I know you have accomplished much on your own. And yes, your legal situation has more than it’s fair share of nonstandard participants - judge, lawyers (both sides), H.
My learnings, regarding MLC, from my brief journey through the legal process - It doesn’t matter!
XW has the right to be angry, irrational, and upset, and so does H. People get to choose what they want to do. Even if we, or specifically their lawyer thinks it is not in their best interests, they have the right to do it. They are adults.
All that matters is what they are willing to sign or not sign. Individuals can give up their rights, custody, house, cars, money, property, whatever; the legal system, lawyers and judges, just ensure it is fair. The fairness is ensuring that the person was not coerced into it, understands what their rights are, and what they are doing. Fairness is informing them and then upholding their right to choose. This is not the same as moral fairness, which requires a much wiser judge than can be found on this earthly plane.
An insane person cannot negotiate or sign these agreements. However, MLCers are not insane, they are irrational; angry, depressed, in denial, projecting, justifying, pretending their lives are great, and doing anything and everything to maintain that facade. That can include signing legal agreements. Or not signing or negotiating all while wasting the court’s time. Unfortunately, H is in the latter category, and racking up quite a bill.
And negotiating with an irrational person is a minefield at best. You cannot just deal with H as an angry man who still has self preservation instincts that will slow his madness of spending money and realize the futility of this course. He is in MLC, and it doesn’t matter in this arena. Legal fairness matters. That’s all. It’s the rules of the arena.
How do you negotiate with a ping pong ball person? It’s like herding cats. It’s very difficult and take finesse. Some lucky breaks would be nice too.
The courts have ordered a “real” appraisal of you house. That is a good thing. A good step. H will have to “sign”, will have to agree to the house’s value now. This is a basis for crafting a more reasonable buy out of him, rather than his fantasy amount. If possible, let H and his L adjust their “idea” to the reality of the housing market, and if reasonable, jump on it.
That was the most interesting piece I found within this process. One side drafts a deal. Signs it, and sends it over to the other side. If the other side accepts it, and signs - that’s it. It goes to a judge to ensure both lawyers did their jobs and fairness was observed and the agreement becomes legal. Poof.
If the receiving party does not agree, they usually modify or craft a new offer and send back a signed one. And the ball is in the other’s court. For me there was only one returned volley. I would not agree to her demand for me to charge her with adultery. I took that stipulation out, increased the lump sum pay out amount, signed it, and my L sent the modified agreement back. After a few weeks, and several lawyer forced visits in which XW has to see two different financial planners, she signed the agreement and a waiver clearly stating that she was going against her lawyer’s advice. Poof. Done. Fairness ensured. MLC doesn’t matter in the business side of this mess.
You can herd cats, it just requires the cat to believe they want to go that way. Or adjusting the path to follow the cat’s meandering. Probably a little/lot of both.
Wow. Nanaimo bars and seeking construction/handyman advice. How can I refuse? Like a moth to a flame.
Mice getting into homes and buildings is a problem, and once they have a pathway they do keep it open. They are mice, they don’t have much else to do but chew and root around all day.
Spray foam does quickly and effectively filling it the crevasse, expanding to all corners and sealing it well. It is also an excellent insulation providing a good R value, and of course stopping the wind from just blowing in, along with wondering mice. However, spray foam is, well, mostly air, and mice chew that “air” extremely quickly, for it is just gas encapsulated within foam.
Use some steel wool. Mice cannot chew through steel. Install, shove, some steel wool into the tunnel and then fill it up with spray foam. Have the steel wool close to the external side will be best, the mice will chew until they meet the mesh of fine steel strands. You want the mice prevented from entering, you can trap and/or poison the ones already within the building. So shove in a ball of steel wool from outside and spray fill the tunnel from the inside.
Structurally Insulated Panels are a good and relatively easy modification/upgrade to seal and insulated the roof (or walls, or floor). Installation is overtop of the existing interior vaulted ceiling so the internal decor atmosphere is maintained; rather important for a log cabin style home.
The problem, it sounds like, is the no air space. Log cabins and other buildings with vaulted ceiling have no attic, no air space between the insulation and the external weatherproofing material, i.e. the shingles. That causes the vapour problem. This is really a concern with no closed cell insulation, like fibreglass and such. The utilization of closed cell insulation, like the pink styrofoam insulation panels (usually come in 2’x8’ sheets and are easily cut to fit whatever they need to be) alleviates that concern.
First things first. The R-factor needs to be high enough to keep the cold out. Which is actually retaining the heat in; it is reducing the flow of heat energy. This just means you require a thick enough layer of insulation. You need to heat the living space enough to balance the loss of heat through the insulation. That pink styrofoam has a higher r-value per inch than fibreglass, so you can use less material. For example a 8 inch thick vs a 12 inch thick roof.
The next thing is the dew point, and that vapour problem. Without a dead air space above the insulation; which is vented to the atmosphere; and moisture builds. The dew point will be somewhere within the insulation, unless the insulation is too thin in which case the dew point ends up within the dwelling, which is indicative of frost on the interior surface of the ceilings or walls. It’s the reason windows frost up as well, although air flow is usually designed to most times prevent this except during very close periods.
When the dew point is within open cell insulation (fibreglass) that is where the moisture will freeze/than and accumulate. A vapour barrier helps, but without an above insulation vented air space, the moisture cannot escape and eventually pools within the insulation and drips and flows into the living area. (That was version 1 of my attic, kids’ playroom I built)
Using close cell insulation; or ensuring the dew point is located within close cell insulation if one used both types; does not allow for moisture accumulation, because air cannot flow to that point. (That was version 2 ).
SIP should be manufactured with closed cell insulation and engineered with proper depth to provide the required r-value for minimal heat transfer and comfortable living area. This will lower the heating bill and provide a stable comfortable environment both winter and summer.
Heat plays a big part of this scenario as well. Propane heaters, especially older one, pump out a rather high amount of humidity. They create more of a moisture problem in the closed months. Of course you do not want a too dry of a house, especially with wood work. The wood needs moisture to prevent cracking and splitting, and a log house has a lot of wood. Even regular dwellings have a fair bit of wood, with all the trim, doors, cupboards, etc. So moisture content is important.
Hearing radiant heat, and I think of the microwave radiating type in which the heater heats you and not the air. The hot water piped system is of course radiating heat energy and will heat everything within the environment. This radiating does require time and does not react quickly to changes within the environment. It is a set it and forget it type system and takes a while to find the right balance; for a gal un-garbing and re-garbing herself 9000 times a day, it might not work so well. This kind of heating system is what is in the building I work in, and there is no end of complaints, cold spots, hot spots, etc.
An on-demand water heater would not be a good fit either. And truthful a boiler is better suited, depending upon the size of the place. A typical domestic water heater is about 3000 W, the big ones are 4500W. 3000W is one element on your stove. Imagine trying to heat your entire house with just that one element. That is all the heat the water heater could produce and put into the liquid within the pipes in the floor. That “hot”, well like warm liquid, circulates and radiates heat outward into the room. The piping is installed under the floor, which mean the floor has to heat up first. The floor boards heat the flooring (carpet, tiles, whatever), which then radiate heat to the air, which then radiates heat to the furniture, you, the walls, the ceiling, etc. As you can see lots of energy transfer, which means lots of losses.
These loses are just heat, but it prevents the heat getting to where you want it. Not to mention the lack of source energy, that 3000W element, the minimal heat will be dissipated from the transfer piping rather quickly. Rooms and areas further downstream will receive very little heat, ever.
The converse of all that is just as problematic. Once the cabin is sufficiently heated up enough the water heater/boiler shuts off. Yet the liquid is still hot. The floorboards, flooring, carpet, and such continue to radiate heat long after the thermostat has reached the desired temperature.
A reasonable sized house requires around 15-25kW of heat. That’s 15000 to 25000 watts of heat. That can be from individual propane heaters, the baseboards we discussed long ago, or a single air-forced furnace. A geothermal component is the source energy of say a force air furnace. The beauty part is the low input energy required to extract the output energy from the geothermal heat source. They are very high efficiency.
Propane heaters are poor efficiency, and considering the humidity issues, not a recommended solution. They are utilized when electrical service are small or none existent, and it is cost prohibitive to upgrade or build a new electrical service.
Baseboards provide easy, air sensing thermostatically controlled, quick responding, heating for individual room. They do not provide any humidity, which is usually not a problem for the opening and closing of outer door is usually more than sufficient to provide fresh air and maintain humidity levels. These are inexpensive and easy to install.
Hot water radiating heat is more money. If one wants individual room control, zoning controls add to the complexity and the cost. There are not filled with water, it is glycol or similar antifreeze-type liquid. They do leak and require maintenance. It is nice to walk across a cosy warm floor in bare feet, which can be obtained by other means and better insulation. Of course better insulation lowers input energy costs, which offsets the upfront cost of upgrading insulation (those SIPs).
Fan-force heating provides air flow and circulates the heat rather radiate and convection alone. This keeps humidity under control and usually is a better living environment, temperature-wise. The air flow keep windows less fogged up as well. If one does not have the duct work, this can be a big undertaking.
My house originally had a boiler and radiators in each room. When I purchased it that system was not functioning and in very bad shape. I removed all that and installed ductwork, from basement through all three floors. No easy feat. The walls could not accommodate a duct for the required airflow so the duct work was surface mounted and then built in to a corner closet. A forced-air furnace was installed, and later geothermal.
Along with that, I insulated the attic (no air space ceiling) with closed cell styrofoam to R-50 or R-60. New windows and doors replaced the old leaky ones. My entire house is comfortable and there are no cold or hot spots.
My vision of your cabin is such that ductwork is probably not a viable option. I would lean towards baseboard heaters and forego hot water radiant heat. If duct work exists, or could be easily installed, fan-forced would be really nice. Especially with geothermal pumps.
No matter what option you choose, if you do not insulate you are pouring money to the outside. The SID upgrade or other roof repair/insulating sounds like it is needed. I suspect a ground level insulation upgrade would be beneficial as well.
Nanaimo bars and a mountain cabin is rather alluring to a hungry handyman.
Have a great day Gerda.
D
Last edited by DnJ; 09/20/2005:15 PM.
Feelings are fleeting. Be better, not bitter. Love the person, forgive the sin.
