Deer Run- 16x26 in Oklahoma

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Scott, there is a Habitat Re-Store in Stillwater, too (I know that's a ways from you, but it might be worth a day trip sometime.)  At least, I am assuming it is still there.  It is right off 177 just on the south side of town, as you cross the railroad tracks to the right less than a block... think it is on 9th?  Maybe one of these days when the weather is bad for building you could just take a mini-road trip down there and stop for some good Mexican food at El Tapatio.  My old landlord used to get a lot of his stuff there for fixing up the dumps he and his wife would buy... then he'd sell them after collecting rent for a few years for 2-3x what he paid.

Your plans sound good... I daydream a lot, but at this point that's all it is.... waiting for DH to get a job offer so that we can move back to OK.  I keep clicking my heels together and saying, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home," but it hasn't worked yet.

[glenn kangiser]

Careful, Homegrown.  You'll end up in Kansas.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Glenn, at the rate we're going, that's where we're going to end up.  DH got an offer yesterday there... we're thinking about it.  Not quite home, but a heck of a lot closer...   and a relocation package second to none which would eliminate most of the stress of moving... 

[ScottA]

Still plugging along. The snow melted off today so I made some progress.

[Sassy]

nice views through the window!  Glenn has tried to ban me from using that word "view"- everytime he wants to build shop stuff or put his equipment certain places I tell him it will ruin the "view" ...   

[glenn kangiser]

Yup...She can't say the "V" word.

[ScottA]

I was thinking to park the backhoe right in front of that window. Sound like a good spot glen?

[glenn kangiser]

That's what I would do.

[ScottA]

Some other angles of the cabin. Worked on the bumpout today. Was a very cold day. My brain was numb by the time I left to go home.

[Sassy]

I was thinking to park the backhoe right in front of that window. Sound like a good spot glen?

Scott, are you taking "passive/aggressive lessons from Glenn? 

btw, lookin good - looks pretty tidy to me!   

[ScottA]

Scott, are you taking "passive/aggressive lessons from Glenn?

In some ways this whole project is passive/aggressive. I mean who decides to build a 360 sq. ft. home in the woods that doesn't have some resentment of the status quo. I'm basicly telling the system to kiss my behind. We're even considering a privacy fence between us and the road with a locked gate.

[MountainDon]

We have a locked gate where the forest service road crosses onto our property with a four wire barbed wire fence to keep the range cattle out. At times it's a small hassle, like when we expect visitors. But knowing that it keeps most (honest) folks off our land more than compensates.

[glenn kangiser]

Good attitude, Scott.

[Redoverfarm]

Don once you get things established you could always buy some 3" pipe and make a cattle guard at the crossing and not have that gate and fence to worry about.  Of course you would still have your entrance up the road to keep gated.  When I started my project the first thing I did was install gates.  It didn't stop the foot traffic but did make it more difficult to drive in and take things.  But I have to "knock on wood" I haven't had anything bothered in almost two years.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I am all in favor of good fences and gates.  Our family farm used to get a lot of prowlers because it had a driveway 1/4 mile long or longer.  A lot of the "prowlers" were kids looking for a place to park or party because they didn't realize it was a driveway (thought it was an old, semi-unused road.)  Grandpa never tired of stepping out in the drive with a shotgun and standing there in front of their cars until they saw him, freaked out, and started frantically trying  to back down the drive in the dark.  We did have our share of prowlers who were out to steal and/or do harm.  Before putting in the gates, Grandma and Grandpa put in a big light up by the house that lit up the whole drive, carport, and parking area.  That didn't seem to deter the kids much. Then they put up a gate all the way at the end of the drive, but a lot of times neither of them wanted to walk all the way down (especially in bad weather) and back to shut it at night (they gave all of us family members keys to the padlocks they kept on the chain.)  When Grandpa got sick, they put in a second gate halfway up the driveway that they could control with a remote in the car.  There was a keypad on the gate and you could unlock it with a code... sometimes they closed both gates, but if weather was bad, they only closed the electric one.  Anyway, the gates deterred a lot more punk kids than the light ever did... though Grandpa and his shotgun were by far the scariest deterrent!

[ScottA]

Our cabin is only 200' off the road so it's obvious that it's a driveway. We live in a pretty good area. Never had any problems. The cabin site is 1/4 mile away from my current house on the opposite side of the road so I don't see us having problems there either. We have a gate now but it hasn't been closed in 30 years. Doubt it even still works. Difference here is that you can't see the house from the road so no one even knows it's here. The cabin can be easily seen from the road in winter. I've been thinking my privacy needs to extend to the property line though and not just inside the house.

[Sassy]

we live at the end of a mile long private road - there are 3 houses before ours - our house is at the end of a 1/4mi dirt road - you don't even see the house when you drive up to it - most people wonder where it is    We've thought about putting gates at the beginning of the dirt road or at the end closer to the house, but it's just too much hassle to get in & out of the vehicle to unlock, open, close, lock.  We have good neighbors & they keep an eye on things - know when strange vehicles or people drive by - their used to us, though  so they just ignore us.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Summer before last we went camping in northern WI... really pretty area up there.  We had read about a waterfall that you could hike in to see, so we were looking for it, and we were in the right area, but there were no signs so we missed it and got lost on these beautiful dirt roads in the middle of nowhere... I saw a little sign that said "bed and breakfast, 7 mi" so out of curiosity we followed the little signs, thinking maybe we could ask the proprietors for directions.  Seemed a lot longer than a 7 mile trip because we didn't see another car, person, or even house in that whole time.  The road eventually dwindled down to two small tire tracks in the grass, which we followed, hoping to at least find a place to turn around.  Suddenly, we came up a little rise and there was the prettiest place you ever saw, two cabins and barns, and hanging baskets of purple and red petunias on the porch.  An older man sat on the front porch swing whittling.  He stood up and smiled when we stopped the car and even drew us a map to get back to the waterfall, which was only about 5 miles from there.  The B&B was called something like the Penokee Mt. Inn, or something like that... folks were really nice, but as far away from civilization as they were, I figured that they didn't even need gates... by the time you make it that far, you're pretty much expecting the road to just peter out entirely and to be in the middle of the forest somewhere; I was really surprised that there was actually a house out there by the time we got to it.  Now THAT's a private drive.  We sat on the porch and talked to the owners for a few minutes, and I was surprised to learn that they had just hosted a wedding party of 45 the day before. You would've never guessed it by the narrow path through the trees.

[Sassy]

Sounds like one of those idyllic places you usually only see in pix 

[ScottA]

Had alot of work this week and it was cold as hell so not alot of progress unfortunatly. Framed the bathroom and started on the storage loft above. Warmer weather comming this weekend so we might get more done tomorrow.

[John Raabe]

Lookin' good Scott.

[glenn kangiser]

hmm Hmmm - my old boss told me he didn't heat the shop because the guys worked faster to stay warm.  Must not have been true.

[ScottA]

I heard the same story when I was a kid just starting out Glen. Wasn't true then either. Thus the saying...slower than molasses in January.

[ScottA]

We got the double 2x12 beam up for the sleeping loft this morning.



Also got the joists installed for the storage loft.

My buddy came over to help this morning. He suggested a barrel vault cieling for the sleeping loft.

Here's a rough sketch of what we are considering.



This would be done in toungue and groove wood of some kind. I need to study it a bit but my wife likes the idea. Right now though I need a break. 

[glenn kangiser]

Looks good, Scott.  Barrel vault looks interesting.