Dogtrot at Hightop

[Redoverfarm]

Chuck I guess the main reason is too try to eliminate the bare look and get rid of some of the mud and dirt from being tracked into the cabin. It seems that every week I am sweeping out what I have tracked in during the previous week.  Hopefully that will subside some now that the majority of the exterior is finished.  The only down side is that now I can't pull right up to the front door. 

[Redoverfarm]

Moving right along.  I got the gas range installed yesterday.  Took longer to convert to LP from Natural gas than it did to actually hook it up.  I extended the 1/2" gas pipe to just below the top of the range and installed a cut off.  Since this range is w/o electric functions I can cut off the gas when not in use and eliminate burning the three pilot lights.



Well I am off to the State Fair for the afternoon with the family to see what is new equipment wise.

[ben2go]

Nice looking set up.Is the fridge propane and electric?

[Redoverfarm]

Nice looking set up.Is the fridge propane and electric?

Thanks ben.  It is propane. Dometic (Servell) 400 series. The range is a GE.

[MountainDon]

If that fridge is still made the way mine is there is an electric option BUT it is really only meant for use as a backup to the propane. It is like the electric option on an RV fridge, in that the electric part is a resistance heating element that takes the place of the flame. Unfortunately that is inefficient use of the electric power. Doubly unfortunate it does not automatically switch over; it's requires a human to turn the selector knob.

We have a similar range and also have a handy shutoff to extinguish the pilots when not in use.

[Redoverfarm]

Don it does have electric but as you stated it is not very efficient.  As you stated it does emit heat that is not needed this time of the year.  Normally the inside of the cabin is a relief from the outside but now not so much now.    But it seems the weather is changing as the ferns are dying on the mountain and some of the early tree leaves turning so I would imagine that the extra heat will come in handy before too long. 

[kenhill]

My all gas range had pilot lite adjustment screws.  I turned my until closed.  I do lite the pilot light in the oven, but I am only at our cabin for 3 days or so at a time.

[Sassy]

Beautiful!  What are your plans - will you be moving to the cabin & selling your other place or is this a get-away?  I'd be wanting to get moved in there real soon, it is so nice!   

[mogie01]

Wow, your cabin is beautiful.  Nice work! 

[Redoverfarm]

Yesterday my son and I fixed the vent stack on the cabin.  For those who have followed my progress I had a design flaw so to speak.  The vent stack exited the roof on the lower third portion.  During the heavy snow a year or so ago it snapped the elbow below the metal.  I had contiplated on just lowering the heigth and put a diverter (3" plastic angle ) on the ridge side.  Unsure whether this would solve it I decided to go ahead and relocate it further toward the ridge. After 4 hours of labor it is now 18" below the ridge.  I am glad I had an extra piece of metal roofing. 

The Before



After



Also got some conduit run on the exterior from the basement to the generator. 

[Redoverfarm]

Spent the last couple of days running conduit for the generator and hardwiring it to the inverter and panel box.  Ran into a temporary snag in a component of the system.  I am installing a Automatic Generator Starter with the system which will turn the generator on when the battery bank depletes to a designated %.  So I will have to wait a week or so to pickup the batteries ( 8 X 6vdc) and then I can complete the installation.  I wanted to go ahead and install the starting module but it requires the 48 VDC current along with the generator output to work,  So right now it is just operating manually started when required.

The new generator is exceptionally quiet in comparison to the portable that I had been using for the last several years.  In hindsight I should have installed this earlier but I had other expenses which took priority.

So Bayview the temporary wire is now gone.

[MountainDon]

Yeaaaah!  Good stuff.

[Redoverfarm]

Don I thought it was all good stuff.   

[Redoverfarm]

I've got grass.  First time that it has been green since I started in 2005.  I am really surprised that it took off considering how dry it has been here.  I did use a sprinkler to give it a jump start in germination.



Additionally I mounted the Magnum inverter and breaker panel.  I went yesterday and picked up my batteries.  8- 6volt for a 48 volt system.  $$$. Now I can wire the batteries and start on installing the Automatic Starter as soon as I can figure out where to hook a couple wires (waiting on factory information)

[ben2go]

Dig that dead simple set up.Hard to go wrong with that.

[nathan.principe]

In the pic above I noticed the cpvc lines, and went back through your thread and confirmed that you ran entirely cpvc supply lines.  I am leaning toward doing the same at my place.  Any problems, thoughts, benefits you encountered during the process?  I am finding it to be the most economical and easiest to install ( i think)

[Redoverfarm]

No problems other than operator error with forgetting to glue a couple of fittings   .  I believe that Pex is probably a better choice as you will have no elbows but I am sort of old school.  Just be sure that you clean the fillings out if you saw your pipe as it will cause problems with some valves in your fixtures.  You might look at buying a PVC cutter.   

[Redoverfarm]

My latest find for Dogtrot.  It is going to take some time to strip the layers of paint off and then refinish but I think it will look good after it is finished.

[noklu]

Nice bed frame, is it a twin or a double!

[Redoverfarm]

Nice bed frame, is it a twin or a double!

The bed is a full 4/6 size  (54").  I started stripping it today.  Going to be time consuming because of all the rosettes and detail where the wrought iron meets.  Actually I need a sand blaster but there is no one near here that does that so the stripper will have to do.

I have been looking for a set of twin bed wrought irons but they are hard to find and to too expensive for my blood.  I found some fulls similar to the one that I found but they want upward to $500 each. I will keep looking.  I have seen them at estate auctions in the past but actually had no need for them until I started that cabin.  Now I haven't seen any for years.  The metal beds (pipe) are a little easier to come by than the wrought iron.

[ben2go]

That awnsers my question.At first I thought it was a brass bed that had been painted.My next Q was gonna be,paint,polish,or patina.Wrought iron ya say.Gotta Dremel?Those are some hard details to sand by hand,but it's gonna be purrrdy when ya finished.

[Redoverfarm]

Well the power system is up and running.      Finally got all the kinks worked out.  Been switching bulbs to the CFL's and it does make a difference.  I can monitor the amps drawn on each individual light and appliance at the time they are on (one at a time).  Where I had 2 regular bulbs in the basement they drew between 3-4 amps.  But with CFL's they barely registered.  Had one issue in hooking up the Automatic Generator Starter and the Battery Monitor.  They use a 4 wire telephone cable each which are hooked up to the network port of the inverter. So I had to use a telephone splitter. The only one I could find at the house was an older verson and would not fit adjacent to the other additional ports.  So I had a Telephone/DSL splitter .  Using the telephone side The AGS would not work properly.  Apparently they had filtered the telephone jack with the DSL port which caused the problems.  But I will have to admit that the Tech's at Magnum Energy were A-1 in support throughout the day on Friday ,  That evening it was working as intended. 

Here it is.

[MountainDon]

 

[noklu]

I see the batteries are Duracell's bu what type are they Marine types or other? And what $$$ for each? I need some top quality for my ham station.

[Redoverfarm]

I see the batteries are Duracell's bu what type are they Marine types or other? And what $$$ for each? I need some top quality for my ham station.

They are 6V deep cycle "golf cart" batteries.  I think 225 amp.  I am using 8 to give a total of 48 volt system.