Party

[BIGNASTY]

Party house Herman Cain will bring the pizza/girl's and ill supply the BEER

 

[Blu-meanie]

During the winter, do you enter from the top?

 

[BIGNASTY]

Well Hell yes the snow is up to the deck. Makes it nice for the wife and I to cross country ski we just step off of the deck and go. :-laf:-laf Or if someone gets so tanked up and falls off the deck snow keeps him fresh until spring thaw :-laf That little hatch on the roof is the escape hatch for big snows

 

[mwilson]

We have a wrap-around deck like that and shoveling it gets old 'long about February... ... .



I also have the daylight basement (at least that is what they call it up here). Makes a nice family room in the winter.



Of course it is not going to do you much good when the snow is level with the deck..... :-laf



Snow will only get about halfway up the basement door here as the wind off of the lake blows the snow around each side of the house, makes some serious drifts at times.



By the way, very nice looking place.



Mike.

 

[mwilson]

During the winter, do you enter from the top?

Nice..... :-laf



Mike.

 

[BIGNASTY]

The winter winds come from the other side of the house so drifts form on the sides and some get's in the way of the lower door. We stack fire wood on the lower deck and have some snow shields to keep snow out. You can still open the lower door and get your firewood in the house. I wanted to build a dumbwaiter kind of deal to get the wood for lower to upper without all the carrying but another project for another day. Ya we like it except when I start shooting off the upper deck and the wife get a little testee#@$%! The lower is my rec. room reloading and gun safe ammo safe ya know a guy's escape room!!!

 

[mwilson]

I had a house once that had a wood box on the main floor that was accessible from the top of the cellar stairs and from the living room where the stove was.

That way you weren't lugging the dirty wood all through the house. You brought the wood up the cellarway and filled it from that side. Then you opened a door in the living room and pulled it out to fill the stove.

Pretty clever idea I thought.



Mike.

 

[BIGNASTY]

Actually with us the fireplace is more show than practical. We use pellet stoves in the main room and our bedroom to heat. We have a propane house heater but last winter we just used the pellet stoves to heat. The house is built using the SIP building method Structural Insulated Panels. It makes for a REAL FAST BUILD and super insulated house. Double insulated windows with low E the whole deal. Sometimes I think that we went overboard with all the crap that we used. Then I ask the wife about the bills well we dont have a heating bill because it's built so good. The stoves will run you out of the house because of the heat if ya dont regulate them. We got the pellet because The wife wont get out of bed to put another log in and I KNOW IM NOT:-laf the pellets drop in all nite and its convenient. So I guess we do have a heat bill the pellets but they arent that bad. We use ceiling fans to move the heat around the house. Ran by solar That little house out back is our well/pump and solar battery house assisted with a wind gen. I wanted to get some payback for the utility companies putting the screws to us for so long we just wanted to live off Grid as much as we can. To keep snow off the deck they can be vented to the side of the house so we vented them under most of the deck it melts the snow

 

[mwilson]

What do you have in the outbuilding to keep the waterworks from freezing up???



Many places here that don't have a cellar or use an outbuilding such as yours simply build a wooden insulated enclosure around the tank, pressure switch, exposed water lines, and then use a 60 watt light bulb to heat the space. It works to -40 below. I think it works better than heat tapes.



Only thing is that people forget to check the light bulb once in a while during the course of the winter to make sure that it has not burned out... . until they get up in the morning and don't have any water for coffee or a shower... . :-laf



Good idea putting the vents under the deck, very clever... .



Mike.

 

[BIGNASTY]

?

The outbuilding is built using the same but leftover panels that the house was built of. If anyone was to build a house hot or cold clime This is the way IMO. The building is heated with like you say a light bulb or two and the water lines to the house are so deep that china could turn the shut off valve for me. The well pump has a blanket as do the Solar Batteries the blanket raps around the pump and the Batt's sit on a mat. I didnt say but there is another pellet stove in the Rec room for the deck heat. There is a light outside the outbuilding to show if heat and lights are on and a switch in the house to turn on or off. The snow is not THAT bad up here but the COLD is something not to be believed. We have been planning this for what seems like forever and the wife said the change in plans that I HAVE made cost more than the house itself. But we were only going to get to do this one time and were not getting any younger so I didnt want to think OH I TRIED TO BY-PASS THE CUSSING FILTER I WISH I WOULD HAVE. Well I have to go to Missoula my snow plow has came in and just in time its colder than a well digger A** I got the one with 2 seats the wife can come out and keep me company im an equal opportunity kind of guy :-laf

Snow Plowing with Horses - YouTube