"Paradise Road"......first house on the right

[Snake Farm]

Thanks guys, glad you are enjoying this build.

You better hurry up and finish so you can get started on Gunners garage! I'd be willing to bet you already have a project in mind for him

Yeah Bruno, I need to get on this before he's too big for it.........



.......looks like he's gonna be tall like his Mom though.....4' 11" .......so I got that going for me.

Like to see your using full interior trim. I hate modern house trim - no sills, etc. = no character.

I hear you Sam, I like full trim even if it is plain.

 

[Snake Farm]

Been working on tile for a while now and I'm about to whip it....all 2400 square feet of it. I'm to the point I have to jump around from one place to another though because I'm working into corners where I have to crawl out a window or else lay only what I can jump back over to get out. I've done both....





Today after I laid what tile I could I started putting these up.........





Hope we don't get to try them out till next winter though, LOL



Also ran the ground wire to the lightning rods.....





The forecast is calling for severe thunder storms so we might get to try these out tomorrow!



[S So how does UL test for a lightning strike anyway??

Still buildin'

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

Nice work throughout, Sir. [cl

What... may I ask, are these devices?

.

 

[GJunktionMike]

Keeps the snow from sliding off the roof and plowing some one to the ground. Lightning rods and snow fence, going to keep that grandson of your safe.

 

[Flipper_1938]

[S So how does UL test for a lightning strike anyway??

I used to work for a company that made the wire used in the leads of Fluke multi meters. If I remember correctly, they were tested to 25,000 volts. It was kinda spooky being around that tester. I can't imagine what kind of power supply simulates lightning.

 

[Snake Farm]

Nice work throughout, Sir. [cl

What... may I ask, are these devices?

.

Yeah Doc, "Snowbirds" like Mike said............or better known as "Five Dollar Bills"

http://josephjenkins.com/store/Sieger_MC2A_aluminum_snowguard.html

......better than an "Eighteen Dollar Bill" though.

http://josephjenkins.com/store/Berger_RT_Bronze_SnowGuard.html

Without these it's almost impossible to keep gutters on a roof like this.

 

[Snake Farm]

.......... I can't imagine what kind of power supply simulates lightning.

Yeah Flipper, I would imagine that if these rods ever take a direct hit the wire will need replaced [ddd

 

[Neverdone]

Yeah Doc, "Snowbirds" like Mike said............or better known as "Five Dollar Bills"

I thought they were cleats for the reindeer to stand on at Christmas. Don't want them to slide down or nothing. Could hurt Santa, not to mention severely traumatize a kid to have to explain why Rudolph has a broken leg and can't guide the sleigh.

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

Keeps the snow from sliding off the roof and plowing some one to the ground.

Yeah Doc, "Snowbirds" like Mike said............or better known as "Five Dollar Bills"

Thanks guys. (I've seen them before but never knew their purpose. )

Lightning rods intrigue me and I wonder how effective they really are. Not to hijack, but you might find this interesting... my cousin's place was struck a few years ago and the bolt never touched the rods... though I suspect the building's mass of iron piping was the larger attraction, it never found that, either. [S



Sorry for the distraction, SF. You're doin' a great job and a wonderful thing for your family. Bless you all and we look forward to the finished product! [cl

.

 

[05snopro440]

Thanks guys, glad you are enjoying this build.




Yeah Bruno, I need to get on this before he's too big for it.........



.......looks like he's gonna be tall like his Mom though.....4' 11" .......so I got that going for me.



I hear you Sam, I like full trim even if it is plain.

I'll take that project off your hands, then you won't have to rush so much on the house [ddd

The house looks great! Can't wait to see what you do with the little car for the grandson.

 

[Neverdone]

Lightning rods intrigue me and I wonder how effective they really are. Not to hijack, but you might find this interesting... my cousin's place was struck a few years ago and the bolt never touched the rods... though I suspect the building's mass of iron piping was the larger attraction, it never found that, either. [S


.

My parents found out like 20 years ago or so that TV antennas make great lightening rods.... very interesting scenario. I was there.

 

[Snake Farm]

Lightning rods intrigue me and I wonder how effective they really are. Not to hijack, but you might find this interesting... my cousin's place was struck a few years ago and the bolt never touched the rods... though I suspect the building's mass of iron piping was the larger attraction, it never found that, either.





.

Wow Doc, that's a brutal pic That's an awesome looking house, did they loose it completely? I've always wondered whether the rods really work or not too. I guess they were all the rage here in our area during the 1930's and 40's and there were traveling salesmen that peddled them to all the farmers for their barns and houses. I had a Great Uncle that bought them for his house and barns but his brother (my grandpa) considered them "snake oil" and didn't invest in them. The main reason we put them on this house along with the vintage style snowbirds...



.....was to achieve the authentic farm house look. However the snowbirds do serve a purpose and the lightning rods will be grounded just in case they get the chance to serve a purpose. If you look around at commercial buildings you will see a lot of them with lightning rods but they are mostly simple and inconspicuous.......so, "snake oil" or not some folks are still buying. LOL

I got the rest of the snowbirds on yesterday and tore the scaffold down from the front of the house so I can frame the front porch....





.....really need to make a dump trip, with all the crappy weather we've been having I've let it pile up pretty bad which is not like me.

Hopefully the weather is taking a turn for the better and you'll soon see a front porch, a red Gothic door and no trash in the yard!

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

Wow Doc, that's a brutal pic That's an awesome looking house, did they loose it completely?

Thanks for your interest and I apologize again for sidetracking your thread.

The house was "saved" but heavily damaged. I was told, "The FD pumped 'er full and I'm sure Lake Okanagan dropped three inches."

Seriously, it was "restored" and repaired... at the mercy of insurance, historical bureaucracy and unscrupulous "experts". The whole mess cost my cousin a small fortune. (Despite having it insured to the hilt. I wish this nightmare on nobody... snakes and snake oil, for sure!)

So, "my brother once removed" now has considerably more invested than the property's value. On the positive, (if there is such a thing in this scenario) it looks great and as near to the original as possible, though it's missing a few details and, uhhh, lightning rods.







.

 

[Snake Farm]

My parents found out like 20 years ago or so that TV antennas make great lightening rods.... very interesting scenario. I was there.

They sure do! I've had several close encounters with lightning myself and one of them involved a TV antenna.....a friend and I were taking shelter from a thunder storm on some folks porch and lightning ran in on the antenna and literally blew the back out of the TV. Twice I have been driving and had lightning strike a tree beside the road as I was passing and once the wife and I were sitting at the dining room table having supper and lightning struck a Maple tree in our back yard about 40 feet from the house....talk about blinding and deafening! Also had a hit at a concrete plant I used to operate. There it found it's way to a 2" metal water line that was buried about 30" deep and opened up a furrow in the ground that looked like it had been done with a plow and left the water line exposed for about 50 feet! That was another blinding and deafening one. Powerful stuff that lightning...powerful stuff.

 

[Snake Farm]

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Wow, and I thought it looked good before! That is an awesome place....and the pic with the horse and buggy is cool. Would love to read the history on that house.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Remind me to not stand by you during a storm!

 

[Snake Farm]

Remind me to not stand by you during a storm!

Good idea! But it hasn't got me yet. It's weird, even with the close calls one of my favorite things to do is sit on the porch and watch a good thunder storm.

Well yesterday I finally finished the floor tile.....all 2,400 square feet of them! Seems like it has taken forever but I have been doing other things along with laying tile......now for a bit of grouting. Did a couple small areas today so my daughter can look at it and see if the black will be okay. Done the area under the master bath vanity.......





..and one of the cubby holes in the mud room......





The small joints and black grout don't look much different than the cracks look before grouting.

Also took delivery of the interior doors yesterday......



.....one more element of the old "Farm House" look.

And today I made that overdue trip to the dump!



Weather is looking up for the weekend, talk of temps in the '70s Woo hoo!

Still hammering away.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Looking great as usual!
You do some nice work!

 

[Snake Farm]

Looking great as usual!
You do some nice work!

Thanks man!

 

[Snake Farm]

Slacking on the updates again aren't I. So, last time I checked in I had all the tile laid and had a bit ..... of grouting to do. Well I'm happy to say the grouting is almost done and probably would be done if that's all I'd been working on but I've been doing other things as I go along....to break the monotony and to rest the old knees a bit.
I don't know if the winter has been rough on anyone else's hands or not....



....but I found that black grout makes a wonderful filler for those cracks! Plus it give you those cool "Mad Hatter" fingernails.



Does pretty good on the tile too but it sure takes a lot of rubbing and cleaning.......





Takes several passes and water changes to get to a manageable haze that will buff off.



After buffing off the haze a couple coats of grout sealer is in order......



Oh, and speaking of cracks......



I found a half dozen or so tile that had what appeared to be "firing cracks" down the middle of them. I didn't notice them as I was laying them and the only time they showed up was during grouting.....can't find them now. I really don't think they'll be a problem since the tile is sitting in a solid bed of mortar.

Hang on, I'm out of picture room.........