Pictures from above

[greatbear]

In my last post, I made mention of hoisting my GoPro camera aloft once I get the hang of being a drone pilot. Well, that really didn't take long, and Sunday I had installed and tuned up the camera rig and sent it up for a peek in the skies around the house. Because I have no view on the ground as to what the camera is seeing (no "first-person view") I had to mostly guess as to exactly where the camera is pointing. That turned out to be relatively easy, since the camera pans with the rotation of the copter. I have control of camera tilt by a dedicated lever on the remote control. so it was simply a case of spinning the drone to where I wanted to see and tilt the camera down a bit. I took it up to various altitudes, I estimate at about 400 feet at the highest, and did a slow pan and tilt. I had no idea what to expect, so after a while I landed the rig and took it in the house. I pulled the tiny SD card out of the camera and put it in the card reader, and I was greeted with some amazing shots. Kid-in-a-candy-store time! Since I can't operate the camera shutter or other controls from the ground (yet), I set it to take a shot every two seconds. Later in the day I put the thing in the air again, but this time I flew it quite a bit lower and did a slow circle around the yard, to see the house from all angles, and hopefully getting a shot similar to the aerial picture that was taken of the house 20 years prior. I am proud to say I got pretty close for a first attempt.

This is the photo from 1994:



Here is what the place looks like today:



I cropped the shot to more resemble the first photo. You can see how big all those little trees became that I had planted maybe a year before the first picture was taken. The house sits inside a lot of lush greenery compared to before.

I think some explanation is needed about the origins of that first aerial photo. As is often the case around here, it was the result of happy coincidences. A good friend of mine had an aerial photo of his house and grounds, and I had it in my mind to maybe some day have one taken of my place. He had a friend who was a pilot, and he had obliged his request as a gift. Well, I knew no one who was a pilot, so my desire for an aerial pic would have to be shelved until I had (if ever) such an opportunity. Fast forward to 1995. It was my birthday, February 2nd, aka Groundhog Day. I was not feeling well, and my Mom had a chance to see a concert with her good friends that day. So, I was left alone, with only Patches as company. No one else I knew was available, and being that I was pretty miserable, I felt it best to be by myself anyway. This didn't mean I was happy, however. Later that day, there was a knock at the door (no one ever seemed to use the bell), with a strange man standing there with a business card and a large case. He said he was from Aerial Photo, Inc.. I invited him in the house and after a few words, he produced the photo, already matted and framed. The photo had been taken just less than a year ago, as it showed the yard in early-mid spring, when the fruit trees were blooming and the grass was slowly greening itself after a cold winter. Well, I was surprised and delighted. While the photo wasn't cheap (I recall it was about 120 dollars), but I just had to have it. He and I continued to talk for about two hours or more about photography, aircraft, and other things. His company operated by flying in various "picturesque" areas, taking photos while making note of the locations, and they will print the best of the lot and go out and try to sell them to the people whose property was photographed. In his case he had several more framed prints as well as some unframed, showing houses in the area, some of which were stunning. Turns out, many people (like me) find them irresistible, and fork over the cash. Not such a bad business model.

So here I was, "given" a really cool birthday present that I had always wanted, by a stranger. Upon closer inspection, I discovered the photographer had managed to catch Mom and Patches, but doing what they loved doing. Mom is working in the gardens as she loved doing, and Patches is dutifully standing guard and keeping her company. Laundry is hanging on the line, and I am at work, as my truck is not parked in front of the garage. It was a snapshot of everyday life, not some posed shot. This only added to the charm. Now that both Mom and Patches are gone, this photo became even more special to me. I got choked up when I scanned and cropped the print.



The photo, at 13x19 inches, is too big for my flatbed scanners. I also made a quick scan with the office scanner versus dragging out the photo scanner, but the results are good enough. The cropped area shows Mom watering the plants in the flower beds, and Patches scanning (see what I did there?) the distance for potential trouble. She was the best watchdog and awesome company for both of us.

As it turned out, two other aerial photo outfits came calling in later years, one just offering a card and to say they'll be in the area and if I was interested in a picture. I politely declined, saying I already had one. Not long after, a guy showed up much like the first one did, with an unframed print that was nowhere near as nicely composed or as high quality. I declined that one too. I had the perfect one.

What was at first turning out to be a rather depressing birthday had become one of those happy circumstances of life.

Comments

[nebris.livejournal.com]

1994 was twenty years ago...just kill me.

~M~

..beautiful place though..

[merlinwon.livejournal.com]

Omg. What a difference in 20 yrs. Gives me hope maybe the earth could be saved.. lol.

Was awesome writing about the pic of your mom! ♥

Thanks for sharing this!

XoX

[barak.livejournal.com]

I love this kind of thing, and your homo adobo is beautiful! That sunny room would get a lot of use from me, too.

It looks like your roof gets a lot of light, have you considered solar panels?

[franklanguage.livejournal.com]

That's just great; hippo birdie two ewes!

[susandennis]

What a great story. Both photos are just compelling. I can't quit looking and comparing and marveling at them.

And, I'm with nebris, 1994 really was just the other day. Those trees grew freakishly fast.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

I'm really happy that you have the aerial shot from 1994 and that technology has allowed you to demonstrate how your property has changed throughout the years. The trees have grown quickly. They obscure much of the front of the house and the garage almost completely. Your home looks well taken care of and the grounds are lush with greenery. Lucky you!

HUGS!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Solar panels are a plan for in the near future. The front of the house faces south-southeast, the sunroom being nearly perfect to soak in the sun in colder seasons and keeps the house warm on its own. The farm nearby where we get our turkeys from installed a huge array of panels a few years ago. Made me envious. :)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

These days I often say "only" ahead of otherwise large numbers of years. It often doesn't feel like it. I bought this property in 1985, and that seems like yesterday at times.

[restoman.livejournal.com]

Very cool photos!!!

You have a beautiful place there. The lush greenery must make it a very pleasant environment. :-)

It is great that you have such a large plot of land to work with. How many acres is it?

[barak.livejournal.com]

It is my understanding that the solar panels can eventually pay for themselves over time, so that is a great selling point to installing them!

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful indeed, and a nice shot of what your Mayhem Acres looks like, then, and now. :-)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Considering I cleared the overgrown land in 1987, a year before I started building, a lot was changing by the time the first picture was taken. The debris from the clearing is still there in the first photo (upper left), and everything that is more than knee-high in the back yard Started off as trees that were already standing among the waist-high (and higher) brush that was on the lot when I bought it. The maple tree right behind the garage was one I saved from the start, and it was about as tall as me. It's already picking up decent size by the time the first pic was taken, and now it's huge. Ditto the already big maple in the lower left corner that is a good 80ft. tall now. Time sure does fly. THese days, the flight seems supersonic!

[susandennis]

So cool... Like a topographic map of your last 20 years.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Do you want to have some fun? Check out Historic Aerials. Depending on where you live, you can often find aerial shots of the area going back much farther than satellite imagery. If you've used Google Maps with the satellite view, you'll be able to use this. Enter your area of interest and it will zoom in to it. Depending on what was available, you'll have a slider indicating the year date(s) when the images were taken, and they will all overlap in the same places. I was able to retrace the area in which I grew up, seeing the changes over time. I literally spent hours "flying" through time around all the places I knew from an early age. It brought back so many memories. I was also able to find out what my current lot looked like all the way back to 1957. I knew there was a house here many years before I bought the land, but it was very dilapidated and burned down in the late 60s. Turns out it was a farmette, I could see the field in the back where the garage currently resides, the house was very near the front of the land where my front yard is currently. There also was a hand-dug well that was long filled in that resides under my driveway, and to this day it still causes sink holes that broke a perfectly circular hole in the asphalt and that I still have to re-fill every couple years.

The lot was filled with very large apple trees that would bear fruit every year. Unfortunately I had to take most of them down, because they were where the house is now. I would get bushels and bushels of apples from these trees, and each one was different. It made me literally cry to have to take those down, because some were an old variety that had flavor like nothing else today. I have two remaining, but they are not healthy now, being as old as me or older. There was an old, broken down garage/stable in the lot when I got it too, it also was very near the road like the house was. I used it for storage until the house and garage were completed.

The Historic Aerials site also covers topographic maps as well. It's a fun and usable resource..

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Because of health issues and other problems over the last ten years, I have fallen behind in my upkeep of the place in some areas, but I am trying my best to catch up. Compared to the wide open area when I first started, the place often feels like a forest. You can't see the house from the street anymore, except for a little glimpse as you pass the driveway. That's not such a bad thing, and it feels a lot cozier now.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Wanna help with some reno? I'm doing quite a bit this fall. lol

I actually gained some acreage a while back. Originally the lot laid along a one-lane gravel road off of the main drag. there were only four other houses beyond mine, the rest were cornfields. As is sadly typical of the area, those fields were sold and McMansions put in, a process still happening today as the infill continues. The developer took out the original gravel road, which was right against the properties and had tight turns, and moved it a bit over thirty feet away from the house. A nice paved street went in that was gently curved before reaching my place, then heads straight towards the new properties before another gentle turn. I originally had 1.8 acres, the new frontage added about another quarter acre. I even gained a beautiful white three-rail fence made with cedar 2x6s and some new trees (I picked dogwoods and redbuds) that obscure the lot even more.

The area is very quiet, something that does good for my well being. Conversely, I can make a ton of racket, play music at deafening levels and not bother anyone. While the new development has a homeowner's association that takes care of the common areas, the fences and the grass outside the fences (including here), I am not a part of it. I hate HOAs. :)

Since you are a house guy, I can tell you what I did in my busy mid-20s. I had planned on designing a stick house from scratch, until two friends had told us of their modular houses. Unlike the trailer-style doublewides on steel chassis, these were two or three sections wide, with unusually heavy construction (2x6 walls, floor trusses, LVL beams and joists), first-rate materials and lots of attention to detail. I found a model that was close to what I had wanted, made some changes to incorporate it along with the sunroom and carport, then I went ahead and drew up the blueprints for the basement/foundation, the sunroom, carport and garage. I had different subcontractors do the poured concrete basement, dig the well, install the septic, a local builder to build the garage. When the house was set (they use a huge 100 ton crane) I had already made provisions for the chimneys, the passage to the sunroom and whatnot. with the house in place, the carport and sunroom were added. All wasn't peaches and cream as far as having the house situated like it is. because of the elevation of the lot which sloped back beginning at the original road, and my desire to have the house sit one foot above the road for appearance and drainage concerns, I needed to bring in quite a bit of fill dirt. Over 260 dumptruck loads later, I had the yard I needed. Since the floor of the basement now rested close to six feet above the original grade in the back yard, and the footers couldn't be on fill, I needed to dig the footers in a sloping fashion. They are about a foot deep up front, but step down as you go back. Along the back wall, they are almost six feet deep. The sunroom and carport both have a basement underneath because of this too, and the footers alone needed six full concrete mixers to fill. There are three pier footers for the steel beams as well, and they ran out of concrete when it came time to fill those. This doesn't count the concrete used on the floors, the walls, the garage, the pad in front of the garage and the load bearing concrete floor that makes up the carport. The concrete company really loved me.

(Continued...)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Even the beams were an adventure. The company that makes the house (Foremost of PA) spec'd 10 inch x 49lb-ft beams. The steel company asked me what sort of skyscraper I was making. And I was the living example of measure twice and cut once. There are four beams total, and somehow I managed to get two of them exactly one foo short. I still don't know how that happened, and when it came time to set the beams and columns, things didn't fit quite right. I had to add a foot to the end of one of the beams, and when I asked the steel company if they had any left over, I came up bupkis. I managed to find a bigger, 52 lb-ft section and welded that together. My nice red iron beams had a rusty old piece added to the end. Me and my neighbor traded welding duties, and that was the longest continuous weld I ever made. I also suffered a bad case of welder's flash later that night. Just being in the vicinity was enough. Ouch.

Even the electric company was accommodating when I said I wanted a 400 amp service.

As it stands today, I had pretty good luck with longevity and very few problems. In 2005, I had to replace the two crummy Pease concept doors (six foot "French" doors with one operating panel) that constantly leaked air, needed glass replacements and were never right. Turns out they had also leaked water too, ruining about a foot and a half of subfloor along their width in the process. At the time I was also dealing with my mother's declining health, so I did one of them in the late fall in the dining room, and the other in the spring, which was in the master bedroom. I had to rip out the subflooring and replace it, it was rotten. I replaced the doors with Andersen Frenchwood doors with two operating panels. They seal tight against wind and water, and feel (and lock) like vault doors. The front door, also made by Pease, is in horrible shape. I was going to replace it about five years ago, but ongoing health and injuries kept me back. I felt good enough to do it before our wedding in June, but the lead time was too long. I gave it a quick and dirty paint job that turned out far better than needed or I expected. I have the new door on order now, and I got a call today (the original delivery date) that it will be another week. I hope this doesn't drag on and on.

I had to repair the roofs of both the carport and the sunroom. The carport had some building issues that needed to be corrected. The front corner of the roof where it meets the house wasn't properly attached, and sagged over time. I also cut costs by having a stippled drywall ceiling that was a constant source of sagging and dropping chunks of spackling. I ripped all that down, discovered the whole structure was spreading apart at the ceiling joists as well. It was a stupid move by the builder, who changed my original design from trusses to joists-and-rafters. There was a center beam for support, with the joists nailed into that as well as the front and back beams. Over time this was pulling apart, so I used cables to pull the structure back together, lots of Teco brackets to tie everything together solidly, and I added knee walls to correct a bit of sag, then jacked the whole mess up and properly anchored the corner to the house. Gone is the drywall, in its place it 3/8" plywood with beaded soffit that still looks fantastic.

(I'm very talkative tonight...)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

The sunroom roof was another problem. The insulation in between the rafters didn't allow the roof to breathe, and along with the hot sunroom below, the dark shingles above, the shingles warped and cracked, allowing water to leak under and rot the roof decking. I ripped the roof off, all the ceiling drywall, reinsulated, replaced the troublesome skylights with Velux remote controlled ones, and wired the place for sound and lighting. I also fixed a problem where the outside wall would wobble in the wind because it wasn't made right. Again, that builder deviated from my plans and I had to correct it later.

It was about this time that my Mom's health took a bad turn, and my own health went south. The sunroom is not finished, it need paint and trim work. In 2010, I had the entire roof redone and while I was at it, I installed skylights in the living room and in the bathroom. This was a bit over a month after I had my first back surgery, and it was living hell for me. I managed to get the outside framing done while the crew was doing the roof, since I didn't want to cut it in later and have issues. The bathroom skylight (a Velux sun tunnel) is all done, but I have yet to build the light shafts into the living room. I have a brightly lit attic. Since before the first surgery, I couldn't do any overhead work without a lot of pain. I am hoping I can get this done this fall, though, I have slowly regained the ability do do light overhead work.

All in all, the only real troubles I have had were centered around redoing faults with the add-ons, some of the plumbing and electrical that I had to sub out. The actual modular house has been very solid and trouble free. I've replaced/upgraded fixtures and doors, and did lots of little upgrades over the years. I had a ton of energy and ambition when I was younger, and back then I said I would do it again in a heart beat. These days, not so much. I'll supervise instead. LOL

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Once I got both photos on the same page it became a lot of fun to compare the two. A lot has changed, inside and out, but especially in the neighborhood. I have more aerial shots to go through and post if people are interested.

[dan4behr.livejournal.com]

How awesome is all this! I spend tons of time looking at my own place (and previous ones) on google earth, street view (a favorite of mine...) and the Birds-eye Bing Maps view ( love that as well...)

I'm definitely going to check out the historical aerials and see what I can find there.

And oh, how I have serious garage envy right now!

[susandennis]

THAT is a GREAT link!!

I live in a condo that was built in 1901 as a railroad warehouse when downtown Seattle was brand spankin' new. I love seeing how the surrounds changed over years.

Thank you!

Also now thank you for a very strong apple jones.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

There are many options for solar right now, and the favorite seems to be the lease option. While I am not too keen on some company taking space on my roof and selling my power back to the grid with some small credit to my lease. at least that company is responsible for the whole contraption and installation. I am far more the DIY type, and I would be much happier setting my my own. Given a nice location and enough panel area, the costs for buying the rig can soon be offset by the savings in energy, sometimes in five to seven years the break even point occurs and it's basically profit from then on, minus maintenance and repair. Even a small array helps. This house is all electric, and anything to get my electric costs down is welcome.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I do the same with the googles and bing. In my area the birds-eye view of the house is taken at different times, actually different years. From each cardinal point the place is changed. I've spent hours using them and Google Earth just looking over places I've been.

The Historic Aerials site has lately been undergoing maintenance, and you might end up with a notice about the server restarting. It's also necessary to have MS Silverlight installed. After a while, your system will fill with a bunch of 20 megabyte temporary files, but they go poof once you leave the site.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Thanks! These days 20 years doesn't seem like much. Some things put it back in perspective.