20x32 Two story in upstate South Carolina

Started by mwhutch, June 24, 2013, 07:55:47 AM

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Windpower


Looking good !

Getting the drywall done and painted is a great relief.

Makes it look like a real home.

Often, our ignorance is not as great as our reluctance to act on what we know.

archimedes

Nice looking build.   d*

I like your windows.  Mind sharing what kind of windows they are (material/brand).

Thanks
Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough,  and I will move the world.


mwhutch

Thank you for your compliments! It does really define the spaces, and turn it into a real house. We really felt like it would be a huge relief to have the sheetrock up, but it still feels like we have a mountain of things to do before we can move in.

Archimedes, the windows are just vinyl single hung from a company called YKK(same company that makes zippers). They are lowE, and energy star rated, but they were just the cheapest ones our local building supply sells. We've been happy with their performance so far, and I think their quality is better than most of the lower end windows at the box stores.

On the upside we had a snow day here in South Carolina today and were able to finish all but one rooms paint, and built the mold for the concrete stove pad. For the pad we used cement board strips to create an air space with full sheets on top. Then we left about a one inch gap around the edge and framed it with melamine boards for a mold.


We picked this little heater up off of craigslist the other day, it's the same type the drywall crew used, and it can run off diesel. It sure saves us money over using the propane one we had bought.

mwhutch

Another weekend of progress on the house:
Concrete poured in the mold for the wood stove hearth.


We broke the mold 18 hours later




Flooring 1x6 blue stained yellow pine















North Sask

What a great project, mwhutch. I might need to borrow a number of your details. I especially like the rafter braces on your gable wall, the covered porch, and the window awnings. Very nice! What size are your windows on the gable wall that has four windows and the porch? They look like a nice size. I guess that is a fourth detail I want to borrow. You know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  8)
It would be greatly appreciated if you stopped by my thread and left your two cents.
Great Northern Saskatchewan Adventure...Round 2


Don_P

Seeing the durock in the stair area for the stove brings to mind more grist for the design mill for others. We used steel studs to hang the drywall and durock on in the alcove formed by the stairs just to keep as many combustibles out of that area as possible. I also ran the wall up above the stairs ~42" and at the stair angle to form the handrail wall, trying to avoid having balusters and the treads exposed to heat. It did work in that regard but was a mixed bag. what I failed to account for was the high thermal expansion/contraction of the steel. I simply plastered over the durock with mesh tape on the seams, surface bonding cement and a layer of joint compound. The seams have all cracked at the joints in the stove area. So I like not having wood there but obviously the idea still needs improvement. For the hearth pad itself we poured the slab on top of rows of 8" blocks leaving a cubbyhole under the hearth slab where we store a couple of baskets of newspaper and kindling. That has worked well and I've copied that detail on several other houses. I tend to sit on that hearth which is about 12" high, in front of the stove probably as much as anywhere.

mwhutch

Thanks North Sask, we really like the craftsman style, so we dressed up a plain rectangle house into a craftsman cottage. The front windows are 36"x60"  as are all the others except for a few small ones. They really let the light in, but if we could have afforded it we would have more with no wall space to put anything!

Don_P, that's a really good idea with the metal studs, we too thought of that after we had already framed it with wood d*. We thought we had solved that issue with the lack of drywall behind the durock and the ceramic spacers into an open wall to disperse heat. Wouldn't the paper on the drywall be combustible though? I hope it won't be a danger with a double wall pipe to the stove, but we could add a heat shield to the pipe as well as the stove. I do like the idea of storing stuff under the hearth, and having it slightly higher it would probably be less risk for tripping! I think at any rate we will do some testing to make sure nothing is at risk.

MushCreek

Nice flooring- where did you get that pine?
Jay

I'm not poor- I'm financially underpowered.

mwhutch

Jay we bought that from a man in walhalla, David at "the lumber connection." He sells all sorts wood at really good prices, you can look for him in the materials section on Craigslist.  He delivers all over too! We had to wait a while for that blue stained pine, and some is just cabin grade but we call it character.


MushCreek

Thanks- I know Dave. I got my cypress timbers for my roof brackets from him. I didn't know he could get the blue stain pine. I'll be getting my flooring from him- eventually.
Jay

I'm not poor- I'm financially underpowered.

mwhutch

A very hectic month here trudging through the final stages of building. We are determined to press on this month and finish the house so that we can return to our normal lives. At the beginning of May our builders risk policy expires, so the pending deadline has put the pressure on! These last few weeks we have had some great friends and family help us with trim and electric, they have been a real blessing to us because we have become tired and weary from the build. The end is very close in sight now and we are sure glad to see it!

Tile in the mud room


Half bath and laundry alcove


Upstairs bath and Kerdi tub surround.




Kitchen cabinets, the cabinet maker has to come back to put trim under the sink to match the counter height. The plan was to paint the cabinets, but we aren't sure now we like the "paint grade" wood so much we can't decide!








Light!

dablack

Looks sharp!  I really like the floor and lights. 

I also kind of like the paint grade look.  Just wait.  You can always paint them later. 

mwhutch

Well after nearly a year of not posting on here we are finally getting around to posting the "good enough" finished pictures of our house. Looking back through the thread I don't know how we did it, it all just seems like a blur! We officially were allowed to move in April 9 of last year, but even after nine months of living in the house there are still little things that need to be finished. Over all we just love our house and would not have chosen to do it any other way, but building it was not the "easy way" by far. We have been able to keep momentum from the build and have since completed a barn, torn down our old house, and are launching a land surveying company this month. Once you can build your own house everything else in life seems easier  :) We are extremely thankful to this community of people for showing us how to build a house, and we couldn't have done it with out you all!

Street View




View from the front door.




Kitchen


Closer view of concrete counter.


Living room, dining room


Mud room and half bath


Upstairs bath




MushCreek

Wow- Looking good! You certainly knocked it out quickly. I'm still plugging along here, finally getting to some finish work. Of course, I'm one old man, stubbornly working alone, so it takes time. Your place came out terrific! If you ever wander up to Travelers Rest, PM me and we can get together.

Jay
Jay

I'm not poor- I'm financially underpowered.


dablack

Looks good.  I really like it.  Very clean.  I really like the painted cabinets against the pine floor. 

Did you put anything on the floor?  Poly? 

Also, tell me more out the concrete counter tops?  Were they poured in place or are they the kind that you pour in a mold and then flip over?

Austin

mwhutch

Thank you Jay and Austin!
Jay we got most of the house done in 10 months, but if it were up to us we would have taken more time. I'm sure you are able to pay a lot more attention to detail than we did. We would love to see your house one day, I'm sure it's going to be beautiful!

Austin, the floor is finished with pure tung oil from one of the milk paint companies. It seems to be holding up really well. For the countertops we made a mold from melamine that was as smooth as dry erase board. First we filled about half the mold with sand mix concrete(for the top) then placed premade metal reinforcement, followed by regular concrete for the bottom. To color the concrete we bought a pigment mix from cheng. Once the concrete dried and was put in place we used a slurry mix to fill any holes, and then finally coated it with z aqua poxy. The concrete counter turned out very smooth with minimal sanding, and the aqua poxy is very durable. I think for our counters(20sq ft) the whole countertop was <$200.

dablack

Very nice!  We have about 30 linear feet of counter top.  I can do granite myself for $750-800, concrete for ???, or maybe a thick oak slab for cheap.  I'm not sure right now.  Your concrete looks great and make me lean that way. 

Is the area around the sink two pieces?  I bet that was hard to line up!  Nice job.

Austin

rick91351

mwhutch  - love your statement - "Jay we got most of the house done in 10 months, but if it were up to us we would have taken more time. I'm sure you are able to pay a lot more attention to detail than we did. "  How we so identified with that. We were not going to spend another winter in the fifthwheel.  We still have a few weeks of finish work to do. But will not until spring is here and warmer temps.  Then we can get the windows opened up and start lacquering again and doing more finish sanding.

Really like the way your place turned out.  [cool]   Looks very nice nestled there in the trees and the interior came togather very well!!   [cool]
Proverbs 24:3-5 Through wisdom is an house builded; an by understanding it is established.  4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.  5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.

taylorpr

House looks great! I am looking to build the same type of house on a piece of land I own.  May I ask what the total cost of the house so far?  I am trying to get a good budget down. thanks and great job.

mwhutch

Austin,
The counter top is all one piece there in the corner surrounding the sink, the seam there is just where we put silicone between two pieces of melamine in the mold. We didn't have a wet sander to polish the counter top so we just used the small diamond hand sanding blocks, which were not enough to sand out that crease.

Rick,
I completely understand how you feel about spending another winter in the fifthwheel! Our winters here in South Carolina are fairly mild, but our old house had no insulation and only a wood stove for heat. Our daughter(4 at the time) asked if we could please put a wood stove in every room of the new house so that it would be warm. Everyone always tells you not to move in until the house is finished because you won't ever get it finished, but we were plenty happy with "done enough," and hopefully we will get it finished eventually! Thank you so much for your kind words! Your house looks amazing, I can't wait to see it all finished!


taylorpr,
Over all including site prep and septic, we have roughly 70-80K invested in our house. This would probably vary widely based on location and material prices.


Rgory

I really like how the floor turned out in the bathroom by the tub. Do you remember the name of the tile or color of the grout? 


You really did great work, hope my bathroom turns out half as good.

Rg