20 x 32 1.5 story in coastal NC

[ceabrm]

Hi all,

I'm working as the GC for our lake house on the Chowan River, about 20 minutes north of the beautiful small town of Edenton, NC. I bought the land last year and spent countless hours reading through all your great posts, watching your projects progress, learning the basics of building, and finally designing our small cottage based on the 1.5 story plans I bought here.

For background: I love home improvement projects. For Mother's Day year before last, my kids gave me a table saw (I didn't tell them a 10" was really a little too small!). The year after that, they gave me a really cool pressure washer. Then, they gave me (gasp!) my very own compound miter saw! Such good little children! They tell me they need a new DS game -- "Construction Mama" lol

As much as I would love to buckle on my handy pink tool belt and swing a hammer with the framing crew, I live an hour north of the new project and can only drive down twice a week to check the progress, meet with the building inspector, and pay the crew.

THE PLANS: Added 2' to the length. Raised the side walls of the loft to 4' to allow for more headroom. Divided the loft into 2 really tiny bedrooms, added a small half bath, and a closet. I spent weeks trying to figure out how to make the roof using site built rafters without ties breaking up the open space, but it just couldn't be done. (Long, long story there...I finally gave up and started considering manufactured trusses.)

By having scissor trusses engineered, I could keep the height of the vaulted ceiling without adding rafter or collar ties (12/12 exterior slope, 10/12 interior). We decided to use dimensional lumber for the first floor joists, but go with manufactured I-beams for the loft. Thought we'd have to use 11 7/8" beams, but since I was placing walls underneath, the framer and the building inspector agreed we could use 9 7/8" instead; we saved a little bit of money and added a few more much needed inches to the loft.

Added a nice size picture window to the river side gable, and each loft bedroom needed an egress window (they certainly weren't cheap!). I ended up going with casements instead of the originally planned double hung. I wasn't particularly fazed with the look of the street gable; we'll have to put up an ugly steel carport for the larger water toys, and anything really fancy I did on the front would go to waste.

On the river side, I added a 12' x 18' screen porch. It looks, tho, as if I will have that glassed in, ducted, and use it year round (if I can afford the DP50 windows!) We're in a high wind zone, and all the windows and glass doors have to be souped up to withstand damaging winds.

THE PROJECT: we've had the footers dug, the foundation laid, the framing nearly completed, and the roof mostly ready for shingles. It's taken about 2 months so far, with 5 times that just in the planning stages. I can share with you some of the problems I've had so far, and some of the thrills :-)

For now, I'll just post a few of the renderings to give you an idea of what the cottage will look like. In the next few days, I'll post photos of the progress to date and keep your posted on problems that have come up.

Street view


River view


First floor


Loft

[Don_P]

Very nice 
All of my tablesaws are 10" and I'm actually running a 7-1/4" blade most of the time for economy, don't count it out, for straight rips and trim/cabinet type use extreme depth of cut is not really needed. I hear you on those DP50's, they don't give them away. Parts of my area are in a special wind region as well. I do like the fact that they are anchored in well though. I'd like to hear more about your wind and inspection requirements nowadays. My first experience with real weather in that region was storm repair at my Grandad's place below little Washington on the Pamlico. We did one down near Topsail probably 15 years ago now, just before Fran. I was glad the owner decided to up the tiedown beyond the requirements of the next code cycle.

[ceabrm]

Actually, without double checking code, I'm not sure exactly what they've come up with to satisfy winds/hurricane weather. Framer used double hurricane clips when he attached the trusses to the plates. Took another look at the windows/doors I already ordered, and sure enough, they're DP55s. (Small wonder I went WAY over budget!)

7.19.2013 The footers are in


7.26.2013 The blocks are in, sill plate down, joists in, decking completed



7.29.2013 And the framing begins!


Very few problems up to this point. Actually, the only real issue has been that some of the folks I need to deal with (men...southern...old-school...need I say more, ladies?) tend not to take me seriously. It can get quite annoying seeing as there's very little, if anything, on the site that I don't understand, haven't worked with before, or don't already own ("well now, little lady, you just sit right here. see these little pieces of wood here? we call those joists.") 

Ordered the spiral staircase today from Heather with Precision Pine out of Knoxville. I am SO excited about it; I ordered a southern yellow pine kit, very simple and traditional styling. I'll be finishing and installing it myself, with help from DH and the kids. I did end up having the framer place an extra joist where the center spiral post will be to give the base more stability.

Planning on TIG pine vaulted ceiling, and if I can fit them into the already strained budget, knotty pine interior doors. Picked up the entry door at Lowes yesterday and will take it to the site Wednesday morning. I chose fiberglass over steel simply because I can't fix a dent in a steel door like I can fiberglass.

To the bottom left of the framing photo under the plastic are the LVLs we'll use, bolted on either side of a stud, to create exposed beams opposite the loft. They'll pull double duty once closed in as a place to run wires, as well as providing structural integrity to the side walls of the vaulted ceiling. They ended up being 9 7/8" as opposed to 11 7/8".

[PaulB]

This looks great! Almost identical to what I am planning in the Big Island in Hawaii. Also a high wind zone etc... I hadn't considered the hall and doorway in the back of the house. Also, I'm keeping the loft as one open room. Other than that, very similar. If you don't mind my asking, how much do you estimate you will have in the project? Did the lumber have to be treated lumber for termites?

Thanks,
PaulB

[ceabrm]

actually, it's code to have a front door on the street side for this county. that alone took me so long to figure out -- for a 20' wide structure to have nearly 4' designated for an entrance really made designing the space difficult.

the only wood that's required to be salt treated is the sill plate. the ground was treated immediately following the foundation being completed. about a month after i bought the lot, i had 19 pine trees taken down and their stumps ground, so much of the top 12" of land was disturbed. i'll keep the same guy who did the termite treatment on an annual maintenance contract.

i have no clue how much this will cost -- but i DO know how much i have to spend. the budget is so tight it squeaks 

i'm using a budget based on national averages to estimate the cost of different phases of the construction. so far, there are very few things i've come close to budget on (shingles, foundation, appliances and framing). nearly every other line item is over (electric, plumbing, siding, permits, county water hookup, trusses, windows...)

with 2 kids still at home, and my 2 oldest with wives, and my folks coming to visit, we couldn't keep the loft open -- we desperately needed closed units for privacy, regardless of how small...AND we really needed more than 1 bathroom.

8.7.2013
framing the loft walls


steve, shane, john and jr setting the trusses (i LOVED watching this)

[Don_P]

In HI with the drywood termite problem borate treated lumber is a must. We have subterranean termites but are only now meeting the drywood termite in the deep south. It more than likely will develop more cold tolerance and if we get warmer winters...

In a high wind zone I'd probably balloon frame the section off the loft and the tall gable wall, or the entire structure. In this case there are scissor trusses, a couple of cross beams in the greatroom, and the shed roof off of the tall gable to help stiffen those hinge points.

[ceabrm]

not a single person i talked to in the planning stages, including the building inspector, was familiar with balloon framing (until i talked to my crane guy who was from upstate ny). keep in mind, this is a town with about 5,000 people -- and everyone there is kin to everyone else. well, all except me, of course (city girl)