Building our retirement home

[cat fever]

The only animals we run are our 5 dogs and a cat. Unfortunately, they do not eat hay.

The entire cut is sold on a 2:1 agreement to a really great guy/family I met through the Kioti dealership in Joplin. We get the pastures cut, he gets a good deal and we get enough $$$ to pay for herbicide, fertilizer and at least 1 new farm toy each time.

We've worked REALLY hard to regain control of our pastures. They were neglected for 20 years ... then I married the owner As you can see in a few of the pics, it is CLEAN - no briars, no thistle. We're very happy with what we've accomplished.

I agree, the pictures I've seen all look picture perfect for good hay fields. Sounds like you have a good operation going. Something to be very proud of. And that farm toy is a great bonus.

 

[Country Geek]

Man they are moving quick on your home----framing before ya know it. Like the rolls in the background of the middle picture.

Foundation and framing work always seems to fly along and you think, wow this house will get done fast! Then once the place is dried in and you have to bring in all the trades, it seems to slow to a crawl.

 

[EddieWalker]

Good question. I know we don't want a million connections in the water run, which will be about 1200' from our well. I'm planning on 1 1/2" or 2" but not sure what I'll be using - yet.

I have a 1 1/2 inch line of city water to my house. It feeds my house, my parents house and my barn. Down the road it will supply my storage barn, workshop, another animal barn and a large event center. I have no worries about having enough water. Currently I'm 800 feet in, but the event center will add another 1,000 feet to the line when it goes out there. I don't see any reason to keep it at 1 1/2 inches for that thousand foot run. One inch is going to be more then enough.

A 2 inch line is what they use for rural water supplies in my area. They go for miles and feed dozens of homes.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Foundation and framing work always seems to fly along and you think, wow this house will get done fast! Then once the place is dried in and you have to bring in all the trades, it seems to slow to a crawl.

Yes .. just getting started has seemingly taken forever - but things are moving along. I'm not expecting a finished home until spring.

Today, I was told putting a rock ledge on the stem wall will decrease my interior space by 4" on each exterior wall. REALLY? Since this has been part of the plan from day 1, I guess I don't understand why it's just now coming up in conversation. I'm pretty easy-going and will roll with the punches. The stone exterior can be installed without the ledge but it's just an unwanted complication. Stress level meter is High today

 

[KubotainNH]

So many decisions and compromises to make when building a house. Things as simple as where do you want your outlets and light switches takes a bunch of thought. The little things to consider, an example is all of our rooms have ceiling fans, the fan switch is away from the door and the more often used light switch is close to the door. Makes getting the correct switch the first time an easy task especially when you don't want to blind yourself in the middle of the night just to get some air movement.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

More on the stem wall rock ledge ...

I see no reason why the stem wall could not just be poured 4" wider to solve the entire problem, leaving me with the original planned interior space.

The complicating factor "seems" to be that we have basement walls set that would not be as wide as the surface stem wall. At least that's how I understand what I was told. Even so, since the walls would still be on the stem wall that was directly on top of the basement walls - with the 4" ledge as an outcrop - what's the problem? What am I missing here?

My alternative is to build the stem walls without a ledge, then add a base afterward to support the exterior stone. That's pretty common when people remodel older homes. So why would this approach be any different/better/worse than just widening the stem wall pour to provide a ledge?

 

[jk96]

More on the stem wall rock ledge ...

I see no reason why the stem wall could not just be poured 4" wider to solve the entire problem, leaving me with the original planned interior space.

The complicating factor "seems" to be that we have basement walls set that would not be as wide as the surface stem wall. At least that's how I understand what I was told. Even so, since the walls would still be on the stem wall that was directly on top of the basement walls - with the 4" ledge as an outcrop - what's the problem? What am I missing here?

My alternative is to build the stem walls without a ledge, then add a base afterward to support the exterior stone. That's pretty common when people remodel older homes. So why would this approach be any different/better/worse than just widening the stem wall pour to provide a ledge?

What type of stone are you using? Thin cut veneer or full dimension? 4" seems like a wide ledge for cut stone and actually a ledge should not be needed at all if its stone veneer. We used real stone veneer which was right at the the weight limit by definition. Even so we had no issues with install without a support ledge.

If you do need a ledge could you get by with a smaller ledge, say 2"? If so you could just widen your basement walls from 8" to 10". This would give you your ledge and keep all original footprints the same.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

It will be full dimension Hackett stone.

I guess I'm confused why it matters if the stem wall is wider than the basement wall. Is this really a problem?

 

[s219]

Are you talking stone on the exterior walls, or just the exposed foundation? It sounds to me like somebody didn't plan for it correctly when they drew up the foundation lines.

I attached a picture of how ours was done, with block construction. There are large blocks sitting on the footing which serve as the ledge supporting the brick (or stone) for the foundation. Then regular 8" blocks for the foundation walls.

If the home was to have brick or stone over the whole exterior, it would continue up the same plane, resting on the lower ledge, and then framing would be just to the inside of that, flush with the 8" block outside edge (there's actually a small gap between brick and framing/sheathing, but you get the idea).

If the home was to have regular siding, the brick/stone would only go to the top of the foundation. The floor framing wall would sit on the block but overlap onto on the brick. Siding would run on the outside of the framing and lap down over the top course of brick a little.

Anyhow, ours was sized for sheating/siding exterior. If we were to do brick/stone exterior with the same arrangement, the interior walls would indeed move inward the width of the brick/stone and gap (so about 4"). To maintain the same interior space, the foundation would want to be sized 4" wider all around.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Are you talking stone on the exterior walls, or just the exposed foundation? It sounds to me like somebody didn't plan for it correctly when they drew up the foundation lines.

Yes the stone will go full height on part of the house and about half-way on the rest.

Didn't plan correctly? Ya' think? LOL The exterior stone was discussed several times in meetings, so how we got here today is beyond me. In any event, I need to fix the problem. Having all the exterior walls moved in by 4" is not acceptable, so what is my best "fix?"

I'm certainly not a builder, as is readily visible in this thread. So I have to accept what I'm being told and start from there. I fully expected glitches along the way but this is a bit much.

The hippie pouring the concrete says ... Since the basement walls are such and so, you cannot put a wider base on the ground above. I get that - to a point. What would happen (at least in my thinking) is, by enlarging the concrete above to accommodate the addition of a 4" ledge - everything would still line up as designed but the 4" would extend outward. To me, it's just a wider pour - no big deal. Apparently this meets with some resistance. So far, I've not received a clear answer as to why this is not a good solution.

I would really appreciate an education on this if we have any builders following along.

I'm going to meet directly tomorrow with the excavation/concrete supervisor and see if he concurs with his worker's opinion. I'll update with his response tomorrow.