Sagebrush & Solar

Keith is back from drill, which means we’re full speed ahead into a month of overtime shifts and home build projects. There has been a crispness to the morning air lately that reminds us fall is coming, and we have some high priority projects to accomplish before winter strikes.

This week’s project consists of finishing fixing our window bucks. Unfortunately, poor workmanship doesn’t just cost money to fix, it also costs a lot of time. In the interest of being nice, I’ll simply leave it at that — and also: we’ve really learned our lesson on hiring reliable subcontractors, not ones that talk a big game. I digress.

Having a large area that is empty of material (concrete) is bad for a number of reasons, to include structural integrity, degradation of the foam and consistency of r value.

The first step was to remove the window bucks. This is difficult because there’s a void, but there is also concrete in some places.

The second step was cleaning out the voids of debris — which included birds nests and Mormon crickets — before pouring concrete.

Then, pouring concrete and evening it out. This sounds easy, but we don’t have water at the build site — so we ended up purchasing an above ground tank. We can use it for rain water collection or something of that nature down the road.

Lastly, cutting and fitting pressure treated 2x12s to replace the foam bucks we had to remove (they were damaged in the process due to sticking to the concrete that was where it was supposed to be). These will serve as a secure surface to secure the windows into.

What’s next? My dad leaves in September and we have about three weeks before he leaves. We’re hoping to get windows installed before then. Our exterior projects are our priorities before cold weather hits — parge coat, septic, solar, siding, exterior paint, water tanks. These are labor and time intensive, so it’s going to be a bit of a juggling act.