Oldpaddy saying,"I started a second pile yesterday. This one has three totes of manure and shavings, a bunch of fish guts from a seafood market, two large trash barrels (full) of coffee grounds/filters from a coffee shop, and topped off with four totes of manure and shavings. I'll probably add some seaweed to it this week. I'm really hoping for a great compost! I figure if I can get a huge pile in each corner I'll have enough for my garden. I've got two piles that are composting great and I think the third one is getting hot. Today I added lime, a bunch of seaweed and three totes of horse manure with shavings to the third pile. Maybe I'll remove the pallets for the fourth and fifth piles. Yeah josko, I've been hitting all the shops. I'm enjoying taking the garbage, it's kinda like the community is helping me with my garden. Though, I don't think my wife is quite as happy as I am about it..." You are going to have such a great garden. I remember when I had that much energy --- and not so much private supply of animal manures, as I have subsequently arranged to have. I would steal people's grass clippings!! Those were the days in the '70s when suburban people by the hundreds would rake, bag, and stack their grass clippings in bags by the road for the garbage trucks! I don't think you can do that now....our landfill won't take leafy matter of any kind in regular garbage pickup now. So I would drive around in a Datsun pickup and take the bags. Many interesting interactions occurred; one suspicious homeowner asked me what I was doing and then fell in a ditch. There was simply nothing to be said, so I went away from that place, as Mark Twain would say. I used the grass clippings for mulch between the rows and compost. That was great stuff, actually, it was a good idea. Full of nitrogen, quickly decayed, fine texture. I could think of more uses for it today. I suppose there are people quick to say, Oh, Oh, there might be chemicals on it, horrors! However, I personally was more concerned about the dog droppings raked up with the grass. And my garden liked the chemicals AND the droppings.

Marti8a, >Wow, beautiful view! Thanks! That's what sold me on the house. the house was originally a small two room fishing shack that got added on to... it's not layed out well inside but I'll put up with it for the view. >>Is the house on a pier & beam foundation? If so, how high is the crawl space under it? It doesn't look like much, but if the subfloor is plywood, you can do all your >>plumbing from inside the house anyway. The back of the house is on cement (so, kitchen and bathroom) and no crawl and the front of the house has a very small crawl space. Any one going in there would have to be very very slender! And not claustrophobic! >>I hate to say this without knowing more, but it really, really sounds like that bathroom needs to be gutted. Ceramic tile doesn't fall off the wall without a reason, usually moisture behind it, or if the house has shifted >>and the walls moved a bit. What I should have mentioned is those delightful pink tiles are plastic not ceramic. I just think they have fallen off due to age and neglect. >>If you took out the tub and put in a shower, you could have a decent sized closet at the end. But if you really like having a bathtub, I'd just move the tub down to the end of the wall. The drain probably goes right over to >>that toilet drain, somewhat like this. I did give the idea of taking the tub out and just having a nice shower but right now am leaning away from that. But a larger closet is certainly tempting. There is very little closet /storage space in this house. >Is that just debris under the sink or is there any rot under there? > it's what's left of the old insulation. I just had to have a bunch of the pipes going to the well pump replaced... I still have to get rid of the rest of the insulation and clean the area up. Thank goodness for a nice neighbor who came over and did the majority of that work. He was a blessing! It's so nice to have running water again! >>I bet the sink used to be in the place where the two pipes are coming out of the floor, and someone decided to move it over to the counter. It looks like a wall sink >>that doesn't really fit on the counter. I bet you're right. I don't have my measurements with me right now but that is a very narrow counter. >Is your well pump in the cabinet behind the tub? Yes. I wish there was a better place to put it. >Are you going to be doing this work all by yourself or >will you have any help? I'll be having to hire help. I'm not knowledgeable about most of this work so it'll be much better if I hire a lot of it to be done. Thanks for your help. Susan

"Generally, I am being told that my oil furnace is probably at the end of its life, being at least approx. 25 years old and should consider replacing now. The 2nd contractor that wants to replace existing with 4 ton furnace, states that the current one is not large enough to handle the size of the house. The rest, so far, want to add a separate system for upstairs." ----------- When the cooling A-Coil is set directly on top of the furnace the huge oil furnace heat/exchanger causes a lot of restricted back-pressure leading to a big drop in static pressure which reduces the velocity of airflow. That along with possibly improper duct design & return air filter areas would greatly reduce airflow. I am betting a 60K would heat your hone in that climate. Do your own whole house load-calc: http://www.loadcalc.net/ Or/and, do the floors separate. Print the instructions & follow them; including clicking on thr SIZING LINK when load-calc is satisfactory completed...

We've converted two attic spaces (same house, opposite ends) to living space, with low ceilings. From my experience, the first thing to do, after determining whether you can safely/legally finish the attic, is to run the electrical wires. To avoid running duct from a furnace/AC, I'd run 220v for a couple of baseboard heaters, and use the portable AC units which sit on the floor and vent through a window. I can see some natural light, so it looks as if you have dormers, which might be fine for egress and the portable AC units. We used foam baffles between the roof and insulation, then sheetrock as usual. If you are not confident about finishing sheetrock, and don't want to pay to have it done, you can tape it, then cover with inexpensive sheet beadboard. I like your floors as they are, but you'd want to seal them, if not paint. Those are much nicer floors than I've ever seen in an unfinished attic. I'm impressed that there are floor boards at all--I've see a lot of attics with a few pieces of plywood laid across the joists to store boxes. Since the knee walls wouldn't be structural, I think you could frame them yourself, with some research, and basic tools. You might as well frame them in, since that space is too low to use as living space, and if you feel confident enough, you can turn the space into recessed storage--shelves or converted dresser/drawers--very convenient if the space will be used as an office or craft room. If you choose the portable AC option, you could even tailor a storage space to the unit(s), for the off-season. Following are pics of some of the kneewall storage in our half-story attic addition. I did most of the work myself, with limited construction experience. (Left the electrical work to the pro.) The white walls, and closet doors, are the sheet beadboard I mentioned above. I also had to work around closet space in adjacent bedrooms, and the old roof supports, which is why the recessed shelves in the first pic are so shallow. If you can find cabinets, drawers, and chests on craigslist, Goodwill, and the Restore, you can keep the cost down--but only if you have more time, than money, to invest in the project. It would be very difficult to estimate the cost. Our neighbor is a master electrician, and we traded him a strip of land that he'd been asking about, to wire the whole addition. We already had all the tools needed. A chop saw/miter saw, set up in the space as I was working, was invaluable. Circular saw for angled cuts on 2x4 framing. Reciprocating saw for cutting existing framing, and a jig saw for small cuts is also useful. Framing and finishing nail guns are convenient, but I don't like using them, so I did all the nailing with a hammer. I love hearing a nail 'sing' as it's being driven into the framing. :) If you have friends or relatives with construction experience, who will do favors or trade skills, then you can keep the cost down. Kneewall storage ideas/google Portable AC units on Amazon