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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 3/4/2010 4:59:59 PM
Floor layout is pretty much complete, I may replace the shower with a bath tub shower though. I thought about how convenient it would be to have a bathroom in the garage workshop area. There was already a plan to put the laundry facility in the garage area along with a deep sink so putting in a toilet under the stairs next to the deep sink would not cost much more. The framing plan is also complete and I will be shopping it around for quotes on a timber or timber hybrid roof truss package next.
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| Carriage Apartment floor layout |
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| Garage workshop floor layout |
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 2/19/2010 2:48:22 PM
I've been in Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), Cuba with my Mobile Communications Platoon for the last month in support of Operation Unified Response. For a while there was a lot of relief goods and other "assistance" being flown into GTMO, trucked to the ferry, floated across to the sea ports then loaded onto barges to go to Haiti. Who designed this base anyway? Not a very efficient way to go, but it worked in a pinch. I hope the Haitian people actually get a new school or hospital or sanitation system out of all the money being poured in from donations. So political, it's a shame. Haitians are a happy people though and are bouncing back fine. In a few ways I think they are better off than many Americans as most grow their own food, raise livestock and are in debt to no one which has enabled them to bounce back so quickly. But without clean drinking water, health care, and very little education they die from completely preventable diseases and work hard just for the basic necessities of life. So God Bless America, I want to go home!
All the barges and planes are able to go straight into Haiti now so getting ready to re-deploy back home in the next week and realizing how impossible it was to do any planning on my Colorado property after working long hours 7 days a week. Just goes to show how important it is to start planing at least a year in advance as you never know when something in your life will cause you to completely loose a month or more.
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 1/5/2010 6:15:21 PM
After down-loading and playing with the trial version of Chief Architect and reading a lot of the instructional material I decided to get the full version. So far just having a great time getting my design documents started and have laid out my plot plan as completely as possible. I'll still have to sanity check it when I go out in March but it should be really close. My son helped me to get the terrain data from the USGS site and import the data into my plot plan correctly. The terrain data is not on my final plot map but it was really necessary to get accurate elevation views and helped to ensure the prospective driveway would take the shortest fairly level route. I also used actual photo images of my plot from the county to locate the exact land mark closest to the structure (as it is a smaller rock that doesn't show up on the terrain map) to place the actual structure and also to place the driveway around and through the rocks. My Plot map is in color but when I print it to the PDF converter it comes out black and white even though I have color selected in the printer preference. I'll have research that to see if it is possible to convert it into a color PDF. Attaching the terrain view.
FilesCA Plot terrain.pdf
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 12/19/2009
I still have no survey or site map, and with no word from my designer after a string of excuses and errors, I am forced to contemplate the distinct possibility that I hired the wrong guy. Disappointing for sure, but I have learned some important lessons and I have made progress in that the soil, perc test, and septic design is complete and paid for.
I've put more time and effort into completing my own design as much as possible using Punch AS 3000, and have come up against its limitations. It is a nice tool to start with, but was not designed to be much more than that. You do get what you pay for... so I've been thinking about getting Chief Architect (CA) and producing the construction documents myself. I know a lot of my fellow O-B's here have used it successfully and have given it high marks. It would have been be less expensive to get a designer to draft up the construction documents for the carriage house than the cost of the CA software, but if I can't get a good designer then there are new considerations. If I would have factored in the risk, time, and aggravation of working with a designer, I might have gone a different route to begin with. Also, considering the cost of design work for future planned projects (i.e. the main house, greenhouse and barn) then I stand to save a lot of money in the design process if I invest the time and money now. Plus, I actually enjoy working with design software so much that I often have to force myself to hit the save button and close it at midnight. There was a part of me that was thinking: "leave it to a design professional, you'll get a better product", that is now saying "design professionals are an overrated crapshoot".
I have the time, the skills and can justify the cost of the software now to just put together my own design documents and I could even post it here and get feedback like another O-B I read about in one of The O-B Book Special Reports, which was very encouraging. I know I could even produce a pretty accurate site map using the official survey I had done when I bought the property. The site map is not that complicated, and would take me less than a day to put together if I put my mind to it. I did slope calculations in the build area last time I was out there knowing I would need that for the design so I even have that. I will just have to verify and fine-tune my measurements when I go out next March. Where there is a will there is a way!
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 12/5/2009
I received the soil report from the engineering company that did the testing and called them to discuss the results. I needed them make a correction too. The correction wasn't a big deal, in the report it says I will be building a wood-frame structure, and specifies the foundation load in kips per lineal foot and column load, but I am not building a wood-frame structure. They never asked what I would be building and just assumed wood-frame because that is what most people build. So in order to alleviate future concern by the structural engineer who will need to stamp my plan, I explained that I will be building a structure with a heavy rock face on one side and and rigid foam insulation on the other side with 4-5" steel reinforced concrete in the middle. The soil engineer said it would be no problem to change the write-up and will be resending the corrected pages.
The report is 16 pages long and has a lengthy description on the soils and perc test, as well as a depth chart with soil characteristics down to where they hit bedrock at 15 feet and had to stop. Also, a site sketch of the area showing the future house site and carriage house garage and where they drilled and took samples. The decomposed gravel gets more dense as it goes down but he said the future basement should be able to be excavated with normal excavation equipment. Normally anything they can drill through can be excavated with a backhoe. This also tells me I am going to have to drill through some rock to get my well in, and my well budget has been adjusted to the high end of the range now.
The site sketch done by the guy that did the drilling threw up a big red flag and told me I am not on the same page as my designer. My designer met them at the site in order to show them where to drill. He got the future house site close enough to the right area but the carriage house was on the WRONG side of the future house. I don't understand how he could have this confusion after all the sketches and layout diagrams I provided to him. All I can figure is that he didn't look at them before going up to meet with the soil engineer. That also means he didn't look at them before going up and doing the site survey last Thursday. How is this possible? I have a loss of confidence in the designer I have hired but will continue to work with him and see if I can't get him straightened out because I have already paid him for the site survey, site map, and meeting with the soils engineer. I am not going to give him any money for the construction documents until I have reviewed and approved every last one of them. Needless to say, so far I'm not too impressed. I called him and told him it wasn't looking like we were on the same page with the layout and I needed to see his survey sketches as soon as possible and that he needed to LOOK at my layout sketches and get it straighted out. Now it is going to cost me more money as I will probably need to have the soil engineer come back and asses the right location of the carriage house. The soil engineer said this wouldn't be a problem and they would probably not have to re-drill the sample as correct location of the carriage house is within about 50 feet of the drilled location of the future house and the soil looks consistent in the building area, but they will need to come up and look at the soil once the carriage house site has been excavated.
Working on this project with my designer long distance is certainly a challenge. In hindsight, I should have either provided my sketches to the soil engineers and saved the cost of having my designer meet them at the site or I should have rescheduled the soil test until after I had reviewed the site survey and draft site map from the designer. The original scheduling plan was to have the site survey and site map done well before the soil test as there certainly was enough time and I had coordinated the soil test date with my designer to ensure he would be ready. But for one reason and another he just did not get the survey or the site map done. Then I assumed he could understand the approximate position and layout based on the sketches I had provided which were clearly labeled and quite detailed. In fact I thought my drawings would make the survey and site map quite easy for him to complete. Anyway, I'm not feeling very good about my project management skills right now, which I thought was a strong point. I think the key to a smooth project will be to recognize problems early on and adjust my management technique as needed to move on smartly.
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 11/25/2009
I hadn't received my soils report yet, so I did a follow up today and talked to the soils engineer. He said he would get the draft done today and I will get it early next week as all the admin staff have a long weekend starting tomorrow. I have a long weekend too, so I totally understand.
I have a couple of feet of soil and then it is decomposed granite. which he said is nothing unusual and is fine for a foundation. I just need to make sure the foundation bears fully on the decomposed granite and not the soil, as the soil did swell a bit. But that won't be a problem with only a couple of feet of soil. I looked up decomposed granite and found it is used for fill, driveways, hiking trails, soil mixtures, landscaping etc. It can be excavated, so I will proceed with plans for a future walkout basement!
The perc test did reveal that I need an engineered mound system because of the decomposed bedrock in the septic area, and he said the typical approach to installing septic absorption fields in those conditions is over-excavating the decomposed granite to a depth of about 6 feet, breaking up the excavated materials, and replacing them - thereby developing a zone of 'suitable soil' in the absorption area. The engineered septic plan will be another $700 and I will have to budget more for excavation. Once I get the septic plan I can shop it around and get a better idea what the cost will be. The septic field will be on the downslope of the walkout basement so I am wondering if I can excavate down maybe three feet and then put three feet of excavated soil and decomposed granite from the future basement area on the septic field to level out the slope for a little backyard area. That would put more actual soil in the mix, which would be better for the waste-processing since septic systems rely on micro-organisms in SOIL to break down waste. I have to do something with the soil from the basement area anyway, so it makes sense to me. Getting all the elevations right could be tricky though since I'm building the carriage house and septic first.
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 11/18/2009
With all the snow that came in last weekend, I ended up rescheduling the soil and perc drilling to today in order to give the snow a little time to melt off. I don't have a driveway yet, so the drilling rig had to safely drive up the side of the mountain. It's really not that steep, having about a 5% grade, but there are sizable rocks that could do some serious damage to the underside of a vehicle. They will come back to finish the perc test tomorrow. Also, my designer was going to finish doing the surveying on this trip so the site plan should be getting firmed up too. Should know more in just a few days.
I updated my exterior design for a wintery view, and I've flipped the top sidewalls inside out in order to have the stone on the inside for thermal mass and stucco, to match the dormer, is now on the outside. I think it looks better and it will be more energy efficient this way.
I've also been giving the roof construction a lot of thought and am now thinking I would like an exposed vaulted timber roof to stay true to the Craftsman style. There is a vaulted timber roof in the "lodge" room for the main house, and it would be cool to keep the design elements consistent between the carriage house and the main house.
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| Carriage house in the winter |
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 11/11/2009
Soil and perc test has been firmed up for Monday Nov. 16th, and my designer will be there to meet the engineers. Expecting good weather there for it in Colorado, as I hear most of the snow has melted with all the sunshine. In the middle of a Noreaster here in Virginia. My site plan should be about done too so I am looking forward to getting that.
This is the time to keep in mind, and develop, the style elements of the house. Since I'm starting off with the carriage house the living space is really quite small, 865 ft., so I was inclined to ignore the interior style elements altogether thinking of it as temporary housing and guest quarters. Not anymore!
My designer suggested several books based on my comments and the exterior style I selected, so I found them on Amazon at a really good bargain. The first book has arrived already, Inside the Bungalow: America's Arts and Crafts Interior by Duchscherer and Keister. The Bungalow style takes a lot of the Craftsman elements I like. It really emphasizes hand craftsmanship and embodies the solid values of practicality, simplicity, and individuality I am so drawn to. It makes use of every bit of space with lots of built-ins, which is something I had asked my designer for. There is a beautiful example of where they opened up the wall between the dining room and the living room, with a half wall capped with beautiful warm wood and wood posts, and in that half wall is a built-in bookshelf that would be so perfect in my carriage house. And to think I was just going to build a wall.
Knowing what style I am aiming for also makes it easier to select the windows, doors, appliances etc. while I'm working on the budget. I really think it won't cost much more to get a great design inside and out. What it will take more of is time and thought in the planning stage. I need to consider the design and how it can be incorporated into the actual structure and finishing elements. But I have lots of time to design the house plan as I wait, saving my pennies, until I can make the transition to civilian life next year.
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 10/31/2009
I contacted five soil test companies for quotes. One thing I found out quickly is that not all companies that do this geological testing deals with residential. Several were strictly commercial, but they sent back replies and suggested where I could go. The other thing I learned was that the perc test could be done at the same time. So I ended up getting quotes for both the soil and perc tests, as it made good economical sense.
The company I went with was the least expensive and was also recommended by my Realtor. I found out they had done a lot of work in my neighborhood. $1,450 for both the soil and perc, they even gave me a 10% military discount to make it a little more affordable. The next closest quote was more than DOUBLE at $3,250! They admitted they wouldn't be the cheapest, but said they were the best. So I thought maybe they bored more holes or something, but no. Same two holes, one for the detached garage and one for the main house and the perc test is same.
I'm working on getting it scheduled for the 16th or 17th of November, weather permitting. Colorado has had record snow so I will have to be flexible and wait until the truck can safely get access. I have a few actual costs to plug into my budget now... need to work on the budget!
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 10/25/2009
My third designer quote (the one I picked) finally came in last week. He said he was waiting on hearing back from his structural engineer. I was really glad to see his quote was very reasonably right in the middle of the other two as far as the site plan and construction documents go. They were all really close (within $200), but they all said they could get the plans stamped and the two I didn't pick had much lower estimates on the structural engineer. I told my designer I wanted to wait on selecting the structural engineer as I wanted to shop around a bit more. I see now it's a bit of a difficult situation, as my designer may have to work with someone he is not familiar with to make corrections if I don't pick his guy. But I'm certain we will work through it and get the plans stamped somehow. He is a pretty nice guy and is open and honest in his communications. I need to get a soils engineer up to the property to take some core samples to see what kind of challenges I'll have with my foundation.
My designer really needs to see the soils report to ensure the foundation he is designing is going to be adequate. He also is sure the structural engineer will need to see the soils report before I get a stamp. It is a costly test but it will include the future main house and is crucial to moving the planning along at this point because there may be a layer of rock under the first layer of soil, which could change the design requirement for my footers.
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 10/11/2009
Still waiting for the quotes to come back from the three designers I've contacted. Is it customary for a designer to take weeks to put a quote together for what is certainly less than a week's worth of work? It's just a rectangle garage with a small one-bedroom apartment above. I'll have to re-read The O-B Book, maybe I need to present my project differently. Should I have given them a due date for the quote?
While I am waiting I went ahead and bought Punch Home Design AS 3000 as it was on clearance for 74 bucks at OfficeMax. It is so cool! I loaded my topo map in and traced it and laid out the pad and foundation and walls and threw a roof on it. And now I can fly around it and visualize it better on the land. I haven't figured out how to do a dormer yet though, and haven't tried to do the plumbing or electrical. There are wizards for most of it, though. I actually went to OfficeMax to buy a portable file folder so I could organize all my O-B and property papers. They were already starting to get out of hand. Now it is sooo organized!
I have been researching polished concrete as a finished green flooring choice. Concrete functions as a large thermal mass and is ideal for radiant-heat tubing. But I can't find much DIY and actual cost info on polishing it. I like the idea, as it fits with my goal of keeping things simple and minimizing unnecessary inputs to the process, but there is the cost of polishing to consider. There are all sorts of cool colors, minerals, glass, shells, etc. that you add to the top when it is wet and then it gets exposed as you polish using finer and finer grinders and polishers. Anyone know how much it costs per sq. ft. to get polished concrete or better yet anyone polish their own concrete? Lots of nice countertops too, but sealing against stains and durability is hard to overcome and would probably not justify the cost of a concrete countertop contractor or attempted DIY project. Well, maybe a DIY basement or garage work bench for my pottery or seed sorting.
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| This is a similar design for the exterior. Mine will have reinforced concrete walls with a rock face, though. |
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| Here is the Carraige House I designed with Punch Home design AS 3000. |
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 9/25/2009
Build a simple garage/carriage house with a small apartment above first (so I have a place to live) store my household goods, then get through the learning curve before I build my main house. The garage will be built using a modified slip-form technique for exterior walls, which would best be described as steel-reinforced concrete with a rock face. Light-gauge steel for joists, trusses and inner walls.
Will do the well, plans, driveway, septic and garage on a pay-as-I-go budget so it will be tight, as I blew my saving on the land (really happy with the land though). I still have one more year to save big. I will sub out only what I really can't do myself. I will build with sustainable "green" choices where possible and keep things as simple and efficient as possible. Nothing fancy, but will still be very comfortable and will function very nicely as a guest house.
I have the basic design of the house and garage done, and have laid the site plan out using Google Earth sketch in order to provide info to my prospective draftsman/design engineer. I am only asking for a quote on the garage and the site plan. I got two contacts from ServiceMagic Pro for a draftsman/designer pro in my local area (CO) and they provide free quotes. One sounds extremely promising and has put quite a bit of effort in already, asking me pointed questions and even made a trip to the site. He has a structural engineer that he uses and can get the plan stamped. The other guy I am not even going to consider, as he is listed as having been in the business since 2009 and I don't want to be his first project. I would like to get at least one other quote though before I make my final decision. I have sent private messages to two contacts on this site asking for referrals.
The slipform information I have is from a book I ordered on slip-form construction called Living Homes: Integrated Design & Construction" by Thomas J. Elpel.
Read this if you want to know more about the slip-form technique I like best: (I thought it was quite entertaining) hollowtop.com.
Please feel free to comment on smarter, more efficient, less expensive, environmentally friendly design and material to help me through this process, which I am really enjoying.
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| House site standing just to the west and looking to the east. There is a good 150' between boulders and that is where I want to build. |
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Posted to Cheriki-Organic-Farm by Cheryl in Ft. Collins, CO
on 9/20/2009
I will be retiring from the Navy next year and starting my own Organic Farm. A hobby farm to start, as I believe in slow and careful growth, but eventually a profit-making venture where I will be running a biz full time after I finish building the house and using my GI Bill.
Buying just the right piece of land was the first critical step I took. I found a wonderful realtor who really listened to what I was looking for and showed me a lot of good possibilities. He was able to dedicate his time to me while I was on a very limited leave period. He was very knowledgable and answered all my questions without any pressure to buy.
I had my favorite from all the listings and was pretty darn sure that was going to be it. However, he called me as I was racing down the road to get there from Virginia, where I am stationed, and told me he just put it under contract. I was crushed at first but it all worked out when he showed me the property adjacent to it that was even nicer! I hadn't considered it because it was way out of my price range. The owner had to come down quite a bit and I had to take out a small loan but it was so worth it to get just the right piece of land. It was one of the last ones I looked at and as soon as I stepped onto it the heavens opened up and I could see my future home and business. I bought it in Febuary '09 and just made my last payment on the loan September '09! Now that the land is paid for I can save for construction. The only other thing I have done is get the well permit which is good for two years.
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| 35 Acres with a stream winding through it complete with meadows, a southern exposure for the house site and no covenances. |
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