Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[pclausen]

Mom sold he current house and needs to be out of there by May 1st (she's currently renting it from the new owners, which is kind of strange).

We have signed a contract with a builder that claims they will have the house ready to move into in 90 days from when the foundation is in place. This will be a custom stick frame with stick trusses. Fairly small at 1550 sq. ft., but with a full basement and attached garage. This is what it will (hopefully) resemble once completed:



And the back side. The ground has quite a bit of slope and there will be a walk out basement with a deck above it that those sliding glass doors will open up to:



The parcel of land is 6 acres and densely wooded with mature 80ft+ lob-lollies (Southern Yellow Pine). I have been doing what I could to begin clearing the land prior to the construction company coming in with their excavator and dozer.

I figured I might as well start a thread to document the whole thing and ask advice as needed. Mom is 78, dad passed away last year (which is why she sold her current place), and the land is within walking distance of my place, so I'll be able to keep a close eye on everything daily.

We started out getting the land perked and the well drilled before purchasing (the study period) the parcel. Here's a shot of the well drilling truck in the middle of the woods doing the well. It flowed 9+ gpm at 200'. Wohoo!



Once all that checked out and mom purchased the lot, I began clearing it. I started cutting down trees and pulling them out:



Cutting them up 16' 6" sections and loading them onto the trailer to take to the mill:





I then chipped the tops and branches and hauled them away to be used for mulch later:



Mulch pile is pretty decent already. (I'm dropping them on my lot for now)



So after working on this for many weekends, and hauling 10 loads of woods to mill, I had barely made a dent...



So on Tuesday of this week, they dropped of the Case CX130:



On Wednesday, the cousin showed up:



By that afternoon, they already had a serious log pile going:



Amazing progress in a single day!



By day 3 (day before yesterday), the entire site for the house was cleared!



And by this morning, they had most of the septic drain field cleared as well. You can make out the well head in the far left of this shot. Quite a change from the first picture!



The log piles are getting out of hand!



Wait, there's another one they started!



I loaded what I could carry for another trip to the mill Monday, but it's going to take me a while to catch up.



Wow, they just might get this house done in 90 days!

[Sebculb]

What a lot of beautiful wood! Good luck with everything.

[dave1949]

Nice! It's going to be close. Figuring Feb.-Mar.-Apr for the 90 days, doesn't leave much time for the foundation work.

You could pack your Mom up, leave her goods in storage, and send her on a vacation for a couple weeks in May.

[pclausen]

That's not a bad idea!

They are using Superior Walls for the basement/foundation, so that should speed things up somewhat compared to a cinder block/poured foundation. It's pretty neat stuff:

[texasjohn]

Wonderful photo journal...best of luck with it all!!!

[BuzzardA91]

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[SPIKER]

Wondering are ya getting any of that great building lumber graded & back to build with??? With those trees ya could have had a BIG cabin well keep up the good work & 90 days is not out of reason. We used to be onsite for less than a week hanging, finishing & painting homes that size. basement & framing could be done in similar time frame with a crew of 5 men. it was not uncommon to have similar sized homes done in 2.5 ~ 3 months up here.

Mark

[Diamondpilot]

This thread is going to have a big following. Good luck

Chris

[pclausen]

Wondering are ya getting any of that great building lumber graded & back to build with??? With those trees ya could have had a BIG cabin

Well, talked to the builder about this at the beginning, and his opinion was that in order to meet the timetable, and not run into any unexpected delays with inspections, the safe path to 90 days was to stick with kiln dried graded lumber from their regular supplier.

Here are a couple more pics from today, showing some 70'+ trimmed trees down to 6".





The pics above might not make those stems look to be 70' but believe me, they are. Check out this early pic for a sense of the scale of the trees. The tractor is close to 10' tall...



I've been thinking long and hard about getting a portable mill and cut up and dry lumber for a guest house on my lot down, just down from this one. They are "only" clearing maybe 1 acres for this house. Mom pretty much want all the tall lob-lollies gone and will plant hardwoods in their place, as it fits into her garden arrangement. So... I will still have a *lot* of timber in "the bank" for later.

well keep up the good work & 90 days is not out of reason. We used to be onsite for less than a week hanging, finishing & painting homes that size. basement & framing could be done in similar time frame with a crew of 5 men. it was not uncommon to have similar sized homes done in 2.5 ~ 3 months up here.
Mark

Excellent! Glad to hear that this is within the realm of possibility!

[DT86]

I can't wait to see the progress. I couldn't build a 4'x4' dog house in 90 days. lol