Posts

Posted on

Tire Replacement

The tires are the OG set that came with the trailer, so they are LONG past overdue. Fortunately, Tiny hasn’t moved around much, but the last thing I need is to get her on the road and have one or more of the old rubber donuts blow out.

Tire removed from axle

Three of the 4 came off without a hitch but that last one’s last lugnut refused to budge. I was cranking on my impact wrench and no luck. After some head-scratching, I figured I’d get some Break-Free and that would do the job.

None of the local shops had any in stock, so we looked for the “second best” option, and it turned out to be a winner.

PB B’Laster

This stuff is incredible. We soaked the hell out of that nut and waited for 5 minutes, then soaked it again and waited for a minute.

As soon as I pulled the trigger on the impact wrench, the lugnutcame right off.

The only downside to PB B’Laster is you have to double-bag it in a ziploc when transporting it, otherwise the residue in the tube will fill the car with toxic fumes and give you The Cancer within, like, minutes.

Can of PB B'Laster Penetrating Catalyst
Posted on

♪ Do Fence Me In ♬

Fence with "Posted no trespassing, keep out" sign

Events have conspired to move the timeline up, so I bit the bullet and got the fence installed. Originally, I wanted a fence with metal posts, but we needed this done quick ‘n’ cheap, so treated pine it is.

The most time-consuming part (for me) was getting the lumber ordered from the Big Box store. I normally would’ve gone with a more local lumberyard, but it was more of a matter of getting it done.

Once the wood was on-side, the guys got it done. Took one day for the fence, and one for the gate.

Yes, that’s a Master Lock. Yes, Master Locks are the absolute worst.

But it’ll have to do for now.

For someone to open the gate, they’ll have to intentionally B&E, and that’s at least something.

Fence gate with locks

Posted on

Laying out Tiny’s New Location

I’m going to move Tiny down from storage onto the lot; I’ve been spending lots of $$$ keeping it up north and it’s time to push things forward! Before I can do this, I need to prepare the land.

My plan was to put down a gravel driveway for a couple of reasons:

  • It’s more eco-friendly – using recycled materials instead of concrete, which is a major contributor to CO2 greenhouse gases.
  • It is better for the watershed – gravel is permeable, allowing rain to soak directly into the ground instead of running off into drainage ditches.
  • It is cheaper – building a 11’x50′ driveway should cost about $3k instead of ~$14k.
  • I can do most (all) of the work myself.

In addition, I need to ensure some level of security for Tiny, as it will be sitting out all alone with no one to watch over her! I’ll need to prepare the land by adding a fence to keep looky-loos out and make it harder to get onto the property.

Land Preparation Steps

Bare land where I've been marking and digging
Prepping the location for the gravel

Driveway

  1. Mark out location with stakes and twine ✅
  2. Dig out area to 6″ deep 🌀
  3. Lay down weed barrier
  4. Purchase gravel
  5. Purchase grid
  6. Spread out bottom layer and compact
  7. Assemble grid
  8. Spread out top layer and compact

Fence

  1. Mark out location with stakes and twine ✅
  2. Determine approach: wood, SS40 pipe or steel post (see Resources below)
  3. Source materials
  4. Install posts
  5. Attach cross beams
  6. Install pickets
  7. Build/install gate 😱
Metal Fenceposts
Stack of Metal Fenceposts

Resources

Posted on

Wire is still hanging low

Long, long overdue update: AT&T fixed their wire and it is up to code, but now the low hanging wire belongs to XFinity/Comcast and despite numerous calls, they refuse to do anything to correct it.

Well, strike that. They are bumbling idiots, so they have no problem sending out a crew to the wrong address. Or saying they can’t help me because there’s no service at the actual address. Or getting the name of the street completely wrong.

Typical interaction with Comcast Low Hanging Wire Support

Comcast: Hello Comcast, how can I help you?
Me: Yes, I’d like to report a low-hanging wire at 100 Apple Pie Way
C: (tap tap tap) I see here your home address is 1545 Elaine Rd, is that where the wire is?
M: No, that’s my old address. The wire is hanging across the driveway at 100 Apple Pie Way, which is a property I own.
C: (tap tap tap) Are you saying you don’t have service at 100 Apple Pie Way? We don’t provide service to that address.
M: Yes, I understand. Your wire is suspended over my driveway and it is sagging low.
C: Okay, got it. We’ll send out a crew.
M: Thank you

(A few hours later)

Comcast Tech: Hello, this is Comcast Tech
Me: Hey, what’s up?
CT: I got a ticket about a low wire as 1545 Elaine Road, and none of the wires around here are low hanging.
M: Yeah, that’s because the wire is at 100 Apple Pie Way.
CT: Ah. okay. That’s outside my area, so I’ll cancel this ticket and you’ll need to call and have them open a ticket for the other address.

(Sounds of head banging into the wall)

The low hanging Comcast wire is attached above the other wire on the pole, but because it has way too much slack, it is draping below the AT&T wire.

Image of the two data wires coming off the telephone pole, with the low hanging wire actually being the high wire
Comcast wire hanging low

There are a few things I can try doing, but in the meantime I’ve let this thing go on far too long, so I need to get going, as it were. The concern is once I get the tiny house on the property, if I need to leave for any reason (an impending hurricane is a pretty good reason), the low-hanging wire will be an impediment to GTFO quickly.

Complaining to the PUC is still an option and I should probably follow up on it, but in the meantime, I need to get Tiny down here and parked.

Posted on

Privatization and Low-Hanging Wires

The dirt guy can’t get his trucks onto my property in order to deliver the dirt because the trucks won’t fit under the wires.

It turns out the telephone wire hangs too low over the driveway. I estimated it is about 10′ above the driveway, and code is 15′. Even the tiny house wouldn’t fit (it is 13’6″).

Before I purchased the property, there was no driveway so it is understandable why it was never noticed or corrected.

Showing low-hanging wires too low over the driveway

I called 311 (city services). They inform me the city doesn’t own telephone poles, thus thanks to the magic of privatization, they cannot help me. They suggest contacting either Centerpoint (who own the poles) or AT&T (owners of the data wires), or both.

Centerpoint: get lost, pal

Warning, touching wires will kill you and hurt the whole time you're dying

Centerpoint tells me the wires on top of the pole are power and they maintain them. The lower wires don’t belong to them (that part of the pole is leased to other companies), so they aren’t responsible. So sad, too bad.

Telephone poles are divided into zones, with the higher the zone, the more dangerous the wire. Wires on the very top carry the most voltage, and wires on the bottom carry the least.

Nevertheless, it isn’t advisable to go around playing with any wires: the wrong voltage can kill you.

AT&T – Cower Before Us

AI-Generated: poorly-maintained telephone poles and tangled wires

The lower wires are the ones blocking my access, which means telecom. Upon calling AT&T (motto: “We make it hard so you’ll stop bothering us!”) the automated phone system helpfully suggests using their website “for faster service”.

Going to the page, I’m unable to do anything as the problem reporting tool assumes you are a customer, and keeps asking for my account number.

Back to the phones!

After being on hold for a while, it takes three transfers to get me to the right person. Each time I have to explain that I’m not a customer, my property is not a building, and this is about not about downed lines.

Finally, I get to the right person, explain the situation and they tell me they’ll send out a repair tech.

A month later and the work is still not done so I call again. The tech calls me the next morning saying he’s at the site, can verify the lines are sagging. He can’t raise them high enough because the telephone pole is leaning. You know, the pole they don’t own and have no control over. He says he’ll tighten the line and try to get Centerpoint to come fix their pole. I’m not going to hold by breath.

Try the PUC?

In desperation, I search for a solution online and discover there is actually a state Public Utilities Commission! The point me to the City’s Administration and Public Affairs department. There isn’t a formal complaint procedure (‘contact the utility and then contact APA if you aren’t satisfied’), so I follow the state PUC’s procedure:

  1. Try to resolve the problem with the utility
    • Document when, with whom, discussion notes and outcome of the call.
  2. After a sufficient time passes days (undefined, but I assume 20), contact the PUC
  3. If the complaint is legit and documentation indicates a good-faith effort to resolve, the PUC will contact the company.
  4. The company has 15 days to respond to the PUC.
  5. The PUC will investigate and determine if there was any legal malfeasance.
  6. If the company is at fault, fines will be assessed.

Step 1 – contact AT&T (again)

The last time I contacted AT&T was over a month before, so I contacted them again, documented who I spoke with, the date and time, and took notes about what was said.

Step 2 – wait

The clock starts and I make note of when I need to verify the work still isn’t done. A week before the deadline, I check the site and discover they finally fixed the wire!

Wires shown at proper distance above the driveway

Lessons Learned

Privatization has not resulted in lower prices and/or better service. It has resulted in higher prices and 💩 service. But freedom, I guess, whatever.

Next time, I’ll follow the PUC procedures, stay on top of it and hopefully that will result in a faster fix. All told, it took about 18 months to get this resolved.

Posted on

Grade and Fill for Dummies

Things have been pretty quiet what with all the world-wide pandemic and all. In the meantime, I started planning a fence, but two things stopped me cold:

  1. The price of wood went through the roof
  2. The neighbor’s elevation changes caused more water to flow onto my property than normal
  3. I discovered I have several depressions significant enough to accumulate an excess of water
  4. Excess water will accelerate wood rot
  5. Wood rot will kill my fence fast

Ugh.

Wood? Wood!

Good news everyone! The price of wood came down!

Wait, no it didn’t.

Okay, we’ll pass on the wood for now.

Elevation, smellivation

I had to get an elevation survey in order to know how much dirt I would to grade and fill the property. Turns out most places I called never heard of them, but two did, one that cost way more and one that cost way less. The cheaper one was fishy, so I paid for the expensive one.

Before the surveyor came, I had to clear the jungle out and pile up all the trash donations people had provided me.

No more jungle!

Now I have some calculations to do. If the amount of dirt to grade and fill is lower than 1000 sq ft, I don’t need a permit. Stay tuned!

Posted on

Driveway is in!

That was quick! Just a day or two delay due to rain, and the guys finished quickly. I had to call them to come tidy up the site a bit: the culvert pipe was clogged with mud from the construction, and they took care of it promptly.

The Driveway
Posted on

Adding a Driveway

Getting the property prepped starts with being able to actually access the property. There’s a drainage ditch next to the road that has a dirt (mud, if you’re nasty and rainy) culvert covering a concrete pipe, but it isn’t clear if it is sturdy enough to support driving the tiny house across it, let alone trucks and cars.

This means we need a proper driveway.

  • The Crew Arrives
  • Prepping the Ditch
  • Ready to Pour
Posted on

Not dead yet!

Just a quick check-in. I have a bunch of old posts and photos I need to publish to catch you up to the current state.

I’ve run out of cash for building, and I have a big expense coming up: windows.

I would like to buy them all at once so I can get them all installed and be done with it. We’ll see!

See you (hopefully) soon!

Posted on

Installing the roof

Installing Ondura is fairly easy, using nails that have a rubber washer near the head to prevent rain intrusion.

The manufacturer says you can install it over anything, so I decided to lay down Corning Weatherlock-G, which is a ice and water barrier. It is also rough on the top side, so it is possible to (barely) walk on it and not slide to your death. I used the same nails  on the Weatherlock as I did on the Tyvek .

Installing Ondura