Hunting cabin

Kitchen and bathroom 90% complete. Had to stop to deploy my cuddelink system for the year. Next day will finish this and get the tower up for the cellular booster. Day after that the thru the wall propane heater. After the inspection (dealing with a builder issue on that) thre water system.
 

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Interior is pretty complete except a couple minor overhead cabinets. Then a thru the wall furnace and water service. Got the cell booster tower in; 3ft+ hole, a quarter ton of concrete, in the end 15ft elevation of antenna.
 

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I’m interested in hearing more about your cell antenna. What your setup consists of and how much gain you actually get.
 
I’m interested in hearing more about your cell antenna. What your setup consists of and how much gain you actually get.
It's a SureCall Signal Booster with the yagi antenna (directional). I'll share the results once it's up and running (next work trip there). I currently have zero to one bar in the cabin, and 2 bars a hundred yard walk up the hill. I'm hoping the tower and booster get me that in the cabin.
 
It's a SureCall Signal Booster with the yagi antenna (directional). I'll share the results once it's up and running (next work trip there). I currently have zero to one bar in the cabin, and 2 bars a hundred yard walk up the hill. I'm hoping the tower and booster get me that in the cabin.
I’ve got the same situation going on. Some hours of the day I am getting 1-2 bars LTE other times no service. What inside antenna do you have then? Any way I could get the cell signal to go 40-50 feet out? Everything I looked at only extends signal a few feet.
 
I’ve got the same situation going on. Some hours of the day I am getting 1-2 bars LTE other times no service. What inside antenna do you have then? Any way I could get the cell signal to go 40-50 feet out? Everything I looked at only extends signal a few feet.

I went with the whip as the panel looked like it was semi-directional which was not ideal for my placement. As for how far out it says up to 3000sq ft, my cabin is only 300 sq ft so I assume I have some boost around the outside of the cabin. Don't know with the walls. I'll investigate once it is running.
 
I just bought the HiBoost 10k sl package. Hoping to get it up this weekend. Let me know how yours works out for you.
 
Got the cell booster up today (ugh, 94F). It works amazingly well. The tower is 14ft high so the yagi antenna is about 16-17ft above thre cabin floor. This is better signal than i have at my house!

The app shown for signal strength also shows you a map of where you are and the cell tower you are connecting to, so I was able to just lock the yagi on and pivot the tower up rather than having to mess around trying to aim it.

Super helpful as it turns out the tower was in the opposite direction i would have guessed.
 

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Very nice! I’ll be attempting mine next weekend. Didn’t have enough time to do it this weekend.
 
Since I disclosed the builder I'm going to go full disclosure. As with a lot of these Amish builders, Wabash Valley, who I signed the contract with, is basically a technology connector to customers for the Amish builders. The Amish builders are effectively sub-contractors for construction.

I was quite happy with the cabin as received, but upon county inspection given the single door it lacked a required exit window and the four ground anchors were inadequate (they wanted one every 8ft, I only had one on each corner per the builder's recommendation). Wabash Valley owned up to omitting the exit window, but the Amish builder fought it and wanted me to pay another $400 to get one. I stood my ground that I paid for a cabin which could pass inspection and they relented. I expect people in the business of selling cabins to know what is required for them to be legal and on the window and anchors they did not.

There were some additional frustrations dealing with the Amish builder -- Wabash Valley themselves were always responsive and reasonable. After several months this was finally resolved yesterday, I paid for the additional 2 anchors the inspector required and they replaced the window at no cost. No just waiting on final inspection. They also required a smoke alarm, I got one that runs off 110V and wired it in and it also has battery.

Some very interesting conversations with the inspector dealing with an off grid building, without sewer, or constant electricity. Will try to get this past inspection next week.
 
What was the requirement for the window? It looks like you had several windows in your original picture
 
What was the requirement for the window? It looks like you had several windows in your original picture

Window above the loft not an exit window?


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What was the requirement for the window? It looks like you had several windows in your original picture
Square foot opening requirement. Window supplied with only bottom half opening (single hung) far short. Really needed almost full opening (5sq ft?). Replacement is an unusual casement which opens 90 degrees to allow the full window space to count.
 
Window above the loft not an exit window?


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Not even close. Very small. There is a sq ft requirement.
 
Passed inspection; the inspector was actually quite complimentary on what I'd done with the cabin and its quality once I cleared up the remaining issues.

With that done, the last major work is installing the water system. I've already rigged half of the roof to feed into an IBC tote, but the valve on it was damaged so I had to empty the tote to remove the valve and get the correct replacement. So I plan to install the water system 3 days from now, but will need to wait for rain to get water to test it.

The general principle is half the cabin feeds into the tote, I figure about 4 inches of rain to fill it. I think one fill of 275gal should be about all I need in the year so once it fills in the spring I've got a diversion plan to bypass the tote. The tote valve has an adapter to a standard hose, which will feed a standard spigot into the cabin. This will feed an on-demand pump, similar to an RV but 110V rather than 12V as the whole cabin is 110V AC off my inverter. This pump will feed one line to a faucet on the sink, and another which will feed an external spigot outside to attach a hose. This will allow me to fill my sprayer for food plot treatment and any sort of fire control/watering needs.
 
Congrats with the inspector.
 
Got the cell booster up today (ugh, 94F). It works amazingly well. The tower is 14ft high so the yagi antenna is about 16-17ft above thre cabin floor. This is better signal than i have at my house!

The app shown for signal strength also shows you a map of where you are and the cell tower you are connecting to, so I was able to just lock the yagi on and pivot the tower up rather than having to mess around trying to aim it.

Super helpful as it turns out the tower was in the opposite direction i would have guessed.
What app is that? Just ordered a cell phone booster for my shack. Tx!
 
The cabin is fully finished, except for installing an on/off switch for the water pump so I don't have to leave the system pressurized when not in use. I've now used it 3 nights for bow season with my kids. It works great. I've learned that with my four 100Ah batteries wired in series/parallel at 24V feeding the inverter, if I an liberal with usage after dark and leave the inverter on overnight to charge cell phone I'm at about 88% when I go to bed and 58-62% when I leave the cabin before light for the stand. Includes microwaving breakfast and making coffee with a Keurig. With a cloudy day I only gained 12% charge back the next day. So I installed some battery powered tap lights in key locations and brought a phone charger battery so I could turn off the inverter overnight, and this time I was still at 86% in the morning. So worst case running it this way I can get 2 days on batteries only. This was with running the TV and antenna booster for the kids (I added an HD antenna to the tower with the cell booster -- picks up 17 channels in the middle of nowhere). If the sun is out batteries are topped back up by 1-2pm, panels are shaded until 9:30-10am.

It's so nice having running water for hand washing, dishes, filling the portable toilet, etc. I'm going to miss it when temps drop and I have to drain and winterize.

Last year the kids didn't want to go hunting because of the 3:30am wakeup call and drive...this year I've had company every weekend.
 

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