Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[pclausen]

Btw, the mill that I haul the logs to is only 10 miles away. They pay $38/ton for lob-lollies. So for an average load like this:

I get $278. Not a super killing, but I can probably haul 4 maybe 5 loads in a day, including me loading them with my tractor, that's not bad. Assuming 10 miles/gal, fuel cost to haul is less than $50 on $1390 worth of lumber. Not bad....

 

[Kyle241]

Great pics and a great project! 90 days for a turn-key home, that should be a challenge but then against the Chinese are building the tallest building in the same amount of time, we should be able to get a house done! Keep us the pics, this should be good to follow.

 

[EddieWalker]

Congratulations on your progress so far. Working by myself, I built my 1,000 sq ft house and was living in it after four months with a total of three days off. 90 days is very doable for a crew that does everything, but it gets scary if you are relying on different subs to come in and working around their schedules.

Eddie

 

[Buppies]

Fantastic thread and beautiful site. This is not to far from wintergreen is it?

 

[pclausen]

I've been reading a number of your threads Eddie and I have no doubt you got your house done in 4 months! Yes, the crew building mom's house do everything themselves, from the excavation, construction, electrical (although I'll probably do this part), plumbing, cabinets, etc.

Yep, this site is about 10 miles from Wintergreen ski resort.

Made good progress today. Moved all the cut logs from down where the drain field will be:

Up to the existing pile by the road. I was able to grab as many as 5 logs at a time, but the rear was real wobbly during transport. I need to get around to adding rim guard one of these days.

The cut log pile is pretty impressive now!

Then it was time to skid all the whole trees up to the road. They had already been delimbed for the most part.

Pulling one of the larger ones:

Arriving at the full tree pile:

Add it to the pile:

All done. A few different shots showing the site.

A shot of me leaving the lot. I got my trailer loaded for a haul to the mill tomorrow. I'm trying to see if I can borrow/rent a log trailer or a logging truck with a driver. I think I'll wear out my truck and trailer trying to haul all this myself.

Tomorrow the plan is that the Case operator will dig a hole in which to burn all the stumps and slash cleared so far, which is planned for Tuesday when they are calling for rain.

 

[Ken]

I've been reading a number of your threads Eddie and I have no doubt you got your house done in 4 months! Yes, the crew building mom's house do everything themselves, from the excavation, construction, electrical (although I'll probably do this part), plumbing, cabinets, etc.

Yep, this site is about 10 miles from Wintergreen ski resort.

Made good progress today. Moved all the cut logs from down where the drain field will be:

Up to the existing pile by the road. I was able to grab as many as 5 logs at a time, but the rear was real wobbly during transport. I need to get around to adding rim guard one of these days.

The cut log pile is pretty impressive now!

Then it was time to skid all the whole trees up to the road. They had already been delimbed for the most part.

Pulling one of the larger ones:

Arriving at the full tree pile:

Add it to the pile:

All done. A few different shots showing the site.

A shot of me leaving the lot. I got my trailer loaded for a haul to the mill tomorrow. I'm trying to see if I can borrow/rent a log trailer or a logging truck with a driver. I think I'll wear out my truck and trailer trying to haul all this myself.

Tomorrow the plan is that the Case operator will dig a hole in which to burn all the stumps and slash cleared so far, which is planned for Tuesday when they are calling for rain.

Just wondering if you have a large amount of 60/70 ft. straight logs Is there a power pole maker thay pay more for logs of this type.
ken

 

[HunterWare]

Hey neighbor

I cut down a section of woods to clear for a barn in Whitehall and used Jim Hart from Brookside Milling. If you wind up looking to keep some of the wood (I did for the siding) then I would recommend them. He was a pleasure to work with.

- Hunter

 

[RCman]

Great project!

I too bought a parcel of land and self-cleared it to build my house. We didn't have the nice timber you/your mother has but either way it is a lot of work. I think it took us a few months of weekends / weeknights to clear it. We also couldn't burn the stumps. They had to be hauled off site (with proof in case later questioned), town bylaw thing.

 

[deezler]

Great thread and pics so far. I like that you are starting from the very beginning. Good luck with your build!

 

[pclausen]

Thanks for the tip Hunter. Jim seems to be very reasonable. Will have to look into that down the road for sure when it comes time to build a house for my mother in law on my 2nd lot, where I can really take my time.

I took that one load to the mill this morning, despite the freezing rain overnight. Was quite an adventure. Came to just under 14,000 lbs. Being how muddy it was, I decided not to do any more loads. Instead, we ordered in a load of gravel and brought in a logging truck to haul out the full length cut trees.

Only allowed 10 ft overhang, to we had to trim them.

The leftovers, which are still 16-24' long.

The entrance as it look now.

Dug a deep hole and stuffed it with "kindling" for the fire tomorrow.

This is just some of the fuel for the fire. Should be a good one!

Also had the guy from the power company out today and we loosely decided where the transformer is going to be located (they like it to be no more than 150' from the meter base, but will go as much as 180'). He'll need to go back and see if he can splice into the underground power across the road from where the transformer will be located, or if he has to go up the road another couple hundred feed and tap into the transformer for the neighbor diagonally across the street.