Going Off Grid in East Tennessee; The Story and Chat Thread (Niota: car, money)

[piperspal]

found this thread later than most and am about half way thru.
wow. talk about living each day to its fullest.
you two are pure inspirations.

[Liondandy]

Lisa and Mike:

Sure hoping you all had a relaxing Christmas and took time to enjoy your home. Did you have a white Christmas?

Also anixously awaiting your next chapter and curious if you had a Christmas tree (perhaps cut from your own land?)

[ylisa7]

Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday. Ours was great because we got a ton of work done. As you should all know by now Mike and I do things differently than most. Christmas for us this year was a work day just like our anniversary and my birthday this year. When Mike and I have a project that is our priority. Christmas was great because it was beautiful out and we got a lot done. Next year we will do the tree and decorating. Then we will truly be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy all that we have done. For now- we work until we get it done.


Monday 12-22
It's time to work on the last room in the house, the office. First we have to run to town "again" for more sheetrock and 2x4's. The closets are using more material than expected. It seems like we live part time at the building supply and Lowe's. I am so tired of those stores.


Making the closet for the washer and dryer.



The sheetrock is up for the washer and dryer closet.



Tuesday 12-23
Today we are working on the last closet in the house. Woo, Hoo. It's the closet for the electrical in the office. It will be identical to the washer and dryer closet and the space in between the two closets will be perfect for a daybed. Our grandson is waiting to stay over and he can't wait until we finish that room.

The first frame is done for the electrical closet.



This closet is more involved because we also have to sheetrock and paint the inside of it. This will be a walk in closet so it has to be complete. First we have to measure and screw the sheetrock into the studs for the first interior wall.



Installing the first interior wall.



All of the interior walls for the closet are done.



And after many hours of measuring, cutting, and screwing the closet is done.



The sheetrock is "done" in the entire house. Woo Hoo. No more cutting and installing sheetrock. We are done except for the spackling and painting.


Wednesday 12-24

Mike starts the day by putting the first coat of spackle on both the closets in the office. I am right behind him cleaning the big plops on the floor.



Now that we have all the walls up in the office we can go back and finish the ceiling. The first thing we do is finish hanging the perimeter track around the closets.



Then we move on and install the last of the main grid and the cross tee's.



And Mike continues installing the full ceiling tile.


It was a very good day. We got a lot done and we are very happy.


Thursday 12-25
What a beautiful sunny day. Mike has been itching to work outside so today is the day. We have been having problems with my internet satellite dish. My satellite dish for the internet is a portable system(for when we travel) and it sits on a tripod. Unfortunately when it is really windy my dish gets moved and I lose my signal.

The first thing Mike does is dig a hole to bury a 4x4 post. This is still temporary but at least my dish will stay in place. While he did that I took the tripod in the house and cleaned all the mud off and we put it back in the motorhome.

Installing the post.



Here is my newly mounted dish. At least it won't move now from the wind.



Next Mike starts working on the other downspout and drain pipe. We finished the first one a long time ago and today we are doing the other one. First Mike digs out the trench "again" and installs the long drain pipe. Then he connects the downspout from the gutter to the pipe. Now all of the excess water will drain far away from the house.




After he is done we cover the pipe with dirt. It's still very muddy and mucky so we will have to let it dry out more.



Back into the house to start working on the ceiling. Mike is installing the last of the full ceiling tile.



Installing the last, yeah, overhead light in the house.



Lastly, the really hard part. Mike has to start cutting the tiles to fit. He starts with the angled tiles by the door.




Friday 12-26
It took all day but now it's time to celebrate. The ceiling is done in the entire house. Woo hoo. Mike is so happy.

The office ceiling is done.



After the ceiling was done Mike did a light sand on the closets and a second coat of spackle.

Later on we hung the closet door for the washer and dryer.



Saturday 12-27
We are so close to finishing the office. We still need the cabinets, the bed, and the desk. We drove to Lowe's to pick up 3 24" cabinets to put in the office. We will have a total of 8 feet of cabinets in the office. We already have one cabinet home that we had in the bathroom for awhile. We also picked up my kitchen cabinet knobs. They were on sale so I finally got them.

We get everything home and we have to open the cabinet boxes up to carry it all down to the house. The boxes are just too heavy so we have to make a lot of smaller trips to get the cabinets in the house. Finally we are in the house and putting the cabinets together. I can't wait to start organizing.

Putting the cabinets together.



Here is our "wall of cabinets". Talk about storage. Now that's a lot of storage space.



Next we start working on the knobs for my kitchen cabinets.



The kitchen knobs are done. All 25 of them. We can't get used to them. There are so many. We've never had kitchen knobs before so it looks a little "much" to us.




Sunday 12-28
It's rainy and drizzly out today but we discovered a problem yesterday that we have to take care of. On our way home driving up our driveway Mike says "where's the culvert?" Uh, oh. Yup it's buried in mud and we can't see it. So today we went down with our rubber boots, gloves, shovels, and the tractor. Sure enough our 30 foot culvert that runs under our driveway is full of mud on both sides. We start to dig it out.

This is our clogged culvert.



Digging and dumping the muck into the tractor bucket. We dug out 5 bucket loads.



It's getting better.



By now we are a muddy mess and we just can't get it done. It looks like the pipe is completely clogged and we just can't reach it all.



This was our own fault. We should have been watching the culvert all along to make sure there were no problems. We can only hope that a heavy downpour will clear out the mud. If that doesn't work we will have to call Jimmy to tear the 30 foot culvert out of the ground, get the mud out, and re install it. It's a good thing we didn't pave the driveway yet.

We head back into the house and dump or muddy clothes into a container. What a mess. We didn't do anything else today. After 2 hours of digging in the rain we had enough.


Just another week in the Mike and Lisa world. We are getting so close to finishing. Now if we could just get some more nice weather to start our outside projects.

I hope you enjoyed our story and I will write again next Monday. Have a great week and Happy New Year.

Lisa

[SPLIT]

YL: Good to hear from you , was thinking about you guys. Really like the kitchen cabinet layout.
. Digging up the road culvert seems to be a last resort. On the low side of the pipe I would use / try LONG branch / pole with a 4 inch piece of scrap wood / plastic / kids mini garden rake , etc, to push / pull out a opening in the muck/mud.
. Like a long swiming pool brush , or the north snow residents cleaning their ROOFs in Maine. Just like "Eating a elephant " - One bite at a time.
PS. ONe or two pieces of SCREEN on the UP-Hill side of Pipe may give Visual check time to shovel excess muck BEFORE it gets into pipe.? 4" x 4" cement grid wire . Rebar wire .?

[kygman]

I just went back and looked at your first page where the county put that pipe in for you. You don't need to do anything to it yourself. Contact the county road department about it. They have the equipment and manpower to do the job. With all the weather, they may have to put you on the list to get it cleaned but the sooner the better. Anything like that that is put on a state or county right of way, you don't have to work on yourself.
I'll try not to bother you any more this year! lol Happy new year!

[kygman]

I just looked a little closer and saw that's not the pipe you're talking about! Before we had high pressure culvert cleaners (don't know if you can rent them or not) when I was on the highway department we used car tires to clean culverts out. I don't know how much room you have on each end of the culvert. We would run a steel rod (around here it's a sucker rod from the oil fields here that we would push through with the bucket of the backhoe. On the end of the rod, we hooked a chain and then hooked that on a steel cable. On the other end of that cable were 2 car tires. Another steel cable is hooked on the other side of the tires. Once you get the rod through and can hook up the chain to the backhoe bucket, the tires are pulled through the culvert. Once they hit the pipe they will collapse and come through. When the tires are pulled through the pipe, the backhoe is hooked on the cable on the back of the tires and pulled back through. That will clean the pipe out and all you have to do then is dig it out of the ditch. A whole lot quicker than trying to find a way to dig it out. We did it that way on the highway crew for at least 20 years.
I know, I lied! I said I wouldn't bother you any more! lol

[ylisa7]

split- I'm glad you like the kitchen cabinets. I'm still trying to get used the knobs. Don't worry digging out the culvert will be a last resort but it is 30 feet long.


kygman- You again, lol. Only kidding. Thanks for the ideas. Mike liked it. Now we just have to figure out what we can use that would be long enough. Just another day in our world.

[piperspal]

tried to rep ya but it says I gotta wait. you two should publish this as both a "how-to" and an "oh yes you can" book. Very cool indeed.

[kygman]

Originally Posted by younglisa7

kygman- You again, lol. Only kidding. Thanks for the ideas. Mike liked it. Now we just have to figure out what we can use that would be long enough. Just another day in our world.

Check at Lowes for some bigger rebar. The advantage of sucker rods is they are threaded so you can screw a couple together to push through. Don't know if there is a way to get two pieces of rebar wired or fastened together. If you and Mike have built this house, I know he can figured a way to get two pieces to stay together. lol

Good luck!

[Hawk J]

Howdy L&M......................



I've checked all the construction & i wholehearted agree.................


I Wish All My Sisters & Brothers a Very Blessed Happy New Year..........................


Drive Safely....................