Damn, it was a scorcher out there this weekend. I had a very ambitious list of things I wanted to accomplish this weekend, but alas, I didn't get most of it done. I did, however, add two things to the list, which didn't help the other things.

Total Construction Days: 18.5

I started off by rewiring a receptacle I had inadvertently wired to an existing box that was in the same stud bay where the outdoor shower plumbing will be. I deleted that box and ran new romex between the two new receptacles. I also wanted to get the shower completely plumbed, but it wasn't my highest priority, so I got the PEX lines run into the wall and connected to the kitchenette lines under the building (I forgot to take a pic under the building). Having plumbing in the same bay as electrical is where me using a spool of direct burial cable was beneficial.


I took a slight detour and decided to get a first coat of paint on part of the outside where there are things I need to install that need paint behind or around them, namely the air conditioner mounting bracket, exterior receptacle, and lights. To be truthful, I had wanted to finish wiring all the interior lights, which happen to be on the same circuit as the exterior lights seen here so I could have outside lights at night, but that did not happen. It gets REAL dark in the woods at night.

I went with a bulkhead light for the shower area.


Next up was to finish the western-facing wall to help fight the effects of afternoon sun on the interior temperature. First, I had to finish furring out the wall, which included having to extend the nailers on the abutting walls. My furring strips allowed me to correct the areas where the stud bays are not 16" all the way up. A taste of problems to come was having to spend almost an hour hammering down and pulling construction staples by hand out of the ceiling nailer. I think there are 10 more rafters I will have to do the same thing to.



One thing which really slowed me down was having to cut and fit rigid foam around the plumbing and electrical panel, as well as irregular areas of the wall. I forgot to get a pic of the insulated plumbing, but insulating around the drain line was a real PITA.


One thing I discovered when I removed the rest of the R13 insulation from this wall was the gable vent never got sealed - they just covered it with insulation, so any wind-blown rain just went into insulation and down the inside of the wall. Thankfully there wasn't significant damage or mold, but I did treat the area with Concrobium. I then put a bead of sealant around the inside of the gable vent and sealed it with 1" rigid foam before putting batt insulation over it. You can see the correction at the top center of the wall.


I had not initially planned to install sheetrock, but I decided to go ahead and try to make that push just for the psychological effect of being able to physically see progress, since I had ended up so far behind this weekend. I was going to put up the 4th piece of sheetrock, but it was 11:00 PM last night and I was tired and needed to head home early this morning. Finally having a (mostly) covered wall really makes it start feeling like a habitable space.


I probably won't be back out there for a month. My priorities will be:
- Finish insulating and sheetrocking the wall under the loft
- Wiring the main lights
- Wiring the loft lights
- Installing the "ceiling" under the loft