Well, I finally pulled the trigger and retired and moved to the country.
After a long search, I found a nice property two hours north of Cambridge. The move was the most difficult one that we had made, but now ,God willing, things are starting to settle down.
It's so nice to see trees and wildlife instead of traffic and noisy neighbors and to have a real workshop.:)
I'll post a couple of pictures in a bit.
Dave.
Very good and looking forward to pictures.
Here are some pictures.
This is the real estate ad photo of the house.
This is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago...
Luckily, it's melting now. :)
Ok, that picture won't upload. Is there any way to make the file smaller?
Anyway, here are a couple of my new neighbours...
Try again...
Finally! This is what the place looked like a couple of weeks ago.
Nice place... how bout some shop photos?
I'll post something when I'm able. Right now the pictures are not loading for some reason.
I found the old system we had for uploading pictures was easier for me. I used to click on a photo, resize it, and it would load easily. For some reason, I can't resize them anymore and they take forever to upload, if at all.
Well, I don't know what happened, but it posted. :dunno:
Anyway, that's my new home. I mean shop. :cheesy:
Most of my tools are in there, but they're just in a heap right now. The building isn't insulated and the electrical needs to be redone. The former owner cheaped out and I have to run a new heavy duty cable out from the house, then run all new 220 volt outlets and one 220v, 30 Amp outlet for my wood lathe. My buddy is coming up next month and I'm hoping that the conduit is big enough, or we'll have to cut a new trench for the bigger wire.
Dave.
A 2" conduit will be fine for a SER cable. When i wired my shop i had a large roll of 8 gage copper wire that i had left over from running new power lines to a 3hp well pump that is 500' from the house. I had an old 100 amp panel i used for the shop that works just fine for all my wood working machines and milling machine. but i don't know if i could run a welder out here. I think some of those draw pretty high amps.
When i rewired the house i installed a new 200 amp service with a large 200 amp meter main, and pulled my shop power right off the meter main box. I ran under the house to a quick disconnect junction box like you see on hot tubs. then about 100' underground to the shop.
The one thing i wish i had done when pulling that wire was to include a decent internet cable so i didn't have to mess with a WIFI relay. food for thought. It's nice having my desk in the shop with a lap top. Kirk
The snow is melting now, we had a lot of rain last night and more to come. I'll be able to see exactly what I have there. There's a 100 amp panel in the shop, but I'm not sure where power is coming from. The house panel is completely full and not well marked, so we will have to trace back to find out where it's hooked up.
I know only enough about electrical work to get myself into trouble, so I'm going to wait for my buddy. He's on a job right now and he'll be done in a few weeks.
I think that I'll take advantage of the thaw and explore the property today before it rains again.
Dave.
Quote from: wood carver 2 on March 07, 2026, 08:30:33 AMThe snow is melting now, we had a lot of rain last night and more to come. I'll be able to see exactly what I have there. There's a 100 amp panel in the shop, but I'm not sure where power is coming from. The house panel is completely full and not well marked, so we will have to trace back to find out where it's hooked up.
I know only enough about electrical work to get myself into trouble, so I'm going to wait for my buddy. He's on a job right now and he'll be done in a few weeks.
I think that I'll take advantage of the thaw and explore the property today before it rains again.
Dave.
Yup.... If you are not trained in electrical work, it's best to get someone who has experience to check it out and give recommendations. I was a general contractor for many years, and did a ton of remodeling over the years. I had a close friend that was a licensed electrician doing 90% of my jobs, and when things got slow I used to work with him from time to time. We replaced a few old 100 amp services together and upgraded them to 200 amp panels over the years. The first thing that has to happen is a new 200 amp meter main has to be installed / replaced on the exterior of the building. But... there are different types of meter mains too. When I upgrade ours to 200 amps in the house, I consulted with my buddy and told him what I had in mind before purchasing anything. I had a permit pulled to do the work, and had it inspected before the power company hooked it back up. I was able to pull the meter myself to kill the power to the house and replace the old 100 amp panel, but I had the power company disconnect the line to the meter base before I swapped that out.
Do you already have a 200 amp panel in the house?
The house has 200 amps. We have all electric baseboard heaters, so the panel is full. There's stuff marked on it that doesn't even exist here now. I'll have my buddy figure out what there is, and I'll write it all down. I did buy a tracer that you plug into an outlet and run a probe along the panel to see which breaker it uses, but I'll only use it where I'm comfortable.
It started raining again. It's coming down like Niagara Falls with some thunder. The snow is steaming like a volcano.
I walked out to the back this morning. Even after the rain, the snow is still knee deep.
Hopefully you can, or have an alternative heat source upgrade to heat your place in the future. Those old base board heaters will tear you up on cost. I put an oil furnace in our old home, and installed a nice wood stove too. The wood stove will heat the whole house pretty cost effectively, and is damn nice when the power goes out. We used to rarely use the oil furnace, but then i got tired of cutting so much firewood, and we use the furnace a lot more now. i used to run a woodstove in my shop too, but upgraded that to a propane Big Max furnace. its a bit expensive in winter to keep it 60-65 degrees out here, but a lot nicer than burning 4 cords of wood each year out here.
How much land came with the place?
I have just over 10 acres. Lots of red pines all around. It's 187 feet wide for about half the depth and then it widens up behind my two neighbours to the south. There's a hill covered in hardwoods behind me. I'm not sure exactly how much of that is mine. I don't have a proper survey. That will get done once I get settled in a bit. We have deer, turkeys and grouse, and a neighbour told me that they see the odd bear. Lots of coyotes as well.
I need to find out how much it will cost to get the shop insulated, then I'll see what kind of heating is best for me.
First order of business is the electrical though. I'll have all summer to figure out the rest.
Here's something off the realtor ad. It has a bunch of thumbnails that show the place.
Here's my view today. It's so warm that the snow is turning to fog
These pictures are driving me nuts. They won't upload. When I try and delete the one I'm trying to upload, it won't delete and the server adds it to the next one that I want to upload.
???
Quote from: wood carver 2 on March 07, 2026, 03:16:40 PMI have just over 10 acres. Lots of red pines all around. It's 187 feet wide for about half the depth and then it widens up behind my two neighbours to the south. There's a hill covered in hardwoods behind me. I'm not sure exactly how much of that is mine. I don't have a proper survey. That will get done once I get settled in a bit. We have deer, turkeys and grouse, and a neighbour told me that they see the odd bear. Lots of coyotes as well.
I need to find out how much it will cost to get the shop insulated, then I'll see what kind of heating is best for me.
First order of business is the electrical though. I'll have all summer to figure out the rest.
Good idea getting the shop insulated before you get too much stuff in there. i wish i had done that. That's pretty exciting getting a new place with some elbow room. hopefully you have friendly neighbors. :thumbsup:
I just found the cost to insulate my whole building i could just build another smaller insulated building. Looking like there may be an insulated "portion" in mine. Definitely consider all of your insulation options the closed cell spray quotes are waaay expensive, although im not sure what options are best in the colder climates. Upstate NY here.
Quote from: dbeaver on March 08, 2026, 08:37:13 AMI just found the cost to insulate my whole building i could just build another smaller insulated building. Looking like there may be an insulated "portion" in mine. Definitely consider all of your insulation options the closed cell spray quotes are waaay expensive, although im not sure what options are best in the colder climates. Upstate NY here.
One of my neighbours has an insulation company. I'll talk to him about it once I'm done moving my stuff up here. Our climate is about the same as yours in upstate NY. We get a lot of snow off the big lakes.
Dave.
I've got a pretty large 36X36 pole building, and have a mezzanine on one 12' X 36' section that only has a 7' ceiling and the stairs coming up on one end. i insulated a 12X12 room That i can heat with light bulbs to keep above freezing. the other 12x12 area at 7' is tool storage ans a wood rack too.
The main working portion of my shop is 24' X 36' and i have a 10' ceiling/2nd floor in a 24'x 24' section.the other 12x 24' section is vaulted with an 18' eve line and a 12'x 10' garage door.
what i do in the winter is drop an arctic curtain and only heat that 24X24 area. I have no insulation in my work area, and only heat it when i'm out there. I have a small spray booth insulated that i keep my glue and finishes, and pain from freezing just using light bulbs. I just used fiberglass insulation and styrofoam on the spray booth.
You would be surprised how well an arctic curtain works...