At Home In The Woods

[rox]

I can't believe I made it to the end of the thread (This is the end as of today but I'm sure it will go on much longer) Instead of reading it day by day and reading it in one long sitting it is easier to see certain trends. What I am going to write is only my opinion and some guessing and it is not meant in any way to hurt your feelings at all. Obviously you are a very smart man. Also obviously you don't have the building trade experience necessary to handle this yourself, so you did what smart people do you research it and you bought the code book. You have a refence manual and this code book has enboldended you to plow ahead to get the home you want using this as your guide since you could not afford this home havng a GC build it.

All your early posts followed the same pattern. You never asked in advance how to do something, you posted pics after things were done. "Gee look we got this done today" When the knowledgable generous members on TBN pointed things out to you after looking at your pics, important things, re=works were needed that cost you time and money.

Eddie told you about the headers on the gable walls and if I remember right you more or less kind of blew it off by saying my framers says it is okay and I looked it up in my code book and it says it is okay. But that nagging doubt made you call someone you trusted, the floor joist people and them you believed.

You only started getting ahead of the curve when you were slowed down by waiting for the floor joists to arrive so finally for the first time really you started talking about things you would be doing instead of things you already did. You asked for ideas and found a lot of good ideas from the members.

IMHO, only my opinion, you have sacarficed a lot to buy this land and build this house, I think you should back off on your ego (again not meant to hurt and ego is not maybe the right word but it kinds is- the idea of being able to read and understand a code book) and start posting well in advance of what is going to happen next and permit the members here with all their wealth of experience and information to advise you beforehand and not after the fact.

I hesitated to write this becuse I did not want it to come across as a rip on you but I thought, oh heck he has sooooo much more house to build. Sometimes I act a certain way because I also, am smarter than the average bear, and I think I got it figured out. But then when I talk to people who have knowledge on the project at hand I find out things I didn't consider. It is that old saying, you don't know what you don't know.

You have so much mor ehouse to build I would love to see you, for your own benefit and for the benefit of your hardworking wife and soon to be here child, I would love to see you just get ahead of the actual building by posting in advance of the work. Honestly did you know that the only way to shim up the uneven load bearing wall was with steel? It's things like that. Did you know that CurlyDave is literally a rocket scientist??? There are really smart people here take advatage of them. Think of it from their perspective how frustrating it is to give advice after they see a problem, when if you would have come here first there would have been no problem. You could have posted, "I'm getting bids on the slab any advice? Any questions I should be asking the contractors I'm considering?" People would have jumped in and asked about how much gravel you were putting in, what kind etc,. etc. Make sure they tamp it down etc. etc.

I'll go even one better since you are working all the time and it looks like maybe your wife is not working you could have her take over the thread, she would have the time to post things that are gonna happen, and she is a smart lady we all agree on that.

I honestly want the best for you and that is why I am sticking my neck out and posting this. If you hate me for it, I'm sorry.

 

[rox]

Now that I read hrought he whole topic and gave my ovrall thoughts i had a chace to look at your house plans. I saved the file on my computer and am looking at them magnified so some things are a little blury to read.
In no particular order
1- In the twow bedrooms that are across from the master br do those bedrooms has small walk in closets? It is hard for me to figure it out.I like pocket doors on bedroom closets as you get more floor space by not having the swing of the doors. At our last house I had a lot of pocket doors and love them. All our doors were 6 panel solid oak, so they did not sway when they were slid open and closed because of their weight i think.
2- I can't figure out where the entrance is to the master bathroom, again hard to see becasue it is blurry at this magnification.
3- If there is any possible way to change those stars so tha they are an L shaped stairs to go upstairs instead of a straight shot that owuld be great. It is very fatiguiging to walk straight up a flight. An L shaped with a landing in the middle give you a chance to rest. You say you will not ever finish the top story but I bet you will. May not be for 10 years but I bet that top floor gets built out one day.
4. It is a very tight laundry room hardly room to put up an ironing board. Suggest you frame out a space for one of those smaller irioning boards that fold down fromt he wall.
5- The office dining room right off the front foyer. There I go again with the pocket doors, but a set of double french doors with 12 panle glass in them would bring that room into the house. If it is not used as a dining room but more of an office, you can always put a semitransparent curtin on them. One day if you build the second story and build an office up there the room used as a dining room would look much better with double glass doors on them, it opens the room to the rest of the house.
6- I think a 12 panel glass pocket door between the kitchen and the dining room/office would be very nice, I had that in my last house.
7- The closet int he dining room/office I think I would give that space to a great kitchen pantry. When you go to buy cabinetry for kitchen cabinets you are going to be surprised how very expensive the pantry cabinet will cost. My pantry was a big closet with rack shelves on them, much cheaper. The space you currently ahve designated for the pantry int he kitchen would be used one day if someone wanted to put inn a really huge refridgerator, but I know myself I would rather have an upright freezer. When you order the cabinets ou could order a wood panel to cover the freezer door. I currently have an upright freezer in my kitchen and it is very handy, I didn't have one in either of my last 2 houses. Especially if you will be gardening, a freezer right in the kitchen will be very handy to access your frozen veggies.
8- Out of all my suggestions this one is the biggest one. Install one of these Dryerboxes -- Vent your clothes dryer right - Recessed dryer boxes for more room in your Laundry you ahve to frame for it. The problem is all clothes dryers put their vents in different locations so in order to get the flexible dryer vent to hook up you have to pull the dryer away fromt he wall. It is so annoying. You bild a brand new house and your dryer does not sit flush. With one of these boxes it will sit flush.
9- In that front foyer it would be very nice if you could get the woodfloor to be made into a circle in the center. It would be a very pretty entrance with a small round table on it and a beauiful floral arrangement. it would really add a touch of elegance as you enter your home.
10- here is a real cheap way to get a nice 3 season room. I think I see a back porch, if so have it built with cheap sorm doors like is shown here screen doors, storm door, wood door
Do not saw the hole for the door handle is all. We had really cheap ones from Menards I think, and and they had little twist levers so that you take out the screen and insert the storm door glass. Now this is not super insulated or anything it's cheap glass, and one day you can jsut pop these out and put in a high quality one. Our builder built a post between each storm door a standard size so that one day they could be removed and replaced with something nicer. In the summer is is practiaclly all screens and you can put in a little chimney if you want to barbeque, or even a kitchen type hood. You will want to put in the outside type electrical outlets in this room, have to buy code. it is real nice to be in a full screened in porch and no mosquitoes but still have that outside feeling. We had one door that was installed as a door to the outside.

I think that is all I have for now, if I think of anything else I'll let you know.

 

[towmotor]

rox- in Obed's defense, I've simply got to say that I never detected an unwillingness to seek the advice of others.

As you said yourself, "you don't know what you don't know". Likewise, you don't know how many questions there will be until it's too late to ask (sometimes).

What I see in Obed is partially what I experienced- a developed mistrust of many in the building trade.
That mistrust is well deserved IMO. Builders have no one to blame but themselves (or those among them) if consumers place them somewhere near used car salesmen on the trustworthiness scale.

I know of dozens of builders in my own locale. There are only two for whom the buying public has nothing negative to say.
Happily, one of them happens to be my brother's father-in-law. I've talked with him at length, seen his work and I know beyond any doubt that the person who hires him has the unique (unfortunately) experience of a house building project where he/she has minimal hassle or worry because the GC is getting it done and getting it done right.
Also true- he's a little pricey, but as they say, you get what you pay for.

Part of what you seem to see as Obed's reluctance to heed advice (the whole "header" issue as an example) is what I see as Obed having to deal with the folks that he hired-the so called "experts"- trying to convince them that they've screwed it up once he is convinced.
Those builders aren't easy guys to deal with.

That's why I built my house entirely by myself. No one to convince but myself, and no one to blame but myself when something is awry. There were numerous screwups on my part, but at least I didn't have to deal with some arrogant jackass, who is never wrong, on a daily basis.

 

[mikefromnh]

What I see is a guy getting what he paid for -- the lowest bid. He chose this framer/project manager because he was the cheapest. The real GC's were considerably higher for a reason. They would have known to make sure the floor was level, built headers to spec etc.

In the end Obed will pay the framer to learn how to become a GC. And will probably be unhappy with the finished product. I bet the real costs in the end will be higher than if he went with the high bid.

Sorry if that sounds harsh. But I've seen it happen many times.

 

[rox]

towmotor- before you made the leap to I'll build it myself, you found a trusted advisor and I bet you used him liberally for guidence and advice before money was spent and decisions were made. Obed sadly doesn't seem to have that local resource, but he lucked upon TBN and instead of seeking counsel in advance from some smart and helpful people he goes on his own where angels fear to tread. You don't know - what you don't know - is the only way I can put it. When you realize that, "Oh I didn't know that" smart people change their approach.

Shortly I will be starting what will probably be a fun project to follow, we are going to buy milling equipment and build a building and install an olive mill. I have been going to different mills for 7 years 3 times per day for a solid month, so i have a real good idea of what is needed. But before decisions are made both my husband and myself will be aviailing ourselves of people in our circle who have both, Mill Owner experience, who have recently installed mills, as well as have local construction experience. I mean we are going to be leaning on, friends of friends, neighbors family for advice and expertice. Sure we built 2 homes already, er we didn't build it we hired a GC, but in no way do we feel qualified with two new home builds under our belt to wing this on our own. Along with everybody here in France I'll be tapping, I'll be looking for advice from this wonderful TBN membership, in advance. Here is the irony, we can barely afford to do this so I am in the exact same boat as Obed that way. We have to do this at the lowest possible cost but still have a usuable end buildout.

 

[dcyrilc]

Hi Obed,

I was just wondering how the trailer was handling the cold weather you guys are getting? The news makes it look like your'e getting hit pretty hard with the cold. Hope you both are keeping warm enough and not having too many problems with things freezing.

 

[towmotor]

towmotor- before you made the leap to I'll build it myself, you found a trusted advisor and I bet you used him liberally for guidence and advice before money was spent and decisions were made.

Not really.
I learned alot about how not to do certain things by observing the hacker that the bank forced me to hire for our first house.

Just as important: I've worked in the construction field my entire adult life.(not homes or buildings, but ships) ,first as a construction mechanic and now as a designer.
At the time I began building my present home, I routinely was entrusted with jobs that involved hundreds of thousands (or much more) of dollars in material and man-hours, so a house sized project seemed less intimidating to me.

Having said that however, I would have been eager to get the advice of guys like Eddie Walker, Curly Dave, Jake or some of the others who've posted on this thread, since building a wooden structure has it's differences with building with steel.
The internet hadn't really taken off at that point (mid nineties), so the whole notion of having such experience at one's fingertips really didn't apply to me.
You'll note, related to that thought, that even those guys don't always agree with each other, so the inexperienced one trying to glean information will still have a tough time deciding what will work for him/her.

I did have the help of an architect friend, a top-notch excavator and, as I had mentioned, my brother's father-in-law; although in the case of the latter, I felt it would be improper for me to continually pick his brain for free information. When he spoke voluntarily, I listened.

 

[harpoonalt]

Poor OBED! Everyone has a valid point. Building is very stressful and decisions come fast and sometimes need to be made while people are standing with hammer in hand. There are a lot of ways to do the same thing, but square, plumb and to the code are universal. The house we just built was our 3rd. I've learned something on every one. Somethings I'd do again and somethings could have been done better. The perfect house eludes me and probably always will. Techniques, materials, conventional wisdom, all have changed and are changing. Getting the right contractor is hard. Some are better salesmen than builders. Some are more expensive but cheaper overall. Some are good as individuals but have crews that are just punching the clock. Our builder was highly recommended and he did an addition for us that we were very pleased with. His helpers were hired help that had good days and bad. I was smart enough to research stuff but even then I was hit with things I hadn't thought of. I trusted my builder because I was overwhelmed and couldn't hold up construction while I looked stuff up. OBED is in the middle of a very stressful time. I've been there and can relate. I think as someone pointed out, it would be helpful to tell us what's next and have the fine folks here give some things to watch out for or be aware of. Don't believe everything said tho, because sometimes we think we know too. You'll get through with everyones help and I guarantee you'll be a lot wiser next time. The biggest thing I learned was that you need to be involved and educated. It's your house and no one cares more than you. Inspect everything to see how they did things and ask questions. Think 6 steps ahead to ward off problems. Sometimes it helps to plunk down in a chair, relax, and just go over what's done and what needs to be done and where it's going. I headed off at least 3 problems that way and still have some things I wish I could go back and change.
On a side note. When our builder presented the plans for our house to the lumber yard for a bid, they came back with a materials list and framing plans that showed exactly how the framing was to be done and with what materials. Do they do that out your way?

 

[Obed]

I was just wondering how the trailer was handling the cold weather you guys are getting? The news makes it look like your'e getting hit pretty hard with the cold. Hope you both are keeping warm enough and not having too many problems with things freezing.

It's cold here. It's forecast to get down to 11 F the next two nights. These temps are quite unusual. Even when it gets cold here, it doesn't normally stay this way for 2 solid weeks without having some warm days to thaw everything out. Yesterday we got about 3 inches of snow. We stayed at our in-laws' house last night and will stay with them again tonight. We intend to go back to the camper tomorrow. The paved road to our property is steep and dangerous with snow on it. We aren't expecting to see temps get above freezing until the middle of next week. Our camper's black tank probably won't thaw out until Thursday so our toilet will be out of commission until then.

Obed

 

[dcyrilc]

It's cold here. It's forecast to get down to 11 F the next two nights. These temps are quite unusual. Even when it gets cold here, it doesn't normally stay this way for 2 solid weeks without having some warm days to thaw everything out. Yesterday we got about 3 inches of snow. We stayed at our in-laws' house last night and will stay with them again tonight. We intend to go back to the camper tomorrow. The paved road to our property is steep and dangerous with snow on it. We aren't expecting to see temps get above freezing until the middle of next week. Our camper's black tank probably won't thaw out until Thursday so our toilet will be out of commission until then.

Obed

If you make it back to the camper before it warms up, you may want to open the cupboards which the water lines run through. We found out a few years ago that the lines in the cupboards can still freeze in very cold weather if warm air is not allowed to get to them. Our water pump under the seat froze and broke even though we had electric heaters going in the trailer. It was under some blankets stored there and stopped heat from getting to the pump.