Land Clearing to House Building...

[hunterridgefarm]

Hey David! The drive looks great! I wish I had the budget for the asphalt right now. My slope is not giving me any traction problems, so I'm in no rush other than aesthetics.

Love the refridgerator pic. It's always nice to see tractors used in creative ways.

I bet you enjoyed all the leaves coming in this spring. It was your first time to see the house surrounded with all the greenery. I bet its beautiful.

tony

Tony,
I'm not too worried about the leaves, just blow them in the woods or compost piles .

This is the firt time seeing the house with greenery...except for grass, which I have none. .

I do have 4 big oaks that have died due to track loader cutting a root. I will take those down in the next couple of weeks. I hate losing them but it will open my view of the mountains.

 

[Samandothers]

I finished reading your house building posts over the past three days. The pictures have been great to see it from road clearing to move in. The setting looks great. Thanks for the time you put into this.
Did I miss where you used the steps from the old home place? It is great you used the mantels it really gives the great room a warm look.

 

[PAGUY]

David - No updated post since May. Time to let us know what's new with you and your project.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

WOW, Its been 7 months since I posted.

The big problem has been internet...we had none! We tried to get high speed thru the phone company, it stops 1 mile on each side of me with no plans to extend it at this time, called Hughsnet (sp) no access, tried the little thing you plug into the side of the computer with our cell service..not enough bars to get a signal, tried Direct TV and Bluebird, I think that was the name anyway, and they only have a certain amount of connections they are allowed and their allotment is up, we will have to be put on a waiting list. Called the cable company, they will give me 200' of cable for free, but charge $10.00 a foot after that, I'm about 600' off the road so I'll have to pay $4000.00 to get the cable. I plan to call them back and see if I can buy and bury the cable myself. So we are still on very slow dial-up at home!!

I have access at work but we put a new system in and for a long time could only access company websites...but as of this week the whole net is now available!

As far as progress on the house, have shelves built for garage and basement, have the wood furnace hooked into the ducts and it works great!!

Because of the new asphalt drive we had to wait until late fall to get the sidewalks poured. Needed the asphalt to setup good and get a few cool mornings before we have 10 yards on concreat delivered. I was going to brick the front sidewalk but after getting cost it was cheaper for me to hire it poured...that is until my wife decided she wanted the front walk stamped.
But it does look great...I'll get some pics over Christmas and post.

We could not do much landscaping due to the sidewalk not being in and we also had a bad drought so nothing would have lived anyway. We did get some landscaping done but the most will be done this winter and spring.

I got the well house started and should have it complete over Christmas and New Years...I do have some pics of the process and will post.

Great to be back...even if access is SLOW!

David

 

[EddieWalker]

David,

Good hearing from you. As a former Hughesnet subscriber, I can tell you that it's a big waste of money for very poor service.

How many cell connections did you try? When I bought my land, I had Verizon, which worked great where I used to live, but not out on my land. My ex had Sprint, and that didn't work here either. Then I went with AT&T, which worked great, but then they sold out to another company that I didn't care for, so I tried Alltel, which has been great. I get full bars here and was told that if you get good cell service on your phone, you will get good internet service on a cellular internet connection.

We plugged it in and it works great!!!! My FIL has Verizon and has some problems with service when he comes over here with his laptop. It works great where he lives, but I'm in a bad spot for it here.

It might be that you just need to try the different services to see if one works out at your place. Ask friends with different providers to come over and see if their phones work there. If so, then you know who to get high speed internet with.

The biggest advantage to cell internet over satellite is that you don't lose your connection when it rains. We used to lose it all the time, but now it doesn't matter what the weather is outside.

Eddie

 

[hunterridgefarm]

David,

Good hearing from you. As a former Hughesnet subscriber, I can tell you that it's a big waste of money for very poor service.

How many cell connections did you try? When I bought my land, I had Verizon, which worked great where I used to live, but not out on my land. My ex had Sprint, and that didn't work here either. Then I went with AT&T, which worked great, but then they sold out to another company that I didn't care for, so I tried Alltel, which has been great. I get full bars here and was told that if you get good cell service on your phone, you will get good internet service on a cellular internet connection.

We plugged it in and it works great!!!! My FIL has Verizon and has some problems with service when he comes over here with his laptop. It works great where he lives, but I'm in a bad spot for it here.

It might be that you just need to try the different services to see if one works out at your place. Ask friends with different providers to come over and see if their phones work there. If so, then you know who to get high speed internet with.

The biggest advantage to cell internet over satellite is that you don't lose your connection when it rains. We used to lose it all the time, but now it doesn't matter what the weather is outside.

Eddie

Eddie,

My wife and son have Alltel and do not get good reception, plus they just signed a new contract (thats the one we tried). I have Verizon and get great reception...but my phone is a company phone and I cannot use it for our home computer.

Once her contract expires we are going to try Verizon. Unless I can get the cable company to let me buy and bury the cable. It gets real frustrating trying to get service...especially when you call the different satellite providers that advertise and are told they are only alloted so many connections.

 

[UpstateSC_Papi]

Hi David!

WHEW! I thought I was the only one who hadn't sent in an update in the last few months!

Thanks for the update! Sounds like you guys are plugging right along. We too have done zero landscaping. Had a guy come out last week and draw up a plan for us so hope to start buying and planting at least some trees next week.

Can't wait to see the pics!

Call Verizon. The wireless card used by them has a separate "phone number" so I would think you could subscribe to the wireless card plan without having Cell service with them. We went with Verizon based on having phones, but the wireless card is not linked to our phones at all. Give it a shot!

Michael

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Michael,

I give Verizon a call and see if I can try the card.

I should have someone come out and draw me a plan for landscaping! Mine is all in my head...which is kinda dangerous! It was so hot and dry over the summer that there was no use attempting any landscape plant unless you wanted to water them and with the drought and us on a well we did not want to chance it.

Post your plan I may see some things I want to use.

 

[UpstateSC_Papi]

I'll give the guy a call and see if he'll come your way! He's out of NE GA. Aren't you around Asheville?

Pretty simple... He came out, measured everything, took some graph paper, drew it out. Numbered/Lettered everything and then wrote the plants' names on another piece of paper. Very cool guy.

I thought I had it here with me (at work), but do not. I'll bring it in tomorrow and scan it in!

Michael

 

[schmism]

saw on this old house this past week they were installing an inside cell repeater.

they put up a yagi style antena on the house to send/recv, run it through an amplifier and to another antean in the house.

It wouldnt work if you DIDNT have any bars, but if you can get at least 1 then with beter elivation on a tower and the REAL antenna you should be able to get good cell service.

the downside was, it was expensive, on the order of what it would cost you to get cable to your house. As for the cable, have them put in the first 200 ft and put a post up and have them terminate it there. you can run the rest yourself.