Electricity, oh how I’ve missed you!

Guess what, we have electricity in our cabin! The Tri-County Rural Electric Coop came up this past week, installed a new electric pole with a transformer, and connected our underground electric service to the cabin. They pulled the meter from the temporary power base and installed it in our new service. That meant that when we got to the property on Friday, I had to wire some electrical outlets so that we could power up the pellet stove and generate some heat. We are also able to start adding some comforts of modern living to our cabin, such as a refrigerator and a microwave.

Our kitchen area, now equipped with a refrigerator and microwave.

I had some back-filling to do on the underground electric service, now that we were hooked up. I am sure it will settle over the winter months and during the first part of the spring, but I think I am done with outside work until spring of 2018. Now I can focus on doing the work on the inside of the cabin. I did hang more drywall this weekend, focusing on the master bedroom. I will need 17 sheets of drywall to finish the walls and ceiling in this room, so I will need to transport more up to the property over the next couple of weeks. We want to finish this room off first so that we have a place where we can sleep and retreat to, away from the dust and disorder that will accompany the construction on the rest of the interior.

Starting to hang drywall in the master bedroom.

Finally Coming Together

So we now have a finished cabin exterior. The board and batten siding is up, trim around windows and doors, and the downspouts are installed. Now the fun begins; finishing the inside.

This past weekend I was able to also finish the exterior of the outhouse. With the board and batten siding and metal roof, it looks like a mini version of our cabin. I still need to work on the interior of the outhouse as well, but it is now sided and roofed and ready for winter. And most importantly it is operational.

Board siding installed on the outhouse.

With winter only a few weeks away (we had temperatures as low at 7°F overnight this past weekend) we needed a heat source installed in the cabin. We chose an Englander pellet stove. Even during the cold night we had this past weekend, the cabin was nice and toasty inside. However, with the large, open cathedral ceiling and upstairs loft, we will need to install some ceiling fans to make sure we are moving the heat around. There were some times when the temperatures in the loft required you to work in short sleeve shirts.

Pellet stove keeps the cabin nice and warm, even on the coldest nights.

With all of the rough wiring completed, I began working on the drywall. I still need to transport a lot of drywall to the cabin, but I did take a couple pieces up this past weekend to start working with. This upcoming weekend I am looking to hang a few more pieces of drywall and add nailing strip to the walls in the living room and dining room for later attachment of the wainscoting.

Drywall is installed around the stairs.

Finally, since it is deer season here in north-central Pennsylvania (archery now, rifle in two weeks), I thought I would show a picture from the critter cam. This was taken back during the last week in October. I have not seen this deer personally, so I do not know if he is still around or not. I will check the trail cam again this upcoming weekend to see if there are any photos of him. I hope he makes it through hunting season and we see him around next year.

A small 8-point buck caught on the trail cam behind our cabin.