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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }

Michael Lemieux June 11, 2014 at 10:42 am

J, it looks so peaceful right now, kind of like when a loved one is coming to the end. It’s quite a transformation, can’t wait to follow along.

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Carol June 17, 2014 at 11:42 am

woah baby! there’s a big a** digger in the driveway!

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Aaron June 18, 2014 at 11:35 am

I was in a meeting and missed all the action. Thanks for the You Tube post, that was really awesome glad you captured that

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J Scott June 18, 2014 at 11:41 am

More coming, Aaron!

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Jessica Holwick June 18, 2014 at 2:19 pm

Such a cool idea with the live video!

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Erik June 19, 2014 at 11:12 am

This is a great idea J! The time lapse camera should really be something to watch when its all done. I actually live in Ellicott City, so hope you don’t mind if I drive by to see the progress from time to time.

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J Scott June 19, 2014 at 12:52 pm

Hey Erik – Stop by anytime!

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Karen Margrave June 19, 2014 at 12:01 pm

Love it! I wish I’d thought of doing a live feed. Looks like your job is moving right along. Are you on the job?

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J Scott June 19, 2014 at 12:51 pm

Hey Karen! I have an office about 5 minutes from there, so I’m back and forth throughout the day. And yes, they’re making great progress so far…hopefully we can hold off the rain today (and for the next 8 weeks :)…

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Karen Margrave July 1, 2014 at 12:18 pm

Looking good! I can see you’re still doing dirt work. We were talking about that this morning, most people don’t know it’s what is under the ground that is the most important thing on the job! Get that wrong, and oh boy!

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Karen Margrave July 1, 2014 at 12:20 pm

Actually I see by the other feeds that you have quite a bit going on we can’t see. You’re moving right along!

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J Scott July 1, 2014 at 12:26 pm

Hey Karen,

Yup, the walls are poured, and we’re waterproofing today. Hopefully flat work finished next week and on to framing!

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Karen Margrave July 17, 2014 at 5:49 pm

There we go! Now we can see it better. Just wanted to stop in and say hi! I just love this idea with the dropcam! We should have done that. They’re just digging footings on our house in San Clemente. Next week rebar will be delivered and then will be pouring for that and retaining walls. We had ALOT of dirt to move! I bet all of you are getting excited about the house, though I bet your wife is worried someones going to come by and want to buy it! Should have done two. 😉 LOL

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J Scott July 17, 2014 at 8:28 pm

Hey Karen! Hopefully they’ll get the rest of that dirt out of there next week, and we’ll have a much better view. Plus, with framing starting next week, I’ll be setting up the time lapse camera again…

Congrats on getting started on yours! Post some pictures, please…

As for Carol, I think after dealing with this house for the past year, she’s not giving it up any time soon… 🙂

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Karen Margrave July 18, 2014 at 3:43 pm

Out of curiosity, have you had any ballking from people that are working on the job at being on display all day?

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J Scott July 18, 2014 at 5:20 pm

Hey Karen,

So far, the bulk of the work has been with our foundation company (they did demo, excavation and all current foundation work). I don’t know about the guys who are actually on-site, but management at the company is thrilled at the exposure. They tweet all the video and pictures we publish, and based on stats from our website, they’ve been getting a decent amount of web traffic from links we have to their website.

We’ve been making all the contractors aware of the cameras and the website, and so far, we haven’t had any push back. Our goal is to provide them as much (or more) benefit from the documentation than any downside of being watched. Plus, they know the cameras are pretty far away, so nobody is being scrutinized based on the video.

One funny situation was the very first day. My foreman gets a phone call during demo and then yells at all the workers to put on their hard-hats. Turns out his boss was watching the video and called him to ensure they were being safe… 🙂

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Karen Margrave July 29, 2014 at 12:14 pm

That’s hilarious!

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Tom Greene July 29, 2014 at 9:35 pm

Lol! Thanks for the belly laugh!

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Antonio Francis July 21, 2014 at 11:06 am

J, Welcome to the DC/Balt area. This blog is great. Stumbled upon your site because I am going to be working with Bartley in the next few days on a new build in D.C. and was looking at their twitter feed. I really like the drop cam idea, brilliant! How would I go about setting it up without electricity and wi-fi at a site?

Look forward to the progress and would love when things slow down to stop by and say hello.

Best of Luck!

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J Scott July 21, 2014 at 11:18 am

Hey Antonio,

Unfortunately, without both power and wifi, there’s not much you can do with the Dropcam. But, if you want time-lapse or delayed video, I’ve found that the GoPro with a back-up battery is awesome — you just need a good place to mount it.

You’re welcome to stop by any time to meet and say hi…in fact, we’re starting framing tomorrow… 🙂

Give me a call or shoot me an email anytime!

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Antonio Francis July 21, 2014 at 11:24 pm

Thanks. Will do!

Antonio

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Jessica Holwick July 29, 2014 at 4:20 pm

Wow! Great progress!

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Karen Margrave August 11, 2014 at 5:53 pm

Your #1 fan, stopping by checking on the job! LOL Looking good!

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J Scott August 11, 2014 at 8:43 pm

Thanks Karen! Once we have electricity, we’ll be moving that camera inside so there will be some more interesting stuff to watch again… 🙂

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Karen Margrave August 29, 2014 at 6:15 pm

Stopped by, but the video wouldn’t start so I thought I’d tell you, just in case you didn’t know. Looking good though from the initial pic I could see.

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J Scott August 31, 2014 at 10:07 pm

Hey Karen –

That’s weird…can you let me know if you’re still having issues tomorrow?

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Jimmy Moncrief September 4, 2014 at 7:15 pm

This is so freaking awesome!

As someone who eventually wants to build you are a great inspiration!

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Tim Stater November 24, 2014 at 3:45 pm

Nice project! We are thinking of building a new home in Annapolis and were inspired by you blog. Quick question — did you have a general contractor that oversaw the whole project or did you manage it yourself? We are overseas and might have to do the first few months from abroad. Is this something you can do via phone? Thanks,
Tim

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J Scott November 30, 2014 at 10:36 pm

Hey Tim,

We managed the entire project ourselves. I wouldn’t recommend trying to manage the process remotely unless you have a lot of experience and also have a strong team in place that you’ve worked with before and who you can trust. There will be issues that come up every day (many issues, many times per day) and someone will need to manage those issues. If you’re not on-site, you’ll need someone who is and who can make decisions regarding your house. For those reasons, I certainly wouldn’t try to do this from overseas.

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