Author Archives: Britton

Construct It: Cabin Floors and Walls

6 Replies

I figured it was maybe time to do a little construction update.  One thing nice about doing things at your own pace is that you can take a step back when you start to feel overwhelmed or don’t have an answer to a “how to” and want to take some time to research.  A lot of building this house has required research because I’ve never done it before.  Like what screws to use for drywall and WHY?  What screws to use for cement board and WHY?  How do you construct a shower basin in a wood framed house?

The company that delivered the drywall delivered screws too.  They were black phosphate coated drywall screws BUT they were fine thread.  When I asked about it they claimed of course “It’s fine to use them in wood!” which isn’t really true.  Wood screws use a coarse thread for holding power.  Fine threads are used for metal studs.  Just an example of how a small thing can turn into a small ordeal when you are ready to start a project in the morning.

Using what are considered the “correct” fasteners might not matter to some people, especially if the fasteners are difficult to locate.  I have been called “Mañoso” (picky) a few times which is accurate I guess.

Drywall
Mud, Tape and Ready for Primer/Paint

This past week have been getting the inside ready for paint and flooring.  Since we decided to go with tile, we needed to prep the sub floor.  We got 24 4×8 sheets of 3/4″ thick cement board.  Those weigh 136 pounds each!  It took a whole day just for us to move them over to the house.  It was actually easiest for one person to carry an entire sheet on their back than it was for two people to awkwardly try to move one.  So there was a lot of resting in between trips but we got it done.

While I do a lot of the research myself it is tremendously useful to have Waldemar help with each step. He propels us forward so much more than we can do alone. I really appreciate his help. He brings skills, experience as well as lots of energy and motivation when I just don’t have a whole a lot.

Britton and Waldemar floors
Installing Cement Board

We then cut and installed the cement boards (generically called plycem here).  Those things were ridiculously heavy.  The floors however are SOLID and we shouldn’t have any problems with tiles popping or cracking.  Under the cement boards we used thinset to fill any space between the 3/4″ inch plywood.  There are a few write ups about this online.  The professionals who sold me the cement board told me I didn’t need to use thinset, but again for me it comes down to the “why” and the write ups did a good job of convincing me that it should be done.

Waldemar and Cassie 2
Cassie brings over lunch for us and helps where she can

Our tile is on order and should be here in a week or so.  We wanted to get a natural feel instead of using ceramic printed tiles and went with a red clay tile almost like terracotta.  Again, Mañoso but what can you do?  If you want something, sometimes you have to wait.

Waldermar and Britton
¿Tu quiereme? Waldemar and I work together a lot and have gotten to know each other well, even with the language barrier.

We also used cement board for the shower stall.  Over top of the cement board I used aqua defense, it is a paintable rubber membrane that adheres well to thinset when dry so you can tile over it.  The paintable membrane will keep any moisture from seeping past the grout/tiles and cement board into the wood below.  One thing I have learned is that cement is porous and should be sealed if you want to keep water out.  There is also a 3 piece drain.

Blue bathroom
Green Water-proof Membrane

Soon we should receive some tiles.  Until then we will be painting the walls.
Cassie Painting
Cassie Priming the Drywall for Paint

So as you can see, we haven’t JUST been chinchorreando and having fun…We are making really good progress on the cabin too. Now that we can see the walls and floors taking shape we are super stoked to move in!

Sacar La Columna

2 Replies

Well needless to say building a house is hard. It makes it harder when you’ve never done it before. I suppose that is true of everything though and I love a good challenge. I haven’t ever worked with concrete besides putting in fence posts so there has been a bit of a learning curve. Here is a good example of this learning process….

We are working on building basement walls under the house. In doing so I had to build wood forms between the columns that support the house. We used concrete nails to attach wood forms to the columns. Normally this would be fine. What I noticed was one of the columns was very brittle. In fact when we were putting nails in, entire chunks of concrete broke off….

Wall constructionColumn wall
Building Forms Between Columns

We had been suspicious of this particular column since it was made.  We had a few people look at it and everyone said something to the effect of, “Oh it’s fine”.  I figured that if there was a problem, it would probably be apparent so we have been moving forward with other tasks.  When I saw the chunks break off though, I knew that it had become an apparent problem.

When we made the columns we didn’t have a concrete mixer.  Now that I do, it is much easier to keep the mix very consistent.  I can now readily notice concrete that has the correct level of cement and that was cured properly.

Bringing over the concrete
No Cement Mixer
turkeys and columns
Original Forms

So how do you replace a column that your house is resting on?  I did some research on jacking up houses.  It is something that is done from time to time so there is actually some information on the subject.  Usually people will lift an entire house off its foundation to do repair work.  I wasn’t sure how much weight I was dealing with or what kind of jack I might need.  After reading up, it turns out that a wood house isn’t really all that heavy (compared to a concrete house).  2x4s plywood, 2x8s and roofing panels.  So I settled on a 6 ton bottle jack.

I really only needed to lift the house about 1/8th of an inch off the corner column.  Just enough so I could whack the column out with a sledge hammer.  The jack worked well for this.

I have never liked being under heavy stuff.  Cars on jacks scare the living crap out of me.  I just never feel safe.  Being under a house on jack stands is even worse, especially when it starts to creek and moan.  Online forums had prepared me for this saying that the house will make noise.  Even just 1/8th of an inch.  Go slowly.

I then was able to pound out the column down to rebar.  It was at this point I knew I had made the right decision, it was ridiculously brittle.  It took no time at all to remove the column, it basically just crumbled apart.

Column Gone
Column Down to Rebar

I have learned a lot about concrete in a short amount of time.  The mix of rocks, sand, cement and water is extremely important to get right.  Curing is also important.  When we made these columns I had trusted that the guys had made concrete before and knew what they were doing.  And for the most part they did, the other 11 columns are fine.  It was just this first column that was poured that either didn’t have enough cement OR didn’t have enough water.  I think it was a lack of water.

Another part of working with concrete is making forms.  The forms are the molds.  You have to make them very strong because they will be holding quite a lot of wet concrete and it is very heavy.  I have heard of stories of forms busting and cement spilling everywhere.  Even a man in line at home depot told me a story of a form breaking.  Then you have a real mess on your hands.

I also had to think about how I was going to pour the concrete into this form.  The house rests on it so there isn’t any room above.  I also wouldn’t be able to pump the concrete in.  I decided to make a little scoop on the side of the form where I could pour concrete in.

Also important is to use a bonding agent when trying to join cured hard concrete to wet fresh stuff.  I used some bull bond on the existing walls where the column was going to be.  There is also rebar that joins them.  The connection should be sufficiently strong.

Column
New Column and Half Wall

All said and done, the new column is fantastic compared to the old one, not that it looks all that different.  I have no worries about it now.  Looking back I can’t believe that I jacked the house up, took out the column and poured a new one.  It seems kind of crazy.  Its all done now and I have moved on to other problems, which is a good thing.

Rat Hunter Extraordinaire

9 Replies

One thing about the tropics is that there are lots and lots of rats.  Lots.  Everywhere.  If there is a fruit tree, there are rats living nearby.  If there is a trashcan, rats live nearby.  Even if you don’t think there are, rats are living nearby.  Same with cockroaches, but that is another story for another day.

The rats not only eat baby turkeys and fruit, they also chew thru everything including putting holes in walls and opening every container in your shed to find out what is inside or even try to chew through your screens.  They poop and pee and make a gross mess wherever they live and they also carry fleas and diseases like Leptospirosis.

rat trapRat Damage
Rat Holes in Old House                                       Rat Holes in Chicken Coop

The common response from many locals on how to deal with this problem is to use poison.  When we first moved here and our abandoned wood house had rats living in the walls I decided I would use some poison on them per this advice.  It turned out to be pretty sad.  The poison makes them sick and when they come out of their hiding spot you are confronted with a sick suffering animal, but I was told at least they don’t die in the walls.  Having poison around our chickens we figure is a bad idea because that is one of OUR sources of food too and I don’t want to eat poison. Plus the rats are pretty smart and will eventually stop eating the poison!

So not only are the poisons toxic and inhumane to the mammals that ingest them ( including dogs, cats, and humans ) many rodenticides present a secondary risk to animals that hunt or scavenge the dead corpses of rats.  The owls and the hawks.   So we decided to keep poison out of our environment as much as possible.

We do have a cat, but he is little use against the rats. He is pretty much afraid of them.  I would be too, they are almost as big as he is.  He does sometimes get the little ones.

Kitty with his mouse
Kitty with his baby rat (or mouse?) kill

After we lost a few baby turkeys to rats however, the war was on.  I purchased a .22 caliber pellet gun (1000 fps) and a few rat traps.  When I was a kid I had a bb gun, so again this is another skill I was able to employ here!  Plus the pellet gun doesn’t fall under firearm restrictions. No license needed, no fuss.  It is accurate from as far as the scope works (40 yards-ish), a better scope would only make things better.  It is not a toy. These pellet guns are the preferred tool for hunting the invasive iguanas…yet another varmint story for another day.

Britton sniping mongooseHunting Mongoose From Upon High

Rats are smart, resourceful and nocturnal which makes them actually fairly difficult to hunt.  Occasionally you will see one out during the day, but it is the mongoose who are usually out during daylight hours stealing our chicken eggs and bothering the turkeys on their nest of eggs (and other birds of Puerto Rico)…yet again another story.

As for the rats however, night hunting makes things more difficult. So I have a head lamp used for spelunking that works great.  It allows me to look around for a target on the ground or in a tree and then I can also use the scope on the rifle to hit the target.  It works really well and is actually kind of interesting in a video game kind of way.  Which was another training as a kid I received;  I played a lot of first person shooters that required scopes and sneaking.

The rats at first were fairly easy to shoot.  This gun is very accurate and very powerful and it is over pretty quickly for the rats.  The pellets usually go in one side and right out the other.  Then the next day I go out to recover them in the daylight.  If you don’t recover them, they stink for a day or two until the ants clean up the scene.

Dead RatHuuuge Rat

After a while the rats tend to catch on to what is happening.  They see a few of their friends get whacked and suddenly their open behavior changes.  They start to hide, they sneak and they become aware that the sounds they make, and their movements attract unwanted attention.  They will also learn how traps work and avoid them.  So multiple techniques need to be employed.  I know I am not going to get rid of all of them, but if they are at least afraid of humans they tend to stay away from our immediate vicinity which is really all I am after.

Britton Gear Palm
Night rat hunting

Chasing down a rat at night in the jungle under the stars and moon watching the visible perfumed pollen move thru the light of the headlamp is actually a fun game.  They will run in the shadows of the tree limbs (on the opposite side) which makes them nearly impossible to shoot….. Unless you make an interesting noise ~squeak~ and they will peak out their head to see what the noise is and THWAP!!  It’s over.

Here’s a little audio of when Cassie came out rat hunting with me one night.

THWAP!

Dead Rat
A night rat’s last night

There have been a lot of interesting scenarios play out, for instance one ran past a rock and I know it was  hiding so I make my ~squeak~ noise while aimed on the edge of the rock.  They will sometimes peek out with their ears at full attention.  THWAP!!! and they fall over backwards with an instant death from a well delivered headshot.

Rat hole hideouts
Rats’ underground hideout below the chicken coop

The ones that don’t die instantly will scream to their friends and at that point it is impossible to find any more for the night.  Their alert to others sends them back into their underground holes so an accurate death shot is important if you want to get multiple kills in a night, plus it is more humane.  They die almost instantly.  Hence the need for a powerful and accurate rifle to put them down quick.

Briton chicken coop rat hunting
They often scurry out of the chicken coop at night

I think many would consider this bizzare, especially if you haven’t lived in the country, but I wanted to share some of the dirtier sides of tropical life.  I choose to look at it as a fun challenge even though I do not enjoy killing things and would prefer not to.

Living here really has helped me to see the cycle of life and death and how everything is connected. We have chickens and turkeys and fruit growing to feed us, but that means food for other animals like the rats. So if we want to keep our chickens, turkeys and fruit, and not get diseases and other unwanted effects from these pests we have to keep the scale tipped to our favor. Here we are an intimate part of nature and the food chain, not excluded. And in reality none of us truly are ever excluded, we just may not see what goes on behind the scenes.

Half a Page of Scribbled Lines

4 Replies

I have come to know that I am very motivated by music.  When I start my days I usually listen to music and drink coffee before getting started on whatever project or goal I have set for the day.  One of these tunes that pops up every so often is the song Time by Pink Floyd.

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

The song to me is about a lifetime and what we may want to accomplish before a our life slips past.  This idea has been important to us in general; we didn’t want our working lives to take up the entirety of our adulthood.  Not that we didn’t enjoy a lot of different aspects of it or that it wasn’t beneficial to us, but we had written down some goals.  Some scribbled lines… and that is what brought us to Puerto Rico.

Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines

The scribbling of lines has continued!

Before we begin a large undertaking we write stuff down.  We make plans, we figure, we think and we try to create in our minds as accurate of a picture we can of what we want to create.  This is important because we have found out that being as specific as possible helps to manifest our dreams into reality.  We just completed the major part of the bridge and staircase leading up to the cabin and I wanted to show the drawings and the nearly finished product.

Drawing 2Full length bridge
Scribbled out Bridge Plans                                  Actual Bridge

We had even laid out some plans for the staircase on the other side, which we just completed a few days ago.  When I looked back at our idea book it was pretty similar!

Drawing 1Concrete Stairs
Bridge and staircase between Palms                 Actual Bridge and Staircase Different Angle

These were not easy challenges to accomplish.  It required leveraging both human and material resources. I hired some help for digging the footers and making the forms.  We used leftover wood from the wood house for 50% of the bridge and for making all of the concrete forms.  The wood house we took down has turned out to be a tremendous resource!

The concrete steps probably have more time left in them than my body does.

garden path
Path that leads to the Cabin

We continue to put trees and plants in the ground as much as we can because they also will require time.  It can take many years for even a grafted fruit tree to produce and we want to work with time in that regard.  Contrast this with our previous jobs where we felt we were working against time; when is the next vacation, what time do I get off?

Our lives are going to be over at some point regardless of anything, but we get to choose how we spend our time.  If we enjoy something we try to expand upon it and utilize time as one of our resources instead of something to dread and count down the moments until we reach the finish line.  It is also tough because one never knows when their time is going to be over, or when we may not be able to physically do the things we are doing any longer.  Both Cassie’s dad and my mom died earlier than anyone expected.  It has helped us to realize that all of this is fleeting and you’d better get out there and do what you can!

Your time is a personal thing.  Are you using it the way you want to?

And with that;
The time is gone, this song(post) is over
Thought I had something more to say……