Victoria Cottage NE TN

[speedfunk]

Nice land,house and pallet shelter! 

[NavyDave]

Thanks to all for the kudos!

Abbey, the gas fittings that I posted pics of, I believe on the first page of the thread, are a spent natural gas well (no pressure) and a pressure reducing valve that probably fed an old structure that's long been demolished. This property is part of what used to be a 200 acre farm that's been subdivided for quite some time now. in the general vicinity of that pressure reducer there is some old feeding troughs and some other barn related implements so i'm sure there was an old barn that it fed at one time.

[Abbey]

Dave,

Is this something you can remove, or is it something you're going to have to live with? I guess what I'm getting at is will this impact your plans for the land, i.e. farming, live stock, etc.?

[NavyDave]

Abbey, probably will just live with it since it's in the pasture area and not really an eye sore or nuisance very much at all. Last year it was kind of a nuisance to bush hog around (as it will be this year) but when the fencing and barn goes in i'll just let whatever livestock (probably goats, sheep and pigs to start with) take care of keeping the grass down around it.

[Redoverfarm]

Abbey, probably will just live with it since it's in the pasture area and not really an eye sore or nuisance very much at all. Last year it was kind of a nuisance to bush hog around (as it will be this year) but when the fencing and barn goes in i'll just let whatever livestock (probably goats, sheep and pigs to start with) take care of keeping the grass down around it.

Dave if you want it up the pigs will probably root it up for you.   

[Abbey]

Dave,

Cool, I was wondering if it would be a problem, but it looks like for you, at least, it's a minor issue that you can live with.

[NavyDave]

Red, I hear pigs can do wonders on a farm.....you want a tree stump gone? Pour a bucket of corn around it and a week or so later all the roots will be exposed. If it's a real big stump then just pour in another bucket. If only I could figure out a way to get pigs to build a house   

[Abbey]

My understanding, at least with pig contractors, is you only want the brick house. Unless hungry wolves are not an issue in your location. 

[NavyDave]

Did a few things since my last post:


Finished putting the metal on the roof.




Finished framing the chicken coop, built doors and covered the run with netting. 24x24


built roosts inside.


Finished running the lighting wires through conduit in the loft beams.




AND got the floor that I polyurethaned this winter installed.

[GSPDOG]

Dave a newcomer myself thanks for the welcome earlier and thank you for your service.  I am not sure what it is about us old military guys wanting to move to the peace and quite of the country, but it seems to be a trend.  

This site and reading the post from various contributors has a welcome wealth of information and perspectives.

I love the place very nice work.  You and I seem to have the same ideas about chicken runs as well.  Looks similar to what I was planning as well.  Just not that far down the road yet.   

[tcampbell]

We just received our victoria plans. Love all your covered porch areas. I was wondering is you could post your floor plan so I can see the modifications you made. Thanks

[NavyDave]

Tcampbell,
To be honest I don't have any hard copies of any modifications, they are mainly in my head. My wife can attest that I've spent many near sleepless nights working through the details of any changes in my own "thought experiments". I'll try to cover the changes that I made though and will be glad to clarify later if you have questions.

First and probably most obvious is the kitchen/dining area roof. Instead of continuing the 12/12 pitch over the kitchen/dining area and terminating at the exterior wall I made the pitch change to a 5/12 starting at the kitchen roof beam that sits on top of the main 6x6 kitchen post. This 5/12 pitch change worked for me to give me a 7 foot porch in front of the kitchen/dining area and a 12 foot porch in front of the living room area while giving a 6' 8" clearance at the porch beam to allow for a future stairway down to the yard (which I believe I've changed my mind about now) the change in roof pitch gives a real open feel to the kitchen and dining area.

The next change is pretty simple, I just extended the roof of the side (back?) porch to be 16 feet wide for 2 reasons. First the utility room  will be accessed from outside and the roof extension will keep me dry if I need to access it in the rain. Second I think it looks real good! 

The last change is that I extended the bedroom by 2 feet to 16 feet long vice 14 feet (add another 2 feet for the bumpout totalling 18 feet) I did this because a portion of the bedroom will be taken up by a walk in shower that will be accessed from the bathroom. I also added a 6 foot opening in the bedroom for sliding glass door which will access the side 8 foot deck.

One last change is that in the kitchen instead of separating the kitchen and dining area with a bar I'm continuing the kitchen cabinets the entire 16 feet to the dining area wall and using an island where the bar is in the plans.

Feel free to ask for clarification if I was vague in any areas. I'll be posting some more pics of the loft railing soon...it's looking good. Good luck with your project. It's been alot of hard work and a lot of fun on my end.

[John Raabe]

Nice craftsmanship NavyDave. A very handsome deck job. You have done a lot of things well.

[Jeff922]

REALLY NICE ND!!!!!  This is an amazing project...it might be my favorite on CountryPlans. 

[tcampbell]

Navy Dave,
Thanks for the info. We are still in the planning process and really love your build so please keep the pictures coming. I'll probably have lots more questions as we begin. Thanks

[NavyDave]

Thanks for all the compliments, Tcampbell I'll try to be as much help as I can but i'm no pro.....just real stubborn sometimes 

Jeff, Your build is one of my favs on here also....I've taken a lot of info from your thread and my project wouldn't be what it is without your help....thanks.

As promised I have some new progress pics:


The smaller loft will be my daughter's room. I framed the wall on the North side of the bridge to have an "interior window" in it (no window pane just for looks) There will be a bunk bed above the "window" and a desk below it so she can look down at the living space. The room will be "sided" using the rounded log siding to give an appearance of an exterior wall and we will have shutters on the "window" to finish off the look. As you see she likes the idea. A pocket door will be framed on the adjacent wall. As a side note, check out the way the evening sun shines directly on the loft bridge through the West window.

My railing is made from yellow pine (like my beams) 4x4 stock. The top of the horizontal support is at 38 inches and the post supports rise another 2 inches to an overall height of 40 inches. Like several others on countryplans I used 1/2 inch rebar as my spindles. Mine are spaced at 4 inch OC which gives a 3 1/2 inch opening. Primed and painted with semi gloss black to match all of my beam supporting hardware. This was a really fun project which took a total of 9 days.....very well worth it since the look is exactly what was desired and more!


This is a view from the larger sleeping loft.


looking up from what will be the kitchen.


6x6 kitchen support post detail.


Taken from the smaller loft.




Framed pocket door in the upstairs bedroom.

[ColchesterCabin]

Fantastic Dave, it looks amazing. I was out today and redid some measurements so I can start to put my yearly plan together. I hope you don't mind but I am going to borrow  the looks of your railings. Hopefully this year we might see some progress on mine... keep up the excellent work!

[NavyDave]

Colchester,

Glad you are finally thawed out up there enough to get busy on your place. I'm excited to see what you have in store for us this year. As far as borrowing my railing look....go for it...I borrowed it too  it's a really cheap way to go and the black spindles look REALLY good next to the blond wood. Looking forward to seeing your progress!

[love2teach7]

Wow! This makes me want to start my project ASAP... I'm just wondering... I plan on building the Builder's Cottage it's 14 x 24... I haven't purchased the plans yet but I want to make sure I can make a loft with enough headroom as yours has... at least 6'-7'. I'm also wondering if I have a loft that is 13' x 7'6" size loft... can I make the loft with a height of 6'-7'? And what is the height of your loft at the edges where the walls are... meaning the lowest point? I want to make sure I can fit a double/queen size bed as well as a dresser and any other additional storage. Would really appreciate your advice/opinion. Thanks for all the pics... so inspiring!


Dawn

[NavyDave]

Love2teach7,
My loft knee walls are at 54" and my ceiling height is 7'3". I would think that it's doable to make the 14x24 builders cottage with a loft height of 6'7" but am not sure if you could do it using collar ties in the bottom 1/3rd of the rafter like is traditional. You could definitely do it using a ridge beam though and that would look awesome! Some of the projects that come to mind for you to check out that you might be interested in are:

14x24 Olympic Peninsula - Considerations built/is building this and she used the space very efficiently.

14x24 by a lurker - Oljarhead's project

Vermont 10x16 shed with loft - built by Rich2vermont, I believe he put a queen sized bed in his 10 foot wide loft by using a ridge beam. He also used a wrap around porch to make his small space look quite a bit larger. Something that would look great on a 14x24 also.

Another project you might want to look at (one that was a big inspiration to me) is Deer Run - 16x26 Oklahoma. ScottA built this. It's a little wider than the 14x24 at 16' but would definitely be possible to attain your loft height and still use the collar tie method. If you went this route you'd need to go with the Victoria cottage plans.

With all of that said I'd post a question on the General forum for JRaabe or MountainDon or some of the more experienced guys to lead you to which plans might be best for you. Some of the things that you might want to include are location and snow load. These things will make a difference when you start thinking about roof construction. I hope I've helped lead you to a place that will answer your questions.

[love2teach7]

Thanks Dave, I'll look into it!

[NavyDave]

More progress! I passed my rough electrical inspection last Friday  I won't take credit for that one though. I used a local electrician/plumber with a good reputation and he roughed us in for $675 in labor costs. I'll also use him for my final Electrical and plumbing for another $675, which I think is a really good deal. I figured since my electrical would require an inspection that I'd rather the inspector know the reputation of the person doing the install. I'm sure if I did it myself the inspection would have been much more thorough.

After the inspection was done I was able to start covering framing up so I spent the last 2 days insulating the attic and roof with a radiant barrier foil insulation. This is a newer product called Prodex that is similar to double bubble insulation but with a better performance rating. It's supposedly rated anywhere from R-7 to R-16 depending on the application.




I stapled the radiant barrier between my ceiling joists leaving a 1 inch space between the insulation and the roof to allow for venting.




Then above my collar ties in the attic I stapled another layer to the underside of the roof rafters leaving another 5 1/2 inches of dead air space. I left a 4 inch space at the peak to vent the warm air. I'll be using R-19 Batt insulation between the rafters that are below the attic and will use R-19 batts in the walls without the radiant barrier.




completed attic. I'll be blowing in cellulose insulation once the tongue in groove ceiling is installed.

[NavyDave]

Busy busy....Lots of good progress at the homestead in the last couple of weeks. I took about a week putting R-19 batt insulation into the walls. It was pretty muggy so I could only stand working for about 2 hours at a time before the fiberglass started getting into my pores and irritating me. Got it done though and the difference in comfort levels in the place is amazing.

after the insulation I could FINALLY start the wall finishing phase and I installed wainscoating and trim. Very happy with how this looks. I ripped some furring strips out of my 2x8 rafters tails that were 1/4" thick to fasten the tongue and groove wainscoating. My bottom trim (5 1/2" wide) and my top trim piece (3 1/2" wide) were fastened to a furring strip that was 1/2" thick to give the appearance of the trim standing out 1/4".







I also had a local dry waller come in to hang my drywall in the main portion of the house. The labor for hanging 33 4x12 sheets was $275....for that price I'd be crazy to do it myself. I'm also going to pay to have it taped and finished after the 4th of July holiday.


Built in that is the same height as my kitchen counters will be (36") and will be topped with concrete countertop to match the kitchen.







After the drywall I started to finish the accent wall on the outside of the upstairs bedroom above the living area. I used exterior log siding to get the look I wanted and really like how it's turning out. I'll have to finish this after the Holiday.

[ColchesterCabin]

It's look good Dave! I like the wood look at the bottom of the wall. You should be pumped!

[archimedes]

Looking good.   

Hard to believe they can get R-16 out of that thin layer of insulation.  Pretty amazing,  if true.