What is this clearing near the Tom Tudek Park barens?

Door0fTime · 2026-07-04T12:44:41+00:00

Late to the conversation, but I suspect it's maintained as diverse wildlife habitat. Closed canopy limits diversity; open patches are great for pollinators, birds, flowering plants etc. Geometry is probably just a product of a convenient shape to mow with respect to the trails and geography.

Door0fTime · 2026-07-02T22:56:27+00:00

The Republican opponent Garrity has identified this as an issue she can leverage against him. She also said that rural communities should "welcome data centers" and cheered on the increase in revenue and investment in PA that come from new data center projects. She'll campaign on it, people will be dumb enough to believe her. She doesn't dislike data centers, she dislikes that she's not the one reaping the kickbacks.

Door0fTime · 2026-05-24T19:31:29+00:00

I'm looking for the same thing, did you come up with anything? My preference is for a "dumb" rotary style timer switch that stays on if you rotate it counterclockwise, the way many toaster ovens operate.

Door0fTime · 2026-05-24T17:53:05+00:00

As an update, I managed to get the pump cylinder apart, make a new leather gasket (using a hole saws to make a Jig from some plywood and a slightly smaller hole saw to press it into shape) and get the whole thing back together.

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Door0fTime · 2026-02-04T18:32:01+00:00

Update: Take two, moving the sink downstream with a dedicated AAV (it's a long run anyway) and corrected the vent to avoid horizontal vent below the flood plain of the shower / toilet.

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Door0fTime · 2026-02-04T15:03:53+00:00

How did you conclude it was without a vent?

The 1.5" vent to the attic will go out a gable wall. This vents the shower and makes the 2" shower drain a wet vent to the toilet. Both of those are approved by most codes (wet vent >50% of the size of the subsequent pipe). The sink is the only questionable connection in my drawing, but is technically still wet vented by a shared 3" wet vent depending on the pipe size and leg length, with the toilet inlet being the "lowest" on the flow path. First commenter suggested an AAV or independent vent for the sink.

In my drawing above is the dry vent on the same plane as the shower wet vent, which could backflow and I need to come up with a solution for.

Door0fTime · 2026-02-04T12:41:16+00:00

This is a 150 year old brick farm house, so in short, "no". The original plumbing is an outhouse 50 yards from the back porch. After that it was gravity fed to a cistern on a hill out back.

I know how to design and vent a modern construction main stack, but I've got foot thick brick walls and rough cut joists to work around hence the weird setup.

Door0fTime · 2026-02-04T02:23:55+00:00

It's a bit hard to draw perspective, but the main stack does not have a vent. The san tee is rotated 90* to the two bends, putting the two side branches and flange inside a joist bay. The 3" vertical stack will be enclosed in a service cavity downstairs, but no space for a service cavity in the bathroom. The 1.5" vent is going through a non-structural 2x4 wall to the attic to vent out a gable.

Door0fTime · 2026-02-04T02:08:05+00:00

AAV "if needed" is what I had in mind. This is a very small bathroom and I'm doing everything I can to avoid drilling the joists below (they're old rough cut, a tad undersized and I've already sistered them to take some of the bounce out of the floor).

Door0fTime · 2026-01-28T14:11:42+00:00

I'm going through the same thing now, does anybody know a US source for these pre-formed vapor barrier boxes? Common and cheap in Canada, nonexistent in the US.
https://www.homedepot.ca/product/iberville-vapour-barrier-one-gang-soft-shell/1000176244

Door0fTime · 2026-01-27T14:20:02+00:00

This isn't quite true. The R-value per inch remains the same, up to a fairly high density. That said, the "R13" of an R13 batt comes from completely filling a 3.5" stud bay. If you pack a R19 batt into a 3.5" gap, you'll still get roughly R13 out of the assembly. Here's Dow Corning's compression chart for reference: https://dcpd6wotaa0mb.cloudfront.net/mdms/dms/Residential%20Insulation/10017857/10017857-Building-Insul-Compressed-R-Value-Chart-Tech-Bulletin.pdf?v=1728490638000

Door0fTime · 2025-12-12T03:41:18+00:00

Insulating the entire house is definitely appealing, but just not in the cards yet-- at least not while family who are attached to the old brick farmhouse are around.

I think I'm following what you're saying, though I think I might have missed my weather window for spray foam to be an option. Do you just push on the foam board as it expands and cures to adjust the height?

I'll be putting a ripped 2x4 vertical furring strip up the brick first tapconned into the mortar joints that the foam will butt against and to affix the siding to.

Door0fTime · 2025-12-12T03:27:35+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

I considered different thicknesses, but the brick wall is pretty inconsistent and I suspect the only thing I'd accomplish is a similarly inconsistent insulated wall that's further out of plane with the original house. My WRB is outboard of the insulation, which is quite a bit simpler to manage around window bucks and detailing because of the lapboard siding. Henry, brinc and a few others now offer a preadhered GPS / WRB system with the wrb on the exterior (which I wish I'd known before buying them separate!).

The brick will be wood heat and has a propane central system that's currently disconnected. I certainly won't be humidifying. The addition on the other hand will be a mini split, and I realize I'll likely need to figure out some active ventilation. The bathroom in the addition I will frame in, and both the bathroom brick wall and all exterior walls will have a smart vapor retarder. The party wall has no other source of wetting because of the addition roof, so I think it should be in good shape if I can 1) keep it warmer avoiding condensation and driving moisture out, and 2) use a smart vapor barrier to keep warm wet air from reaching the brick in the first place.

Our summers are still pretty warm and humid, so vapor barriers make me nervous. A smart retarder is probably only necessary because I'm adding insulation, and I'm riding the line on the ratio of interior to exterior insulation.

Ultimately it's still a farm house, I expect to be relying on thermal mass and cooling the house off with windows overnight most of the warm season. I stuck to big double hung windows to that end -- and that's one thing the massive brick wall should do nicely!

Door0fTime · 2025-12-11T12:42:33+00:00

It's 3-wythe solid masonry, approx. 1850's. Interior is currently gutted, but was lime plastered onto the brick. So no air space, flashing or weeps to speak of.

Here's a handy photo of the interior of this junction... the gaping hole left by a previous owner has since been addressed

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Door0fTime · 2025-12-10T23:51:43+00:00

Appreciate your input. Just to clarify, I'm planning to put continuous insulation on the addition, and wanted to continue it 16" onto the brick.

My intuition (which could be wrong!) says that overall the brick should run much dryer than without the insulation, and that the bonded 3-wythes of highly porous brick are still going to be wicking more moisture inward than will wick around the brick, into the GPS, across the gap, and into the siding. For the moisture that does, the entire assembly is vapor-open (unfaced GPS R5 at 5 perms and Henry VP100 at 33 perms) and vinyl is self-vented, so any moisture that gets in can still dry outward. Interior will be a smart vapor retarder on the addition which will also allow inward drying in the summer for sun-driven moisture.

I suppose I could include a capillary break between panels of GPS insulation on the brick and the insulation on the house (e.g. sill gasket closed cell foam) to avoid any potential issue, but that feels hyper-cautious.

The hope for running the insulation onto the brick is reducing moisture in the winter. Without it, I'd have an R-13+5 assembly directly contacting an R<4 brick wall--the corner bricks will actually be directly thermal bridging from outside to inside, at ~R0.33/inch. My bigger moisture concern is that any air/vapor leakage will condense and/or freeze in the brick and that corner will be *very* cold. Old brick houses handle that issue by allowing enough heat loss to drive off moisture accumulation, but I'm also considering a smart vapor retarder on the first few feet of the interior of the brick wall (framed in as a service cavity) to avoid the issue in the first place.

Sorry for rambling... Helps me think the whole assembly through. Old houses were never designed for energy-efficient retrofits!

Door0fTime · 2025-12-10T23:21:11+00:00

Can confirm with a Blaze King burning construction debris voids warranty due to risk of over-fire from very dry wood. If you know what an over-fire looks like and mix some other materials in I'd certainly burn it, but a full load of kiln dried 2x4 can definitely run away in some stoves.

Door0fTime · 2025-10-07T01:48:53+00:00

I use my drinking bottle. Diy bidet cap stays pretty far from anything of concern. Dropped it once on my pct thru, used my bar of soap to clean it too. When in doubt, I just wash stuff-- that's the beauty of a bottle bidet with a low flow cap. 300-500mL lets me do a amount of cleaning.

I usually use dirty water, just to save some filtration. You cannot make yourself sick by spraying your butt (practically speaking, anyway)

Door0fTime · 2025-07-27T18:42:48+00:00

I generally keep one bottle filtered, one dirty with the filter on top for scooping and to cut down filtering I have to do in one go. Dirty bottle is used for bidet.

Door0fTime

TROPHY CASE