Off-Grid Living

   / Off-Grid Living #1  

MadJack

Silver Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
186
Location
Litchfield, Maine
Tractor
86 Ford 2110 4x4
This is the new house I started building in May 2008. It is 28 x 36 one and two-thirds floors. It was designed and revised over the last ten years, still isn't perfect but it was all "out-of-pocket" and sweat!

No power lines, only a phone wire until a new [more] local cell tower goes up. Sat TV (Dish is the best deal $$$-wise here) and internet by dsl/phone line.

I spent 8 months (days off and weekends) cutting over 18,000bf of logs off the 125 acre woodlot. A local guy came and picked them up on his pulp-truck, sawed them and delivered the boards back on site for .25bf. Some of the boards made the trip back to him for T&G, which now cover most of the interior walls.

Power=115v Honda EU3000 (started with an EB3000), big triple baot charger and two Trojan 475aH 6v batteries. We should be installing 10- 235watt solar panels and the Outback inverter/charge controller in early Spring along with 6 more of the same batteries.
 

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   / Off-Grid Living #2  
Awesome job on the house :thumbsup: Something to be very proud of. Do you have photos during the build?
 
   / Off-Grid Living #3  
:thumbsup:Nice looking home and home site. Did you do all the construction yourself, or did you have help on anything?
 
   / Off-Grid Living #4  
It looks very good! :thumbsup:
 
   / Off-Grid Living #5  
Beautiful! Is this a weekend place or full time residence?
 
   / Off-Grid Living
  • Thread Starter
#6  
This is our full time home. The woods were so thick you couldn't throw a cat through 'em. Now have 7 acres of pasture and food-plots.

I needed help twice while standing up the home-made roof trusses and once with the 18' 6 x 10" beams inside over the living room. Oh, and since I wanted the concrete perfect... I hired the best for that. The foundation has 2" of spray-on foam before backfilling.

I did take thousands of photo's during the build...
 

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   / Off-Grid Living #7  
Great job!!! I'm really impressed with people that build their homes themselves. Someday when I grow up I want to build myself a nice timberframe cabin in the woods.... until then I'll make do with my starter homestead (as I like to call it :thumbsup:)

I can't speak for others, but I would LOVE to see more of these thousands of photos of your build!
 
   / Off-Grid Living #8  
I spent 8 months (days off and weekends) cutting over 18,000bf of logs off the 125 acre woodlot. A local guy came and picked them up on his pulp-truck, sawed them and delivered the boards back on site for .25bf. Some of the boards made the trip back to him for T&G, which now cover most of the interior walls.

WOW!

You logged your own property and then used the lumber from the logs to build it?

Did the local guy Kiln dry them for you also!

I also see you did angled planks for the outer walls and then large verticle plank siding over those (I assume tyvek etc. between those layers?).

And the interior is all T&G! WOW... you da MAN!

Be well,

David,

PS, More pics please.
 
   / Off-Grid Living
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Good read by Bob Shearer there Doug. I get most of my learnin' from
Northern Arizona Wind and Sun .

Photo 1.
For the logging operation I used a 1970 PUG UTV, with a log arch my prospecting buddy made up for me. With only an 11hp Honda it could haul this 29" x 12' pine butt-log with relative ease.
Photo 2
Looking up and North, believe it or not. The open space and the small but well placed windows really light the place up.
Photo 3
I jigged the roof-lines out on the deck, then built each one on the jig and then had to move each to the stack. Only half the trusses could be built at a time. Due to limited manpower, each stack had to start going up at the ends so that I could slide the last ones up in the center of the house eliminating the need for a crane. Upstairs ceiling is 9'4" high so the pool-cues won't hit the sheet-rock ceiling.
 

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