At Home In The Woods

[mikefromnh]

Is the truss off 3/16" for its entire length? Is this hump in a high traffic area?

It's easy to say "we'll fix it later..." However, later the expenses start adding up when you just want to be done.

If the trusses are off 3/16 with 19.2" spacing. Then the floor is sloping approximate 1/4" per foot -- which will be noticeable on a wood floor. If I had noticed this before the subfloor went in I would have rejected the truss -- if that wasn't possible b/c of time than notching the sill plate a 1/4" would have taken five minutes and prevented a lot of headache.

Floor leveling compound isn't all that cheap and is more of a band-aid approach. Have you talked to the truss supplier -- I would try for some sort of credit.

 

[Obed]

Main floor walls are being erected. My wife and I walked around in the house today just to get a "feel" for the house layout. I purposely took my "inspector's glasses" off so I could enjoy the process. It was very nice imagining what it will be like to look out the back windows into the woods. The last picture shows the living room/great room area in the back of the house. The large opening will be filled with 4 sets of windows spanning a total of 12 feet to give us a good view of the woods and the tops of the mountains over the trees in the holler.

You can see the blocking between the top bearing trusses has been installed. We also have California corners for better insulation characteristics. Thanks Eddie for the suggestions!

 

[dcyrilc]

Main floor walls are being erected. My wife and I walked around in the house today just to get a "feel" for the house layout. I purposely took my "inspector's glasses" off so I could enjoy the process. It was very nice imagining what it will be like to look out the back windows into the woods. The last picture shows the living room/great room area in the back of the house. The large opening will be filled with 4 sets of windows spanning a total of 12 feet to give us a good view of the woods and the tops of the mountains over the trees in the holler.

You can see the blocking between the top bearing trusses has been installed. We also have California corners for better insulation characteristics. Thanks Eddie for the suggestions!

It won't be long now and it will start looking like a house.

 

[ruralruss]

Main floor walls are being erected. My wife and I walked around in the house today just to get a "feel" for the house layout. I purposely took my "inspector's glasses" off so I could enjoy the process. It was very nice imagining what it will be like to look out the back windows into the woods. The last picture shows the living room/great room area in the back of the house. The large opening will be filled with 4 sets of windows spanning a total of 12 feet to give us a good view of the woods and the tops of the mountains over the trees in the holler.

You can see the blocking between the top bearing trusses has been installed. We also have California corners for better insulation characteristics. Thanks Eddie for the suggestions!

Obed,

Have you noticed yet how the perceived size of the spaces in the house changes as different steps in construction are finished. We have built 3 of the 4 homes that we have owned and I always found that effect to be interesting.

Russ

 

[WBWI]

Obed,

Have you noticed yet how the perceived size of the spaces in the house changes as different steps in construction are finished. We have built 3 of the 4 homes that we have owned and I always found that effect to be interesting.

Russ

Our builder warned us about that. He said the rooms will seem huge, then too small then in the end what you expected. It was true to some extent. Not as bad as I expected.

BTW - progress looks great. I was just telling my wife last night that this could be a horrifying process if you let it get to you. Sometimes you have to trust the "professionals" and just enjoy the ride.

 

[Obed]

Yes, right now the rooms seem huge. Of course, to put things in perspective, we've been living in a 360 square foot camper.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Rain and more rain yesterday and today. I can't say I'm thrilled about rain while our subfloors are exposed to the elements. I'm relying on people's comments in this thread that our Advantech subflooring will be ok.

Winter is the rainy season in this area. I had determined that we would NOT build during the winter because of the wet season. However other concerns forced our hand and pretty much forced us into starting building when we did instead of waiting until spring. I'll speak more of these reasons subsequently.

 

[Obed]

How We Got Evicted!
We moved from Charlotte to Knoxville in October 2006. I had a contract-to-hire position that might turn in a permanent job after 6 months. The plan was to live in the camper until we saw that the job turned permanent, then buy or build a house.

My father-n-law knew of an elderly woman who owned an empty half acre lot zoned for agricuture in west Knox county. The lot used to have a single-wide trailer on it but the trailer burned. We needed a place for the camper and storage trailer and the elderly woman could really use the rent as she was on a limited income.

The lot originally looked like a jungle before we cleaned it up and moved onto it. The first picture shows the state of the lot before we cleaned it up. My wife and father-n-law cleared the trash, brush, and weeds. I installed the electrical breakers and jacks. We laid sod and planted grass and shrubs. We got to help our next door neighbors re-roof their house a week after we moved onto the property. They became wonderful neighbors. The yellow house in the 3rd picture is our neighbor's house that we helped to re-roof. They expressed that they were glad we moved onto the lot and cleaned it up.

All was well - at least so we thought...

To be continued...

 

[Obed]

Here are a few more pictures showing the lot after we cleaned it up. Notice that the lot no longer looks like a jungle. Compare the picture with the electic pole in the previous post to the first picture in this post. My wife planted a small attractive garden.

 

[Diamondpilot]

You really made that old lot look great. Nice diamond in the rough!

Chris