Our house in the woods build

The woodstove came with us from the last house and will be installed in the insulated basement, no hearth needed for now, just set on the slab. The last house was a slightly smaller footprint but a colonial, and we had no problem heating the whole house from the basement wood stove. Keeps the mess out of the main living area, super easy to bring wood in the walk out, doesn't overheat the room the stove is in, kinda like having radiant floor heat. We had to install an "automatic" heat source to satisfy the bank; we decided on simple electric baseboard. It's cheap and I didn't want to invest a lot of money in a furnace we had no intentions on using. The house is a ranch so if we decide to add a furnace in the future it shouldn't be too difficult. The original plan was also to install a heat pump in the kit/dining/living room area for both a/c and heat, that's still up in the air, we may forgoe that for now, again easy enough to add later. Hot water will be electric and all the appliances are electric. We will likely add PV solar at some point, a couple of plug-in hybrids or even all electric commuter cars for the wife and I...we'll see.

Sage advice about the maintenance my friend, I will keep that in mind. The Hounds should be able to run, we've had a couple porky run-ins while I've been there working, I think they are pretty dense there. I've done a little porky aversion training with the Hounds, but it's a long process, it's a bit of a concern right now as de-quilling is usually a $$$ vet visit. The brothers are still young and intense hunters, hopefully I can train them off of the porkys. Jackson's recovery from knee surgery has been a long road, he continues to have some difficulty with one side.

Your place sound fantastic, good luck with the build! It sounds like you are a bit more remote than us, we are both still working and needed to stay within a reasonable commuting distance. We are only 6 miles from a good size town, my site contractors main gravel pit is just on the other side of town, I'm sure that factored into his costs.

A couple years ago we came very close to buying a very remote house on 100 acres. 30 years ago a wealthy banker from the Netherlands built a custom chalet style, log sided, knotty pine interior fully finished house perched on the side of a ledge overlooking a small pond with distant views of the ocean on 450 acres that he used a couple times a year for a get-away. He sold the entire property to a local land conservation group, who already owned another 500 acres that surrounded it on three sides. It also bordered 35,000 acres of state owned public reserve land. The conservation group was selling the house with 100 acres to help fund the entire purchase. There was a right of way across the conservation land for the existing road to the house that was 1.2 miles long, the house was at the end and the only home on it, there is a stretch of about 600 yards that is very steep, 9-10% and north facing but straight. The home owner was going to be entirely responsible for the road. The house was also off the grid, connecting it to the grid would have been possible with an off road line construction of about a half mile. The house as he used it had an on demand generator. The house needed a little work, a roof and the log siding was shot in places, but was sound. The asking price was actually very reasonable but a bit of a stretch for us. I don't think you could have done the site work let alone built the house for what they were asking. It would have been a challenge to live there year round, it was meant to be seasonal. The plan was to add off grid PV solar. It is a one of a kind house and I think a bit like restoring that old sentimental car, you never get out of it what you've got into it in terms of the purchase price for a new owner. We had to pass, mainly because my wife was not that keen on being that remote, and wasn't in love with the house itself, it was also more than an hour commute. I'm not sure we could have pulled that purchase off anyway, it would have had to be a privately financed deal, probably with the land conservation group, no bank would have ever gotten near that purchase.

 

So..... with the stove in the basement, will the floor between the basement and living areas have grates to allow the heat to move better?

 

Pretty sure that's not code...so maybe but not until we the CO from the town. I did cut a 12 inch grate opening in the last house and it probably helped but I think we would have been fine without it. We generally leave the door to the basement open as that is the cats domain, no Hounds allowed in the basement.

 

Near Conway.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

I had to go to Conway today, then to Salisbury Mass. Thats a miserable neverending ride.

 

Not much progress since the module set, till this week. Then all of a sudden a whole bunch at once.

Septic is in.


Trenching for the electric and water line today. Did I mention that we have ledge?







Ledge drilling truck for the poles today.




More ledge drilling for the guy wire anchors.




The excavator operator's dog, pit/boxer, his name is Rubble


Oh and the factory guys showed up today with the front door and the side French doors that didn't get installed at the factory. Waa a busy day.

 

Fantastic...Bet your happy thats all done.

 

Looking great Dave.


Definitely a busy day at the new place.
Gonna be great to get things all settled in.

Will you be in before the snow flies??
If so, then..

 

Very nice DaveGunter !

 

It's a basement install, just sitting on the concrete floor, I think that's code but I'll prolly do it after we get the CO from the town...just to be safe. Chimney install should be happening soon.

We should be able to move in sometime in October, that'd be pretty early for snow round heah deah!

Funny, the ledge drilling guy yesterday was cursin the ledge and talking about it like it was a living breathing thing...I'm like wait a minute isn't that how you make your living?

 

Yes insulated, studded with spray foam and Sheetrock. I've heard of codes requiring a hearth even on concrete, I think somebody on FHC mentioned it

 

Well, to be fair, I make my living operating computers and manipulating software, but I cuss at them at times when they don't do as expected (or try to "help" - which usually isn't).