Last week I finally finished with the heater connection, installed most of the solar equipment, and added interior trim on the downstairs windows and doors.

The heater seems to work well and the location near the stairs keeps the loft very close to the same temperature as the first floor. It's a 20,000 BTU heater and it does take a couple of hours to raise the inside temperature to a comfortable level when it's cold outside but once reaching the desired point, it doesn't run much, hopefully indicating the effectiveness of the insulation.

It took most of three days to install the solar equipment and two panels but everything is installed and working. I have four 145W panels but only installed two for now since I'll only be at the cabin on weekends. I'm currently using three 12V 115Ah marine deep cycle batteries which are not very good for this application but I actually already had them laying around the house unused (left over from a diy ups project) so I'm using them temporarily.

Finally, I did some trim work on the downstairs windows and doors.

Check the annotations on the photos for more details.

Last week I built a battery box using a single sheet of MDF I had on hand. It's insulated with 1" and 1.5" foam insulation and painted with some orange paint I had leftover from another project. It should easily hold four golf cart type batteries which I plan to use in the solar system. The purpose of a battery box is to a) keep things from coming into contact with the battery terminals like dropped tools and b) safely vent the flammable hydrogen gas created during certain charging cycles. The box is insulated because the capacity of FLA batteries is negatively effected by colder temperatures. The lid of the box is sealed with some weatherstripping and copper pipe was use to vent the box to the outside.

I finished sheathing the inside of the utility room and installed the service panel cover and "attic" access hatch.

I started installing the heater which will be supplied by two 40lb propane tanks connected simultaneously. Propane tanks are also negatively effected by cold temperatures so using both tanks should provide adequate pressure to the heater in cold conditions. I'm using the two 40lb tanks versus a single 100lb tank for ease of transport and handling. I needed a fitting I didn't have to connect the tank regulator to the 1/2" steel pipe so I'll have to finish that next weekend. I threw together a 2x4 "cage" I'll use to more easily transport the tanks in the truck bed.

Finally, I've been having a problem with birds damaging the cabin's exterior wood so I added a fake owl and some kind of anti-bird streamer type stuff. Hopefully it will work.

I want to finish some more outside work before the cold weather starts in earnest so I've started finishing the interior of the utility room. I wired up the AC electrical panel, added insulation, and started sheathing the inside walls with OSB. I framed in a ceiling with access to the "attic". The "attic" is a very small space but provides a place to run wiring and piping more easily and neatly.

I also worked on a few other miscellaneous tasks. I installed the bathroom door, installed light fixtures in the living room and kitchen, and wired up some of the wall switches and sockets.

The last four trips to the cabin were as follows:

1. Clean up, organize, and move all the tools/supplies that were completely cluttering the first floor. Applied a final coat of joint compound on the downstairs walls.

2. Sanded all the walls and ceiling. Applied a "slap brush" texture to the ceiling.

3. Painted the ceiling and walls of the main room.

4. Installed oak hardwood flooring in the main room.

Saturday I put four coats of water-based polyeurethane on the loft siding. I used an Earlex HVLP sprayer I bought on sale about five years ago but hadn't used until now. The sprayer worked great and it took about 25 minutes to spray a finish coat. Because I used water based poly, drying time between coats was only two hours.

While waiting for the finish to dry between coats I started on a porch ceiling using T&G aspen siding I had left over from the loft. While not strictly necessary, I had the extra wood and it does dress it up a bit. I got all the planks cut to size and about a third of it installed.

Sunday I installed flooring in the loft. I used a cork floating flooring I got for $2 a square foot. The dark color is called "Sable Gibralter" and provides a nice contrast to the lighter siding but does tend to show my dusty footprints.

Upon leaving on Sunday, I-40 was closed due to a fire seven miles SE of Heber so I had take an alternate route home which took me farther north through the towns of Tabiona, Hanna, and Francis. It was only 22 miles farther but the route contained a lot of steep grades and tight curves and because the big trucks had to detour also, I spent a lot of time going under 20mph. The trip home took an hour and 50 minutes.

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