Starting New House! Finally!

[KarolinaKubota]

KennethBrown

Our place is actually way bigger than we ever thought. We can afford it so that is the issue, it is just how it got as big as it is without us really "recognizing" that is beyond us...

Thanks for the manifold pic! So, pardon my ignorance, but what purpose does it serve from the day to day? Anything or is it more for when you need to turn something off to work on it, etc?

Michael

[3RRL]

KK,
It's nice to see another house project going on. You got some nice country there. You're like me in that I'm not too familiar with building practices but I sure do enjoy watching them working on my log home. You'll get plenty of good advice from the experts here. They have lots of good suggestions.
I'm looking forward to more posts and pictures.

[sandman2234]

Most of the houses I have ever been around have tried to keep the plumbing in the same general area. I always thought it was to conserve money while building, but as a home gets older it also saves on repair costs. Your house doesn't seem to have the straight line plumbing approach that I am so used to. Have you seen the plans for the plumbing and are they as diverse as they appear to be by looking at your rough sketch?
As an example, my house has laundry room at the west end, with the kitchen sink and dishwater on that same wall in the next room. My hot water heater is between the two. My bathrooms are directly above/below each other on that same wall about 40 feet further down.
It may sound crazy to think about repairs on a new house construction, but the guy that built mine did, and it was a really big favor to me when it came time to completely re-plumb the incoming water, hot and cold. We actually only cut two pieces of sheet rock. One piece was in the downstairs closet ceiling, while the other was in our bathroom to acess the rear of the shower. A very easy re-plumb for sure. Drain pipes probably won't be too hard either, but I hopefully will never have to do them.
David from jax

[KarolinaKubota]

3RRL

Glanced over a few of your pics on your website! Beautiful!! Ironic, but I lived in Three Rivers, MI for a couple of years!

sandman

The plumbing doesn't look as bad as my sketch makes it potentionally out to be. We have 2 baths, 1 over the other in the house (1st floor and 2nd floor) and just offline from the laundry room and kitchen. We also have a 1st floor bath directly over the sink/drain in the basement. All in all not too bad. Much better than the house we are in now! Thanks for the info! Great to hear about others' experiences. I definitely will chat with the plumber in getting things as in-line as possible!

Stopped by tonight on the way home. Foundation starting was rained out on Friday, but got started today! Back wall of basement!

[sandman2234]

First, I was afraid you would take my post the wrong way as I couldn't word it in a way to not sound so bad! I also knew it might be too late for it, but thought that "IF" you could change anything, it would have to be now or never. I am glad it was just my interpetation of your drawing and not the plans as they are drawn.
I sure would like to have a couple truckloads of that pretty red clay down here. I remember it will stop water and I could use some to build a retaining wall along the edge of my property. Oh well, guess I will just use the sand I do have...
David from jax

[KarolinaKubota]

Hi David!

I hope I didn't give the impression you upset me. I took your advice as well meaning and good advice! Enough that I'll talk to my plumber about a few things as we aren't close to that yet.

And you can have all the clay you want!! HATE IT!!

Michael

[KennethBrown]

You use the manifold to isolate areas that you don't won't water too. This would be useful if you had to work on a fixture somewhere especially a bath or shower unit as they don't have valves. You could use it to cut off water to an extra bathroom that you no longer use. For me the biggest reason was so I could still have water if something broke. The manifold are available without valves (they are a piece of copper tubing with PEX fittings on them) but I preferred the look and layout of the Manibloc. On my house I did all the electric and water from the meters forward. I learned a ton and saved quite a bit oo. I was able to do my electrical like I did because I wasn't paying some one to do it. We also have done all of the door/trim work, painting, laminate flooring, septic, lot prep and clean up, and built the garage/carport. Took us about a year so far and we are almost done, I know by Thanksgiving it'll all be finished. I'm just a poor boy trying to move on up so I had a lot of work to do on my own to keep up with the Jones'.

[hunterridgefarm]

Michael,

The block will go quick once they get started. Will the basement be the entire footprint of the house?

It looks good, keep the pics coming.

David

[WBWI]

Stopped by tonight on the way home. Foundation starting was rained out on Friday, but got started today! Back wall of basement!

Let the fun begin! They should make progress quickly. I think my basement was blocked in less than a week and that was in late December when the weather was lousy and the days were short. Keep the pics coming!

[KarolinaKubota]

Thanks guys!!

The basement will actually be just the left side of the house (see pic DSC_0033 above). The rectangular footing is the basement, with the block that is up the back wall. We are going to go with crawlspace under the rest of it (the rise up at the right of the pic)... The wall to the outside will be studded as will the wall (once 3 courses of block are laid) between basement and crawlspace (almost a foot and a half available between for waterproofing).

If all goes well, hoping (as you mentioned) to be finished up this week or very early next week. Looking at the forecast, same as it has been all summer here - no rain!