The Making of 8VO Addison, VT 1993

Friends and Family that Helped

Our house will never be 'finished', there is a list of things we want to do that will likely not be completed, but it is a very comfortable home that we feel blessed to be able to enjoy.

None of us does anything big alone. Below is a list of the names I scribbled into my notebook during construction, I am sure I have left someone out but it is not intentional. We are forever in debt to those on this list.

June, Matthew and Emily Jaquish

Steve Tomashot

Joe Forbes

Paul Stabler

Phil and Sherry Ketchen

Peter and Robbie Oldytowski

Don Jaquish (#2)

Gabriel Jaquish

Tom Jaquish (#3)

Randy Jaquish (#4)

Tom and Candy Baker (#6)

Paul and Sandy Viens (#7)

Ted and Joanne Lattrell

Paul and Martha Sacco

Terry Zittritsch

Betty Pattison (June's Mom)

Ed and Jean Allen

Ralph and Ruth Jaquish (Mom and Dad)

Michael Pattison

Billy Prew

Chuck French

Bob Kilmartin

Steve Dumas

Tad Wilder

Tyler Armstrong

John Anderson

Jim Anderson

Travis Larkin

David Morett

2023: New Patios

2023 - New Patio

The slate patios served us well for almost 20 years, however with the building of the porch in 2020, we needed to bring the patio up to the same level.

We contracted with Rainbow Acres, Michael Shannon, to redo our patios with landscaping blocks.

May 2023

June and I removed the old patios.

Broken Garage Floor Drain

I also took the opportunity to fix the garage drain which had quit working a few years earlier.

Front patio removed.

June 2023

Rainbow Acres at work

July 2023

Mike does a good job but it was taking a long time, and the weather was not cooperating. We did manage to have our end of July BBQ, the patio was mostly done, of course it rained.

The patios were done in August. They came in significantly over budget, but are very nice and we are enjoying them.

Front Patio

Lake Side Patio

We have enjoyed many evenings on our new patio with neighbors and friends.

2023: Barn Floor #3

2023: Floor #3

A few years after the new foundation and floor, I noticed that the gaps between the floor and the foundation walls were expanding. I started monitoring them and by the fall of 2022 it was clear to me that something was going on. I also noticed cracks in the corners of the foundation.

Cracks between the foundation and the floor.

Cracks in the foundation corners.

I consulted with Nop's, Carrara Concrete and Earthworks excavating. The conclusion was unanimous, my barn was experiencing Pyritic Expansion. This is the process by which pyrite in rocks oxidizes and expands, causing damage to structures built on top of the rock. My fill came from rock crushed by the Wilcox Quarry in Shoreham, VT in 2008. When I replaced the foundation in 2017 we did not remove the material from the center of the building and thus did not address the root cause of the foundation failure.

I am still miffed that one of my contractors did not know about this, since it has become well known that the material from the Wilcox Quarry was experiencing pyritic expansion.

I hired Earthworks (Randy Provencher) to remove the material and replace the barn floor.

Digging to the bottom of the 5' footers.

Filled with clean crushed stone, including my new drain.

New Floor

New Floor poured by Sargent's concrete, he also did the floor in 2017 and does nice work.

I needed to dispose of the material we removed and rather than have it trucked way, I used it to expand the parking on the north side of the barn.

Relocated Retaining Wall

This required redoing the rock retaining wall. Earthworks did this and I was very pleased with the result.

June 2023

By June of 2023 the work was complete and I had my barn back.

In the end I have nearly $100K in just the foundation of the barn. I did attempt litigation with the Wilcox Quarry, but their legal team was to going make it expensive. I eventually closed the case with a payment from Wilcox that was enough to pay my lawyer. I have put it behind me, I love my barn.

2022: Heat Pump Water Heater

October of 2022 I replaced our water heater with a Heat Pump version primarily for efficiency. With rebates, I paid $1100 for the heater, and spent about another $200 on plumbing (fittings, pipe and an expansion tank). So my out of pocket will be about $1300. I installed it myself.

A secondary benefit is that it acts as a dehumidifier in the summer. Conversely it acts as a cooler in the winter, but it is in my furnace room which runs warm, so I don't see this as a negative.

Out with the Old in with the New

I removed the 40 Gallon electric only tank and replaced it with a 50 gallon electric/heat pump tank.

The new tank also is connected to the internet which makes it easy to turn on and off when we are traveling.

Completed Install

One ongoing debate on the internet has to do with what temperature you should set your water heater at. Canada's standard is 140F, the US doesn't want anything above 120F at the faucet. The 140F kills all bacteria, so in the US a mixing valve is required. After discussion with others, I set mine at 125 with no mixing valve, I just don't need another failure point.

The heater seems to work well and it is nice to be able to control it from my phone. It uses less than 1/2 the energy that my electric used.

Screen shot from my phone.

It also communicates directly with my Home Assistant system, which is a bonus to me.

2019: Heat Pumps

Spring of 2019, with the help of my friend, Tad Wilder, we installed two heat pumps. We plan to use them for heat in the colder seasons and AC in the hot part of summer.

Located on the North side of the house

Tad's Card

Fujitsu Heat Pumps

Fujitsu Model ASU9RLS3Y and ASU12RLS3Y units.

We installed the 12K BTU unit in the downstairs and the 9K BTU unit in the Master Bedroom.

Tad doing his thing.

It required some high work.

Approved by Em and Travis.

Update: Since installation both inside units have leaked down and had to be replaced. They have an 11 year warranty. Tad said I am about the only customer that has had this issue.

2018 - 2020: East Porch, our Covid Project

2018 - Prep

We designed the house to have a back porch in the future, it had been 11 years since we moved in permanently. When we did the repairs from the flood, I decided we should start the porch project.

2018, porch ledger and door

This entailed putting in an entrance door to the porch and a ledger to support the porch. I also removed the bay window.

2019 - Footers

In September of 2019 I had footers put in for the porch.

Marking our septic system

I used Techno Metal Posts since my septic and electrical are in the same area the posts need to go.

Techno Posts being installed

It was a miserable day in October when the posts went in.

November 2019

Matt helping frame

With the posts installed I started framing, with Matt's help.

Deck Frame complete Nov2019

By Thanksgiving the deck was framed, some say over framed, and I paused for the winter.

2020 - Covid Project

The porch became our Covid project, everyone was afraid to gather. So we stayed home, I worked on the porch, with the help of a few others.

Paul Sacco helping put on decking.

Work really started back up in May.

Jim Anderson, master carpenter

By June it was decked we started putting up posts and supports for the roof. I got a lot of help from my neighbor Jimmy Anderson, there is no replacement for having help from a skilled carpenter like Jimmy.