Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Oops!!!

So I haven't even shown you what the house will look like!  Sheesh!!!

Here is the exterior:
 


And the floor plan:
 
 
Only 848 sq ft!  Very compact, but that is exactly what I need.  One person and a few animals does not need a ginormous house.

There are a few changes that we have made to the plan:

  • no exterior door coming into the bathroom (weird)
  • moved that door to the end of the walk in closet  (which is more of a storage / laundry room) on the left
  • switched the bathroom and the bedroom closet in order to have all the plumbing closer to the exterior of the house
  • moved the sink to the left side of the kitchen and centered the window above it
  • lowered the pitch and height of the roof because it was absurdly tall
Hope you like it as much as I do!


Days 1 - 14

We began this house-building project back in May, however we're only on day 14 of the project.  How?  Since my dad works full time and I am no good working alone (even on summer break) we only work every other Friday and every Saturday.  So while it seems to me that we have been working for months, we've only been working a couple of weeks!

The house is being built on land that my parents own.  They are putting up the money to build the house and I will pay rent.  Eventually it will become a guest house when they build their own close by.

This is what the spot looked like when we began:

(try to remember that pretty green grass...you won't see it for awhile!)

The first order of business was to remove several stumps from pine trees that we had recently cut down and a few older ones that had been there for years.  We rented an excavator for a week and my dad spent days digging up those stumps. It is amazing how deep and wide tree roots go!!!



After the stumps were gone and the holes filled in, we had to smooth the ground back out as much as we could.  We already knew we were going to have dirt brought in to raise the house up slightly, but we wanted a level base for everything to sit on.

Later in the week we had 3 or 4 truckloads of dirt brought in and Dad used the excavator to dig a trench around the foundation and to pack down the dirt and even it out.


Next we began setting up the forms for the foundation.  Whoever says that you don't use algebra and such after high school has obviously never built a house.  Trying to make sure that everything was square required LOTS of formulas and measuring!  We built the braces (the pink things) back at my dad's house as well as made stakes from rebar to help anchor them to the ground.  We used 2 x 12s first to attach to the braces then went back with 2 x 6s and filled in the gap at the ground level.  We also had to account for the front and  side porches of the house.  The porch will be slightly lower that the rest of the foundation and we had to lower the level of the top board to reflect this.






Once the form was finished we had to go back and level the dirt on top and in the trench.  I do not have any pictures of this step because I was convinced I would die soon after and the pictures would not be needed.
Seriously.  We start working as soon as the sun rises, but it doesn't take long for the temps to reach the 90s. Hydration and breaks are key!

So we were moving right along!  We then lined the entire thing (trenches and all) with heavy duty plastic and began working on the rebar.  No more shoveling dirt!  I was super excited!

And then it rained.  And rained.  And rained.

As in deluge.  For a couple of weeks.  With no stopping.

And the dirt surrounding the trench just couldn't handle it.


So the wonderful plastic that we lined the foundation with is now hiding mounds of dirt that have collapsed due to the rain.

(it's kinda hard to see, but the plastic should be going straight down on the left side...not pushed toward the middle due to the dirt)

So we're at a standstill.  We lost 2 days of working due to the rain (which is a LOT) and now we have to go back and repair the damage before moving forward.

I know this isn't the last setback that we'll have, but it really just SUCKS to have things out of your control.

Anyway...hopefully we'll get moving again soon!






Back It Up

Since I started this blog after beginning the house project, I need to go back in time and tell about what we have done so far.  The next post will tell how many days we have worked and what we have accomplished so far.  Plus the setback we've already encountered :(

Friday, July 13, 2012

Hi!  Just wanted to give a quick introduction about my new blog...

I am currently in the early stages of building a new house.  Mind you, when I say that I am building, that is EXACTLY what I mean!  My dad and I are doing most of the work ourselves.  There will be a few things (like pouring the foundation) that we will contract out, but for the most part we are doing all of the work.

I could not be happier about this adventure!  I will give a little background about my current living situation in the future.  Thanks for following along on my journey! 

Thursday, July 12, 2012