At Home In The Woods

[MarkV]

Obed I think I would forget the HVAC guy. Have the electrician fix the electrical,easy fix, and get the plumber to fix the gas line,they normally do gas anyway.

MarkV

 

[Obed]

White Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a great holiday and gets to spend some quality time with family. My wife, 10 month old girl, and I read the Christmas story and sang some Christmas songs together this morning to celebrate the birth of Christ. We'll be spending lots of time with parents and siblings if we don't get snowed in.

Obed

 

[Obed]

The quarter round moulding got installed Thursday.

My wife did a lot of cleaning. I've attached pictures without the cardboard and clutter.

 

[dcyrilc]

That's a beautiful home. You guys have really done a nice job.



Want to adopt us??? I'll bring the big tractor.

 

[Obed]

Make sure you put you BH and ROPS down first. I have seen too many pull the tractor in the first time and tear the garage door and header off.

Very good point. The main floor garage doors are 8 feet tall so the tractor will fit under the door even with the ROPS up. The back hoe normally rides lowere than the ROPS but it is possible to have it too high so I will need to be carefule.

The basement garage door is a special case. The floor trusses above the basement are 9 feet above the floor. I would have liked to have an 8 foot tall garage door in the basement but that would make putting in a garage door opener a challenge. So we made the basement garage door opening 7 1/2 feet tall. We measured the height of the tractor's ROPS and found it to be 7' 3" above the ground. It will be tight but there is a chance the tractor will fit in the basement garage without having to lower the ROPS. We'll just have to see.

Obed

 

[James150]

Do you think a side mount garage door opener would solve your downstairs overhead door problem? I just saw them for the first time the other day and they are pretty slick!!

Jim

 

[scoutcub]

Obed -
as you are nearing completion, I'm curious if you've ever sat down and figured cost per sq foot? I'd be very interested to know the cost given your interior finishes and brick exterior, as my future build will be very similar in choices.
I completely understand if you don't wish to share this info...

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

As a frequent lurker, I'll miss this thread when it wraps up. I love showing it to friends and family starting with the very 1st post showing how your family lived in a trailer for so long. You guys certainly paid your dues living (so long) in that thing. It is almost like a fairly tale with a great ending moving your wife and child into such a nice home. I think you guys' perseverance will pay off and you can look forward to some R & R.

As a fellow father, I will forewarn you to count to 100 or more when you come into a room that your child has decided that it needs some nice crayola stripes on the walls....They do make washable crayons but it is still frustrating. I've given up long ago on perfectionism.:confused2:

Thanks for sharing with us Obed and to all that have offered their advice.

 

[tommu56]

As a fellow father, I will forewarn you to count to 100 or more when you come into a room that your child has decided that it needs some nice crayola stripes on the walls....They do make washable crayons but it is still frustrating. I've given up long ago on perfectionism.:confused2:

Boy did that hit home!!!!
This morning my grandson (3) got my grandaughters (7) markers (washable at least) and redecorated the wall. Cant leave them alone for a minuet! :laughing:


tom

 

[dcyrilc]

Boy did that hit home!!!!
This morning my grandson (3) got my grandaughters (7) markers (washable at least) and redecorated the wall. Cant leave them alone for a minuet! :laughing:


tom

:laughing::laughing: My kids are 12 & 14 and you still can't leave them alone without worrying about what mischeif they are going to cause.:laughing:

 

[mikefromnh]

Do you think a side mount garage door opener would solve your downstairs overhead door problem? I just saw them for the first time the other day and they are pretty slick!!

Jim

IF you like that then check out the liftmaster 3800

YouTube - Chapter 1 - LiftMaster 3800 Introduction Video

 

[charlz]

As a fellow father, I will forewarn you to count to 100 or more when you come into a room that your child has decided that it needs some nice crayola stripes on the walls....They do make washable crayons but it is still frustrating. I've given up long ago on perfectionism.:confused2:

Boy did that hit home!!!!
This morning my grandson (3) got my grandaughters (7) markers (washable at least) and redecorated the wall. Cant leave them alone for a minuet! :laughing:

I never had problems with my kids writing on the walls. One of my friends had the 'whiteboard' material installed on the lower parts of their kids playroom area. They could write on the walls all they wanted with the non-toxic erasable markers. Still not sure if that is a good idea or not... kinda teaches them it is OK to write on the walls. I don't believe they had a problem with them doing it outside that room though.

 

[Obed]

Do you think a side mount garage door opener would solve your downstairs overhead door problem? I just saw them for the first time the other day and they are pretty slick!!

Jim

Jim,
Looks like that might work. However, our basement garage door opening is 7 1/2 feet high surrounded by brick. If the tractor with the ROPS up
won't fit in the 7 1/2' basement garage door, then maybe my wife will have to park her car in the basement! Like that would fly.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Obed I think I would forget the HVAC guy. Have the electrician fix the electrical,easy fix, and get the plumber to fix the gas line,they normally do gas anyway.

MarkV

MarkV,
This morning the H&A guy replaced the Romex cable in the conduit with the single conductor wires. He found a leak in the gas line, fixed it, and put the line back on 15 psi test. A few hours later the pressure had not budged. If the gas pressure holds, we should have our certificate of occupancy re-inspection tomorrow. A different inspector will be coming tomorrow. I hope he only looks at the 2 items the other inspector said we needed to fix.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Today I went over our electrical plan in detail and tested every outlet for power and GFCI protection where appropriate. I just plugged something in each outlet to verify we had power; I didn't measure voltage. I did find a handful of things that need looking at. Tomorrow the electrical workers should be here to replace the keyless lights in the closets with the globe lights and fix the other issues found by the inspector and me.

 

[dex3361]

Obed it might be a little late but an outlet tester is handy especially when you have a lot of receptacles to test. You could have a polarity issue or a bad grounding connection and a plug in device would still work. This would be a quick way to identify any issue before the electrician goes away. Here is a good descriptin at Wikipedia. RECEPTACLE TESTER
I have really enjoyed you build thread and you and your wife have done a great job. You are almost there.:thumbsup:

 

[dcyrilc]

Obed it might be a little late but an outlet tester is handy especially when you have a lot of receptacles to test. You could have a polarity issue or a bad grounding connection and a plug in device would still work. This would be a quick way to identify any issue before the electrician goes away. Here is a good descriptin at Wikipedia. RECEPTACLE TESTER
I have really enjoyed you build thread and you and your wife have done a great job. You are almost there.:thumbsup:

+1.

...and good luck with the inspection.:thumbsup:

 

[CurlyDave]

+1.

...and good luck with the inspection.:thumbsup:

+2 from me.

Your local hardware store will have receptacle testers. There are two kinds generally available. One just tests the circuit, the second type has a button which can be pushed to test the functioning of your GFIs.

I always try to get the second kind, which is about $1 more expensive on a $10 item.

 

[Obed]

Yay!

 

[Dishpointer]

Congrats Obed! That's a major step and it's behind you.