dug & Jenny's 20 by 30 1 and 1/2 story

Started by dug, December 06, 2009, 10:57:26 AM

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sharbin

Hello dug,

Nice cottage. I am too building 20x30 1.5 but with 4 dormers and a crawl space built on cement blocks foundation.

The cottage is now dried-in; soon will finish the wood siding and start working on the inside (well I too have a loft that I already installed the wooden flooring on).

I read your comment on costing 5 grand to get the cottage dried-in. Does that include the roof framing/sheething/metal?

It cost me so far around 30K (the roof framing/sheething/metal were contracted out at a cost of 16k, the rest I did it myself), while to get the foundation/flooring/ceiling/wall and loft framing it cost around 7K, and the wood siding/tyvek around 7K.

dug

sharbin-  The $5000 I stated is a pretty loose figure, I never was too good at holding on to receipts. Also by dried in I meant framing, sheathing, and building paper- no windows, doors, or roofing. Probably it was a little more than 5 grand by the time I add up all the nuts and bolts.



Native_NM

Dug,

It looks fantastic.  It is classic NM.  I love the pitch, the tin roof, the exposed wood, and the dormer.  Very nice!
New Mexico.  Better than regular Mexico.

dug

Thanks for the encouraging words Shooter! :)

Especially good to hear because I was hoping it would blend nicely into the New Mexico landscape, it's gratifying to see your vision become tangible.


dug

Finished all the rough electrical, procrastinating some of the plumbing work, and moved on to finishing some of the walls.

I decided I might as well fit some lights into my wall stiffener beam-



Home runs going out the wall-



finishing one of the upstair switches-



I spent 13 hours behind the wheel of this torture machine breaking out a 180 ft. ditch in what amounts to concrete, though they call it "dirt" here. Looks like the path of a drunken sailor trying to make his way home, which might be pretty close to the truth as it was brutally hot that day and I wasn't feeling exactly sharp. Took this shot before I had to finish another 29 feet in the morning-



I have to admit that thing was a beast though, cutting a 2 ft. deep swath through that stuff and constantly kicking out rocks the size of cantaloupes. I did have to stop every 10 minutes or so and break out my trusty digging bar to coax the stubborn ones out by hand.

From the other end, half filled in with official safety tape-



Insulated and sheet rocked most of the walls-



Tape and mud is pretty much done and ready for the structo-lite texture finish-





I started building some of the window sills out of rough sawn pine. I had to mill it out some to make it work, which would have been a lot easier if my table saw would cut 3 & 3/4 inches, I had to turn it the other way and rout out the last 3/4 inch a kerf at a time. I suppose there must be a better way to do it.-



A perfect fit!



If anyone has any good ideas as to how to attach the sill as unobtrusively as possible I'm all ears. I was thinking of construction adhesive and finish nails? A friend suggested screwing and then plugging the holes but I'm not a big fan of that, plus I only have 3/4 inch material to work with so I'm not sure that's a possibility anyway.









Alasdair

your electric rough in looks very tidy - good job.
on the home straight!

It's too late now but if you had fixed the sills before the drywall you could have hidden the fixings with the drywall. (I hope that makes sense!)

Native_NM

Your place looks better every week.  Don't forget to drop a tracer wire in the trench.  I think finish nails and CA are as good as anything.  Screws might split it anyway. 
New Mexico.  Better than regular Mexico.

astidham

good work dug!!!!
I bet it feels good to be at this point in your build..
"Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice"
— Henry Ford

dug

We've had a few visitors this past week besides the more common deer, elk, skunk, javelina, curs, etc.,etc.

I was surprised to step out my door and see one of my neighbors-



a nice enough fellow but a bit of a hermit who usually stays at home, his pals tagged along-



I wasn't in too big of a hurry to send them home because as you can see I've been neglecting my weed wacking duties.

Late August through mid September is rattlesnake season around here and we have caught 3 of them in the past week on our property, all blacktails. This one was medium sized- about 4 feet, one of them was over 5 feet and fat.





I have always been sympathetic of the rattlesnake's plight. Persecuted, hunted and villainized, when the only thing they ask of us is to be left alone and allowed to consume rats and other small varmints. Though I have stumbled upon a few over the years who I caught napping that seemed rather agitated and annoyed to be disturbed, 99% of the time they are considerate enough to give fair warning and allow you to give them a wide berth. I won't tolerate them on my property though, and use my snake grabber to catch and relocate them a comfortably safe distance from any homes or ranch. I realize I may or may not be doing them any favors, a snake expert once told me that they are magnetically oriented, territorial, and don't take well to relocating. I figure at least they have a shot.

I've probably snagged 50 or so buzzworms with that grabber over the years.




John Raabe

Nice critter tool. That fellow seems less than appreciative of your humane care.
None of us are as smart as all of us.

dug

Another hurdle crossed- finally got my plumbing roughed in!






I won't be winning any neatness awards but I don't think I'll be accused of not using enough glue. God I hate that stuff!



I admit I haven't tried any other pex type but the Wirsbo system I used makes for a very confidence inspiring connection-



You just expand the end of the tube with this tool-



-and slip it over the fitting. No mechanical connectors and nearly foolproof, I say nearly because once you expand the tube and remove the tool you have about 3 or 4 seconds to slide it all the way on the fitting. If it starts to cinch down before you get it all the way on you are hosed, because at that point it can not be moved.

Some pictures of the dirty work under the house-



possible future toilet-



Shower drain and vent, I'm not quite done with this part because I have to fix the wall above that I messed up-



It took some time and head scratching to get this shower drain connection to come out right and I had a premature celebration in my mind about the ice cold beer I was about to enjoy as I was glueing the last piece. As I was surveying my work I was nearly brought to tears when I realized I put the sanitary tee (the last piece) on upside down!  d* Couldn't figure out how to fix it so I hacked the whole works out in disgust and resolved to try again the next day.

A consolatory beer doesn't go down nearly as smooth as one drunk in victory. As with other trades I have attempted to tackle, I have a newfound respect for plumbers.

The offending piece-



The hallway with bath entrance, main water supply and water heater will go in the back-



For better or worse I decided to exit the vent pipes out and up. Until we get an indoor toilet I'll probably just leave them as is-



Now I can finally finish the insulation, drywall, and plaster! I actually got a start on the plastering a week or two ago when a buddy of mine from the valley came and helped out.. He was more experienced, better, and faster so I did the cleaning and mixing while he did most of the troweling. He did allow me to do some.  ;)







My pick for tool of the month would have to be this-



If you are going to be doing any sheet rocking I think it is an almost must have, it makes cutting around electric boxes and such so much easier and cleaner! From my experience serving as an electrical apprentice I can say that on almost every job I have been on finishing up (installing fixtures, receptacles, etc.) we spend a lot of time rigging, shimming, modifying and swearing in order to fix poorly nailed boxes. Then, because those cover plates don't allow much room for error the sheet rock crew has to come back to tape and mud around half of the boxes! I can't figure out why because they almost all use a rotary cutter.  ??? Even an inexperienced hack like me could get great results by the second or third try. Really easy!



And as long as I'm talking tools, my nearly new Hitachi cordless driver took a dive on me.  :( First a bolt fell out of the chuck and I couldn't get it back in- still worked though, and then the charger stopped working completely. Won't even turn on. I would have rated that tool 5 stars before these mishaps but I'm gonna have to reconsider now. Hopefully I can get it warrantied soon because going back to the corded is not so fun. Especially when my last remaining one that works is this 12 year old arm breaker!



I'm just rambling now... I realize that, so I'll try to post back soon with some more accomplishments.















 






astidham

"Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice"
— Henry Ford

dug

BE-



AE-



No more extension cord! Lights, switches, and outlets that actually work.
I still have a bunch of circuits to hook up yet but have enough going to make things a little more hospitable.-



I also got a good start on our raised living room floor, this is my 9 & 1/2 inch block production line-



I used these to assemble various lengths of mini walls . Once I made all the cuts it was a pretty fun job, like plugging together tinker toys. A pleasant diversion from plumbing and electrical work. Wood stove has been moved closer to its final destination, though it will be raised to the living room floor level and rest on either a rock or brick hearth. I want to use old brick but have been unsuccessful thus far locating any.





I was apprehensive to check out the OSB sheathing which had been tarped, but not stickered (for shame!  :( ) for about a year. It looked a little ratty but amazingly seemed structurally sound.

Jenny taking full advantage of her newly acquired elevated status with our youngest-



Getting cozier every day-



I like to leave a few surprises for future remodelers and demolition crews- a bottle of beer inside a wall (with bow of course), and a few various notes and messages including this one I wrote before closing the kitchen wall-











keyjoy

Love the raised floor in the living room!! What a neat idea. Also like the little notes left we plan to do somewhat the same, we put a piece of metal with our names and the date in the last pier we poured. maybe the great-great grandchildren will find it some day when they demolish the house ?:)


astidham

dug, WoW!
I always look forward to your post.
everything looks Great!
"Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice"
— Henry Ford

duncanshannon

looks awesome. nice work!

do you like having the miter saw stand? i keep wanting one... but never pulling the trigger!
Home: Minneapolis, MN area.  Land: (no cabin yet) Spooner, WI area.  Plan: 20x34 1 1/2 Story. Experience Level: n00b. 
Build Thread: http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=10784.0

mldrenen

definitely one of most aesthetically pleasing, original, and inspiring builds i've seen on this site.  one of my favorites, and i'm always excited to see the progress you've made.

Redoverfarm

Moving right along I see.  Nice work.  You can always tell when the builder is young.  " I will never get old and that raised floor will not be a problem".  Just jabbing a little Dug.  ;)  But in all honesty when you get older you build for the future of "old age" because you know it is not that far off.   ;D

dug

QuoteYou can always tell when the builder is young.  " I will never get old and that raised floor will not be a problem".  Just jabbing a little Dug.    But in all honesty when you get older you build for the future of "old age" because you know it is not that far off.   

I know you're probably right, and age is creeping up on me and manifesting itself in unexpected and annoying parts of my body, however I have a stubborn resolve that if I keep moving (and climb a bunch of stairs) I may be able to delay father time for a bit longer. Always the optimist.  ;)

Quotedo you like having the miter saw stand? i keep wanting one... but never pulling the trigger!

Go buy one, today if you can! I doubt you'll ever regret it. You could probably build a better one but I like the portability of mine, and consider it among my most useful tools.

Thanks mldrenen and everyone else for all the compliments. I can't tell you how gratifying it has been seeing everything starting to materialize, especially when I look back at my old sketches and see that though one dimensional, they are almost exactly what I see standing now. We tried to be flexible and entertained lots of options while building but kept coming back to the original plans, not that they were perfect- far from it, but for some reason it all seemed to fit.

Had I to do it again I would make a few structural changes and add 4 feet to the length, but I can't mull over that because I've got to finish this one first!

MountainDon

Hmmmm... room to build a hiding spot for a small safe under that floor. Room to hide arms and ammo too, not to mention emergency food and drink stocks.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


dug

QuoteHmmmm... room to build a hiding spot for a small safe under that floor. Room to hide arms and ammo too, not to mention emergency food and drink stocks.

You're giving away my secrets!  ;)

I never feared fire or even thought much about it until I started building a place on semi remote land, but since then it is near or at the top of my list. Smelled smoke today and sprinted down my drive to see smoke pouring over a hill, trees on fire, and a strong wind blowing right at me a mere 1/4 mile from my house. Called 911 and then ran up the hill to assist my neighbor who was at work trying to contain it, he was burning some brush when the wind kicked up and ignited some dry grass.

No pictures, I spent the last hour or so helping the fire crew rake and shovel hot spots. It's pretty well contained now and I'm somewhat uncomfortably off to work, pulse rate finally below 100.

duncanshannon

Home: Minneapolis, MN area.  Land: (no cabin yet) Spooner, WI area.  Plan: 20x34 1 1/2 Story. Experience Level: n00b. 
Build Thread: http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=10784.0

MountainDon

Glad that fire situation was contained early. I've seen firsthand how quickly it can spread with wind driving it.


We don't burn unless it has rained sufficiently within 24 hours or so, or snow on the ground. I use the "pine needle scrunch" test. If I can walk across the pine needle covered ground in silence it may be safe to burn. If I hear the crunch crunch with every step it's no way.

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

dug

Home from work and everything is still here. Part of me wants to be a little P.O'd at him but I really can't because he has been for the vast majority a level headed and valuable neighbor. It wasn't so smart (he was actually trying to burn away some of the grass) but we've all done some dumb things and though he didn't say I could tell he felt remorse and a bit of shame, which I believe prevented him from calling the fire dept. right away. Glad I did and really glad it was quickly contained, like Don said it's quite terrifying how fast those brush fires move- especially uphill!

MountainDon

Quote from: dug on September 29, 2011, 06:30:51 PM
....how fast those brush fires move- especially uphill!


Uphill is a bi*ch!  One of the reasons we/ve spent so much time and effort in thinning brush and trees and in creating several debris free, pine needle free, duff free, bands across our slope. Cabin is at the top of the slope.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.