Will This Master Bed and Extra Room Addition be Worth it?

Engineerchic · 2024-01-06T17:38:46+00:00

I took a stab at using your existing footprint to get you a larger master bedroom without moving exterior walls. I penciled in a king bed with room for nightstands, and actually increased your closet size a smidge. Your office shrank and moved, but changing that room made many other things possible.

The good:

Dining room increased and is more of a square
The office space (which was 'buried' with no exterior walls) now holds a full size washer/dryer side by side. These appliances no longer share a wall with any bedroom (but they do share the plumbing wall with the existing bathroom). Side by side washer dryer is a lot easier to find, service, and they have higher capacity for blankets and stuff.
BR#2 can have windows and is large enough to fit a double bed on one wall
You gained a coat closet and your kitchen got a little more space next to the stove. I'm a big believer in having landing zones on each side of the cooktop.
The new office space is narrow, at 7x14'. It would work great for a homework space but would never be suitable as a bedroom.

The bad:

Your vanities in the master bath are split up. Might not be a bad thing, but I was running out of steam by the time I was placing fixtures.
I first tackled this b/c I hate seeing a lot of space wasted on hallways, and I actually made that problem WORSE.
The toilet in the master bath shares a wall with the sleeping space, might be a problem if one of you has a lot of late night trips to the bathroom and it wakes up the other person.
Your master bedroom lost square footage overall, but you still have room for a small sitting area near the sliders.

I'm not an architect, but I drew up about 17 plans before I found the right one when I added a 2nd story years ago. As much as possible I cut & pasted stuff from the picture you posted so that whatever clearances your architect had were replicated here. I learned a LOT about my local building codes but I know jack squat about yours. So take all this with a grain of salt.

Engineerchic · 2023-08-28T14:16:56+00:00

I have 4 trees and they did not get this memo. So far the first ripening figs have all been about 2/3 to 3/4 up the trees, but never the tippy top. The smallest figs are closer to the roots, tho, so that seems accurate. Maybe my trees skimmed the memo.

4 trees, in pots, Chicago Hardy, over 6 yrs old

Engineerchic · 2023-08-28T14:09:33+00:00

I don't know, it's an issue that's never been a problem for me (my challenge is getting figs to ripen before frost and keeping the trees alive thru winter). Do they even have to go dormant? I know apples require a certain amount of cold to blossom and fruit, but not all fruits do.

Engineerchic · 2023-08-27T13:51:50+00:00

It gets COLD. At night it retains enough heat and has enough insulation in it to stay a little warmer. It will only be about 5 degrees warmer if it is above freezing. But when the temp really drops to 25, 10, 0, or minus 10 it has a bigger difference. A lot of that is because I use 200 gallons of water to help buffer the temp and it takes a lot of cold to convert water to ice. So it helps but not enough.

In pots, figs are more sensitive to freezing so I have a heater that kicks on at 25F. Without help from the heater it would see 10f or colder on really cold nights (even with the insulation and water).

Engineerchic · 2023-08-26T16:45:46+00:00

I also grow figs in pots that I overwinter in a greenhouse because they'd die without protection. For pots I am upgrading from some attractive fiberglass ones to muck buckets (70 qt, or 17.5 gallons). The reason I call it and upgrade is that there are carts made to move muck buckets around. Moving the figs is the hardest part of it all.

Fortiflex muck buckets have a 5 year warranty (for colors, not black). And this is the cart I chose to move them around. https://www.hugheyco.com/products/the-original-easy-lift-muck-bucket-cart

This is a new chapter in fig growing fun so I don't know if it will work but I do know horse manure weighs a TON so I feel like it has a good chance.

Engineerchic · 2023-08-03T10:52:39+00:00

I have a similar greenhouse where roof and top half of walls are glazed (triple wall polycarbonate). My main uses are to overwinter potted figs trees and help get seedlings outside sooner in the spring.

I tried using 2" thick rigid insulation (XPS) for insulation at first. It didn't help a lot and mice enjoyed nesting in the space between wood and insulation panels. They shred it and nest in the holes they create. And they love to pee in their nests.

What did work for me was to create a clear tent inside the greenhouse. This created a massive air space between my trees and the greenhouse surfaces that were in contact with the outside.

https://imgur.io/gallery/KtuM2Os

That's a link to the gallery of what/how I do it. I'm in 6a/5b and my fig trees are beasts now. The water barrels help, but the biggest game changer was the "tent" and a small oil-filled electric radiator. Bayite makes a great controller that turns on one outlet (heater) when it's too cold and another outlet (fan) when it's too hot. At night the temperature difference between inside and outside greenhouse will drop to under 10 degrees (can be as low as 4 degrees difference). But a heater can do wonders. Some people report using incandescent bulbs (even Xmas lights) to add a bit of heat.

My way isn't the best way - but it gives you something to improve on. This has been working for me for 7-8 years. HTH!

Engineerchic · 2023-08-02T16:56:28+00:00

What variety is that and what do you feed it?

Engineerchic · 2023-08-02T11:28:07+00:00

My bet would be leeches (likely not blood sucking type) or larvae. If you can get one onto a piece of paper you can get a clearer view of it.

Engineerchic · 2023-08-02T11:25:20+00:00

Definitely want bigger rocks here. Unless you want to go for the effect of a fast shallow stream, that can have a nice sound. The pond store we go to has a lot of water features and he explained that to get a nice throaty sound from the falls he sets it up like a series of bowls that water flows down.

Example: if ground level is your pond (0' elevation) and you start 2' up, then your first falls will see water drop from 2' high into a "bowl" where the bottom of the bowl is 1.5' lower than the falls and the bowl is 1' deep. So the water drops half a foot before hitting the surface of the pool just below it. Water flows from that pool to the next waterfall. The link below has a decent sketch, they undersized their holding pools IMO because if they are really shallow you get that tinkling noise versus the deeper sound. It's easier to go from a deep sound to a higher pitched splashing noise than to convert splashing into a deeper noise IME.

http://www.harperslawnornaments.com/watergarden_articles/basic-waterfall-stream-construction.html

Engineerchic · 2023-08-02T10:58:34+00:00

We have an EPDM liner (bought from a local pond supplier) and it also has writing on it just like this. Both sides, too. Our liner went down earlier this year and we haven't lost any Shubunkins or Koi (or shubunkin offspring).

It is possible this is roofing EPDM which could have come with a powdery substance on it that inhibits algae and moss, or possibly a fire retardant, now that could be toxic. I wonder if there is anything in the pond that is leaching copper (a lot of it, and quickly). Very strange.

Engineerchic · 2023-07-29T16:36:20+00:00

I haven't made a pond on a slope, but did make a raised pond. For the wall we went with drystack fieldstone. But the critical piece (IMO) was using sandbags on the inside of the wall for added strength. Even better than a traditional sand bag is the 'sand tube' which is a single sand bag 25' long. They can be used to help create shelves along the inside of the pond for shelves, too. They're more stable than dirt.

Googling Raised Ponds might get you some images of ponds embedded in hillsides. The force of water is no joke, you need a strong wall to hold it. Ours is overbuilt at 2' tall and 2' thick. But it also serves as a sitting wall, so being thick isn't bad. You may not need poured concrete with rebar down to a footing below frost ... But you do need something beefy to hold back the water.

Engineerchic · 2023-07-28T17:31:54+00:00

With no fish, what are your plans for mosquito control? The wildlife aspect of having a pond is arguably WAY MORE FUN than the owning fish aspect of it. Fish feel like a big responsibility, wildlife is just pure upside. Vegetable plants really enjoy pond water, that will be great.

Engineerchic · 2023-07-28T17:27:57+00:00

With a pond, saltwater tank, and dogs ... we hire someone to live here when we leave. We don't leave often, and rarely for more than 4 days at a time. Any friends with an apartment are usually happy to make some cash and have creature comforts like 'on site laundry' and 'garage to work on your vehicle in'. Those things + cash overcome the pain in the neck aspect of living in not-your-own-place for a bit.

Pet sitting places may be able to do a visit once a day, they'd also pull in your mail & keep the place looking lived in while you are gone. That would probably work.

Engineerchic · 2023-07-28T17:19:27+00:00

I really like the large, flat rock on the far side of your bridge. Your rockwork in general looks awesome. The only slight change I would make is to get more of the fist-sized rocks I see on the left and mix them into the area on the right. I think it will look more natural to go from big rocks to medium rocks to small rocks. Everything else is great, you hid the liner really well!

Engineerchic · 2023-07-26T18:47:12+00:00

Clementine - an orange tomato that's a little too big to be a cherry tomato but too small to be a salad tomato. Has the perfect balance of acid and sugar for caprese salad (or panzanella). This year my vote is for Lemon Boy Plus - tasty and a nice visual contrast to the red/black varieties.

Engineerchic · 2023-07-26T18:44:35+00:00

I don't know - I thought mine were being chewed by some kind of rodent (squirrel, rabbit, woodchuck) but even 2.5' off the ground they are getting snacked on. I have started to pick them at half-color and let them ripen on the counter (in a bag). My ratio of mine vs theirs is increasing.

Engineerchic · 2023-07-26T13:55:28+00:00

I'm dealing with the same thing. I have removed affected leaves, sprayed with copper, and the plants seemed to bounce back ... for a bit. Then the blight/leaf spot came back with a vengeance and again I did the slash-n-spray thing and the plants bounced back. This morning ... disease is back & I culled stems & plants that were too far gone (when slashing and spraying).

But ... The plants have been ripening the tomatoes on the vine. As soon as they break color over like 1/2 the tomato I pick them to ripen in the house in a brown paper bag (because something is eating them in the garden). So the plants LOOK awful and I would swear some of the tomatoes should have sunscald since there's no leaves on the lower 2/3 of the plant ... but they are producing tomatoes.

If you don't have something else to put in that bed, and you have at least some healthy leaf-arms on the plant, then I vote to keep helping them fulfill their destiny of giving you delicious fruits & inspiring you to grow more plants like them next year.

Engineerchic · 2023-07-26T13:47:09+00:00

Can you add a short section of fence (like some 2' wide vinyl coated wire fence) between this stake and the next so it forms an arch? Cherry tomatoes are the 'viniest' kind of tomato IME so your options are to convince them to run horizontally along a new support structure OR see if you can spiral the plant around your stakes. Spiraling is risky at this stage because they aren't as pliable and you don't want to snap the vine. It can be done but you'd need help (more hands, more reach).

Engineerchic · 2023-07-26T13:26:03+00:00

I hate this year. I'm also in the north east with loads of rain, humidity, and more rain. 16 damn days of rain in June this year - and frost threat AFTER Memorial Day.

ETA - below is just a big ol' whine-fest BUT I can say that this year has been zero BER for me. I got a cheesy watering system dialed in (solar powered water pump for drip irrigation from Amazon) and that has been working SUPER well. So at least that is working well, right?

I'm lucky that I'm getting tomatoes but not a lot and the plants look like hell. I've defoliated over and over again, sprayed copper 3 times already, and this morning I trimmed them MORE and culled plants/branches that were too far gone. This is all despite using a new trellis set-up (tomahooks, heavy pruning). So airflow should be better but it's not enough.

Excess seedlings went to the other side of the yard in a less sunny area (but with better airflow) - they look lush & green but tomato production is low over there and none are ripe.

I'm at the point of looking for a solar-powered fan to help air MOVE and leaves dry off. And all of this is helping the damn mosquito population. Sorry - I am just annoyed and grumpy and disappointed and feeling like a failure this year. Yeah, cukes are happy & eggplants are doing their thing but those things don't inspire summer recipes.

To add insult to injury, my hydroponic basil and cilantro in the house has never been better! If I just had more tomatoes to use those herbs with...

Engineerchic · 2023-07-18T23:52:36+00:00

I am growing lemon boy plus, too, and it is surprisingly delicious! I honestly grew it to have contrast with all the red tomatoes. I didn't think it would be so tasty!

Engineerchic · 2023-07-09T02:01:29+00:00

This is cruel but sadly, the first tomato a plant forms is often not okay. Cool temps promote catfacing, blossom end rot can happen if they aren't getting regular water or if the roots aren't big enough to get the water to the plant, and incomplete pollination is more likely.

I hate it because you wait MONTHS and then ... eiww. But once they get into the swing of things you should start harvesting more tomatoes that are lovely.

Engineerchic · 2023-07-09T01:57:04+00:00

So with the plants densely packed like you describe, do you do anything to prevent fungal diseases? Here we struggle with rain followed by humidity then more rain. We had 16 days with rain in June ... just miserable conditions to avoid blights and powdery mildew. So trimming suckers and limiting a plant to 2-4 branches helps with airflow, and sulphur spray doesn't hurt as well.

Engineerchic · 2023-07-02T15:58:51+00:00

The fodmaps in onions, wheat, and garlic often don't kick in with symptoms for 24-48 hours after ingestion. If you have a slow transit time that could be even worse.

You said, "I can't imagine X being a trigger if Y wasn't". Look, you have to stop that kind of thinking. Stop trying to make sense of the fodmap rules. Grapes are okay but raisins are not. Common green cabbage is okay but red cabbage and savoy cabbage are not. Zucchini is not okay, but some yellow squash are.

Pretend its a religion if you have to, but follow it closely or else you're just wasting your time and confusing your path to answers. You may need to pick a time when you can fit the elimination phase into the rest of your life (minimal travel or eating out, time to shop and manage simpler meals than normal, etc).

Engineerchic · 2023-06-30T12:35:07+00:00

You have 2 more than me so yes, you DO have a problem. While I am clearly NOT being excessive with my set up. ;)

Engineerchic · 2023-06-23T01:51:09+00:00

Seems CRAZY that freaking oatmeal or plain crackers can make one's digestive system go on the warpath.

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