Rick and Ellen's Homestead

[rick91351]

Couple hours latter and just checked the galley sink.  The heat tape did its job....... 

[MountainDon]

     heat tape and being on grid go together nicely 

[RIjake]

Thanks Rick,
Being from New England, it's pretty rare to see a new house going up without a full basement.  With the exception of a few contractors who built subdivisions in the 50's and 60's on slabs, everyone has basements here.  But, I've often wondered why people in the tornado prone areas of this country have no basements.

I understand the additional costs, I had to settle for a 4' deep basement under my camp to save a few $.  I'll regret that to the day I die unfortunately.

Again, beautiful looking spot for a homestead in the American Redoubt.  Good luck with everything.

[OlJarhead]

Good nes on the pipe.  I've yet to thaw mine but have heat tape and just need time.  I'm worried though as it's been a week plus now for mine...hope nothing cracked!

[rick91351]

Good nes on the pipe.  I've yet to thaw mine but have heat tape and just need time.  I'm worried though as it's been a week plus now for mine...hope nothing cracked!

Cracking would be a major concern alright as cold and long as this is turning in to.....  Should have a break here mid week.   

This fifthwheel has been so forgiving.  It is an oldie but a goody.  I found some literature it was spected out for the northwest.  I so insist on babysitting it in the middle of the night when it is down in the single digits.  Above that I am pretty trusting.  I am up running water now and then - writing e-mails - running water even have started facebooking!  WOW!!! ME ON FACEBOOK!!!     But it has never offered to freezing up.  That said everything I have found has its point that it is just over the line.....

I do have a couple gallons of RV anti freeze and if I catch it starting to freeze up  I will unhook from the frostfree and do the RV antifreeze.  Open the low point drains and we will weather it out.

[rick91351]

The roofers completed the roof.  It was one of those deals I was so glad I did not try that myself.  The roofing crew the fist day bent and ruined one panel.  This caused additional delays.  Plus an extra trip to town or an another 50 or 60 mile round trip.  Then when they trimmed the gable end finishing up they came up short one piece of four inch gable trim.  I called the boss for them he said he would get it ordered.  That delayed getting the roof completed.  Then believe it or not they came up short one piece of ridge vent.  so again off to Boise they go.....

They got it completed. 



There at the last they got the cricket eliminators installed





I will have to report back on how well they perform.  If we ever get any real snow again.   

Inside I got the soffits built for the cupboards







Last time it will look like that as the drywallers are here ...



I tried to get the furnace to run.  Turned out a loose wire connector in a wiring connector to the motherboard. 

We did get the wood stove hooked up.  Dutch West by Vermont Castings





       

[Redoverfarm]

The portion about your post concerning your furnace drew a chuckle from me.  When I installed my outside wood furnace I couldn't get it operate.     Like a lot of construction sites lighting is not the best just operating with the minimum lights in random areas.  I had my uncle helping me.  We checked and double checked the wiring and everything was correct.   After several tries my wife walked by the thermostat and said "what is the red piece for" .  Turned out it was the safety clip to protect the mercury switch from breaking during shipping.  Yep pulled it out and it kicked right off.   

[rick91351]

Ours was not so simple.  I froze that day running back in forth in single digits talking to a friend that owned the company but sold it but stayed on.  Phone is up in the fifthwheel.  Back and forth I went with him having me try this and that.  Finely he says get your volt meter and ........  I said John I don't have a volt meter.  He says well I got to get one up to you.  He is like 70 miles away.  I told him, 'Ya that would be a good idea but you come with it and hook up this wood stove when you come.' 

So he showed up a couple days latter and we /he / I had the furnace all apart before we were done.  He was sort of thinking it was the mother board then he noticed a wire connector to a sub board that did not like quite right to him.  He started to take it loose and the dreaded white wire came out of the connector he gently pushed it back in to place.  He pushed the test button and bingo was had heat and fans cycling and it was done.  We hooked up the wood stove and built a fire!  It is more like this country -  It does not have the dreaded white wire nor a mother board.                  

[Don_P]

Looks like you need a little sheetrock backing at the ends of your soffits... I go round and round a house looking for missing backing and still they whine 
I also like to put blocking where the bottom rail of the upper cabinets goes... well I let in 3 rows, lowers/backsplash, bottom and top of uppers. That is a little overkill but it makes sure there's a buncha wood to hit back there.

[rick91351]

Thanks so much Don, I spent some of yesterday with additional blocking in ceiling of one bed room and in walls in the master bath.  I will take a look it the soffits tomorrow.  Remember when you used to have a huge pile of scrap lumber when you were doing a house about where we are now?  Now with shear blocking, truss blocking, drywall blocking you are scrambling for even toothpicks so it seems.

The dry wall contractor said with the narrow soffits really did not care if they had blocking or not.  The one wide one I really should drop a couple three in them.  I have a little time before they get back from holiday. 

[Windpower]

It might be too late for this

It is a good idea to take pictures of the walls before the dry wall goes up -- so you know where all the electrical boxes and stuff are

Someone told me this but I said 'no my carpenters would never cover up an outlet or switch box they are too careful'

they covered two electrical outlet boxes and a ceiling light box -- fortunately the electricians kept great notes and we found them

[rick91351]

Thanks Windpower already occurred!  Ellen was POed at the electrician when she went for a look see at the drywall.  She is not all warm as fuzzy with him anyway.  So who else do you blame?  There is no can light in the shower in the master bedroom.     Now I remember I hung the can light.     I remembered Electric Ray wired in the can light.    I showed her the switch for the can light.  So could it be the drywall crew forgot to cut out the can light.  But it still bothered me so much I climbed up in the lid yesterday and bingo by golly there is the can light. 

I need to go back up there in the next couple days and hook up the bathroom fan vents that I should have earlier.  But needed a larger hole saw.  Remembered the larger hole saw.  Now since we cleaned out the inside of the house for drywall crew I'm missing the outside vent fixtures.     While I am up there I will mark the missing can light.  I also seen where the HVAC guys knocked a truss brace loose to run some return.  I will catch that while I am up there.  And send them a bill.     Seems they send me enough of them......

[rick91351]

We are now sort of able to really put our hands around what we designed and built.  Before it was just concepts and ideas put to paper.  Concepts of a retirement house that will be easy to live in when we do get older.  A house that looks like it belongs there and a type that would have been built in the twenties or thirties.  Roomy but not a Mc Mansion.  Though I /we have no intent  of selling the old family homestead.  Should we decide to the house needed to be a plus not a rock.  It should be a dwelling that would not force up the value of the property out of reach or out of value for someone looking for such.  Yet a dwelling built for generations to come be it our family tree or someone else.

Now those concepts are bearing fruit.  Walls are getting closed in and you can really see.   All in all we like what we designed and put to paper but there is a hiccup or two.   One issue I see I do not care for is the common bath for the house it is a postage stamp.  We knew that but I don't think we really thought it at all through all that well.

I would look to change this if I was going to redo this.  I would redraw it a larger and some where else.  It is also the only bath I have ever had without some natural light.  There is no window because of it location and I opted out of a 'suntube' or other form of skylight because of the theory the less you poke up through the roof the better off you are.  Especially when it snows heavy.  Granted it has not up here in the past two years but I am not ready to write that off yet either.  Then another issue I caught was there is no warm air vent in the small common bath.  I called the HVAC people and they said it does not need one because of the location.  So now thinking I am thinking about those under-tile heating systems.  Granted they are mainly just to warm the tile and not for room warmth but being so it is a small room it sure would not hurt.  Or should I call the HVAC guys back up.  I am sure there are more places I /we /she will find that escaped our careful considerations.

Just some thoughts
rlr   

[Windpower]

once the drywall went up it really defined the space

there were a few surprises that weren't apparent before the DW (at least to me and I drew the plans 

but overall we are happy --- sounds as if you are too

we are putting under tile heating in the master bath --- (it is not done yet) but I have stayed at hotels with heated tile -- it is really nice

We built a much larger house than we need but our logic is that we are building for future buyers or family (-- like you --) I think it is a great strategy in this economic climate (George Ure at urbansuvival.com recommends it too )

[rick91351]

We just received some billing from the power company and Dirty Little Secret was asking about a shed / shop wiring job.  I started to put this there not as this but it sort of morphed so I cut and pasted     

We were over 300 ft total on the run to the house.  We were charged for 107 ft from the drop to the meter base from the power company.  $628 for a 3" pole riser and 107 feet of 4/0 service wire $353 and a $20 service connection charge.  But on the work order it shows $226.00 before work begins.  But then do not see any credit for this.  $981.10 that we really did not know was coming this way. 

We had about 500 ft of 3 inch conduit bought from years past knowing we were going to do this.  I think I have 40 ft left.  We ran conduit from the drop to the meter base meter base to the house and to the shop both while the excavator was here.  Pole in the back ground is where the drop went.       



210 ft from the meter base to the house.  We used 3 runs of 250 KCM and a I think a 100 KCM as an equipment ground. 

My electrician put his meter on it when we were done hooking it up, energized the line and we had very little voltage drop.  MY HVAC friend was up the other day and said the same thing.  Side note using aluminum wire be sure and use a anti oxidization paste on your connectors.  We are running the house on a air to air heat pump with a electric back up.           

[ChuckinVa]

Rick,
I have really enjoyed keeping up with your build. In regards to the aluminum wire you also want to check the connections from time to time. Aluminum has a tendency to "loosen" up over time and your lugs will need to be re-tightened. If not the connection can work loose and can heat up and arc as well. Particularly on the larger conductor sizes you are using. CHUCK

[rick91351]

Rick,
I have really enjoyed keeping up with your build. In regards to the aluminum wire you also want to check the connections from time to time. Aluminum has a tendency to "loosen" up over time and your lugs will need to be re-tightened. If not the connection can work loose and can heat up and arc as well. Particularly on the larger conductor sizes you are using. CHUCK

Thanks I will have to remember to do that.  Would be best to kill it once a year and makes sure everything is tight most likely going in to winter.

I think I will put this under budget breakers

We have had a couple snowy cold days but for the most part it had been very nice up here a lot warmer than the valley that has been in an inversion.  One of the reasons I wanted to move up here so bad.  Boise valley is prone to such this time of year.  But winter is coming.  So we needed to face the fact the fifthwheel needs a better solution for propane.  I had a 100 lbs bottle, we were not using it so I took it down and filled it up.  The owner of the store said something that made a lot of sense.  See if they will bring you up a large tank.  We needed to get small tank set for the range in the house anyway so I did make a call.  And they did and when we got it filled $850 latter.  True this was cheaper than running back and forth with bottles and they are not cheap to fill either especially up here.  It is money we would have spent over the course of the winter but all at one time makes you flinch.     

We have a little 1999 red Escort - Actually it is sort of fun to drive up here and back and forth.  Cheaper than the Charger by a long ways cheaper than the pick up.  The other day we had it in town and was coming up and we heard a sort of thumping into the corners.  So Thursday is Ellen's town day always.  She does laundry and groceries and 'stuff'.  Sometimes she even has time to stop off and have coffee with the daughter who is now working for the State of Idaho Health and Welfare deciphering the H/W portion of the Affordable Health Care Act.  Hey no body on the inside wanted the job.  So she being a tech writer she applied and got the job.....  Only good thing I see in the AHCA is our daughter got a state job.      401K a pension and medical....  Hey I guess I am still paying for her in a round about way.  State Taxes.....

So I went with Ellen on Thursday.  We took both the little red 99 Escort and the pick up.  It was due a major service.  So I made a executive decision being so I do not have any heat in the shop and no real shop tools.  I took it in to our 'go to place'.   Ellen did the laundry and I made it over to the plumbing / electrical store and got all new pieces parts to run the bathroom vents.  We got a bite to eat and the pick up was done.  $100 later I was figuring that they might want to do a transmission service because I have been hauling some pretty heavy loads in plus last years trip down south with the fifthwheel.  They said it was good to go - other than the needed air filter. So the really was not a budget buster.  So we dropped off the 1999 Escort.  Friday we got a call the axle right front needed replaced - about to fall off.  It and the service was looking at around $600.  Okay get'er done.  They called it was ready when they closed.  I gave my VISA over the phone.    So late Friday night back down the hill in to the valley.  Picked up the Escort and the bill was actually $150 less than expected....    It has been one of those cars everyone drives when something breaks - down we loan it.  We drive it, we never have put a lot in to it.  WOW it has been a good car.  But it was money right now we could funneled off to the house.   

Okay done venting about $$$

Back to the house

The dry wall crew pulled out and went to town for a week of work down there.  Friday they showed back up with only three for a half day and they still had the master bed room knocked out along with the number two bed room done with the large closet.   

Yesterday I did get vents run for the bathrooms and the knocked loose truss brace nailed back on.  I used about twice as much flex vent pipe as it called for.  Stuff went on a lot easier than the first time I tried and had to run up the white flag.    I called the insulation contractor to come back up and he can blow in the insulation in the lid..... 

On the Hobby Side of things

Yesterday I also got a chance to make a ride on the fourwheeler up in to the USFS.  On the road going in there was some what I felt was wolf scat.  Way to large for a 'Yote.  But I did not see any paw prints.  It will be nice to get the house finished up to where we can enjoy the outdoors more.  I still have more over in the orchard to do as well.  Couple hours left and we should have all the tree guards on for the winter.  We worked over there last Sunday after church....                 

[rick91351]

Sunday after church I decided to take a hike.  I have often said this little ranch has the most diverse characteristics for a piece of property this small.  I thought I had plenty of battery in my little Nikon Coolpix.  I did not.....   However what a great little camera!

That is from a top of a ridge on the place.....  The house and shop are over a half mile away



Same shot only zoomed in....



This is referred to as Buzzards Rock by the oldsters ....  If you sneak up there some times you will spot a bob cat sunning itself, maybe a cougar, mule deer like it there so I guess the cats hang there.  The neighbor girls use to play there once in a while though it is quite a climb up there from their place.  My grandfather played there, as did my dad and even me and my kids have visited there.  One of these days I will drag the grand kids up there as well.



On the mountain above the rock there is an out cropping and some pine trees.  There is a orange stake there.  That is the boundary between us and the USFS.  It also would be the highest spot on the ranch.  It would be a mile and a quarter back to the house from there.



It was about here the battery gave out.  Oh well I now have an excuse to return......

     

   



   

[Windpower]

enjoying the pics, Rick

Not much snow .....


we have about 10" and more on the way --  it is - 5 F  this morning --

yesterday  the windchill was - 22 all day

it is nice to have inside work to do

[rick91351]

enjoying the pics, Rick

Not much snow .....


we have about 10" and more on the way --  it is - 5 F  this morning --

yesterday  the windchill was - 22 all day

it is nice to have inside work to do

It is spooky no snow show this year and the past two years as well.  There are a couple computer models that show some snow possible in a couple weeks.  This area usually gets a couple very heavy snow falls every year with several feet on the ground. 

It has been good for us in that we are able to get subs and their materials in very easily.  That is good...  Today the insulation contractor will return and blow in the attic.  I will then be able to pay him off and scratch his name off the list.  The dry wall guy has the last to hang as he and his crew were here yesterday.  Then they will start the tape and texture thing today as well. 

This has been a rough pass two years for those that ranch and farm up here.  This will be a real test if there is not some real moisture coming our way.  But I have seen it like this up here and then get dumped on February and March....

The Idaho ski areas down south here are really starting to suffer as well as you can imagine.  It has been clear and nice up here high thirties low forties and the valley is fogged in and cold not fridged but cold.         

       

[rick91351]

Today we got the last of the insulation done.  What a remarkable man that owns that company.  That is him by the way blowing in insulation.  All the builders I know said I had to use him.  He is not cheap.  He is Hispanic has lived here for 20 years now.  Talks so fast you can not understand him.  And moves about that quickly as well.  I knew going in - this is one place it does not pay to cut corners.  I wish everyone had the chance to sit down and talk to him about business and his business model and how he treats his clients. 





The drywallers got all the rock hung today.  Thought I would post a couple of those drywall dust photos....

Ellen's kitchen



Couple hours latter and the dust cleared



The living room / dining combo room



Little latter as well



Wainscot goes below the sheetrock.  I will run a chair rail to cap and divide.  Not that it will need defining but.....  Okay   The studs I have to design a bookcase - entertainment center there on the side facing the front room the other side will be books cases.   



 

[John Raabe]

Nice work finding the right person on the insulation. You will appreciate his work for many many years.

Happy New Year!

[Redoverfarm]

Must be a satisfing feeling to progressing to this stage.  Usually means that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

[rick91351]

Must be a satisfing feeling to progressing to this stage.  Usually means that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ya and us railroaders are prone to say hope that light is not another freight train....

We (or maybe it is me) are excited because except for getting someone up here to pour the shower pan, and the granite guy.  We are pretty much done with the subs, except for the trim outs.  In another week Ellen will be painting.  She is the painter, and does not mind tile work.  I will be moving to woodworking mode. 

I am hoping to uncork some surprises for the new year.  Now I am seeing what the inside looks like and not just concepts It is all starting to gather some firmer ideas.  I will start busting down my lumber piles this next week.  Moving in the flooring and laying it down places and restickering it a little let it a adjust and acclimatize to its new home!   

[OlJarhead]

Great progress!  Heck, you'll be moving in soon!   That will make a Happy New Year!