The Log House Project

[NancysToy]

Wounded Duck

It looks like things will be slowed down on the house project in more ways than one. We are in a slowdown while we wait for things to dry out after the plaster work, then we will have to wait for the tongue & groove paneling and wood flooring to acclimate for a week to ten days...after the house dries adequately. We also have to wait 30 days for the plaster to cure before we paint. I had planned to do some work while we waited, replacing some studs and blocking they tore out to install the ductwork, building insulated doors for the attic scuttles, building doors for the utility door opening in the garage, installing the walk-in showet pan, and putting up the backer board in the showers, among other things.

Today, when I got home after buying a paper and eating breakfast, I fell in the driveway here at home. Despite taking baby steps on the icy driveway, both feet went out from under me and I fell hard! It knocked the wind out of me, and hurt me so bad I lay there for a few minutes before I could even reach my phone and call my wife to come out and help me get up. I have probably only cried a half dozen times in my adult life, but I cried today. A trip to the ER showed only one broken rib, and probably several that broken loose from the sternum (again), but I have a host of bruising and strained muscles. It hurts to breathe, move, or flex my left arm. I'm not going to be swinging a hammer for a while...or be shoveling snow. I doubt I can even drive for a while.

I knew things would be difficult with the ice build-up, and the cold following the rain Thursday. I was trying to be careful, and was actually headed into the house to get some more sand to spread on the driveway. I didn't make it that far. I hope all of you in the north do better than I did. Be careful out there!

 

[cuznjohn]

omg

wow i hope you heal up fast. i went down on my bike a few years back and broke 4 ribs and my lest scapular and let me tell you i was in pain for a long time

 

[dancogan]

...A trip to the ER showed only one broken rib, and probably several that broken loose from the sternum (again), but I have a host of bruising and strained muscles. It hurts to breathe, move, or flex my left arm. I'm not going to be swinging a hammer for a while...or be shoveling snow. I doubt I can even drive for a while....

OUCH! No laughing, coughing, sneezing for you for a while. Avoid any thread that even hints at humor. So sorry to hear this, Scotty. Only time helps the ribs, and it takes a while.

 

[SpydermanCT]

I feel for you Scotty and pray for a fast recovery. It sounds like you have been down this road before so you know the better you follow the doctors orders the faster you will heal. Lots of rest and relaxation for you for a while ! You have to do it !

 

[Jim&Teresa]

I wish you a speedy recovery from your fall. We have ice everywhere here in Minnesnowta and I almost fell this last week....my driveway was OK when snowblowing it, but when I stepped on the road portion -- pure ice and almost went down.

Anyways, here's to better health and a finished home for you! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: Tough year to do just about anything up north! We will be in the top 10 coldest temperatures for our winter season ever recorded from 140 years they've had records...:yikes:

 

[Frank G]

Wish you a speedy recovery, Can you set up some security cameras to monitor the house project?

 

[billybovine]

Sorry to hear what happened and I hope you have a speedy recovery. It looks like you will have to put a greater effort into delegating.

 

[retired1]

Sorry to read about the accident. That sucks! Hopt you heal fast.

 

[NancysToy]

Thanks for your support. Not a serious problem (unlike when I ripped the UCL off the bone on my right thumb last summer), but painful nonetheless. This is my fourth or fifth go-around with broken ribs, so I know the drill. The time I had two broken ribs and pleuresy at the same time was the worse! Anyway, it's just the timing that is bad. I'll probably be trying to do something stupid in a couple of weeks, but for now I can't really even drive.

 

[spyder3]

Heal quickly scotty....tuff break....nojoke

 

[MarkLawson]

Scotty, I'll be praying for you for a speedy and complete recovery. I'll also share your story with some faithful men I meet with each Monday night for prayer and Bible study. We prayed for Wacky Dan and his premature baby girl Leah, & you can see how well she has done!

 

[NancysToy]

Scotty, I'll be praying for you for a speedy and complete recovery. I'll also share your story with some faithful men I meet with each Monday night for prayer and Bible study. We prayed for Wacky Dan and his premature baby girl Leah, & you can see how well she has done!

:clap: Mark, you did great with Leah! I'm not sure this incident is of the same caliber, but I appreciate the thoughts and prayers.

 

[IGETAROUND]

Scotty,

Sorry to hear of your injury. Would be more than happy to help out on any weekend in the foreseeable future. Let me know if I can be of assistance. PM me and I'll get you my cell number. Al

 

[NancysToy]

I overdid it today and I am paying the penalty. The trouble with pain pills is that they can make you feel like Superman for a while. (The big "S" on my underwear makes me think it's true...LOL.) Having a thick skull and a high pain tolerance complicate things further. I only lifted a few things and did a little drilling over my head. Sheeesh! Been hurting and dozing off ever since.

Met with the builder today to set the upcoming schedule. Hooked up the dehumidifier to a drain hose run outside, so it will no longer shut off because it is full. The humidity is coming down, but the windows are still collecting lots of moisture and the insulation has absorbed some. I made a video tour now that the plaster is complete and things are cleaned up, but haven't had time to process it ot upload it yet. Here are some pics of the grreat room and kitchen areas.

We'll see how things develop. If need be I know I can count on several of you to help, and I greatly appreciate it. My biggest worry is actually the fact that it snowed much of the day today and we expect 2"-4" tomorrow. I'm not only unable to shovel, I doubt I can get the snowblower out of the garage for my wife to operate...if she can with her recovering hand and the brace. Fortubnately this is an off week while we wait for things to dry. Maybe I'll be a bit better by the weekend.

BTW, hiccups are no fun with broken ribs. I wish they would go away. Maybe if I ask the builder to see my bill it will scare them out of me. :roflblack:

 

[cuznjohn]

nice

but remember we are not what we used to be

 

[cptjam]

Get well soon!
Now you ready for some time in Sin City?

 

[NancysToy]

Stayed away from the project today, while I rested my broken bones. The pain meds bind me up and make me sick, anyway, so I stopped taking them. It is snowing, so I would have been tempted to shovel, and that would have killed me.

I promised you a video, though, so here it is. This is a walk-through after the plaster was done and the place cleaned up a bit. Ann, I'm not sure if you can make out the plaster textures with the stark white walls, but you can tell about some of the ceilings.

The next round will be the tile and underlayment, and hopefully the garage doors, then probably the T&G walls after the place dries out. I have to wait to paint, too, not to mention waiting for my ribs to heal. I hope we can stay close to schedule for the remainder.

No, Joe, no Sin City for me. :roflblack:

 

[Pennyrick]

Nice tour.... you didn't have to shoo Nancy out of the way... she can be in the picture.

Noticed that the dehumidifier is at floor level. Sometimes those things will shut off when set to flow out rather than into the bucket.

I've found that when the drain is above floor level it will continue to operate and not shut off. Setting it on a couple of cement blocks works well.

 

[NancysToy]

Nice tour.... you didn't have to shoo Nancy out of the way... she can be in the picture.

Noticed that the dehumidifier is at floor level. Sometimes those things will shut off when set to flow out rather than into the bucket.

I've found that when the drain is above floor level it will continue to operate and not shut off. Setting it on a couple of cement blocks works well.

I just wanted Nancy to let us see something besides her caboose...LOL.

The dehumidifier was drain hose is routed down to the basement through the heating duct penetration and then out the basement window, so it is gravity all the way. We were using the bucket, but it costs us $25 a day to drive to the property and it was requiring being emptied daily. That's why I rigged the drain hose. The sumps and drains are not hooked up yet, so I couldn't discharge to them...thus the hose leading to a pipe out a hole in a bulkead installed in the window where the furnace and condensate pump also discharge..

 

[NancysToy]

We went out to the house today. Haven't been there since Monday. I had to measure for the utility door in the back of the garage, since I can no longer build some doors (at least not right away) with these injured ribs. I also had to measure so we could order the western red cedar for the ceilings in the great room and our bedroom. We found someone who can mill us what we need. Nancy is set on having red cedar ceilings like her father put in his house.

The humidity is coming down, although the cold froze the humidifier drain hose and caused the dehumidifier to fill and shut off. I rerouted the hose to try to keep it thawed. but with temps of -10 to -13 this morning, and more single digit and below zero temps expected until the end of next week, it may freeze again no matter how hard I try. We shattered the record this morning, and set one the day before, too. Tomorrow we will set a record (by far) for the most snow to start March. We were 36 degrees below normal today!

I did some stupid stuff. First I unloaded two sandbags that we brought out to allow us to sand the icy driveway. I don't need to fall again, and I don't need to have anyone else do so either. Nancy snuck the sandbags in on me, I didn't expect to do that, but she couldn't lift them so I had to do it. It really didn't hurt too badly when I used the opposite hand. That was my big mistake! It gave me a false sense of well-being. Nancy isn't comfortable using the snowblower and I hate to see her shovel after just having gotten the brace off her hand this week. I started the blower and decided to blow the 3"-4" of snow (plus drifts) out of the driveway. I managed to do it, but buy the end I was in great pain. Hard to run one of those things without wrestling it around...and hard to wrestle it around without hurting the ribs. Not to mention having to push down on the handles each time I turned at the end of a run....ouch! I wish I could have stayed on the pain pills, but they were causing problems themselves.

While I was blowing snow, Nancy shoveled the deck (notice how she snuck that one in on me, too?), then vacuumed the windowsills throughout the house. We still have some cleanup to do, but we are gaining on things. Drying out, too. If I can get my son to help I think we can bring up the tongue & groove boards from the basement, for inside the exterior walls. They will have to acclimate for a week to ten days upstairs. I hate this downtime, but it is essential after plastering. A couple of weeks to get the humidity back down, 30 days before we can paint, 7-10 days after drying out to acclimate the T&G, and 3 weeks to acclimate the hardwood flooring once it arrives on site. About the only thing we can do in the interim is maybe the tile and underlayment.

Sorry, no pictures or videos this time. I'll try to do better on our next visit.