Building a Home

Porkpal, that's a good one! :)

meet the new watch dog


Daisy, a great pyrenees, about 5 weeks old.

I forgot the mention .........After the floor was saturated with rain, all the seems where the osb board meet, Puckered up just enough to notice. So we thought it would be a bad idea to sand it right then and started on the walls. It was saturated again yesterday with a long steady rain. Not sure how much more it will pucker up but the floor will most likely be a subfloor and have to add a new layer on top later.

My floors are sub-flooring that had carpet which I tore out when I moved in. The previous owners had dogs that were not housebroken and the sub-flooring had buckled fiercely under the nasty carpet. We need new flooring but some is buckled so badly that it will have to be cut out, once we can afford floors.

Thats awful darius. I bet that stinks too.
I never had any animals to do that much damage to a floor.
And= while we were potty training our youngest son and while he was learning to use a sippy cup which were not very good 11 years ago, he made many messes on our living room carpet and I pulled it all up and put tile down. I knew the future would not be good so I took care of it asap...............needless to say I sold that home 3 years later. life is such a long story. I don't like carpet in the living room. Too much happens in there. I do like carpet in the bedrooms. So nice on cold winter mornings.


We bought our windows. 10 of them . Used. Double insulated which is double pane with some type of gas between the panes...?... from what i understand.. . $75 each. Screens included, 6 ft windows. 3 ft wide.
Found some metal doors at Home Depot with the upper half window for $184 each. I am afraid we will run out of money= funds to make the home warm before cold weather sets. I need 3 doors but I am only going to buy one door for now. All the door ways are framed in. We are going to use Black Board Insulation on the outside to get it all blacked in including the two door ways that will not have a door right now. If I manage to have the money for the other doors this fall , then i will get them then=====after I know we are safe and warm for the winter.

Still framing in the windows. Chaning the floor plan slightly to get the stairs in place.
so much to do in so little time.

haven't done much lately. Hubby had an office in a shopping center to paint and do some plumbing in. We get to build more today=====a few more walls, some floor joist on second floor so we can build the stairs.

Here is a picture of some of the used windows. I will clean them later.



This message was edited May 10, 2011 8:25 AM

another

Going good for you. Has Grandpapa figured it out yet?

lol , i don't think so but======= Grandfather had to go to town today and on his way out he saw my big stack of 2x10s that are 20 ft long and he knows we finished our floor so===i'm sure he figured something was up but he never said anything to me when he came back home and I haven't got to talk to him yet. He also knows that I bought more windows and he was telling my mom-=----the girl bought more windows---I don't know where she is going to put them. My mom didn't say a word cause she knows what I am doing---and the hush hush of it. I whispered to her----should I tell him and she said ===no. So, It's still a secret. But if he ask before we put up the joist then I will tell the truth......
We did not get around to the second floor today. Had greenhouse customers all day long and hubby had to go put in a few job bids but we will start on it tomorrow. The walls are complete except for a few window frames. We are i n a hurry to get the second floor on and covered with plastic before the rains on Friday.

Grandfather saw hubby, brother/law, and nephew putting those big 2x10s on the walls and yelled, " What are you doing?"
We had to tell him. He was soooooo shocked and wanted to know why we changed our minds. Simply because that's what I wanted. He just sat on his little porch and watched them work for hours... I took him something for lunch but we all had company so the subject never came up. He seems to be fine with it. He doesn't have much choice.

Those 2x10 20ft floor joist was a huge job to put up. They almost got half of them up. There was many that were warped (crowned badly) and hard to work with. They got the floor framed up to the stair case area.

While the men worked on the house, me and my sister went to town and I bought 22 chicks........they are so cute and fun to watch.

the 2nd story floor joist =====view from my stairs to now where.

The floor joist that sit over the stair case walls and the master bedroom, bath, laundry, and hall way are all set on 16 inch centers. The floor joist that will sit over the big room(livingroom and kitchen) with no walls to help support the floor will bet set on 12 inch centers.
We were told that they could also bet set on 16inch centers but I felt more comfortable with them set on 12 inch.

Wow! You all are really moving along!

That is going to be a really stout house. Good work!

almost through with the floor joist===hes gonna try to finish up the last 8 feet this evening===we shall see. I bet he sleeps half the day tomorrow during the rain spell.

We have stairs.

Went up on the 2nd floor to take a few pictures and the wind was blowing and every time the wind blew it would nudge me and I would feel off balance and it made me sick at my stomach. I couldn't stay up there very long.

Second story motion sickness - your grandfather was right!

rofl

It must make you both very proud to be building your own house. It's looking great!

Yes we are proud. I guess the only thing that stopped us in the past from building a home was=-== we had a mobile home where we would like a house and it was hard deciding how to get it done====and just finally decided to rough it out in a shed while we built. It is rough and I can't wait to get out of this shed. I have a whole houses worth of messes crowded up in two rooms. I rather it be spread out. Looks less messy. Feels less messy.

Just 3 to 4 more weeks and im outta here........as fast as i can.=======though, I will probably still use the shed for a short while-=---kinda like an outhouse and shower room but its only 10 ft from the house.

I have a few extra problems-minor. OUr neighbors home burned down about a month ago and we had most of our other belongings stored in their huge barn. Long story short,,,,,,they were buying the place from an individual instead of paying a bank and the previous owner is fighting with them to take the land and says they just don't want to sell it anymore event though they have a contract========all said=====the neighbor said he got a lawyer......meanwhile we have to move our stuff out of the barn and put it=========????????? I have no idea.........I put a few tarps over my seedling greenhouse and been moving boxes over here a little at a time and putting them on pallet tables.

Anywho======my life is not in shambles like it is for others but still have to work out the kinks.


and the second story floor is 99.99 percent complete.

forgot to post the pic

and i manage to get myself close enough to the edge to take a picture of the grow beds below.

IF I had been brave enough to go up there, I'd been on my belly to get that close to the edge! LOL Your garden area is beautiful!

I second that!

Very attractive! Now we see why you wanted a second floor. LOL

I couldn't do the upstairs when it is open either. I guess it is vertigo but feel like I am pitching forward. I get on the roof of our house with a leaf blower and dare not get close to the edges. I also don't look anywhere but where my feet are. It is the only way I can do that so am sympathetic.

I can get on a roof too but have to stay away from the edge. When we built the second story deck on the previous home it had two purposes--------so i could look over all my stupidity and so i could get on the roof to cool seal it cause I can go up a ladder but I have a problem leaving the roof back to the ladder.
I can handle roller coasters too ===barely the ones that are 200 ft high. But I cannot handle going from a roof to a ladder.


Hubby got a few big jobs to do in the next three weeks. He has to paint the inside of a small house and paint a nice size medical clinic. It may slow down the gambrel roof construction. Sad and Glad. It's gonna slow us down and we gotta pay a few bills and the extra cash would be nice on the house.

oh-----and sadly I wont be able to see the garden from the second floor after we get the gambrel roof on. The upstairs will only have two windows and they will be on each end. The garden is in the back yard but I will be able to view it from my bathroom window and the laundry room window and the back door with a window will lead out into the center of it all.

Hmmm.. same here on getting back on the ladder. Seems a common malady. I'll leave the roller coasters to you though, my dear. Motion sickness here, I can't even read in a moving vehicle.

I look forward to seeing your home as it progresses.

What beautiful gardens Cricket! And your home is coming along so well. Thank you so much for sharing the ups and the downs. It's not something I would try alone, so I am enjoying your dedication and work - and eventually your deep personal satisfaction at a job well done - vicariously :)

Just found this thread. Great job! It must be very satisfying. Love your growing beds. Must take a lot of dirt to fill them.

Thanks for the nice comments on the grow beds and the home construction. I grow a lot of tomatoes in 4 gallon pots and at the end of the season I save the used soil and make a new grow bed. the next year I use new soil for the tomatoes. Works like rotation.

I am very happy and it is very satisfying when you complete a portion of home construction. I was so depressed in that new/used mobile home. I had to get rid of it to gain my sanity back. I was never depressed in the mobile that burned down. I was at home ==so it had nothing to do with it being a mobile home===it had everything to do with feeling at home. But we also did a lot of room additions to the burned home.

After we get the gambrel roof on and the roof over the office and get the roofing felt on the roofs, i will be broke.
It has taken nearly all of my yearly income from the greenhouse business (plant sales) to build the structure framing.
The rest will have to be put together with hubbys income and the tomato produce income. We have 4 months to get it dried in well enough to hold heat during the winter. (still gotta buy a wood burning stove)....... and lots of electric blankets............. I hope we get it done.

This message was edited May 19, 2011 5:06 PM

I have faith that you will. You guys are going like gang busters!

Cricket ~ I am so impressed that you have been able to purchase the majority of the building materials from your greenhouse income. There is nothing cheap about building materials these days.

You are blessed to have been able to provide so well. Another good reason you should have an second story if you want it.

All will work out for you and yours as it is needed.

podster==you aint kidding. wood is expensive. The shingles are gonna cost me an arm and a leg too. Dunno how I am gonna walk after the roof is complete.

I am so anxious to move in...........................i put my iron lawn table and chairs in the dinning room area. Put a vase of flowers on the table(fresh cut from my garden) and set up a fan on extension cord. I don't even have wall covering yet. LOL OLOLOLOL. I am already planning to put a phone jack in so I don't have to sit in the OVEN to use the computer.
Already trying to figure out how I can sleep in there as soon as hubby gets the roof up with felt on............with no wall covering. I just need a roof. hm. If I had a few tarps!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know=======I figured it out sitting here. I have commercial ground cover. it is black and it is 12 feet wide. I can make ground cover wall covering in the bedroom area and put my bed in there................ I just got excited.

Cricket ~ if you put the bed upstairs, you shouldn't be bothered with mosquitos. A friend built what he calls his tree house. The ground floor is a garage and workshop. The second story is under a roof but open sides. He says it is delightful, there is always a breeze and no bugs. They sleep up there on nice nights. I know you are anxious and impatient but it will be well worth the work and the wait.

I can hear your wheels turning. LOL

LOL I wouldn't even bother with the wall covering, unless you're going to have fiberglass insulation in place. Keep it simple, so there's nothing to have to move when you're ready to throw up the drywall.

The interior and exterior walls will be wood siding and using R-30? insulation. What ever the standard wall insulation is.
The ceiling will be 1/4 inch Plywood with wood trim on all seams with a few coats of polyurethane. Plywood has a pretty wood grain.
Everything will be wood..

Charles got all the wood for the gambrel roof yesterday. Between and not counting all the distractions, it took about 3 hours to figure out the gambrel angles. Then a few hours to cut half of the wood and place it on the 2nd floor.
The gambrel angles were figured out by laying the 2x6s on the floor===measuring the maximum height needed= then measuring over from the edge of the floor at the point we wanted the first rib height. We have never built a gambrel roof before and we are not math experts so the angles were hard to figure but finally got it after wasting 8 2x6s. Then the design of the gambrel frame was drawn out on the floor== a pattern= so we could lay each gambrel truss in the pattern and nail them together and place the gussets where they go.
Today we cut the other half of the wood and the gussets.
Gussets are small pieces of plywood cut to fit the shape of each rib seam(joint) and ribs being the 2x6s.

I can take pictures of putting it together for better details.

Better yet= here is a good head start on details.
I took a picture of a diagram that was in a book.

A Gusset= made of OSB board. One attached to each side.