Building a stick frame house in the woods in 90 days

[woodlandfarms]

I'd hang that in my living room. Nicely done

Pete,
I thought I could see where someone had sawed off a tree prior to you getting there.
I adjusted the white balance to get a better view. On the second copy I added a little
local tone mapping to make it similar to HDR.

This picture reminds me so much of my road except mine is just limestone and barely
1 car wide.
Ron

 

[pclausen]

Good to hear that the Generac is now working - apparently flawlessly. The last I heard was that you were having some fuel delivery problems. I assume you had a Generac Technician to come by and fix it.
-Stu

Not exactly Stu. It takes about 10 -15 cranks with dumping lots of starting fluid into it for it to get running. But once it starts, it runs solid until I shut if off (which I did every 24 hours to check the oil). Then I have to go through the same ordeal again with the 10-15 cranks to get it going again. This new engine does not burn any oil, so that's good news! Mom's 20kw Generac is still running (she still does not have power) and does not burn any oil either, but, alas, the transfer switch solenoid failed to transfer the load to the generator, so I had to do it manually. So we're not taking any changes with her new house and ordered a Cummins Onan 12KW generator. I'll be able to monitor the vitals from that unit over the Internet and it will email me if there are any issues. Hawkeye, I ordered the transfer switch from Norwall.

 

[pclausen]

Pete,
I thought I could see where someone had sawed off a tree prior to you getting there.
I adjusted the white balance to get a better view. On the second copy I added a little
local tone mapping to make it similar to HDR.

This picture reminds me so much of my road except mine is just limestone and barely
1 car wide.
Ron

Wow, that does look nice Ron! Great job!

 

[pacerron]

Wow, that does look nice Ron! Great job!

Do you ever shoot in 16 bit RAW with your Rebel T2i ?
That camera has some pretty good capability for the price if you use it.
Ron

 

[fosterchild420]

I have not been pleased with the Generac units as a whole. Our county bought all seven fire departments a 15 kw Propane units about 8 years ago. With in 2 years 2 had failed. With in 5 years 4 had failed. None of them had the same issues. The one that we were using ran less then 25 hours and quit generating. It was sent back to the factory under warranty and repaired. Upon reinstalling it, it worked about 38 hours and took a dump. Engine ran like a top but nothing else worked. It was maintained by the factory techs on their interval thru out this time. When it went out this time, we put back a Kohler 17 kw and it has never missed a lick in 200+ hours.

 

[pclausen]

Day 47

They got the stair "mold" done.

Very clever detail of how to deal with the support ledge. They will only need to cut a small piece off.

Chimney framing started

 

[wmonroe]

I might have missed it earlier but will it be a gas fireplace or wood insert?

 

[pclausen]

Do you ever shoot in 16 bit RAW with your Rebel T2i ?
That camera has some pretty good capability for the price if you use it.
Ron

I have not been shooting RAW Ron. I do realize the camera has quite a bit of potential, but I have not had the time to really explore it. I had the original Rebel before this one, which I pretty much wore out! I'm actually using the 18-55 zoom lens from it on my T2i. I have had picking up some more lenses on my shopping list for some time now, but something else always comes up that pushes them down the priority list again...

 

[pclausen]

I might have missed it earlier but will it be a gas fireplace or wood insert?

Wood.

I have been meaning to ask about recommendations for that. I'm looking for a very plain look, maybe open with no glass doors, but I do want a blower motor to circulate the heat out out into the house instead of 90% going right up the chimney! The builder said he can get a plain insert with a blower motor for around $200. Does that sound like a decent setup? I really don't know much about fire places, but would like to get something that will be as efficient as possible without spending a fortune. This will primarily be decorative, but in the case of a major outage, it would be nice to have the ability to keep the entire house somewhat warm from this one heat source if possible.

 

[pclausen]

No Ron, you are wrong. ALL the walls are SW walls ((Superior Walls). Gotcha!!!:laughing: Look at the original basement plan to see the narrow windows which have been eliminated and replaced with a larger window on the opposite wall. (see below)

View attachment 306853

According to this floor plan below, that is supposed to be a privacy terrace off the Master Bedroom and a Study. I was wondering if that terrace has been changed to a deck. A deck would have an open space below, whereas the terrace would require solid fill or a supported foundation. I'm trying to think in 3D and type at the same time, so there might be something I've missed.:confused2:

View attachment 306857

Jim, you are correct that the 2 slit windows shown in the first pic above have been eliminated and a single wide window now exists on the opposite wall. The walkout basement windows and door have also been modified to be twice as wide. If we had to do it over, we would likely have eliminated the side windows on both sides. It was hard to predict how the grading was going to workout as the walls were ordered well ahead of time. Being able to get the change from a 1 car to a 2 car garage in after the walls were already in productions was a bit of a miracle!

I think the outdoor AC unit sitting in the corner of the master bathroom will be the best location, given the choices. The opposite corner is no really an option as that will be below the wrap around deck where the dirt will be sloping at a 45 degree angle. Here's a rough sketch of what the wrap around rear deck will be like and how it connects with the terrace.

The deck itself will be composite (Trex I believe is what the builder mentioned), and the railing will be this style (Handiswage):

I'm open to recommendations on both the decking and railing as that has not yet been ordered. I have heard good and bad things about the Trex, like mold and other things, but that is all in the past now? Aluminum decking might be an option, but I think it is even more expensive that composite? As for the railing, we're looking for something almost invisible for the view, but not frame-less (or framed) glass, so this thin steel cabling seems like a good choice.