Owner-Builder Journal Entries
Posted to Our-First-OB-home by Cheryl in Gardner, KS
on 7/27/2010
Well, (pun intended!) it looks like we'll be going forward with drilling our own well. Our (one) bid came in at $6,000. While that isn't bad, we think we can do better. We are going to purchase a $2,000 air compressor/generator combo unit that has enough CFM and PSI to handle the drill, and about $1,500 in materials. We're budgeting $4,000 for the job, and estimating it will take us 3-5 weeks to drill, as we have heavy clay soil that is difficult to dig through. In the end, we're hoping that we end up with a working well, no water utility bill, and an air compressor/generator that will be useful for the balance of our building project. My husband is quite convinced we can do it. One of his friends thinks it's a great idea, the other laughed his backside off, until he found out he was going to be recruited to help! We still have to get financing in place, and then we'll begin. Hopefully before it gets cold. We'll try to post pictures or video as we go.
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Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL
on 7/26/2010 2:31:13 PM
Cleaned up a bit in the dome today, checked on the trees to make sure the drip irrigation was working. They are alive and well albeit a little droopy, but with 93°F weather, I am droopy too. Got the last two pieces of subfloor down; now we have a complete second floor. It was SO hot. 93°F, but the heat index was 104°. We worked inside the dome until around 5 pm, then ventured out to cut back some brush and get another tree planted. This one is only a foot tall, but it's a yellow poplar/tulip poplar, should be 100 feet tall or more, and it's supposed to grow fast. We put in a drip line to it, too.
Photos
The new maple trees are the ones with the red line above them.
The baby yellow poplar
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Posted to Vista-Ridge by Diane in Swanton, OH
on 7/26/2010
I've purchased most of the ceramic tile for the floors of the great room, hallways, and bathroom floors. Also, we've picked up lovely tiles for the showers, walls and floors. I've been working with a local small business that installs tile, sells paint, and handles other small home-improvement projects. I finally got a quote for installation from them, and believe the quote is really high. I was planning on using them out of loyalty, but now am having second thoughts about their bid. I've looked into getting two more quotes, one from a local competitor, (another small business that installs tile among other services) and I have a tile installation specialist coming to bid the project as a self-employed individual. I will see how the numbers come in. The first small business has tried to convince me that their bid is fair because there's lots of labor involved. I'm not convinced that he doesn't think that I will question his quote. I will update this blog to tell how the tile installation bids come out. There is a LOT of tile to be put down, so I definitely need to keep on top of the bids, and I need to consider the project carefully.
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Posted to Louisiana-Mediterranean by Chris in Sunset, LA
on 7/21/2010 12:55:12 PM
As promised earlier, here are a few pictures of the circular drive and pool installation. More to follow.
Photos
Pool being hoisted over fence.
Pergola
Circular Drive
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Posted to NorthPoleHome by Tim in Anchorage, AK
on 7/20/2010 11:44:29 AM
I took two weeks off to finish the foundation and install the septic. Since the wife, myself, and an occasional paid helper did everything, it took us a full two weeks to get that done. Definitely longer than expected. We took advantage of our long summer daylight and put in a minimum of 15 hrs every day.
Photos
ICFs erected and ready for the pour next morning.
Making the second trip around with concrete.
Walls poured, waterproofed, and protected for back fill. We also added rigid foam for a frost-protected shallow footing.
Leach field and tank installed, lots of hard work!
2" of rigid foam will reduce the top soil cover to two feet.
Another beautiful day in Alaska, with a double rainbow!
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Posted to 302 by Jeff in Belfair, WA
on 7/20/2010
Very happy to have a well. At 86 feet and 20 gallons per minute, we're below budget on this one!
Photos
Well in progress
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Posted to Crows-Nest by Shannon
on 7/20/2010
- Signed the contract for our building plans today with the alterations. Alterations included stretching the dining room and the great room to line up with the rest of the house (should help ease costs of foundation). Also added five feet to the garage so we have storage room.
- Price-compared items at Menards, Sutherlands, and Home Depot. Very interesting to see the differences.
- Thinking about kitchen cabinets - shape, size, color, what I want - definitely deep drawers, pull-out shelves, and toe-kick drawers (very cool). Got several pamphlets... how will I ever decide?
- Still waiting to hear on the personal loans for the land from Dad and Mom. Hopefully it all comes through.
- David announced he is planning on breaking ground in late April to May - using May 1 as the deadline, that leaves 284 days to figure everything out.
- Just started reading the book, which David has been hogging... love it - and found this website... gonna browse for lists on here (I love lists).
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Posted to Louisiana-Mediterranean by Chris in Sunset, LA
on 7/19/2010 11:43:39 AM
It's hard to believe that it has already been over two years since we finished. Well, I don't know if it truly is ever finished, as I think I've done more work after than I did building. Since the last pictures on this blog, we added a circular drive, 1,800 sq ft of landscaping in the front, a pool and pergola in the back along with another 1,700 sq ft of landscaping. I did pretty much all of the landscaping myself, despite objections from the wife. It was definitely a lot of work, but worth it when I was done. Will be posting pictures shortly, but take into account that we had a pretty nasty winter for southwest Louisiana and my palms got pretty beat up. Who would have though it would get to 16 degrees with snow here?
The pool was really an afterthought that my wife came up with once we had been in over a year. I never thought we would have one, but now, not sure why I didn't include it in the beginning. The pool was put in by Leisure Pools, and the guys were really good. If I took out the rain delay, (It rained every day for about three weeks) the time spent was really only about three weeks. As usual with a house project, I did some wheeling and dealing on eBay and added fiber-optic perimeter lighting and two fiber-optic spillway pots to the project. It all came out really nice.
Didn't have my camera card with me, so I'll post up pictures of all of this shortly.
Really can't believe it's been this long since I was last here.
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Posted to Patterson-Project by Rachel in John's Island, SC
on 7/16/2010
Here's our floorplan. The modifications we are making aren't on here, but you see the main idea :)
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Posted to Mark--Lisas-Log-Cabin by Mark in Altoona, PA
on 7/15/2010
The boys spent the past three days working on the roof. They installed the tongue-and-groove pine ceiling and roofing paper. They also began the construction of the dormers. There were enough logs left over that the Amish used them on each end of the house instead of log siding. It really makes a big difference on the look of the bedrooms from the inside. Things are moving along!!!
Photos
The vaulted ceiling in the living room
The space for the fireplace
Levi walking around on the second floor
The second-floor bedroom ceiling and log wall
The bedroom on the second floor above the dining room with the newly constructed dormer
The front of the house
The back of the house
The inside wall in the upstairs bedroom
The outside end wall
Wall and ceiling of one of the bedrooms
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Posted to Patterson-Project by Rachel in John's Island, SC
on 7/13/2010 2:36:32 PM
We've got the survey scheduled for this week, and the structural engineer working on the plans to fit code for our area... everything is still on schedule!
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Posted to Hidden-Meadow-Home by Eric in Murrieta, CA
on 7/13/2010
I can't believe it has been over a year since I posted anything to my journal. I guess my real job and building this house have kept me busy. The house is 99.9 percent finished. There have been many problems along the way, but it is rewarding now to say at least once in my life "I did it!".
Photos
Coming up the driveway looking up towards the house.
Looking down on the house from behind and further up the slope.
The kitchen all lit up, but before appliances.
Front entry
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Posted to Seven-Peaks-Faswall-ICF by Craig in Graeagle, CA
on 7/13/2010
Still making some progress on the house, although most of our resources are going to pay off expenses getting the house closed in and secure.
Work includes staining woodwork, base coats on the walls, installing a wood stove, and getting the second floor wired.
Photos
Stained fiberglass doors
White knuckle work- painting the facia on the 2nd floor
Plaster base coat in the utility room
Mills peak fire lookout inspired our tower.
view looking down on us from the fire lookout
snow play on Mills
Jaxx looking for something to drink after an afternoon of play.
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Posted to Mark--Lisas-Log-Cabin by Mark in Altoona, PA
on 7/11/2010
We got started with the Rumford 42" fireplace. It took a little time to get it started, but once the inside bricks were complete, the rest moved quickly. We got about a third of the blocks done and will continue to work on it this week. The Amish guys had to work on another job this past week, but will begin again on Monday.
Photos
Getting started
The beginning was a little slow.
Moving along
Set the jacuzzi in the master bath
The Amish will begin the tongue-and-groove pine this week.
Levi mixing mud!
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Posted to Vista-Ridge by Diane in Swanton, OH
on 7/11/2010
The past week was exciting, as the roof went on, and the exterior doors and windows arrived. They've been installed, and things are really moving along. The roof will need to be finished this coming week, as they got rained out on Friday of last week. Besides, with a metal roof, it's not such a good idea to be up there in the rain, as the metal would be awfully slippery. I don't want to lose good people off the roof, for heaven's sake. I am so in awe of the workers who are putting in such long hours on my house to get it done in this recent blast of heat. Temperatures were in the upper 90's, and they just kept working. They are so conscientious. I cannot be more pleased with the guys we've hired to work on the house.
Photos
Electric panel wiring. Pretty complex.
Cathedral ceiling in the great room. The supports will be wrapped in cedar to match the exterior cedar posts and trusses.
Staining and sealing the cedar posts on the porch. This should keep the color fresh and protect the wood.
Cedar trusses over the front entryway. Front door to come shortly.
Roof windows/skylights installed in the roof. They will provide light to the loft area.
Large Palladian window in the stairwell. Views go from the great room through the window to the Ohio River.
View from the front of the house, through the great room out the back stairwell window.
Back of the house showing kitchen window, (top left), bathroom window, (top right) and loft window in the bumpout. Lower level window is in the bedroom, and to the left you can just see the deck which will get the grill.
View of the Ohio River from the grilling deck.
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Posted to Our-First-OB-home by Cheryl in Gardner, KS
on 7/10/2010
I'm finding it's hard to get subcontractors to call you back. I've finally collected bids on most of the stuff I don't think we can do (or shouldn't do). Our budget is already blown. So, we're re-working and reconsidering what and how.
Two of the bids that were much higher than we had been anticipating were the foundation and the lumber bid. Foundation and flatwork is coming in at $30,000 and the lumber bids have been between $23K-$28K, including the roof trusses.
We're reconsidering doing the geothermal, it was initially removed because of the budget. We are pretty certain we can install it ourselves; it will just be a matter of the equipment cost, and whether that is more/less than the cost of a forced-air unit.
The budget marches on...
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Posted to Millerbuild by Doug in Carstairs, AB
on 7/10/2010
A month after closing the sale on the property, we are very close to finishing the budgeting process. We have a number of straggling prices to pursue; they are anticipated next week. Now we have to finalize all the documentation for the bank, submit, and cross our fingers.
With a bit of luck and lots of effort, we should get this out to the bank next week. Time marches on, and if we get approval we need to get this project underway. Snow flies here around September and sticks by November with frost setting in the ground at the same time. We can get the foundation in before a BP is issued, with some risk on our part, so this should help us with the schedule.
New rules for septic systems came in late last year, so we are dealing with some additional costs. Not a huge deal, but it means due diligence on our part to comply with the new regs. From preliminary phone calls we are dealing with a pressure system. I may post a few questions in the forums about this.
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Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL
on 7/5/2010
Short trip up today, met Will from First Choice Plumbing to finish up the rough-in and install the water heater. Short, fat thing, maybe I shouldn't have asked for a 50-gal... oh, well. It fits perfectly and will go in the back of a closet anyway. Will also got the gas line stubbed in, and Roy the Tree Guy delivered and installed (planted?) 6 beautiful red maples. I planted three little apple tree sticks, and I forgot to take even one picture of them. I'll get it next time. Also set up a drip irrigation system for all the trees.
Photos
Not much to look at, but there's the gas line and overflow for the water heater
The big kid near the closest of the three trees to the south of the main entryway
The other 2 trees to the south and Will the Plumbing Guy.
The three trees to the north side of the main entryway.
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Posted to Vista-Ridge by Diane in Swanton, OH
on 7/5/2010
Last week has been a bit quiet as most subs took the day off on Friday to enjoy the holiday weekend. The mason worked on Friday continuing with the fireplace foundation and blocks up the walls. The great-room fireplace is complete and awaiting the "veneer". We're using full stone, but the term is veneer, whether it's full stone or the thinner veneer. Learning all kinds of new vocabulary on this project. The mason is completing the support structure for the master-bedroom fireplace now. That fireplace will get gas logs, and we've ordered glass doors for each fireplace. I expect those to arrive this week.
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Posted to New-house-in-Selah-WA by Steve & Kathy in Belfair, WA
on 7/4/2010
The house is coming along... framed, sheathed, and almost roofed. Rough plumbing is complete!! Here are some pictures.
Photos
Learning to mow with the tractor.
Trenching for electrical service.
Dig-out for foundation
Foundation
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Posted to Mark--Lisas-Log-Cabin by Mark in Altoona, PA
on 7/2/2010 12:28:01 PM
The Amish crew's work is amazing. Check out the pictures!!
Photos
The Back.
Floor Joist.
Rafters
Nice Cuts!!
Front Rafters.
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Posted to Arnold-CA-Alpine-chalet by Pat in Arnold, CA
on 7/2/2010 11:14:21 AM
It's final. All bids are in and the second house we designed (downsized from the first set of plans) still came in above our budget by $150,000. Not easy to cut out that much in a budget; so we are selling our lot and not building. Our lowest bids came in at $600,000 for a 2,104 SF house in the Sierras and our budget was $450,000.
The good news is we bought a better property with a 6-year-old house nearby for under $600,000. The house is a straw-bale home on 53 acres, so we are getting a ranch with a larger home.
The bank also cautioned us that most likely the home wouldn't qualify to build because it would appraise for less than the cost to build it. That is a huge problem right now. Foreclosure comps in the area are bringing prices down so far that new homes are appraising for what it cost to build them. As an example, one contractor finished a home 6 months ago and the appraiser gave him $15,000 for the garage, but it cost him $175,000 to build it with three car bays and an in-law suite upstairs. Just amazing.
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Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 7/2/2010
What an awesomely good feeling to
finally be done with the first-floor radiant heat! As of sundown all
of the tubing is in, all of the manifolds are mounted, and the only
thing left to do now is seal and pressure-test the whole shebang.
There are six zones in total on this final manifold, four in the garages proper, and two slated to eventually be embedded in the outside concrete apron fronting the garage entrances. The most difficult loop to run was the far one to the apartment garage, since it has since very long Send and Return lines (running the length of the main garage), and we ended up using my earlier technique of laying out each run first before tying down the various loops, so that it was very apparent where we had good spacing and where we had to lay in the other zones.
The stubs for the exterior loops (an ice-melt system for the apron) were a bit problematic. There was no point in installing the tubing yet, since they would just be big bundles of PVC that would be in the way for weeks to come, but we knew that we had to be able to allow for the loops in the future or the upcoming concrete pour will fill the PVC sleeves. We eventually put together four lengths of pipe (two Send and two Returns) that extend from the manifold and then take a 90-degree turn to extend outside the front of the first garage opening. Everything was then sealed with several layers of duct tape to prevent concrete from sloshing into the tubes, and we zip-tied the whole bundle together to keep it relatively stable. When we're ready to put in the external loops, we'll fish the tubing through each loop as needed; LoopCAD says that two 300' loops will work perfectly, and it's always a tad pessimistic. Once the concrete is poured, the sleeves won't be in any danger of moving at all, and when we eventually pour the exterior slab, they'll be buried safe and sound under the concrete.
All of this tubing work ended up taking us a bit longer than the second
floor did when we tackled that back in January, but there were more loops (17 in all) and manifolds (4) than the
task we had faced before (cold weather combined with newbie level of
knowledge). Colleen also took off on her trip to see her family
which definitely put a crimp in the progress, since it was all on
my shoulders for much of the period that she was gone, but by the same token (let's be fair) this also
simplified things somewhat—the main house was far and away the more
“contentious” portion of the layout and not having to argue about
it had its advantages...
On the other hand, our level of
knowledge is FAR greater than it was when we started and that showed.
Back in January we were lucky to get a single loop done in a day;
today we knocked out all four loops in the garage AND stubbed
out two others for the exterior apron (to be poured later) in half a
day —and frankly we did a better job than we did upstairs, too. We know how the tubing is
going to try to bend, and where it needs zip ties vs. those nifty
little plastic clips, and we know how important it is to get the
underlying wire mesh laid out correctly to simply the job. We know
when to double-check the nifty LoopCAD estimate against the reality
of how much tubing is left in a circuit, and we know how to label
everything quickly and efficiently so we don't confuse ourselves
when we're hooking up the manifolds. Our penetrations are
much cleaner this time around than they were last
time, and we were able to mount the manifolds directly onto
the ICF rather than have them free-standing in what will (eventually)
be walls.
We just did it so much better this time
around. I'm very proud of our work.
Colleen deserves most of the credit for today's success, of
course. She knocked out most of three loops all by herself while I
alternated between wrestling with the interior loop (lots of
curves—didn't want to do that to her) and tying down ill-behaved
wire mesh (it really wanted to snap up this time around, undoubtedly because we used more of the mesh from the more tightly-wound
interior of the coils). I'd help her get a loop started, since that
required a lot of pulling under the wall from the manifold location (under the stairs) into the garage, and later when she was making
the home run back to the manifold, I'd help straighten out the tighter
coils and push them back through the protective PVC sleeves to the
return manifold outlets. It was a good system and we worked together
well.
The hook-up of the loops and the
pressure test will happen sometime next week, probably Wednesday or
Thursday once the folks over at ABC Plumbing have soldered up some
air-fill nozzles and pressure gauges for me. Not sure when the
inspection is scheduled at this point. And of course, we're not quite done with the radiant just yet--down the road (sometime
before drywall) I'll need to install the final interior radiant loop
on the third-floor tower (this will use a staple-up approach, since
that's all on conventional trusses rather then embedded in concrete)
and at some point just before we have our final concrete pour for the
exterior driveway apron, we'll install another pair of loops for the
snowmelt system.
Next up on our list of Things To Do
(funny thing, it seems to get longer rather than shorter
as each days' work ends... that's just weird , isn't it?) is
the installation of the fabled well packer. With that installed and
the new pitless adapter drilled, we can finally get that gaping
trench between the well and the house filled back in and remove one
more temptation of the weather gods (no rain no rain no rain no
rain !).
Enjoy the pics. For reasons that utterly escape me, we forgot to take a snapshot of the garage manifold; I'll add that when I can remember to take a shot.
We're both exhausted, but this sure is
fun!
Steven in Colorado Springs
Photos
The pantry window has become my temporary "tool stash" area.
The apartment garage! That bundle of tubing leaning against the wall is going into the next area over.
Looking down the length of the main garage. Note the long feed lines towards the front.
Another shot looking into the garage from the kitchen.
Exterior shot of the apartment garage. That big hole in the front is where the garage drains come together; they haven't been joined up and properly buried yet (that's soon).
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Posted to Patterson-Project by Rachel in John's Island, SC
on 7/1/2010
The plan has been ordered. We close on the lot 9/15/10. We are accepting bids on a survey to subdivide our 3 acres from the 8 the seller originally had listed.
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Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/30/2010
I made some excellent progress once I got the rather complicated main-house loops done a few days ago.
Photos
Behold the master bedroom zones! All nice and neat and tidy; I'm pretty proud of my work here. The manifold feeding this area is on the middle right.
The three-zone manifold all ready for hookups.
Another shot of the area. You can see the main supply lines running towards the master bathroom on the right-hand side.
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Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/30/2010
Well now, with July upon us and the
summer half over, we now have an end date in sight—October 27th.
That's when the construction-loan term
is done, and so that's when we've got to have our Certificate of
Occupancy (CO).
After the big burst of activity in the
mid-spring period, we slowed down a bit, with the need to redesign the
septic system and the pretty-much-took-over-everything plumbing work,
followed by our radiant-heat installation. Those last two in
particular took a lot of time and pretty much took over everything,
since you can't have folks stomping around on the tubing and it's
hard to do any work inside when the ground is all dug up.
But now we're just about past that, and it's time
to kick it up a notch. We've got one more section to flesh out for radiant heat and then that part of the job will be done. The solar installer has been selected and
I've got trees to clear, and we've got to get the window wells
reinforced before the pour (not scheduled yet, but soon). The new
septic redesign means they can get started installing and digging and
whatnot with regards to that, and we've got to install the new well
packer, so we can connect up the water lines and get that trench all
filled in again.
Oh yeah... and then there's that
fireplace to build and electrical to install and a half-dozen windows
yet to go into the tower...
Definitely kicking it up a notch! I
think we're gonna be tired come October... :)
But dang, this is fun!!!
Steven in Colorado Springs
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Posted to Mark--Lisas-Log-Cabin by Mark in Altoona, PA
on 6/28/2010
Attached are updated pictures after two days of work on the second floor and roof. The first day there were only two Amish workers on site!!
Photos
Floor joist.
Living room.
From above.
Hand notched!!
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Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/28/2010
Well, I didn't get up to Tanglewood quite as quickly after I completed the apartment as I'd hoped--since Colleen is off visiting her sisters, I've got an amazing number of things to do--but I was able to spend some quality time this past weekend. It was well worth it--the main house zones are done!and I need to steer clear of the certain-to-be-hot mass of the future masonry heater itself.noted earlier I had to make a small compromise by placing the loops at 9" apart rather than my standard 8" in the living room just so I could do this with the standard 300' rolls of PEX. In many ways, this was much better , actually--since the wire mesh is spaced 6" apart I could easily lay in the tubing by alternating between a line of wire and the center of the next square over, then repeat across the room. For a few moments while putting in the living-room tubes, I actually considered altering my plans for the remainder of the house, but ultimately decided against it--the living room (and the kitchen for that matter) will both have the large masonry heater throwing off 30,000 BTUs/hour to provide any supplemental heat during the winter but the further reaches of the house (such as the master bedroom) won't.precisely where I wanted them up front; in the case of the living room, running them all the way out to the steps. This helped clarify for me exactly where each run was going to go and exactly where each return was going to come back, and in the end made the cluster of lines converging back on the manifold much simpler to organize and space. I'd even recommend this approach for any larger, more complicated area--it really helped me understand where each loop was going to go and how the send/return lines would complement each other (I didn't want multiple returns with their cooler water side-by-side).
Photos
Looking from the kitchen into the living room area. Note the red tape marking the footprint of the fireplace footer--this is the fireplace plus a buffer zone around it.
Standing in the same spot looking towards the master bedroom. Note the series of parallel tubes in the center; these are the lines running to/from the living room and fireplace area.
Closeup of the fireplace area. In the foreground the zones run down over the steps; in the background I just spaced them out to the edge instead.
Closeup of the most difficult zone just in front of the fireplace. The straight bits were easy; the zig-zaggy bits were a pain in the anatomy.
The living room itself. Nice, neat, very orderly layout, all on 9" spacing.
Good shot of most of the stuff I had to route around; the penetration in the foreground is the kitchen island supply-and-drain combination, while the stuff in the background on the right are utility-room feeds and returns.
Similar shot looking towards the master bedroom. This zone was relatively simple, since it just went straight out and then wound back to a direct return.
The main area manifold, all neatly tagged and ready for tubing attachments.
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Posted to Vista-Ridge by Diane in Swanton, OH
on 6/27/2010
The cedar posts are being set all the way around the deck. The roof sheathing is on, and the tarpaper is being installed as well. The mason has arrived, and begun his foundation work. It will be exciting to see the stone arrive, which is in a color palette of cream, gold, soft orange, and rusts. We're using local Indiana sandstone for the exterior and interior stonework.
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Posted to Vista-Ridge by Diane in Swanton, OH
on 6/27/2010
Here are the recent photos of progress.
Photos
Cedar posts around the porches.
Viewing deck trusses off the rear.
Front entryway is coming along.
Master-bedroom-fireplace foundation.
Roof sheathing and tarpaper being installed. Metal roof to follow.
Comments (2)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/24/2010
That didn't take nearly as long as I was afraid it would. I got a phone call from the folks over at Front Range Winwater yesterday that the packer had arrived, and so today I swung by to pick it up.bit cheaper ($700--ouch!).
Comments (0)
Posted to h20dave by dave in waterloo, AL
on 6/23/2010 2:43:09 PM
Well, it has been some time since we updated our site. Things have been moving slower that we had hoped, amazing what how the economy can impact us. This past winter we finished our conceptual-design work, and had Natural Elements refine the design and prepare initial drawings so that we can get quotes and continue the development process.
Initially, we had hoped to build with SIP panels. The Natural Elements technical expert, (builder) recommended us to avoid them due to the high cost. So we designed it to this point with 2x6 walls, and anticipate using one inch of foam and then cellulose insulation.
But now after attending a green seminar, I am now back considering SIP panels and even ICF, and maybe geothermal. So I am not sure what direction which way to go at this point.
I had planned on doing a lot of the general work myself, but maybe reality is setting in, as this site is 100 miles from our current home. I have to admit that I will not be able to be present as much as probably will be required.
But due to the economy, we will push back construction till next year. This may be good for us to resolve the construction method, and continue the refinement and planning of all aspects of the house. This should help avoid any change orders once we start.
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Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/22/2010
Well, it took me far longer than it should have, but I've finally selected a contractor to install the solar PV for Tanglewood.far harder than it needs to be. I guess I can kind of understand why it works the way it does--most folks who want to install solar PV on their house don't really know much about solar proper, and just want an expert to "make it happen".engineer . I know how things work and if I don't, I have a geeky desire to figure it out. This can make me a difficult customer if a company is used to dealing with non-engineering types, and I felt this keenly as part of the whole solar-contractor selection process. It clearly made some of the contractors uncomfortable to get knowledgeable questions from a potential customer.look at the job--I had 9 express interest, but only 6 actually got back to me
on it. Most pledged that they were incredibly busy and I suppose that's reasonable enough, though I should have thought anybody waving a few 10Ks of money around would have at least been worthy of a followup email.ridiculously high, telling me that each contractor probably added 20% to make a profit, then bid it out to another set of subcontractors who would do the actual labor part--at another 20% profit for themselves, of course. That's a poor way to do business in my book, and further reflected on the relative lack of experience in working with off-grid systems.imagine what one company was thinking when they bid 72 2V batteries rather than the more typical 20-ish 24V jobs. did provide a bid, it only met 25% (!) of my projected needs... what the heck were they thinking ?!? carrying straps COME ON PEOPLE --I know flying cars are still a stretch, but why in the heck do I still have to store my power in 150-pound lead-acid monstrosities?
Comments (2)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/22/2010
That didn't take too long!over the weekend , I knew that it wouldn't take me long to finish up the apartment and I was right--this got done with a couple of evenings after work.
Photos
The apartment in all its radiant glory!
The apartment manifold.
Closeup of one of the floor drains. I only had to make a minor detour to route around it.
The tubing worked GREAT right here... couldn't have planned it better, frankly.
Closeup of the apartment bathroom area. I had to get a bit creative here.
Wire in the garage. Lots of it, but at least it's all nice and straight.
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Posted to Mark--Lisas-Log-Cabin by Mark in Altoona, PA
on 6/21/2010 5:37:01 PM
We have been working getting the plumbing roughed-in, while we wait for the roof lumber to arrive. Our time during the last few weeks has been limited because of the kids' baseball and my softball games.Twelve has continued the electrical work. We just keep plugging away. The supplier has promised the roof material will be shipped this week. The Amish crew will be back to get us dried in. We can't wait!!
Photos
Plumbing and electric rough-in
Bathroom
Plumbing work
PEX
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Posted to TheHoskensProject by Brian in Dome-ville, central, FL
on 6/20/2010
It's been three months since we were last up at the dome. During that time we have been busy, but were able to get a final on the septic.
This trip we installed the toilet and it DOES work (we're flushing it with a bucket of water). We permanently installed the window A/C unit in the through-wall hole on the second-floor balcony, where it will stay. The dome is so well insulated and so tight a single 12K btu window A/C will cool the whole place. And we got almost all the rest of the plywood subfloor down, only two little pieces of plywood to put down, so it's basically finished. Here are a few pictures.
Photos
The toilet. We decided not to install the water line until the walls are drywalled, so we flush it with a bucket of water (the bathtub faucet works, so the water is right there).
The boy lays down Liquid Nail while I nail-gun the last plywood down.
A couple pieces of overhanging plywood to trim and then it's done!
All-completed area
Boy threatens with sledge as Mom looks on. The blurring is for security, I don't want images of my kids out there on the Internet if I can help it. Behind him and Mom in the wall is the newly placed A/C unit.
Comments (1)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/20/2010
Been a long time since Colleen and I were last putting in radiant tubing, but it's amazing how fast it all comes back to you.definitely slower, since I had to unroll the tubing on my own, then work my way down the floor on hands and knees (Odin bless knee pads!) to tie things down. Because the wire mesh is on 6" centers and I was installing on 8" centers, I also had to use a lot of zip ties as I went--I could only use those nifty little clippies on every third run of PEX (since those lined up with the wire mesh). The weather didn't help a lot other--it was nice enough in the morning but quickly got hot and muggy by the time mid-afternoon rolled around, and this slowed me down significantly. zone design ahead of time was a great help, since I knew exactly what I was doing, and I only had a few on-the-spot changes to make to accommodate drains and plumbing penetrations. Having learned my lesson from January's festivities, I made sure to give myself plenty of tail on each zone, starting the layout from the manifold itself. I also took care to install the tubing protectors (in our case we used 1" electrical PVC "els"--these help keep the concrete from collapsing the pipe when it's poured) before I started playing out the tubing, and to carefully label each Send/Return pair for each zone. I also made sure to carefully label each valve on the manifold itself--this is something I didn't do until the end of the process last time around, and it was very confusing to follow loops around to find out where they were going at the end of the day when you're cold and tired and just want to go home. You can use just about any labeling system that makes sense to you; in my case I labeled by floor (1), then manifold number (in this case, 1) and zone within the manifold (1 thru 4). For me, this made the apartment loops run from 111 to 114. I used some little circular paper tags to hang on each valve, since they are about an inch in diameter and fairly easy to work with.Icma , this time a four-zone unit I picked up from Radiant Kurt last week. Since this time I can more properly mount the first-floor manifolds on the walls rather than out in the middle of nowhere like I had to do upstairs, I put it on a bit of scrap plywood that is 1/2" thick so it would be properly spaced once we install the drywall down the road. This particular manifold will end up under the apartment-kitchen window behind some cabinets, so for this one I'll probably put in a false wall to protect it from any accidental smackage.
Photos
The apartment manifold with the first zone started. The plywood will help it to be properly spaced once we install the drywall.
Two loops so far! Note how I had to jog a bit around the plumbing penetrations, but I managed to keep the bathroom and the closet on their own zone. so they can be run a bit hotter (nice for bathrooms).
The manifold at the end of the day. Lots of tail here for me to trim for proper fit into each valve.
Comments (0)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/19/2010
Busy, busy, busy!itself is apparently fairly atypical--apparently not too many ice-melt systems are installed with insulation underneath--but I figure that there's no point in fighting the entire planet while trying to keep a bit of ice and snow away.)Radiant Heat Dirty Little Secret #3 from back in January--lay your wire mesh parallel to the walls. We didn't have much of a chance to do this back in January, since the concrete crew threw down the mesh as something of an afterthought, with the result that we had only limited opportunities to fix it while putting down those loops. This time around, Builder Dale just dropped the rolls of wire (damnably heavy they are, too!) and Colleen and I put them down instead, and this made a huge difference. It was simple from a basic "grunt work" point of view--we just had to measure lengths of wire, cut them from the spools, and then put them into place--but of course Real Life made it all a bit more complicated than that. Rather like the underslab insulation, the wires were in rolls that measured 6' wide by 50' long, so we ended up with some overlapping sections as we laid them down (the alternative would have been to apply more extensive trimming with the wire cutters and this wasn't particularly palatable). The wire itself wanted to snag every other length of wire as we were aligning them on the floor, and that took a lot of work to fix. As we worked our way into each roll, we uncovered yet another issue--the inner lengths were wound much more tightly than the outer layers, with the result that they didn't really want to unwind very well or stay unwound once you'd unrolled them. What they really seemed to want to do, more than anything else, was to snap up and catch you in the face while you're turned around--a most annoying feature. It took us quite a bit of time and we liberally used both 2x4s and rebar, but we eventually got the stupid wire to stay flat(ish) for us.January --it's much warmer than it was then, I'm inside rather than exposed to the Great Outdoors, and (hopefully) we're a bit smarter about how to do this than we were then. I reckon we'll see...
Photos
At this point we've got most of the garage insulation done. You can see some of the yet-to-be-deployed wire mesh there in the main house towards the back.
All done with only a couple of fiddly bits left to flesh out.
The stack of unused insulation. This will get stashed behind the house up by the well until we're ready to do the apron area.
Comments (0)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/18/2010
It seems like a long time since we laid out the radiant heat on the second floor , but it was only 5 months ago!underslab plumbing complete and the underslab insulation installed , we can finally begin installing the first floor radiant heat. Having done the second floor already we're now pretty familiar with how all of this works, so it should go fairly quickly if we can just knuckle down on it for a couple of days.Way Over There at the other end of the house and will need an entirely independent manifold to handle the higher temps I expect my mother to demand (she wants to live the rest of her life at 95 degrees, I think). In between the two are the garages and outside is the ice melt system under the apron, which will need to use a glycol mix rather than water like the inhabited areas, and so they'll need yet another manifold to control them.LoopCAD (upgraded since my earlier post and frankly even better) I finally came up with a layout that would work. I had to alter my constraints slightly from what I was doing upstairs though:
Upstairs I was able to use 8" spacing on the loops throughout, and I was able to keep that on most of the living areas downstairs. The one exception was the living room. In order to meet the needs of the long runs to/from the living room and still keep the number of loops down, I had to bump up to 9" spacing throughout the living room area. This allowed me to use only two loops--my only other alternative would have been to three loops servicing the area with one of them partially in the living room and partially in the kitchen, which I found unpalatable for aesthetic reasons. The other concession was to the layouts for the garage and (eventually) the ice melt system under the apron outside the garage. With these two areas so relatively large and open but dedicated to rather irregular use only in the dead of winter I elected to put in these loops with a 12" spacing. There's a lot of feedback from various folks that the 8" spacing I'm using everywhere else is overkill anyway , but my primary thinking here is that I'm not trying to keep the garage area at 80 degrees--I just want it to be 40 degrees so there's no ice and snow buildup on my cars. If the 12" spacing works just as well as the 8" spacing I used elsewhere well, then, I reckon I over-engineered things--not a bad place to be. Photos
Behold the wonder that is the Tanglewood First Floor Radiant Heat Layout!
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Posted to Vista-Ridge by Diane in Swanton, OH
on 6/17/2010
We've decided to use tile for most of the flooring throughout the house. The great room is about 20x25, plus it's open to the kitchen, so the tile will flow right into the kitchen. Also we'll tile down the hallway to the master bedroom, and into a guest bathroom, master bath, and probably under the washer/dryer, which will be set into a closet, rather than an actual utility room. I met with a guy who did the measurements for the tile we'll need, so we can start to get an idea about a cost. We also want to use tiles in the bathroom showers on the main floor, so we have to factor in those floors and walls as well. Now I'll be looking for possible sales on tiles that we can pick up in advance and incorporate into the house. It's fun to look at all the tile choices, but why am I always drawn to the most beautiful (read expensive) tiles? I know I will need to compromise on design vs. price/budget, but it's like that on most of the components for the house, I know.
We'll tile the lower level hallway and bathroom as well, and there will be some space to tile under the stairwell. We're planning on using sale tiles (12x12 tiles) in those areas to save some money. It's pretty apparent that the 12x12 tiles are the most common, and therefore the most economical. They would be too small to lay in the great room, so we will use 18x18 tiles for the great room. I'm talking with the design folks about a couple of ways to orient the tile in the great room so it looks like a living area and not an industrial hallway.
We've chosen to use hickory wood for the stairwell. We have access to a local sawmill in southern Indiana that will cut the trees, saw the boards, and create beautiful flooring... all locally. We've lined up a flooring-installer craftsman who will custom-build our staircase. He's come out and measured the rough opening, and will be ready to go once things are moved along a bit further. We should be under roof in a couple weeks, and that, of course, would be a critical factor (as well as having doors and windows installed) prior to floor installation. But things are "in the pipeline" for him to install the hickory stairs and landing. We chose hickory based on recommendations that it's one of the hardest woods, as well as the look of hickory. Hickory wood has a beautiful variegation of blonds, tans, light and medium browns throughout the planks, so that will add to the design element as the flooring will be adjacent to tiles (yet to be chosen).
Finally, bedrooms with get carpeting. I've not chosen colors yet for bedrooms. I'll get a nice carpet for the master bedroom, and will look for low-nap carpeting for the lower bedrooms and for the loft area. Haven't really put too much time into those decisions yet, as I've got time before those need to be decided.
We're not really sure yet what flooring to put in the lower-level storeroom and mechanical room. Part of me wants to use tile to match the other areas, and part of me wants to use a more economical solution (peel and stick tiles, maybe?) as these are rooms that are rarely used. Will give more thought to options for those rooms and decide later.
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Posted to Patterson-Project by Rachel in John's Island, SC
on 6/17/2010
Three gorgeous acres on John's Island, tucked in the woods away from the road.
The trees on this property are just beautiful!
Comments (2)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/17/2010
It's amazing how regularly the rains have been coming down recently. It's good to see from a "normal Colorado weather" perspective, near-daily monsoons have put a severe cramp into the list of various things we need to get done before the next pour.now unoccupied , we'd take a bit to clean it out. After all we were pretty sure the squirrel had tracked all kinds of leaves and bedding and whatnot into the wall and we couldn't pour with that mess in there, so it had to come out.
Photos
Cutting a second hole after the first one found nothing. I *know* there's a nest in here!
Aha!
It took three holes in total to locate the nest. We'll patch them prior to the next pour.
Look at all the straw I pulled out of that hole!
Getting the rest out with my handy shop vac.
Inside the wall. Not really much to see here, but I'm sure it was very dry and cozy from a squirrel's perspective.
Comments (0)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/17/2010
Now that was an interesting turn of events!clearing out the squirrels' nest from Tanglewood's walls we came around a bend in the clearing (about 1/4 of the way up the canyon) to spot a black bear cub. He looked to be about a year old, big enough to be dangerous, but probably still hanging around his momma if she hadn't chased him away. He in turn saw us and began to run away, but as we continued along the road (slowing to get a better look at him) he lost his nerve and sought refuge in a tree right next to the road!Poor Life Choice to get between a mother bear and her cub. Fortunately he never made a sound, even when my flash scared him a little bit to climb higher in the tree--he just kept staring at us, I kept taking pictures, and Colleen kept an eye out for the mother bear.
Photos
My first shot was a bit fuzzy, but wow!
It was very hard to read his face, but I'd say he was more astonished than anything else.
The flash from my second shot scared him a bit, and he began to climb higher into the tree.
He decided that this was a safe enough perch, apparently.
At this point he started to get a bit restless, and we figured he was going to squall, so we left. Wow.
Comments (0)
Posted to Working-Wilton by Barbara in Wilton, NH
on 6/16/2010 12:50:02 PM
Wanted to get some pictures up of the "before" view. We are hoping that with our new (to us) backhoe/loader we can get some big projects done. We are planning to extend the stone wall out back and build more walls in the front and finish terracing the back hill on the other side. A natural swimming pool is a long-term project as well. There are no chemicals involved. There is a plant-based recharge area where the water is cleaned by natural plant materials and then a pump moves the water between the swimming area and the plant area. Taking a course in design of these types of pools this July, should be very interesting. Love going green!!! We planted clover for the wildlife rather than grass seed, and boy, do they love it. We have all kinds of wildlife around and we so enjoy it.
Photos
This is the side yard where we did a little terracing by hand to put in a few vegetable beds. There are a couple of raised beds made from old sawn logs on the lawn and a few hanging tomato plants on stakes. Put in the octagon strawberry bed this spring.
This is the backyard where we currently have the backhoe parked. Just moved the travel trailer that we lived in while building down off the hill and are hoping to sell it soon.
Front of the house. The fire pit needs to go and the wood is piled up ready to be made into either kindling or split for the wood stove this fall. Plans are for a couple of woodsheds to store firewood off to the side where it is just piled up now.
This is hopefully where the pool will go below the rock wall. Cute little octagon table and chairs that I am in the process of refinishing. Pressure-treated lumber under deck will be used to finish the back deck soon. We had a lot of logs sawn into lumber and it is drying in a few places in the yard. This lumber will be used for building all my office furniture this winter.
Comments (0)
Posted to Vista-Ridge by Diane in Swanton, OH
on 6/15/2010
The upper walls have been poured, the roof trusses are on, and the inside walls for the main level have been built. Now it's really looking like a house! We had to tweak a few measurements to get the interior walls lined up properly, but again, the folks we're working with (Mike and Denny, in particular) have been wonderful in their ability to approach a potential problem, and figure out a solution. I continue to be amazed and pleased at their problem-solving skills.
Due to the inaccurate measurements on the plans, interior spaces were "shrunk" due to the increased depth of ICF walls over stick-frame walls. We lost some space inside, but the guys adjusted the loss to areas such as the closets (lost a linen closet in the master bath), and lost some area in the master walk-in closet. Also, I think the kitchen pantry was "downsized". All this was in an attempt to keep the dimensions of the kitchen and master bedroom to the original designed size. I'm willing to trade off kitchen for closets, so all is well. Mike extended the stairwell, as well, which turned out to be a good plan. We have an adequate stairwell, with a lovely landing, to look out the back view right down to the river.
I've been busy continuing to line up subcontractors for the interior finish and design work. I think I'm in good shape, and am early, if anything, in lining up people. I've arranged for the following folks to work on the house: insulation installer, kitchen cabinet builder, granite installation, stairwell installer, ceramic-tile installer, framer to set the spiral staircase from main floor to loft, mason for two fireplaces, drywall finisher, (he'll arrange for a drywall installer that he works with), HVAC guy, plumber, electrician, painter, and finish carpenter. Whew!
I am so fortunate to be building in this area, as all my subcontractors come already recommended to me by family or people who have used them before. Just about every time I mention to a new person who's already working on the house (plumber, electrician, etc.) their name is readily known and all have gotten the "thumbs up" approval. Not one person "on board" has been cited with any kind of negative comments. EVERYONE has made positive comments; the bonus of living or building in a small town, rural area, where reputation is paramount for continued business. Everyone knows everyone, so people are much more likely to protect their good name and act in an honest manner to make things right. Definitely brings peace of mind with such a large project.
The deck supports are going in this week, and stucco and roof will come next week. The mason will start the stonework shortly as well. Once under roof, it will be time to continue on the interior-finish work. Will update when that time comes.
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Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/14/2010
That didn't take long. Poor squirrels.first explorations of the world from the lair their momma had built in one of Tanglewood's walls. It was a nice ending to the problem of having squirrels in the walls, since we'd been afraid that we were going to have to chase them out with sticks and brooms. When we saw the babies starting to figure out how to run amuck, we figured it would only be a matter of a couple of days before they were completely gone and we could clear out the nest neatly and cleanly.a lot ) since this was putting a cramp on our finishing the underslab insulation work. Upon getting out of her truck she was greeted with our friendly neighborhood vixen ... running up to the truck with a baby squirrel in her mouth...
Comments (0)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/14/2010
This was lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but there ya go.underslab plumbing was inspected the inspector happened to mention that we might want to install something called a "packer" in Tanglewood's excellent well to prevent it from overflowing (which it can do on occasion). While he took pains to stress that this was NOT a requirement and that it would have nothing whatsoever to do with any inspection he would be conducting, he would recommend these devices from time to time when he ran across folks with equally admirable wells.Front Range Winwater . These guys knew exactly what a packer was, though they'd never installed one along the Front Range, but were more than happy to sell us one (which was really the important thing). We eagerly agreed, and so today we placed an order for this puppy . Should be here in a couple of weeks.
Comments (0)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/12/2010
Today was what one could reasonably called "a busy day".fascia install from some samples Builder Dale had provided a few days ago.extruder . The crew brought all of this up early this morning (yes, on a Saturday) on the back of a large flatbed, which seemed oversized for our job to me. They set to work quickly walking around the house to inspect the fascia and double-check the measurements in the blueprints, then proceeded to crank out lengths of gutter custom-made for each roof edge. Each length was seamless and (where appropriate) had an end molded into the gutter as needed. It was a relatively quick process (though noisy as heck), with a couple of guys carrying each finished piece of gutter to the appropriate house side as they rolled off the truck. When they dropped them at the right location they took a few moments to cut drain holes in the ends.several sites around the Web that praise the installation of insulation under the slab of new houses and intuitively their reasoning makes sense. After all one insulates walls to keep heat in and cold out (or vice versa in the summertime), and since a first-floor (or basement) slab is resting on the ground, you find yourself in a battle against the Earth itself to heat and cool your abode. Odds are that the Earth is a wee bit bigger than your house, so that's a fight you're going to lose to one extent or another, so putting a nice bit of insulation between your house and the planet makes sense if you're anywhere that has wide temperature variations.our guidelines, and so the choice was made--rigid foam for the win!a few days ago and I didn't want to try to do major digging while the rigid foam was in danger of getting whacked by a shovel. I got one picture early in the process, but honestly forgot to take any others, being too busy digging--still, this was an important thing to finally get done, and I was glad I took the time.notes from January and get ready for the next big push!
Photos
I think DOW makes dang near everything... for example, this underslab insulation.
Closeup of the handy R-value chart on the board. I assume they print this on a variety of thicknesses that they make.
The first piece of insulation goes into the master bathroom. It looks so lonely out there by itself.
A little bit later. There's a LOT of the stuff in here now.
Insulation awaiting installation in the apartment garage. You can see one of the garage drains coming out in the foreground.
The living room is all nice and blue now.
Once we got to the odd corners in the master bathroom, we had to get more creative.
Working on the apartment.
We put down plywood, rebar, and 2x4s wherever the insulation was subject to getting blown around by the wind.
And ladders. Ladders work pretty well too.
The kitchen area is almost done.
The fully-insulated apartment footprint. This was pretty easy, since it's basically rectangular.
Organizing the gutter-making equipment.
Lifting the roll of aluminum onto the extruder.
Lengths of gutter awaiting installation.
An errant 2x4 under the edge of the garage wall. This puppy was a good two feet long; I had to do a LOT of digging to get it out.
Videos
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Posted to Mountain-Idyl by Phil in Asheville, NC
on 6/11/2010 10:36:59 AM
It's been a few weeks now, and things are creeping along. Kind of glad really, just not prepared to start building yet, to be honest. So much to do and learn. The good news is that the well-and-septic permit was approved and has arrived. The second meeting with the architect went well and he is all but ready to do the first-draft drawings. Again we made a few minor changes; the structure and size of the house hasn't changed, just interior door positions, guest bathroom layout, etc.
I'm busy doing an overall cost estimate now, not down to screws and nails yet, but the larger stuff like foundations, lumber, insulation, roofing, drywall, and flooring.
Groundbreaking is now looking like August. I have moved closer to the plot now and am living in a camper... on a campsite for a few months, then will move the camper to the plot after the well and septic have been installed and the grading done.
Comments (0)
Posted to tanglewood by Steve in Colorado Springs, CO
on 6/9/2010
Arrgg!thought that I'd gotten all of the bits of wood shoring and whatnot out of the foundation a couple of nights ago , but as it turns out there was more of it than I thought.
Photos
Looking at the gap from the garage side, you can't really see anything.....
...but as you can see on the house side this chuck-o-wood was wedged in there just WAITING to attract bugs.
Comments (0)
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