FINALLY Have Street Number!

We FINALLY received our official street number today! Number 276! In late June 2024, we started the process to obtain this! Four months! When we first applied at the town hall, they said it could take up to four month! The town hall reaches out to the State’s 911 program for this. So the town hall has no control over when a street number will be assigned. They are at the mercy of the state! 

We should have power soon! The electrician subcontractor will be installing the fuse box to prepare for this! I wish my nephew, Master Electrician, was doing the work! That would have been awesome! But he lives at least a hour away and would not have been able to jump in immediately as needed throughout the project. A local electrician with flexibility was required by our contractor in order to prevent delays at various points throughout the project. Bummer! Well, maybe if we decide to build a garage or workshop, I can hire my nephew! Invite him up for a weekend or two and feed him well, provide some beer, good pay and fun times! 👍

Anyway, the two planned telephone poles were installed earlier this week (one across the street and one on our side of the street). The trench from the pole on our side of the street to the house has been dug.

So, our contractor has now started framing the roof! I cannot tell for sure in this security camera screen shot, taken late afternoon today, but zooming in, it looks like most of the roof has been framed already! The center beam was installed yesterday. It also appears that the trim to prepare for window installation has been installed on some of the window openings! We really need to adjust this security camera better! It has pan-tilt but this is the highest it tilts up! 

This framing is one day’s work! Our contractor is so amazing! Incredible progress! Looks like our house will be secure for the winter! The goal was to have the shell of the house up before the snow starts to fly! I bet they will have the roof done, shingles included, by the end of next week at the latest! The windows and exterior doors will likely be next! I will be up there this weekend and will take lots of photos to share! Can’t wait to see all of the work in detail! And I can’t wait to go upstairs to the loft for the first time! 

Ready for power tomorrow! 

My son took this photo from the upstairs loft!  

Also wanted to share this video from one of my son’s game cameras! He placed a couple of them on our property! Nice healthy buck! This camera was placed not far from our house! 

Also, a previous video of a bobcat on the other camera placed further down the hill! 

So, now that we have a street address and will soon have power, I decided to call the Internet provider to schedule installation of Internet! The cell phone signal is rather weak so Internet will be helpful whenever we are there and I am sure our contractor, his team and subcontractors will like having this too! It will reduce the need to utilize cellular data! 

HOWEVER, was told there is no wired Internet available! The only option is satellite. It’s so much slower and is also more costly! Almost double the cost of wired! My son has wired internet and he is only 1.5 miles down the road from us. 

I did a little playing around on the Internet provider’s website. I entered addresses between my son’s house and my house to see which houses have service available and which ones do not. I then used google maps and plugged in my address to the last address that was found to have Internet availability. If my research is right, the wired Internet ends only about a half a mile away from us! So close! 

I tried to contact the Internet provider about extending service up to our section of road; to ask what it would take to bring Internet to us. But they don’t have a way to message them and calling customer service was useless. But I found them on FaceBook and messaged them. They actually responded immediately! Wow! They have plans to expand services throughout the area. However, it doesn’t appear we are in the plans for any upcoming expansions in the near future. There is no telling when service will be made available there! Sucks! 

I went ahead and scheduled installation of satellite Internet for October 31st, Halloween! Someone has to be there for the installation and since our contractor is there, the installation can be done. Fortunately I do not need to be there for it! 

BUT the satellite dish has to be mounted to the side of the house or roof. Hubby’s not going to want that. As it is, he did not want even the electrical meter mounted to the side of the house! Our contractor made something to mount the meter to so we can still get behind the it to stain/seal the logs when it is time to do so. Hubby just did not want the meter installed onto untreated logs where rotting of wood behind the meter could potentially occur. With a log home, if there is a damaged log, it is not an easy fix! So I have no idea how I am going to get the satellite dish for the Internet installed! Uggh! So I may have to post pone installation until we can consider alternatives to mounting to the house or roof! 

Once we have satellite, if that is what we end up with, I am worried that it might not provide enough speed for me to work remotely from home when we move up there! The guy we purchased the property from lives a little further up the road from us. I checked his address on the Internet provider’s website and verified that there is no Internet service at his home. Sort of a no-brainer but I wanted to be 100% sure before sending him an email to him to ask what he uses for Internet service. I received an out of office response so it must be his business email. It doesn’t say when he will return. Hoping he gets back to me soon and hoping he has a better alternative! I did some more searching for Internet options for people who don’t have access to wired Internet but the only other option I found was 5G, which won’t work very well considering our cell phones don’t work well there. I can’t send a text or search the web on my cell phone. I can make calls in some spots. So 5G or mobile hot spot is not going to work there. 

Also, I remember my sister telling me that my brother-in-law invested in a different type of Internet. I cannot recall the details. Maybe it was satellite too but he might have purchased something that is much better quality that would operate at higher network speeds? I plan to ask them about this. Maybe it is something that will work great for us too! 

UPDATE: I heard back from my neighbor, and the guy we purchased the property from and he provided a different Internet company that I had not come across in all of my research. He said it is not the best service as far as speed goes but seems to work just fine. He also has the phone service. So this is good! I tried calling this evening about getting service to our new home but they were closed. I will have to try again tomorrow, possibly Monday. This company is also partnering with another fiber Internet company so fiber Internet might be coming soon! I submitted my name, New Hampshire address and email address so I should be notified as soon as they have plans to expand there! Also, during my research, I found Starlink satellite; the Starlink Gen 3 kit, which has great reviews! Evidently it is something Elon Musk developed for rural areas. RV travelers love it as they go to rural areas a lot! With this, they have access to Internet no matter where they go! After I found Starlink and did a little research, my sister also got back to me and verified they have Starlink, just as I had expected.  

So, my plan for Internet is to go with the Internet company my neighbor told me about for wired Internet. I cancelled the satellite installation and service that I was scheduled for. But I am still also going to invest in the Starlink Gen 3 kit satellite for Internet. For $349, it will be worth it. It is a must-have since cell phone service is super weak there. I would not be able to use hotspot as I do where I live now as a back up when the wired Internet goes out. When working from home, I have to have a back up. This satellite Internet is necessary. Also, since cellular service is very weak, we will be relying on WiFi calling when necessary. But I am also researching for a good signal booster device for cellular service there. Supposedly the signal boosters can work great once they are set up. But I heard they are a nightmare to set up, mostly when trying to get it to connect with your phone. And technical assistance is not typically very helpful with this! I definitely will get a cellular signal booster when I find a good one!