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Queequeg grows stuff, and fixes junk.

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plants:
if they look crumy, its because they are.
need water and ive been lazy, ill go back out there and water them at some point today.
also got SMASHED last night by some nasty wind...
 




victim of mine, not the wind. pvc hose sliped off the table and snapped it.
serrano dosent seem to care though. we shall see what happens...





lettuce plants.



cactus plants.



tobacco plants from last winter... i chopped these down to a stump but they grew back. ive not watered these what so ever since last... december ?
no clue why they are alive still.



fertigation machine. in pieces.

my intention here is to shrink the system down substantiall.... such that it fits into the trunk of my car. im going to fold my old design into 2 pieces... and push the frame out into the third dimension.
im also going to add a filtration system. the filtration will require a far more substantial pump, so im going to just mount this onto the frame as well as the filter.





my fancy pump. grundfos up15-58 with a custom plastic head from some other hydronic heating company.



can anyone identify this plug? if so i will kiss your mouth.
spent like an hour on the molex website... im 60% sure its not a molex branded connector.



 
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Not sure if you have covered everything up yet but I noticed that wall with the window is only a single plate. If you haven't coveredit yet, I would put a block under those trusses down to that header. A single plate will sag and possible crack with the roof load over time.


Oh nvm. The insulation vent was covering the plate. Looking at this on my phone. It was hard to see. I would still put a block under the lam beam that's your girder (carrying the weight from the other joist) though.
 
yea the baffles are stapled to the top plate.
 
im replacing that window and most of the rough framing... the sill is rotted and the header is shitty and uninsulated.
 
ill post an update some time next week after i drywall the ceiling.
 
Nice. I just saw that and my conscious would have played hell with me if I didn't say something. Sounds good. You're definitely making great progress and doing it right.

We need to remodel our house as well. I'm not looking forward to it. I keep hoping for a fire, so I can start from scratch like I'm used to lol.
 
Ozzy2001 said:
We need to remodel our house as well. I'm not looking forward to it. I keep hoping for a fire, so I can start from scratch like I'm used to lol.
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fire would be nice.... good excuse to re engineer the roof.
 
zip sheathing or like... a 5" foam roof deck would be real nice.
 
Zip system is pretty nice. There are other ways to get the same r-value though that are less expensive. But for your region that may be the best option.

Hell I'd just be happy with new low-e windows. This house is from 1972. I've built everyone of my house prior to this one, but we wanted the land and privacy so, here we are.
 
new windows have less effect than you might think.
 
if you do a manual J you will see what im talking about.
 
this houses aluminum single pane windows only account for like 2.4kbtuh heat gain without solar screens. 
in my climate at least. if its cold as balls, they make much more sense... or if  you have like 15 of them facing south or something. 
 
queequeg152 said:
new windows have less effect than you might think.
 
if you do a manual J you will see what im talking about.
 
this houses aluminum single pane windows only account for like 2.4kbtuh heat gain without solar screens. 

in my climate at least. if its cold as balls, they make much more sense... or if  you have like 15 of them facing south or something. 
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They would make a big difference for what we have. Yeah we do manual J's and also run Remrate or Rescheck on all the houses we build. IL has some of the strictest laws on energy code. I've gone to a bunch of seminars, so I have a pretty good grasp on all of it.
Plus I would do lowE with argon gas in them.
 
you must have shitloads of windows then... or is St. louis very cold? ive no clue.
 
i have only like... 5 windows facing south(60x36), with 14" soffits, and a fence like 30 inches away, the solar heat gain is very small, the heat gain from conduction is small too with respect to the shitty attic and such.
 
i dont recall what the heat LOSS figures were... probably in the same ball park being that our design cold temp is like 50 degrees lol.
 
our shape is hunkered down in a single story hip roof... L shaped with the long part of the L facing towards the south... after i fix the more pressing shit i really want to go after the air sealing and reinsulation of thiis south facing wall. EVERY wall ive torn open has been very shittly insulated with r11 batts. there is no structural sheathing... so ive been installing these simpson brackets that are supposed to compensate, but still. 
 
ive found a couple of places where there is almost 0 brick ties for like 10+ feet. if you lean into the brick with some gusto... kinda like a foot ball player, you can feel a bit of movement in the brick veneer. very very shitty.
 
ive found like 4 windows without ANY insulation up where the cripple studs go... this whole place is a fucking joke.
 
beat that sir.
 
queequeg152 said:
i used to have some israeli romaine called jerico. its pretty heat tolerant... but no lettuce is going to grow well in a flordia or texas summer.

http://www.everwilde.com/store/Jericho-Romaine-Lettuce-Seeds.html

this lettuce is just home depot romaine.

i started these indoors like early march? late february maby? i dont recall exactly.
and yea those are pedros.

pacchaoi( sp?) the big ones in front...

the ones in back are peruvians(sp?)
http://www.everwilde.com/store/Jericho-Romaine-Lettuce-Seeds.html
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Black seeded simpson grows like CRAZY. It grows like a weed. It spreads so fast and the seeds are so light they find their way into weird places too. We started some in the garden (eg in one of the horse pastures we fenced off for the summer) and ended up with black seeded simpson lettuce growing in the containers on the porch some 100' away and up ten foot in the air. When it started to get too hot, it had already spread under this big oak, and continued to produce like crazy until things started to cool off again (it never really gets cold in florida) and at that point they had spread back out into full sun and had popped up under the porch (partial sun) on both sides of the driveways, etc. Then we had a hard freeze one year and all of it died. Planning to plant some again this year.
 
Ozzy2001 said:
They would make a big difference for what we have. Yeah we do manual J's and also run Remrate or Rescheck on all the houses we build. IL has some of the strictest laws on energy code. I've gone to a bunch of seminars, so I have a pretty good grasp on all of it.
Plus I would do lowE with argon gas in them.
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We put these in replacing some antique double hung windows a couple of years back. It makes a huge difference in the heat. One room has 3 windows facing N, and 3 facing S - it is basically a wall of windows. That room was hot no matter what time of the day it was. Replaced all six, and viola - suddenly the HVAC system can keep up again.

We have 12 south facing windows in the house though, 12 north facing and 3 facing west, and 4 facing east. In an average wind, you could feel a draft crossing the room with the old windows...
 
jsschrstrcks said:
We put these in replacing some antique double hung windows a couple of years back. It makes a huge difference in the heat. One room has 3 windows facing N, and 3 facing S - it is basically a wall of windows. That room was hot no matter what time of the day it was. Replaced all six, and viola - suddenly the HVAC system can keep up again.

We have 12 south facing windows in the house though, 12 north facing and 3 facing west, and 4 facing east. In an average wind, you could feel a draft crossing the room with the old windows...
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air sealing of corse makes a huge difference... my old shitty single pane windows are decently sealed. they are mostly generic single hung vertical sliders so its not super hard to keep them sealed over the years... just 2 gaskets really.
 
what sort of house is this? i ask because replacing "period" windows is the worst shit in the world. my dad has this ancient stone and plaster house from way back in the late 1700's... the cost to replace all the windows with something modern and matching the houses existing construction would be like 6 figures. 
 
there is a whole huge community of people that rebuild old windows... its not teribly hard to do, mustly just re glazing and replacing sashes and sills and maby the ocassional mullion. wood replacement windows are brutal expensive...
 
it think you can replace counter weight sashes with something modern ... i think they are called constant force tensioners? something like that. then you can air seal the cavity where the weights used to hang.
a new wood window might cost you 1 grand.
 
if you do the math, it will take like 30 years to pay for itself in a moderate climate. far less in a super cold climate, but still. i can think of a shit load of stuff to do with a grand before id invest in all new windows.

also dont underestimate the power of proper solar screens... in the summer time, just adding solar screens can make an enormous impact on your heat gain. even just getting white vinyl 45 degree blinds makes a big impact. 
 
queequeg152 said:
 
 
air sealing of corse makes a huge difference... my old shitty single pane windows are decently sealed. they are mostly generic single hung vertical sliders so its not super hard to keep them sealed over the years... just 2 gaskets really.
 
what sort of house is this? i ask because replacing "period" windows is the worst shit in the world. my dad has this ancient stone and plaster house from way back in the late 1700's... the cost to replace all the windows with something modern and matching the houses existing construction would be like 6 figures. 
 
there is a whole huge community of people that rebuild old windows... its not teribly hard to do, mustly just re glazing and replacing sashes and sills and maby the ocassional mullion. wood replacement windows are brutal expensive...
 
it think you can replace counter weight sashes with something modern ... i think they are called constant force tensioners? something like that. then you can air seal the cavity where the weights used to hang.

a new wood window might cost you 1 grand.
 
if you do the math, it will take like 30 years to pay for itself in a moderate climate. far less in a super cold climate, but still. i can think of a shit load of stuff to do with a grand before id invest in all new windows.
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~31 windows, and ~20 of them have been replaced. Its an old wood house - in the attic you can still see the marks left by the hand tools that were used to carve up the tree that became the house... Cypress siding etc. Almost everything hand done, and/or eyeballed not measured.

If there is a community for antique windows, I bet there is a market for them too. We've tossed out the last 20 - sounds like a huge mistake.

95f 7 or 8 months a year may be mild to some I suppose. We used the Argon filled replacement windows. We went from ~450/month in AC down to about 300. Then we insulated the ceiling and saw another 75$ drop. Not sure if we will finish the windows, or insulate the floor next.

I'll look into the constant force tensioners, that may be a better way to go.
 
jsschrstrcks said:
~31 windows, and ~20 of them have been replaced. Its an old wood house - in the attic you can still see the marks left by the hand tools that were used to carve up the tree that became the house... Cypress siding etc. Almost everything hand done, and/or eyeballed not measured.

If there is a community for antique windows, I bet there is a market for them too. We've tossed out the last 20 - sounds like a huge mistake.

95f 7 or 8 months a year may be mild to some I suppose. We used the Argon filled replacement windows. We went from ~450/month in AC down to about 300. Then we insulated the ceiling and saw another 75$ drop. Not sure if we will finish the windows, or insulate the floor next.

I'll look into the constant force tensioners, that may be a better way to go.
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it depends on what you are trying to do with the house.
 
if you are trying to preserve the look of the house, you rebuild the windows, or have custom wood windows with real mullions an fake wavy glass and stain grade wood etc etc.
 
if you are trying to modernize the house and you dont care about the look... rebuilding is too much trouble. you just get cheap vinyl or cheap wood FRAMED windows. with modern glass etc.
 
i didnt explain that properly.
 
im not surprised you has such good results. sounds like you will get a good return on the investment and hassle provided the windows you got decently cheap windows.  they say air sealing offers the best return on labor and money invested. might want to poke around finehomebuilding.com.
 
you might be able to get your bills even lower if you haven't already air sealed.
 
Modern windows are what we went with - ~100$ a pop at first, the last batch of 10 were more like 140/ea for the same thing. A friend of my uncles used to install windows professionally, and he's been helping a lot. We were able to get his prices on windows too, which saved us quite a bit over H.D. prices.

/SOME/ of the rooms have this really nice knotty pine paneling. In that room I wouldn't mind preserving the old look. The windows we have replaced so far have been in rooms where that was pulled out and replaced with thin wood painted white. In those rooms the white modern windows made a lot of sense. The remaining windows, save for two, are all in rooms with the beautiful knotty pine. It would be nice for those to match.
 
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