Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[pacerron]

I know this post has been some time ago, but I went back and looked at your walkout floor-plan and noticed you'd eliminated two small vertical narrow windows on one side of the basement and put in a single wider window on the opposite side. Also, what was a terrace in the plans, you are calling a deck. That must mean that the deck will wrap around that wall. If so, you'll have some room below the deck to put in a small retainer wall from the walkout face all the way to the back side of the window if the grade doesn't hold.

Is it my imagination that the SW wall segments in the basement have window frames for the vertical slot windows? It looks like they just left the framing in place and poured the outside wall over the structure for the original windows. Am I seeing things?

Jim,
The SW wall is the front of the house.
Looking from the front to the back which wall are you describing?
The back wall is the one you have been describing as the one with the low "splatter" windows. The back faces NE.
They may still be w/o power in Pete's area, although he has a whole house generator. His ISP may be down.
In any case he is no doubt too busy to mess with this thread for awhile.
Ron

 

[jinman]

Jim,
The SW wall is the front of the house.
Looking from the front to the back which wall are you describing?
The back wall is the one you have been describing as the one with the low "splatter" windows. The back faces NE.
They may still be w/o power in Pete's area, although he has a whole house generator. His ISP may be down.
In any case he is no doubt too busy to mess with this thread for awhile.
Ron

No Ron, you are wrong. ALL the walls are SW walls ((Superior Walls). Gotcha!!!:laughing: Look at the original basement plan to see the narrow windows which have been eliminated and replaced with a larger window on the opposite wall. (see below)



According to this floor plan below, that is supposed to be a privacy terrace off the Master Bedroom and a Study. I was wondering if that terrace has been changed to a deck. A deck would have an open space below, whereas the terrace would require solid fill or a supported foundation. I'm trying to think in 3D and type at the same time, so there might be something I've missed.:confused2:

 

[pacerron]

No Ron, you are wrong. ALL the walls are SW walls ((Superior Walls). Gotcha!!!:laughing: Look at the original basement plan to see the narrow windows which have been eliminated and replaced with a larger window on the opposite wall. (see below)

View attachment 306853

According to this floor plan below, that is supposed to be a privacy terrace off the Master Bedroom and a Study. I was wondering if that terrace has been changed to a deck. A deck would have an open space below, whereas the terrace would require solid fill or a supported foundation. I'm trying to think in 3D and type at the same time, so there might be something I've missed.:confused2:

View attachment 306857

Jim,
I rather think that Pete was presenting the 2 drawings that you are referring to as Conceptual at the time rather than the
finished layout of the home. You can see by the finished locations of the basement windows and door that the plan was modified
to fit the topography of the building site. Even the floor plan of the main floor (your second drawing) has been modified considerably.
He has used that floor plan for years to illustrate various points, even in his own home, which is not like this floor plan.
In regard to your statement about the wall pours and window templates, it is my understanding from the descriptions given on the net
that the walls are poured with the components in place but laying flat, which makes sense on prefab walls like these. The foam board
is on top of the stud and reinforcing components, any doors, windows, ledges, etc are formed in, and then the 1.5 inch thick concrete is poured on top of the foam. In some cases the foam becomes bowed in a little between the stud columns but that just adds to the 1.5" thickness in that area.
I have never been to a SW wall fabrication location so what I said is just based on info from the net. You know how trustworthy that is :confused2:

Ron

 

[pclausen]

Hi guys, I'm still here but have no power going on 4 days, and no decent internet connection.

Trusses have been delayed until Monday due to the weather. They did come out yesterday morning and shoveled all the snow out. I have lots of pictures but wont be able to upload until power is restored. They are there working today and expect the house completely dried in by mid week. Windows and doors are all in.

 

[pclausen]

Hi guys, I'm still here but have no power going on 4 days, and no decent internet connection.

Trusses have been delayed until Monday due to the weather. They did come out yesterday morning and shoveled all the snow out. I have lots of pictures but wont be able to upload until power is restored. They are there working today and expect the house completely dried in by mid week. Windows and doors are all in.

 

[pacerron]

Hi guys, I'm still here but have no power going on 4 days, and no decent internet connection..

Pete,
We all figured as much.. I heard from a friend in Charlottesville last night that didn't get power back till 6 p.m.
Did your Generac 15KW let you down or cstone?
Is it safe to run your new HVAC with all the electronic feedback on a home generator?
Everyone that is following your project is having "Image Withdrawal Syndrome"
Ron

 

[murphy1244]

And this guy runs a saltwater reef system, what balls.

 

[pacerron]

And this guy runs a saltwater reef system, what balls.

Murph,
Please explain your comment.
Who are you talking about and what is your purpose?
Ron

 

[pclausen]

Ron, I do run a saltwater reef system. Power just came back on. The 15kw generator has kept everything running over the last 4 days, including the reef system, well pump, heat pump, TV, hot water etc. The reason my Internet was down is that I have a wireless link running up to a site on the mountain on a fiber ring that had several nodes down, so no Internet.

The 15kw generator is connected to a 500 gallon propane tank, and it was at 70% when the power went out, and is now right around 45%. So it has been an expensive 4 days!

 

[pclausen]

Day 44

Going back a couple of days to the day of the snow storm. Here's the view Wednesday morning looking out the bedroom window

Mom called at 7am that she had no power despite her generator running. Here's what the road looked like over to her house. I got her power going. For some reason the transfer switch hadn't switched over, so I did it manually.

Coming back home, here's the private road leading to the neighborhood mine and mom's new house is on. Notice the power lines?

I got very lucky, just as I drove under the leaning tree, another one came down and landed on the power lines as well!

So I got my tractor out

And started pulling the fallen trees off the power lines (yes I know, not the safest move, but I knew power was not about to come back on anytime soon)

Got a passage cleared and began plowing the road

I then attempted to make it down to the building site, but it was not going to happen on the tractor.

So I walked down

While a number of small trees had buckled due to the snow, nothing had hit the house

I then went back to continue clearing the private road

The snow finally stopped falling mid afternoon, and I went back to the building site