What would you do differently?

[Stumpy]

So those of you who have made the leap of faith what advice would you give others. What did you learn the hard way which could benefit those who think about it?

Construction Methods?
Land Choice?
Location to others / town?

Thanks,
Sean

[ugashikrobert]

Sean:
If you goal is an independent lifestyle with a high degree of importance put on experiencing the outdoors at its best you can't get far enough away from road system and urban areas. The higher the price in terms of effort usually results in a better experience. I see a lot of people locating in what may be an isolated area which is OK if its isolation your after. I would look closely at what is available in the area that intrests you in the form of hunting , fishing, trapping, viewing etc and appraise it in terms of what you can accomplish from your doorstep without a big investment in transportation. There are very few places on this planet you can do what I can do from my doorstep but I still wish I had went out further.

[wolfwoman]

Never, ever, never, EVER move into a place, no matter WHAT your place is before it is FINISHED.
Period, end of discussion!!!
Wolfie

[ugashikrobert]

Before I made my leap of faith I looked at all the places I could find in semirural areas and saw a lot of common denominators. I had read somewhere that when you go by a junkyard down in America that you should tell yourself it is just another Alaskan that hasn't made the leap of faith yet. I hate junk and cluttered things and unfinished projects but you need to temper that with the reality of day to day life in the bush. Finishing all of your started projects is a nice goal but the priority of keeping your head above water seems to win. When I first moved out here I thought all the people running around in circles with greasy Carharts just couldn't seem to get things done. Now that I am one of those I understand a little better.
Unlike a lot of other segments of our society if you don't get it done it just doesn't happen.

[Washkeeton]

So true. Like fencing projects win out over painting and roofing. You can keep the tarp on for one more year. I hate unfinished projects too but they happen even if your not out in the bush yet. You make a list and do what you can do. When you have some time refer to the list and do some on each unfinished project. Soon enough it will be on the list of finished. Then summer happens and you have a pile of new projects that have to be done before the next winter. ;D

[wolfwoman]

Oh believe me, I SO understand getting done what you can. BUT, if it has to do with insulation or staying warm, or anything else on the interior of the house, it really needs to get done before you move in. It's near to impossible to try and finish up a house/cabin when you're living in it. It's one thing to say, not paint the wallls, or not trim something, but major items need to get done. Now that we've moved outta the cabin, I REFUSE to move back in til the major things are done.

Wolfie

[pipedreams]

If there's anyway around it, I aqree getting it all done before you move in is the best way to go............but when we were building, the snow was flying when I was doing the roof..........a few days after it was done it was -34 and there was close to a foot of snow on the ground..........building season was OVER!, but we were far from done....................warm and dry for sure, but a long way from DONE by any stretch......

[Jenny]

I'm sure that our house will be nowhere near finished when we move in. Our goal is to be moved in by Christmas day 2006, even if that means all we have is the floor, roof, outside walls and a stove. If it's warm and dry, I'll be happy ------- at least for awhile ;D. We'll have to get to the interior walls, pantry, kitchen counters, furniture and such when we get to them. Right now all I want is more space and NO STAIRS.

[Stumpy]

Jenny,

I hope you will be taking lots of pictures and posting your progress

Sean

[Jenny]

Hi Sean,

I sure have been taking lots of pictures, and will take many, many more. I'll have to figure out how to post them here, though. Ugashikbob, can you help me out with this one? How do ya post pictures on the site without having to just post a link? I'm sure everyone here is just dying to see our root cellar ;D

Thanks,

Jenny

[ugashikrobert]

Jenny:
I first go to a site like photobucket
photobucket.com/
I upload my photos onto that site after I have resized them to 6x8" or less with Photoshop or any other photo manipulation pgm then I compress them with a product called Advanced JPEG compressor
www.winsoftmagic.com/
This compression allows you to store more photos on the storage site and also cuts down on xfer time. I then copy the complet URL from the top line of the three lines below the previously posted photo on photo bucket and paste it between the two brackets after selecting the photo icon to the left of the letter icon on the add tags portion of the post menu on the bulletin board. Its easy to mess this up as your cursor has to be right between the brakets when you do the paste. In effect you are just posting a hot link to your photo album with the scripted brackets being done by the BBoard post/reply menu. Here is a photo a took yesterday for the volcano observatory.

The url that you paste in between the pair of brackets supplied by clicking on the photo icon should start with http:// and end with your photo name and its file suffix like.jpg. In the posted photo above the complete URL was img.photobucket.com/albums/v158/rdreeszen/MtPuelikII.jpg. There should be a bracket image bracket preceding the complete URL copied from your hosting site and a bracket forward slash bracket following the complete URL. Use the preview function to make sure you got it right before posting as the image should show up on the preview.
If you do a right mouse button click on my posted image and look at the properties you will see it is 576x432 pixels in size which can be used as a sizing gauge if your photo software only sizes in pixels. The next time you see a large posted photo that expands the entire post look at the file dimensions in pixels and you will see they probably didn't resize it first. Look at the file size also and you can see how band width glut can happen easily with photos. Almost every Bulletin Board has a slight variance of how you post photos so it takes a few times to get the knack of it. I hope I didn't make it sound or seem more complicated than it really its.

[Jenny]

Thanks for the info, Bob. I'm not planning to post lots of pictures here, but just wanted to know how just in case. I suppose it slows things down for folks with a dial-up connection, so we'll probably link to photobucket most of the time anyway.

Beautiful picture! I didn't realize you were so close to the volcano.

[ugashikrobert]

Jenny:
Glad I could help.
Mt Puelik shown in the previous photo is about 25 miles North of us and Mt Chiginagak (AKA Old Smokey) is about 30 miles south of us.

[Jenny]

I wondered about that mountain??? I was thinking Augustine, but then, after I thought about it again, I knew it couldn't be. DUH. Anyway, we're starting to see the ash over and around us from Augustine's latest eruptions. Probably won't use the computer much over the next few days to conserve power since we may not be able to run the generator.

Jenny