Link to other blog

The start of the WinSol3 blog was at
http://fredecoblog.blogspot.com/

Here's a few excerpts:

WinSol3 update

This morning, as on the previous infinite mornings, I mixed up a few batches of concrete, grout, cement/lime mixtures to continue the rock reformation here at WinSol3. I love the end result but the journey through the equation is a bit tiring. I know I’m overdoing it, when I get up and say to myself ‘oh no! not another morning of rock work’. But hey – that’s my job right now. I could be in an office makin’ a salary and payin someone to do this – but I got off that treadmill a long time ago. Once I realized that our consumerist lives are pretty much designed to outsource everything and have it managed by a bank – even our leisure time; I got into a 12-step program to cure my addiction to outsourcing. Now granted, I won’t be raising my own milk (cows) anytime soon, but I will do my own house construction, raise my own veggies and fruits; and keep my few remaining outsourcing contracts within 50 miles of here. But, do ebay and amazon qualify for in-sourcing?

Yesterday we had some lightning and short rain bursts here - which is pretty cool this time of year, but now we have god awful humidity! The weather gets weirder every year. We had snow on May 26th, and yesterday it was 91F in Truckee and 84F in Sacramento! This global weirding is so unpredictable. I wonder how long it’ll take before we wake up to the realities of how we are impacting our home’s climate. Take this hint: every single boat that tried making it through the Northwest passage last summer made it through. And we hardly noticed.

So the work on WinSol3 continues. I have about a month to go on my self-imposed deadline to finish most of the house. I already achieved one big goal: Finish all major projects before my 60th - DONE! The deck (1200 sf, 12’ high) was completed just in time. I feel a need for a break.

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WinSol3 Specific Feature 1
Kitchen background

Kitchen Design
Most designers and architects tout the advantages of the triangle when designing a kitchen = from countertop/sink to stove to fridge to shelves, etc. But it’s a two dimensional triangle. I believe that a 3rd dimension should be included. The height of counters, stoves, shelves etc. are always assumed to be designed for an ‘average’ person and spec'd somewhere between 29” to 36”.Well, if you look into it, the ideal height for cutting veggies, mixing in a bowl, washing dishes, etc.; varies for each person. When I experimented with this myself, I found incredible differences on my elbow and back strain at varying heights. So I have 3 different levels on my poured-in-place kitchen multi-curved, monster countertop. I’m sure somebody has written a detailed report and study on varying heights, but I couldn’t find it. My kitchen is designed for me – a real luxury! So why should I build a general spec kitchen? Next came distances – I wanted to only be one short step away from all the cooking and food prep supplies; along with a walk-in pantry. The way it came out, works for me – the most effective kitchen I’ve ever been in. Visitors to my kitchen take a bit of getting use to it, but after a while most realize its benefits. The pantry sadly is two steps away.

The Kitchen countertop was a real lesson and piece of work and sweat. I was enticed by Fu-Tung Chen’s two books: ‘concrete countertop’ and ‘concrete at home’ that I discovered and bought at Berkeley’s 4th street Builder’s Booksource store - – thanks George! After attending a lecture on it, I decided to do it myself. Since one of my fundamental design principles for WinSol3 was to put as much mass inside the house to ease temperature swings, I decided to pour the countertop in place. What started as a little 2” thick 6’ long curving, multi-level countertop; ended up being a 4” thick, with about 10 pouring sessions, 8’ curving monstrosity. I put some light brown/copper pigment into the cement. Thankfully at the same time Home Depot and Lowe’s started carrying 5000 concrete bags that have the little fiberglass hairs already premixed. After building the forms, putting the rebar and reinforcing wire – as usually way over engineered – the pouring began. I wanted the countertop to curve around a huge center culvert that was going to be water filled (another idea from the 60’s) but ended up gravel filled - why can’t welders guarantee their leak proof welds? I also wanted the countertop to be free floating – so all the rebar and structural lever arm calculations were done coming out of the center culvert. To make a long story short, after too many pouring sessions and about 1200 lbs of concrete, the counter was done. Alas, when I removed the last outside support and started working on the counter, it shifted and cracked. So, I have to recut, repour and put in a more structurally thick ‘seam’. Now the counter works and it’s been fun to use. I still have some edge work to do on it – later; and I will be putting bees wax on the top sometime in the next three weeks.

The entire kitchen is tiled, the floor is concrete (with rubber mat) with a drain in the middle, allowing me to eventually use a high-pressure water wash down for easy cleaning = hey I'm a guy! There are two separate sinks (one small round, and one standard double stainless - all from habitat, including faucet, pipes, etc.) leading to a grease trap in the vegie garden for gray water re-use. The main sink’s drain has a ‘Y’ piping arrangement with a valve on it, in case I want to drain the sink’s gray water directly. The pantry has been a real challenge, as there are multiple deep shelves in there, and before I got my cat (another story), I had some quiet overwintering little micies in there. I had no clue that they could chew through drywall! So now there’s a bit stronger walls and concrete reinforcement.

Last, but not least is the cooking details. Refrigeration, is probably my biggest energy issue and I’ll talk about that later. I have a home made solar cooker – amazing how fast it boils water; but needed something a bit more reliable and easier to use. I researched all the gas, electric, etc stoves out there and decided that an old-fashioned RV stove was my best bet since it did not have a pilot light on it, did not require constant electricity for spark actuated burners, etc. I found one through Craigslist in Reno for $20. It has three burners, a small oven and works great. I have a 20 gallon propane tank, that I fill up once every two years – that’s my only cost at WinSol3, besides property taxes! … hence the no-cost home concept.

On a side note, I researched microwave ovens (I love their convenience) and tried putting one in, but their inductive loads and my PV inverter were incompatible. I also didn’t care for the Swiss research reports on the effects of microwave food – but hey what’s a little radiation on our bodies?