At Home In The Woods

[TnWV]

I love our house and love living here. However, sometimes I question the wisdom of spending so much for a place to live. I'm sure we could have cut costs in several places.
Obed

This is what I'm struggling with and the main reason we have not broke ground yet. The land is paid for as is the double wide we currently live in, and while I have a good income, the mortgage is hard to swallow. However, with a 2.5 year old and one on the way, we don't have the space we need, so something has to be done, and I really want a nice home for my children to grow up in.

 

[TnWV]

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Are you going to be the general contractor? Since you are going to build, there's some stuff in this thread that might help you not make some of the mistakes we made. I've been fairly open about showing the "oops" we encountered. You'll also get a good idea about what dealing with subs can be like.

Obed

Yes I will be the general. I will also be doing a great deal of the work myself. I worked construction through college and my closest friends are in one trade or the other. My wife's family are all in one trade or the other as well. It will be a long project, but I can't afford to "turn key" it.

 

[TnWV]

I do have one suggestion before you hire any sub. Please don't miss this suggestion. During the bid process, ask every sub/owner what percentage of the time he will actually be on site and working with his hands. Don't hire the subs who give you a vague or unacceptable answer. With very few exceptions, the subs with owners that were never on site provided noticeably lower quality than the subs/owners who did the work themselves or were on site working with their employees.

Obed

I agree and have passed on a couple already for the excavation and block work. So far, all the subs I will use come highly recommended and I have seen their work. I do tax and bookkeeping work for my drywall/finish guy, and have been in many of his job sites, he is good, and I'm trading my time for his time.

 

[sld]

Obed, depending on how picky you are about your lawn, clover is not the worst "weed" to have. If mowed short, it pretty much blends in and won't produce the white flowers all summer.

Clover is good for bees and adds quite a bit of nitrogen to the soil. I have a lot of it in the part of the yard that I pretty much just mow to keep it looking good. I don't have any in the nice fescue by the house that I use chemicals on.

During hot dry summers it pretty much disappears too.

 

[dave1949]

How to Grow a Clover Lawn: 6 Steps - wikiHow

Clover becoming popular lawn choice - Chicago Tribune

I like clover, white, red, whatever. I've been known to mow around a fine stand of dandelions too. :laughing: Without complaints from the peanut gallery, I would mow once a year in the fall.

But, whether you appreciate the beauty and benefits of clover, or not, I would not apply poisons for purely aesthetic reasons. There are too many known and suspected human and animal health factors having environmental origins to use chemicals for non-essential reasons.

 

[MarkV]

As said clover adds nitrogen to the soil and is often mixed with "estate lawn blends" to minimize the amount of fertilizers needed annually. What is considered an estate yard I don't know. I always think of 4 acres plus of finish lawn. Once you get your new lawn and soil balanced with the right amount of fertilizer I'll bet your clover problem goes away. In the mean time it is adding good stuff rather than taking it away.

MarkV

 

[Ted Summey]

Mowing at the right height for your primary grass is very important to lawn health. Eventually with proper fertilization and mowing height, the primary grass will thrive. Once you have mowed fescue at 3.5" to 4" tall for several weeks, the grass will spread and shade out or out compete many of your weeds. After that point you can begin to consider the minimal allocation of broadleaf chemicals.

It is probably too late in the season for much lawn renovation. A good summer feeding and mowing height adjustment will be about all you can do between now and September. Then consider aerating/plugging, over seeding and fertilizing (based on soil testing).

How much lime have you applied? I bet a good wooden nickel that a soil test will suggest lime application.

 

[clemsonfor]

I don't see how you made it that long without one. That is an angle grinder.

 

[clemsonfor]

Clover is a legume and has nitrogen fixing rhizomes in the root system. This is one reason its included in many foodplot mixes, well that and deer love the stuf and turkey do too.

And being in the south I can guarantee that he needs lime. At least 1000lbs to 2000lbs per acre I bet. Everywhere does. No one ever puts enough lime and that can get expensive unless you can have a truck deliver it vs small bags.

 

[mkane09]

I live in Anderson County, TN near Obed and I was told that land cleared of trees here would need up to 6 (six) tons of lime per acre to start grass. That's a lot of lime...

mkane09