A Plumber, A Parrot, and a Rotweiler

A plumber in Floyd arrived at his next job only to find his client was leaving. Worried about the client's Rottweiler the man asks if he could come back later. Noticing the plumber’s concern the client says, “Don’t worry about the dog he won’t hurt you, but whatever you do don’t talk to the parrot!”.

Heeding the client’s warning he walks into the house and into the kitchen.
Feeling more confident about the Rottweiler he starts working on the sink. Barely after starting he notices the parrot sitting by the Rottweiler. All of a sudden the parrot bursts out with a slew of insults. Halfway through the job the plumber starts to get angry and tells the bird to be quiet. The parrot initially obeys and then very quietly says, “Sickem' Toby.”

And so begins the next phase of construction - the plumbing. Mind you, I have no experience with plumbing with the exception of using a plunger. So, needless to say this should be an interesting experience. Fortunately, as was the case with the roof, our friend Ben will be helping me - phew!

This morning I went to see the local building official to get a couple of plumbing questions answered. Then it was off to Wills Ridge for the plumbing supplies.

Weather permitting, the septic tank work will begin late this week.




Someone had posted a comment on the last post about how the ceiling finish would attach on the gable ends. Here's an image of how that was addressed. I oriented 2x6's with the wide side facing vertically and attached them between the ridge plate and double top plate.

Those jeans sure do look good on you.

This weekend, Christy and I, with the help of her dad, Jim, finished insulating the interior of the cabin. I'll tackle insulating the floor later in the week once the rain stops.

Before installing the insulation I had placed venting baffles in the ceiling. These are installed to minimize condensation on the insulation.


Venting Baffles

The insulation we opted to go with is natural cotton batting from Bonded Logic. It consists of 85% post-industrial recycled fibers (denim scraps). We're using 3 different R values - R30 for the ceiling, R13 for the walls, and R21 for the floor. The insulation is treated with a non-toxic borate solution that provides Class A fire rating, mold/mildew resistance and pest inhibitor.

The only issue we had early on was cutting the batts. Most people recommended using a utility knife and making repeated cuts. That was just too time consuming and laborious. So Jim and I took a drive to our local lumber/hardware store and came up with the perfect tool - a machete. It worked like a charm. It was like cutting a loaf of bread. We made quick work of any cutting that was needed. The insulation was easy to work with and didn't cause any itching like fiberglass. Wearing glasses and a mask wouldn't be a bad idea as there was quite a bit of fiber dust. Fortunately it was harmless.

Once the insulation was in, you could really tell the difference. The first thing you notice is the sound muffling qualities. It was even possible to talk in the loft and not be heard down below. The second thing we noticed was the ability of the cabin to hold in heat (imagine that).



Cotton batts


Coincidentally, we all wore jeans.

Ooh, it's so soft!

Watch your fingers, daddy.

Machete made in Brasil


So, a good weekend's work yielded a nicely insulated cabin. We're very pleased. Thanks to Jim for coming up from Charlotte to help out. And of course much gratitude to Linda for sending along pumpkin bread and brownies to replenish our energy reserves.

Friday night we all went to Christy's and my favorite new restaurant - Isaacs. We all opted for a meat dish instead of our usual vegetarian. We were comfortable eating the the lamb since they're grass-fed and raised locally without the use of antibiotics.