24x30 Wyoming NOT-Saltbox

[melwynnd]

Glenn,

I don't think it's too common here, but we're working at going off grid(sort of) eventually so it makes sense to have the water source close.

In the summer, if you dig a post hole here, you just dug a well.   There is about two to two and a half feet of soil and then a deep layer of clean sand and river cobbles.  This used to be a river bed.  The water drops down some in the fall and winter.

I'm assuming we'll just have to sink the point.  In fact, our plummer friend told us not to pump out of our crawlspace sump regularly as it will make it a well and we'll always have to pump it.

I have to get the interior kitchen wall up before we can drive the point, so I know exactly where the sink will be.  I've found that the plans are nice.......but seeing it there is better.

Sherry

[glenn-k]

Sounds like a real good plan, Sherry.  Knowing your land allows you to use it's resources to your advantage.  

[melwynnd]

We have four walls!!!!


My hubby looked around and said, "So this is how big your house is?"  I bet he really likes the heat bill though.

Now for the interior walls..............

Sherry

[Amanda_931]

House size "changes" as you build.

Maybe not the same way for everybody.

[melwynnd]

It's starting to look like a house!!  Rachel and I are working on the interior walls now and the stairs(YIKES!! ).  



The west wall.  My kitchen sink will be at the small window and the large one is a half-bath.  The rest of this wall is pantry.



This is the east wall.  I like lots of morning sunlight .  The door we chose is a nine lite door, so there's a window there as well.  The wood stove goes on this wall between the two windows to the south and the door and window to the north.



The south wall.  The big french doors are the only opening in this wall as the stairs and the pantry are on this wall.  But the sunroom is in front of the doors so we should get lots of light.

We have about half of the interior walls built.

Sherry

[Daddymem]

Looking nice Sherry, real nice.  

[melwynnd]

I had a nice little stroke of luck yesterday.

It may seem a bit early to be thinking about appliances since the house isn't even built yet, but I needed to know the dimensions of my kitchen appliances before we build the counters.

I bought a 1941(about) Chambers gas stove on Ebay.  They are amazingly advanced for their day(or even for today), meant for really cooking, and made before the concept of "planned obsolescence" was invented.  If you want to find out about them www.chamberstoves.net has lots of info.

Now I needed a sink to go with the stove............  I decided I wanted an old farmers style sink with the drain boards on each side.  We spill milk sometimes when we are straining and it runs under our stainless steel sink.

I watched on Ebay and found several, but they were a couple of hundred dollars and most were pickup only(usually back East).  

Sunday morning I woke to find someone had hit two deer and left them on the road right in front of our house .  So I loaded them in the truck and took them to the neighbor's draw where we throw that sort of thing.

Lo and Behold there was a sink exactly like I was looking for in the draw.  The neighbors had redone the kitchen in one of their houses and thrown it away.  I loaded it up and took it to find out if they would sell it to me.  I explained the sink was worth a couple of hundred dollars on Ebay.  They gave it to me and said take anything else I want.  So I have my sink!!



Here's my stove.



And the matching sink.  It fits in the area for the sink with just 4 inches to spare.  You'd think we planned it that way!

[Amanda_931]

how fun!

Hmmm.  One of my aunts had what looked an awful lot like that 1932 Martha Washington stove.  This was in the 1960's.

And she probably kept it because she liked it.

[JRR]

Your project is looking good!  Keep up the good work ... and with photos.

Here's a little historical inspiration, John (Quincy?) Adams' Saltbox:
.
,

[MIEDRN]

Looks great Sherry and it's an inspiration. Women CAN do this, can't they? The more I see on here, the more inspiring it is.

Thanks for keeping us updated. I wish you well!

[jwv]

Here's my stove.



And the matching sink.  It fits in the area for the sink with just 4 inches to spare.  You'd think we planned it that way!

I'm jealous-great finds!  The house is looking great, too.

Judy

[glenn-k]

I love the old stuff too.  Maybe that's why I think so much of my wife.

[peg_688]

I love the old stuff too.  Maybe that's why I think so much of my wife.

Your  a dead man Enjoy the couch  

[JRR]

Yeah, Glenn, talk about misnakes!  Enjoy that home cooking.

( "... Oh Dear, this tofu meringue is delicious ... what is that sweet metallic taste?")

[Sassy]

Why Sweetie, you are 2 weeks older than I am   !

[peg_688]

Why Sweetie, you are 2 weeks older than I am   !

Sassy your much to easy on Glenn He looks about 10 years older, at least

You sure he's not your Dad? That's what one would think if you where seen together, I'm sure    

[glenn-k]

Whew-- boy.  I'm getting it from all sides now. :-/

[Sassy]

Good one PEG!  

Sherry, great finds!  And I am really impressed with your progress!  Lookin good!

[melwynnd]

We had a very busy house building weekend.  My husband managed to get away so he helped all weekend.  We also made some changes to the floorplan.  



All the joists are up for the second floor.....HOORAY!!



This is the kitchen.  We took out the half bath and the laundry closet.  The bathroom upstairs will be enough and there's room for a laundry closet up there too.  Besides, that's where all the dirty clothes are.



Here's my pantry with the trap door to the crawlspace.  The opening above is where the spiral stair goes.

The next project is getting all those pieces of 3/4 inch decking all the way up there for the floor.  Rachel and I will be working on the sunroom walls this week if Brad doesn't have time to help.

Sherry

[Sassy]

Wow!  I told Glenn that you can tell a woman was building the house... the big pantry!   has her priorities right...      He told me to "go for it, build it!"  :-/  You certainly made a lot of progress this weekend.

[melwynnd]

My husband says I must have some squirrel in my ancestry the way I like to store food .  But we produce most of our food here on the farm, so I have to be able to store it.  Some people hoard money, I hoard edibles .  Wine and homemade cheese anyone?  The appleblossom is awsome!

Now that we've gotten to the second floor, it's decision time.  I am in favor of changing the plans totally.  We lose a lot of space upstairs the way the plans are now and the dormers are, frankly, a challenge to our (VERY!) limited capentry skills.  The plans are almost no help on the roof or gable construction.

I'd like to put 6' walls on the east and west side and a simple gable roof.  That way we could have our balcony(maybe out of our bedroom and on the south side, so it could be the roof for the sunroom) and not have a lot of angles to worry about.  Basically the house would look like the two story universal plan(which I wanted in the first place but hubby wouldn't go for it, you know we women alway get what we want in the end ).  The good thing is we reinforced everything way more than it needed to be(I-beams 16" OC, 2x6 16" OC walls, double 2X8 beam down the middle) so changing loads won't be a problem.

Sherry

[Sassy]

I am still so impressed that you are building this mostly by yourself!  I rely on Glenn & although I've watched him do a lot of stuff I am still just the "helper" on most things.  I do mostly the finish work - but as you said, sometimes the DH & the wife may have differing opinions as to what is priority   ?  As a kid I used to build tree forts & such & 3 days before I delivered my youngest son I decided I needed a combination bookshelf/entertainment center so drew up what I wanted & went to the lumber yard, told them what lengths & types of wood I wanted - they cut it for me, I took it home, built it, sanded & stained it & finished it the day before my son was born!  So I know I could probably do it, but our place is so, should I say, unusual?    

Ok, so I am making up excuses for myself  :-/ .  But you are right, Sherry, it does seem that we usually get what we want - could it be that women just have more of an intuitive sense of what is needed?    Don't tell the men our secrets - we just use the gentle are of persuasion & sooner or later...    - although there are times you've got to be rather blunt to get it through their heads   .

BTW, I probably have a bit of squirrel in me too.  My mom always had full cupboards & fridge & I always have it in the back of my mind, what if something happened & we couldn't get the the store... that's why I need a big pantry, too!  One of these days we will get a root cellar done, too.  With our crazy schedules & never at one place on a permanent basis, it is difficult to have goats or cows etc.  Our chickens are somehow getting picked off by a coyote or raccoons, one by one.  I think we might have lost our sweet little one eyed vagrant cat, Tobey, this last time we were gone for 2 weeks - the raccoons had gotten into the house & eaten the cat food - we had a neighbor checking on him, but haven't seen him since we've been back  :'( .

Amanda always amazes me with her wealth of knowledge on just about anything.  Amanda, tell us what all you have done over the years?  Inquiring minds want to know!  

[Amanda_931]

I sometimes swear I've done one of everything in the way of a job.  It comes closer than I'd like, sometimes.  

but in the early 70's there were some gov't apprenticeship training programs available for "trades."  So I took the carpenter one--sponsored partly by the Natn'l Ass'n of Home Builders.  Then had a heck of a time finding a job.  Eventually started doing small remodeling jobs.  Eventually worked in an auto parts store, did oil changes and changed batteries at Sears, then ended up on the line at Peterbilt--I was actually there long enough to retire.

And those are only some--left out record stores, book stores, cleaning fish, working for a commercial photographer, and a bunch more.

All on top of being an overeducated bum.

And now I've got someone helping me again a couple of days a week.  Which I need badly, for motivation as much as anything else (although I'm perceptibly getting older).  Getting a bunch of yard work done (I hate yard work) got a tiny greenhouse kit to build up the hill, need to mulch and plant the field up the hill with plants to a) help rebuild the soil, which doesn't look great and b) hold down the blackberries and privet.  And an earth oven, and a bigger place to live!

Leaning more and more towards being "really green."  But I've got a ways to go.

[Sassy]

Lots of practical jobs that are helpful for what you are wanting to do now, plus a lot of good info that helps out others   .  Yard work has its pros & cons - if I've been working for several days in the "dungeon" (our ER is in the basement - unlike our underground cabin - no windows & sometimes I work up to 16 hr shifts if we are really slammed) - then I like to get outside & work in the garden or the yard.  Trying to keep blackberries controlled is another thing... when I lived in Washington state we had meadows behind the house full of blackberries - I didn't mind that cuz I used to pick them & make jam, pies & freeze them + they were free   didn't have much money...  :-/ & didn't have to try to clear them out either...  I have about 3 more years until I can retire from nursing - then I can work as much or little as necessary - yea!  

I know what you mean when you get a helper - sometimes Glenn & I can't get the energy to get off our tushes to get work done on the place - we'd rather sit in our recliners reading CountryPlans!  :-/ or surfing the net (myself, I also like a good book).  Anymore, I have so much arthritis I feel like an old lady (but I guess DH & I ARE getting a bit older as he so kindly alluded to     )

Its always interesting learning about the people on the forum.  

[glenn-k]

Sassy said,

I guess DH & I ARE getting a bit older as he so kindly alluded to

I said you were---- I can still climb around like the monkey boy. :-/