Owner Builder NY

Master Bathroom Granite Countertops

2011-03-18T17:11:00.003-04:00

Granite is pretty expensive, and it is pretty tough to find it cheap anywhere. There is a tremendous amount of labor involved, to get that rock out of the earth, transport it multiple times, cut it, polish it, etc. Like anything else, granite slab prices are based on supply and demand. The cheapest granite is the most abundant and least wanted (greys and green-blacks). The most expensive granite is the more rare neutral colors, especially the beiges.

The guy that did my kitchen countertops did not return my phone calls, so I hunted around. First I tried a highly recommended top quality company in my area, Terra Tile. My wife and I looked at their slabs and picked a New Venetian Gold, their estimate was $2500 for around 35 square feet of granite, backsplashes, 2 oval 17x14 sinks, the 2 sink and faucet cutouts, separate makeup table, all with an ogee edge, delivered/installed with tax. Then I tried other companies like marble.com, plus some granite ads I saw on craigslist. The cheapest I could find was $1920, a company called Innovate Stones, aka tsstone. They also have an eBay store as well as a bricks and mortar store.

These guys were awesome. I talked to a guy named Dante on a Friday, and got my price quote the same day. Dante was a really nice guy and easy to work with. I went down to his slabyard on Monday, picked what I wanted, they fabricated it immediately and installed it on Thursday.

I love the granite, it is a Santa Cecelia dark. We wanted something tan/brown/black/white, not grey. We made a mistake with our kitchen countertops (also a Santa Cecelia), they are white/grey/tan/brown/black also, but the overriding color is greyish. This granite is much nicer, just the color we were looking for.

If you are in the New York metro area, I would definitely recommend them.

Central Vacuum

2011-02-22T17:30:00.002-05:00

The Central Vacuum system is one of my favorite things in the house. It was installed by The Alarm Consultant, Brewster NY, owned by Paul Burdick. Paul's primary business is security systems, but he does central vacuum systems also.

I priced out all of the components, checked every vacuum website on the internet, and came up with a price of roughly $1500+ for my house. Paul did my system for $1300 installed, absolutely incredible, I don't know how he did it. Paul is a great guy to work with, very nice, reliable, easy to work with, shows up and does the work when he says will. What more could you ask for?

My unit is an AirVac AVR7500, which can handle a house up to 7500 square feet. I only have 3300. Possibly I could expand it to 5000 sq ft, if I finish the basement and space above the garage, but I'll never get to 7500 sq ft. He included 9 vacuum outlets - 3 on the first floor, 3 on the second floor, 1 in the garage, 1 in the basement, 1 in the space above the garage, plus 1 is built into the main unit. Also I got the deluxe tool package with the wand, 30 ft hose, etc.

See my gallery of photos

I love the central vacuum system, because it is really easy to keep the house clean. I always hated dragging that annoying cannister vac around the house and up the stairs, and changing the bag all the time. The central vac 30 foot hose is long and annoying too, but much less so than that whole cannister vacuum.

The suction on the central vac is slightly less than the top of the line Sears Kenmore cannister, but it is not an issue.

I noticed our new house has almost no dust compared to our old house. I attribute that to 2 things: The central vac exhausting outside, compared with the cannister vac exhausting all over the house. And also our forced air heating/cooling system which filter the air nicely. After 1 year in the house, if you wipe your finger across the top molding above any window, there's no dust on your finger. This is great since we have a kid in the house with dust/pollen/peanut butter allergies.

guo9001

2010-12-30T19:40:00.001-05:00

I didn't want to spend a fortune on outdoor lighting, and I found these really nice lights on eBay. I bought 7 for $150 including shipping. Similar lights in Lowes would have been over $50 each. Home Depot was even more expensize. They are good size, like 19 inches high. I put one on each side of my front door, one above each garage door, and one on each side of the back door. What do you think?

More photos here

Hallowell Acadia stuck in stage 1 only

2010-12-16T17:57:00.003-05:00

2010-Dec-10

Something is wrong.

The second floor system is working great. The 1st floor one is fubar. The heat always blows out cool. Ok I don't know the temp, but it seems like the 1st state heat. When you put the thermostat up a few degrees, and it goes to stage 2, or stage 2 blinking, the air temp is the same. Emergency heat mode, same thing. Seems like it is stuck on stage 1. So with outside temps 35 high and 10 low right now, it's tough to stay warm. The upstairs unit does compensate, but that is not the answer.

My installer went out of business, but i know the guy, he went to work for someone else. I called him, he says Hallowell has not returned his call(s). Connecting that with recent speculative comments in posts about Hallowell layoffs/buyout/etc.

Also a friend of mine had the same thing happen to him at the same time. He build a 5000 sq ft house at the same time i build my house, and has 2 4-ton units and 1 3-ton unit. One of his is doing the same thing.

Anyone have any idea or advice?

Does anyone know a good Hallowell Acadia install/service guy in the Mahopac NY area (50 miles north of NYC)? I dont want to call random guy.

2010-Dec-14 update

OK I think it is fixed now.

A guy from Mt Kisco Mechanical came out to the house and looked at it this morning. First thing I asked him, was how many Hallowell Acadia's he had worked on before. None, he said, but we all went through the training. That made me a little nervous. Anyway I explained the situation, he checked out the thermostat, air handler, and heat pump. Asked me for the manuals to check some more stuff. He said the heat pump unit had a blinking error #6, he would have to call Hallowell. Also, he showed me a jumper on the air handler (just like on a computer motherboard) which was set to "no heat" instead of "heat". So that was why the emergency heat mode on the thermostat did not work. So I guess in the past year, when my thermostat showed 1+2 blinking, I was not getting any heat from those heat strips.

He called the Hallowell number on the front of the manual, got passed to voicemail, and left them a message. Not even 2 minutes later his phone rang, it was a Hallowell technician. The error #6 was some sort of internal compressor lockout. So I think he just had to pull the disconnect, wait like 15 seconds, and put the disconnect back in, to clear it. The Hallowell guy said that the compressor tripped because it got too hot, it was working too hard. Usually 2 reasons for this would be, (1) not enough air flow, (2) problem in the coolant system.

The filters were fine, air flow seemed ok. The Hallowell guy said something like 20 degrees subcooling. The service tech checked the R-410A coolant, it was low. He said there is likely a slow leak somewhere, probably since original installation, and I should get it checked out in the Spring. He topped off the 2nd floor unit which he said was ok, but on the low end. So he added 14 lbs. He checked out both units, dip switches, wiring etc. The attic unit also had the strip heaters off, he changed both to on.

I'm thinking I might go back and disable them to save money/prevent them from going on. Might this cause any problems with the units/compresors/etc?

Here is what the service tech wrote up

So the rumors about Hallowell getting bought out / going out of business may or may not be accurate. They were super responsive for me today, and they helped the service tech over the phone to get my problem diagnosed/fixed. And it does not appear to be a Hallowell equipment problem.

So hopefully everything is fine now. I'll see how it goes in the next few days. Any comments would be appreciated.

UPDATE: PLEASE READ MY OTHER POSTS ABOUT THE HALLOWELL ACADIA. I'm having compressor problems like many other Hallowell Acadia Owners...

Also if you deal/install/own a Hallowell Acadia, please join the Hallowell Acadia Google Group.
.

New York Electrical Inspection Services

2010-12-06T14:40:00.000-05:00

OK, I need to get my final electrical inspection soon. Some electrical contractors that I've talked to, tell you their total price for the job. Other tell you a price, plus a separate amount for inspection fees.

So wanting to know everything, I got real curious about these electrical fees. Can someone tell me what the fee is? Or fees? Not really.

One contractor said "a couple hundred dollars". Another one said "I don't know, 0.30 cents per outlet, 10 cents a switch, something like that." No one woud give me a straight answer. So I called the electrical inspection agency. I guess there are a bunch of companies that conduct electrical inspections in New York, and New York Electrical Inspection Services seems to be the most well known or most used around my area. So I called them directly and asked them what their fees are. Point blank, they would not tell me. They said they did not want to be rude, but they deal only with electrical contractors, and do NOT deal directly with homeowners at all. They charge a fee to the contractor, then the contractor bills the homeowner. What a great ploy that is!

What is going on here? Talk about transparency, this organization never heard of it. Maybe I am stupid, but I thought that the whole point of an inspection, is to protect homeowners from substandard work by contractors. But yet these same inspection agencies will NOT even talk to a homeowner, but have a great buddy-buddy relationship with contractors.

As a homeowner, that scares me. Like they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Ipe decking #2

2010-11-16T16:31:00.001-05:00

This is an update to my Ipe deck project. I finished the back deck, except for the step, and am working on the front deck now (pics of that someday).

Check the link below to see my photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jjdecker95/IpeDecking#

This project is taking me forever, being a weekend warrior, having 3 young kids, and 2 unfinished bathrooms inside the house. So the staining will have to wait until next year. Should be ok, right?

So right now I am having some concerns with the quality of the Ipe I got. Seems ok, but who knows, this is the one-and-only Ipe deck I have ever built. Some pieces are real dark, some are real light. Some are really really hard (dark boards), some are softer (light boards). Some are clear, some have a tiger-like grain to them. Some seem a bit rough when you run your hand up one way, then smooth if you rub the other way. 3 or 4 boards have lots and lots of checks, almost the whole 15 foot length of board. Most of the boards have no checks. I have one board that looks like it will destroy your foot if you walk on it. I think I'll have to replace that board, I don't know how I did not notice it, when I put that board down. It looks like the grain is sort of lifted, and could cause nasty splinters in your foot (See pictures 10 and 11). 3 or 4 few boards seem fine, but have knots in them (pics 13 and 15). Will these spots worsen over time?

I bought 1725 linear feet of boards. There are probably six 15-footers that I probably should toss in the dumpster. Maybe six others that are usable but not the greatest. Not really sure about the rest, if it is so-so, good, great, top quality or not. Of course I was assured that the Ipe was top quality, all heart wood clear Ipe, blah blah blah. Would any expert want me to mail them some scrap cuts to examine? Or even better, stop by and look at my deck? Just kidding…

The railings. I chickened out on the Ipe railings. No way I get the project done this year. So I did the shiny PVC rail, and put an Ipe rail on top of it. I like it, I think the front deck I will do the same.

The pics in that gallery are hi-res, so you can view full screen, or better yet download them and zoom in real close to see the detail.

Ipe decking

2010-08-17T17:46:00.008-04:00

Ok so I researched Ipe for a while and finally got the project going. Of course no research is ever complete - some things I read here a while ago went in one ear out the other, things change, I changed my mind about stuff, etc

Here are my pics so far:
IpeDecking

The deck is about 14 by 26, framed with 2x10s, 12 inches on center. Right side of the deck is about 2 foot off the ground, left side is about 4 or 5 feet. There will be one Ipe step, off the deck to the bluestone patio. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do that, any ideas? Should I leave out the risers, so there will be enough ventilation?

Of course I hunted around for the best price on Ipe. The usual suspects East Teak, Advantage Lumber, etc. were still higher than best priced local lumber yard, Rings End Lumber in Lewisboro NY. I know 2 builders that use Rings End and they love their Ipe. But last minute, I ended up going with a crazy website where you submit an Ipe request and companies bid on it. Turns out the company with the best bid was actually the wholesaler/supplier for Rings End, what a coincidence. So I went with them. I wasn't only going for lowest bid, but lowest bid from a company with good quality Ipe, and I'm pretty happy with it. It was like John said in one of his posts, it has some band marks, end of the board with some stains from the sealer, etc., but the boards looked great. I got a mix of 8, 10, 15, 16 and 20 footers (mostly the larger sizes).

I bought 2.5 inch stainless steel screws from Fasco Fastener, 1/8 cobalt drill bits, carbide tipped chop saw blades, and a used eBay BoWrench. So I just put my first Ipe board down, screwed from the top. You can see that in the second picture - does it look like I did it right? I used another drill bit about the size of the screw head so the screw would go down below the surface slightly. Now I'm having second thoughts, and am considering plugging. Seems like only slightly more work than I'm already doing, using 3 drills as it is, not sure what to do right now with that.

Also second thoughts on the deck rail, I had decided to go with PT 4x4 posts, sleeved with PVC and a deck rail from these guys:
Wayside Fence

This would be much cheaper than TimberTech rail, etc. And somewhat cheaper and much less work than Ipe rail. I thought with the Hardie siding and white Azek trim, it would be a good choice. But now I'm having second thoughts, if the PVC rail will look too shiny. The Azek is much less shiny, more of a smooth matte finish. Any suggestions? Should I rip out the 4x4 PT, and put in Ipe posts? Or has anyone ever wrapped PT with some 1x6 Ipe?

Here is the post I made on the gardenweb forums

.

Hallowell Acadia update

2010-03-22T18:18:00.010-04:00

OK I have not posted on my blog for a while, but I figured I'd share the results of the Hallowell heat pumps.

For the 2 month period 05-Jan-2010 to 02-Mar-2010, I used a total of 6465 killowatts, for which NYSEG charged me $746.67. So that is 373.33, for the 2 coldest months of the year.

That covers all of my electric usage - lights, appliances, plasma tv, etc, an 80 gallon electric water heater, and the Hallowell system. I keep the temperature set at 68 all day, and 65 at night (1 am to 9 am).

I am extremely happy with that. I would estimate that my electric water heater accounts for about $80 per month. The lights, appliances, plasma tv, etc I am guessing to be $100-$120. Which would leave my Hallowell heating cost at around $183 per month for Jan and Feb.

If I had been heating my house with oil (natural gas not available here), I would have to believe I would have gone through a 275 gallon tank in 3 weeks or less. Thats how much usage I had at 2 prior houses, which were half the size of the new one, but less well insulated. So lets say 13 gallons of oil, for 57 days is 746 gallons. At a price of $2.40 a gallon, that would have cost me $1792 (or $896) for the same time period.

That sounds shocking to me? Anything wrong with my math? $183 for Hallowell, $896 for oil?

Here are my actual bills:

January Bill

February Bill

UPDATE: PLEASE READ MY OTHER POSTS ABOUT THE HALLOWELL ACADIA. I'm having compressor problems like many other Hallowell Acadia Owners...

Also if you deal/install/own a Hallowell Acadia, please join the Hallowell Acadia Google Group.
.

Chandelier lifts

2009-06-11T22:03:00.006-04:00

It's a major pain to change the light bulbs on a chandelier. So I was thinking about getting a motorized chandelier lift to lower the chandelier to floor level, change the bulbs, or clean the thing, and then hoist it back up. But searching around, I got sticker shock! Those things cost around $1000, just as much as the chandelier does!!! I would never pay that much.

Then I got to thinking: I dont need a fancy motorized one, with a switch at the bottom of the foyer. Why not get a simple, manual lift, that you can crank up/down yourself, from up in the attic? Something like that must exist, and it must be much much cheaper, right?

Well I can't find one anywhere. Please leave me a comment if you do.

OK, so they make all kinds of lifts and chain hoists for mechanical equipment. Stuff that can lift a half ton, and it only costs like $139. Can't someone adapt something like this for chandeliers?

southern-tool.com hoist

GardenWeb Post

Door Handlesets, Knobs, Levers

2009-05-21T16:24:00.008-04:00

In order to save money, i've been searching the internet, ebay, craigslist, etc for bargains.

The best bang for the buck I have found on door knobs was on eBay - The Lockset Discounters.

I bought this handleset for my front door, for $37.07 including shipping and tax.

Kwikset Arlington Antique Brass Smartkey Handle+sgl-DB
Model number: 98001-122
Collection: Arlington
Function: Handleset + Sgl Cyl Deadbolt
Finish: Antique Brass
Latch: Round Corner Adjustable
Strike: Round Corner
Packaging: Clear-Pack
New/Used: New

It says the deadbolt meets Grade 1 security standards ANSI/BHMA A156.2, whatever that means.

I searched the internet and could not find this item for less than about $77.

I will most likely buy my interior door levers there also.

James Hardie ColorPlus - Westchester NY area

2009-05-05T15:33:00.006-04:00

It is almost impossible to pick out a siding color from one those ridiculously small sample displays at a lumber yard. How are you going to know how its is going to look on the house you will be living in for years to come? So the sales rep at Croton Home Center gave me a list of houses that he has sold James Hardie ColorPlus siding to. My wife and I drove around to all of them multiple times to figure out what we like best. To tell you the truth we wanted a simple medium tan color. But Hardie doesn't have that. The have a goldish tan, and a greenish tan, and greyish tan, but not what we wanted. So we settle for Monterey Beige, which is nice, but really more grey than we wanted.

I have created a Google User Map of houses in the Westchester NY area that have James Hardie ColorPlus installed. Maybe this will help someone else who is going through the same thing as us.

Westchester NY map of James Hardie ColorPlus Fiber Cement Siding

Also there is a photo album of these houses here:

Siding - James Hardie ColorPlus - Fiber Cement Board - Sample Houses

James Hardie Siding

2009-02-10T14:05:00.008-05:00

I have been thinking about siding for a long time now. I would rather not do vinyl, and am pretty sure I am going one step up, to fiber cement board siding. The most popular of which is the James Hardie brand. I dont want to pay $6000 to paint it, so I am going to go with the pre-painted stuff. It is 16% more expensive than the primed stuff ($7.10 vs $6.10 per 6 1/4" x 12' board), well worth it. I think a good quality vinyl siding would work out to about $4.50 for that same size.

But the trim will cost much more for Hardie than vinyl, depending what you get, probably triple the vinyl trim cost.

I am also trying to come up with decent links to Hardie fiber cement jobs. Here is what I found so far:

http://picasaweb.google.com/SicamousDevelopments/RavensCroftSalmonArm#

http://picasaweb.google.com/chander.ganesan/NewHouseJan52008#

http://picasaweb.google.com/sgulick1/OurNewHouse5Interior#

http://picasaweb.google.com/ncc77777/OtterSlideLoop2#

http://picasaweb.google.com/chitojared/FishFoodBank#

http://picasaweb.google.com/chughesconstruction/EscapeBeachside10#

http://picasaweb.google.com/gulfcoastsiding/HardieBoard#

Hopefuly your house won't look like this one:
http://picasaweb.google.com/JollyRoberts/SigmanWindowsSidingAtlantaGA#

The Framers are here...

2008-09-15T10:23:00.001-04:00

Today the steel beam for the basement ceiling was delivered by Brewster Iron Works, as well as the 1st lumber delivery for the first floor deck. Bruce arranged for the lumber delivery boom truck, so that the steel beam could be lifted into place.

Garage Walls poured

2008-09-09T16:06:00.002-04:00

Poured this morning, before the rain. Glad to get something else finished.

The southeast wall of the garage was poured the full 9'4". So the top of that wall will be about 6 feet above the garage floor height. This is so I can backfill that wall, to help me with the severe elevation difference on the eastern property line. The other 3 walls will be just a few inches higher than the garage floor height.

NYSEG rant - the scum of the earth

2008-09-07T02:35:00.006-04:00

OK, I'd like you to please take a guess. If you call NYSEG and request new electric service, how long do you think that would take?

If you guessed six (6) months, you'd be seriously underestimating the time it actually takes. Plain and simple, they are assholes. They absolutely positively don't care at all if you ever build your house. Craig Lincoln is the guy I am dealing with. He is a total jerk. Days, weeks, months go by, he never returns your calls. I hope he dies. He has absolutely no ethics at all. What a scumbag.

I really want to complain to the Public Service Commision, but I'm deathly afraid that I will never get an electric hookup then.

Garage Footings Done

2008-09-03T13:48:00.006-04:00

The garage footing was poured today. 9 yards of concrete. The footing was double wide and pinned to the main house foundation with rebar.

The footing forms were inspected yesterday by the Town of Carmel inspector. I called for the inspection on Wed 8/27 but they could not come out to inspect until Tue 9/2.

Ed excavated for the footing Tue 8/26.
I drilled the 5/8 holes for pinning to the existing house foundation with rebar on Wed 8/27.
Paul formed the footings Fri 8/29.

Photo of the Garage Footing Forms

Boulder Wall

2008-08-30T21:01:00.001-04:00

I have quite a few large boulders on my property, and am saving them for retaining walls etc. First thing to use them for, was to create a boulder wall near the property line. This wall has a few purposes:

1) To create a channel for keeping surface water away from my house. The land that the power lines are on, slopes towards my property, and I could see deep erosion channels, every foot or so, where water from up there flowed down to my property.

2) To create a raised berm, for planting some screening trees. Since the property line is about 12 feet higher than the garage floor height, it might seem somewhat counter-intuitive to raise this area up ever higher. This berm will give the trees more height, to screen the power lines better.

3) The boulder wall is landscaping. I think it looks pretty good. It will look much better when the area is completed, and the wall is one of a series of 3 stepped down retaining walls.

One worry, is that the wall is too close to the property line, and the power company will cut my trees. Also the boulder wall could have been curved as it got further away from the house, to give more space to the property line. But right now I'm leaving it up to Scott and his crew. His company does incredible work, and I know he has a great vision that I can't see now.

The wall took 3 days to build (Aug 28-29-30), 1 excavator and 1 laborer. It's about 150 feet long.

Photo Album of the Boulder Wall

Septic Tank Installation

2008-08-23T18:57:00.006-04:00

The septic tank was delivered and dropped in the hole today. I got a 1500 gallon tank. I only needed a 1250 gallon tank for a 4 bedroom house, but decided to upsize it to the 5 bedroom house size (a $300 upgrade). Price also includes 10 of those concrete junction boxes, which you can see sitting on top of the septic tank in the photo album link below. It cost $1880.31 from Mid Hudson Concrete Products products. I think the tank was around $1220, and the junction boxes were around $51 each. Ed arranged everything, so I didn't shop around for this stuff at all.

Photo Album of the Septic Tank Installation

Well drilling

2008-08-18T17:30:00.009-04:00

The Well got drilled today. It was done by Milton Hyatt of Albert M Hyatt and Sons Inc. My excavator Ed and builder Bruce have known him a long time, and said he is very honest, and won't lie about the depth of the well, and the amount of casing used (important since I'm paying by the foot!). All the well drillers around here seem to charge like the same price, which is pretty high. I think around $12-$15 per foot. The casing cost about that too. I was glad that Milton gave me a 5% discount. I don't think anyone would have gotten a well drilled any cheaper.

I am very happy with the results. The well is 325 feet deep, and needed 114 feet of casing. They left casing 10 feet above ground so I can backfill it to any level I want to, and cut the pipe later. The well had 25 gallons per minute flow, which they said is fantastic. I guess some houses only have 1 (or is it 3?) GPM. I had to get the well in now, before the garage foundation goes in, otherwise I won't be able to get a well truck back there around the house.

Here is a photo of the well pipe, and the slop hole next to it.

Backfilling the House Foundation

2008-08-16T18:34:00.005-04:00

Ed backfilled the main house foundation today. I put up the second row of MiraDrain 5000 (Foundation Drainage Panel), as he backfilled.

Also started doing the basement floor prep work:
1) Pulling out the hay that lined the footer to protect it from last winter's frost. Ripping out all the grass/weeds that grew in there.
2) Leveling out the ground, about 3 in below the top of the footer. Excavator had to scrape the ground down in some spots, and add dirt to other spots.
3) Dumping in 3 inches of gravel base for the basement slab floor.

Photo album of Backfilling the Foundation

Main House Footing Drains Approved

2008-08-15T16:44:00.001-04:00

Ed worked on the footing drains Aug 11 and 12. The inspector came today and approved them. Ed started to backfill in the afternoon. He tied in 2 standpipes to connect the garage footing drains, which will be about 4 feet above the main house footing drains.

Construction Loan Closing - Ulster Savings Bank !!!

2008-08-13T12:35:00.003-04:00

This might be one of the happiest days of the past 2 years. Probably the happiest since the day my wife and I saw this piece of property, and made an offer on it.

I thought I was a financial genious, and if I found the right loan rates, etc., I would have no problem getting my construction loan. Well I am not going to go into the whole sorted story, but after literally going through a nightmare with 3 separate loan companies (Countrywide, Amerifund, and Flagstar), I finally found a great, no fantastic contruction loan company:

Ulster Savings Bank

The loan originator that I dealt with was Margaret O'Conner. She was extremely knowledgable and helpful. I was refered to this bank by the guy I bought the property from. He is a builder and finances his new construction houses this way. His own personal home too.

The best thing about Ulster Savings Bank was everything I guess. Great loan originator. Honest and upfront. Low interest rates, and very low construction loan fees. Everthing they told me in the beginning was true. They didn't spring any surprises on me. Very little paperwork/documentation compared to the other lenders I dealt with. I sent Ulster Savings Bank a small stack of paper, maybe 3/4 of an inch high. They told me what they needed, I sent it, and the loan was aproved, I closed. The closing took 25 minutes. Those people really have their act together. They don't waste time on useless paperwork. Just the facts.

I must have sent a stack of paper 3 or 4 inches high, to other lenders. Day after day, week after week, they would come up with some more documents I needed. Until eventually I gave up, or they wanted something else, which I could not provide. One bank told me, after 3 months of faxes, that I needed to liquidate my 401k account, then my loan would be approved. What a joke. I said screw them.

Boy did I make some mistakes with the financing. But I think I'm golden now.

Tree Clearing - for Electrical Pole

2008-08-06T18:46:00.003-04:00

Bill Henry Tree Service came today and cut down a bunch of trees. Someday NYSEG will put up a telephone pole in the spot they marked off. But all trees between that spot and the preceding pole needed to be trimmed or cut down. Cost me $1000. No bargain, but I guess not that bad of a price either. Ed would have done it slightly cheaper, but he is not available right now. I want to get them cut down quickly so I can let NYSEG know immediately, that I'm ready for the pole. Not that they will actually put it up anytime soon, but who knows, hopefully I'll get lucky.

Hallowell Arcadia - cold weather heat pump

2008-05-28T23:11:00.018-04:00

OK so I've been researching like crazy, trying to find the best way to heat my dream house. This is probably my biggest worry in this whole project. Oil heat is just going to be too expensive. I've been thinking that geothermal is my only reasonable long-term option. So I e-mailed a whole bunch of geothermal installers in my area, and one of them came back to me with a much cheaper, but almost as efficient system: the Hallowell Acadia cold weather heat pump.

I sort of ignored this suggestion, but then a week later I Google'd the thing. Well I almost crapped myself. It seems to good to be true, and you know what they say about things like that. The cost would be less than the combined cost of a Hydro-Air cooling system plus an oil burner heating system.

Does anybody know if this is real, or just a scam/scheme??? Please, pass along any information you have about this system.

And I'm going to collect links about this system. I'm sure you could find these same links yourself with a Google search...

The company website:
http://www.gotohallowell.com/

Some dudes named Kevin and John seem to have installed Hallowell Acadias in their own homes:
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6142_102-0.html?forumID=50&threadID=301971&start=30&tag=forum-w;forums06
You can also find other references to the Hallowell Arcadia if you search the CNET forums.

A story with a video of the Acadia system:
http://www.necn.com/Boston/Business/Acadia-heating-beats-the-cost-of-oil-/1216432211.html

McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix and Marlboro NJ residents Phyllis and Seymour Garr install Acadias:
http://tritown.gmnews.com/news/2008/0724/front_page/003.html

WCVB TV Boston (ABC channel 5) runs a story on the Acadia:
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/asseenon5/16831616/detail.html

Architect Ed Nilsson of Marblehead MA, installs an Acadia:
http://www.dailynewstribune.com/state/x1542098757/Home-features-two-energy-saving-systems

Yup, even on Bob Villa's website:
http://www.bobvila.com/OnTheLevel/Big-Energy-Savings-for-the-DoD-2982.html

CNET green news article:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9859871-54.html?tag=cd.blog

An article in the Architectural Record:
http://archrecord.construction.com/resources/conteduc/archives/0603edit-1.asp

An article from the Reuters newswire:
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS127072+10-Mar-2008+PRN20080310

Not sure who the lazy environmentalist is:
http://www.lazyenvironmentalist.com/pages/2008/01/efficiency_and.php

Last but not least, a thread I started on heatinghelp.com:
http://forums.invision.net/Index.cfm?CFApp=2&Message_ID=412460

Installing Foundation Drainage panels

2008-05-03T17:57:00.005-04:00

Today my brother-in-law Justin and I installed the foundation drainage panels on the foundation. There are a lot of different products for this, but I chose one that I liked, and could get locally for a reasonable price:

Carlisle CCW MiraDRAIN 2000

Purchased at Masonry Depot for about 0.45 per square foot, I got 5 rolls, each roll is 4 feet by 50 feet.