Original Builder Passes

The Secret Cabin in 2006 as it was originally built in the mid to late 1990's.

We received the sad news this morning that the former owner and original builder of The Secret Cabin passed away yesterday evening. When I reworked the floor plan and designed the additions to the cabin, Mike and I were anxious to do anything to the cabin for fear we would ruin it. Neil was last out to visit early this Spring. He gave me THE biggest compliment of any of my creative endeavors. He said that the cabin still looked like the cabin. I know he will be sorely missed by his family but Neil will always hold a special place in our hearts for building the special little cabin that swept Mike and I off our feet so much so that we pursued our wild, never-thought-we-could-actually-do-it dream of living in a cabin in the woods. Gratitude and sadness are walking hand in hand today.

Epilogue

Now this is NOT a pinkie swear but I will make a gallant effort to wrap this blog up into a pdf download and one that will not short out the whole magical internet at that. Emphasis on try. I believe the blog will be allowed to "park" here in cyber space for a year. Again, thank you.

Closing another chapter

This Summer has been such a nice break from, well, the previous two years. The Husband has been moving our worldly possessions from the other house to the cabin one car load at a time. The cabin being smaller and the necessities already having been moved in, most of these worldly possessions were moved one more time and are now at Goodwill. As I get my sacred Creative Spa set up down in the Garden Level, I still feel the need to clear out more. I need lots of empty space, both physically and mentally, to play with my paints, markers, and pencils. My desk is ready for writing. My easel is set up and I'm working on a painting for myself. The more I work on my creative projects, the more space I need. So....

After much thought, I will no longer be blogging. I feel that we've kind of completed a cycle here on this blog. I hope you've gleaned some real-life information here to help you with your off-grid endeavors. Everyone's system is going to be different because we're all different with different lives and needs and wants. Just jump in. Yeah, the water is a little cold until you get the details hammered out but you'll be okay. Can you believe we used to run through sprinklers as kids? Making your own power is like growing your own food; it is challenging and satisfying to provide for yourself. Thank you for walking along with me on this part of my journey; I think I'll head that a way now....

EXCITEMENT! IN THE 'HOOD

OH, THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S

WIND TURBINE!

Oh, I'm going to hell anyway; I covet; I covet! Look at that tower: 120 feet! Look at that bird: Xzeres 110 (formerly ARE110 prior to corporate take/changeover).

Wind Turbine Haiku:

Fly, baby, fly!
O, how do I love thee!
Come live with me!

I can feel it in the air tonight....

....hold on. Stealing lyrics from Phil (Collins) there. Sigh. The sun is starting to slip below the tree line a little earlier each night. Summer has given me a chance to get a little rest but now I'm feeling a little anxious. It's time to find hay, put up hay, get firewood, put up firewood, stock the livestock and feLION rations, maybe even a few human provisions for Winter. On the upside, maybe I'll loose another twenty pounds this winter too.

Weird Wind Follow Up

In a previous post, there was a weird wind that left some of our Loewen windows whipped and hanging not in a good way. Well, a few days later, our paper reported this as a storm. It was apparently a pretty bad one and left a lot of damage in it's wake. We finally were able to get a warranty claim processed for the original purchase of our windows and doors. They came out about a week after the storm. They were very professional and thorough. When they were working on the slider in the Garden Level, they noticed and did not like how the handle and lock were working and they fixed it. This may not seem like a big deal to anyone but I can't tell you how many times a certain other person, who also works for the place we bought these from, went through that door. Also, on two windows there was some pieces that they were able to just lightly pull and the pieces came right out. The pins that were used to nail the pieces in were too short. These guys fixed all that up too. Again, fixing the work of the aforementioned certain other person. This crew answered a bunch of questions for us. The Husband was here as I feel I can no longer control the urge to kick the crap out of anyone that looks like they hold a hammer for a living. I absolutely REFUSE for the sake of my freedom to deal with contractors without The (six foot tall) Husband standing next to me. Exceptions: Bob's Sheet Metal, LR Contracting, Hanson Electric. I also REFUSE to EVER go to the Building Department for anything EVER again. That, of course, is a lively discussion The Husband and I occasionally have when we talk about the wind turbine installation. Anyway, so The Husband was able to ask his maintenance questions. These guys addressed our concerns, answered our questions, and fine tuned the windows and doors. They were an interesting crew. They have worked on multi-million dollar homes. They do custom cabinetry. They've seen worse than The Secret Cabin. While it is somewhat comforting to hear that I'm just as stupid as someone that can afford a multi-million dollar home.... Cripes! I know human beings can't be perfect but for crying out loud, hideous framing on a mulit-million dollar home?! You've got to be kidding me. One of the purposes of this blog and the bitching in the blog is to hopefully help protect at least one person from the criminal building industry. It is unfortunate because there are honest guys out there that take pride in their work but finding them is like trying to find a rare, almost instinct animal. My brother is a carpenter. A good one. He said the guys that were in residential building that were really good, closed up shop, and went and got jobs elsewhere due to the economy/housing industry or lack of housing industry rather. He no longer works in the residential sector. He's now working for a huge industrial construction company building roads and bridges. Anyway, I'd been better off just doing my best with macaroni and glitter glue so I don't know what to tell you. My resume includes work for architects, engineers, and industrial contractors. I dreamed of becoming an architect as I typed away on proposals, scopes of work, and specifications. I was secretary to the Vice President of the industrial electrical contractor that performed the electrical work on The State Office Tower II in Columbus, OH. I worked on site during a BP turnaround. There was a trailer that was just for the job schedule. The schedule would constantly change and I'd take down pages of Gaant charts and replace with them with the updated schedule. I read everything I could get my hands on - for twenty years. I designed one home from scratch. The economy was cranking and no one builds a truly custom home. They can't make money or rather a killing on a home they've never built before. I thought I proceeded with caution but.... Back to the windows, I am now in receipt of an estimate to repair the wind damaged windows. It's bad. I feel queasy. Eighty-five dollars an hour for labor and to sit in a truck while it rolls down the road to get here and it's an eight and a half hour drive - each way. I have no idea what our insurance company is going to say. You really can't have just any body work on these. The hardware system is unique to the brand. We'll see. I'm going to close the Loewen window chapter on this blog with this closing statement: While the windows and doors are beautiful, we don't recommend them. They are too fussy requiring an immaculate installation and pricey, certified technicians to maintain and repair them. Some general tips for specing windows and doors: NO push-out casements for a windy site. (They blow closed all the time.) Doors should be out-swing so that when the wind blows it blows the door slab against the jamb thereby making a tighter seal against drafts. Especially, important on a windy site. It is best to let your new construction/remodel settle (probably at least a year, maybe two depending on item and warranty) and just before the warranty is up, in this case on windows and doors, make all your calls for a claim/adjustments. Most importantly, NO ONE cares about you, your home, or your money as much as you do; unfortunately, YOU MUST educate yourself enough to pass an architectural, engineering, and builders licensing exam and even then your odds may be better in Vegas, baby. For your construction budget, the ten percent for overruns is just the beginning. Unfortunately, you're going to have to pay for some work at least twice. Once for someone to run off with your money without coming back and/or possibly twice to pay for it to be done right and/or, if you're like us, you'll just gut things out until you can afford the parts and do the work yourself. Yeah, Vegas, baby. This concludes the window chapter.

Thinking required

So, we have our quote from Roger of Bob's Sheet Metal for a different hot water set up. We're still thinking. Some new information has come to light regarding wind turbines which affects the hot water system design. I'm sure The Husband probably told me at least fifty-three times that the turbine has to have a "dump zone." We'll be making power hand over fist in the summer. The excess power from the turbine has to go somewhere. So, we're at the design drawing board on this. First, we need to make a call to our local $200 a month electric bill Electric Company and see if they, at their expense, want to run a line back to the cabin. We had a quote of $8,000 to start to bring a line back here. That $8k bought a lot of equipment here. But, I vaguely remember that Electric Companies, by the year 2012, need to have a certain percentage of their power from renewable resources. Or something like that. If they want to buy power from us, that's fine and the utility company will be our dump zone and we will continue to run off our own system and not purchase any electricity from them; if they don't, that's fine too and we'll plan accordingly. While I'm dreaming of, oh, I don't know, maybe an electric powered infrared sauna as a dump zone; we need to make sure whatever we do, we'll meet our hot water goals of hot showers and hot dish washing water without fires in the Summer; hot showers, hot dish washing water, hot water in the radiant floor heating for the bathroom and front porch in the Winter. Once we know if we have to come up with our own dump zone, we need to lock in our final answer on the turbine. Then we'll start looking at balancing all those numbers (watts) with our needs. My brain hurts.