We got to our vacation home last weekend after a few weeks and guess what?..the lock had no power :/..the keys were back at home. I thought my husband had packed them, he had thought I had and we managed to argue about it despit both having forgotten to check haha

A spare key is coming with us next time. That part is on us for sure! For those of you using smart lock somewhere you only visit ocassionally, what do you do about the battery between trips? Do you charge it before leaving regardless of how much is left? I have also seen ads for the v159+ solar smart lock (desloc) and I wonder whether anyone here has used one throughout winter. They say it charges from ambient light too. Or entrance gets good sun in summer but much less in winter and so I am like unsure how much charging it would actually get.

Interested in hearing hhow often you still charge yours manually, especially with a covered entrance. Trying to work out whether solar would help enough here or whether we just need a better routine with the current lock.

Septic layout. Far end is 'end of line' cleanout, also to be used as RV black water dump. Nearer is toilet riser up into the cabin through another pier w/separate cleanout for it. 3" ABS. Green stake denotes the 5' mark past the cabin footprint for hookup. This point has to be 55' from property line & 35' from easement line. For anyone wanting a well (we are not), ANY part of the septic HAS to be a MINIMUM of 100' from a well.

The pad. One thing I hadn't considered was concrete. Ended up that NO ONE was going to drive a mud truck out onto sand here. The idea of a pumper was brought up. Ok... closest was 2 hours away, $1800 to road it here PLUS pay for 2 guys PLUS pay for 200' of 10' hoses PLUS pay for a water truck to clean up PLUS trying to find enough mud trucks that could be here on time, stage them on the neighbors ranch and have them BACK UP a mile, dump & pull out before the NEXT truck could back up... plus the cost of trip charge & the concrete itself. Quick calculations said 'No' but I wanted a pad. Came up with this... using my 6' level, I leveled a small portion of ground next to a pier. Put some 8x8x16 blocks I had left over, side x side in an offset pattern. Filled in 3" of sand, dampened, tamped. 5" of mud to fill plus a 1" overlay = 6" of concrete with a grid underlayment negating buying rebar. 1 year to cure. White concrete epoxy coating. Outer perimeter is 2 blocks deep with a shallow 'wind wall' one block higher. Came out really good, supports our 17k 5th and pickup.

This was my main water line coming in. My tanks are in a 20' conex box. Reason: they're too spendy to sun rot & I don't care for unintentional hydroponic growth. I dug my trench over to the last pier to be installed. Ran my 3/4" Pex B through the 2" ABS. Turned it up through the bottom of my conex box & made it rodent tight again by finishing with an ABS water closet flange anchored down to the floor. IF I ever had an issue, I could run/pull a new line through from beginning to end. Being underground 2.5', water stays cool even in a hot summer.

Gas (LP) line run. I dug my trench 2' deep from far side of the second conex for 2 reasons, the tank size denotes a need for a 'blast shield' from the dwelling. Code requires it hold a minimum 7psi for 15 minutes. Mine held 15psi for 24 hours. 'Nuff said. It took help from 5 others to raise & lower into the trench with no twisting. I re-ran the test afterwards again to make sure, good to go.

And the hits juuust keep on coming... all the piers in place but for the last one that I ran my single water run of 3/4" Pex B inside of 2" ABS to prevent rodent cjew 2.5' under ground and my 3'4' black iron gas line run that was tested, before and after placement that took 5 helpers to lower in unison into the ditch 2' underground. Last pier in place showing wrapped water & gas lines coming up inside the pier...