[Toshi]

Minivans are good for carrying things. Two SUPs, a ping pong table topper, giant Connect 4, two Costco bags of non-perishables, and a small box of ping pong paddles and PFDs in here. Space carved out is for the cooler for perishables, and our duffels and backpacks will go atop that.

Comparison of unladen room available with both vehicles set up to carry 5 people:

 

[Toshi]

I'm going to get a Washlet for one of the bathrooms at my mother in law's house

I think I'll go for the toilet seat alone version, not the one bundled with the rice cooker, yeah

(the SURFboard is not a surf board, but rather is the cable modem. also weird to bundle that, but who am I to judge, I guess)

 

[Westy]

I'm going to get a Washlet for one of the bathrooms at my mother in law's house

View attachment 213052

I think I'll go for the toilet seat alone version, not the one bundled with the rice cooker, yeah

(the SURFboard is not a surf board, but rather is the cable modem. also weird to bundle that, but who am I to judge, I guess)

Why not a full travel unit?

 

[Toshi]

not sure if pressure washer or butt sorayer


/me rode to the library

Toshi Clark (@toshi.clark) on Threads

Off to the library this morning on the acoustic belt drive bike, like a regular low-tech European Mostly protected multiuse paths. Some physically separated bike lanes, and some mere paint (although on MLK it’s a whole regular lane-width so a bit buffered).

www.threads.net

grass update as well

 

[Toshi]

Starting to have more confidence that deck work is going to happen. I let the plow/landscaping guy know that I am around until Friday morning so that I can write him a check for whatever he needs for it to happen next week. Or late this week. Whatever works as long as it’s done by the 20th.

Also confirmed with electrician (for Thurs/Fri heat pump + hot tub line work) that his quoted price is for a check. Cash 10% cheaper. So I’ll be getting $5,006 in cash from the shared branch credit union in Granby on the way back from RMNP tomorrow. That 10 minutes it’ll take is worth $556 even at my rates!

Made some progress on hot tub moving quotes as well, having gotten the requisite photos and measurements. Looks like it’ll run me $800 for the segment from the pad in Denver to the driveway in Tabernash, then $400-500 for the crane from the driveway to the then-reinforced deck. This seems reasonable. Crane company in question, Fraser Crane Co, is actually based in Tabernash!

The electrician’s precious fee includes him routing the final conduit up through the deck surface into the hot tub cabinet and hooking it up. So this will take a day of my time: pick up from Denver around 9, crane company at noon, get electrician to do that final run and hookup (maybe on a different day depending on his schedule!), fill it up, add startup chem pack, turn it on, have it come to temp 10 hours later or whatever. Given back to back renters June and July this might be delayed until after them.

 

[Toshi]

Given back to back renters June and July this might be delayed until after them.

It’d have to be July 30 10 am to July 31 4 pm, or one of the downtime blocks in August…

 

[Toshi]

Into RMNP. Not far from the road at all, mind you

 

[Toshi]

For @gonefirefightin the kind of electrical work I get for the premium price I pay. Looks good to my non-electrician eye. These two lines are for the garage EVSE and the existing heat pump compressor. Two more shall snake their way come Friday.

Round hole in wall is unrelated/pre-existing

 

[gonefirefightin]

For @gonefirefightin the kind of electrical work I get for the premium price I pay. Looks good to my non-electrician eye. These two lines are for the garage EVSE and the existing heat pump compressor. Two more shall snake their way come Friday.

View attachment 213194View attachment 213195
Round hole in wall is unrelated/pre-existing

I figured they would just drill holes and run conduit. In fact I believe I called it in an earlier post, Nothing wrong with it, just not a fan of visible conduit for that price

 

[canadmos]

Into RMNP. Not far from the road at all, mind you

View attachment 213186

 

[Toshi]

Yeah, my hair is becoming something crazy

should shave my head again eh

 

[Toshi]

Overproducing relative to at least part time rented usage with that 5.67 kW array. Shall see how use changes during the fully booked July month, what with the to-be-6 heat pump heads enlisted into AC duty.

$39 is the minimum the charge can be. On the upside the excess production is banked against future use, and I’ll be getting both $2k from MPEI soon for the PV array itself and also the sweet 1% x 10 years financing through them.

 

[canadmos]

I vote leave the hair. Let it fly in the wind. Plus then you might not need those ear socks on your helmet.

 

[Toshi]

Starting to have more confidence that deck work is going to happen. I let the plow/landscaping guy know that I am around until Friday morning so that I can write him a check for whatever he needs for it to happen next week. Or late this week. Whatever works as long as it’s done by the 20th.

He came around today with Dave, the framer. Clarified plans and timeline. 90% likelihood this deck work happens by the 20th as it needs to. Lennon now has a check for $15k in hand.

Many more instances pointed to at how the 2021 rebuild of the deck was a shitty job. Wrong kind of wood for the exterior ledger, not tied in to the beam away from house, flashing wrong, the damage to the EIFS, etc. This should get it fixed up properly, and reinforced with the two 18” concrete caissons supporting a 12’ long beam under the hot tub area proper.

 

[Toshi]

Additional heat pump zone install day. (20A line to it to go in tomorrow.)

2 tons for one room, albeit a large volume room, should do nicely.

 

[Toshi]

And, yes, 20A. The electrician’s quote was for a 50A x 2. The hot tub needs 50A. This doesn’t. I texted him as this should drop the price a bit eh

 

[Toshi]

A few snaps from a walk around the neighborhood pond

Salmon colored box of a house with the 14 PV panels on the roof is ours

Two random shots of a house on the walk home with All of the Ridge Vents. Maybe there was a sale on them eh

 

[Toshi]

And, yes, 20A. The electrician’s quote was for a 50A x 2. The hot tub needs 50A. This doesn’t. I texted him as this should drop the price a bit eh

He said the wire has already been cut. Which is fair, except that he and the HVAC guy should have talked a hot minute and figured out what power was actually needed. Oh well. Small potatoes ultimately.

 

[Westy]

View attachment 213290View attachment 213291View attachment 213292View attachment 213293View attachment 213294View attachment 213295

Nice of someone to attach a house to that garage

 

[Toshi]

He said the wire has already been cut. Which is fair, except that he and the HVAC guy should have talked a hot minute and figured out what power was actually needed. Oh well. Small potatoes ultimately.

so as a sort of make up for his error on the wiring (I'd initially texted him that I needed a 30A line, but 50A and thus 6 ga was his own invention) I asked the electrician to drill a hole through the main floor wall for me, as I know he has the tools.

and it turns out the whole house is ICF construction!

ICF Construction: Everything You Need To Know

Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) are becoming a more common way to build homes. But just how sustainable are Insulated Concrete Forms?

www.buildwithrise.com

in other words, it's all concrete in the middle. for his two 240V lines he thus had to drill through the concrete of the walk-out basement wall. and for the extra hole (for Starlink cabling) he also had to bust out the hammer drill and drill through the concrete of the main floor wall! my battery powered tools and Chinesium 1" bits would have had no chance at all…

anyway, being ICF is news to me. I knew the basement was all concrete due to it being walk out and the uphill side having rooms underneath the main floor and garage alike. but I didn't know about the other floors also being done the same. this is a nice surprise for a change.

this also has bearing on the deck reinforcement work: the engineer correctly had figured out that the house was ICF and denoted the same on his drawings of where the new ledger should be tied in, albeit in slightly confusing fashion. these 0.5 x 6.5" Simpson Titen HD concrete screws will thus indeed be going into concrete.

 

[Toshi]

current status of mountain house projects:

- extra 2 ton mini split heat pump with its head in the new master suite: installed

- 20A line to said mini split's condenser: done

- 50A line with GFCI breaker and a disconnect on the wall: installed roughly under where the proper corner of the hot tub will lie. he'll poke it through the Trex into the hot tub cabinet once I get that in place

- request to get the MPEI 1% loan for the PV + heat pump and the $2k check to me for the heat pump's cold climate-ness: made

- deck work: started. contractor has $15k from me to start with so that he's not fronting the costs himself and he and the framer were by during the week and working today. it'll be tight to get it all done by the 20th (when I have a non-stop slew of renters until the second week of August) but they say it's possible.

- hot tub relocation quotes: obtained. I'll schedule with them for Monday August 12 if possible as I'm away the week before and then there's one last renter group the weekend of the 10th-12th.

 

[Toshi]

Water got cloudy, and this persisted through running the jets and two shocks. So I drained, scrubbed it down, and refilled it. This should be the last time that I must do this here in Denver before its planned Aug 12 trip up to the mountains.

 

[Toshi]

https://www.threads.net/@toshi.clark/post/C8S8JObPGws/

Hail damage estimates now done for both house and car. Haven’t heard back re house. Car was just today—maybe a week?

 

[Toshi]

its planned Aug 12 trip up to the mountains

August 12 now confirmed with my hot tub mover guy and the Tabernash-local crane guy. just need to make sure the deck reinforcement work is actually done (by this Thursday!)... I guess they could sneak the final part of work in August 4 - 8 potentially as well and still have the 12th be ok.

edit: also blocked off August 4 - 8 to allow for some wiggle room in case they're not done by Thursday

edit 2: and penciled in August 19 for the swim spa delivery + crane trip over the fence and shed here!

 

[Toshi]

hmm

 

[Toshi]

getting the ball rolling

 

[Toshi]

ML + Snowshoe Hare

 

[Toshi]

https://www.threads.net/@toshi.clark/post/C8S8JObPGws/

Hail damage estimates now done for both house and car. Haven’t heard back re house. Car was just today—maybe a week?

 

[Toshi]

status update since 6/4/24:

1) saving up for 2025 Japan trip
no change

2) house hail damage claim
insurance inspection done, ball in their court. still planning on standing seam metal roof

3) Land Cruiser hail damage claim
see above. insurance estimate made. now to get it done. inquiries out to a few fly by night-ish PDR places. will probably get it done at Caliber: won't have deductible waived but they are actually legit.

update: now scheduled for this Friday, 6/21, at one of said PDR shops that'll waive my deductible and all and work with insurance directly.

4) commuter bike 29er conversion
no word on rear wheel status. new 150 mm spacing front wheel and fat bike fork in mail from Universal now.

update: fork and front wheel arrived 6/20 evening!

5) mountain house deck reinforcement project
will know by Thursday how things actually are on the ground. in theory they should be done. in practice they might need a few extension days: I've blocked off August 4 - 8 between renter groups just in case. will be able to update my budget/HELOC math come Thursday as well.

update: see below. actually got done* by 6/20!

* asterisk because they're going to redo the concrete piers to be the per-spec 16" diameter rather than 10" as they somehow picked randomly. will still be done well before 8/12 hot tub relocation extravaganza.

6) hot tub swap for swim spa project
pending the deck. and then the Aug 12 planned relocation date for the hot tub here (with crane in Tabernash). and then the planned Aug 19 delivery + crane over shed date for the swim spa delivery itself.

7) mountain house extra heat pump zone
installed and paid for. will turn on the master suite zone to 74 to make sure it doesn't get too toasty in there when I head up Thursday. need to get a marked-as-paid invoice for the PV from Freedom tomorrow and sign a form for MPEI then I can get that sweet 1% APR loan paid to me (for having paid for these things up front +/- bridge loan).

update: electrician didn't have the parts for the final run from the disconnect to the actual condenser. so this zone is not up and running yet. will be addressed by him in one of the brief downtime periods between rental groups.

8) project Electrify the Cars
see above. found out the Costco Auto dealer for VW in the region and am on their internal list for the ID.Buzz.

9) research projects for work
found out that one contract for a piece of software that should have been executed in March was lost in the ether with one of the admin people going on maternity leave around then and the ball being dropped in that transition to other people covering her. so now that's moving forward again, at least.

10) music stuff
I should start practicing some time so as to not be horribly out of shape face-wise come September eh

11) work investigation
no news as of late. but as I wrote those is going to go to the hospital medical staff committee and all so I'll get my chance to get something on his record.

12) reading for fun and profit
been reading a ton lately. currently on Neal Stephenson's Termination Shock.

 

[Toshi]

Up at the mountain house now. Shall check on deck progress and deploy this stuff I brought up. One SUP up here will be deflated and packed up, to be returned to Costco. (I like the other design one much better and thus got a second instance of that one.)

scenes from North Table with my eldest. She bonked but had fun overall. I forget that even NT rock gardens are intimidating to new riders.

 

[Toshi]

Up at the mountain house now. Shall check on deck progress and deploy this stuff I brought up. One SUP up here will be deflated and packed up, to be returned to Costco. (I like the other design one much better and thus got a second instance of that one.)

Return trip full of recycling (and plastic for The Happy Beetle recycling) and state of the deck. Which is that it’s happening. They have until 4 pm today and thought they could get done…

Nitpicks: they poured 10” rather than the spec 16” concrete caissons but as that still seems far above the strength of the 6” wood posts above them I’m not going to sweat that. The laminated beam overhead looks great. I will need to stain/treat that and the rest of the deck wood at some point.

The engineer wanted 12” sections behind the ledger board between each hanger to be double thick. I’m not sure if that happened: the first 16’ segment of ledger board in the region in question was already replaced thus this area isn’t visible. But they will use those fancy Simpson Titen HD concrete screws to tie the ledger super securely into the concrete portion of my all-ICF house.

 

[Toshi]

They’re going to redo the flashing, of course, and do it right as opposed to the prior crew. Then I think he was going to use some more Trex to cover up the area where the stucco/ICF insulation was cut away as in the last few photos.

in addition to checking up on the deck I deployed some stuff for the house as well. Reading light for giant beanbag, cornhole, cue holder, induction compatible complete nonstick cookware set (had a few stainless ones + an old non-induction set relegated to the basement kitchenette), and swapped out one SUP for another and set them up with wheeled carts.

 

[Toshi]

I still have Aug 4 - 8 blocked off for the crew in case something gets left undone. But it’s looking probable that they’ll wrap up today! And thus the Aug 12 Denver to mountains hot tub relocation day appears to be a go.

I also still don’t know what the final damage is wrt the cost of this deck reinforcement project. I asked Lennon, my snow plowing and now deck work guy, when I saw him this morning but I figure he’ll get back to me around winter. If I overpaid with the $15k he has then future plow costs can come out of that fund. I’m guessing it’ll end up between $15-20k? Maybe on the low end since I think they only had a full crew working yesterday and today.

 

[Nick]

they poured 10” rather than the spec 16” concrete caissons but as that still seems far above the strength of the 6” wood posts above them I’m not going to sweat that.

why wouldn't you sweat that? and what was their explanation to not building to specifications?

 

[Toshi]

why wouldn't you sweat that? and what was their explanation to not building to specifications?

They had the design so no idea why not to spec. Perhaps I should sweat it instead of resting on my sense of relief for it (in some form) actually getting done at long last.

 

[Nick]

They had the design so no idea why not to spec. Perhaps I should sweat it instead of resting on my sense of relief for it (in some form) actually getting done at long last.

did the engineer review the change? sorry, but my brain defaults to "what could possibly go wrong", on an elevated deck, on a rental property.

 

[SkaredShtles]

did the engineer review the change? sorry, but my brain defaults to "what could possibly go wrong", on an elevated deck, on a rental property.
View attachment 213659

Just make sure to get a really good (read: big) umbrella policy.

 

[Toshi]

did the engineer review the change? sorry, but my brain defaults to "what could possibly go wrong", on an elevated deck, on a rental property.
View attachment 213659

just emailed the engineer (in addition to texting my contractor dude).

 

[Toshi]

ok, just chatted with contractor. and he will come back and redo it to spec. which is the best outcome.

thank you, @Nick, for prodding me to in turn prod my contractor to do the right thing and get this done per the plan.

 

[Toshi]

did the engineer review the change? sorry, but my brain defaults to "what could possibly go wrong", on an elevated deck, on a rental property.
View attachment 213659

to be fair, this plan (when executed to spec) will be super beefy. per the engineer's initial letter:

10 psf deck dead load
70 psf snow load (which is code for Grand County but also not likely going to accumulate on a heated hot tub)
40 psf deck live load
100 psf hot tub load