South Texas 24'x36' two story - First Time Builder

[peter_toyota]

Hello everyone.
Intro: I have been a long time lurker. I am a Network Security professional, in my early 40's, married, and unlike my father and my brother's I have ZERO experience doing construction on my own. My father passed away several years ago, and my brothers are half a world away.
I acquired a nice piece of land, 2 Acres in Wilson county Texas almost 4 years ago, with the intention of getting away from the city and start living a more independent, self-sufficient lifestyle. I like gardening a lot, I have already enjoyed my share of home grown heirloom Italian tomatoes this year (god, I miss them now!), peppers, lettuce, strawberries and Japanese pumpkins. I am also interested in solar, and I have a few 270W panels stored away for when the house is built.

Summary: The land was acquired via a county tax sale, and it survived the 2-year max redemption period, so now is mine free and clear. It was in an unmaintained state, with lots of mature mesquite trees, no fences, and no utilities. First thing I did was started clearing most of the trees out from the area I wanted to garden and also build a house. I started with a small chainsaw, and made good progress. I needed to pull the stumps out somehow though.

Broke down and rented a backhoe. Had it delivered. First time using one, and the blasted machine broke on me. It would not move forwards or backwards. I spent a full day figuring out if it was due to something stupid I was forgetting to do on the controls. When the renter's mechanic came, he told me it was an electrical plug for the transmission that got disconnected, probably caught up in the masses of brush I was clearing.
Next day, I managed to get it stuck in the sandy parts of the property... I will not bore you with the details, but I got it out finally. No way I was going to call the guy again to pull it out. I was embarrassed enough already. A big, tough talking guy like me not being able to do a simple land clearing job on its own? I am not going to allow it.

Then, next project was: Rented a trencher and made a trench for the water pipe from the county road back to my property.

I used PEX 1" pipe for that, between 12" and 18" feet down, depending on the sand content (or lack of thereof). Some parts of the property are sand, and the other parts are hard, caliche-like sandy clay.

I got the water installed.

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Next was the septic. Although none of my neighbors ( the two of them ) have "official" septic systems installed, I decided to go legal on mine. It is a 1200 gallon unit with 4 leach fields pipes. $3500 for that. I am sure I could have gotten that for less, but I figured it was only $250 for the county permit, and I already have a "history" with backhoes, so better leave this one to the locals. With my plans long term being going off-grid and all, Might was well make my contribution to the local economy now, right?






BTW, those are not rocks, that is solidified sand. From 6 feet below.




After the septic was in, end of 2011'sh, my next door neighbor corralled me into splitting the cost of running electric along the property line to the back. Since I was thinking of putting electric anyway, for at least the first few years, I liked the idea of having the power pole on the side of the property and not on the front on the county road. So I went with his plans. I did not like the fact that he treated my side of the land like it was his ( I was not there during the week), to make way for the Utilities trucks, and yet he did not bother to move his trash, I mean, his old, collectible, possibly worthless items from his side of the property line as agreed. Like trusting a shark with your finger, only to have it rip your arm off.
The utility company installed the main wires and a transformer, and hooked up his pole. They installed my pole, but I have not installed the meter box nor called them to hook me up, on purpose. No need to be paying for a meter I am not using yet. When I am ready, all I need to do is call them to hook the meter up and its all good to go.

I paid the other neighbor to help me put up a good fence. Fences make good neighbors and since I do not really care what anyone does with their land, as long as they do not mess with mine, I figured it is the best investment so far. That other neighbor also keeps an eye on things, since the area is a bit out of the way from civilization.

Next, I found an used Craftsman garden tractor, which helped me in cutting this

down to this

for the rest of 2012...

Back in late 2012 I picked up the universal 2 story plans from this site. I made the modifications on the pictures I attached here,

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... and had the slab poured on 3/2013. I paid $6000 for the slab, and did my own plumbing. The slab was poured according to this plan I came up with

... more or less:


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Now, its 11/2013. After the hot summer, and the rainy season just now here, the slab came out great. It has only 1 hairline crack on it, about 1/32 wide and runs across what would be the 1st floor bathroom area. You cannot even pick it up with your fingernail. I watered that sucker for 5 days, 24/7 back in March, thinking of all the horror stories of cracked slabs on the net. I guess that truly helped it to harden up good.

Money is one of the reasons I have not really done anything more than the slab in my project. The other reason is fear an uncertainty. For that second reason, I am turning to this forum for guidance, critique and suggestions. I am a bit fearful that I bit more than I could chew with this. I have no help I can reliably count on to build this, so I am now trying to figure out how the heck will I frame the floor on the second floor. I do not know if it would be doable for 1 person (and my wife watching over) to raise full length 24' floor trusses or 14' 2x12's. Based on what I have available down here on HD, McCoys and Lowes, looks like I source the material to build the 1st floor on 2x6's 16" OC.

I am almost ready to buy the 1st floor framing material, but I want to know you guys opinions as you read thru my situation and offer suggestions on anything I might have missed. Or anything I need to fix on the plans.

Again, this is practically a solo build, and contractors are notoriously unreliable on getting out there to do small jobs. There so much big time construction down south in the oil field towns that no one seems to take small jobs seriously.

[Cougr67]

I can definitely sympathize with the feeling of uncertainty. I am in the planning stages of a 1.5 story and already get bogged down in the details. I keep telling myself this isn't rocket science and many others have successfully built their own place. If they can do it then I can do it, right? With the help of the people on this sight I am sure we will both get thru these builds successfully. One step at a time....

[mwhutch]

A couple of ways that I (the Husband) of 20 x 34 in SC, used to stay on top of things. Think like a ant, one piece at a time, the lumber truck would drop off a large shipment and i would just start moving boards and categorizing them, stay busy planning. I put up 20' long floor trussed by my self, I used a back band support thing, and carried as little as possible, lifting over my head only half the truss, if that makes sense.  I am not that big of guy, only like 160 lbs and 5'-10". Study the general building process constantly but hash out specifics of next process and everything will work out, we thought of our project as an adventure not a task.  You will do fine, any questions feel free to ask.          My grammar isn't as good as my wife's, sorry.

[Danfish]

You're off to a great start!  Working alone can be a bit fearful, but if you take the time to plan ahead you can overcome.  Carefully analyze the physical forces working against you and what can go wrong before making a move.  Use mechanical advantage at every turn.

If you don't already have a copy of John Carroll's book Working Alone...get one and reread it several times.   Know yor limits and don't be afraid to ask for help, or as John recommends: "hire other self-employed builders to help out for a few hours".  Money may be tight; however, you don't need to blow it on doctor and hospital bills!

[gbennett]

Awesome start.

I'm in the middle of building a 1.5 story home myself.

[dablack]

Glad to see another TX two story.  Looks good so far.  Can't wait to see more. 

Solo build two story.  Sounds familiar.  I built a 26x52 1.5 story on my own.  Early 2014 I will be building a 26x52 two story on my own. 

When I did the 1.5 story, the 2nd floor was attic trusses.  They were 32' long to give me a bigger room upstairs and a porch on the front.  I used a skytrac to set them by myself.  It was hard but do-able.  My real problem was heights on the 12/12 pitch roof.  It was TOO MUCH.  I was really going fast in my build until it got to the roof.  This time, when I build the two story, I will be using 26' long engineered Ijoists for the floors and a 7/12 pitch roof for the attic.  MUCH EASIER. 

Austin

[CjAl]

7/12 still isnt walkable. Not easily anyways, thats what mine is. Well actually like 7.5/12. Its as low as I couod get it and have eniugh headrom inside even with lowering my loft floor way low.

I have built my place entirely by myself with help from the wife to help rais a wall section here and there and a few days I oajd a kid from work to help with the roof mainly because he is way more comfortable with heights then I am. Build your walls 8n managble length sections, raise thrm and nail them together instewd of building thrm full length. Then they tie together with the top plate.

Its slow, I hqve been at it two years since we hand dug the foundation but its finally got a roof on it. I do have to replace some sub floor but you wont have that prob with a slab and youbwill use treated for a bottom plate since its on concrete. So its all good.

[peter_toyota]

thanks to all that looked over my post. your  replies inspired me to press on with this. thanks for the tip on the roof pitch and the engineered joists route. for the walls I was thinking on renting wall jacks during the weekends to get those up. will definetly keep the updates posted on this thread.
happy thanksgiving and merry Christmas everybody.

[dablack]

Wall jacks are a great way to go. 

With that said, I didn't want to be dealing with a full length wall and lift it all at once.  So I built in 10' sections.  I found with 2x6 walls 24" OC, with a piece of OSB on the top, I can lift it pretty easy.  That was working alone with zero help. 

This next time around I think I will be able to use my tractor and some friends.  I'm planning to do about what you said.  I will build a full wall, fully sheath the walls with OSB and maybe paper too.