24 x 32 on Tug Hill NY

AdironDoc · September 26, 2011, 10:02:43 AM

Glad you got so many things squared away. As soon as the insulation went up, I wanted it covered ASAP to avoid itching all night in our beds.

I was up a week ago insulating my 16 x 24 with R-19 at $44 per three rolls craft paper covered at Lowes. If there was a cheaper place, I'd drive further to get it. Bought knotty pine 8" boards at $7.41 per 12 ft length and got the whole first floor done in the 16 x 24 cabin. The eaves are still vented and the floor has no insulation, so the 31 degrees called for two things. A "big buddy" indoor room heater and 5 blankets! Toasty from the neck down. The icy cold gives me a headache!

I'll be back up on Friday and will be itching once again. Anyone know of where to get the cheapest insulation?

RIjake · September 26, 2011, 10:12:12 AM

Have you seen this stuff? http://www.roxul.com/residential/products/roxul+comfortbatt%E2%84%A2

I don't have my pricing here with me so I'm not sure how it compares to fiberglass, but I know it doesn't make you itch!

September 26, 2011, 10:37:21 AM

Quote from: RIjake on September 26, 2011, 10:12:12 AM
Have you seen this stuff? http://www.roxul.com/residential/products/roxul+comfortbatt%E2%84%A2

I don't have my pricing here with me so I'm not sure how it compares to fiberglass, but I know it doesn't make you itch!

Ah that's interesting stuff. I haven't seen it anywhere local or at the bigbox stores. Ironically, rockwool I used to work with in old buildings always itched so much worse than fiberglass. Now it's "comfortbatt".

nysono · September 27, 2011, 05:32:10 AM

I got my r-38 at lowe's, bought 10 packs last night at $54 for 64sq ft. It was $64/pkg if buying less than 8 pkg. I did manage to get some up last night and it wasn't too bad. Johns/Manville I believe is the mfg, seems to be less itchty than the owens/corning. I will get some pics tonight.

UK4X4 · September 27, 2011, 07:42:41 PM

Insulation for me means .....

full overalls tapped to wrists and boots
large brimmed hat and goggles

Tyvex works well and throw out when done

September 27, 2011, 07:57:59 PM

this is a bit off topic from your build but...

Do you need to tyvek the gable ends of a structure (in MN/WI if that helps) when its just attic space (a cold zone) and not a living space like your place is?

Alan Gage · September 27, 2011, 08:42:33 PM

Quote from: duncanshannon on September 27, 2011, 07:57:59 PM
this is a bit off topic from your build but...

Do you need to tyvek the gable ends of a structure (in MN/WI if that helps) when its just attic space (a cold zone) and not a living space like your place is?

Yes. House wrap isn't meant to be an air barrier, it's meant to be a Water Resistive Barrier (WRB). If you don't have house wrap on the gables then any water that gets behind the siding up there will probably end up behind the house wrap that's on the lower wall. Which isn't a good thing.

Alan

nysono · September 28, 2011, 05:25:53 AM

Quote from: Alan Gage on September 27, 2011, 08:42:33 PM
Yes. House wrap isn't meant to be an air barrier, it's meant to be a Water Resistive Barrier (WRB). If you don't have house wrap on the gables then any water that gets behind the siding up there will probably end up behind the house wrap that's on the lower wall. Which isn't a good thing.

Alan

I agree!

nysono · October 03, 2011, 05:27:38 AM

got the CERT OF OCCUPANCY on saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its nice to have an inspector that is reasonable and punctual. Its definately a good feeling having that piece of paper.

October 03, 2011, 09:59:14 AM

Congrats! That was quick, huh? I'm glad to see your hammock is up, which to me, means your work has slowed and your relaxin' has picked up.

BTW, I was up at my camp two weeks back. 2 miles of twisting and dividing trails, hard hills and ravines, and finally in and out of pine stands to find it. Who shows up? A small SUV with two county tax assessors. Seems they wanted to "have em' a look". Got to give them credit for actually finding the place. Even with GPS, they'd have had to figure out which trails lead where. Next time I'll paint my place camouflage!

duncanshannon · October 03, 2011, 10:14:44 AM

congrats!

nysono · October 05, 2011, 05:18:04 AM

Quote from: AdironDoc on October 03, 2011, 09:59:14 AM
Congrats! That was quick, huh? I'm glad to see your hammock is up, which to me, means your work has slowed and your relaxin' has picked up.

BTW, I was up at my camp two weeks back. 2 miles of twisting and dividing trails, hard hills and ravines, and finally in and out of pine stands to find it. Who shows up? A small SUV with two county tax assessors. Seems they wanted to "have em' a look". Got to give them credit for actually finding the place. Even with GPS, they'd have had to figure out which trails lead where. Next time I'll paint my place camouflage!

Im just waiting for the tax boys to come and find me.....gotta love NY

AdironDoc · October 06, 2011, 10:36:07 PM

Quote from: TheWire on October 06, 2011, 10:19:13 PM
The tax guys are now apparently using aerial and satellite photos to find new building and even improvements like decks.

Been that way a while in the burbs. I got an ad from a solar company last yaer. They had printed a satelitte photo of my porch roof along with the measurements of the proposed panels and expected savings schedule. Jeez! They had calculated the square footage of my house.

Up at the camp, I suspect I'll put up my shed and other stuff under the canopy of pines adjacent to my house. A fence and gate may keep them from roaming in without an appointment, but how do you keep anyone from looking down? It's like a spy novel.

rick91351 · October 07, 2011, 12:50:27 AM

Quote from: TheWire on October 06, 2011, 10:19:13 PM
The tax guys are now apparently using aerial and satellite photos to find new building and even improvements like decks.

WE HAD a property line error! Fence in the wrong place. That property line had not been surveyed for like 80 or 90 years. Has now been like three times in two years. The surveyor we hired has nothing good to say about these satellite surveys and ease dropping. But they continue to give the counties all this propaganda on how accurate and useful they are and have been nothing short of a nightmare for us. Plus you go down to the county and get the photos most cases they will not match up at all with the actual survey. Then the surveyor comes along and he has to explain to the property owner this photo is off a lot from where it should be.

With us the neighbor built a hay shed that drifted across the property line. Satellite picked that right up. They wanted to charge us for the new building and took exception that we did not get a permit for such building. Problem was it was the neighbor and we are still trying to resolve error number one. It is not a case for adverse possession in Idaho. Might be some place else.

Right next to error number one is error number two is there is a 7.5 acre parcel we own that the satellite and the computer picked up as being ten acres. It is taken out of a 180 acres we own but was deeded separate. We still can not get planing and zoning and the tax assessor to agree on that. Our title show it as 7.5 that is not the problem. The problem is the computer and satellite software is forcing it to be 10 acres. With the stupid bureaucracies and the computer is never wrong we have to straighten this out every year since this started. Last year they said that we were going to have to prove it and have it resurveyed. My wife told them it has been surveyed. It is on file twice. They same as called her a liar. My wife told them to go down and pull the survey and look at it. They did it shows 7.5 acres, the plat shows 7.5 acres. The computer shows 10. Well I'll be dog gone..... You would think that..... no never mind..... I bet once again right after the first of the year there will be the letter and phone call.

October 07, 2011, 02:43:46 AM

We live on a private road so there is no USPO code. For several years, our insurance & mortgage info would be for Black Oak instead of Blue Oak... so I have to call them & say it is incorrect & explain the whole story - they try & try to get their computers to input the correct road name but they never do. I even went down to the post office & spoke w/the post master - no luck there as they weren't going to add it to their data base. The tax people have never made that mistake, though

AdironDoc · October 07, 2011, 11:15:13 AM

Quote from: rick91351 on October 07, 2011, 12:50:27 AM
the plat shows 7.5 acres. The computer shows 10.

That sounds very frustrating, and as you said, the town is never wrong when it comes that, right? Why not challenge the computer's version. If the town insists they are right, gift the town the imaginary 2.5 acres as a park in your name, so that you'll be back to 7.5? That ought to make em scratch their heads.

rick91351 · October 07, 2011, 11:34:52 AM

Quote from: AdironDoc on October 07, 2011, 11:15:13 AM
That sounds very frustrating, and as you said, the town is never wrong when it comes that, right? Why not challenge the computer's version. If the town insists they are right, gift the town the imaginary 2.5 acres as a park in your name, so that you'll be back to 7.5? That ought to make em scratch their heads.

Doc my wife and I are

over your idea. Thanks so much

Rick

Sassy · October 07, 2011, 12:10:29 PM

Genius!

SouthernTier · October 07, 2011, 12:51:13 PM

Rick: just to clarify a few things up. I think by saying the taxman uses "satellite" photos (which are almost always aerial photos by airplanes, not satellite, but somehow they are always called "satellite" photos) this means they are looking to see if any new buildings have popped up. Here in New York, 20% of the state get flown each year, so the aerials are never more than 5 year old. The photos are available at http://www.nysgis.state.ny.us/gateway/mg/ These are the same photos that google maps/google earth uses for their "satellite" view.

Separately, there are tax maps available, often electronically. The tax maps are are what the tax man uses to calculate the tax. Although these are often available electronically (for example, for the county where my shed, and future cabin are, you cn turn on the "parcels" layer at http://maps.cattco.org), they are actually digitized in from old paper tax maps.

All the tax maps I have seen explicitly say that the "map was prepared for tax purposes only, and is not to used for surveying and conveyancing". In other words, the tax maps don't necessarily match up (and in my experience, in fact rarely match up), with the deed description, which in my neck of the woods would be a metes and bounds description, and elsewhere may be a PLSS description.

So I can see the case where some jurisdiction overlaid an electronic version of the tax map over recent aerial photos, and since the tax map does not reflect actual survey locations, an assessor may try to put your neighbor's new shed on your tax burden, which of course would mean lots of wasted hours (and maybe dollars) trying to convince the assessor of where the actual survey line is.

So I guess just trying to point out that "surveys" are not done by satellite or aerial fly-overs, those just take photos. The errors come in from when the inaccurate tax maps are laid over these photos. The solution would be for the tax maps to be redrawn based on the survey data, but this would take a lot of time and money, especially when each parcel's survey data is described as metes and bounds.

nysono · October 11, 2011, 08:41:05 PM

finally had a fire

October 11, 2011, 08:45:01 PM

my wife's favorite spot

her view

leaves are changing and falling fast, this weeks rain/wind will drop many more

dogs enjoying the camp life, searching for something, probably frogs

Alan Gage · October 11, 2011, 08:53:16 PM

Congrats on the fire! I'm really looking forward to lighting mine up.

Dogs and frogs. Mine loves'em.

Alan

AdironDoc · October 11, 2011, 10:38:29 PM

I can see why your wife likes that spot best. As to your own favorite spot... hopefully they aren't mutually exclusive! Great pics.. thanks for posting. Any deer trails on your acres? Hopefully no rain this weekend!

TheWire · October 12, 2011, 12:55:52 AM

Awesome looking place! The woodstove in close proximity to the kraft paper insulation makes me nervous. Even if the woodstove has the proper clearances, if that paper and its embedded tar catch a stray spark or too much heat it would quickly become an inferno. You might want to consider a temporary shield of cement board or even drywall.

nysono · October 12, 2011, 05:17:47 AM

Quote from: TheWire on October 12, 2011, 12:55:52 AM
Awesome looking place! The woodstove in close proximity to the kraft paper insulation makes me nervous. Even if the woodstove has the proper clearances, if that paper and its embedded tar catch a stray spark or too much heat it would quickly become an inferno. You might want to consider a temporary shield of cement board or even drywall.

I knew there would be a comment on that, as I thought the same thing. Cement board is going in this week. There is a heat shield on the back of the stove and surprisingly it really does its job. We havent really stoked the stove to its potential yet until there is a bit more of a safety feature behind it.