House Build 2023

[dodge man]

It’s looking good.

There is a saying, I can’t exactly remember but something like “90% of the work gets done in 10% of the time then the last 10% of the work uses 90% of the time”.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

That may be the case, but this week has been a whirlwind of action. Today I have painters, cabinet people, ceiling installers, and septic installers at the house. If I can just get the last little bit of trim done I would feel a lot better.

 

[EddieWalker]

Are you going to stain the ceiling? I've done that before and it was a horrific mess. I sure hope they are better at it then I was. Now I stain and seal the tongue and groove boards before installing them.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

The wife just wants to seal coat it with a shiny finish. The decorative trusses will be wrapped with 1X cypress and stained dark.

I offered for them to use the shop to pre-finish the tongue and groove but they didn't want to. The painters are one heck of an efficient group. There's a bunch of them and they are always working.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

That may be the case, but this week has been a whirlwind of action. Today I have painters, cabinet people, ceiling installers, and septic installers at the house. If I can just get the last little bit of trim done I would feel a lot better.

Everybody is wanting to get paid! That's why the action.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Ceiling in the great room is mostly done! The T&G will probably just be clear coated. The decorative trusses will be wrapped in Cypress and stained a dark chocolate color. There will be a decorative beam in the peak that will match the trusses. The master bedroom will have the same ceiling minus the decorative trusses but with the center beam.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

It seems like I can never get my part of this house build caught up. Entergy just came and ran power to the house, yay! Since that is in now, I have to trench water from the front of the house around to the shop, trench power from the house to the shop and finish grade where I trench including across the driveway. The septic system was put in at the end of last week and we immediately got 3+ inches of rain so now I need to finish grade that too, it all settled quite a bit. Gotta get all the trenching and re-grading done before the driveway and sidewalk can be formed in the next week or so...

But, I'm a Roman Soldier at church for the next 3 evenings for our Bethlehem Revisited program and it's supposed to rain all day Saturday again... How does anyone have time to have a job...

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Little update. I'll post some more pictures before too long.

Painting is mostly done. HVAC was hooked up yesterday, so now we have a little heat. I ran water and power out to the shop from the house last weekend. Garrage doors should install this week, driveway and sidewalk should pour this week or next. Countertops go in on the 27th flooring the first week of 2024. It's getting close!

 

[EddieWalker]

I may of forgotten this, but where are you living while the house and shop are being built? Are you renting? I'm just curious what it's taking to go through this process.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

We almost built before we sold our old house in the neighborhood. But, I got nervous. So, we ended up buying a mobile home, moving out to the property and selling our old house. There was one on the property before so we just put ours where the old one was. The septic and water service were still in good shape, that saved us quite a bit of money. We've been in it for about 2 and a half years. The house site is about 100 yards from the trailer site. We will move directly from the trailer to the house and sell the trailer, hopefully very quickly. We can't close on the mortgage until it's gone.

We are all SO ready to get out of the trailer. When we moved in it was me, my wife, and youngest child (14 at the time 16 now), a weenier dog, and a cat. We were tight but relatively ok. Then about 3 months ago our oldest daughter (21) went through a divorce and now she's back with us, with a whole house of stuff and 3 extra cats.... We are bursting at the seams and quick to get at each other's throats. It's a challenge but we are making it.

Shop is done short of big door and electricity. It has been helpful for sure. Most of the oldest child's house stuff is in it. I've also been plaining the cypress we are using for some of the trim that I got at a sawmill in there. I'm just running a big extension cord from the temp pole for now. I do have the conduit run and breaker panel ready for wire. I'm just having to use my time on the most pressing deadline at the time so it's just going in stages.

 

[EddieWalker]

That sounds like the smartest way to do it. Live on your land while building your forever home!!!!

 

[mike0000]

We almost built before we sold our old house in the neighborhood. But, I got nervous. So, we ended up buying a mobile home, moving out to the property and selling our old house. There was one on the property before so we just put ours where the old one was. The septic and water service were still in good shape, that saved us quite a bit of money. We've been in it for about 2 and a half years. The house site is about 100 yards from the trailer site. We will move directly from the trailer to the house and sell the trailer, hopefully very quickly. We can't close on the mortgage until it's gone.

We are all SO ready to get out of the trailer. When we moved in it was me, my wife, and youngest child (14 at the time 16 now), a weenier dog, and a cat. We were tight but relatively ok. Then about 3 months ago our oldest daughter (21) went through a divorce and now she's back with us, with a whole house of stuff and 3 extra cats.... We are bursting at the seams and quick to get at each other's throats. It's a challenge but we are making it.

Shop is done short of big door and electricity. It has been helpful for sure. Most of the oldest child's house stuff is in it. I've also been plaining the cypress we are using for some of the trim that I got at a sawmill in there. I'm just running a big extension cord from the temp pole for now. I do have the conduit run and breaker panel ready for wire. I'm just having to use my time on the most pressing deadline at the time so it's just going in stages.

Great way to build, but I hear you on wanting to get out of your temporary home.
My wife and I started out by buying our land and setting up a mobile home behind where our future home would be built. We worked a saved for two years while living in the trailer. I did a lot of the work on the house myself, rushing to stay ahead of subcontractors and working full time was stressful at times. In the end it worked out well, and we ended up with a very nice home that we have enjoyed living in for the last 28 years. Hang in there, the hard work and struggles will pay off!

Mike

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I moved the conex out from what will be the front yard. I expect the equipment to leave any day so I moved it loaded.... Was a non issue with either piece of equipment. I started with the dozer but the nose of the box was digging and I didn't want to mess up the driveway any more than necessary. So I switched to the track hoe and kept the front lifted just enough to clear the driveway. It was not as smooth as the dozer but it did lots less damage to the yard that way. Ended up pulling it a couple hundred yards off to the side of the property behind my pole barn.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

One of the many ways I've tried to save money on this project is with the stain grade wood we are using for accents. We have some exterior features, posts and decorative trusses. We also have some decorative trusses inside and a couple faux beams. I found a sawmill that cuts a lot of cypress. I got 10x10 posts for the columns in the front of the house and 1x10 for everything else, the rest will basically be wrapped or just hollow boxes. The exterior stuff I left rough cut, but we wanted a little fancier look on the inside, so I got me a planer and started plaining down the 1x10's. That is a lot more work than I was expecting.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I'm not sure we picked the right stain.... We had initially planned for black siding and soffits. But, it was about $5,000 more so we changed to clay. I'm not sure how I feel about the really dark stain next to the clay... I'm hoping it grows on us. I can't exactly stain it lighter.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

The interior is looking better and better. The decorative trusses will be wrapped with the plained cypress from one of the posts above. Those, the island, and a decorative wrap around the vent hood area will all be stained the same color as the outside wood. The island is turned 90 degrees from how it will be. The painters spun it to get it out of the way.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

That sounds like the smartest way to do it. Live on your land while building your forever home!!!!

The 4 hrs away is part of the reason I haven't started anything on my S. VA property. When I build my house, I rented as close as I could get something, which was about 2 miles away.

 

[EddieWalker]

Your ceiling looks amazing!!!!

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Your ceiling looks amazing!!!!

Thanks! It's defiantly a focal point. We were pretty nervous about wood in general, then it didn't take stain so we were nervous about just clear coating it. I'm really happy how it turned out.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

The fireplace got bricked yesterday and we got enough material plained that the trim guys should be able to finish their part up.