Rusk TX Build

Started by dablack, January 08, 2012, 08:21:08 PM

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AdironDoc

Gosh, that's fine looking land! Is the absence of any brush/undergrowth natural there or has it been cleared out? Any idea what kind of pine you got? Looks like you might have a slight view from your place. I'm looking forward to seeing your project go up. Cheers!


Doc

BADB0Y

Great! Glad they are getting you taken care of!
Please excuse my typos, I post from my cell phone 90% of the time!


CjAl

be carefull bush hogging. we found a friend last weekend.
this is only half of it. we found 9' and never did find the head




dablack

CJ,

I am man enough to say that would make me scream like a little girl, dead or alive.  I'm hoping all the large hogs we have around will keep those things away.  What kind of snake is that?

Doc,

No, if I don't mow it every couple of weeks it will revert to sweetgum and pine.  We have brush and hardwoods down by the creek bottoms.  When we bought it, it was winter and everything was pretty much cut back.  Right now I'm mowing about 5 acres with an old riding mower.  It is very rough going and the mower is taking the brunt of it right now.  I do burn through belts quickly as the mower was never made to take this kind of abuse.  Once we are on the property and can afford a tractor, I will be able to brush hog the rest of it (another 15 acres of pasture and pine).  Once it has been brush hogged for a year or two, I will be able to keep it up with a 5 or 6' finish mower. 

Yes, we have a great view.  I don't know how high we are compaired to the surrounding area, but we can see pretty far between some of the trees.  This part of Texas is Very hilly.

CjAl

timber rattler. we dont worry about them too much as they are kinda docile. worry more about the water mocasins and copperheads. altho this on was ten foot long and only twenty feet out the back door and their 4yo got snake bit two months ago and had to be life flighted to houston


AdironDoc

amazing how fast everything grows once the season starts. It's one reason I've always been partial to mature pine forests.. nothing but pine needles on the ground. I've also been needing a brush hog, but as it's not in the budget, was hoping to find an old pull behind rotary clipper and drag it behind the jeep!  :P

dablack

#31
Here is a shot of the new driveway.  There was an old logging road here so it isn't completely new but the old driveway was also the drainage so it was in very rough shape.  This new road is crowned and has nice ditches on both sides.  I'm very pleased. 



Austin

AdironDoc

It's almost too nice to drive on!  :P

dablack

Slab is getting closer.  I went 24" deep and 12" wide on ther perimeter beams, and 12" deep, 10" wide on the two interior beams.  We are going back up today to install a plug for the RV and to check the rebar.  The pictures are from Friday.  We should be pouring Monday.





Hopefully I will have some good pictures of the finished slab Monday. 

Austin


ColchesterCabin

Looking good, the building inspector around here would have required/preferred a taper instead of a trench but oberall looks good, keep the photos coming. Always insterested in anothers build. I always find something to take with me.
Visit my thread would love to have your input http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=12139.0
Feel free to visit my Photobuckect album of all pictures related to this build http://s1156.photobucket.com/albums/p566/ColchesterCabin/

dablack

We have a slab!

They started at 9am and were gone by 3pm. 







We don't have water up at the property yet, so the guys dumped their water all over the slab and then I went and got a bunch of 4 mil poly to put on top.  It will hold the moisture in and slow the cure. 

I also installed a 30 amp, 110V recepticle for our RV.  It should be up at the property in a week or two.



thanks
Austin

Sassy

Looks like you are making great progress!  Nice property  :)
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free

dablack

Thanks.  The only reason we are going so fast right now is that, this part, other people do.  After septic, I will be doing everything so it should slow down a bunch.

dablack

Got septic put in.  That much closer.  Now that we have septic it makes having the RV up at the property that much easier. 






So the next step is bring up water from the road.  It is a bit of a ways up hill so I'm going with 1.5" SCH 40 PVC.  It comes in 20' sections and now that I've got it across the drive, it is going pretty quick.  I've got about 1000' to put down.  It is a 3/4" feed from the meter and we had a 1" line going to a water hook up we were using for the RV.  I just tied into the 1" line about two feet from the meter.  Trenching wasn't too bad.  I got the trencher in Jacksonville (25 minutes away) and they delivered it Friday afternoon and picked it up Monday morning.  I only paid for one day.  Gotta love it. 





One morning while we were up there it was foggy.  Don't usually get fog this time of year.  Made coffee out in the lawn chairs even better.



Austin


AdironDoc

Looks great! I'm on the verge of putting the septic in too. I'm looking at somewhere around $6K as I'll need a tank and then a fairly large leaching field. Did you need a field? What did yours run?

dablack

Hey Doc.  Mine is an aerobic system, so it has multiple tanks, pump and sprinkler system.  I've got way too much clay for a leach field to work.  I would have to pull the reciept but it was right under $7k.  Since I'm out of town, the only thing the county wants to see is one of their certified guys installing the septic.  Of course you can hire anyone but then an inspector comes out.  I figured it was just easier to use the county approved guy.  Not that I would ever use gray water, but if I did, I've heard that it keep wear and tear off of your aerobic system.  Again, not that I would do that, even if I'm planting fruit trees that could take full advantage of it, or if I switched to non-sodium based soaps that act as fertilizer for plants.

Austin

AdironDoc

That's very interesting, Austin. I confess to being quite ignorant when it comes to septic systems but I do know that clay won't drain and that they used to be a couple thousand with a single ring. Now the requirements are more stringent and $6-7K is nothing to sneeze at! As a friend put it.. "my outhouse is free.. your septic will be $5K.. figure out how many trips to the loo you'll make in the next few years and figure that's what you're paying to use the porcelain!" Guess that makes our toilets, "pay toilets". Doesn't seem right.. lol

Glenn

dablack

Yes, I completely agree.  It is a bunch of money but this will be out house when we are done.  Plus, I've got four kids under the age of 9.  I can't imagine those four kids trying to use an outhouse successfully 24/7.  Also, it was the only law I had to follow.  No outhouses.  In fact, now that I have my septic system, I have to sign some documents swearing if the system breaks down, I won't allow it to just go out on the land. 

The good news is, if I was to do gray water (which I won't be), only the water from the johns will be going to be septic system.  Having so little go to the system would cut down on wear and tear.  The rest of the water can go to the orchard (if I was doing grey water, which I am not!).  Of course with so much soap going to your land, you really have to watch that salt content.  That is why one should switch to potassium based soap if you use grey water (which I won't be).   

CjAl

i am 45mi south of dablack and my soil is pute sand. $3000 for conventional septic installed

AdironDoc

Quote from: dablack on June 12, 2012, 12:40:03 PM
Yes, I completely agree.  It is a bunch of money but this will be out house when we are done.  Plus, I've got four kids under the age of 9.  I can't imagine those four kids trying to use an outhouse successfully 24/7.  Also, it was the only law I had to follow.  No outhouses.  In fact, now that I have my septic system, I have to sign some documents swearing if the system breaks down, I won't allow it to just go out on the land. 

I've got kids of my own and I know that can be a game changer. My daughter shudders at the thought of it. I'm having a septic system put in next month, despite my grumbling over the leap in prices. "You need to shock the septic now and then", said the engineer. I must admit being shocked as well. I've got 170 acres of woods but am required to get a septic tank that will set me back at least 6K. Can't get a septic tank without a septic engineer's report before the dig. Another few hundred. Oh yeah, the taxes... All to do nature's business.. oh well.

Good luck on your system. At least you'll never need to worry once it's in.


dablack

Time for an update! 

Home Depot won the bid war and got me my materials for the best price.  I think I'm going to run short on 2x6s because I wasn't thinking about all the wall sections that I would be building.  I'm building in 8 or 10' sections and then my wife and I are lifting them up.  I attach the top piece of plywood to hold it square leaving 1.5" of ply sticking up above the top plate for when I put on the final top plate.  We are having a good time. 

Anyway, here are some pictures of HD dropping of the materials.  I had to talk them into coming up the drive because from the bottom you can't tell where it goes (I like that). 



Then when they backed up they got stuck in a sandy spot.  They had to take the little fork truck off the back and use it to help move the truck.  Of course with the fork truck off the back it was much easier to move. 



Just as a reminder I'm building a one story with attic trusses so we have a 19' wide room upstairs.  The slab is 26' x 52'.  Later it will be the garage but right now it will be where we live.  I have framing it for garage doors but will fill that area in with a 2x4 wall.  I've basically got 8' of the two east corners done on the 26' wall.  Now I've just got to build a 10' wall to go between them.   



In this next picture you can see the doubled up cripple studs that will hold one end of the 9' header for the garage door.  I'm using engineered lumber for the header (LVL).



I'm HOPING that I will have the walls up and sheathed by the end of Aug.  Then the trusses can be delivered. 

thanks
Austin

dablack

Got more done over the weekend.  It is going pretty smoothly.  I spent three evenings up there after work (45 minutes from our house).  I would pack at lunch and then go right after work.  I would get there right at 5pm, unload everything, build for 2.5 hours and then pack everything up and come home.  Lots of work!  This weekend I went up Saturday morning and left Sunday night at 8:30.  Family came up a little later and just hung out in the camper.  The wife did help measure some stuff and acted as the goffer. 

Anyway, here are the pics. 





All that is left (for the exterior) is the front wall.  I will be framing it with 2x6 for garage doors but then fill in with a 2x4 wall.  Later when it becomes a garage it will be easy to convert it with all the framing in place. 

thanks
Austin

dablack

The trusses are HERE!  The trusses were dropped off Friday morning around 9am.  They came on a roll back so they were just rolled off.  I'm going to rent some sort of fork truck or sky track to put the trusses on.  We are having to wait until Monday to make sure it is available.  Anyway, here are the latest pictures.

Austin








dablack

Well, last Friday I had a 36' Sky Trak dropped off at the property.  They dropped it off around 3:00 and I had it until Wednesday morning when they picked it up.  I only had to pay for Saturday and Tuesday since they are closed on Sunday and Monday was a holiday. 

I will freely admit that Saturday and Sunday went very slowly.  I had never set trusses before and I had no help.  It was just me.  I marked the tops of the walls where I wanted the trusses and would set them as close as possible.  Then I would use a minisledge to push them where they needed to be.  By the end of Sunday I only had 6 of 27 trusses up.  At one point the straps I was using broke and I dropped one truss.  It hit some wall bracing and only cracked one spot (I will fix that later).  Then I pushed over four trusses with the sky trak when I was backing up.  Newbie mistakes for SURE! 









All the bottoms of the trusses are now up.  The last gabble truss I sheathed before putting up.  I still have at least a weekend of work to do before I'm done with the lower part of the trusses.  Then I need to put on the top triangle pieces.

I didn't finish until 9:30 at night Tuesday.  I had to use the car's headlights to be able to finish. 

It was rough but I was able to set all the truss all alone. 

Austin 

UK4X4

Thats quite an accomplishment for working alone ! you should be proud