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Gulf Island Building.

1M views 8K replies 149 participants last post by  Katie Cabana 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi all:
Since the summer of 1997, I have been building a cabin and house on our 1/2 acre lot here. Before I dive into that part, I am going to show a few photos to set the stage a bit. We are remote here. No services of any kind, except that which we provide for ourselves. So don't expect to see any paved roads with big trucks delivering any materials.
We live at the head of a small bay, which is both a blessing and a curse.
When the tide goes out, we have to clamber over hundreds of yards of rocks to get to our boat. When it is in, I can float logs right up to my little railway to move them onto the log deck. Well, not any more, but more about that later.
This is the bay in front of us.
 

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#7,266 ·
It looks like it is sealed with an "O" ring, maybe the casting is rough there. I am with Bud though, sometimes they will seal on their own after a while, hopefully yours will also.
 
#7,267 ·
Doing nothing is my kind of fix. I'll give that a go.

Jim, the pump is undoubtedly made in China, even though it has a Canadian brand on it. Never thought of an O-ring, but that could well be right. If that's the case, then I will need to get another one next time I'm in town.

In the mean time, I will have the cleanest plywood floor you ever saw! :jester:
 
#7,269 ·
I should have continued, but you know all of this anyway.

As I remember, you do store rainwater and of course rainwater is soft water for all intents and purposes. When tiny leaks such as yours seal themselves it is the minerals in the water that actually do the sealing. If you were using groundwater then you have a greater chance of the leak sealing on its own with the minerals that would be present.:)

I know I know - Preaching to the choir!:)
 
#7,270 ·
Never checked it Bud, but close to 7 I would think. Pure rainwater, just run through three filters.

A 30 micron to take out the 2 x 4's, a 5 micron to take out smaller junk, and a 5 micron carbon filter to clean anything else that manages to escape the first two.

It is absolutely tasteless, as in it tastes like pure, clean water.
 
#7,271 ·
...and for those who aren't aware, a micron is one millionth of a meter, pretty small stuff. Or one thousandth of a millimeter. 25.4 millimeters to one inch. :)
 
#7,272 ·
A 30 micron to take out the 2 x 4's, a 5 micron to take out smaller junk, and a 5 micron carbon filter to clean anything else that manages to escape the first two.
Okay - soft water, yup, should have known! Probably should dis-assemble the pump and see what's wrong with it.

Never checked it Bud, but close to 7 I would think.
Must be nice. Ours is 14 as it comes out of the ground. Our shower occasionally grows stalagmites that have to be kept in check.
 
#7,273 ·
Okay - soft water, yup, should have known! Probably should dis-assemble the pump and see what's wrong with it.
I checked a short while ago, and it is now down to one drip every 5 minutes, considerable improvement!

And it got this way because I followed your earlier instructions to the letter. No point in upsetting the apple cart at this stage.

Let's see...one drip in 5 minutes...12 drips an hour...288 drips in a day. Less evaporation...that equals about a thimblefull per day. I think I'll continue to follow your earlier instructions. :thumbup:
 
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#7,281 ·
Getting closer to having a fully functional kitchen now! I made a couple of sliding shelves to make it easier to either retrieve or bury stuff at the bottom of a cupboard.

Jim knows all about how difficult it is to use those bottom shelves. (Bud does too!) A piece of cake getting down there...it's the getting back up that's the problem.

With the sliding shelf, it's easy to grab something from the back without needing to get right down on all fours and dig in the back of the cupboard.
 

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#7,285 ·
Got a question by email about these ceiling blocks etc.

Here's a brief description.

This pic is just four pieces of wood pushed up against one of the blocks, as a demo. It's sitting on the table.

The thin strips are about 1/8" thinner than the octagonal blocks so that the blocks can have the edges chamfered a little to soften the appearance. You don't want a hard edge showing anywhere on the thin strips, so the thicker block will accommodate this.
 

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#7,286 · (Edited)
Where the long curved edge trim fits around the light valence, the thin boards fit right up against it without needing a block. The curved edge trim was made the same thickness as the blocks so as to accommodate this also.
 

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#7,287 ·
A few posts back there is a pic of the block up against the curved trim. This section is finished now, and you can see that I added two small finishing triangles on the back side of the octagon.

It was strictly a coincidence that this block just happened to be placed right up against the curved piece.
 

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#7,289 ·
The buzz hereabouts this morning was all about the high tide and the accompanying tidal surge.

At English Bay in Vancouver this morning, there were some quite spectacular waves as the water came up and over the promenade.

I do believe that we had the highest tide I have seen here on Ruxton, which caused the removal of the big old log which was acting to hold my bank in place down at the bay. Dealing with the resulting erosion now. Things were floating which had no right to be in the water at all!

Over on Vancouver Island, Nanaimo got a decent dumping of snow, but opposite where we are the snow was kept back from shore a mile or so by the moderating temperature of the ocean.

Here's a couple of shots taken this morning.
 

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#7,290 ·
With the holiday season upon us I thought I would share this experience with you about drinking and driving:

As you may know some of us have been known to have brushes with the authorities from time to time on the way home after a social event with friends.

Well, two days ago I was out for an evening with friends and had several cocktails followed by some rather nice red wine. Feeling jolly, I still had the good-sense to know I may be slightly over the limit.

That is when I did something I have never done before - -
I took a taxi home.

Sure enough, on the way home there was a police road block, but since it was a taxi they waved it past. Thankfully I arrived home safely without incident.

This was a real surprise as I had never driven a taxi before. I don’t know where I got it, and now that it is in my garage, I don’t know what to do with it.:(

:thumbup:HAPPY HOLIDAYS:thumbup:
 
#7,291 ·
With the holiday season upon us I thought I would share this experience with you about drinking and driving:

As you may know some of us have been known to have brushes with the authorities from time to time on the way home after a social event with friends.

Well, two days ago I was out for an evening with friends and had several cocktails followed by some rather nice red wine. Feeling jolly, I still had the good-sense to know I may be slightly over the limit.

That is when I did something I have never done before - -
I took a taxi home.

Sure enough, on the way home there was a police road block, but since it was a taxi they waved it past. Thankfully I arrived home safely without incident.

This was a real surprise as I had never driven a taxi before. I don’t know where I got it, and now that it is in my garage, I don’t know what to do with it.:(

:thumbup:HAPPY HOLIDAYS:thumbup:
How much ya want for it?:whistling2:
 
#7,294 ·
Finally! Been trying since yesterday evening to get through to the site!

Another one of our all time great storms yesterday. Nobody with any brains was out on the water...except for the Navy guys out fishing.
 

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#7,296 ·
A scant twenty-five minutes later....

Yep, back the other way. He headed for the lee of Thetis Island where he dragged the barge back and forth for awhile until I lost sight of him.
 

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#7,298 ·
Seeing those white caps reminded me of a few times at sea, I saw waves actually break over the bow of the carrier I was on, talk about a ride, looking at the bow, all you could see was air, the next minute it looked like the bow was going to dive under water.

Keith your ceiling turned out beautiful, I can just feel your shoulders an neck right now, over head is rough work, but it sure is beautiful.

Last night I finally just gave up trying to get back on the board, I had a bunch to delete and ban but it was so slow I just gave up.
 
#7,299 ·
Seeing those white caps reminded me of a few times at sea, I saw waves actually break over the bow of the carrier I was on, talk about a ride, looking at the bow, all you could see was air, the next minute it looked like the bow was going to dive under water.

Keith your ceiling turned out beautiful, I can just feel your shoulders an neck right now, over head is rough work, but it sure is beautiful.

Last night I finally just gave up trying to get back on the board, I had a bunch to delete and ban but it was so slow I just gave up. Well it looks like it has slowed down really bad this morning also, maybe this will post in a few minutes.
 
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