Building a house with Century help.

[Evasive1]

I have been really busy this summer building our new house and have not posted any pictures since spring so here are just a couple to catch everyone up.

Here the Century was delegated to a tow vehicle. It worked great for pulling this boom which would reach 36' up and able to maneuver around the house. The tractor was a life saver when it rained and got muddy. The boom weighed a little over 3300 pounds. Here my wife is giving the kids a ride in the boom.

My wife and I did all the siding with my dad helping out on the ground as the cutman.

 

[Evasive1]

Here is a pic of the same spot with the siding and brick done.

 

[Evasive1]

Here is the other side of the siding.

 

[Evasive1]

Here is a pic of the front of the house with my new toy attached to the tractor, er I mean tool. It is a C-86 backhoe and has worked great.

I would like to thank Dan and Speedy at Creek County Equipment for ordering this for me and getting it installed so fast.

The C-86 backhoe has a lot of power and I have already trenched the water lines and dug out some really big boulders that were going to be in the way of the underground electric line. I need to figure out how to keep the backhoe from dragging the tractor around when it gets a hold of something big like those big boulders. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Evasive1]

The Century has worked great for me and gets used almost daily. I had about 4500 brick left over spread around the house and wasn't quite sure how to move it. I put the forks on the bucket and figured that I would try it not really expecting it to move the bundles of brick. Well it did work and saved me a big headache of having to pay someone to come out and move the brick. Here I am putting the last stack of bricks in their new home till I build the entrance. It would lift 3 bundles at a time but worked a little better lifting just 2 though.

 

[mudcat]

Duane,
Beautiful! Nice job on the siding. Keep up the great work and keep the pictures coming!

 

[GEB]

Nice, very nice!
Ya know, there is a bit of a differece between a house and a Mansion /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
I ran my Back-hole from 7am until 3pm today, trees and roots,
It is serving me well!
Then we decide to go for a motorcycle ride, grab a bite to eat.
On the way home, were in a rual area, just a few miles from
our place we ran across a 3 story round house being built, near done.
The place was very nice also, complete lower and upper deck
competely around the place, and full of big windows.
I guess our little ranch house will serve of us fine, but it
sure is nice to look at the nicer places like yours.
Maybe someday will build, we have plenty of room /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
I would think my 4720 with B/H and Loader.....
has just about already paid for itself!
Again your place is really nice lookin.
Gene

 

[Bird]

Duane, it's a fine looking home, but I've got a question. Why would you brick the front and put another siding on the back? Of course, I've seen a lot of homes built that way and just always wondered why it wasn't all brick.

 

[Evasive1]

There are several reasons I decided not to brick the back.

The main reason is cost effectiveness. Brick is expensive. It starts with the footing and basement walls. Brick needs a bigger footing and a brick ledge resulting in a 10 to 12 inch thick concrete wall. I had to sub out the brick for close to $30,000 for the front 3 sides. It took close to 17,000 king size brick. With the help of my wife and dad I was able to side, caulk and paint the back of the house for under $2000.00 plus a whole lot of sweat equity.

The back of my house has no neighbors behind it for over 8 miles so it cannot be seen unless you are in the backyard.

The last reason is the back of the house faces south and brick stays so hot from the sunshine on it all day that it would make a deck uncomfortable even after the sun sets in the evening.

Plus I actually enjoy siding and painting. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif