Goodbye foam walls

This weekend we finally finished covering the styrofoam walls in the basement. Probably not exciting to most, but a big step for us. We now just have a little more to do in the loft, and ten the walls are done. Still have ceilings to do in the basement, but we will take our time with those.

Monitoring

One of my projects for the winter has been to build a computer system for monitoring the systems in the cabin. I now have a small Raspberry Pi computer set up with an array of temperature sensors that I built. These record the outdoor temperature, the hot water tank, and the radiant floor temperatures and upload it to the internet to get a better idea of when the system needs to heat. The goal is to eventually be able to control the heating, both to minimize the amount of energy used when we aren't there and to be able to heat the cabin before we arrive, since it takes quite a while to heat up the cabin once we arrive. The data can be viewed online at: https://cosm.com/feeds/96148

I also have another little computer in the works for interfacing with the solar controller so that we can get a better sense of how much energy we can expect to generate in various weather conditions.

Never ending drywall

For most of the weekends we've been at the cabin this winter, Jen and I have been busy hanging drywall. We've hung most of the interior walls in the basement and are now working on the last sections of wall around the windows. We're hoping to have this part ready for inspection later this spring.

Catching up

Sorry, we haven't posted anything in a bit, I'll try to catch up now. We had a bit of a setback in January when some pinheads broke into our cabin. They took most of our tools and random other assorted stuff, but didn't do much damage (other than breaking the window). We've since added several security cameras that email us every time someone approaches or enters the cabin, so hopefully that'll help in the future.