Texas Hill Country 1.5 story 20x30 with 10' porch

[Chateau Prideaux]

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/spriddy89/album/576460762312058174#page1

Here's step one... clearing the property. Sorry for the blurry images.

The next set of pics will show the attempts to square off the corners.

We have about a 6' drop over 30' (20' + 10' porch).

We're also planning to have a 10' wrapping porch (two sides) bump up the wall height to 12' lumber to raise the 1/2 story up an extra 2 feet.
We're debating whether to use dormers
like here: http://www.countryplans.com/cowan.html
or bump up a full wall height in the middle of each side
like these guys: http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1119804568

I figure that by bumping up the plate height we can get the deeper porches, close enough to just adjust the porch roof pitch to make up any gaps.

[Chateau Prideaux]

Given the time necessary to build the cabin with two people (at least a year, working weekends and occasional evenings), I've decided to first build a smaller 1 room space big enough for a foldout couch, computer desk and TV. I've thinking a 10x12 or 12x16 (which I've built as a workshop about 2 years ago).

This will be the midday refuge during the summer heat and a place for my older son (3yrs old) to hang out while were working on the bigger place.

We'll be out there this weeking sorting it out. Will post pics when I get back!

[Chateau Prideaux]

Here's the pics for the one room studio...

Day 1 - Foundation
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/spriddy89/album/576460762314248410#page1


We leveled the blocks, squared off the beams and then built the floor joists. We used the beams to hold the rim joist and floor joists even while we nailed it together. Then we slide them over and did the same with the opposite rim joist over the other beam.

We don't have anything holding the beams to the blocks, so I'm worried the whole thing could just slide off the blocks. I'm thinking about jacking the floor system up and putting in a 4x4 block into the block with an anchor (steel or plywood) to the beam.

When we dug/leveled teh 16x16x4's we tried to just get close enough to position, assuming that we could play with the block location to get the floor square. Now I imagine all the pros are just shaking their heads,... "what are these guys thinking"... well... no defense other than it's just a one room space, over glorified workshop.

I'm glad to have this little project to (re)learn of all the things I need before building a real house.  :-/

Cheers!

[Miedrn]

Nice pics and cute kid!  

[Sassy]

Just looked through your pics - looks like you have a mighty fine helper there!

[Chateau Prideaux]

Thanks! He's a riot.

Last weekend was a test run to see whether he could be at the props while we were working on something. He fit right in, didn't fuss much and kept everything light-hearted.

[Chateau Prideaux]

I've added pics of the workshop we built a couple years ago... prizes to the first to point out all the mistakes we made.

You can look at this as a cautionary tale.

As they say, experience is the best teacher!

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/spriddy89/album/576460762314608758#page1

The level was a running joke through the whole building process. So please excuse the excessive documentation of the "big yellow level".  

[Chateau Prideaux]

Here's some sketches for the 10'x20' studio.

MS Visio is my friend.  

[Chateau Prideaux]

here's the wall framing plan


seems like a lot of wood, so this is probably overkill. Comments welcome!

[Amanda_931]

Are there likely to be problems with windows that far into the corner? (things like racking?)

I've certainly had a window AC unit right over my head, I think I sometimes stayed hotter just because it was noisy.  Not sure if blowing across (especially across two people--with or without dogs or cats) would be worse.  

[Chateau Prideaux]

Are there likely to be problems with windows that far into the corner? (things like racking?)

I've certainly had a window AC unit right over my head, I think I sometimes stayed hotter just because it was noisy.  Not sure if blowing across (especially across two people--with or without dogs or cats) would be worse.  

We did move things around a bit. I'll post some pics after this weekend. We dropped the transom and removed one of the windows on the door side and centered the remaining window.

Unfortunately, we also made some mistakes early on that continue to haunt us... e.g. the floor isn't quite square. We're looking at this smaller project as a way to remind us of all the things not to do. We'll have a liveable space when we're done, but it won't be a work of art.

[John Raabe]

The prescriptive codes for racking resistance (assuming you have structural sheathing on the walls:

Have a 4' wide panel with no windows or doors starting somewhere within 8' of the corner. So you can put openings into the corner and still get the racking resistance further into the wall.

[Chateau Prideaux]

The prescriptive codes for racking resistance (assuming you have structural sheathing on the walls:

Have a 4' wide panel with no windows or doors starting somewhere within 8' of the corner. So you can put openings into the corner and still get the racking resistance further into the wall.

We're covered there.
There's a 4 foot panel between the door and window.

I've been off the forum for the last couple months working on this studio. Here's the latest albums.

Walls and Roof
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/spriddy89/album/576460762320798939
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/spriddy89/album/576460762379475981

Door and Windows
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/spriddy89/album/576460762379551411