light up the night

This is really just a photo post showing you the before and after of our outdoor lighting. We bought a Portfolio brand lighting kit from Lowe’s about six months ago and have been dragging our feet to put it in because we thought it was going to be a lot of work. We couldn’t have been more wrong!

The kit came with a 200 watt transformer (not pictured in the link because I can’t find it) and four spotlights. We added about ten pathway lights and are thrilled with the results! The wiring is very easy – just press the wire into the light base and two copper pins make the connections for you. Since Janeé is an electrical whiz, she was also able to splice some additional wire in to give us more coverage. The transformer box has a light-sensing eye so it turns on automatically at dusk. Easy!

 

day and night view of lights from the parking area

Day and night shot of the outdoor lights from the fire pit area

Water tank upgrade

The cabin water makes its way to a 55 gallon blue storage tank via gravity from a spring-fed cistern at an average rate of 100 gallons/hour.  The lopsided tank was insulated with a large piece of carpeting and covered by some fancy blue styrofoam.

With easier access under the structure during deck demolition, we took the opportunity to get tanked.

A quick trip to Tractor Supply for a 135 gallon leg tank I’d had my eye on for the past six months and I was ready to roll.

After some excavation, I set up a sturdy foundation for the tank to rest on.  There is nearly one foot of gravel under each of the timber steps.

Everyone got dirty, even Toby then yellow lab!

The new tank has a rather ugly overflow pipe that will thankfully be hidden by the new deck.  We are looking forward to building a water feature for the overflow to play on.

Existing water tank

Gettin’ dirty

 

Tank foundation

 

Water flows downhill here

In addition to a siezed motor on the water pump, the water line seemed to be missing something important:  water.

The previous cabin owner was quite smhart – he devised a gravity spring fed water line from a cistern 20 feet uphill to a storage tank underneath the cabin.  Water is pumped into the cabin via a shallow well water pump.

Janeé bravely donned rubber gloves and went in search of the cistern.  After nearly an hour or dredging, she unearthed the screen covered pipe to the cabin.  A quick check and water was flowing!

Water water everywhere – but in the cabin

A major part of our decision to purchase the cabin was the fact that it had water and septic.  We all intemately met the septic tank several weeks ago but held off turning on the water until the threat of a solid freeze had passed – the last big “unknown” to us was if the water would flow.  It didn’t.

Janeé displays how limber she is while trying to pump air into the pump. 8,367 pumps later and the pressure remains at zero. This guy is headed to the dump.

Diagnosis:  the shallow well water pump motor was seized and my uninformed opinion was that after non-use for three and a half years the rubber bladder inside the pump had degraded (wouldn’t hold pressure).

A quick search online and we both exhaled a big sigh of relief – a replacement pump was close to the cost of a kitchen sink and not the many extra dollars we feared.  We purchased the same thing sitting under the sink since neither of us have “plumber” in our credentials:  a Wel-Bilt Shallow Well Pump.

Keep your fingers crossed for a simple installation (yes, that’s sarcasm).

let there be light!

It works – it really does – we have power and lights and anything else you want to plug in thanks to Jim the fearless PECO contractor who met me at the top of the hill and followed me down the trail to the cabin in his 4×2 truck.

Mary votes we keep the Pizza Hut style light.  I vote it would look terrific in her basement.

…and where is that grid, exactly?

We set out for the cabin Saturday morning with high hopes that the power would be on.  We had plans to stay all day, even after the sun set, to take out the inside wall and had even invited people to help.  People!  It was a great plan.

Pulling into the parking space (which is a term I use VERY loosely), we were relieved to see that the cabin hadn’t burned to the ground. Whew.  Inside, we opened the dusty fusebox and flipped the big switch. Silence. Is it on? I flipped a few switches. Nope. I plugged in the old Pizza Hut-style light that the previous owner had left in the kitchen. Nada. Jen flipped the switch again in the hopes that we’d not thrown it far enough. Zippo.

Fast-forward 30 minutes, and I’m on the phone with PECO.  Props for being open on a Saturday afternoon, but we learned that the power company came to visit (or so they say) but couldn’t find the so-called address. Oh, you mean 0 Trails Road, plot 47S or whatever you have in your system? Really? Please hold while I contain my shock.  But you didn’t call? No, of course not.  That would be logical.  Personally, I think the electrical guy took one look at the off-road trail we call a road and packed it up.  But he’s coming back on Monday (or so they say) and Jen is GOING TO BE THERE so they can’t weasel out of it this time.

getting the cabin “back on the grid”

I admire the folks who want to live off the grid and pride themselves in all the innovative ways they “get back to nature.”  I admire the thought and planning they put into ways their cabin and families are self-sufficient.  There are several blogs devoted to just this subject.  That’s not me.  I have power tools, a vacuum, want a refrigerator with cold beer and a frozen pizza… but above all, mamma’s gotta charge her iPhone.

Getting the cabin back “on the grid” has been a little more work than we anticipated.  According to the power company, it doesn’t exist.

Well, it might.

But not at the address we have.

Our little cabin in the woods is one of the 2M homes served by Exelon’s Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, a two-unit nuclear generation facility located on the west bank of the Conowingo Pond of the Susquehanna River in Delta, Pennsylvania.

PECO METER: When all else fails, give the power company the meter number

Exelon has a somewhat complicated process to turn on service at a residence that has been off the grid for many years.  Although I appreciate the website devoted to turning on service, if your address isn’t listed, they cannot help you.  It takes quite a bit of digging to find the actual phone number to call Exelon directly – and then once again it’s quite difficult if they don’t have your address in the system.

Several phone calls later with a photo in hand of the electrical meter at the cabin, I learn that our address is “Lot S49” and the power has been turned off since JUN 2009.  A significant period of time without a connection to the power company requires an inspection by a certified electrical underwriter prior to PECO powering the system – the electrical inspector performs electrical inspections that confirm compliance with the National Electric Code as well as state and local municipal codes.

Several additional phones call (thanks Janeé) and an inspector was located that a) works in our township and b) will brave the “road” to the cabin.

sewage disposal management ordinance program

I’m learning a lot about buying property.  Beyond securing funds, discussing realtor things with realtors, and having the owner accept our offer, we learned that a sewage inspection is required before transfer of the property.

In Fall 2006 Pennsylvania’s Peach Bottom Township adopted an on-lot sewage disposal system management program in accordance with the guidelines established by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.  A mandatory program, the general overview is that homeowners with on-lot sewage disposal systems must have an inspection and removal of accumulated solids every five years.  After a little research, I learned that most houses should have their on-lot sewage disposal system pumped over one to two years.   Our little cabin is not our daily residence so the five year system should be sufficient.  You can learn all the specific details on Peach Bottom Township’s website.

IT MUST GO SOMEWHERE: After several minutes of discovery, the septic tank was located and opened.After several minutes of trying to locate the 500 gallon cement septic tank, Michelle (from Peach Bottom Township) and Mike (from Miller & Sons) got to work at inspecting the level within the tank, adding liquid, checking the drain field for output, and emptying out the solid waste.

After several minutes of trying to locate the 500 gallon cement septic tank, Michelle (from Peach Bottom Township) and Mike (from Miller & Sons) got to work at inspecting the level within the tank, adding liquid, checking the drain field for output, and emptying out the solid waste.

I got a very nice lesson from Michelle, including on-site hand drawn images, about how my sewage system works.    Although some of the character is lost over the internet, if you’re dying to know, check out this information sheet.  Because the hard to locate “top” of our tank is below grade (i.e. it’s below the level of the yard) she recommended we have MIke come back and install a collar to avoid having water wash into the tank.

There were no apparent streams of liquid from the drain field and after a quick check from inside the cabin that liquid was going into the septic tank, Michelle snapped some photos from within the tank (yes, within), confirmed there were no issues, replaced the top, handed me a paper to sign, and we are one step closer to getting those keys in our hot hands.