house in the pocono mountains

[cbc58]

pocono,

our project is aways away... have to wait for the kids to finish college.  if we hit the lottery we'll start sooner.  we are actually in NC and our land is in NH... otherwise I'd be chipping away on it now.  i'm living vicariously through the projects here and look forward to seeing the progress on your place.  

i don't know when it's held, but there is an antique wooden boat show on lake winni sometime during the summer and if you like that type of thing it's worth checking out.

[pocono_couple]

thanks for the heads up on the boat show  cbc - unfortunately,  it was this past weekend in meredith.    we used to live in wolfeboro, and i have a friend who has a couple of boats in the show each year.  the last time that i saw it, the show was at weirs beach..

i did not realize that you were in NC.  we like it down there in the winter when it is not too hot!  my daughter was thinking of attending warren wilson college in ashville.  we made two trips down there to interview..  i loved the area.. she ended up going to green mountain in VT instead...

I actually have 3 trips scheduled kind of back to back.. we will be in NH  and then the jersey shore and then i take a group of students up to maine.. so i won't be posting too many pics in the next few weeks..   hopefully, i will get back on track in the fall, if i can get away from school, that is!   

[pocono_couple]

well, it has been quite some time since my last post.  that does not mean that some work has not been done the last few months, but it is fair to say that I had hoped to accomplish more!   One would think that by now I would accept that fact that once school starts, all other projects, including house building, come to a standstill!   but, I was able to work over Thanksgiving break, and now that Christmas break is upon us, I have been out at the site the last 5 days in a row.   

We are ready for the inspector to come back and check the insulation and give me the go ahead for sheetrock.   He did give me permission to put up some sheet rock so that the gas stove could be installed.   After all of the thought that we put into heating systems and wood stoves and gas stoves,  we settled on a gas stove with the option of still installing radiant heat in the floor.   When the stove installers came, however,  they said that the stove should heat the whole house..  i found that to be great news.    they put the stove in on monday, and the gas company came on tuesday.   I ran 1 inch black pipe into the basement  and then branched off with 1/2 inch to the stove.   I am anticipating putting a gas heater in the basement and we will be running a gas stove in the kitchen..  and, we will probably be using a gas instant hot water heater as well.   each of these appliances will run off separate 1/2 inch branches from the main 1 inch line.     i finished the line about 2 minutes before the gas folks showed up.   they were supposed to do a pressure test before installing the gas.  if they had, they probably would have found that i forgot to cap one end of the pipe in the basement!    when we were bleeding the line to the stove and no gas was coming out, the boss sent his helper into the basement.. a couple of seconds later we heard  " you better come down here!"     no biggie.  i put a cap on the end ( with both of them watching me like  hawks.. lucky i turned the pipe wrench the right way the first time   )   and we were off and running.. 

so now we have heat in the house, and already, i am believing that the stove is going to handle the whole house..   i am thinking about putting in some vents between the first and second floor and letting it go at that..  any thoughts on that idea would be welcome..    so here are some recent pics..   i hope that the next ones show a lot of sheetrock!

here is the living room with heat included!


and here is the front bedroom..   ceiling already covered, and insulation completed.


another bedroom shot

[pocono_couple]

well, the inspector came today, and he seems pretty satisfied...  we have the go ahead to finish the sheet rock.   we also discussed the possibility of cutting vents into the second floor bedrooms, and he gave me the thumbs up on that as well.  so now, the question will be to see just how much it costs to heat the place with just the gas stove.    it is a small house, so i am banking on the cost being reasonable.   i do need to put some heat in the basement, but there is no sense in rushing that right now, because i still have some insulation and wall building  down there.   eventually, i think that i will hang a small gas space heater from the ceiling, and that should do it.    the momentum has been good this week, but now we have to break for Christmas..  that is not such a bad thing.  my hands are pretty beat up from insulation stud bays that have a million little nails protruding through the sheathing! 

[archimedes]

Looks great. 

That looks like a real wood stove.

[pocono_couple]

it certainly has that appearance!   of course, if it were a wood burner, it would not be nearly so close to the wall..  that is one of the benefits - particularly since it is a rather small space to begin with.   

I think that it is going to work out well..   we will save the wood stove for the next building project - which i happen to be formulating in my mind as I continue to work on this one!   It won't be here in Pennsylvania, however.  Beginning with 2011, all new residential buildings in PA will be required to have sprinkler systems installed.  It is going to be very interesting to see how it works out.  Estimates are that it will cost an additional 5000 - 12000 per house.  With the building industry already depressed it is going to be a tough sell.  In addition, there are lots of questions about just how the sprinkler systems are going to be designed for rural settings..   The insurance industry thinks that it is a great idea..  i wonder if they happened to have anything to do with the passing of the legislation 

[archimedes]

I'd be interested to see what your heating costs are using that gas stove.  I guess you'll know soon enough.  I hope you post the results.

Those sprinkler system requirements are way overboard,  as far as I'm concerned.  I hope that there is a public backlash.

Stay warm. 

[Don_P]

This is a list of state by state status on sprinklers at this point;
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/sprinkler1221.pdf

CA has banned a greater than 40% blend of glycol antifreeze in sprinkler systems due to flammability out of the nozzle on fires. That mix wouldn't protect the piping here, or in many places.

Smoke detectors have a 99.41% rate of getting the occupants out alive. Sprinklers boost that to 99.6%. That extra .2% certainly costs alot more than the first 99%.

[pocono_couple]

very interesting statistics..   although it has been touted as a way to save lives,  my suspicion all along is that it is much more about saving property and thereby reducing the liability for the insurance industry.   maybe i am just getting cynical in my middle age  

[MushCreek]

I've heard the insurance companies are offering little or no discount for homes with sprinklers, because the potential for water damage is so great. 

[Southern Steve]

Nice looking and good work.   What is the Stove type and model please?

[325ABN]

How many state inspections will you need prior to finishing your project?

[pocono_couple]

thanks southern steve,   i have the plumbing inspection yet.  I think that will just about do it.   It is kind of backward to let that go till last, but i have left room in the walls that will contain plumbing, and i can easily remove one or two sheets of drywall to get at those spots.  I won't be mudding and taping till later in the spring. 

325ABN  the stove is a jotul  firelight.  it provides 40.000 btu's  with LP gas.   

we were away this past week -  a quick ski trip as well as visiting friends and family in NH..   the plan for this weekend is to take at least one and possibly two trips out to the house with drywall - that might just about do it.  Then the materials will be there, and we won't have to trudge through snow etc with heavy loads, and there will be plenty of inside work to do for the next month or so...

[pocono_couple]

well, we had a very productive weekend at the house, but i forgot the camera!   my wife and i spent the weekend in the poconos...  we arrived at the house and turned on the stove around 6pm on friday night..   it was quite cold - 28 degrees inside, and the temp was falling outside.   we decided to go out for dinner and returned later to find that the temp at increased about 10 degrees inside.   we spent the rest of the evening sitting on the couch in front of the stove with a blanket on our lap and hot tea..   around 9:45 it was time for bed, and the house, including the second floor, was close to comfortable..

saturday morning, we were very toasty.. we spent the day finishing off the sheetrock in our bedroom and working on other small jobs.   we also put up sheetrock along the wall in the kitchen where our appliances will reside..  they have arrived at the local store, and we are hoping to have them delivered next weekend.  of course, we will have to move everything to do the taping and finishing, but that will be okay.    today we worked on sheetrock in the second bedroom.   we ran out of materials in the early afternoon and spent of the rest of the time working on odds and ends and made a material list for the next trip.     I have read elsewhere ( it does not seem to be a theme on this web site)  about how stressful the process of buying or building a house can be on a marriage..  our experience has been nothing like that..  we really enjoy being at the house and working together..  i guess that is a blessing!   i need to add a camera to the list for next weekend!

[pocono_couple]

I was hoping to spend the whole weekend at the house this week, but there is a little to much going on at school, so i had to be here and cut my time at the house short..  but, we took delivery of the stove and refrigerator,  and I had to extend the gas line so that we could test out the stove.   It is a bit premature for appliances, but we found what we wanted, and we figured that we would put them to good use - but, it is one more thing to move when we tape and paint!


her are some shots of the gas line in the basement..  I studied what mountain don  did, and figured that i might as well give it  a try..  i might have gone overboard with shut-offs,  and i have yet to add the drip tube that he has on his line.. but i will extend this a bit further so that i can install a gas heater near the corner of the basement.. i would like to keep the basement at 60 degrees if that does not cost too much..





and, here is one more shot of the living room.   i did not fire up the heating stove this weekend because I was only planning on being there for  7 hours or so..  it takes 4 hours to get the place up to 65 degrees , and i figured that it would be a waste of gas.   But the appliance delivery guys would have appreciated the heat.... they were not happy campers..  i guess they made the best of it..   they got the kitchen stove up and running ( after some initial delays..  they waited to refer to the manual until they fiddled with it for half and hour and still could not get it to light..   i can totally relate!  )   and then they heated up their hands over the burner..



if all goes well, we will be spending the entire weekend out there next week.  I am already anxious to get back to work!

[MountainDon]

Looks good. IMO, one can not have too many shut offs. That is, unless you forget to turn one on and sit there puzzled as to why there is no gas.   It does make servicing one item without disturbing the others so easy.

[pocono_couple]

thanks, don..  i agree,  and thanks for the inspiration as well!   now that i have a taste of it, i want to run more pipe!

[pocono_couple]

well, another productive weekend at the house.. we are closing in on finishing the drywall, and i built a quick counter for between the stove and refrigerator..  no new pics, however.  it looks like i will be busy here at school this coming weekend, so in two weeks we will get back at it..    we have found that living there helps us to find little things that need to be addressed while  it is still easy to do so.  for example,  it has become apparent that we need a light in the stairway not only at the top, but at the bottom as well.   there are shadows near the bottom which make the winder steps hard to see, and that can be particularly dangerous...

i am still pondering a heat source for the basement.   we could get a propane heater that vents outside, but i am wondering about using an alternative fuel..  the idea of a pellet stove with a power vent  which would not require a full chimney is looking good right now.  I would be interested in feedback from anyone who has some experience with them.   I understand that, with a modest investment, one can buy a machine to manufacture the pellets, and i am pretty sure that we would have an endless supply of organic material that we could use ...   any thoughts?

[MountainDon]

p_c asked me about my 18000 BTU/hr propane wall heater which appears in my 15.75 x 30 cabin topic.

Estimating heating requirements is not as simple as calculating many other things. There are some online calculators but they don't have a whole lot on data input fields much beyond size, temperature rise desired and is your insulation excellent/average/ bad.

examples:
http://www.heater-store.com/heater_calculator_info.htm
http://www.gaudetgassystems.com/btu.html

I have seen one other calculator that seemed to be excellent. Data about windows, doors, north or south wall, etc. and etc. all had to be entered. Even what the room was used for. I don't know where it is and it was only a trial version... they wanted to sell some HVAC software.

From what I've been able to tell to date, the 18K heater we have should be able to keep us comfortable in our cabin if we were to have to use it alone without the wood stove. . The manufacturer lists it good for up to 529 sq ft. )Our cabin is about 435 sq ft inside with 8 foot ceiling.) As a comparison our VC Aspen wood stove is rated at 18000 BTU/hr as well and it can cook us out of the cabin if we're not careful about tossing in that last stick or two.

So....    the answer is a definite maybe.   

Note:  The Housewarmer propane wall heater uses two concentric tubes for inatke air and exhaust. The minimum wall hole size is 6 1/4 inches. The installation/user manual is available to download off Northern Tools website.

[pocono_couple]

Having heat in the house sure makes a big difference!  the last two years I gave up after Christmas break and basically did not return to the house till spring, but this year we are making a lot of progress.      Two weeks ago, I thought that we were nearly done with the sheetrock job,  but we still have some odds and ends to finish up after devoting most of this weekend to hanging sheetrock..  we did make progress , however..   here is a pic of the kitchen..   I built a temporary counter for between the stove and the refrigerator..   I am not sure just how long "temporary" is, but it sure is nice to be able to use this space till i get something more permanent in place..


my wife made an effort to clear all of my tools off of the kitchen table.. we shared some very nice meals here this weekend!  i guess that i better find a different spot for my tools...


this is a shot from the bathroom..   i installed the light at the base of the steps this weekend.   that has already made a huge difference....   and finished the sheetrock in this area..  looking straight ahead, you can look right into my closet..  i need to close that in yet.. 


and, finally,  the hall way at the top of the steps.   the opening in the wall was originally intended to be the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, but it is a little two big for that, and, rather than cut it down, we decided to leave it in place and finish it off as a small wall cabinet in the hallway..  we will see just how that works out...


it looks like our schedule here at school is going to keep us from any more weekends at the house till the end of the month..  i guess that there are other things that i can and should be doing, but, already, i can't wait to get back out there so that we can start to tape the seams! 

[Redoverfarm]

I see you left the best til last. Ceiling.  Generally I would have done the ceiling first then followed up with the wall.  It seems it is easier to get a good fit that way.  Do you have a drywall lift?  If not I would reccommend renting or borrowing one. A lot easier than using a "dead man". 

[pocono_couple]

ah, yes, the ceiling!    i did use a lift for the second floor ceilings ( which went up before the walls) .. best investment so far!   we held off on the first floor ceilings because I am still considering putting pex tubing in for radiant floor heat..   I wanted to see how the gas stove works alone, and so far, it is doing just fine.  but, i am still thinking about down the road when/if  we want to sell..   we love the idea of having just the single point heating system, but potential buyers might be turned off by that..   so, i am thinking about putting the tubing in the ceiling and stubbing it off in the basement so that it would be a simple matter to install a water heater and have the radiant heat as a supplementary or alternative system.    I still have some wall space open for the plumbing that we could use to run the pex for heating..    any thoughts on radiant heating are welcome...

  in the meantime, we visited some friends who have beadboard ceilings in their house, and my wife and I both like that look, so we will be installing beadboard with trim - therefore, the fit is not quite as big an issue.. 

[pocono_couple]

Well, spring break has arrived, and  I got to spend a total of 5 days at the house.  I wish that I had more pics to show for it.   The long and the short of it all is that this was a great time to give some attention to a number of the little nagging things that I had let go for awhile..  like the 3 way switches in the living room and kitchen that just were not working.. till i finally tracked down a crossed wire..   and the GFCI outlet in the kitchen that was not working  till I figured out this morning that the line wires were connected to the wrong terminals...    it sure is nice to have that outlet working now, and to have lights in the kitchen and living room, and even better to be able to finish up the drywall that I left out just in case I had to rewire those switches..   

On monday evening, I mentioned to my wife that we needed to grade soil away from the walk-in basement  this spring.  we woke up to pouring rain on tuesday..  and she dropped my off at the house..  i was working upstairs in our bedroom-trying to locate the stud that I forgot to mark so i could finish the last piece of sheetrock in that room when it dawned on me that i had a stud-finder somewhere..  i went down to the basement to look and found an inch of water on the floor      i guess i should have done that grading job in the fall!   10 minutes of bailing got me no where.. so i got a pick and shovel and dug a trench away from the house.    I was soaked, standing in the backyard in snow and water up to my knees when my phone rang..  it was my step daughter, asking some questions about a recipe for short bread!  I calmly answered her questions without revealing that this was an inopportune moment to be discussing cookies!!    It was nice to find that there were a few left when i got home..    After i dug the trench and determined that the stud-finder was at home and not in the basement..  i went back to taping the drywall in the bedroom..   4 hours later that water was all gone     hopefully, the trench will do the job till the weather is a little more agreeable.

so, i finished putting up drywall in the 2nd floor closets..  and i got the first coat of mud in the bedroom and used up what i had left over in the stairway..     


i know that the professionals like to brag about never having to sand. ( not sure that i totally buy that one)  - you will never hear me say that - i rely pretty heavily on sanding screens to make things come out right.. 

some days progress is very obvious..  and others it may not appear as though too much got done, but you know that you accomplished a lot..  and then there are those other days, when i would have been better to stay in bed..   none of those this week..     it got cold last night, but spring is definitely just around the corner..  then i will have to decide whether to continue with the taping inside, or get back to the shingling outside..  either way,  I am anticipating lots of progress this spring!

[pocono_couple]

School is over for another year.. and that means building time again!    Graduation was yesterday, and as soon as it was over, my wife and I headed for the house..  our first sleepover there in quite a while.    We had started a compost heap behind the shed, and the last time I took material out there to add, it appeared that an animal had been visiting.   The first item on the agenda yesterday was to dump our bucket of compost which happened to include some old apples..   not an hour later, my wife motioned for me to join her by the shed..  just around the corner was a deer, helping herself to the apples..   and here all along, i figured it was a skunk or a raccoon..   
  this morning, my wife took a pic of the deer..  she seems very comfortable in the neighborhood. 


Last week during our final exam period, I had some time to meet with the well folks.     the well was drilled 3 years ago, and now we were finally bringing the water into the basement..    this was a big day!    Last summer, when i installed a hand pump on top of the well, i recalled talking to the folks at Bison Pumps who assured me that the hand pump would fit along with a deep submersible well in a six inch casing..  but they cautioned me that a hole would have to be drilled in the side of the casing for the electrical wires to enter the well..     the guys showed up last Wednesday and were impressed with the nice stainless steel hand pump, but they were not thrilled about drilling a hole..  and then one of them pointed at a plastic cap on the top of the pump base, and said " oh no,  all we have to do is remove that cap and feed the wires down that way..  that is what that cap is for.."   well,  as we were pulling the hand pump,  we bumped the pitless adapter.. and down it went..   300 feet..    so, while the guys were headed back to the shop to see if they had a spare part, i called the folks at bison pump - just to check.. and found that indeed,  we needed to drill. the plastic cap was a vent..     the well guys returned, and were a bit dismayed to hear that they needed to drill, but they were able to deal with it and found a nice fitting to use in the hole..  an hour later.. we had a tank in the basement...     I did the wiring and now we have water in the basement! 



the plan for today was for me to make an early trip back into town to pick up materials for the deck railing, but we awoke to quite a storm last night, and everything was wet..  so I decided to put a second coat of joint compound on our bedroom.     my wife thought that was a good idea, because she is anxious for us to get our bed back in there!    i was reminded more than once that it is a good idea to keep ones mouth closed when applying joint compound on the ceiling directly above!    I am not sure why it took two separate experiences this morning until I got that right!




wow,  one more coat and then some sanding and then paint..  what a difference that will make.. and then i just have the whole rest of the house to do         one room at a time...   

  while  I was busy inside, my wife did a lot of work in the garden.. she has big plans!     we will get a progress check on that project in a couple of weeks..     there is a lot to do this summer -  I am looking forward to making a lot of updates as we move along!

[pocono_couple]

As i am working on the basement - building walls and insulating, I am finding the the warm moist summer air is condensing on the walls near the bottom.   of course, this is happening towards the front of the house which is totally underground..   i have foam board against the cement and then an air space and then a two by four wall with fiberglass..  pressure treated bottom plate - all in anticipation of some moisture, but  i was wondering what else i can do before i put up the sheetrock..    i will be heating the basement in the fall, and i may need a permanent dehumidifier , but   would an air conditioner make a difference during the summer?    it seemed like there was considerably less moisture  on a cool day that we had early in the week..    any thoughts would be welcome!