My cottage in the forest/ Mitt torp ute i skogen!

[Neiklot]

My husband said he didn't think it would be a good idea to splice the beam itself, but is it possible to sneak a sister beam alongside?

I was thinking the same, but if i sneak a sister beam alongside, I have to make a new "hole" in the "ground beam" to phasing it in.

Maybe it's possible to splice it if i sets up several stanchions to suport the beam?

(Is that right? Stanchions?)

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

Neiklot, what a totally great project and a wonderful place! We did projects like that, stripping things back to basics. I love the tearing apart part...the trying to put it back together can be slow and frustrating, the weather, critters and material things will give you grief. But it's worth it. Used to make me crazy as fall came and the sun went down earlier and earlier and we had to start putting things away. It feels to good to get it done!

Be sure to check the wood stove seals so that none of the carbon monoxide fumes from the fire get into the room. You probably know about that. It's good to have a battery-run carbon monoxide alarm since I'll bet you are using wood-fired heat. And put as much insulation in the walls, ceiling and floors as you can, it will save you in the winter.

Keep showing us the pictures!

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

PS....don't you always want to use treated wood on the floor beams so it won't decay? So many insects love to eat pine. Is cedar an option? We are now at the 15-year point of having replaced wood that wasn't treated, and some of it we'll have to do again! No fun!

Here's a good forum discussing this, see the photo under Mitch's name where they used cinderblock supports while fixing the beam:

http://www.homerepairforum.com/forum/flooring/8314-best-way-support-joists-repair-beam.html

 

[Neiklot]

We lived in the cottage for a couple of years ago, so we know the value of good insulation!
(It was cold in the winter, when it was the coldest we had about 4 degrees (Celsius) when we got up in the morning!)

I do not use any "unnatural" in the house, so there will be no treated beams, I'd rather risk that it gets a little chewed on.
I use the heartwood of the beam, so it is perhaps not as much bugs in it after all?


Sending a picture of me and two of the children, we will pause a little out there on the stone steps.
(Our English Cocker Spaniel is also in the picture.)

 

[Wannabefree]

Nice pic, needs a "like" button

 

[Denim Deb]

I wanna see a better picture. (Of the dog. )

 

[frustratedearthmother]

What a beautiful family - and the dogs cute too!

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

Great photo!

I don't mean to be preachy about this, but I've been where you are, and if my experience can help at all.....the two main hard lessons we learned was always....always do overkill on foundations and solar.

If they say supports should be 1.5 meters apart, put them 1 meter apart. Doing this according to building codes would probably require you to dig down to base rock and connect your foundation to it. But since that may not be case, your foundation is more apt to move with expansion/contract of soil and moisture. I know you know this, but just a reality check, everything you do to your house depends entirely on the foundation, every window that needs to close tightly, every door that needs to close tightly, every heavy wall of cabinets/woodstove/fireplace, every addition you add onto it in the future relies on what you are doing under there today. You want to know on a windy, cold and frozen night that the last thing you'll have to deal with is the foundation.

We had expansive soil on one corner, and during the summer it dried up, and the corner started to drop. Not much, but the door came unlatched. There was a wind storm, the door blew open, but we weren't there, and rain got in, birds got in, a snake got in, raccoons got in, it was a mess.


Having tough wood is not just about bugs, but about mildew (which is dangerous for people, too) and water damage. I have lots of pine trees at my place and it's the first wood to go, it gets a white kind of mold on it. It's a soft wood and it absorbs water easily which allows it to be host to fungi, the white mushroom-looking stuff that loves the dark. Beetles and termites love pine, they eat through it quickly, like in months. It's their job, really, to help get that back into improving the soil. Cedar resists most of those things a little longer. there are some ways to naturally treat wood, like linseed oil, but the rags can combust into flame, and if it's cold it stays sticky too long. But if used at the right time of year can be effective.

And for the solar, don't just calculate what you'll need by what appliances you use. Calculate the number of panels for the shortest day of the year. That's when you'll want light because it's cold and dark. You'll need your big investment in batteries to keep those going as long as they can, so they have to come back up to full every single day or two. That means if there isn't about 6 hours of sun on them, they might not come back up. If there's 5 or 6 days of gray storm cloud cover, you'll need to cut back on things to make sure the batteries don't go below half full. That's crucial for their longevity. We bought a down-sized refrigerator, (not a dorm sized one, but it's about 3/4 the size.) And when I use the vacuum I run the generator, even in the summer. And you probably know that DC power can't travel far, so if you are using DC appliances you'll need the battery array very close to the house. I've found that DC appliances are terribly expensive, hard to repair, and you can't get any kind of sale on them. AC appliances are everywhere, easy to get, have great prices, and they do well....but only if your voltage stays up on your batteries. If not, you can burn out a motor on a refrigerator in just a couple of weeks if it tries to come on and can't.


But if you are using AC, use large wire over the distance from the inverter so you won't lose much. Try to put the controller and the inverter in a separate shed away from the batteries that are off-gassing all the time. Don't store things with the batteries that can corrode, and make sure there's plenty of airflow through the shed the batteries are in. It should be in as cool a place as possible.

Water pumps are a huge user of power, so not sure if you are planning on that, but it might even need it's own solar setup.

Okay, okay, I'll stop. But I know what it's like to be truly on your own, and maybe this will help save some money by not having to redo things.