Scary Cabin

Last week we left early because of plumbing (well, plugged drainage) issues. So this trip starts with attempts at correcting that little problem. Kent, from Kent’s Plumbing, arrived bright and early to help. He snaked the main house drain line with a large snake and that cleared things out so that water was flowing again. We also had him install a washing machine box with new water valves to replace the leaky old ones. He also snaked the washing machine drain as that was plugged up. With the drainage problem solved (?), we were back executing the upstairs plan.

More drywall sanding and mudding followed by more sub-floor work. This seems never ending. But we’re making progress. The number of areas that need sanding is less each time and the sub-floor is finally down. At some point we just kind of give up and hope that the texture hides the imperfections.

We finish up the sub-floor Saturday morning and it looks like we’ll be ready to do some texture on Sunday. However, we only have a small amount of wall texture compound left. So Saturday afternoon we take a break and head to the hardware store. Ray’s is out of texture compound! So our break is extended a bit and we head to Oroville.

Sunday morning starts off with the sounds of the slow/backing up drains again. So Kent didn’t solve the problem, just temporarily fixed it. I run a small snake down the drain and get it working somewhat again and pull back some roots. To properly fix this we’ll have to expose the pipe, find out where the roots are getting in and replace/repair what’s needed to prevent them from getting in again. But that’s a job for next weekend. Today we texture! Well, first we mask. We mask off the ceiling in the stairway/hallway (which is narrow and high, a great combination). and the ceiling in the bathroom. We also cover the floor and block off the doorways to the bedrooms. Then start spraying. Texture flies everywhere so that not only are the walls coated, but so am I. The first batch is always a gamble as we try to remember what consistency is needed. It was a little thick and didn’t stick well, so some sanding is going to be needed to smoothing things out but what should be the hardest parts are done.

Where are we now?
weekend n+0 - drywall prep (October 17/18th did some, not as much as planned)
weekend n+1 - finish drywall prep for texture (October 23/24/25 - texturing started)
weekend n+2 - texture & prime
weekend n+3 - paint & start bathroom floor tile & finish bathroom electrical
weekend n+4 - finish bathroom tile & re-install vanity & toilet
weekend n+5 - install doors & start knee wall framing
weekend n+6 - install laminate
weekend n+7 - finish laminate (baseboard & casing?)
weekend n+8 - knee wall work
weekend n+9 - knee wall work
weekend n+10 - knee wall work

So, even though it looks like we’re on-track, we really needed to have everything masked off so that we could spend a day texturing. Given that we need to spend time digging up drain pipe, we’re probably trending about a weekend behind now.

Work on prepping the upstairs drywall was going really well, right up until it wasn’t.

We started the weekend sanding. Starting at one end of the upstairs with Genny sanding the lower half of the walls and Bob sanding the upper halve. We got everything sanded down and ready for another coat of mud. For some areas, like the bathroom, this should be the final coat of mud. For others, like the closet, we might need another coat, but overall, it’s getting really close. However, we still had one corner that didn’t even have drywall yet because it’s behind the pile of flooring. Once we finished up with the mud, we cleaned up and started moving floor. First we moved most of the stuff out of the back bedroom. Then we placed as much of the sub-floor as we could. Next we moved the remaining stack of sub-flooring out the way and then moved all the boxes of laminate into the other room. Finally, we could get at the wall and finish installing the drywall. With the drywall up and the joints taped, we felt pretty good about what we had accomplished.

In addition to the drywall we installed the dining room light. The chain isn’t long enough to allow it to hang at the proper height, but it’s there and we now have a working light over the dinning room table.

Only thing left to do was clean up and watch a movie. So we thought. While getting cleaned up, we noticed that the tub wasn’t draining too well and the toilet didn’t want to flush. Uh-oh. Work with a plunger didn’t seem to help but the other drains seemed OK. After a while, the tub would empty. Maybe it’s just something plugging up the drain from the tub and toilet? We had a spare wax ring and the upstairs toilet just sitting there. Maybe that would work better. So 30 minutes later, we have a second toilet and it seems to flush OK.

The next day, I’m under the house, looking at the drain pipes and realize that for the tub and toilet to drain slow, the problem must be in the main line between the house and the septic. The other drains only seemed OK because they’re higher and have more pipe to hold water until it slowly drains out. We tried a long piece of old electrical wire to clear it, but it didn’t help. We also dug up the septic lid and verified that it’s not full so that’s not the problem. It’s just a normal plugged up drain pipe between the house and tank.

After spending most of the day digging and messing with the plumbing and now without fully functioning plumbing, it seemed like a good time to leave. The remaining drywall sanding and mudding will have to wait.

Last time I had this breakdown for future work. Where are we now?

weekend n+0 - drywall prep (October 17/18th did some, not as much as planned)
weekend n+1 - finish drywall prep for texture
weekend n+2 - texture & prime
weekend n+3 - paint & start bathroom floor tile & finish bathroom electrical
weekend n+4 - finish bathroom tile & re-install vanity & toilet
weekend n+5 - install doors & start knee wall framing
weekend n+6 - install laminate
weekend n+7 - finish laminate (baseboard & casing?)
weekend n+8 - knee wall work
weekend n+9 - knee wall work
weekend n+10 - knee wall work

I’ve been thinking about the data collection I do. Specifically about what machines are doing the collection and what type of system load and stability my current system has.

Today, I have two primary data collection functions running.

1) Home electricity production/usage data.
2) Outside weather data.

For the electricity data I have a daemon running on my main machine that pulls the raw data from a monitor attached to the mains. The raw data is processed and stored in a MySQL database. The monitor is attached to the machine via a USB port.

For the weather data I have a program running on a Raspberry PI that intercepts raw data from an Acurite 5-n-1 sensor bridge, processes it and stores it in a MySQL database.

The MySQL database resides on a dedicated disk partition and the server is running on my main machine. The database is also used for a few other things like a bug tracking database. The clients of the database are my web server (also running on the main machine) and the home automation software package (currently running in a vmware Windows instance on the main machine).

What if this was all consolidated on to a dedicated home data collection server? That’s the question I’m asking myself right now. That leads to a few more questions.

- What exactly should be consolidated? Data collection daemons, MySQL database, webserver?
- Can a Raspberry PI handle all of this?
- Would it improve stability?
- What hardware is needed in addition to the Raspberry PI?
- Can an SSD drive be used with the database?
- How easy will be to back this all up?

After a bit more thought and some research, I think I have answers for most of the questions. All three major components should be consolidated. Given how much interaction there is between the data collection daemons and the database it just makes sense to have them on the same machine if possible. Same for the web server and database. The disk space needed to support both database and web server is not excessive and easily handled by a low cost SSD. Currently it’s less than 50GB and it’s not growing that fast. A 120GB drive should suffice for a number of years. The Raspberry PI should handle the data collection daemons easily. It should also be able to handle the database. The web server handles mostly private needs so I think that’s fine, but will need to do some testing to be sure.

For hardware I think just the Raspberry PI with OS on an SD card. Probably a USB hub to handle the addition network interface, electricity monitor and SSD disk. And of course the SSD disk 120GB or 240GB.

The SSD drive can be shared via NFS and/or SMB and that provides both a way to back it up and add web content easily.

So time to start prototyping. I have an extra PI and spare hard drives so I should be able to install most of the software and make sure the services are running. Then it’s just a matter of switching over.

Now what other data could I collect using this setup?