Our house in the woods build

Nothing wrong with artificial. Have had one for years.

Settling in - good.

 

Wow ! this is a really great thread Dave
Videos were fantastic
Green acres is the place to be , Green acres here we are

 

Hey Dave,

I’ve been wondering how the house is performing this winter? Maybe a run-down/recap on your burning setup (stove, chimney, oak?, tight enough to need an air exchanger?)

I’ve thought of your new place a couple of times while eyeing ice dams here.

Hope all is well - Sam

 

We are settling in and enjoying getting to know our new surroundings. There will be quite a bit to do when things thaw out in the spring...some final grading that never happened last fall. I've got a couple miles of trails established in the woods, mostly just for running the Hounds on, the trails are not ready for any type of equipment ATV, tractor etc, a few of them follow the remains of old skidder trails. Between the stash of firewood at our old house and all of the logs from clearing for this house it will be a few years before I need to harvest any trees for firewood.


The house is performing well. I have not had an energy audit/blower door test yet to determine how tight the house is...I thought I'd let things settle a little bit first, maybe after the ground thaws this spring. My inclination is that it is sufficiently tight but not enough to warrant an air exchanger. We have had to run a dehumidifier since we moved in, but I suspect that might have a lot to do with it being new construction and the building materials are just drying out. The indoor humidity was initially in the high 50s...we were getting a lot of condensate on the windows particularly at the sash. We have been able to lower it to the low 40s and are still getting some condensate...but I think that is normal. The ceiling insulation is R49 cellulose, the walls are R20 cellulose and the basement walls and rims joist are sprayed/sealed with 4" of closed cell foam. I don't have any venting to the main living floor although we do leave the door at the top of the stairs open.


Here are some pics of the wood stove set up in the basement...nothing fancy, just a straight up class A with the stove sitting on the basement slab. I did install an OAK, just a dryer vent with the flapper taken off. I think it helps although I did burn for a month or so without it and didn't notice any issues with the stove breathing. I do have to run a fan on the OAK where it comes through the sill or it will produce a lot of condensate. It heats the house easily, I have had to learn to load based on OAT as well as sun, I've burned about 2 cords of mostly spruce this year so far. The rear of the house is directionally at 180* so we get a lot of solar gain. The plan is to install PV solar on the rear roof, hopefully this year as the Fed tax credit starts getting reduced after 2019. When the solar guy came to look it over he indicated that the house is oriented perfectly and that a 6/12 pitched roof is the ideal angle for the panels...hmm...you don't say.

 

Looks like those hound dogs are settled right in......

Nice place!

 

Looks great Dave! Guessing that "It heats the house easily, I have had to learn to load based on OAT as well as sun" ... makes you grin a bit. Way to go...

 

DaveGunter A quick suggestion when you do the blower door test ask the technician to do a negative test plus a positive one. The difference, most only do negative, sucking air out. this really squeezes doors and windows against the seals. A positive one pushes air into house. If 2 numbers are the same you are golden!! Positive in my mind is more informational as how does your house perform when wind blows!!

 

Wow you moved a lot of firewood from the old place! Good you had the time to do it. I'm glad your stove is keeping the house warm, good job!

 

a few logs still to process ...

 

Looking good there, DaveGunther !

 

Glad it all came together so nice for you Dave, I love that Beaverpond. There's nothing like Wood Ducks on a Beaver pond.

 

Sweet place to live....Congrats....I envy you.....

 

Finally getting some of the saw logs out of here, my buddy will mill them and we will split the lumber. I'm hoping to get enough for a small chicken coop. I had to get some help from a neighbor loading, the logs were too heavy for my little baby Deere, his 3300 Kubota struggled with a few of the bigger ones. Couple more loads to go. The milling with my friend is mostly just for fun and cause I'm interested and want to know how milling happens.





Got some firewood stacks started, and a big pile of rounds to split yet. Kind of just random stacks in the woods for now as the earth work contractor still has not come back for some final earth work and I needed to keep the stacks out of the way.





Lost this stack the other day.

Some cedar logs I'll use for landscaping, maybe use them to make a fenced garden. We are waiting for the earth work contractor to finish before we decide where to put the garden too.


Added some screen curtains to the side of the porch, the bugs are pretty fierce this year. The curtains can be taken down in about 5 minutes.



We had our first quilling the other day. I had high hopes that the hounds were past this problem as I have been doing some intensive avoidance training with them, including some with live porkys I trapped. I've dispatched 9, so far, two in the last three days.

 

Poor boy! 9 porkys in the pines, that's a lot!

 

Nice, Dave. Glad to see your deck has room for the dogs and smoker.

 

Ouch on the quills. Porch looks good.

 

Looking good DaveGunter


Hope you can get the porcupine population dwindled.

That looks painful