We've gotten a lot of great info from your site and your book! Carol S., Amherst, MA

Aaron's Forum Posts: 4
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Electrical Complete

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 1/3/2008

The electrical rough-in is now completed. My electrician worked most of the holiday weekend to get the rough-in completed. We are still waiting on the power company to hook up my meter and then I can get rid of using the noisy generator. This power issue has been a real struggle and I can't wait until we can actually use the house power. It will be such a huge relief when that happens. The weather is supposed to get up into the 40s and maybe even 50s for the next week, so that should eliminate any excuses. 

My plumber will hopefully be starting on his rough-in next week and I think he is thinking two weeks for the job. We are going with PEX over copper. It was quite a battle, but the costs of the material and installation was the overall deciding factor. If he can get his work done in a couple of weeks, then we can start insulating and getting the drywall going. Hopefully by the end of Feb. we will have all of the drywall work complete. That should leave us three months for the interior finish out for a move-in date by the end of May. That should be definitely doable, but we are having another baby in March. We are trying to get all of the color selections picked out before that happens.

The picture here shows an ice rink that we have created. I coach high school wrestling, and we have played hockey about every day over the holiday break. I think this will become a family tradition.

Photos

Ice rink

Finished Exterior

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 12/26/2007

We finally have reached one of our many milestones. The exterior of the new house is finally finished. The stone contractor finished up last week, and the geothermal guys finished the rest of their tie-in into the house. Now we can concentrate on the inside. My electrician worked a few days over the holiday weekend and we are now probably 75% complete on the electrical rough-in. Hopefully the plumber will be able to get started next week on his rough-in and then we can start insulating and getting the drywall hung. We are expecting another baby in March, so I am trying to get all of the interior color selections made before then. We are shooting for a move-in date by the end of May. That is quite a bit of time away, but we don't have power in the house yet either.

Photos

More Stone

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 12/14/2007

The stone guys keep plugging away. The weather hasn't exactly been the greatest working conditions with the snow and freezing rain that we have had over the last couple of weeks, but they have been steady at it and it looks great. Hopefully they will finish up the front EIFS and stone today and move onto the front column and deck columns next week. With any luck, they will be cleaned up and out of here by next week.

The geothermal guys are busy at it as well. The wells have been drilled and now they are working at tying the lines into the house. Hopefully, the first of next week they will be done. We finished tying in the water and sewer this past Saturday amidst a snow and freezing rainstorm, but the guys stayed with it and got the job done. Hopefully by the end of next week, all of the exterior work and ground work will be completed and we can go to work on the interior.

We are still trying to get power to us. This has been a huge battle and they keep telling us any day now. But we have done this whole house so far on a generator and what a pain in the butt that has been. A temporary power pole will be a big sigh of relief. But who knows when that is coming.

Photos

Stone Work

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 12/5/2007

Started on the stone work this week. Trying to get things done here before the snow hits us in the butt. Supposed to be getting three to five inches of snow tomorrow and more again this weekend. Trying to get the water and sewer tied into the city's piping this weekend also. Not too many more days before the ground is frozen. The ductwork guys finished installed their ducts yesterday and we are now waiting on the plumbers to get started. Once they get going, then I can get the electrical finished up and start getting this thing insulated. 

It sure is getting colder out.

Photos

Dried In!!!

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 10/31/2007

Well, we are finally dried in. All of the roofing has been completed and the siding is done. We went with the HardiPlank and I am completely impressed with it. The caulking that needs to be done with all of the nail holes and joints will be time-consuming, but I think it will be worth it. It looks great!

The garage doors have been installed and now the house is locked up and secure. We haven't had any problems with anything walking off the job as of now, and hopefully it stays that way. I have received approval on my geothermal permit so the well driller will be starting hopefully next week. He has to drill five holes at 180' deep, and since this is a rock quarry, we are hoping to not hit any rock. Keeping our fingers crossed. I have started some of the electrical rough-in, but have backed off until I get the plumbing and ductwork roughed in. Hopefully that will happen in the next couple of weeks. The stone contractor will be starting next week and should be able to complete his work in a couple of weeks. He just needs the daily temp to be over 40, and that should be enough to get us through until Thanksgiving.

Photos

Progress!!!

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 10/5/2007

This has been a very good week so far. The roofing should be completed by tomorrow. All of the soffits and fascia should be completed by the end of the day today. I decided to go with the HardiBoard siding and they have started putting up the trim pieces, so with any luck they will have a good start on that next week. I stayed late last night and put in the 4" can lights in the soffits so the framer could finish that up today.

My concrete guys poured the garage floor on Tuesday and did an excellent job. I paid a little more for them but they are worth it. All of the doors and windows are installed now and as soon as the roof is done, then things can start to dry out inside. It has been an extremely rainy fall this year. I guess that is probably because I decided to start building. My electrician is going to start this coming week and I am excited to start getting to some of the interior finish-out work.

Photos

Roof

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 9/18/2007

The roof is finally going up. They started sheathing yesterday and should have finished today, but the rains came again. It has been more like spring than fall it seems like around here. Hopefully they will finish tomorrow so we can get the roof dried in. That will sure help with the rains that we have been getting. Hopefully, windows will be going in by the end of the week or first of next week. Once the windows are in, then it will really start to look like something.

Photos

Framing

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 9/10/2007

Well it has been awhile since I last posted. The framing is finally underway and going pretty good. It hadn't rained for two months prior starting the framing, and now that is time to work, it seems to rain every other day. We are making progress though. Hopefully by the end of the week, the roof will be on the house. It is shaping up to have a wonderful view.

Photos

Foundation Walls

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 7/10/2007

The foundation walls have been poured and stripped. I am hopefully going to be getting to the waterproofing this weekend, as well as the drain tile. Things are starting to pick up speed and moving very fast. The plumber will hopefully be in at the tail end of this week to put the plumbing in for the basement and stub out the water. Then we can start working on the backfilling and bringing the outside dirt up to grade.

Photos

Footings

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 6/27/2007

The footing contractor showed up yesterday and had all of the footings laid and poured out by noon. I couldn't be more impressed with those guys. Very fast and very professional. They will be working on the foundation walls today and pouring them yet this afternoon. I am working on getting the lumber package bought out and getting the framer on board. He says he is 6-8 weeks out, but I have a feeling that he can do better than that.

Photos

Excavation

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 6/22/2007

Well we dug the hole today, and today is the first time I can finally realize how big the house is going to be. I think it will even become more visual once the foundation goes in, but today is a good day. Now the clock starts ticking. I really believe that it will probably take us a year to build. Hopefully not, but I think it will probably be in that time frame somewhere. The foundation contractor starts on Tuesday and he needs three days for the footings and foundation walls. So by the end of next week, things will be looking really good at our site.

We are really excited and optimistic. We have planned for a long time but it seems here lately that we are going around shooting from the hip and things have turned out well so far. I guess that might have been from the planning. Here are some pictures of the hole.

Photos

Survey

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 6/19/2007

We decided to move the construction plans up quite a few months. Instead of starting next spring, we have decided to get started this summer. With the extremely wet spring we had this year, I don't want to try and put a foundation in during the same time next year. So here we go. I had the surveyor out yesterday and he laid out the house and shot elevations. Hopefully next week we can get the hole dug and get the process underway. I want to get the house dried in before the cold weather hits this fall. So with any luck, we will be to that point by the end of September. Well, here we go.

Photos

Garage

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 5/25/2007

I don't think that I have posted a picture of the finished garage. It is a 30x50 with 12' side walls. This should be enough to hold a few things while we build the house. People will steal anything if it isn't locked up around here.

Photos

Beach

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 5/25/2007

Well, the beach is getting closer to being finished. I am kind of going about my project backwards. I am doing the landscaping first and then will be building the house. I just want to have everything done down by the water first, so I can concentrate on the house when we get to that step. The paver patio turned out great and so did the retaining wall. Now we just have to get some grass planted to help some of the erosion. I created a swale behind the wall to keep the water going around the wall, but with all of the rain that we have had, it just doesn't catch all of it.

Photos

Posted by Anonymous on 5/28/2007 5/28/2007

Your beach area looks great! I work in a building that sits next to an old limestone quarry. The residential area across from us doesn't have any beach access. They have to basically drive over to our side to get a boat in the water to fish, so it's nice you have access right there.

Pictures

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 5/8/2007

Here are some pictures.

Photos

Wet Weather

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 5/8/2007

It has been awhile since I posted last, so I thought I would share with you an update on where we are. We can't seem to shake this wet weather. We have received two 6" rainfalls in the last two weeks and things around here are flooding like crazy. Good thing we are on higher ground. 

Well we have been busy working on the retaining walls around the beach. We put in the top wall and then decided to put in the second wall at the beach level. The first one turned out so nice that we thought we would go ahead and put the second one in. We are trying to get finished and complete the paver patio with fire pit, but the weather hasn't exactly cooperated. As soon as the walls are done, we need to get the grass seed planted and the silt fence up to keep the water from washing all of the sand on the beach into the water. Hopefully by the end of the week it will be completed.

Hopefully by the end of next week we will have the drawings completed. I have made most of the changes myself, but am getting some structural support advice right now. As soon as they are completed, then we can put items out and start putting a budget together. We are building a 2,200 sq ft ranch with a walkout basement. It should flow nicely with the beach area that we have already created. We put up the 30'x50' garage last summer, and all it needs is to be sheathed on the inside, and that project is complete. We are looking to build a shed/beach house down by the water to keep water supplies, toys, etc., and are also hoping to build a dock this summer.

If anyone has any ideas on a dock, let me know. I am thinking a 12' long by 4' wide, and I would like to keep it in the water over the winter. Again, if any of you have any ideas, please let me know. 

Well, I'd better get going.

Getting Started

Posted to Gordon-Lake-House by Aaron in Oakland, IA on 12/27/2006

My wife and I recently purchased 1.5 acres on a rock quarry in Carson, Iowa. The owner of the quarry is beginning to develop the area, but it is still very primitive. The entrance to the area is very rocky and unpaved. The city recently just installed the sewer and water. The electric company is working on putting in the power as we speak. I believe the phase one of the streets is to begin next summer ('07), hopefully.

Our lot butts right up to the water, and is the only lot in the division that has water access. Last summer we dug out the limestone next to the water and created a beach. We used the old limestone as the retaining walls. It turned out great. Right now we have a lot of runoff, and the water is washing my beach away, so we need to shore that up. The plan for this spring is to do more work on the beach area and some rough landscaping. I would like to get the work done down by the water so when I am ready to build the house, we don't have to worry about that phase.

I put up a 30'x50' shed this past summer and will be using that for storage when we are ready to build. As of now, I don't plan on building until the next fall ('07) at the earliest. My wife and I just had a baby girl in September and she is consuming most of our time right now. That is about it for now. I will try and post some pictures of the progress.