Electrical Service - Existing Cabin Electrical Setup

The cabin is currently wired for electricity.  I took a few pictures of the electrical equipment today for planning purposes.

The exterior electrical box receives three 4 gauge wires from the electrical meter at the front of the property.  There is one 150 amp breaker in the panel.  In this picture, the front of the panel is off.  However, when it is in place, you can access the switch and easily turn off all power to the cabin.

This is the interior breaker box which is almost immediately directly behind the exterior box.  The panel has room for eight different breakers but only four are currently used.  One is used for the lights, one for the plugs around the walls, one for a dedicated plug for a window AC unit, and the last for a dedicated plug for a fridge.  

I'll need to decide if I will mount the electrical meter to the cabin and how I want to create circuits for items outside of the cabin.  I'm not sure that I need many circuits outside the cabin but I want to plan for additions later.  I might want to add a large light, run a power line to the shed, or who knows.  Better to do it right the first time than keep doing it over again in the future.

Atlanta Heater

I purchased this 20,000 BTU Atlanta heater from my grandad when we were holding his garage sale before moving to the assisted living facility.  He had used the heater for several years in his living room.  I had the heater in the garage planning to use it when working in the winter.  However, I've now decided to switch it to propane and use it in the cabin.

This weekend, I completely disassembled the heater and cleaned it really well.  It was full of match sticks and cobwebs.  I figured it would be best to clean it real well before putting it back into use.  The final product looks pretty good except one of the radiants is broken and held together with a piece of wire.

The plaque on the back clearly shows this is an Atlanta J-20 heater.  The remains of a label beside the plque indicate a certain type of corrosion resistance but I can't make out the name.

I expected it might be difficult to convert the natural gas heater to propane but the plaque on the back indicated exactly how it was done.  I've not worked with a heater of this type before so the only trouble was finding the location of the orifice.

While the heater was being run on natural gas.  You can see the orifice at the lower right of this picture.  It is the black orifice for use with propane.  I had to add the adapter on the left side so that it would connect to a propane hose I have and that was really all I needed to do.  The total cost was just $2,49 for the adapter!

The last thing I did for the weekend was connect it to the propane tank and light it up.  I wanted to make sure it worked well before calling the project done.  Sure enough, it lit without any trouble so now I'm going to pack it up until the cabin is ready and then I'll install it.

Measuring the the Cabin Footprint

This weekend, I stopped by my parents property and took a look at the cabin which we will soon move to our land.  Part of the reason for the trip was to measure the footprint of the cabin.  

The cabin floor is mounted to four 4" x 4" skids.  I'll need to create a level area which supports the cabin using these skids.  I've not yet determined the approach I'll use but I wanted to measure the distance between the skids so I have the information for when I start the ground work.

My measurements are all from the rear left skid of the cabin.  

The distance from the edge of the left skid to the far right skid is 15' 5".  This is roughly 15' from the center of one skid to the center of the other skid.  If you measure 5' in from the outside skids, you are at the innermost edge of the center skids.  This should make it fairly easy to measure out the footprint.  Now I just need to decide how many footings to create and what to make them out of. 

Unexpected Windfall - Future Cabin for the Land

In 2008, my parents purchased some rural land.  They started off by placing an RV on the property but within a year or two decided to add a premanufacturered cabin.  The cabin served as a gathering place for meals, to relax, or to stay the night in while hunting on the property.  The cabin is no longer receiving as much use as my parent finished building their house on the property this past December.  

Today, while vising my mom at MD Anderson, my parents surprised my wife and I by deciding to give us the cabin.  We will need to arrange to have it moved but that is not a problem.  This with make a huge change in how we are able to use the land.  It gives us a place to stay the night, somewhere for us to stay when hunting, and a place to get out of the rain, cold, or heat.  I'm really surprised and thankful.  

The cabin is 16' x 32' which includes the 6' front porch.  

The back of the cabin has a rolling door which we will likely remove.  My parents added it as they thought they would eventually turn this cabin into a storage shed.

The interior has been strayed with insulation (walls and ceiling).  My dad covered the walls with paneling.  The cabin is wired with a few outlets and two overhead lights.  

Antenna Tower for Future Use

My grandad moved out of his home a few months ago and is in poor health.  The family has decided the best decision is to sell his home.  If he is able to recover, he will return to the assisted living home he has been staying in for the last several months.

I visited his house recently to take care of a few things before it was sold.  I noticed my dad had left the large antenna mounted to the house.  I asked about it and he said he intended to remove it but never found the time.  He stated that if I wanted it to go ahead and removed the antenna so I quickly removed it and brought it home.

Since our land is on a hill, I thought that we could put this up there and likely receive either a large number of radio stations or TV stations.  I've no idea when I will use it as we don't even have a cabin in place.  However, its free and in good condition so why not?

The tower section at the bottom has two damaged joints so I don't know that it can be used.  The one above it is 10' long and in really good condition.  The one immediately above it is 8' long and was mounted in the ground as you can tell by the rust.  The final piece at the top is also 8'.  If I just use the three top pieces, I'll have a tower which is 26' tall which is likely high enough since we are on a hill.

The damage to the joint section of one of the pieces is visible above.  It was actually not used at my grandad's house.  It was just in the yard so I picked it up.  My thought was that if I wanted to use it, I would use sleeves over the outside to connect it without using the joints.

There is also an antenna I picked up that mounts to the top.  I don't have a picture of it.  I thought it was just an AM/FM antenna but I've told it will also pick up HD television stations.  This will work good at some point to pick up TV stations at the land for free.... once we save enough for a cabin!