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Journals
Name Visits Posts Pics Videos

Eschete-Dome11,32627470
YesterdayLafayette, LA

Holy-Hill-House4,93213160
YesterdayRichfield, WI

NorthPoleHome14,29327860
SundayNorth Pole, AK

TheHoskensProject41,8181153153
ThursdayDome-ville, central, FL

Seven-Peaks-Faswall-...20,679422891
4/30/2012Graeagle, CA

Tanglewood42,4876962,06642
4/26/2012Colorado Springs, CO

Family-Affair1,781200
4/25/2012

30215,76621730
4/1/2012Belfair, WA

Dionnekay623100
3/29/2012Omaha, NE

SunburnStateHome487110
3/6/2012Charlotte County, FL

VICTOR-MONTANA1,031110
2/22/2012Victor, MT

Houston-720125961,009100
1/21/2012Houston, TX

Workshop7,923630
1/8/2012Florissant, CO

Our-simple-home4,304223080
12/5/2011LaPorte, IN

Beaver-Creek-Ranch19,255142160
11/14/2011Santa Rosa, CA

ICF-Construction6,276500
11/11/2011Elkridge, MD

Little-Help-from-my-...4,91611150
11/4/2011Rockwall, TX

YaNYca7,451810
10/29/2011Boston, MA

The-Man-Refuge2,961310
10/19/2011San Antonio, TX

mckernanmc5,291320
10/6/2011Amite, LA

1860s-Texas-rehabnew...30,150431910
9/26/2011Boerne, TX

Jay-House3,6236180
9/26/2011Sebastopol, CA

Large-Family-Compoun...1,589200
9/23/2011Covington, GA

Woodchuck-Ridge3,544480
9/12/2011Akron, OH

Forever-Home-Sweet-H...7,07034310
8/24/2011Issaquah, WA

Clarksville-MD2,512200
8/22/2011Eldersburg, MD

steve-n-carolyn8,7154140
8/21/2011Sun City, CA

Old-York2,085200
7/27/2011Bridgewater, NJ

Carriage-House8,43320282
7/24/2011Ft. Collins, CO

DomeSweetDome10,27718291
6/4/2011Suffolk, VA

Goodpasture8,885562880
5/28/2011Westminster, CO

TheCastle3,129160
5/25/2011Cheshire, CT

Marks-Log-Cabin6,910392210
5/12/2011Altoona, PA

Bill5,683100
5/4/2011Tucson, AZ

Mueller-Dream-Home2,877100
4/15/2011

Oklahoma-Steel4,187650
4/13/2011Minco, OK

DutchG2,623200
4/5/2011

HiddenInOhio3,9789130
4/1/2011Elyria, OH

MagnoliaHouse2,954100
3/29/2011Houston, TX

Buffaloader4,642200
1/11/2011Valley Center, KS

SouthernEcoHome13,35220210
1/9/2011Blacksburg, VA

Austrian-Chalet6,450780
1/2/2011Twin Lakes, CO

Vista-Ridge5,62421660
12/21/2010Swanton, OH

OurFarmstead12,070601890
12/10/2010Pennsylvania

sherman9,069211410
12/7/2010Downers Grove, IL

AirparkHome-Remodel19,06522460
11/8/2010Hillsboro, OR

Holloway5,071200
11/7/2010Petersburg, VA

Building-Our-Lakefro...3,712110
11/5/2010Piscataway, NJ

SunburyGalena-Build3,475100
11/3/2010Galena, OH

BUILDING-OUR-GREEN-D...3,836800
11/2/2010Pattison, TX

RR-Homestead11,40631740
10/26/2010Janesville, CA

Casa-Paradiso-Vieque...3,961200
10/19/2010Chelsea, MA

Millerbuild4,8885110
10/1/2010Carstairs, AB

VilanoBeachCasa-de-S...13,219381170
9/20/2010Saint Augustine, FL

Delisledigs5,373300
9/16/2010Jacksonville, FL

h20dave5,298430
9/10/2010Waterloo, AL

Mountain-Idyl4,874900
9/9/2010Asheville, NC

High-over-Lake-Granb...7,38012230
9/8/2010Granbury, TX

Homestead25,97064850
9/8/2010Smithville, MO

philandjan5,083100
9/2/2010

octagonaltopsider35,75510920
8/25/2010Cupertino, CA

Commons4,025200
8/21/2010Atascocita, TX

Our-First-OB-home4,433300
7/27/2010Gardner, KS

Louisiana-Mediterran...12,638311870
7/21/2010Sunset, LA

Crows-Nest4,027100
7/20/2010

Patterson-Project4,584400
7/16/2010John's Island, SC

Hidden-Meadow-Home5,8102100
7/13/2010Murrieta, CA

New-house-in-Selah-W...4,161140
7/4/2010Belfair, WA

Arnold-CA-Alpine-cha...11,55022100
7/2/2010Arnold, CA

Working-Wilton30,962343010
6/16/2010Wilton, NH

JJ-Residence3,787100
6/7/2010San Antonio, TX

Thompson-Valley-Home5,031330
6/6/2010Monticello, FL

Naperville-Webster-S...14,5762360
5/21/2010Naperville, IL

Gary--Suzi4,873100
5/7/2010

crystal-falls-home16,67420270
5/5/2010Cedar Park, TX

Kapoho-Retirement-Ho...4,873130
5/4/2010Santa Ana, CA

NC--New-Construction4,588100
5/3/2010

Collins-on-Cobblesto...4,72521910
4/30/2010Waynesville, NC

Dwight--Colleen-Hart...5,402130
4/30/2010Vaughn, WA

Riley17,45932950
4/29/2010Cave Creek, AZ

The-New-Ries-Homeste...7,58419980
4/21/2010Polk/Richfield/Erin/Hartford, WI

OwensNewHome37,8221023810
4/17/2010Chandler, AZ

The-Season4,047130
4/10/2010Mount Airy, NC

The-Naas-Place4,236200
3/30/2010Pittsburg, CA

Phil-and-Lauras-home7,221400
3/20/2010Tulsa, OK

Southport-NC-Home8,400201281
3/18/2010Southport, NC

Loris9,527110
3/11/2010

Seaton-Station4,310140
3/10/2010Siloam Springs, AR

Backwoods-Project7,882390
3/4/2010Jeffersonville, GA

ICF-in-Ann-Arbor18,341293710
1/25/2010Dexter, MI

DancingPines5,234200
1/25/2010Clinton, LA

Log-Cabin4,615150
1/23/2010indianapolis, IN

The-Kinzel-House4,127100
1/21/2010New Orleans, LA

PahrumpProject10,1525390
1/17/2010Spokane, WA

TheBeachHouse8,13113200
1/16/2010Shoreline, WA

Artist-Haven-Home8,599970
1/13/2010Kansas City, MO

SOPHIA--SAMUELDELAWA...8,50611310
12/2/2009Smyrna, DE

Plant-City-Craftsman11,0304100
11/22/2009Plant City, FL

WestermanFarm5,350130
11/10/2009Dickson, TN

Shane9,801600
10/31/2009San Antonio, TX

ADCountryHome6,2681130
10/31/2009Fort Worth, TX

ICF-Keller-Tx41,900321220
10/6/2009Roanoke, TX

digs9,306100
9/30/2009Tracy City, TN

threegables11,681201340
9/29/2009Hartland, WI

LittleLakeCorner54,9731016040
9/29/2009Groveland, FL

Utah-Casa5,539200
9/28/2009Saratoga Springs, UT

Tornado-Reconstructi...5,412800
9/24/2009Port Neches, TX

toolehouse37,027891450
9/20/2009Reno, NV

Bobs-Blog43,465614140
9/16/2009New Florence, PA

Blessings4,381100
9/11/2009farmville, NC

Schrammelot9,1097900
9/11/2009Pierson, FL

PennsmithLostValleyT...24,931552150
9/9/2009Dripping Springs, TX

River-House4,823220
9/7/2009Clinton, NJ

SantaFe-in-AJ4,678100
8/28/2009Apache Junction, AZ

Dennis-Dream-Home18,346385050
8/27/2009Readington Twp, NJ

Massive-Undertaking5,6231100
8/26/2009Wimauma, FL

Lafayette4,674200
8/11/2009Cramerton, NC

Dream-site-on-the-La...5,108200
8/5/2009La Porte, TX

Williams-New-Home-Si...4,560110
8/2/2009Windsor, NC

Cobblestone-Lane4,870100
7/30/2009Great Falls, MT

PensacolaBeachHouse4,581110
6/22/2009Gulf Breeze, FL

12YEARSINTHEPLANNING4,938120
6/16/2009LADSON, SC

The-Cortes-Adventure10,112320
6/13/2009Snowflake, AZ

Steinys-Hideaway5,051200
6/9/2009Venice, CA

DreamHome22,260261900
6/7/2009Orlando, FL

CastleHeims12,89521590
6/5/2009Cedar Rapids, IA

Utah-Warehouse4,443220
5/20/2009Fairview, UT

Where-to-start6,087610
5/16/2009Lemoore, CA

Castle-Rock-Lakehous...9,60110840
4/27/2009Necedah, WI

Oleg10,016360
4/22/2009San Diego, CA

MoeCompound4,477340
4/9/2009Camano Island, WA

Huckleberry-Home4,758200
4/8/2009Williamstown, NJ

Vonk8,881100
4/7/2009Zeeland, MI

Small-Timber-Frame8,014110
4/2/2009Central Mass, MA

EatonLoch-Haven5,358110
4/1/2009Roanoke, VA

windowsnsiding4,962110
3/28/2009Long Island, NY

Arkansas-First-Timer16,51939880
3/27/2009Trumann, AR

Back-Home-In-Crisp6,261111510
3/22/2009Ennis, TX

Victor--Susan-0813,006211210
3/17/2009Ruckersville, VA

Rick-and-Tinas-dream...5,669120
3/14/2009Auburndale, FL

Keener-Road6,9124100
3/11/2009Elizabethtown, PA

NC-Newbie4,839100
3/10/2009Boone, NC

MadisonGA5,1211130
2/26/2009Madison, GA

Techbuilt-Scammed6,245100
2/25/2009Rebew, LA

choanne8314,672100
2/9/2009charlotte, NC

WilliamsinVegas25,531301190
1/29/2009Henderson, NV

PhilesBryant6,308260
1/20/2009graham, WA

MortgageSmart4,809100
1/19/2009Cocoa, FL

QuarterlyHouse44,944136990
1/12/2009Orlando, FL

RabbitRun12,839311690
1/11/2009Afton, VA

Sonave-Sunsets4,937120
1/9/2009Yucca, AZ

Heart-of-PA8,1809160
1/6/2009Lewistown, PA

Krusehome5,681200
12/27/2008Lake City, FL

BrunkHouseAlmaKansas7,036260
12/26/2008Garden Grove, CA

Raider-Bills-Tenn-Ho...8,5326320
12/22/2008Largo, FL

Andel-Ranch20,037334020
12/17/2008Rogers, TX

Elijahs-Home5,922460
12/6/2008Vero Beach, FL

ranch-house5,182100
11/25/2008springfield, IL

Howard-Georgia-Retir...7,561670
11/9/2008Harlem, GA

The-Woods-Journal5,502110
11/6/2008Doraville, GA

StansTLH8,4491090
11/1/2008Tehachapi, CA

Kevin--Kerrys-Dream5,486350
10/17/2008Northvale, NJ

Katabatic-Wind6,045470
10/16/2008Huntsville, AL

Elmhurst-Modern7,507120
10/14/2008elmhurst, IL

Accessible-House5,6853100
10/14/2008Munford, TN

Cherry-Valley-Vista5,066120
10/5/2008Duvall, WA

Jon-and-Mollys-House8,344150
9/25/2008Ellicott City, MD

Proctor-ICF5,833110
9/25/2008Fredericksburg, VA

Hawaiian-Bungalo11,144111020
9/23/2008Holualoa, HI

Pete--Rhiannon6,777430
9/19/2008Springfield, MO

2008-Cedar-Ln9,04614350
9/19/2008Seaville, NJ

dmaceld12,95014880
9/16/2008Nampa, ID

Help-with-Goulds-and...6,749100
9/16/2008tampa, FL

Consulting4,939100
9/2/2008Orlando, FL

AlaskaICFREMOTEHouse9,05519380
8/17/2008Wasilla, AK

NC-Pond-House5,628320
8/4/2008Wilmington, NC

MargaritaVilla5,154240
8/4/2008Raleigh, NC

Latest-update6,6818100
8/4/2008Sierra Vista, AZ

ANDREA4,937400
8/2/2008Dallas, TX

The-Ridges6,41211130
7/31/2008Logan, UT

Avenida-Del-Sol8,74913520
7/31/2008Peoria, AZ

dream-home-ohio5,544600
7/30/2008Zanesville, OH

Penetang-Craftsman5,166360
7/27/2008Penetanguishene, ON

Tristan--5,323600
7/25/2008Lebanon, NJ

Dreamy-Design-in-Glo...8,707100
7/9/2008Clifton, VA

need-help-Jim5,689110
7/8/2008Bandon, OR

deltona-fl-custom-ho...6,3724140
7/6/2008Deltona Beach, FL

Ingraham-House-Chape...5,649200
6/29/2008Cary, NC

famborgie4,606100
6/26/2008Lockhart, TX

95821-Addition12,9157140
6/24/2008Sacramento, CA

Cajun-Homestead10,52412930
6/22/2008Lafayette, LA

West-Texas-Ranch-Hou...6,601110
6/18/2008Andrews, TX

Quail-Bluff-Pasco6,3489290
6/10/2008Pasco, WA

Spyders-Web4,771100
6/10/2008Norman, OK

mike-and-tori-darnle...6,824510
6/2/2008Rainbow, CA

Lin-Washington5,009100
5/29/2008Fresno, CA

Capernall-House5,409420
5/15/2008Belleville, MI

Hidden-Valley-Texas5,144100
5/7/2008Southlake, TX

cosdreamhome31,611731470
5/5/2008Colorado Springs, CO

Sowle-Family-House7,507590
4/29/2008South Burlington, VT

Cyberdoc-Residence5,564200
4/25/2008San Diego, CA

Fortune-House4,982100
4/17/2008Mooresville, NC

Joeb12,533400
4/15/2008Oakland, FL

Alvin-House5,032200
4/14/2008LaPorte, TX

Thomas-Home--Raintre...13,613271800
4/9/2008Lee's Summit, MO

Greg--Kathys-New-Hou...6,666200
4/3/2008Barryton, MI

Where-is-Waldo21,28944830
4/2/2008Marion, OH

Nimmerrichters-Fores...4,803100
4/2/2008Waldorf, MD

Mayfield-House5,296100
3/31/2008Mayfield, UT

beamanhouse5,128100
3/27/2008Manistique, MI

Kanak-ICF--Virginia8,167900
3/26/2008Fredericksburg, VA

Sheldon-St7,072300
3/21/2008Orlando, FL

Bert-11,692310
3/20/2008Southern, CA

Our-Ohio-ICF-home15,17620270
3/20/2008Mansfield, OH

ericdc5,536310
3/8/2008Uniontown, PA

EurekaHouse-ICF8,1765150
3/6/2008Berkeley, CA

Superstition-Views9,217281600
3/6/2008Mesa, AZ

Blue-Springs-Project6,9558230
2/24/2008Broken Arrow, OK

Our-House4,764100
2/24/2008Miami, FL

httpownerbuilderbook...7,006830
2/19/2008Clayton, NY

JourneyBackHome4,952100
2/3/2008Oviedo, FL

Collier-Home6,672110
2/1/2008Little Rock, AR

DDs-ICF6,611330
1/27/2008New Smyrna Bch, FL

EurekaMT-Timberframe6,1851430
1/24/2008Augusta, MI

The-Larnerd-House7,5085210
1/21/2008Newport News, VA

Casa-Bella5,432100
1/14/2008Pueblo West, CO

Gordon-Lake-House9,32917510
1/3/2008Oakland, IA

STEPHANIES-DREAM6,25317570
12/30/2007Lower Burrell, PA

Florida-Waterfront-C...8,790310
12/29/2007PB, FL

6158-in-Montgomery-T...5,756410
12/23/2007Conroe, TX

ClearwaterHills7,955260
12/14/2007Paradise Valley, AZ

BobDonna4,373100
12/12/2007Sacramento, CA

AboveTheAppleTree4,486100
12/8/2007La Farge, WI

Casa-Nostra6,063230
12/2/2007Bangor, PA

Building-the-Dream-i...7,742700
11/29/2007Gladstone, OR

Ingram-Fleming-ICF-H...8,079480
11/29/2007Plant City, FL

inniagara4,080100
11/24/2007Niagara Falls, ON

SchnabelEstate5,102240
11/16/2007Avon, IN

WeAreBuildingAgain11,67827560
11/15/2007Orlando, FL

Lake-Pleasant4,897210
11/14/2007Erie, PA

Green-for-Dean5,076100
11/10/2007San Jose, CA

The-Ponderosa6,4378220
11/4/2007Perry, OK

FlagholeRoad5,043260
10/25/2007Franklin, NH

Beckynray5,812300
10/24/2007Powhatan, VA

Spicewood-TX6,685330
10/20/2007Austin, TX

Powderhorn15,912481760
10/4/2007Florida

Luray-VA-1stTimeBuil...8,800730
10/4/2007Luray, VA

kittyfhughesnet5,031250
9/27/2007Noblesville, IN

Scott-Family5,145100
9/25/2007Trinity, AL

Taking-the-Plunge7,5406180
9/18/2007Springfield, OH

RozBuildingAdventure5,362100
9/14/2007San Pablo, CA

Helpful-Tips5,952200
9/13/2007Encinitas, CA

Poplar-Creek-Farm6,7435250
9/10/2007Oakland Park, FL

TheWillemsHome13,0981750
9/10/2007Galloway Township, NJ

ComfortHome5,609200
8/30/2007Dublin, OH

10000-sq-feet29,55225260
8/26/2007La Habra Heights, CA

Bird-house6,6853400
8/22/2007Ithaca, NY

Circle-S_ICF_House25,162462640
8/21/2007Sparta, IL

New-England-Saltbox5,144100
8/16/2007Columbia, SC

RamblewoodatJeterFar...5,7356330
8/10/2007Kansas City, MO

Kraemer-Collinwood-H...5,573200
7/21/2007Delano, MN

BigOakBuilderTX8,191270
7/20/2007Wharton, TX

Johnson-Family-Dream5,585100
7/20/2007Normal, IL

Pensacola-Waterfront5,322100
7/16/2007Pensacola, FL

19225-ROBERTSON-ST11,27215320
7/12/2007Orlando, FL

Thattle-Dew-Farm5,566220
7/12/2007Halls Harbour, NS

WindyJ8,93111260
7/2/2007Knoxville, TN

Vistoso-Green-Home6,526310
6/28/2007Tucson, AZ

Lewis-Chapel-House8,300200
6/25/2007Dunlap, TN

father-daughter5,254200
6/25/2007Loveland, CO

davewhite6,053100
6/24/2007Nanaimo, BC

NutmegWedgefieldOrla...7,013600
6/22/2007Orlando, FL

4600SF-Dream-Home-in...9,004410
6/19/2007Mooresville, NC

Coeur-dAlene-Idaho-H...6,362240
6/13/2007Coeur d Alene, ID

Tampa-Bay8,140490
6/10/2007Ruskin, FL

Dream-In-Progress7,740540
6/7/2007Shawnee, KS

todd-in-tullahoma5,610100
6/4/2007tullahoma, TN

TheOwens6,064300
6/1/2007Dickson, TN

Country-Cleaver6,221140
5/29/2007Springfield, IL

South-Dakota-Lake-Ho...6,4986110
5/23/2007Sioux Falls, SD

Gods-Home5,743200
5/18/2007Eustis, FL

hammock5,613110
5/14/2007Martinez, GA

Grove-St-Rocklin5,828300
5/13/2007Orangevale, CA

Gardeners-Delight6,390330
5/13/2007Norristown, PA

Newman-Family6,546100
4/26/2007oralndo, FL

do-over-house6,549200
4/25/2007Roseville, CA

Mountain-Building5,878370
4/21/2007Hiawassee, GA

Alaskan-Log-Home6,487120
4/15/2007Tok, AK

Warner-Dream7,302600
4/11/2007Astatula, FL

RehmannSchreiner7,45118150
4/2/2007Maple Grove, MN

outspokenbikeguy8,2374140
3/29/2007Sanford, FL

SmelltheForest25,624471480
3/23/2007Colorado Spgs, CO

PolkCityProject9,3027110
3/21/2007Norcross, GA

DwaynePam6,428200
3/21/2007Normal, IL

cypressknoll5,868100
3/20/2007Palm Coast, FL

candlepower11,145241550
3/20/2007Lansing, IA

Team-Rosa6,606200
3/19/2007Springfield, VA

GLOUCESTER6,065120
3/17/2007Newport News, VA

Ohiodreamhome6,2754140
3/16/2007Reynoldsburg, OH

Gypsy-Love7,186110
3/12/2007Highland, NY

Rockport-TX6,312100
3/10/2007Rockport, TX

Forrest-Towne6,142220
3/10/2007Brinnon, WA

Dreams-Come-True5,610100
3/8/2007Glen St Mary, FL

Almost-A-Country-Gir...5,554100
3/7/2007Addison Township, MI

BrandonBuildingBlog6,281100
3/4/2007Layton, UT

SafecreteHouse7,499300
3/4/2007Raleigh, NC

newbie-6,620100
2/21/2007north plains, OR

BuzzardsNest8,462310
2/14/2007Saint Lucie, FL

woodfamilyhome7,071200
2/10/2007Keno, OR

vegascastle6,337100
2/3/2007Henderson, NV

newsteel6,190100
1/28/2007Florence, SC

Dream-Home-20076,731100
1/27/2007Gwynn Oak, MD

DelgadosAdobeAbode7,545200
1/18/2007San Diego, CA

bobindeltona8,241250
1/14/2007Deltona, FL

Highland646,814300
1/8/2007New Orleans, LA

SmallProjectSilverSp...9,3691020
1/7/2007Silver Springs, NV

BeehlerHome12,69511640
1/3/2007Kalamazoo, MI

eveningshade6,727110
12/25/2006Evening Shade, AR

Bruce in Petrolia, O...6,121120
12/21/2006Petrolia, ON

smahmud6,358100
12/18/2006Alexandria, VA

1000-hours-to-liftof...7,278100
11/25/2006uniontown, OH

FettConstruction7,342460
11/24/2006Vincennes, IN

Northeast-Ohio-Home7,547100
11/10/2006Parma, OH

Buchanan-Mountain10,12214590
11/1/2006Dickson, TN

Our-Future-on-Badin-...7,362100
10/24/2006New London, NC

nowi-fe-haven6,762100
10/22/2006Griffin, GA

klonus6,678100
10/16/2006Madison, WI

OurAddition9,691100
10/13/2006Chuluota, FL

bigal7,602100
9/30/2006Whittier, CA

Stella-Maris-II7,372100
9/11/2006Orlando, FL

Lake-House8,789100
9/6/2006Kansas City, MO

My-First-House20,435100
9/5/2006APO, AE

Angie-Mossy-Oak-Acre...9,864740
8/15/2006Lake Helen, FL

Peaceful-Valley-in-M...7,342100
7/23/2006Republic, MO

Lake-Wales-Fl7,191100
7/17/2006West Palm Beach, FL

JohnKat7,654110
7/16/2006Fort Worth, TX

Cedarcrest7,726100
7/15/2006Sparrows Point, MD

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7/13/2006Dallas, TX

Villa-Di-Capri-Hacie...11,272100
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6/26/2006Stafford, VA

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shapiro7,314100
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5/16/2006Los Gatos, CA

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5/8/2006Holly Springs, NC

LeFamily8,191100
4/29/2006Irvine, CA

jrh13,809110
3/25/2006North Bend, WA

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3/8/2006Welton, AZ

H3brewing8,456110
3/2/2006Cleveland, MO

85-Hall-Ln9,8801000
3/1/2006

Michigan-Owner-Build...5,9066130
11/13/2005Ray Twp., MI
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Owner-Builder Journal Entries


Ceiling is complete

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 5/16/2012 10:27:23 PM

  The ceiling boards are finished!!!! Yeah!!  We are making plans as to how we could move and complete the rest of the work when we are moved.  We really want to get our current home on the market and get out from under 2 mortgages!!! Not to mention 2 electric bills, water bills, etc.  We have everything we need at the Dome to livve comfortably.  Why not move!!!  I am so ready and I know Whitey is too.   Then we have the cat issues.  You see I have 2 sibling cats that have never been outside. I really want to try to expose them to the wonderful outdoors, at least during the day and restrict them to the Utility during the night.  I am not sure how this will work, I am just tired of cat scratching on my furniture.  I love my kitty cats but I don't love the destruction of my furniture or the litter box issues we have had ( Another Story)  Pictures to follow.

Oh yea, we went to Austin TX for several days.  Went to see Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, it was so wonderful, they are the best. 

Photos

White-washed board ceiling



Comments (0)

Second Floor Kids' Rooms Installed

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 5/16/2012 1:31:58 PM

Roof truss installation begins today.

Main level = 9-foot ceilings - 1,900 square feet

Second floor kids' rooms = 8-foot ceilings - 600 square feet

Photos

Kids' rooms installed - second floor.



Comments (0)

Past few weeks progress

Posted to NorthPoleHome by Tim in North Pole, AK on 5/13/2012

I haven't updated in a while, since I've been steadily working on the house in the evenings and on weekends. Progress has been slowed by small details along the way. The drywall is installed on the ceilings of bedrooms 2, 3, 4, the bonus room, and the long hallway upstairs between beds 2-3. The bath above the garage is rough plumbed-in and bathtub set in place. I have the ceiling sheetrocked in there as well and most of the walls covered too. I subbed out the DWV rough-in, and the drain for this tub when set in place, was directly above a joist, complicating matters. The joists above the garage are 12" O.C., so the simplest way to correct the problem was to build a platform for the tub to sit on, then turn the drainpipe over and down to the stub-out. The distance between the tub and the toilet would be too close if I moved the tub over any further to use the adjacent joist bay.

All the power, lights, and smoke detector rough-in wiring is complete on the second floor. A couple of the power circuits are fully hooked up so I don't have to have so many extension cords laying around. My inspector came out and did an inspection on the upper level and part of the lower level so I can close those areas up, and said it all looked fine. I also pre-wired in the ceiling boxes for an overhead projector with HDMI, Cat5, RCA video and RG-6 coax cables. I ordered two of the big windows, one for the bonus room and one for bedroom #4. I don't have a picture available, but I also cut in an opening on the back gable wall for attic access. I framed up a 2x5 platform just inside the opening so there is a place to sit down and stage tools/materials when there's work to do up there. It sets about 2' above the bottom chord of the truss, so there's plenty of space for insulation underneath.

The spring weight restrictions on the roads were lifted the other day, so I had 10 yards of fill dirt brought in to finish leveling out some bumpy spots in the yard so we can finally plant some grass. I have 20 yards of gravel coming tomorrow, so I can finish grading the woodcutting and storage area too. This week I'll be ordering shingles and finishing up details so a couple friends and I can hang the drywall on the great room and stairwell ceiling next Saturday. Nobody in town has a drywall lift that goes 19' so I'll have to bolt my drywall lift to the scaffold I'm using and take it easy.

Deal of the month: I walked into Home Depot to buy some 4'x12' sheets of 5/8 drywall and they had 28 sheets of damaged drywall (almost all 5/8) stacked on a cart. I asked about it and they said they were $5 each. They're normally $22 each and the damage to most of them would be cut off anyways so I snatched them all up. I was able to use all of them without too much waste and only made one extra butt joint. Talk about perfect timing.

Photos

Bonus room ceiling sheetrocked.
One of three bedrooms sheetrocked.
Bath#3 roughed in and mostly covered.
What can you do with PEX scraps? Take a 96-cent coupler and make hula hoops for the kids!!



Comments (1)

MORE drywall... almost done.

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 5/10/2012

I believe I am down to the last five or six sheets of drywall. Next trip I will put those up and clean up. There are about a hundred small randomly-shaped pieces of drywall sitting everywhere in the house, and a fine coating of drywall dust covers everything. A thick coating covers the floor. After drywall, the cement board for the bathtub surround is next.

Photos

Balcony doorway, second floor
Balcony wall
First floor bedroom closet and Leia
The lake is very low this year, probably five feet lower than last year. I hope we get a BUNCH of rain, or we may not have lakefront property anymore.



Comments (0)

First Floor Framing

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 5/10/2012

First floor framing is complete.

Photos

First Floor Framing



Comments (0)

First Floor Cap Installed

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 5/3/2012

The first floor cap was completed today.

Photos




Comments (0)

Working on the kitchen countertop

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 5/2/2012

Got our countertops cut for our kitchen sink. The countertops and sink were donated by a friend who had them replaced. Since they were old, I couldn't find the laminate style to put laminate on the cut ends. Soooooo, I took the cutout I made for the sink and threw it in the pool. A few days later, the pressboard has swelled up to the point where I could get the laminate off, then used that to cut into strips and put those on the ends to cover the raw countertop edges.

Photos



Videos




Comments (0)

First Floor Being Installed

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 5/2/2012

The first floor cap is being installed this week. Our framers have been working hard despite having to deal with a wet job site after nightly rains this week.

Photos

First floor joists installed.



Comments (0)

Two more windows

Posted to Seven-Peaks-Faswall-ICF by Craig in Graeagle, CA on 4/30/2012

I must admit that sometimes my wife does come up with some good ideas. She suggested adding a single small window in each of the guest bedrooms. The south BR would have a NW view and the north BR would have a SW view. It worked. And since we hiked through two feet of snow to get there, enjoy the pic of Frazer Falls when it is roaring.

Photos

Two new windows above the LR
South BR window - thin one on the right
View from the new window


Videos




Comments (0)

Backfilling has begun

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/26/2012

Our excavator began backfilling around the foundation walls after we received the go-ahead from the inspector. We hope to finish backfilling tomorrow in preparation for the framers to be on site on Monday morning.

Photos

Exposed side backfilled.
Exposed side backfilled - looking toward the road.



Comments (0)

Accident in the Canyon!

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 4/26/2012

It's sometimes hard to recall while building/stacking/digging up here at Tanglewood that there are other people in the canyon "doing stuff" from time to time. Being back here at the end of the road (best parcel in the canyon, by the way) one must remember from time to time that there's a good five miles between us and the nearest road.

Over the last couple of weeks some folks have (under contract) been harvesting a bunch of the granite boulders and moss-rock from an area about a mile in from the front gate. Back around the turn of the last century there used to be a dam down there plugging up the creek into a large pond (or small lake if you prefer) and there were thousands of roughly head-sized granite boulders filling and covering the dam structure. Then a huge flood in the summer of '63 burst the dam and was the impetus for the then-owner to parcel off a bunch of the back end of the property and sell them off--one of those is Tanglewood.

So these fine folks have been harvesting and bundling up several tons of these rocks and hauling them out for landscaping and whatnot. Things were going pretty smoothly--until today that is.

As I was coming home from work, I found a large tow truck blocking the road just outside the first gate. Getting out to see what was going on, I walk up to the gate to see that one of the large flatbed trucks had flipped over on the canyon road!

The driver wasn't hurt, fortunately, and in retrospect how and where the truck flipped was probably the best possible spot (the alternative would have been to fall off the road and down into a pasture 30-odd feet below). I helped the tow truck driver and the flatbed driver work out where to run their chain, then the truck hauled in the tow line while the truck driver lifted the back end of the truck from behind with a backhoe they'd been using to lift pallets. It took a couple of tries, but they got it! 

The truck in retrospect didn't even appear to be too badly damaged.  Of course the passenger window was shattered and there were a couple of  new dents and scratches, but since it is a work truck, that's to be expected.

Glad nobody was hurt!


Steven in Colorado

Photos

The truck, on its side and neatly blocking the road.
Another shot without the tow truck driver. Nothing seemed to be leaking or broken underneath, which was good.
Shot from above on the hill overlooking the accident.
The backhoe gets into position to lift while the tow line is winched in.
Ready to go!
It's working!
Success!
A bunch of us examine the damage to the other side.



Comments (0)

Submitted to the city... and rejected.

Posted to Family-Affair by Justin on 4/25/2012 6:29:43 PM

WOW! 


Well I thought that we would be further along... But I am "quickly" learning this is a "hurry up and wait" type activity... 

We thought that we were going to submit our plans on the 14th of March. But as the day came to a close, I received the last document needed to submit the plans. However, the city closed early that day. So, we fell into/under the new Florida 2010 Building Code... and we are now in a 150 MPH wind zone... 

We got our plans again from the architect and the engineer and off we went to the city...

After two days of plan review... we were rejected. Not the end of the world. But for something silly... a landscape design plan.

Oh well... Guess it's time to research Florida plants and trees and get this resubmitted!

Hopefully we will be breaking ground soon! As we break ground, we will be taking photos and updating this site with more info. As well, we hope to have some helpful tips for others building or contemplating building with SIPs. 

Thanks!

Justin


Comments (0)

Walls insulated, drain tile covered

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/25/2012

The foundation walls have been insulated on the exterior with R-5, 1.0" Styrofoam insulation. The 4x8 sheets are all around the foundation walls. Our poured wall company also placed 14" of stone all around the house on top of the exterior drain tile. (Form-a-Drain).

Photos

R-5 installed and drain tile covered with stone.



Comments (0)

Stymied, But Making (Slow) Progress

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 4/24/2012

Wow... been an interesting couple of weeks since I outlined my summertime project list.

Essentially the day after I made that post a couple of things happened in that pesky Real World (tm) that slowed progress down considerably:

  • My mother had to go in for brain surgery, of all things. She's fine and recovering nicely now, but that in itself took a big couple of weeks out of the schedule with visiting her during recovery, running around to various doctor's appointments, and what all else.

  • We had a final (I hope!) blast of winter weather, dumping a good 4" of snow all over everything and which basically made work outside nigh-impossible. It was good because we needed the water, but there went close to a week right there!

  • My new solar panels arrived arrived (yay!), but as we were hauling them down to stash in the shed to await deployment, Solar LeRoy took some measurements of the piers I'd augered and noted that he thought the four piers wouldn't be sufficient. Turned out that he was absolutely right--when we laid out the additional supporting struts the ones on the far end stuck out a good 10 feet without support, which would probably work, but which is really just too much panel without solid support under them. So I ended up having to auger in two more holes, which meant borrowing the auger again and finding an afternoon to spend some quality time making more holes. I got them done (Colleen and I had already cut sufficient pipe) but that was another delay. It needed doing, mind you, and at least the panels will have solid support all the way across now.

So here we are with today. The supports are in the newly augered holes and will be cut down to their proper height this coming weekend. I've been slowly collecting concrete (three bags at a time is about all I can haul in my Fit due to the rough road) and when I have a critical mass, I'll mix and pour to set the piers into place. THEN I can finally bolt on the strut extensions and Solar LeRoy can come up to work his wiring magic.

I'm really looking forward to fleshing out my panels and the Outback controller they're on. The new PV will up my solar capacity to around ~45 kWh/day assuming things are bright and sunny, which is of course a fantastic resource to have.

Come to think of it I did get one other thing done, that being to finalize the design of the new solar shed. The dimensions changed slightly to accommodate the area I've got to work with, and I've staked out the rough outline to make sure all is going to work as I think it will. So far it looks good... but I'm not really going to count that as progress per se on Summer Project 2... that just doesn't seem right.

Remember: Always allow for "slop" in your plans due to Real World Events!


Steven in Colorado


Comments (0)

Foundation Walls Poured

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/19/2012

The foundation walls were poured today!

Backfilling and additional grading to be done in one week.

Framing to begin shortly after.

Photos

Pouring walls.
View from partially exposed side.



Comments (2)

Poured Wall Setup

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/15/2012

Footings have been finalized and poured wall forms are being set up. The foundation walls should be poured this week.

Photos

Foundation wall forms



Comments (0)

More drywall up, about 75% done and a Special visitor...

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 4/14/2012

Got a few more drywall pieces done today. Finished the "big wall", the one that goes from first floor foundation to dome top, along the stairway. Only have a couple other walls to drywall. Also put out some grass seed to try and cover the sandy area I just put a bunch of horse manure on, and I took a picture of my "redneck sprinkler system".

Also, I had a visit from a LARGE red-headed woodpecker. He was perched on the 2x8 I have stuck in the ground to hang the camp shower on outside the bath window, and he was staring intently at his reflection in the bath window. I got a few pictures...

Photos

The BIG WALL.
Redneck sprinkler system
"Knock knock" "Who's there?" KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK.........



Comments (0)

Insulation

Posted to Seven-Peaks-Faswall-ICF by Craig in Graeagle, CA on 4/11/2012

We're finally at the point of the next big-ticket item - insulation. Since we wanted closed soffits due to fire danger in the woods, we need to use spray-on insulation. To keep the cost down we are using a 'flash and batt' hybrid system. We chose closed cell, as it also acts as a vapor barrier and waterproofing system. The ceilings will get three+ inches and the exterior framed walls will get two inches. On top of that, the ceilings will get R-30 unfaced batt, and the walls an R-13. That makes us superinsulated with total R-factors of R-50 and R-25 respectively.

Last summer I was able to find a Craigslist deal on 3/8"x2x4-foot rigid insulation for $.25 each. This will be applied to the entire exterior and a 'rain curtain' style siding solution added on top of that. It does not add a great deal more insulation (R-2 or R-3), but it does ensure there are no air gaps that allow infiltration of cold/hot air and lessens any chance of water intrusion.

A note on the insulation, the closed cell is soy based and the batt is made of sand and recycled glass. Read more on the EcoBatt at ecobatt.us.

Photos

Closed-cell insulation sprayed on exterior wall. The gap in the wall is where a new window will be installed.
Spray-on soy-based insulation on the ceiling.
Foam application
R-30 batt application. Note the ridge plate is also insulated to prevent air infiltration.
EcoBatt
Master BR before insulation.
MBR after insulation



Comments (1)

The drywalling continues...

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 4/6/2012

Got the three entryway walls done, and the balcony wall (one side), as well as a bunch of little trim pieces. I'm guessing I need about 15 more sheets of drywall to finish up, so that's ALMOST done. I am not looking forward to taping and mudding. Here's a few more pics.

Photos

The lake view entryway
Main entryway
The balcony overlook inside. I used the T-braces from the ceiling work to form a ledge, so I could put this 10 footer up into place.
And the balcony, screwed in place.
Some of the small pieces I needed to fill in around the bottom of the windows.



Comments (2)

Ready to Pour Footings/Walls

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 4/5/2012

We lowered our house an additional two feet by digging down two additional feet in the basement and cutting down the grade. We did this to cut down on the hill our lot sits on.

Our foundation wall company will be on site tomorrow to begin setting up to pour the footings and then the foundation walls next week.

We hope to be framing within two weeks if the weather continues to cooperate.

Photos

Garage footings to be poured.



Comments (0)

Flooring

Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA on 4/1/2012

We found a great deal on hickory 5" plank flooring. By combining three grades, some of it very small quantities on sale, we were able to get an overall average cost of $2.30 a square foot.

Photos

It is a labor-intensive process, but laying the floor on a 45 created an interesting effect.
Not even sanded and finished yet - it already looks great!
Still a work in progress...
Will end the 45-degree pattern at the hallway. The bedroom will be 90-degrees to the floor joists.



Comments (0)

Interior Doors

Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA on 4/1/2012

We had some challenges with our interior doors, ordered from a "big box" store. After the third time the doors were wrong, they eventually made it right by upgrading the doors and giving them to us at about half price. What a deal! The doors are beautiful! 

Photos

Doors installed with no finish.
One coat of finish. We're still working on finishing the interior doors.
This is actually the one wood exterior door we were allowed to have (per code).
This door is our biggest disappointment. Code only allowed one exterior door from the heated living area to be solid wood. We've decided we're going to attempt a faux finish on this door to match the other interior doors.



Comments (0)

Back at it again

Posted to NorthPoleHome by Tim in North Pole, AK on 4/1/2012

After a long cold winter to take a break from building and spending money on construction we're back at it again. We learned a hard lesson in the importance of vapor barrier tightness. The warm moist air from our inhabited space leaked past areas we didn't seal good enough or didn't have drywall pushing against it creating a tight seal. So all winter long the moisture condensed above us in the joist bays, forming ice, and melted this spring. We had to remove a bunch of the insulation to dry out the bays before mold takes over. The wife focused on that and installing fiberglass in all the upstairs walls.

I've been in between jobs for past two weeks until this Monday so I've been able to put full days in as well. I installed the vapor barrier, and carefully this time, sealed it up. Once the vapor barrier was up, I put up horizontal furring strips every two feet providing space to run electrical and add another 1 1/2" of foam before drywall. For the furring that goes along the top and bottom plates, I used thinner strips of wood and put 3/4" of foam behind them to provide a thermal break. Then I installed receptacle circuits in the bonus room, bed#4, bath#3, and the master bedroom. I also put  up a temp guardrail on the catwalk, and hung some can lights in the upstairs walkway/hallways. Next up is running PEX for bath#3, sconce light, AV, and network wiring in the bonus room.

Photos

Bed#4 furred out and wired.
Bonus room furred out and wired.
One of the walls the wife insulated.
Closer pic of the furring strips with foam behind them when laid over an area where they had continuous contact with wood (top/bottom plates, window frames).



Comments (1)

Lower Level Digging

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 3/29/2012 2:17:02 PM

Our lower level is being dug today. Our poured wall concrete company will be on site tomorrow.

Photos

Lower level area from partial exposed side.
Excavator



Comments (0)

Consultant

Posted to Dionnekay by Dionne in Omaha, NE on 3/29/2012

This week we finalized the house plan and we made a verbal agreement with an ex-builder to be our consultant. I'll be sending over a contract soon, but he will be paid by the hour. We met with him last year to get an idea what he could build the house for, and decided that when the time was right we would approach him about consulting only. To our delight, he'd become head of the home builder's association and told us it would be a conflict of interest if he built for us now, but we asked him to consult and he said that would be great. He's recommending his favorite subs to us so we will include them in our three bids, and he says our county is easy to work with permit-wise. 


We are panelizing the framing, and we hired the draftsman from that company to take the house plan I drew up and engineer it for us. We paid $1,200 for 3,800 sq.ft. of engineered plans. These do not include electrical plans since in NE I guess you don't need them. The hydronics guys at my husband's company are drawing plumbing and radiant plans for us for free. And the HVAC guys are giving us a plan for the ductwork, etc. also.

One of our best friends is a plumber and he'll be spearheading the plumbing with my husband for basically beer and pizza. Well, I imagine we'll insist on a cash bonus, but you get the idea. We are feeling really optimistic right now.

We spoke with the bank a few months ago when we were in town visiting the lot. They said they had no issues with giving us a construction loan, and recommended we do an energy-efficient loan. If we do, the construction loan will be 2.5% vs. 5%.


Comments (0)

Summer Project 1.1-- Solar Piers Augered

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 3/25/2012

Today I got a start on the first of my list of Tanglewood Summer Projects by augering (drilling) the holes for the new solar panel mounts.

The effort Solar LeRoy and I did way back in late summer 2010 was a lot of work, but fortunately I didn't have to dig quite as many holes as we did those late summer weekends! In order to add the 6 new solar panels I need to add some more ground mounts, and after some discussion Solar LeRoy and I agreed that the best way to do this would be to simply extend the lowest tier a bit. Laying out the spacing of the piers already in place, I measured that I needed to add four more to provide adequate support (each panel is just over 39 inches wide), and so I marked these locations a couple of weeks back.

Today I borrowed a small one-man auger and dug the footings for the piers. I was a bit concerned that this wouldn't have enough horsepower given all the trouble Solar LeRoy and I had originally, but as it turned out I didn't have too much trouble. For the most part it appeared I was beyond the "edge" of the slab of sandstone we encountered while drilling many of the original holes and so didn't have all the hassle of dealing with that. Two of the holes were practically pure sand, gravel, and loam--I sent more time with the shovel cleaning them out than anything else. One hole was filled with roots from a pine tree I'd cut down for the original work, while the other had some slabs of sandstone that fortunately was relatively fragile and which gave way easily to some sledge-and-crowbar action.

There are still some small trees I need to take down to finish clearing the area properly, and one of the trees I cut down is close enough to all of this that I'll probably do some work cutting it up at the same time. Still I made good progress, and after I get some additional PVC (one of the placeholder pieces is too short to work) I'll be ready to mix and pour concrete.

Fun fun fun!


Steven in Colorado

Photos

A poor attempt to show the depth of one of the holes. Each pier is seated down to two feet.
Decent shot of all four piers. That pine tree leaning way over is coming out, of course.
Looking from the end back towards this particular row. We didn't get a couple of those piers very well aligned; that was mostly due to rocks and such digging the holes.
The trees marked with red will all be coming out. They're not really quite as big as they seem, and their removal will open up solar access to the new panels.



Comments (0)

Staked House/Garage

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 3/25/2012

Our excavator came out today to complete the leveling off of the area where the house/garage will be placed, and our survey guy arrived shortly after to stake out the floorplan. Both were nice enough to come out and work on a Sunday in order to keep our project moving forward. We hope to begin digging for the basement this week if the weather cooperates. The foundation guy is ready to begin his work as soon as we're done digging the basement and installing the rough driveway.

Need to figure out where to deposit some sizable tree stumps as well.

Attached is a pic of the staked house/garage.

Photos

Staked House and Garage



Comments (0)

Floor Plan

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 3/25/2012

  I realized I never put our basic floor plan on my journal. It was modified slightly (mirror image) but it is basically the same. Let's see if it will load on here!!! Not a lot to report. I worked on Saturday and Whitey went turkey hunting.

Files




Comments (4)

Obtained Building Permit

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 3/22/2012

We obtained our building permit today and our excavator was on site a few hours later doing some initial grading where the house will be placed. We had sizable gravel and rock hills in this area that needed to be knocked down.

We'll be installing some silt fence on Saturday. Our excavator will be digging the 6" trench needed to bury the silt fence and we'll be trying our luck and the installation. Sizable money saver if it all works out. We received quotes of 90 cents to $1.25 per foot for silt fence and installation by others. We picked up DOT silt fence from the local home improvement store for $25 per roll.

Survey guy will need to come back out to stake the house prior to digging the hole for the foundation.

Photos

Initial grading



Comments (0)

Cleared the remaining trees/brush.

Posted to Holy-Hill-House by Shawn in Richfield, WI on 3/19/2012

We finally cleared the remaining trees and brush from our lot. We were able to begin clearing the trees on and off throughout the winter due to warmer than normal temps and very little snow. This is enabling us to begin the construction process in late March. Thanks to the help we received from my brother Matthew and family friend Roger. This took us much longer than we thought it would.

 

Photos

Lot after trees and brush cleared.



Comments (0)

A Funky Thing Happened on the Way to Work Today.

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 3/19/2012

As I headed down the canyon this morning at O-Dark-Thirty, I was pondering the day ahead. What I didn't ponder was the big pine tree that had blown over the road...

We had some pretty hefty winds last night here in the canyon, and apparently they were just too much for one of the pines just below Tanglewood proper. It snapped and fell smack over the road, neatly blocking it completely.

After giving it an experimental shove (just to see if it would move, which of course it didn't), I turned around and headed back home to await the light of sunrise. Then I trundled my trusty Gator down to the tree and spent some quality time with my chainsaw, turning this downed pine into future firewood.

I eventually did get to work, but honestly it was a bit boring at that point...


Steven in Colorado

Photos

The road was nicely blocked.
I left this part up there for now.



Comments (0)

Ceiling Boards

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 3/18/2012

We will be putting stained boards on the ceiling of the dining area (we have decided not to dine there, as it will block the flow through the house).

Because the AI Dome plans do not come with HVAC plans, we have to have central air and heat!!! We used floor joists and ran the duct work through the joist space. Our air guy Don Kelehan of Don Kelehan Appliances here in Lafayette, helped us out a lot. He brought in a guy to build a plenum and install it in the floor joist. All the ducts come into it and then it feeds to the unit. We were concerned that if there should be some issues in the future, if we had drywall up what then? We saw contractors in the area using wood in some places in newer houses, so we thought this would be a good solution for us. We originally thought of Cypress, since that is what out cabinets are make of, but we went to a home center in Ferriday who had both Cypress and Gum. We wanted to take a look at both, and settled on the Gum. I got the idea to whitewash it so it would blend in more with the rest of the ceilings in the downstairs. It turned out great!! We also used this under the counter in the living area. Take a look : )

Photos

Ducts going into the plenum
View from the upstairs of stained boards
Gum boards used under the counter



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Tanglewood: Summer Plans

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 3/18/2012

I've been spending most of the winter finishing up some small things inside the house proper and unpacking boxes. Now that springtime is nearly upon us (right now it's coming and going, with 50- and 60-degree days followed by overcast and chilly days) my thoughts have turned to plans for the summer.

There are several things that need doing, of course, but when I ponder priorities a bit I think they fall out as follows:

  1. More solar panels - I've mentioned this once or twice in the past and while I'm not as concerned about this as I once was, it's the easiest thing to knock off the list, so it's first. I'm in the process right now of augering some new holes for the extra supports, having decided to extend out my lowest row of panels to make room for 6 more. This will bring me up to 36 panels producing around 8.3 kWh, and max out my existing charge controller capacity. The added production won't make much difference to what goes into my batteries (they're currently filling up by around noon on a good sunny day), but they'll help a ton when it's any kind of overcast day by simply providing more collection surfaces.

  2. Rebuild the solar shed -- Once the new panels are in place I'll be turning my attention to building a new, highly insulated solar shed. The shed Colleen and Jesse (with some help from me) put together in the fall of 2010 has served well, but there are definitely problems with it, some of which we didn't anticipate. It never got properly sealed so it can leak; a tarp is serving as temporary cover, but obviously that's not really a solution. Sitting up off the ground it gets far colder than I'd like, and cold batteries (all of the solar stuff is in there) simply don't perform as well as they should. I'm continually worried that those stilts are going to give way some day and dump my shed against my top row of panels. And besides all that, it's just plain cramped in there--not nearly enough room to work very easily.

    So the shed needs rebuilding, and that's the second project. I have some leftover ICFs from the building of Tanglewood proper, so that's going to be used for the walls to provide a tight, insulated enclosure. I plan to install a solar heating system (probably a drainback design) so I can make use of the sunlight on those cold-but-sunny winter days to heat the shed, and will reuse some trusses that the framers made for Tanglewood's porch that turned out to be about a foot too tall (they're in a pile up by the shed). My two biggest problems will be digging out the footprint for the shed (this time it'll be built into the side of the hill) and eventually getting the concrete down there for the pour. I haven't decided yet if we'll mix and pour it ourselves (Colleen's game!) or hire somebody to bring up a truck and pump it down. I'll cross that bridge when we get there.

    Once there's a new shed, of course, Solar LeRoy and I will have a quality day moving all of the wiring and such to the new shed. It'll be a bit closer than the current one, so I won't have to worry about splicing anything, but of necessity it'll be most of a day without any power to Tanglewood proper. Not quite sure how we'll handle that just yet; I suspect dry ice and all of the frozen stuff residing in my new chest freezer may play a big role. We'll see.

  3. Get the antler chandelier into the living room -- This one is mostly cleaning up something we didn't get done right during construction. The upshot is that the wonderful antler chandelier that Colleen found way back in 2009 is still sitting in the garage because it's too freak'in big to bring it through any of the doors. So in order to get it in, I'll have to have a guy come up to remove the patio door by the kitchen so that myself and half a dozen of my closest friends can carry it around and into the house. Once that's done, we can be a bit more leisurely about getting it into the living room, though we'll probably do that at the same time (since we'll need many hands for the task); it'll have to be lifted up a few feet to go around the narrow portion of the fireplace to walk to it into the living room. Wiring it up should be snap after all that, requiring only lifting it up to the cathedral ceiling...

  4. Widening the driveway -- Back when Tanglewood was being built, we stumbled up on a happy circumstance in which the existing pile of excavation dirt became a wider-than-planned driveway. This has worked out great and I've been very happy with it... but experience over the winter has taught me that I really would like even more room.

    So I plan to extend the driveway out away from the house another 6 feet or so. This will require retaining walls and some reinforcement to hold the weight of the driveway and various vehicles that will drive up on it, so I'll have to find some kind of neat retaining wall rock that will match Tanglewood's stonework. I have in mind a two-step terrace, with a series of hardier plants (bushes and daylilies) in a second step just above the drain work I did last fall.

    This plan is less firm than the others, but I'm thinking of it being a mid-to-late summer project (I expect the shed to take quite a while), so I'll ponder it more when I get closer to pulling the trigger.

  5. Move the 500-gallon propane tank up to the generator -- This one's simply been born out of being sick and tired of filling 100-pound tanks every week or so and hauling them around. I'd like to replace the 500-gallon tank currently serving Tanglewood with another 1,000-gallon job, then have the smaller one relocated up to the generator. That will get rid of the seemingly never-ending chore of filling and swapping the smaller bottles for the generator, and will give Tanglewood proper a full 3,000 gallons of storage (2,400 gallons of actual propane) for next winter.

    To do this though requires some orchestration. I'll have to build an area for the new tank up by the generator, and that will require some digging, filling, and retaining wall work. Then I'll have to get a 1,000-gallon one ordered and stashed somewhere until I have the 500-gallon one moved out of the way, and that will all need to be arranged as well.

    Something I'd like to do before winter rolls around again, but not strictly necessary... I could get by for another season like this if I had to. But I'll be surly....

  6. Pour a pad for the propane tanks -- This one is way out there, but it comes from the list of Things I Wish We'd Done. I don't really like how the tanks are positioned right now, and it seems like I could take advantage of all that tank moving speculated about above to get a proper pad poured. We'll see though... this one is way out there unless there's a huge increase in hours in the day... ;)


Clearly a new house is never really done, is it?


Steven in Colorado


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Sealing The Ceiling

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 3/17/2012

I have been working every evening this week to complete the staining and sealing of the ceiling boards. Whitey sanded the first polyurethane coat while I laid on the second. Today I finished the final coat and Whitey laid down two more rows of tile.

We are going to do a bit of limb and leaf clean up tomorrow on the house that we are living in. After almost 6 years of construction it looks as if this house has been abandoned. No way to keep up both places. Hoping we will be spending most of our time getting this house ready for the market!! We are so close to moving but not really close to completion. We have not completed all the outside projects in order to speed up the move-in time. I am hoping that we can stay on task if we move in before fully completed.

Oh, and we are officially Empty Nesters!! I told the last little bird that I really didn't want him to have to live in his truck so he should seriously start to look for a place to live, because we would probably be moving soon. He moved a few weeks back. Sometimes they just need a push!


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Starting on the vertical drywall

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 3/15/2012

Another day, another few pieces of drywall hung. Got one bedroom wall completed, and just outside the bath done. I keep telling myself, THIS YEAR it will be DONE. And yes, I do tend to use a few more drywall screws than I probably need... hey, why not? I bought a 50-pound bucket of screws and probably only need 20 pounds, so I have plenty extra.

Photos

The bedroom wall
Drywall across the bedroom and bath doorway.
Drywall around the bedroom window.
Bathroom wall
Manifold for PEX water supply lines.



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Rain, Rain, Rain

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 3/12/2012

It never fails when we make plans to start an outdoor project, the weather always seems to mess everything up. We have tried for three weekends to start the tiling project. Whitey decided to start on Saturday even though there was a 50% chance of rain. He got three rows of tile laid (about 45 tiles). There will be 13 rows to complete the balcony. Unfortunately I had to work and was unable to assist him. It started to rain so he laid plastic over it.

To say the least he could barely move on Sunday. We moved the wood for the ceiling on Sunday and I started sanding today. The rain can't last forever, so we will get back to tiling when the weather clears. The skirting is complete on the stairs; the landing has yet to be completed. Hopefully it won't be too much longer until we finish up all the small jobs and move in. There are a lot of little jobs to finish. It exhausts me. I can only imagine how Whitey feels, as it seems most falls on his shoulders.

Photos

Skirting around the staircase



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Lot Cleared

Posted to SunburnStateHome by Joe in Charlotte County, FL on 3/6/2012

First time owner-builder here. I bought a low-priced half-acre lot in Charlotte County, FL. Flood zone X and scrub-jay free with city water, but no sewer. I already took the first step and cleared the land and hope to begin building in about a year. I'm looking at building a 1,500-2,000 sq ft house on a total budget of $80K cash, not including land. I plan to do anything and everything I can possibly do myself and work on the project like a full-time job. I've been looking into Aidomes, they have a 40' dome that might be perfect for this.

Photos

Cleared Lot



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February 22, 2012

Posted to VICTOR-MONTANA by Craig in Victor, MT on 2/22/2012 3:50:38 PM

My wife and I just purchased a 22-acre parcel, and will be using this website and cadre of resources to build our dream home. We are thinking about a log home. Opinions?

Photos

Paradise in Victor, MT



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Getting closer!!

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 2/22/2012

Our January ended on a very sad note. Our very good friend Keith Borne passed away. He was there to help us every time we needed. He was there for the first riser wall and the last dome panel. We could never thank him enough for everything he did to help us make our dream come true. He and his wife Renee are also my employers at The Borne Quilter quilt shop. We will miss him more than I can express in words.

Now the dome progress. The stair rails are complete and now we have to finish the trim between the posts. It never fails. There is always a wrench thrown in our progress. We had all our turnbuckles installed on our posts and were ready to run the cables. The cable is 1/8". We thought we had ordered the turnbuckles to match that, but they weren't - they were for 5/32". (They were ordered last year). We had to order three 100' rolls of stainless steel cable. It is finished now and looks so fabulous, we are thrilled.

We were off work yesterday for Mardi Gras, so we did some much-needed yard cleanup. Picked up limbs and leaves, and then in the evening we had some friends out for a bonfire and beer. Next big project is tiling the large balcony. (Weather permitting) Then the final indoor job is the dining room ceiling, which will be wood planks. I have to whitewash, stain, and seal the wood; then Whitey will install.

Photos

Stair rail and cable system.
Whitey putting the last cable in.



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Six Months with Solar: An Assessment

Posted to Tanglewood by Steven in Colorado Springs, CO on 2/18/2012

It's been a fair bit since I last updated this blog, mostly because I didn't particularly feel there was much noteworthy to update about. After Google updated their photography with a frankly superb shot of Tanglewood I've mostly just been enjoying the winter, learning how this house works, doing some repair/cleanup work and slowly unpacking boxes of stuff that have been sitting since the initial move.

It occurred to me however that it might be time to provide an assessment of my solar PV system, since I've now got a good six months of time with it under my belt (really more like 7) not counting the frantic move-in period where I wasn't really paying attention to it much at all and the downtime in December when things weren't quite working right due to a dead inverter. There have certainly been highs and lows with the system since the move, in part because of struggles to understand exactly what it means to live “off grid” and in part because (in my opinion as an engineer) of some serious and sometimes downright baffling oddities in the way these systems work.

So what follows are some of the things I've learned since beginning to live with my PV system—the good and the bad, the frustrating and the baffling. Let me be clear that some of these are probably specific to my particular hardware as there's a wide variety of vendors and systems out there that one can buy from. Let me also hasten to add that some of this is from the my being an engineer and knowing there are better ways the manufacturers could be doing things--which for some reason they're not. I happen to be very pleased overall with my particular hardware and it's from one of the highest rated manufacturers out there, but there are definitely some limitations that various companies (including mine) are slowly (too slowly) beginning to address.

The Good

  • I absolutely love my solar! No utility bills. No weird power outages that have no real explanation forthcoming from the Utility Company. No dealing with ever-increasing rates to support some weird new utility expansion or upgrade that I didn't even get to vote on. The power is mine to do with as I please, without any worries whatsoever about bills—I made it, I can do whatever I want with it. It's tremendously liberating.

  • A good solar array produces power even on cloudy days. I hadn't quite expected this from what I'd read prior to putting the system into place, but as it turns out quality PV panels will produce decent power even on an overcast day. Over the past few months I've begun to loosely categorize days into four groups--”sunny”, “light overcast”, “heavy overcast”, and “dark”. Of course the system will work best on a sunny/bright day and we're blessed with a bunch of them here in the High Country of Colorado, but I'll make decent power on a per panel basis on the overcast days too... around 100-ish watts/panel on a lightly cloudy day and around 50-ish watts/panel on a heavily cloudy day. (This will of course vary wildly based on your solar exposure, your latitude, the types of panels you have, etc... these just represent my system and circumstances.) That's not a lot of power of course—your typical big screen TV uses maybe 100W per hour—but when you've got a lot of panels (30 in my case, soon to be upgraded to 36) that works out to a good 3kW per hour flowing into your batteries—not bad at all! I've had a couple of days in which we never really got “good” sunlight at all, but the cloud cover was light enough that my batteries actually hit a nearly full charge by the end of the afternoon... frankly astonishing!

  • No moving parts. One of the very best things about solar panels is that there aren't any moving parts to deal with at all—you just put them out there in a sunny spot and the power flows in. While I'm quite fond of wind turbines as a potential power source since they can operate any time of day or night (a big plus when compared to solar) I veered away from them early in the design of Tanglewood when I realized that not only would they require regularly physical maintenance, but the best location for them was way up high on a ridge around 600 feet from the house—not a trek I looked forward to making every few months with an armload of tools and oils and whatnot. Other than occasionally rinsing off the panels to remove the inevitable layer of dust that any sheet of glass will accumulate when it's outdoors, there's really nothing that they need. This summer I'll spend a couple of quality hours trimming down the scrub oak that I had to clear to install the ground mounts but that won't be hard, and in the process I'll generate some more kindling for the fireplace. Not an unreasonable tradeoff for such a low maintenance system.

The Bad

  • Batteries stink. There's simply no two ways about it—the single biggest frustration about living off-grid is dealing with your batteries. I've noted this before in various entries and I've really nothing very positive to add since those logs were made. The technology in this area simply hasn't kept pace with technological advancements in general and solar technology in particular, with the greatest innovation in the last 20 years being that manufacturers now incorporate straps to the battery case so you've got something to grab onto when you have to lift them.

    None of the options you have when you build your system are particularly good, and they all have pluses and minuses.

    If you choose lead-acid batteries (the classic liquid-filled ones that most cars use) you'll be looking at a superb range of choices (lots of companies make these) which are easy to compare against each other and some of which have very large capacities (quite important for a larger house). They're very tolerant over overcharging since they can simply release gas if they get too warm, a nice feature. On the minus side, though, you'll be stuck with performing regular maintenance to add distilled water as needed (due to evaporation and overcharging) and regularly measuring the electrolyte's ability to hold a charge with a hydrometer so you can catch problems early. You'll need to be careful about handling them or shifting them around lest you spill acid all over yourself and/or whatever is nearby. And just for good measure you've got to keep them relatively warm (they prefer the same temps as you do), because if the temperatures should get below freezing they'll burst, transforming thousands of dollars of batteries into useless, acid-leaking junk.

    If you choose AGM batteries (spill-proof batts that use a glass mat impregnated with a viscous electrolyte) you'll have the advantages in that they won't freeze in low temps and are very rugged. They are dubbed VRLA (Valve Regulated Lead Acid) batts because you won't have to do any maintenance work at all on them—no water levels to check! Unfortunately, technology hasn't advanced as far on these batts as it has on the lead-acid jobs so they don't have as great a range of capacities, which limits your choices. Even more fun, since they're sealed that means they can't outgas like their lead-acid cousins, so if you overcharge them you'll damage their capacities permanently—no second chances, period, finito. They also cost $$$ more—roughly 50% over lead-acid prices as of this writing.

    Your other option are Gel batteries. These look like and have many of the same characteristics as AGM batts, except that they're filled with a jelly-like electrolyte. Much like the AGMs, they basically won't freeze unless temps get below 30o F and they are extremely tough. Unfortunately they have basically the same drawbacks in terms of capacities, cost, and the dangers of overcharging as their AGM cousins with one added little bonus drawback—they have an “unusual” charging profile that means they generally (this varies by brand) can't charge quite as fast as either AGMs or lead-acid batts. This last bit isn't too big of a consideration if you've sized a large solar array (as I have here at Tanglewood) but if you're barely buying exactly the size you need, it could be an issue.

The Frustrating

  • Nobody wants to give you actual answers. For an engineer such as myself this is just inexcusable, and a sign that everybody apparently wants deniability in case something goes wrong.

    This can be seen in many areas when you're setting up your system, from the estimates your contractors-to-be will give you to the actual configuration of the hardware itself. Perhaps the most frustrating issue I found myself bashing walls over was how to configure the battery charging parameters.

    First a background. If you don't have an off-grid system, it's probably not something you think about too much, but the deep-cycle batteries used by solar systems are charged in three basic phases—Bulk, Absorb, and Float. Your regular car battery charger usually only does basic Bulk charging and you wouldn't want to use it on a renewable energy system--it's just not sophisticated enough.

    The
    Bulk phase is the first phase, in which your system just charges up the batts as fast as it reasonable can until it hits around 80% of the battery's voltage level. This is good but only gives the batteries a “surface charge”, similar to your plugging in a cell phone for a few minutes to get one last call in—it'll work, but not for very long. The same goes for your renewable energy batteries--the Bulk charge is vital to getting them up to speed, but you wouldn't want to run your house on it.

    In the
    Absorb phase the system manages the amperage coming in from the charge controllers to “soak” the batteries, gradually changing this amperage to build a “depth of charge” rather than a pure surface charge. This is probably the most important phase of the whole process and hopefully where you spend most of your sun-drenched time--it can last for hours depending on your batteries.

    When the batteries hit
    Float they're fully charged (as far as the system knows) and the system switches to a basic “maintenance” mode. Energy coming into the system mostly just goes to driving any household loads with a tiny bit diverted to tickle-charge the batts to keep them fully charged. Some off-gridders hate this phase as they feel that it's “wasting sunlight”, but it's relatively rare that you'll reach this state if it's a typical bright and sunny day in any case.

    So all of that seems straightforward enough, right? Well, not really. You see most systems trigger those Bulk/Absorb/Float phases in accordance with the parameters that you, lucky system owner, programmed into the controllers. You'd think those numbers came with the batteries—but you'd be wrong. In most cases you're lucky to get a “technical sheet” that looks kinda like this (I'm not picking on these guys, it's just one of the first tech sheets I could find).

    Clear as mud, huh? You'll note that those number-laden charts are filled with caveats and that they don't actually give you
    numbers per se, they give you a range of numbers. What should you use? Oh, the battery folks say to defer to the specs provided by your solar equipment provider—who helpfully defer to the battery specs when you go dig through their documentation. Nobody wants to actually give you a set of numbers, presumably because if they did and your batteries fried/blew up/etc. it would then be their fault.

    You get basically the same kind of answers if you actually call somebody, too—they'll ask what you have and what you're trying to do, and then refer you to various pages in the documentation that you've already read and/or try to point you at the other manufacture. Which of course you already did before calling them in the first place.

    Not that any of those settings will help you all that much anyway, as they're all simply battery voltage levels—essentially triggers between the phases that are invoked when the batteries hit a given voltage level. The problem here is that voltage is a particularly bad way to measure how charged your batteries are, since it can vary wildly based on input (clouds passing in front of the sun) and output (loads in the household turning on/off). There are some loose parameters that have evolved into the system's settings that try to limit this inherent volatility by using timers (i.e., “don't transition into this mode unless you're at the triggering voltage for at least two minutes”) but those are crude controls at best.
    Far and away a better method for handling the charging of your batteries to measure the amps going in and flowing out, and you can do that—but that's a $400 optional add-on to the standard system.

    Grrrrr....................

  • Solar equipment is shockingly “old school” in terms of design. In part I suspect this varies wildly by manufacturer, but in lurking around various solar equipment forums the problem seems widespread. I think in large part this has been driven by the near hobbyist level of the industry until very recently, as only the most hard-core techno geeks would bother to install the systems in the first place and there probably hasn't been big money to revamp how they're put together. Nobody seems to understand what a monitor hookup is or provide you with an option to use one, and USB is a rare beast indeed—customized serial ports still rule this world long after it's become nearly impossible to find a laptop that has such things.

    And the menus on the hardware itself are simply
    pathetic. I'm talking 1982-level technology here—a basic 40-character by 5 lines LCD screen, with menus so nested that it's spectacularly easy to get lost without having the owner's manual in front of you. Options are usually at the bottom and are something terse like “Next”, “Inc”, “Dec” to allow you to move to the next screen or increment/decrement the current setting. Exits are spread about wildly—some menu paths make you walk through all dozen potential settings before giving you a way back to the top menu, while others provide you with an exit anytime they're not using all of the available buttons for something else. Just for fun, a few of the menus mix it up and give you an exit option that moves around—sometimes it's on the right-hand side of the LCD screen, sometimes it's on the left-hand side. Wrestling with all this while you're trying to program in those magic Bulk/Absorb/Float values is especially fun.

    A few manufacturers have started to discover Ethernet, at least. Outback makes a new device called the Mate 3, which lets you access it from anywhere around the world via its Ethernet connection, and Midnight Solar has a variety of devices that are beginning to understand both USB and Ethernet.

  • Optional equipment clearly isn't as “optional” as it seems. One example is the aforementioned device that allows your system to charge the batteries based on amp-hours rather than basic voltages. Another would be a nifty little device called a Remote Temperature Sensor (RTS). This little do-hickey glues to one of your batteries and lets your charge controllers adjust the voltage and amperage flowing into the batteries during charging based on the battery temperatures. It turns out that a cold battery charges a lot differently than a warm battery, and so having an RTS tied into the system lets it optimize the whole process and maximize your battery life. It's a very good idea and one which I'd opine flat out was a necessity, but of course it seems to be optional from most manufacturers.

    Even here though the “old thinking” of the system's design is evident, however. The particular hardware I have allows for a single RTS to be connected, apparently in the assumption that all of your batteries will have essentially the same temperature. Maybe this is a reasonable default if your batteries are stashed in the basement under your house, but if they're deployed on a rack way off in a shed because you have a ground mount system, it's not as helpful as it might be. Why the heck can't a person plug in 2, 3 or even 8 different RTS sensors (one per shelf perhaps) and let the system manage charging by battery cluster? No idea, other than that the manufacturers apparently never considered such a thing.

A Partial Solution

Over the course of writing all of this up, it occurred to me that Microsoft has a great solution with their Windows operating systems that could serve as an example for how the solar equipment and battery manufacturers could make the setup process a whole lot easier. I don't think they're likely to actually do this since it might shift responsibility for a poorly-configured system to them, but offering something like the following sure would make life easier on installers and owners alike.

Here's how configuring the system for your batteries ought to work:

  1. When you hook up your system and turn on the power, the first thing it should do is say “Welcome to your new SuperSolar System™!” on either an 80-character by 40-line LCD text display or on the computer monitor you plugged in during setup.

  2. Next up would be a series of interactions with the system:

  • Battery database is dated 1/1/2012—should I update it?” – Just as with Microsoft Windows, you let it go out on the Internet via the built-in Ethernet connection, it downloads the latest battery database from the manufacturer, and then it proceeds.
  • What kind of batteries do you have?” – Let's suppose you had 24 Surrette S1725s, so you scroll down the list of batteries and select that one.
  • How many batteries do you have?” – Punch in the number (“24” in this case) and hit ENTER.
  • How many strings are these batteries in?” – Perhaps you have them deployed in a total of 3 strings with 8 batteries each, so you punch in “3” and hit ENTER.
  • The system blanks for a moment and then pops up something like, “Total amp-hours per string is WXYZ—is that correct?” – You check the number provided (which it pulled from its battery database) and hit ENTER.

  • The system then displays a message along the lines of “Setting Bulk/Absorb/Float values” (again, using the values it downloaded from its battery database) and you're done.
  1. Yes it could be this simple. No I don't think they'll actually do it. Sigh.

Summary

Despite the annoyances, I'm really quite pleased with my solar. I've just recently incorporate the oh-so-how-did-they-not-make-this-standard amp-hour battery charging device, and I'm getting ready to expand the system out to 36 panels (the maximum the two existing charge controllers can manage).

Later this spring I'm rebuilding the solar shed.  Colleen did a great job with it working with what she had, but let's face it--it's cold and sits on stilts, so I don't trust it not to fall over some day (and that would really be a mess!). The new shed is going to be constructed out out BuildBlock just like Tanglewood is and will incorporate a solar-heating system so I can make use of these bright winter days--a big plus from the current insulate-and-pray approach the shed has now. I'll document all of that once we start that project, of course.

The fun never stops... and that's fine by me!  ;)


Steven in Colorado


Comments (2)

A little more drywall...

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 2/14/2012

Got three more pieces of drywall up. Spent most of the day going to pick up a load of horse manure to enrich the sandy soil we have, and picking up another load of drywall. Let me tell you, the 12-foot pieces of drywall are not fun to handle. Also got a closet header done I had missed while framing.

Photos

The last 2 large pieces of drywall
Got the header for the closet done and the drywall on the right put up.
The maple tree is already putting out leaves...



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Ceiling drywall almost finished.

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 2/8/2012

The T-braces were a help, but still needed two people to put up drywall on the ceiling. I went to rent a drywall lift, but they are $30 per day, so I bought a new one from Amazon.com for $145 shipped! After we're done, I will sell it. The lift made putting up the ceiling SO EASY!! I got almost the whole ceiling put up BY MYSELF. There's a couple pieces in the bathroom to do and two sheets I need to get special-sized drywall so I don't have seams, but it went really well. Leia the puppy helped, too.

Photos

The drywall lift and half-done kitchen/dining area.
Because this is a dome, there were some really interesting multifaceted drywall cuts to be made. Sort of like doing a jigsaw puzzle, but you have to make the pieces yourself and then put them together.
Leia helping hold the drywall.
The finished bedroom ceiling, and Leia.



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Starting up

Posted to Houston-72012596 by Stan in Houston, TX on 1/21/2012

I'm working on re-framing a house in Houston. Never done it before, but have some friends who know what they are doing who are going to help. How do you figure cost for traditional "stick" framing for a 1,400 sq ft home?


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Ceiling drywall started

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 1/19/2012 12:42:20 PM

We picked a rainy day to start on the drywall. Picked up in the rain, had to cover the drywall with plastic on the way back to the dome, and unload in the rain. Thankfully it was not raining hard, and the drywall stayed dry. We got three sheets placed on the ceiling. My first attempt at using a RotoZip tool was, ahem, not too accurate. The next two electric boxes went MUCH better (see pics).

We are using a backer board system for the ends of the drywall sheets called "Buttboard"made by Trim-Tex. Basically you screw both ends of the drywall to the Buttboard. Since there's a very small valley cut into the Buttboard, it forces the ends of the drywall to bend into the valley, giving you a 1/8" shallow V across the seam. When you mud over it, the seam tape doesn't make a bump. It seems to do as it's supposed to; anything to make the sheetrock easier to finish!

Photos

The first attempt at using the RotoZip cutout tool. Not so good.
Next cutout came out just fine!
The T-braces helped a LOT!
Patrick puts in drywall screws
Three panels up, several dozen to go.



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Ready for drywall

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 1/11/2012 3:32:00 PM

We went through the dome and pulled extra nails, checked clearances and generally cleaned up getting ready for drywall. Got the upstairs bath fan put in and a few other items done, ready to put drywall up!

Photos

Toilet and shower drain for upstairs
Patrick painting the front door.



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Sheetrock

Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA on 1/11/2012

Sheetrock is in. What a change! Even though this structure is under 1000 sq. ft. of living space, there was a large amount of sheetrock needed to include the unheated entryway and the garage on the lower level. We're very pleased with the outcome.

Photos

Vaulted ceiling
Very nice job on the arched windows.
Sheetrock in unheated entryway. (The wall on the left is concrete)
Office area
Bedroom
There were a few places where condensation created dripping of the texture coat. The contractor came back and made it right.



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Stormwater Management

Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA on 1/11/2012

A stormwater management plan was required to accommodate the roof runoff (impermeable surface). This part of the project came in at $3,000, including the engineer's design and me doing the manual labor. Gravel-less chambers were used due to the topography of site. 

Photos

Roof drainage line.
Two 75-foot runs of gravel-less chambers.
Type-30 catch basin
After backfill



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2012 January Update

Posted to Workshop by Patricia in Florissant, CO on 1/8/2012

We decided to just build a steel building. We used Red Bear Excavations, Sun Peak Engineering and Creative Concrete. Very happy with the process and the contractors.

We also managed to get an electrical easement with the Forest Service and Teller County. The electric installation (13 poles) cost us approx. $28,000. We decided against solar, since both our closest neighbors complain their systems just weren't enough power through the harsh winter season.

We are looking at Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) for our first floor, walkout basement, and roofing. Anyone know of an architect, engineer, builder, SIP company to refer us too?

I have been playing with a design program, but would like help with orientation and suggestions for our lot. We have a view of Pikes Peak, but it isn't facing south and our main entrance will be facing the north side where the snow really hits.

Photos




Comments (3)

Progress!!

Posted to Eschete-Dome by Janie in Lafayette, LA on 12/30/2011 10:06:32 AM

The stone is up on the fireplace inside. It looks great as I knew it would. Our stone guy Billy did a great job. It only took him a few days to get it complete. Cabinet hardware is on and I love it.

We went ahead and purchased the kitchen appliances. I got a great deal on my dishwasher, the year model was being discontinued, so I got the one I had really liked for about $300 less. They all look really nice. The stair treads are also installed. It took awhile to get the treads stained and sealed. Painted the risers and trim. The stair landing needs to be completed we are putting a tile mosaic trimmed in wood like the treads.

I was disappointed that we weren't in for Christmas this year, so we put up our 12-ft tree in the dome anyway!! We have yet to spend a night there, but who knows, maybe we will ring in the New Year there. Whitey has been spending some weekends at "The Camp" deer hunting. He needs time to de-stress from work and the building project. I am sure I have left something out, but now here are the pictures.

Photos

Fireplace, with flat screen mount
Cabinet hardware and Whirlpool Gold dishwasher
A look into the shower with the new shower door



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Electric entrance conduit completed

Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL on 12/29/2011

Got a few minor items done, and one major accomplishment. Our oldest dug the trench from the transformer to the house and we placed the main electric power conduit to the meter location, while the youngest dug out all around the house to expose the foundation a little, and washed and scrubbed it so we can seal it and paint it. We had a little issue with fire ants getting into the house in one corner. Although they are gone now (thanks to Amdro fire ant bait), we are going to re-seal and paint the bottom edge of the dome where the panels meet the foundation. We also had a little time to ride around on the mini bikes, have a bonfire, and fill the cracks in the dome floor with concrete sealer. Fun family day!

Photos

Matt and his cruiser
Pat in the hole. It's been almost five years since I placed the conduit under the transformer, so we had to dig around to find it. Ended up with a pretty big hole under the transformer trying to find the conduit so we could connect to it.
Pat getting ready to glue his end of the conduit.
Getting ready to place and glue the last turn on the conduit.



Comments (2)


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