Sorry to hear about the break-in. Trail cameras would be the first order of business, placed in several different locations around your home. It won't stop someone from breaking in but you will have proof of who was around your property with date/time stamp. One mounted in an old birdhouse (decorative) on a wall facing the door would also be handy if they got inside. B and E is just gonna get worse as this things winds down.
Tickhill

If you have cell coverage - this would work to text you when someone enters the property, just need a sim card

http://www.diycontrols.com/p-6195-agm-gsm-cellular-remote-alarm-module-rm200gsxmusb.aspx

Anyone have recommendations on a decent trail camera? Just got back and there was another break in  . Talked to the local sheriff and he has agreed to add our property to the list of daily rounds they make, hopefully it will be a deterrent. He also said he would add it to the patrols done by the K9's in case they do find someone and they run  .

Headed back up next weekend to possibly install and alarm and set out some trail cams, was looking at this one: http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=34901896&cp=4406646.4413993.4414427.13218606 seems to have decent reviews.

I ended up ordering a Honeywell Vista 20p for my place http://www.security.honeywell.com/hsc/products/intruder-detection-systems/control-panel/burglary/ademco-vista/14958.html seemed to be a good starting place giving me room to upgrade should I see fit down the line. I am going to start with a few motion detectors throughout the place and a sensor on the main door. I also added a lock to my breaker panel and shut down the power for the place when I'm away, hopefully this will keep the intruders from doing laundry and running my utility bills up. Two weekends ago I also used some sheet metal screws and screwed all of my windows closed just in case they were coming in through there. Not an ideal fix but I figure I never open them anyway, mainly use the sliders for ventilation, and I did leave the screws off of the bedroom windows for egress.

Went up to the property last weekend to install my alarm and upon arrival I found I once again had unwanted guests. I really think they believe I don't notice they have been there, they tried to hide their trash in the woods and they washed and put away all of the dishes they used. Judging by the food scraps being untouched outside and the fact that the dishes they put away were still wet I must have just missed them. Which is what I am afraid of, if I find them I'm not too worried, but if my better half were to arrive to house guests I don't know what would happen.

Fortunately I think I have found how they are getting in, it looks as though they are coming in through a skylight in the bathroom. Before leaving I put four carriage bolts through the skylight and took measurements to weld up a set of bars. While I really don't want to have to install bars on windows I'm desperate at this point, next year when I tear the roof off I will install a skylight that locks better than the current one. While at the cabin I also installed an alarm, one sensor on the front door and motion sensors throughout. At this point I only have it hooked up to make a lot of noise for 20 minutes and hopefully that is enough to scare them off should they get in again. If it seems like they are going to continue to mess with the place I will be adding satellite internet to the cabin with remote monitoring.

It really does make me sad that it has come to this and that you can't have nice things anymore without someone trying to help themselves.

I sort of wonder if you just left a letter in plan sight.  Asking them not to use the house anymore.  However there is a good benefit to this.  They are neat and                                                                              pretty responsible so it seems.... They might be keeping the riff raff out....  Wink!!!  You might arrange for them to be caretakers.  If you can come to terms.

Someone else said the same thing about making them caretakers. 

Got word that a tree blew over and into my cabin during the recent storms... So looks like I'm headed up to play lumberjack. And here I thought it was going to be a nice relaxing weekend at the cabin...

I do hope the damage is not too bad. Merry Christmas and be safe.

Fortunately the damage wasn't too bad but trying to cut the tree out of there without causing further damage had me scratching my head. I hopped up on the roof and cut the limbs I could reach and while I was figuring out my next move someone saw me from the road and walked over to see what my plan was. We agreed that the tree needed to be supported so that when I started cutting the top of the tree it wouldn't swing and kick the trunk up in the air causing the top of the tree to crash through the roof. He then said that he would help for a few hundred bucks (side note he is a well known logger that has logged on our property back in the 70's) for a few hundred bucks it was a no brainer. He went home grabbed his climbing gear, block and tackle and we got busy.

First we stabilized the tree by running a line from the midpoint up in to another tree to the right of the cabin. Then he climbed the cluster of three trees and secured his block up there so that we could lower the cut pieces down. After that he went to town and I lowered the pieces after he cut them. Once we got it cut back to where we could work from the roof, I would hold the log and he would cut then I would toss them to the drop zone. In the end he charged me $150, a small price to pay to have it done right. He is going to come over in the spring and help me fell a few other trees that look questionable. It's a good feeling to know there are still some decent people out there.

Great...glad it worked out with no damage!

When it comes to large trees around structures it pays to have a professional on the job!!!

 I love your line ......  It's a good feeling to know there are still some decent people out there.

Yes there.  There are a lot of them out there. 

As far as the tree goes so glad it was not one of those size huge ones you have there. 

Looking for suggestions on exterior sliding door material...

A few weeks ago while at the cabin I was assessing some dry rot damage to the exterior and noticed one of my sliders is about shot (I think they're Pella wooden sliders). So I'm going to yank it out and replace it, but I don't know what with. Seems the options are: vinyl, composite, aluminum. I'm going to stay away from wood this time because it just gets too darn wet in the winters and things don't dry out.

What does everyone recommend? I'm fairly certain this is a standard sized opening, though I will be trying to order it in black if possible to match my other windows and sliders.

 Black is most likely not available in vinyl.  i've never seen anything darker than light tan. It absorbs the sun, gets hot and can warp. A neighbor painted the exteriorof two vinyl windows a dark green and they didn't make it through the summer. NM summer mind you. Facing SW.

Aluminum clad wood gives the weather protection of metal, beauty of wood inside.

I'm going to spend some time next weekend looking at as many doors as I can but I am liking the Andersen 100 Series (http://www.andersenwindows.com/products/100-series-gliding-patio-door/) I see they're available in black and have the grill option I'm looking for.

I will also check out my options with aluminum clad. Keep the recommendations coming...

Looks like I'm going to go with a MasterPiece composite door, they aren't too bad on the pocket book and they are paint-able. Looked at the extent of the damage and it looks like it's just the sub-floor and a few joists have some dry rot, so it shouldn't be too bad to fix.

Had some wind while I was up there last week, the downside to giant redwoods is their giant branches. One of them had about an eight to ten inch diameter and was about 15 feet long. Fortunately I'm replacing that deck anyway.

*sorry, don't have this picture anymore*

You know I was wondering that your home invaders / visitors may be friends of the dude you bought it off? Normally to do what they are doing implies a connection and not some random punks.

Quote from: Watch Ryder on February 06, 2016, 08:26:03 PMYou know I was wondering that your home invaders / visitors may be friends of the dude you bought it off? Normally to do what they are doing implies a connection and not some random punks.

That's definitely something that we considered, fortunately it's been about 15 months since the last break in so I think either they moved on, or I've added enough discouragement to have them look for an easier target.

Haven't been able to get a hold of my neighbor that helped remove the tree from my roof last year, he said he would give me a hand dropping the trees that are growing over the cabin. And I want to drop the trees before I put the new roof on, so I ended up calling the guys I used to drop the Doug Fir that was growing up against the cabin a few years ago.

Downside being it's going to cost me a lot more than if my neighbor had helped, but the upside is that we will drop, cut, and chip all of the trees in a few hours. Whereas with the neighbor, he was just going to drop the trees and I would have been on my own for everything else. We're shooting to do the work on Thursday and it's supposed to be a beautiful day, I'll post up some pictures after I get back.

Once the trees are down I can start ripping the old roof off, this is something that should have been replaced many years ago. I have no idea how it hasn't sprung a leak yet.

Well we were only able to drop two trees, the one that was over the cabin and another one that looked sketchy. I wanted another two out as they look sketchy as well so the crew is going back Thursday. Worked out a deal to drop the other two trees, prune all of the trees on the grounds that are near cabins, and grind out all of the stumps. The down side is that it is costing about four times what I was budgeting; but that's still a lot less than the bill would be should one of these trees go over on their own.

Just going to have to push the new roof out by a month or so, up side is that my dad's friend just dropped off 1400 sq ft enough Gracie ice and rain shield for free, he bought it for a job and ended up using something else. I think I might just lay this on the whole roof instead of just the perimeter, that should really ensure it's sealed up good. 

Here are three of the four offenders, all Tanoaks, and from what we've seen starting to rot from the inside out. ...

Well, the trees are gone and after looking at the inside of the trunks, I'm glad I took them out.

The victory wasn't without a few issues though, while removing the chip piles one of the hydraulic lines on my right ram blew on the Bobcat. And the other issue wasn't as bad, but when I got home last night I realized that I had left my wallet at the cabin  . So I'll be taking an eight hour detour after work today.

With the trees gone it was time to do the roof. The plan was to go up Saturday the 30th and work through Sunday the 7th, just my dad and I. But my dad ended up going on the 29th, and three buddies decided to head up and lend a hand for the weekend. My buddies really saved us, we had the old roof off and in the trailer in a matter of hours and then they got busy laying down the Grace. By the time they left Monday afternoon, we had 75% of the Grace down, all of the dry-rot cut out and replaced, new sheathing on the overhangs and gable ends, drip edge installed, and a few courses of shingles. My dad and I finished up last night around 9:00pm, we probably would have been done Wednesday; however we ran short of shingles not once, but twice!  I think we're both to blame on that one, closest supplier for the shingles was a three hour round trip.

One other set back was the dump closest to the property (45 minutes away) only accepted cash and the tipping fee was $180/ton. I didn't really have any way to pull out that much cash on a Sunday, so I had to go to the main transfer station which was two hours away from the property. Fortunately I had rented a dump trailer, so once I got to the transfer station I was in and out in under ten minutes.

And the new roof color is still growing on me, my dad's buddy owns a roofing company and he just added my shingles in when he was placing a big order, as I told him I didn't care with regards to color.

Here are a few pictures and a time lapse video, sadly I didn't get the camera setup until day two... that's one of my buddies having fun with the camera.

Before:



After:





Time Lapse:

https://youtu.be/sWqQXtVa6WQ

Looks awesome... like 90% of the roofs I see... the color looks great... i'm probably going with a similar color (Estate Grey) or maybe green, but I don't really like green, but it might go better with the siding finish i'm going with.  Did you get the stuff with scotchguard moss killer or just regular?

I need to get back out to my place soon to put my roofing on and finish up some loose ends before winter sneaks up on me.  Unfortunately (fortunately) I just picked up 3 new houses to frame and one of them is pushing 4000 sq. ft. so the rest of my summer just got real.

Good eye, I went with Owen Corning Duration shingles in, estate gray. Didn't get the scotchguard moss killer, I'm hoping now that I've removed a lot of the trees I won't have issues with moss. I guess time will tell.

Forgot to mention, not sure if you can see it in the video, but we used a Genie Lift to get the shingles up to the roof, and as a working platform to shingle the front. My dad picked that up at auction two weeks ago for $75, that thing was a back saver. I carried 20 bundles of shingles up to the roof using a ladder a few weeks before we started, and man, it was so much easier using the Genie Lift.