This has been a great resource for us. Thank you! Mike in Blacksburg, VA

Greg's Forum Posts: 10
Journal Entries: 6
Interview Answers: 1
Average Forum Rating: 3.79



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Moving Along

Posted to dream-home-ohio by Greg in Zanesville, OH on 7/30/2008

Well, a lot has been accomplished since my last post. It's amazing how fast things take shape during framing; seeing progress every day is encouraging. The walls are up, windows and doors are in, stairway roughed-in to basement. My cousin is my GC and did all of the framing; I helped set trusses and lift a couple of walls. It had rained so much that I had to dig my footers out by hand, not fun. Friends and relatives helped pour my basement floor (23.5 yds. of concrete) and it went really well; they also helped lay shingles. We were able to do one side of the house on Saturday and one side on Sunday. I backfilled around the house first with about 110 tons of river gravel, and then with dirt.

We poured the front porch and it turned out real nice. We love our front porch. It runs the full length of the house, which is 48 ft. and is covered. It is shaded most of the time; I probably will spend a lot of time on it relaxing with a cold beverage. My father-in-law is doing our rough-in electric right now, and I am roughing in the plumbing. This is my first plumbing job, so I'm learning as I go. It got pretty frustrating the other night, so I called it quits to take a break, and I'm planning on finishing it up this weekend. The plumbing inspectors have been very helpful through my project so far, even coming out and looking at it before I glue it up, so I can make changes before my actual inspection. My brother asked me the other day if it was worth doing so much work myself and if I would do it again. Absolutely it has been worth it, the most rewarding thing I've ever done. As to if I would do it again... I've always only planned on doing this once, because I don't ever plan on moving.

Rain

Posted to dream-home-ohio by Greg in Zanesville, OH on 7/3/2008

Well, at this pace we might get the house done before the one-year loan expiration. The rain continues to delay things. I have scheduled and canceled the basement floor pour three times now. We did get the floor joists and plywood on yesterday. Lumber is to be delivered first thing in the morning; if the weather holds off we may have some walls today. But it is supposed to rain the next FOUR days so I won't hold my breath. It has rained so hard that it has washed about 6 inches of silt around my footer drains, so it looks like I get to shovel some more dirt. We will just move forward whenever we can. I'm trying not to get too discouraged. After all, I can't control the weather...

When To Give Up

Posted to dream-home-ohio by Greg in Zanesville, OH on 6/3/2008

I have always wanted to do most of the construction on my house, and that included laying the block for my basement, but after two days and about 300 blocks later, I'm going to get someone to do it. I'm not afraid to try anything, and I watched some guys lay block and thought it looked fairly easy, was that a mistake! My father-in-law can lay block but not real fast. I had another friend who is a real good mason and he came over and started the corners for me. Luckily, my father-in-law is currently working for a block layer and concrete guy and he doesn't have any jobs right now. I'm supposed to meet with him tonight, hopefully he can give me a decent price and start soon. Oh well, nothing hurt except my pride, we'll roll with it and move on. I have a new respect for block layers.

Making Slow Progress

Posted to dream-home-ohio by Greg in Zanesville, OH on 5/12/2008

Once again, the rain has hampered progress. We did get about four to five hours of digging done Friday night. Saturday was beautiful and we worked from about 7:30 AM to 8:30 PM. A friend of mine ran the trackhoe and I ran the skid steer. I felt like someone had beat me up by the end of the day. We made a lot of progress. My wife took some pictures and we will have to try and post them. Sunday, it poured rain all day. I just hope it dries out for the coming weekend so I can get finished up, still a lot of dirt that needs to be moved around. Digging the basement has turned out to be quite a bit of work, but if it was easy everybody would be doing it. As my friend said to me as we were standing on the mound of dirt we had just dug out of the ground, this time next year we'll be standing in this same spot looking at your house and talking about the day we dug the basement, that's all the motivation I need.

First Delay

Posted to dream-home-ohio by Greg in Zanesville, OH on 5/5/2008

We started digging our basement this weekend. I was able to get a track hoe and bobcat on Friday. That would let us dig Friday evening, and Saturday and Sunday. Sounded like a good set-up, but it rained Friday and Saturday (morning) so we didn't get started until 1:30 Saturday afternoon. Then at about 7 PM the track hoe broke. We got about 1/4 of the basement dug out. Trying not to get too discouraged, I've got everything set up for the following weekend. If we don't get it done, then I'm in a bind - my track hoe operator will be busy for two weeks. On the positive, I don't have to pay for the track hoe so I have some of the basement dug out for no rental fees...

Time To Work

Posted to dream-home-ohio by Greg in Zanesville, OH on 5/1/2008

Hi all! I have been reading on this site for quite some time now. I read daily. Well, it's my turn to start sharing my construction story. My wife and I decided about four years ago that we would start building in the spring of 2008. After about 4-5 different house plans, we are going to break ground this weekend, providing the rain holds off. My cousin is my GC, he is doing the framing and cabinets and trimwork. His drywall guy will be doing my drywall. I will be doing all the other work. A friend and I will be excavating. Many countless hours have gone into planning and I'm hoping that it pays off in the form of a fairly smooth, successful construction period. I look forward to updating my journal as I look forward to reading other journal entries.