Aquarium Center

Finally I have solved my aquarium dilemma, with this! Pictured here is half of the wire shelf "server rack" that formally was in my wiring closet (the server is still, somewhat uncomfortably, on the other half), holding my two 20 gallon aquariums. Despite it's flimsy appearance wire shelving is amazingly strong; the full 4-shelf unit is rated to safely hold 1,200 pounds! Obviously these two tanks won't weigh anywhere near the 600 pound limit of the half-unit.

The lower, and somewhat poorly lit, tank is where the goldfish are headed. Though I have said in the past that I consider a 55 gallon the minimum aquarium for goldfish the fish that I have now are comparatively small, and I currently only have two left (sadly the koi and two of the goldfish died shortly after their move). I'll have to get used to the lighting, I generally use dual-bulb shoplights equipped with "grow lamp" bulbs for a 55 gallon aquarium.
The top tank is for an aspect of aquaculture that, though I left in disgust, I have come to sorely miss: Saltwater "reef" aquariums. I have learned from the mistakes I made last time, and by using the smaller aquarium I can build a very nice micro-reef for a fraction of the cost of stocking a 55 gallon tank. The project is less expensive in every aspect: First I plan on filling the tank with Culligan water, to eliminate the problems I had last time using municipal water. Second, it will require less salt to achieve the proper density. Third, between the smaller size and shallower tank it will require substansially less lighting for proper coral growth than a 55 (which is close to 3 times as tall). And finally since it's a smaller tank I am far less likely to get carried away trying to stock it. As I already own all the equipment (save for a heater, which is VERY cheap) and supplies I can start slowly, with an initial investment of under $30 for a couple of pounds of "live rock" and a few hermit crabs to keep the tank's "cycle" going. The other good part about this is what I plan on populating the tank with is amongst the least expensive offerings of most saltwater shops" Shrimp, miniature crabs and snails. The corals that I want are NOT cheap, however, but there is no rush to get them: The longer I let the tank sit before adding them the better they will do.
As you can probaly see I lined the back of the to-be reef aquarium with aluminum foil. There are several reasons for this: First it hides the electrical cords. Second it blocks a lot of the natural sunlight from the window from entering the tank (though the natural sunlight is a cheap source of light, between the window, the glass, 16+ miles of air and the water most of the more beneficial frequencies have been filtered out; which tends to lead to undesirable algae growth). Third it reflects a lot of light back into the tank, and fourth I expect the uneven texture to help give the small tank some additional visual depth...
Also as you can see, despite the lack of inhabitants, Chessie already thinks this is the greatest thing ever... Are you really surprised? I'm sure not...

First Firing

Yesterday I finally got my stove approved by Frost Insurance. Of course I tried to light it that evening, which failed miserably. So today once I got home I immediately cleared out the center of the firebox, placed a scrap of tar paper on the grates and piled charcoal on top of it. Once that was burning strongly I slowly added anthracite, and now, three hours later...

This picture doesn't do the fire justice, it's a lot more spectacular in person. Just as spectacular is the heat from this tiny stove: I get the feeling that it could go even higher, yet even with two fans pulling air into the house, and both living room windows open it is HOT in here! Needless to say I think it'll do the trick this winter.

Coal stove is complete!

Today I received a package from Rural Energy Products, which contained the correct door kit for my stove! So obviously pretty much as soon as I got home I installed it, and finally mounted the insurance-mandated wall protector...

The Harman Magnafire Mk. 1 is now complete, all that's needed now is the coal!

Hopefully this weekend it'll be cool enough out to light it for the first time, providing of course I get the go-ahead from the insurance company.

Of course, according to the National Weather Service, tonight would be the best night until late this weekend to do so (predicted low of 41 degrees). Oh well, if I can get approved by the weekend I'll probaly burn a small fire just to test it out... Hey, do you blame me?

Roof leaks...

Well it looks like I need to finish what I started...

Apparently we (finally) got a decent rain last night, and out of curiousity I went into the bar to see if it had leaked at all... Unfortunately it had. Oddly enough, the leaks were pretty much at the exact point where I had stopped tarring the shingles on my last pass....
Though there is little that will be damaged by the minor leaks it doesn't help with the decay situation. Now that it's starting to cool down I am running out of excuses: I need to get back up there and finish tarring and nailing the roll shingles. Until last night the sheeting had almost completely dried, and though the cool-down helps with the work involved it doesn't help drive out the water that got in.

The Bar: Planning

Well I think it's high time that I share my plans for the bar. Unfortunately I don't have pictures to share as of yet (the last set I took still had large quantities of celing debris on the floor; I have since then cleaned the place out and held two game parties there).
As of right now I have repaired the roof (a relative term), cleaned out the Bar and Dining rooms, installed electric lights in the Bar, Dining, Kitchen and Wash rooms, hooked up a stereo in the Bar room (an absolute MUST for any proper bar!) and partially repaired all of the doors to the building.
First of all is the Bar room. This room needs the following renovations: First and foremost, I need to either replace or at least properly board up the broken window facing US 24 and the Maumee river. I desperately want to replace this window, but I doubt that I'll be able to afford to do so before this coming Spring. Next I want to install the last light fixture that this room will recieve (right now it has two lampholders, which is plenty, but I want more light!). Unfortunately this requires tearing down one of the three remaining celing panels in this room, which was subjected to some of the worst water damage that this building saw... This will be a very messy project which I am not at all looking forward to.
In addition to those repairs I plan on building a bar in place of where the old one was located. I am planning on building a frame out of 2x4 stock, boxing it in with Luan plywood and topping it with a material that's both decorative and durable. I'd like to use Marble, but the price will likely be prohibitive...

On a side note, I am not sure yet what I'm going to do about heating in that building. I plan on using either wood or coal fired equipment, and only using it when the building is in use. Exactly what I do will depend greatly on what I can get of course. I'd like to get an old "hybrid" stove (which is basically a coal stove with a secondary air inlet, which allows it to burn wood with reasonable efficiency. Unfortunately, due to EPA regulations on wood-fired appliances such stoves are no longer made...). If such a stove is unavailable I will probaly eventually get a solid fuel forced-air furnace.

For the Dining room I had it suggested to me by my friend Nick that I should build a few resteraunt-style booths around the outside wall. The interesting part about his suggestion, however, was to make the booth tables wider than typical restearaunt booths, so each booth could accomidate two PCs with LCD-panel displays (I plan on hosting LAN parties out there once it's ready). The Dining room also needs some floor work, largely to deal with a now nonexistant drain that was very poorly plugged, and poses a significant trip hazard. Not sure what I'm going to do about this yet.
The Kitchen room will be what the name suggests, a kitchen. It doesn't need to be a full-service kitchen, it'll be more of a fridge-and-stove room. I plan on putting a "boxwood" stove in that room, both for heating and because such stoves have a proper cook top with removable burner plates.
As for the Washroom I am unsure as to what my plans are. I'd like to put a basin sink in there, but I can just see myself using the thing as a parts washer... This is all well and good right now, since I don't have a finished floor or paint in the building, but down the road...

Other than that there are only a handful of projects. I need to run conduit and wire for electrical service to the Bar and Dining rooms (more on this later), repair the roof over the breezeway between the Bar and the Shop, clean out and restore the Men's room to service and repair the doors properly. I will keep you all up to date as I get these projects done, and hopefully I'll have pictures soon...

New Chimney!

At last! I am amazed at how quickly this went; what you see took me less than four hours to complete! Needless to say I am more than a little tired now, but it was well worth it.

The whole assembly, inside and out, still needs some work. The chimney is not plumb yet, and I am short one locking band, and really should have a roof guy kit installed. Inside the stove pipe is not yet straight, and doesn't fit up quite as tightly as I'd like... But the good news is, despite being just as hot (if not hotter) outside than in the chimney ALREADY is pulling a stable draft!

It shouldn't be any trouble to have these problems resolved by the time my door kit comes in, at which point I'll be ready for Frost Insurance to approve it.

Once it's approved it'll be ready for the first firing. This will have to be done with all of the windows open, as the paint on both the stove and the stovepipe needs to be cured, which produces noxious smoke. Fortunately fall is coming soon, which means plenty of cool evenings when a fire would be pleasant but not nessasary by any means...

Notice the shakes behind the chimney. Yes I did that myself. My work isn't quite as neat as my father's, but between the fact that it's largely hidden by the chimney and the fact that they're installed over an existing weathertight surface I think they'll do nicely.

As I stated before I am rather tired, so I think it's time for me to chill out. After I work out the detals of the chimney I just have to build and fill a coal bunker and I'll be ready for winter!

Coal Stove

After driving my truck over 140 miles to Van Wert and back I now am the owner of a Harman Magnafire Mk. 1 coal stove. This stove is designed to burn anthracite (hard) coal, and according to the manufacturer only needs to be tended two or three times a day!

The really exciting part is how much money this will save me in the long run: Last year, despite not living here, I burned up over $1200 worth of LP gas! It is noteworthy that I did have an old, inefficient furnace at the time and there were two large holes in the walls. Yet my house has no insulation to speak of... With LP gas prices approaching the $4 per gallon mark I don't care to think how much it would cost to keep the house at a comfortable temperature now that I'm living here.
Hard coal is currently approx. $170 per ton. One ton of coal is the equivelant of about 300 gallons of propane. And, at $4 per gallon, that's $1200 worth of propane! That's a BIG price difference!

Obviously the stove is still incomplete; I was given the wrong door kit, and will be recieving a new one soon. Once I recieve that and complete the chimney I'll be ready for winter! For more information on the Magnafire Mk. 1 stove please click here.