trails in the woods. It’s right out of the movies. It’s like watching the charge scene in “Braveheart”. Here’s a picture just before they get to the wooded trails.

The guys in the front were booking. I mean really booking.

So I’m getting pricing on the stonework for the house. Pretty interesting meeting with these guys. I have two prices so far. Looking to get three more. Hopefully I’ll have what I need to make a decision by the end of the week. I also got pricing for the mini split heat pump. A lot higher than I thought it would be. Gotta see if I can whittle them down a bit. Have to make a decision on that as well sometime this week.

We’ve got quite a few pots boiling  haven’t we. I also got a price on the site work I need done to finish the house off. Not bad. Pretty much what I expected.

To set up for the mini split heat pump installation I have to finish wiring the high hats over the hallway and plywood over the area over the hallway so that they can mount the unit to the wall. There’s a number of other things I need to do which I’m going to finish next weekend by hook or by crook.

If you remember I used renovation style hi-hats in the hallway. So I pulled them out of the ceiling and wired them from below.

Can’t really see much there. Oh well.

I set up two switches for these lights so that you can turn them on and off from either side of the hallway.

It’s always nice when the lights work the way they’re supposed to.

Hope to hit it hard so to speak next weekend. I really want to get everything ready for these other guys to come and get their work done.

On a different note, check this out.

I mean really? Who are we kidding with that one?

Pathetic……..

Have a great week!

Jim