Sweet tea, I appreciate your concern about the gopher tortoises - saving them was our first concern, as well. We actually didn't have any on our lot, after all that; we just had 4 empty burrows! To answer your concerns, though, our wetlands aren't true "wetlands" in that they're not swampy; they're just designated as such, since they're conservation areas and we're not allowed to touch them. They're very scrubby, as well. We actually have many, many gopher tortoises in our community, and most of them live in the scrubby "wetlands" and just come out to browse. We had to relocate one tortoise from the middle of the road last weekend :) (We just helped him across the road - we're those permit cheaters you spoke about, but I can't stand to see them get killed). We definitely got the appropriate permits, etc., to relocate the tortoises to the undevelopable part of our property. We love those little guys, and are always pulling over to get them out of the highways here when we see them in danger. I saw one get crushed a few weeks ago, and it was very upsetting. But we always just walk them across the street whenever we can, to keep them from getting killed. Sorry to deviate from the original thread, but I just wanted to let you know that our gopher tortoises were all okay. Well, we didn't have any, but they would have been okay - no actual "wetlands" :) Regarding the original post, I wanted to add that our metal roof came from Southeastern Metals. Cheers! Heather W Here is a link that might be useful: Our ICF Home Construction Journal

Thanks. I think getting the wires up out of the way would be the easiest way of getting things tidied up. Without having any of the telephone splice connectors, I don't think I could move the wires into a J-box, unless one end is easily removable from the junction block. I was thinking about a junction box because I did the very same thing about a week ago when I moved all of my thermostat wiring splices (I have three boilers in the basement) into a J-box. The splices are where the old thermostat wiring ties into the new near-boiler wiring. It really neatened things up overhead around the boilers. The splitters you see are all 3-way splitters if I'm not mistaken. I have about 5 or 6 in the basement, and there is one outside which is grounded to a stake in the ground. The coax is quite new. I believe most of it is only 5 years old or so. Cox came and ran all new wires when someone had an issue with their cable modem due to a poor signal. They didn't do the nicest job at keeping it neat and organized, but coax is easy enough to work with; disconnect it, re-route it, and reconnect it... The rest of the old coax (black in color) is running up the sides of the house to get to the 2nd and 3rd floors. The first floor wires run up through the floor, and the 2nd and 3rd floor run straight through the exterior walls. Perhaps someday I'll complain to Cox about the wires hitting the siding when it's windy and have it all replaced with new, white cable to match the white vinyl siding. Also, I made a mistake when I said telephone "protectors" outside. I checked yesterday, and I have only one protector where all three main black telephone lines go through into the house. I would've thought each floor had it's own protector box outside...

look at where teh cable enters your house. the first splitter should be a 2 port and have 1 side feeding your TVs and one side feeding NOTHING but your cable modem. if it is a multi port splitter, then you should have it changed out to a 2 port setup as i just described. you will need a larger splitter after the first one for the TVs, but you do not want a bunch of loss in front of teh modem so in low signal cases you use 1 2 port splitter only before the modem. you can get bi directional amps, but they are pricey, though certainly WAY less than teh 20k the cable co wants. just to give you a detailed example of a layout, here is how my parent's house is wired: cable in feeds a 2 port splitter. 1 port goes directly to cable modem 1 port feeds a 30DB one way amp that feeds a 12 port splitter. this 12port feeds every room in teh house, and 1 additional amp that inturn feeds a 4 port splitter going to the sunroom and 2 rear bedrooms. yes, that is a lot of ports. the amps are there due to fact that with so many ports the signal goes to crap to teh tvs. figure it this way, a 2 port splitter will give just UNDER 1/2 the incoming signal strength to each port, with a little bit just flat out lost. a 3 port gives under 1/3 signal stregth to each port, and a 4 port gives under 1/4. and so on and so forth.

I'm in a rural area (think bugtussle...) and in a hurricane zone. the last round of hurricanes shifted the cell towers so that the previously excellent cell reception went to having to leave the property to get reception. stayed that way for 3 years. my sister who lives in the front of the property and gets the phone service through internet had to come to my house to use the land line. and to cook & bathe as I have propane for both stove & water heater. while I have phones that are not corded I keep an old style phone, base with receiver attached with cord, for the times that the electricity is out. somehow the phone works even if electricity is out... this is my 'go to' phone for those times. also I have dsl, so I need the phone connection. in this very rural area, 911 tracing calls from cell phones just doesn't work, unless you can give them the address. for those reasons, I'll keep the land line. even if internet connection changed in my life time...the land line stays. I have a friend nearby that had an aneurism. her husband called from the cell phone & was told to call back from the land line & leave phone off the hook. dunno why...but time was of the essence for his wife. for the nominal cost of a landline plus unlimited long distance...it is worth it to me. for peace of mind & internet. my old old friend who now lives in Miami called me last night. we talked for 5+ hours. on my landline, his cell battery gave out on one cell & we continued the marathon on his second cell phone. old school..yeah guess so. I'll keep the landline, but then I'm don't feel that I need a smart phone either. I'm perfectly capable of setting my tstat while in house. I'm a huge fan of keeping it simple in my own life/home. interesting thread.