Best Laid Plans
If I had to select a photo to represent the last 5 months for me it would be the one above. The Office. I work in a small business and have needed to give that 200% focus over the last 5 months. I’ve spent a lot of time in our little remote office on the property, but it’s hard to complain too much with those views. The best photo for Nate, on the other hand, would be the photo below. Rotten, wet, and more rotten.
We had planned to try to salvage the original wood siding, but sadly it turned out to not be an option. We knew there would be some boards that would need to be sanded and possibly replaced, but sadly it was not going to be enough. Like so many remodels, the deeper Nate went the more problems he unearthed. He started with the porch, because we knew it needed some serious insulation and he added the metal flashing across the bottom to keep out the critters.
It got to the point where I assumed the place would be fully torn down by my next trip down from the office. Turns out there was no insulation to be found. Like seriously, ZERO. The property is at about 6000 feet, so winter nights are often quite cold. Rotten wood sliding and the adorable attempt at insulation (otherwise known as a former cardboard box) just would not cut it. It turns out we would have been better off tearing this old place down and starting from scratch, but like Nate says we’re committed to polishing up this old turd. And when I say old, Nate found boards in the back porch dated 1934 and we know the front and back porches were additions due to window openings that were covered. Based on the layers of paint, we assume the center structure had to be at least 30 years older.
Surely cardboard boxes work as insulation.
The back up generator for emergencies and low solar days.
He did get the solar power connection run from the main system. He also built the housing for the back up generator. On the whole, it should be able to run fully on the solar system, but it feels good to have options for an emergency or unexpected storm. There’s lots more to share since most of this happened back in August, so I’m going to try to stay on a roll. Fingers crossed!
