The 2010 working season begins!

So I'm up at 6 and ready to go at 6:30. The LSW, however, is sick, and The Boy has decided to spite me by sleeping in for the first time...well, ever. Despite these obstacles, somehow we're on the road by 7:45 - not bad, all things considered.

And what's the occasion? The electrician is meeting with me at 11 AM to talk through my wiring plans. I've got it in my head that I can wire most of the place by myself, and I'm looking for a paid mentor to ensure that I don't kill us all with wayward electrons.

'Larry' shows up promptly at 11 and is polite and professional, despite the fact that I've come up with a 200-amp, 13-circuit plan to wire a 16' x 28' shoebox. And 4 of those circuits are 240 volt. His changes are modest: Take the refridgerator off the GFI circuit and make all the 15-amp circuits 20-amp instead. And we agree to ditch 2 items in the original plan: A generator hookup and a motorhome hookup. Both can be added later if needed, and neither of us can envision my father being able to navigate his bus-sized RV up my narrow dirt road. So what am I planning?

Circuit 1: General purpose receptacle loop - 9 plugs, a smoke detector and a closet light
Circuit 2: Refrigerator plug
Circuit 3: Rear spotlight, kitchen light, kitchen work lights, bath fan/light and bath vanity light
Circuit 4: Front spotlight, entry light, porch light, and main track lights
Circuit 5: Microwave
Circuit 6: Crawlspace receptacles (GFI), exterior receptacles, and crawlspace lights
Circuit 7: Bath receptacles (GFI - separate circuit required by code)
Circuits 8 and 9: Kitchen receptacles (GFI - 2 circuits required by code)
Circuit 10: Range/Oven
Circuit 11: Well pump
Circuits 12 and 13: 9,000 watts of electric baseboard heating for the cabin and crawlspace

And why am I heating the crawlspace? Well, I'm not - not all of it, anyway. The land slopes, leaving half the foundation exposed. To be sure we can use the place in the winter without water lines freezing, I've Isolated all of the plumbing to the wall separating the kitchen from the bath. In the crawlspace below, I'm going to frame in an insulated 10' x 8' room for the expansion tank, hot water heater (electric) and plumbing. I'll heat this with a 4' baseboard heater on its own thermostat, and empty the lines when we're not there.

I considered propane heat for the cabin, but between the super-insulation and the small size, I'm thinking electrical might not be that much more expensive, especially as we're going to install a small wood stove. In the long run, we're likely to install solar and feed the power back to CVPS, which - given that we'll only use the place on weekends - should make our electrical essentially free.

So Larry will take care of the hookup and anything needed to get to the breaker panel, and then he'll inspect my work and hook it in when I'm done. I'm buying all of the materials from the panel on, running all the wires and tying everything together. Or that's the plan, anyway.

It was a beautiful day to work, as it turned out. 70 degrees, few bugs, and The Boy stayed on his best behavior despite the long day and long trip. And despite illness, the LSW managed to help me get another 15' of siding up, which was pretty good considering how slow the siding went when I was working by myself.

And so the work begins for another year...

This Cabin Brought to You By ...

LSW here, dusting off the old blog and preparing for Vermont 2010: The Adventure Drags On. I've had the whole winter to sit and contemplate what it will someday be like when I'll have the opportunity to call up my pride of cougar friends and say, "Girls' weekend at the cabin! Chocolate, wine and sweat pants!" It's too exciting to think about, actually. I know that day will come, but the reality is that we still have a whole big butt load of work to do.
There's the septic and well, electricity and plumbing, flooring and tiling. It's a bit overwhelming, but we know we've got to take it one step at a time.
The other issue is the fundage. Until the well and septic are done, we have no idea how much we'll have in the budget this year for all the other stuff. It occurs to me: you know what we need? We need a sponsor! I can picture it now: print ads with the two of us, almost like American Gothic standing there in front of the cabin, saying, "We did it! So can you!" and then there will be all the info for, say, Owens Corning insulation or Kohler plumbing supplies.
We could even be like a reality show in ads. Where are we in the process this month? Check out the ad in Better Homes & Gardens!
Are we willing to sell our souls to the dark side of advertorial? You betcha! Bring it on, building supply companies. We're ready and willing.

Checking In - March Edition

The snow is melting, the mercury is rising, and I'm slowly recovering my enthusiasm to get back to work. Looking at everything to be done, however, is a little overwhelming: Well, Septic, Landscaping, Electrical, Plumbing, Flooring, Wallboard, Cabinetry, appliances, fittings and fixtures, the remainder of the siding, front porch, back porch, deck, etc., etc. Easy enough if you're either made of money or willing to take out a loan. I'm not and I'm not, respectively, so I'm being forced to to scale back last year's end-of-season dream of hiring a contractor to do the rest for me. So what to tackle next, and how?

Mulling this over for the last month, I've decided on three priorities for this year:

1) Finish last year's work. This includes completing the interior wall framing (furnace room, bathroom and closet), completing the loft catwalk and installing stairs, and finishing the exterior siding. All of this can be done for less than $1,000 as I have half the materials on hand.

2) Get power to the cabin. I've been in full research mode on wiring, and I've concluded that 80% of it is work I can do myself. I'll hire an electrician to inspect the work, wire the load panel, and hook up to CVPS. Including materials, about $1,500.

3) Drill a well. Once we have water available on the property, the prospect of staying there won't be so daunting, even if the 'real' plumbing isn't yet in place. I also want to know for a fact that I have water before I invest in septic. So what's involved?

There seem to be 3 well drillers in the area, and I drove up today to meet with the one who's name I've heard most frequently. 'Ed' from Green Mountain Well Drilling met me promptly at 11 am, confirmed that he could get to the well site with his drilling rig, and then settled onto a stack of wood in the cabin to fill me in on the process. My notes:

• Most drillers will drill the well, line it from the surface to the bedrock, test the water, install the pump, run the water and power lines to the house, install the pressure tank, and tie into power and plumbing if needed. Excavating for the power and water lines can be done for an extra fee.
• Ed has done a number of wells in the area, including the one across the street. He expects that the lining will need to be about 40', and that we should hit adequate water at about 250'.
• The worst case scenario is that we miss the water entirely and find we've got 400 feet and nothing to show for it. If that happens, I can do 'hydrofracking' (breaking new fissures in the bedrock by injecting pressurized water). It's expensive at $2,200, but he guarantees we'll get water.
• All said an done, the job will be somewhere between $3,500 and $10,000, although he expects my job will probably work out to about $5,000.
• Shangri-La's heavy equipment prohibition means we can't do the work until May 15th, although Ed noted that the lack of snow means the roads will likely be passable by late April. The work should take about 2 days in total.
• He also noted that we may find that my water is high in minerals - particularly magnesium. If so, we may need to add a filter to the system.

It was a nice conversation, ranging from the business at hand to solar energy, the state of American manufacturing, local agriculture, and cooking. It occurred to me that it was the first time I had had the opportunity to invite someone inside the cabin to talk, and so - even though it was a professional call - you could argue that we've had our first house guest.

"This place is way overbuilt," he said, looking around. "It ain't gonna fall down, that's for sure."

"That's the nice thing about building it yourself," I replied. "You can do it the way you want to."

Checking In - February Edition

Ran up to Shangri-La on a Saturday morning in mid-February to talk with a CVPS field technician after receiving a letter informing me that poles need to be replaced in my right-of-way this year. I wasn't opposed to the work, but I wanted to understand how they would access the property and what the work would involve.

Remembering the winter before, I expected to have a hard time walking the property, figuring there would be 2 -3 feet of snow on the ground. I reality, there was less than a foot of very hard snow. I got there about an hour before we were supposed to meet and spent a little time in and around the cabin before walking the right-of-way down the hill to where our road meets the state highway. There were lots of animal tracks - including what looked to be moose tracks - everywhere. Living up here should give The Boy a good education in fauna to supplement his self-study in mushrooms.

Dave pulled up in a CVPS truck about a half-hour ahead of schedule, and we spent some time down at the new pole they put in last spring for my power feed talking about the work. Some notes from our conversation:

• The company plans to put in heavier lines to protect against falling limbs and ice storms. This is going to involve adding a third pole to the right-of-way, but it should benefit us, as problems with any portion of the line will kick out power at the bottom of my property, meaning we lose power, too.
• The company will access the property where the right-of-way meets the state road. They have equipment that will climb right over the stone wall, so no new curb cuts will be made, and no additional trees need to be felled.
• They access the property the same way about once every 10 years to clear the undergrowth in the right-of-way. All brush is chipped and left on the property. Any trees cut can be chipped, but they can be cut into fireplace length and stacked if the homeowner prefers.
• The connection to the cabin will need to be 16' off the ground and 3' away from the loft window. This is going to be close - I'll have to bring a measuring tape up next time to see if this will be possible. My other option - as discussed previously - is to go underground at considerably higher expense.
• Dave noted that he has lived his whole life in southern Vermont, and had never heard of Shangri-La until he was assigned work here.
• Dave's wife has people in SW Connecticut, one town over from where we live. Consequently, he's familiar with the area. Doesn't care for it, though - too many people and too crowded. "I'm a country boy at heart." Amen, brother.

Damn Yankee Flatlanders

LSW here. Let's just get this straight. We have no business building a cabin in Vermont. Case in point: this weekend. When we went up on Sunday, it was kind of a gray, mushy day. Vermont was not at its most beautiful, but-- good news-- the cabin was still standing.
We went into the big city to have dinner (trying to use a gift certificate, only to be told the restaurant is closed on Sunday nights), but we found another place and had a yummy spinach salad with roasted winter vegetables, candied almonds and fried goat cheese, pizza and a burger. The Boy behaved himself and even ate some food, and we returned to the inn for some reading and snifters of Sapling Vermont Maple Liqueur.*
That's when it all started to go to hell. The Boy, who had been saying how tired he was, decided that, in fact, he'd rather just chat. All. Night. Long.
He finally fell asleep and around 4 a.m., I heard a loud noise. I recognized it immediately: a snow plow.We woke up to find about six inches of beautiful, shimmering white snow capping the trees. It was Vermont at one of its most stunning times.
We tried to go down to the dining room to have breakfast, but The Boy decided he wanted a particular croissant after having already picked out a muffin and proceeded to throw a fit. The Vermonster grabbed him and hauled him upstairs where we waited for the trauma to dissipate. It was time to leave.
So we headed out in the snow-- all of us wearing sneakers-- and realized that we didn't have an ice scraper to get the snow off the car. I'm embarrassed to say, an umbrella was utilized for the task.
Then it was onto the cabin, to take one more look and to take pictures of it in its winter finery.
Let's just cut to the chase: not only do I not have 4-wheel drive, I also have four almost completely bald tires. Yes, we got stuck, right in the middle of the road in front of the cabin. We tried pushing the car, only now it turned horizontally in the road, so now no one would be able to pass if they came up the hill.Picture it, friends. The two of us-- no gloves, no hats (fortunately The Vermonster had boots in the car), with our Connecticut license plate, trying to figure out what the hell we were going to do, while The Boy talked non-stop about anything and everything that came into his field of vision.
We checked one neighbor's house. He wasn't home, but there was a shovel. When that didn't help, we checked another neighbor. No answer there, either. I suspect they were home and laughing their asses off, waiting to see what we'd do next. We finally found another neighbor who had some sand in his truck. We managed to drive the car up a bit and then back it all the way down the hill.
Mortifying.
We are so lame.
Is this cabin really going to happen? Because suddenly, I'm just not picturing it. Before, I imagined cozy nights in front of the fireplace. Now I'm envisioning being trapped in an unheated shell, trying to fashion some sort of snow shoes out of tree branches and signaling for help with a flare gun. We can do this, right? Please tell me we can do this.
*Have we told you about this? Vermont Maple Liqueur. This stuff is amazing. Sounds like it'd be overly sweet, but it's got a nice, smooth sweetness up front and then a serious kick at the end.