I devoured your book, and hit every spot on your website. We're in Brevard County, FL and we got it kicked out of us by the hurricanes here. I'm amazed at the amount of information on your website. There is so much motivation for owner-builders there. Michael B., Satellite Beach, FL

Danny's Forum Posts: 9
Journal Entries: 46
Interview Answers: 97
Average Forum Rating: 4.13



Image from Danny's blog

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We're IN!

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 8/21/2007

A lot has happened since our last post. So sorry for not keeping it updated. Danny took me on a much needed vacation to Las Vegas for our anniversary over the 4th of July. I'll get more posted, but here are some pics.

Pics of the outdoor dog kennel, front of house with concrete porch and all columns installed, guest bathroom painted and shower installed, one chocolate colored wall in the great room, kitchen floor tile complete, Danny prepping the floor in the dining and great room for the laminate wood flooring, kitchen with some of the cabinets installed, the first coat of red paint in the master bedroom, and the great room.

Photos

Posted by John in Lake City, FL on 8/23/2007 John's Forum Posts: 28 Journal Entries: 2 Interview Answers: 132 Average Forum Rating: 4.10 Randomly Selected Image 8/23/2007

It was great reading your journal as you progressed through the trials for your dream home.  My wife and I did our OB project back in 2000 and it was very challenging and rewarding.  We have since moved and are ready to start our 3rd OB project.  However; you can never learn enough or glean enough information.  I have several questions, if you can help. 1.  What was the total living area, including number of bathrooms and fixtures? 2.  How much of the work did you do? 3.  Why polysteel over other ICF? 4.  What was the final cost? I appreciate your response since we are in the planning stages again.  We are looking at going ICF since it is hot here in Florida. Thanks,  John from Lake City

Eagle's View of the Circle S

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 6/28/2007

Danny was able to do a flyby of our property last Friday, and got some GREAT aerial photos of the house and wow, are they awesome!!! The architectural drawings just do not do the roofline any justice until seen from the air. Now I can see why the roofing guys did not like being up there, but it does look nice. The neighbor to the east of us is putting in his lake out front. We plan to do the same in a few years.

Photos

The Race is On…

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 6/28/2007

Well the race is on for us to get the house done so we can move in. We started tiling the powder room, garage, kitchen, hallway, and the laundry room. We decided to tile diagonally and jumped right in. This was probably not the wisest choice to make for the first-ever tiling project, but with mortar abounding, and I mean everywhere, we’re not doing too bad on keeping everything in alignment. I now have two sets of JUST WORK clothes, because the mortar felt that I was some kind of magnet. I’m lucky that my hair was the only place I didn’t get any on. Now that the tile has been laid, the rooms look so much bigger. We should be pros on tiling by this weekend, and the kitchen should be a breeze. Of course we haven’t got the grout done yet, but I’m hoping it will be relatively simple. Notice I said simple, not easy.

The electrician’s been working hard all week to get all of our lights and ceiling fans in, and do they look nice!! It’s amazing how nice the house is looking with the light fixtures on instead of a shop light. It just gives it a more warm homey feel.

I’ve attached some pics of our lights and tiling job. Danny will probably edit this, as he, surprisingly, still has a sense of humor about all this after all this time. I’m the more calming one, but he usually can see the humor, especially the day after.

Photos

Posted by Jack in Trumann, AR on 6/29/2007 Jack's Forum Posts: 17 Journal Entries: 39 Interview Answers: 255 Average Forum Rating: 4.19 Jack's Selected Image 6/29/2007

Hi Danny: Having done a little tile work myself, and planning on doing it again on the new house I'm building, I know what you are going through. I had to write when I saw you on your knees on the tile; I started out that way myself, but quickly had to get a pair of good knee pads. If you don't have any, I'd recommend them; they really make a huge difference on how you feel after crawling around on the floor for several hours. By the way, the grout work really is simple; time-consuming, but very simple. It looks like you are doing a good job! Good luck and have fun! Regards, Jack

Cement board before tile

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 6/7/2007

It's been three weeks since the last update and things are moving along great now, or so I thought. Let's start at the beginning. The interior was primed and the painter even spraypainted all the ceilings and all the closets in our selected color for us. Now all I have to do is the walls. No more nightmares on how I was going to get the vaulted ceiling painted. I started with the small powder room with a paint can and roller. Boy were the muscles in my hand tired and achy. After reading one of the other blogs about how they painted, I went out and bought a Wagner power roller too. What an awesome tool! It did not waste any more paint then if I had used a roller pan and I did not have to thin the paint out. It worked so well on getting enough of the neutral colored paint on the textured walls, that most of them will not require a second separate coat. On the walls with more vivid colors, I'll do two coats just to get the color perfect. 

Now moving on - Danny and I were now ready to start getting the floors ready in the powder room and the kitchen. So, two weeks ago over Memorial Day weekend, we stop at Lowe's and pick up 25 pieces of DUROCK cement board. NO ONE at the store offered any kind of assistance, so we pulled off the sheets from the shelf and loaded them on two carts ourselves. Then went in search of the screws to go with, no help there either. Thank goodness we had done our research on this stuff and were able to find what we needed. Paid for them and still NO ONE offered to help load them in the truck. Now I'm not a weakling by any means, but hey I'm still a girl and those sheets are heavy. But we struggled thru with me in the bed of the truck and Danny doing most of the lifting from the cart to the truck. Mental note: truck can only handle 20 sheets of cement board when also loading five large bags of mortar. The truck strained quite a bit on the drive down to Sparta. Thankfully one of the subs was at the house and helped Danny offload the things. Lonny and Denise came by that afternoon and gave us a hand. 

We had a dumpster delivered a couple of weeks ago and had filled it with what we could not burn. So Denise wanted to get started with the burn pit. We call her the 'Mistress of the Flame' as she lives for getting bonfires going. Danny and Lonny started on the cement board in the kitchen. First, got the mortar mixed because it had to 'rest' a bit. Next we decided on a game plan of which way to lay the sheets. With the guys down on their knees spreading mortar, I was painting the powder room. Surprisingly enough the first couple of sheets went down fairly well. Lonny continued to mortar and Danny started to screw the sheets down. I knew things were going too well when we noticed on the second row, we did not stagger the seam lines. Well it was too late to adjust the ones that needed to be, but at least there were only three and one was going to be under a cabinet. So Denise and I started cutting some of the sheets in half. We made great progress and I couldn't wait to get tiling.

Well, the next weekend, Danny and I worked on the cement board some more, when I couldn't wait anymore and we did a 'dry fit' of the kitchen cabinets. Danny's friend Paul Stewart came by and we started in the corner of the kitchen, but then just had to work the cabinets in where they belonged as we pulled them out of the garage. With so much other stuff being stored there, we couldn't just pick and choose what cabinet to move next. Now the cabinets were delivered on a day Danny and I were not at the house last November and were stacked in the back of the garage. So not wanting to move them around and damage them, we just left them alone. You can see where this is going, can't you? No cabinets were damaged, but we are missing one whole cabinet. And wouldn't you know it, it's the one for the cooktop... which is gas. Now we will have to delay a few more weeks to get a new cabinet before we can get the gas company to come out and do the final hookup. Yes, I could live without the cooktop and just use the grill, but I'm really wanting to have hot water. I so badly could use a good soak in the new bathtub. We will be able to install most of the kitchen cabinets and hope that the wall 'klinggers' that Danny got for the ICF walls help us. More on those later.

Well tonight we're going to finish up the cement board in the laundry room across from the powder room and do a dry fit for the tile. We're wanting to put them on an angle, but will need to be sure we have enough tile to do that. More details later this week.

Pictures below show the newly poured front porch, the coach lights on the side of the garage, a view of the great room after the primer went on and the kitchen cabinets and cement board floor.

Photos

Drywall finished

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 5/17/2007

Well the drywall, taping and mudding is complete, what a mess! OK, lessons learned: need longer drywall screws for ICF walls, don't need to use 5/8" on the ICF walls. Go over V-Buck with drywallers before installation (not the same as wood framing), and definitely try to clean up the splats and spills of mud within the first 24-36 hours while it's still soft. It is much harder to remove after it really sets. The texture will be applied this coming Saturday and the primer on Sunday. Yeah! Now it seems like we're back on track and getting things done. We took advantage of Home Depot's Behr Paint sale last month getting 25% off each gallon, but no way did we get enough for all the rooms. We could not decide on what color for all of them that day.

Now that the footers and stem wall have been poured and set, the gravel backfill for the porch was done last Tuesday. I don't think I've ever saw THAT much gravel in my life. No idea of how many trucks (yes trucks with an S) it came to. The porch is scheduled to be poured this Saturday as well. Can't wait till Danny and I can sit and watch the sun set. We will also have the pad poured for the dog kennel, but will wait till later in the summer for the greenhouse pad.

Oh and another biggy - Danny got the plumbing working! OK OK, just some of the plumbing, but I'm sure the rest will work once the PEX connections are complete. We only had one leak last night.

I'm sure Danny will edit this, he seems to have a much better sense of humor when it comes to editing the blog, just not when he's working on the house. Sherry sends...

Drywall!

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 5/7/2007

The sheetrock was installed last weekend. We had to pick up additional 2" drywall screws for the ICF walls (minor stuff). Oh, and another speed bump is that we wanted the windows (yes, with the extra-wide sills) to be wrapped with drywall as well. The sheetrock sub said that might be a problem with the V-Buck, because it's webbed, not solid on the inside. They may have to 'glue' the sheetrock around the windows. Still working on that one. 

Taping and mudding began Saturday and is looking great! Only problem with mudding was that we still don't have running water yet, even outside (Danny???). So I had to make a trip into town, with the little car mind you, and pick up 40 gallons of water! Twelve 2.5-gallon containers later, me and the car pulled into the driveway and away the mudders went. Sunday the guys were back and put most of the corner bead on and taped screw marks. Some of our corners are going to be bullnosed, so that will have to wait until later in the week. Danny's tried his best to keep the steps down to the basement and up to the loft clean, but right now they are covered with splotches of drywall mud. We'll have to get the scrapers out and then clean the wood, and we're planning on staining the steps.

I tried my best to stay out of the mudders' way so I planted a couple of evergreen shrubs we got from Denise and Lonny Robertson. I had the need to dig! Could not wait to get into the gardening mode. I can't plant anything in front of the house until the porch is poured, so I started right outside the master bath window. So 160 lbs of topsoil, 6.4 cubic feet of peat moss, two shrubs, two trees, and one bush later I can say I was landscaping. Clay soil is not detrimental to working well with a tiller, so there will be lots of topsoil added for additional gardening projects. I felt like a wrestler trying to get the tiller to actually dig into the clay soil, but after a couple of bruises and really sore arms, I'd say the soil won; for now.

Photos

A few more pictures

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 5/2/2007

We have rain today thru Saturday, so the porches will once again have to wait, but we're a whole lot closer to getting them in! The tapers and finishers are still scheduled to be here on Saturday and the alarm company will be in next weekend. Sherry has become a real Cable Dog (Air Force term). She's wired the entire house for cable, phone, and internet on her own... and it works!!!!

Our plumbing wall for the shower in the master bath is too full of vent pipes to get the plumbing in for the shower, so we have to improvise. We're going to instead put in two showerheads along the long back wall (shower stall is 7'x4') with separate controls for each. Should be a nice addition when finished. We're going to build both the master and basement showers from scratch, I guess that qualifies as custom!

Thanks much to all of you for the outstanding feedback on our home! This has been an incredible experience with lots of ups and downs, but we can finally see that we're nearing completion.

Stay tuned for more!!!

Photos

We have rooms!

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 5/1/2007

1 May 2007 - we have rooms! The drywallers were in for 7 hours on Saturday and finished up with three more hours Monday. It was amazing to watch them work. They popped in the coffered and vaulted ceilings in no time. The only problem we ran into was that they did some of the interior walls using the half-inch drywall that was intended for the exterior ICF walls. We barely finished putting the insulation in the loft above the garage and they were tackling that right behind us. Our friends, Denise and Lonny Roberts stopped by last night to help us get the excess drywall all picked up. The 'mudders' should be there Saturday morning and then I get to paint. We stopped by Home Depot last week when Behr paint was having a 25% off rebate and picked up 15 gallons of paint, plus Danny's 10% military discount!! Mostly warm natural colors except for the Cherry Cobbler red for one wall in the master bedroom.

Also, the footers and stem walls were poured for the wraparound porches. It's going to take a LOT of rock to backfill inside the stem walls. Hopefully that will be done by the end of the week so we can get the siding finished and the columns installed, but it looks like rain until Saturday. The front dormers are all done and look really nice. Good thing we got the curtains hung early, they look great! Now that the rock is up, people can finally "see" the exposed trusses in the great room that will be boxed in with finish lumber. While the guys were inside hanging drywall, we managed to get the yard cut - all 6 acres!!

Danny has the pictures, so I'll get on him tonight to get them loaded. It's all finally starting to come together.

Photos

April updates - drywall?

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 4/25/2007

25 April - things have been moving along a little slow. We've been installing the insulation in the bonus room above the garage - we now call that the 'loft'. Don't mind the insulation too much, but me and the stapler are still at wit's end. Craig - our replacement siding guy - has been doing a great job! He has two dormers done in the front and has been fixing some of the issues from the previous siding guy. 

We've had most of the drywall delivered and thought that the drywallers would have gotten started last weekend, but three of them were sick, so maybe this weekend. 

And, the footers for the front porch were poured yesterday! Hopefully the rain holds off, so the porch can be completed by this weekend. 

Once the porch is done, then the siding can go on the front of the house. Once the drywallers get done, Danny and I can get the bathrooms operations, get the walls painted and the floors in.  Then I can get my kitchen cabinets installed.

Danny will get some pics posted in the next couple of days.

March update

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 3/28/2007

I'm trying to update the site today as Danny's been spending all his spare time working on the house. The weather's clearing up, so we've been out at the house every chance we get. We finally did fire the original siding sub (because we haven't seen or heard from him for almost a month!!), and hired one of the guys that worked on the original construction for us last summer (wow, that seems so long ago!), so that's finally progressing. Some of the siding in front of the garage had to be torn (ripped) off and redone, because it was lopsided (did this guy even own a level?), but everything else is looking good.

We now have stairs leading up to the bonus room (gym) above the garage; something about a wobbly ladder just was not daring enough for me to get up there until now. What a view out the back window! No pics yet, but we'll get some loaded end of this week. We are now scheduling the drywaller to get in and do his thing because we are planning on putting our old house on the market next week, so time is short. We're also getting the concrete guy set so he can get our wraparound porches poured soon (next week!!!) because the front roof overhang is starting to sag.

We've planted several trees on the property now, to include Wisconsin Weeping Willows, Pear, and some Granny Smith Apple trees because of the name of our street (Granny Smith Lane). There will be about 15 of them lining the drive. It will be so cool when they are all in bloom!

The HVAC system has been fully installed including the air handling system (his name is ERV). The satellite TV is in, but we're still having some (F*&^%#!!) issues with wiring the house for the phone lines, hoping to have that fixed this weekend. Well that's it for now. I'm sure Danny will come back and edit this, but it gives you an idea of where we are right now.

She knows me so well!!! Just a few comments and corrected minor grammatical errors Dear, but we're all set now... Good Job!!!

Posted by Larry in Clarksville, TN on 4/24/2007 Larry's Forum Posts: 1 Interview Answers: 9 Average Forum Rating: 3.50 Randomly Selected Image 4/24/2007

I'm impressed with your home! A couple of questions: first what was the price for the ICF per square foot? We are in the preliminary stages for our house and haven't quite made the decision to go with ICF. Second, did you compare conventional framing and ICF? How big is your house? Thanks. Larry

Still at it...

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 3/2/2007

Well it's been quite a while (again) since the last update. There just isn't a whole lot happening. The weather this winter has been the worst we've seen in this area in years, so it delayed a lot of work.

If I can keep the siding guy out of jail and healthy when he is out, I think we may see the house sided by April! The lowest bidder is not always the best, wow, I now remember reading that in The O-B Book!! The furnace is in and it's awesome! I may even name it! We have five zones for the HVAC system and when I walked in and saw the beast sitting there with all the zone sensors installed, well, if I wasn't married...

The winding stairway to the basement is in and the central vac system ($1,100) is started. I've just about finished running all of the PEX, but I'm still scared to death about making the actual connections. I'm sure it will work out, just need to research a little more. Sheetrock should be ready to go up in about two weeks - FINALLY!!! I think then we'll be about ready to move in and finish all the flooring, cabinets and trim work while we're in it.

The appraiser was back out last weekend and said he had just appraised a $1.5-million home that he feels is very comparable to ours - WOW that was a shock!! We haven't seen the appraisal yet, but it should be nice, even though we're over budget, we'll still have a very large sweat equity.

Photos

Posted by James in Springfield, IL on 3/4/2007 James's Forum Posts: 0 Journal Entries: 1 Image from James's blog 3/4/2007

You guys are building a beautiful house. I am in Springfield, IL and will be starting my own project this fall. I had one quick question - are your ceiling/wall heights 10 feet throughout the house. Also, I am considering the Marvin Integrity windows. How do you like them? Jim

Still cold.

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 2/3/2007

3 Feb - Danny and I were out at the property this weekend in every anticipation to do some work out at the house. We still have telephone wiring, cabling, whole-house speakers, and deciding where to put the ducts for the whole-house vac system. However, after seeing the snow and realizing that the temperature, hovering around 10 degrees, was just too cold for my fingers to even be convinced to vacate the warm of my coat pocket was not going to happen. We did take a walk around and yes we are 'still siding'. The single-digit temperatures now have delayed us more. If we can't get the soffits and fascias in, we won't be able to turn on the heat. 

I did some measuring in the house for the closets. We found a nice 'do-it-yourself' line from ClosetMaid, that is really pretty (and manly). I'll let you all know how it's coming along. We have a 14x7x10 foot walk-in closet and frankly I'm just not sure if I have enough clothes to fit the space. Sounds to me like "Shopping" is needed.

And yes, like Cara at QuarterlyHouse, we have paint samples, and paint samples, and more paint samples, and yes paint samples. I don't think Danny wants to see another paint chip as long as he lives and we really haven't picked the colors for the house yet! I even have a whole stack on my desk right now to look at!

Here's a couple of pics from the weekend...

Photos

Posted by Gary in Roseville, CA on 2/11/2007 Gary's Forum Posts: 0 Journal Entries: 2 Interview Answers: 63 Randomly Selected Image 2/11/2007

Congratulations on your progress. You've got a beautiful home getting closer and closer to completion.

Still siding...

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 1/17/2007

Yes, it's been a long while since the last update... my fault again and no excuses!

Hard to believe we were beginning the siding and soffits last time I updated this page, because they're still at it! Okay, we had the holidays, rain, more rain, wind and rain, and now just plain cold temps, but at least the mud is solid! The guys are about a third of the way through the siding install, but wow what a difference. In addition to the siding, since the last update, HVAC ducting is finished and equipment should be here within two weeks. The electrician is finished for the most part; he just needs to get all the wiring tucked into the panel. Plumbers are finished with the DWV and interior LP lines. LP and phone have been trenched to house. Garage door openers are in, locksets are on all of the exterior doors - finally (just needed a late night call from some great neighbors letting us know someone was snooping around after dark). HW heaters (two) will be here Saturday. Still no basement stairs (hopefully within two weeks). The soffits have helped to really cut down the wind that rips through the house. Being out on that hill with no wind blocks is brutal!

I guess now would be a good time to admit we are probably going over budget - okay, okay we're there! The labor costs killed us. Before starting, we had a lot of promises and offers to help that all fell through for one reason or another, and the new job has almost eliminated any free time for DIY, so we had to revert to hiring more subs than anticipated. Another "Lesson Learned" - don't rely on friend's help when establishing a budget. There is really still a lot of work to do inside (even though I hate to admit it), so I need to get myself re-motivated and start spending some late nights out there. Motivation is lost really fast in the cold and when working alone!

Our goal is to be in about March 1st. I know there's more to add here, however, time is limited so here are a few pics until later...

Photos

ICF Lessons Learned...

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 12/21/2006

It's been a very busy week at the house; seems everyone is making up for lost time! Tuesday the fireplace was installed, however, the rain on Wednesday (yep, more rain) proved that the stack was not completely sealed at the roof, so the installers will be back out to seal it up. The plumbers got started on the waste, drain, and vent piping which revealed some concerns we hadn't considered. The sinks in the master bath and powder room, are all against an outside ICF wall, which poses the problem - where do you run your vent stacks? The plumbers are going to build a frame wall to sit up against the ICF so the pipes can be run up and out. We should have had the vent stacks in the ICF forms before the concrete was poured! We'll only lose about 4" of floor space, but it could have been avoided.

Lesson 2 - the toilet drain in the guest bath sits dead center over a Dietrich Steel floor joist! Solution, same as the vent stacks, build a double wide wall which bumps the toilet out just enough to clear the joist. This one should have been caught by the guys at Dietrich Steel when they laid out the system.

Siding, soffit, fascia was delivered Tuesday and is in the process of being installed. And the electrician and HVAC guys are still chugging along. No porches until next spring... bummer. The rain has caused a lot of settling and it's apparently not finished, so better to wait and do it right than rush it. The back porch is poured, but it sits on the original grade, so no settling issues there.

We stopped at Home Depot to look at outdoor lighting and found a great powder-coated aluminum coach light at a cost of $40 each... we need nine!!! Came home and did a little surfing and found the same light (or a very near replica) at ebuilderdirect.com for only $16.99 and had them in three days!

Last night was one of those nights you never want to relive - finished work and made the 45-minute drive to the house. The plumber was just leaving and asked if I had the shower/tub unit for the guest bath. I didn't and he needed it today, so I made the trek back to Belleville (45 min.) and ran into Norm's Bargain Barn (GREAT PLACE!!!!), bought a tub/shower unit for $260 and the guys brought it out to the truck only to realize the only way it was going to fit was standing up. So in the rain (did I say it rains a lot here lately?), I worked at getting it strapped in, and made the long slow, very slow, trip back to Sparta. Managed to somehow get it out of the truck by myself and then drag it into the garage. Got home about 10:30... very wet and cold...

Photos

Posted by Arnold in Colorado Springs, CO on 12/22/2006 Arnold's Forum Posts: 50 Journal Entries: 73 Interview Answers: 32 Average Forum Rating: 4.26 My Construction Website Image from Arnold's blog 12/22/2006

you can run an 1 1/2 vent in the styrofoam of the ICF block! I'll post a picture of one of mine in my journal  cosdreamhome Arnold

Finally, an update!!!

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 12/17/2006

Okay, okay, so it's been a month since the last update. Spent all last weekend with the chainsaw, cutting up the debris from the ice storm that hit the Midwest. We lost three 30' cedar trees out back and a lot of limbs off of others. I tried to update this page around that time. but we lost power and the computer crashed in the middle of the attempt. There are plenty of other excuses as to why, but I'm just too tired to go into it...

Quite a lot has happened since the last update where we were beginning to install windows; I can now say that all of the windows and doors are in with the exception of one door (the very large patio door). Sherry and I installed the last three dormer windows today and since they are false dormers with no interior access, she hung curtains in them right away. Should have that one in this week. The electrician is about 75% complete (we have working lights!!!), the three-zone HVAC system is nearing completion, garage doors are installed, driveway is in, the back porch concrete is poured, cabinets are sitting in the garage, appliances are sitting in the den, and the roof is DONE!!! The fireplace is finally going to be installed Tuesday. Siding and soffit work begins tomorrow ($6,000 to install 56 squares and all soffit/fascia). The sheetrock bids are back and the winner is... J.W., with a bid of $4,500 to hang all the sheetrock (house, basement, garage and bonus room) and $4,500 for taping and finishing. Since we have 10' ceilings, the sheetrock will go on vertically, which eliminates a lot of cutting and waste.

The Dietrich steel joists have been utilized to their fullest by the electrician and heating guys. They have managed to keep all the wiring and ductwork up in the joists by using the cut-outs to channel through, so we'll end up with a 9' basement ceiling. Having the house closed in makes it a lot more bearable to work in during those late nights.

Here are a few current pictures, I promise to be more attentive to keeping this page up to date... Good night!

Photos

Posted by Kristen in Snowflake, AZ on 12/19/2006 Kristen's Forum Posts: 19 Journal Entries: 3 Interview Answers: 59 Average Forum Rating: 3.73 My Construction Website Kristen's Selected Image 12/19/2006

Beautiful front door and sidelights!  --Kristen

Windows!!

Posted to Circle-S_ICF_House by Danny in Sparta, IL on 11/10/2006

Well, it's been almost two weeks since the last update - why? Because it's been raining so much that we have six acres of mud, and where it's not soft mud, it's too slick to get up to the house! Finally had the windows delivered today and was able to get all but five installed... in spite of the mud and poor footing around the house. Just as we finished tonight, another soaker rolled through!! Shingles are 3/4 completed, HVAC is going in, the electrician has real working outlets in the house, and the carpenters are still working on the porches. I'm beginning to think we will not get the porches poured until next spring!!!

The largest of the windows are the two on the back side of the great room, they measure 9'x7'. They were too high to ship with the transoms attached, so we had to attach them together in the garage (level floor) and then carry them around to the back of the house. Things got very tense while we carried those monsters, watching them bow, and waiting for the mullions to snap, but four of us managed to get them in place by walking them up and then securing with screws into the V-Buck. The windows are Marvin Integrity series, low-E, casements - awesome windows!!! All of a sudden our concrete monolith is getting some character and really starting to look like a house rather than an igloo cooler!

Here's a few pics for now, and we'll have more to add tomorrow - if we can get to the house.

Photos

Posted by Eric in Roanoke, TX on 11/17/2006 Eric's Forum Posts: 3 Journal Entries: 32 Interview Answers: 170 Average Forum Rating: 3.75 Image from Eric's blog 11/17/2006	Hey guys, the house is looking good. We are building our ICF house....on the foundation now. Are there any unforseen issues you now know about the ICF's that we should think about? Thanks, Eric  (ICF-Keller-TX)
Posted by P in North, FL on 12/2/2006 P's Forum Posts: 288 Interview Answers: 44 Average Forum Rating: 3.95 Randomly Selected Image 12/2/2006	Your home is looking good. That hard work and planning has paid off.
Posted by Jon in Perrysburg, OH on 12/9/2006 Jon's Forum Posts: 35 Interview Answers: 62 Average Forum Rating: 3.94 Randomly Selected Image 12/9/2006	Looks Great!  I am also planning to build an ICF house - - so your pictures are very helpful. The steel I-joists that you used, did you get them from the manufacturer?  Did you find them to be comparable in price to engineered I-joist?  What about interior walls?  I noticed that you used mainly wood for this as well as trusses.  Any reasoning behind this? Thanks for your input.  All suggestions are welcomed.  Keep up the good work! Jon