Multi-phased 1 1/2 story home project in Austin, TX

[peg_688]

The sun is what eat's it up , mostly , the sun / UV breaks it down so the wind and rain can beat it up. Not much sun under a house , and MTL you'll end up with some type of skirting around the place anyway.  If just to cut down on wind blown crap gathering under it.  It will keep the bigger critters , coon , possum  etc out. But again sun is the major building wrap enemy.

 As far as other comments I'm just givin it to you as I see it , based on some years of building experience.  It is very hard to do that and not point out some questionable  things that get posted .  Glenn road me hard right outta the gate so I do try to be nice , supportive , etc .  But again we are typing at each other and words are just words , the smilies help , IF people see them    We do kid around a bit , but mostly facts are facts , so no offence intended  

Like I said your doing whatyou think is right and the foam is no big deal either way , we seldom use it , unless , we are building on slab on grade , then you want all you can to stop that air infiltration under the plates. Wood to wood the caulking will do the job and in a vented crawl space why bother your purposefully venting the space so I figger why try to seal up a vented space , the spiders , sow bugs , snails , ants etc are going to get in anyway.  It's the bigger critters you need to keep out.

So again nice job  8-) Keep it up

PEG

[phalynx]

the little critters are exactly what I want to keep out.  I can do the tyvek.  It's costly but it is supposed to be terrific at what it does.  I just can't seem to tear it    

I really just want to get my house so "reasonably" insulated and sealed that I won't have to spend oodles of dollars on electricity cooling the place.  I hate electricity.  But, I live in TX so I have to love paying for a/c or end up like everyone before a/c,  dead.     Seriously, I want to cool the house with the smallest reasonable a/c unit and try to save the most money possible in the process.  I would LOVE to be off grid, but until the price of solar comes down, it just won't happen for me.  30 year payout on a 30 year product in TX doesn't work for me.

[phalynx]

Here is a picture of the work we did this weekend.  We have the cabin dried in.  We learned that we get in a hurry and make mistakes.  Like the wonderful one on the front with the siding that was measured at 2 different points.  I learned I don't know how to do facia boards on a roof or construct eves properly.  All in all, we go a lot done, but we learned quite a bit from some mistakes.  We decided not to put the foam baord on the outside sheathing for extra insulation.  After careful thought, we determined we didn't have a clue how we would trim windows, etc.  This bothers me.  I am afraid that I wil be doing it wrong.  I have a great book, one that John reccommended and it doesn't have my scenerio in it.  So I will have to get more information.

The french doors were interesting.  I got the frame of the doors level and plumb and it was out of whack.  I don't get it.  I played with it until it looked like it worked well and then mounted it.  It works but I don't know why.  I am up for suggestions on what we have done.  Also, do I extend the tyvek to the attic side of the gable ends?

[peg_688]

 Everyone THINKS it easy , till they have to do it / prove it.  

Generally the siding courses/  bottoms should line up around the corners , maybe that's the 2" you where refering to  

 So anyway like you said your learning right??  On french doors like those I generally set the sill flat on the floor as you have done , then I plumb up the active door side jamb, you can use the door as a place to plumb , but with dbl. doors working alone I'd recommend removing the doors from the jamb first , set the jamb alone in the opening , split the difference / center the  jamb in the RO, shim behind the lower hinge , then plumb in the jamb active side first , shim behind the upper hnge , then check the other jamb side , it should be close , shim behind both upper and lower hinges , then rehang the doors .

Now you can tweak the gaps / margins around the doors , hopefully the walls are close to plumb , not a lot you can do IF the framer , you in this case screwed the pooch, yes on a remodel I have / can plumb the jamb both ways , then cut a wedge shaped shim / jamb extention to take up that difference , hopefully your not that far off.

So with your doors rehung you can now set those gaps , shooting for 1/8" clearance all around , do this by putting 3" screws into the inner two or at least in one of the inner screw holes , throw away the short screw you may have had to remove , some doors come with long screws taped / stapled to the jamb for this use , I tend to not use those as they tend to snap off , they are cheap screws , I use grabber brand screws but thats another storey.

You'll be able to move the door around by loosing or tightening the screws , you will need to adjust the shims you put in earlier as you tweak.  The level or it's use is at this point useless , you are in a small ball park now and the tweaking is more important than dead nuts plumb.

 A single door is less trouble , so hey you've tackled ALMOST the worst type of door to hang .   a triple french with a active center door is about the worst as you have so much jamb to move slack in the hinges , etc etc that it is a issue to get those gaps / margins just so.

Yes you do want to paper the lil gable end , lap your paper so any water that gets past your caulking / and siding would in thorey drain down the wall on top of the paper, So ALWAYS overlap the upper paper to drain on to the lower , not behind it. Think like rain , make it go where you want it , out / on top and to the bottom and out away from the building, Same thing on the roof think like rain and "see it flowing out / onto / to daylight " not leading it into / under the roofing and felt .

 Hope this helps , good luck and think about all you learned   not so much about what went wrong , but how you'll adjust and prevent other issues .

G/L PEG    

BTW you might consider making your photos a bit smaller , if your using photo bucket select the size for forums , I sort of think PB does that automaticlly so maybe  your using another host site.

[phalynx]

Not a whole lot of progress from this past weekend.  We did some other work around trying to prepare to bring power in.  I really wanted to put a solar setup in but it was going to be rather large investment to grow and the a/c is the biggest problem to cope with.  So, for about 4k, I can have power brought in.  We did the eaves and the siding on the sides.  Put in the back window and the only thing we have left outside is the gable ends and paint.

[glenn-k]

$4K is cheaper than a lot of places.

[youngins]

How far did you have to bring power from?

[phalynx]

I have about 750 feet of trees like the picture to bring it in.  I am going to have to clear it myself or the price doubles.

[phalynx]

Ok, we're back.  Sorry to all who were interested in this project.  I received several emails about it.  We got detoured.  Between work  and life, we just couldn't take it anymore.  I quit my job and we bought an RV and toured the country for a bit.  It was a lot of fun but not entirely what we wanted.  But,,, by trimming down everything we owned to fit into an RV, it was very easy to justify a small house.  No longer will be have to worry about if it's enough room.  The other positive is, we now have our RV ON the property (we have settled down) and are living in it while we build.

We have done a lot of work in the past few weeks.  Spent a ton of money (which I hate).  But, we now have power, water, and a driveway.  We also now have a toy, I mean tool.  We needed a tractor to maintain the property.  This time I bought a little bigger and more powerful.  This has been a life saver.  We have been doing a lot of clearing with it.

So, our story continues with today, we rent the ditchwitch to dig the trench for the waterline to the back and dig the 18" holes for the foundation piers.  We will probably have much of the foundation platform done this week (I hope).  Next week, I start back to work so things will slow down a bit after that.  Plus, we are building the entire project out of cash, so we are at the mercy of timing......  

I'll keep you posted on our progress and upload some new pictures soon.

[glenn-k]

Sounds good - we'll be looking forward to updates.

[phalynx]

Well, here are some updated pictures.  We finally got water and electricity out here.  I ran power to the cabin so we can setup a mini kitchen in there.  Dug the holes 24" diameter and 4' deep.  Put concrete footing at the bottom of the holes and then built up the post and beams.  the beams are 3-2x12's and 2- 1/2" plywood as instructed on John's plans.  The house is 20x34.  We then built up the floor joists and put on the T&G plywood.  I will now go back and put in the 45 degree cross braces  on corner posts and a couple in the middle to shore up the posts a bit more.  All and all, I am pleased with the progress we have made and now I get the start the fun part.  I love framing!!!

[glenn kangiser]

Great job -- and it only took a few seconds..to load on my computer --- I bet the work took longer though.

[phalynx]

Here are a few updated pictures showing our progress.  Those 14' 2x6 walls were a real challenge to raise with just my wife and myself +tractor.  Wife even took a small spill when the wall slipped back when raising it.  Bruised her arm pretty good and we thought she had a broken leg but it turned out to just be a bruised bone..  Thank goodness. 

[ScottA]

Looks like you're making good progress. 

[Redoverfarm]

Looking Good. But with a dog that size you could have used it instead of the tractor. .  I would be lost without my tractor.  I have really given it a work out the past 3-4 years with the house renovation and the cabin construction.  My back feels alot better in the evening when I use it.

[phalynx]

Ha,,  I just looked at that picture.  MY dog looks much bigger in that picture than in real life.  He's only 65 lbs and he won't do much work unless it's 30 degrees or colder.. 

[phalynx]

Here are some pictures from this weekend.  Lots more to do but we are please with our progress.  I did manage to figure out how to get the sheets of plywood up to the 2nd floor using the tractor as you can see in the picture..  what a back saver











introduced spration space between pictures for easier viewing... MD

[ScottA]

Moving right along.  I bet that tractor comes in handy.

[CWhite]

The upstairs is such a great space up in the tree tops. 
Looks like you had a very productive weekend. 
Keep showing those pictures.  Fun to watch your progress.
Christina

[phalynx]

Made a little more progress this weekend.  OSB 18+ feet in the air is a scary affair......  We got osb around most of the house.  We built stairs to the 2nd floor (neccessary to safely allow our girls, 6 and 10, to help).  Cut out all the windows on the 1st floor. 










We have started putting our pics on our website.
http://www.ouramericanadventure.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=20

[phalynx]

We haven't been rushing to get the roof on our place.  I am assuming it's because it's such a challenge.  How long is too long without a roof on for the construction process?

[Redoverfarm]

That really depends I guess on the amount of rainfall or other percipitation to saturate the OSB. That why I went with Advantex.  Mine went all summer and partly into the snow season and it held up well.

[phalynx]

It's done nothing but light rain all week.  Really stinks.

[Sassy]

cute kids!   

[glenn kangiser]

OSB floor was marginal after about 6 months rain w/draining and drilled holes in water puddles in the floor on an apartment complex I worked on.  The OSB was swelling like crazy.  It does not return to size.

Is your floor plywood? - looks like it in some of the pix.