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Been awhile since i did any updates, life gets in the way sometimes.
Running electric, using 12 volt led lights, and a couple 120 runs for some things. until I get the solar fridge. Will get some interior pics as i move forward. Only have the kitchen side installed, 3 runs of 3...really is bright.
Here are some pics of the clearing around the house. #5 and #6 is 8 ft off level back to front, and will be filled with what's dug out for the pond, which is going in the right center of #1, which should get started next week when the septic is installed.

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So, a few pics of the interior? Not much to see, but here they are:

3 rows of 3 led lights on the kitchen side

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The bathroom, in front, and the power room to the left
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The switches for the lights are RV switches, each switch runs one string of lights. There is one 3 switch panel for kitchen and one for livingroom
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And lastly, my son hacked a broken Dollar General broom
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So far I have been running the lights off my drill battery if I am there after dark, otherwise I don't need them. I have 3 windows, 1 interior door, and 1 exterior door to put in yet, as the money is there to do it.

Hopefully will be in it by the end of summer.
 
Just a minor update. While I was pulling wire today, my son wanted to see what the walls and floor would look like so he started putting them in the bathroom. Apparently did some of each
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The boards for the floor are planed down to 7/8" (started with 1" to 1 1/4" boards).
The wall pieces are approximately 1/4" - 3/8", done the hard way...a lot of waste. Looking for a thinner blade.

We take the 4" 5" and 6" boards, rip them in half, then set the fence and rip them vertically into 3 or 4 pieces...that's what is going on the walls in the bathroom. They will then be urethaned, as will the floor.

Floor
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wall
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I'm sure we're going about it all wrong, but hey, we're doing it together...and when we build my son's house, we'll be perfect
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I'm using this wire, for lighting and 12vlt outlets, 10 gauge. Best price I've found is from ebay seller bestconnectioninc. I have it in 3 days.

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These are the fuseboxes, also from ebay, I am running into for the lights and rooms. I am using 2.
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These are the accessory plugs I've bought to install for some 12 volt accessories and other items...there will be at least one on each wall, 3 behind the wall mounted tv.
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These are the lights I am using...9 lights in each room, kitchen/living. 4.5" 12V LED Ceiling Down Light RV Camper Cabin Under Cabinet Dome Lamp Warm from ebay seller dollarled $59.99 for 10
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I just run the power wire from the living room and kitchen together, and the 2 grounds together, and clip them to my drill battery when I need the light if i stay late.

I put 2 of these outside on each side of the door just for fun..dim, but functional...wife likes it, and that's what's important
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It's been a bit since I had an update. Had some medical issues that didn't allow me to get much done, but I have managed to do a few things.

Bathroom is done, except for the fixtures install.
I have a 74 inch sink counter, dual flush comfort height toilet (for my old age), and a tub to go in.
This is just the finished room.
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The kitchen area will soon have a partial floor so I can put in the cabinets
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The living area, well...it's still a work in progress.
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Here is one set of steps to one of the lofts. To save space, we flipped a 5 step stringer, making it steeper and taking up less space, both to the landing, and to the loft.
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The landing will have storage under it, and display shelves on both sides of the steps. The sides (under the loft steps) will be shelves.
 
Change of pace...getting 'net out there, so had to get some siding stained and on, so i can mount the customer interfaces..here is a shot of some of the stained siding we are doing...maybe the board and batten cedar will go up around the rest someday, but now i just want it done
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DSL, 10 mg down, 1 up..best I can get, probably still better than satellite, which I will have to get eventually for redundancy. Got right of way from the neighbor, they'll do aerial up the rock face, then buried to a pedestal they'll put by my shed, to feed me and the other house we'll build, and the 2 cabins.
The box on there is for the tv antennas, I'll put up the phone/dsl tomorrow. All the cabling is done for the antennas, and most of the interior wiring for phone/dsl. Window trim later
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Just a short note, got some more siding up, will get pics soon.

In the meantime, I have lots of cedar scrap, small pieces, and finally figured out a use for them, other than kindling.

A cedar porch swing bird feeder, so the birds can relax and swing in their old age...lol

I've been cutting up the pieces, and my son has been nailing and gluing up the parts. We've given several as gifts, and are going to sell them around town...help finance the house since my hours were cut

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That was a fun read, thank you.

BTW, how did you get that ridge beam up by yourself? I remember when hubs and I put ours up and it was no picnic. But then we didn't have floor joists to use to stand on. It was 16 feet of open air.
 
Well, not much to show, been busy with work, but did get some stuff done.
My bathroom, what can i say, I'm a hillbilly, had to have a trough in there for a tub.
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Only made one door and hung because I had to get back here for work today.
The sink is 74" long, traded for a clearanced HD 24in sink and vanity that i got for $40
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And my son has moved on from making feeders, to making 4"x4" cedar pallet coasters, lol.

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Well, the first of my new whole house solar system came in today, an Outback FLEXmax 80.
I'll keep the 12 volt system and panels for the lighting and 12 volt outlets that are installed, so will actually have 2 systems running for now. Eventually the 12 volt will move to one of the other buildings, either storage or workshop.

Isn't this a beautiful sight? Even more so that it was "free" from giftcards earned from points while normal shopping online.

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Been a while. Parts 2 and 3 of the solar system have come in, 8 6 volt 420 ah batteries, and 10 320 watt 24 volt panels. Will get some pics next time I am out there, 4 days of rain coming...

My son and I put a ceiling in the living room area, using cedar dog eared fence boards. We were originally going to leave the beams visible, but decided it would look better with a ceiling in. Had to redo the lights, but no biggie. Next time we go out I will frame in the windows. Here are a couple pics:
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short and sweet...moved out of town to 1 room, 12 x 24 portable building converted to a cabin. It's about 1/4 mile away from where I am building, and it's rent free. Of course, it's quite cramped with 4 of us and a large dog.. ...my niece came at a bad time
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, but it will allow me to get more done on the house, and we can do this for a few months. My mom had 12 siblings in a one room cabin, and my dad had 13, and they did it.

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So...my wife told my son and I to get out on her day off..said she needed "quiet time"
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It was raining, so didn't want to pull the tools outside, but we went the house anyway to enjoy a movie and an MRE
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You know, guy stuff..

Fired up the generator, and watched a movie Kingsman...and got to test out the Internet again as well
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Got hungry so we hit the stash of SoPakCo MREs, we both had the chili mac..not bad, the best part was the PopTarts
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Just sharing a pic...
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Some of you may have seen from the start when I started building my house with my son on another forum.
Finally got a little more done.

Lowes had a sale on cabinets, 25% off so we picked some more up and my son and I hung them.

Doing the ground mount for the 10 320 watt solar panels in a week or so when the ground dries out..a week of rain has made everything "squishy" here.

It's been either too cold or too wet to do much, or at least I'm using that as an excuse :)

Tuesday the new engine comes for the cement mixer so I'll be able to pour the bases for the pump house, the outdoor burner, and my wifes "saloon".

I still have more cabinets to get, but it's all about the money :)...oh, and the stove isn't going there, it will be on the left wall, just had stuff in the way to move it now....thats a spot for more cabinets.

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Thanks for sharing this with us, specially with your son helping. Please keep us up on how it's going!
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Good luck and Godspeed!
 
The spray insulators had some downtime, so i got a great deal on having my roof insulated. 4"-5" thick.
Pretty neat how it goes on. the guys were a blast to have there.
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Here is a pic of the bathroom wall switch, using RV switches with the 12 volt lighting in all rooms.
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I really like the spray insulation idea. I am looking at maybe getting two 14x40 sheds and finishing them off myself. If you don't mind me asking? How is the pricing of spray versus regular Batt insulation?
 
I really like the spray insulation idea. I am looking at maybe getting two 14x40 sheds and finishing them off myself. If you don't mind me asking? How is the pricing of spray versus regular Batt insulation?

The spray insulation for the 16x32 main, and the 8x16 addon was $900 combined. Considering the labor savings and me not having to go up there again, I consider it a price well paid.
 
One thing to remember about foam insulation: insects love it to make their home in. Whether it is spray in or hard foam boards ants will use it as a home because it is easy to build in, dry and warm.
I was going to use it on my garage and shop because it offers better insulation than fiberglass batting but found out the problems my brother had up at the cabin with ants and wood boring beetles. Fiberglass batting can get mouse infested but it will also kill them. Since my buildings are so well sealed and covered in cement boards I never had problems with mice. (the walls are glued to the foundation and held in place by bolts every 32 inches)
 
No, those are cedar dog-eared fence boards. We poly-urethaned them and put them up, they are also used for the walls in the lofts.

here is a better look at it...those are 12 volt RV mushroom lights...yes, I'm totally off grid, they won't bring power up here.
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I like that ceiling. What did that run? I may steal that idea when we get to that point in our house.
 
I like that ceiling. What did that run? I may steal that idea when we get to that point in our house.

I'm not sure on total cost, but I got them for $1 each new. they were $3.05 each at HD, but Lowes had a sale af $1 each. Instead of driving out of town, I went to price match at HD, and the manager refused. I was only going to get 50, just to do a wall, and make the drive to Lowes another day, so I showed him their policy, matching competitors same product, on sale. They still refused.

I went home, called corporate, and 15 minutes later got a call from the store manager, apologizing and asking me to come in. They had 50 waiting for me....by this time that wasn't enough for my trouble. I bought another 450, and saved myself a bundle. They weren't too happy about it.

They then had 2 training sessions to teach their employees the price matching policy.

I think I bought another 100 at Lowes after that..but they were $2 something then.
 
One thing to remember about foam insulation: insects love it to make their home in. Whether it is spray in or hard foam boards ants will use it as a home because it is easy to build in, dry and warm.
I was going to use it on my garage and shop because it offers better insulation than fiberglass batting but found out the problems my brother had up at the cabin with ants and wood boring beetles. Fiberglass batting can get mouse infested but it will also kill them. Since my buildings are so well sealed and covered in cement boards I never had problems with mice. (the walls are glued to the foundation and held in place by bolts every 32 inches)

They talked about an additive that can prevent it, but I don't know what the name is. We've always just used those bug bombs every 3 or 4 months in our other buildings with spray foam and have never had an issue.
 

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