Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[FairfaxStu]

Peter:

As I expected, it sounds like you are on top of everything. The main thing is to make sure that your Mom is happy and living in a house that is safe. I think all of us can agree on that point.

On the internet access, I find it hard to believe that you can hit the AP on the mountain but your Mom cannot since you are so close. Did you install your router or did somebody else do it? Jdonovan has a good point about the potential for using commercial WiFi products as an alternate solution. I have heard that Satellite internet is, well, not so good.

The last point I have, and one that was brought up by Ron, is the effective length of the dryer vent. I am not going to say it is too long but I really think it is iffy at best. As long as you trust it and think it will work, I am satisfied.
-Stu

 

[jdonovan]

On the internet access, I find it hard to believe that you can hit the AP on the mountain but your Mom cannot since you are so close. Did you install your router or did somebody else do it? Jdonovan has a good point about the potential for using commercial WiFi products as an alternate solution. I have heard that Satellite internet is, well, not so good.

depends what mom uses the net for...

low latency things, VOIP, gaming, video conferencing are mostly no-go on satellite.
VPN back to the corp office is marginal.

General web browsing, email etc... works fairly well.

 

[pclausen]

Regarding the dryer, it actually vented into the house when mom tried it day before yesterday. It had come undone where the flex pipe attaches to the dryer. I'll let them deal with pull it out from the wall (after pulling the washer out as there is no way to get to it otherwise). We didn't want it venting directly to the porch which is on the other side of the exterior wall where it is located. Fortunately she will only use it on rare occasions when the outside weather does not permit hanging it there. She much prefers the freshness of clothes dried outside.

As for Internet, she'll primary use it for general web browsing and email, so the latency associated with a satellite link should not be a large concern. Unfortunately there are 4 parcels of land between our houses, so trenching my own ditch is not a very viable option. We have tried shooting various 900MHz, 1.8, 2.8 and 5.4GHz solutions between our houses with no success. I was wrong about it being 800ft. It is more like 1700 ft. Here's a Google Earth view.

Stu, my house was unable to pickup the transmitter on Afton mountain. It wasn't until they put an AP on Ennis Mountain that I was able to pickup a signal. We, the neighbors on the street, have been thinking about chipping in and getting fiber run and be done with it. Problem is that the cost to us is about $25k. Split 8 ways, that's still a sizable chunk per household!

 

[pclausen]

Some cell phone pics from this afternoon (sorry I forgot my camera what I was over there spreading what will hopefully be the last load of crush & run.

Gravel spread in front of driveway

Rock work in front of house done

Chimney and DirecTV dish

Misc other shots from back side

Stamped concrete sealed

 

[FairfaxStu]

Stu, my house was unable to pickup the transmitter on Afton mountain. It wasn't until they put an AP on Ennis Mountain that I was able to pickup a signal. We, the neighbors on the street, have been thinking about chipping in and getting fiber run and be done with it. Problem is that the cost to us is about $25k. Split 8 ways, that's still a sizable chunk per household!

Jeez. Is that a one time cost or would you still have to pay a monthly rate in addition. I suspect I know the answer.
-Stu

 

[cfhuber]

As for Internet, she'll primary use it for general web browsing and email, so the latency associated with a satellite link should not be a large concern. Unfortunately there are 4 parcels of land between our houses, so trenching my own ditch is not a very viable option. We have tried shooting various 900MHz, 1.8, 2.8 and 5.4GHz solutions between our houses with no success. I was wrong about it being 800ft. It is more like 1700 ft.

Stu, my house was unable to pickup the transmitter on Afton mountain. It wasn't until they put an AP on Ennis Mountain that I was able to pickup a signal. We, the neighbors on the street, have been thinking about chipping in and getting fiber run and be done with it. Problem is that the cost to us is about $25k. Split 8 ways, that's still a sizable chunk per household!

I've been lurking on this thread since the early days (as I was intrigued by the fact that the build was just 10 miles west of my (new-to-me) house as the crow files). I think you will be pleasantly surprised with Exceed.

The CenturyLink central office for the less than 20 houses on my gravel road is 4 cable miles from my house. The neighbors' hope for DSL is a pipe dream (perhaps in this case it should be called a "cable dream"). My nearest neighbor was still using dial-up until last summer. My house sits in a little valley between two ridges in southern Albemarle county. The county's dislike of cell towers means that my AT&T iPhone is a brick when I'm home. Having moved from Arlington with FIOS, I was ready for an unpleasant reversal of experience with internet access.

Providentially, ViaSat had just launched their newest internet satellite, providing an alternative to the much panned HughesNet. We got our Exceed service by way of Nelson County Cable and are just coming up on a year's worth of experience. Installation was no fuss (both times: we also got a receiver for an office). Service has been very good. We only loose connectivity during very heavy rain storms (it was gone for five minutes during those heavy thunder storms last week). Satellite reacquisition after connection loss is very fast and I have never needed to manually intervene.

As for speed, that one or two second latency until pages start loading gives you a moment to contemplate whether you want to continue your youtube binge or go outside and do something useful. But once they do start loading the experience is reminiscent of DSL. And the IP address is rarely changed, an added bonus if your managing remote firewalls. The contract has bandwidth limitations, but they don't seem to be enforcing them at the moment.

Frank.

 

[Jim Shooz]

Might be a solution a couple of years away here:

Google launches Project Loon - National - NZ Herald News

Don't know if the video link will run. Sometime they are "copyrighted" and wont run in another country.

 

[FairfaxStu]

Jim:

It ran fine for me. Not to bog this thread down with techno-geek speak, I suspect the major providers here in the US will lobby against this like crazy because it is a cash cow for them. As such, I don't see this available here for a long time - 5-10 years minimum. I am not sure of the climate for devices like cellphones and tablets with cellular access, etc in NZ, but here in the states you typically get devices "on the cheap" but get locked into a contract where you are obligated to pay your provider X amount per month over Y amount of years. My understanding is that outside of the US, you buy your own device at full price but then can get service for much cheaper and then can change service providers at will with no penalty.
-Stu

 

[J F]

Do they allow paragraph spacing, Stu?

 

[murphy1244]

Do they allow paragraph spacing, Stu?

That really bugs go, don't it.:shocked: