House III

[RobS]

Before our ever-so-diligent leader shuts down the House II thread, I'll go ahead and start a new one. I'm hoping my self nominated position as head homebuilder on the forum is just about over. In another two or three weeks I'll just be a plain old homeowner with a multitude of tractor chores on the list /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

Here's a tractor related picture of our garage with garage doors installed. The tractor (and trailer) are the lucky ones so far as they are the only in our family to spend a night in the new house. We worked on the porch Saturday and Sunday so tractor, trailer and a truckload of tools got locked up out there for the night /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MDNY]

Rob,

I really like the garage. I wish we had gone the route you did. The previous builder before being fired suggested and I took the advice and went with one big 16FT door and one smaller 9FT door. The hard part is trusting that we can both fit into the larger door and leave room for the tractor in the other bay.

However that is mute now as the tractor is on hold for a year or so. Just too many other expenses with a new house. So I am buying a nice pickup with snow plow for the winter and maybe nesxt fall I can look into a tractor but most likely it will be spring '04 before I can do much.

Lucky for me I have friends with lots of toys. One buddy has (3) tractors and (1) dozer. He is big on sweat equity I got some things we don't need and he could use so the trade begins. He is the right friend to have. I would take him up on the offer to buy one of his toys, but to be honest I need (and want) a new machine. I am shall we say mechanically uninclined. I just don't fix engines and such at all, so a warranty is going to be important to start out.

But that gives me time to check out the partially loved machines say 100 hours or so that some yuppie bought and didn't need.

Oh yes the house. Rock is done, the taping is nearly done. I figure next week we will have garage doors in and openers too I hope. We have basement stairs and I have to say very nice ones (will post this weekend). They are nearly main stair quality except its 2x10 lumber. Screwed together and no gaps, 4FT wide too.

 

[Thomas]

About how much longer do you folks think you shall be spending your first night forever?

I'll take door number 3. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[s1120]

AUUGGGGGG!!!! You guys are killing me! Your on your third group of posts, and I still don't eaven have a hole in the ground yet! /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif We are holding on DOT for a driveway permit. Seems we need a permit from them to put in the drive, eaven though there is already one there./w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif Every thing else is all ready[I hope] just need them to move, and I can get my house.

 

[RobS]

Hang in there Paul, you'll be swamped with construction issues before you know it /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif MDNY will probably finish shortly after me so you'll be the likely candidate to carry on the "House" series /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[s1120]

Oh, I hope!

 

[hazmat]

Hey Rob,

How about moving House III over to CBN? No pun intented. I do believe the <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.countrybynet.com/forums/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=homebuild>Homebuilding Forum</A> was set up with you guys in mind.

I've enjoyed all your updates & pics thanks.

 

[RobS]

Haz, I did think of moving this discussion over to CBN but life is so crazy right now that just became too hard to do. Maybe Paul will take up the slack and start his new house over there /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[s1120]

<font color=red>Maybe Paul will take up the slack and start his new house over there </font color=red>

Already did. Well, kind of. Just kind of a Pi@@, and moan./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Did I say I REALY want my new house?/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[Steven]

Let me guess one bay for the boat, one for the tractor, and the last for snowmobiles and atv's. Did i miss any? VERY NICE..

 

[MDNY]

Paul,

Hang in there it is tough to get started. My parents are building (again) and they only have the hole and footers poured. The company doing the poured walls hasn't shown up for about two weeks now so they haven't done the forms and no walls. This is NY we are now getting rain, and soon snow.

RobS, your right Paul will carry on the good TBN/CBN family name and make "House IV the next move" over @ CBN. The plaster crew will be done mid next week, garage doors will be up next week, and the painters will start the primer next week too. We have to pick color chips out. We figure we are going to have a few rooms painted a base white color, but opting to have them paint about 5 rooms for us. They are not going to charge is for a couple of color changes, but for the other three we will pay $50 per color, not bad.

All of the cabinets are in at the supply company, even the odd ones they ordered from the competition (who lost our business due to builder changes) so we are doing water softener and appliances this week or so.

Shooting for the week of the 14th. (oh yeah that little symbol is 20 years old tomorrow since it was posted on the www for the first time (NPR)).

 

[RobS]

Michael, your porch looks fantastic! I should have some better pictures of ours this weekend. We're getting very close but will probably not move in now until the weekend of the 5th. A few more days won't hurt us and I do want to make sure everything is done to our satisfaction before moving.

What kind of softener did you end up with? We had it pre-plumbed and we'll add a softener ourselves later. There is a thread on CBN that talks about the "WaterBoss" softener/filter. Sounded appealing /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[s1120]

<font color=red>RobS, your right Paul will carry on the good TBN/CBN family name and make "House IV the next move" over @ CBN.</font color=red>

I will do my best. Just hope I have something to report soon. Now if I can just get NYDOT to give me that darn permit.../w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

 

[MDNY]

Paul,

Your problem is you live in NY just like me. Only I live in an area that until a few years ago had (1) No real zoning laws at all and (2) only has marginal zoning laws today. The Highway Dept is fun to get ahold of they are tough to reach, but my excavator had no problems getting the permits. Unfortunately sounds like NYS DOT and that aint pretty.

 

[MDNY]

Things are moving along now. By tomorrow the plaster crew will be done, the ceiling was all done tonight. So the painters start on Wednesday with primer, and all the cabinets and such should be delivered too. So the builder better get the garage doors installed and the openers done if they plan to pu the cabinets in by next week.

The interior doors will be in as well. We picked out our colors that we want done in certain rooms and will be sending that along with confirming info on flooring just to be sure no errors occur.

Keeping on the builder to insure the week of 10/14 timeline. Hoping to start getting things delivered that week(end). The mattress company only delivers to my area on Thursday's so I have to get that in, and I will need the bedroom furniture too. Going to be busy.

Oh yeah and I need to go spend a chunk this weekend on appliances, oh boy.

 

[s1120]

Good news. Looks like we will start digging wed, or thrs./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Becouse things are so backed up, the builder says he will do to get it done quick. YAHOOOO!!!!!!

 

[RobS]

Hey gang, I've been too busy on the house to even post about it lately /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

I took Friday and Monday off to work through our own list of chores. Did ya ever have one of those weekends where everything turned into a major ordeal? Nothing was easy /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

I needed to get the tile laid around the fireplace for the trim guy to set the mantel. Surfaces not level enough for my tastes so I put down a skim coat of mortar to even up the brickwork. Trim guy asks what the code is for the hearth. I don't know but it's a good question so I do some checking. Can't get a definite answer from a number of sources so I go with my gut which requires more underlayment and more mortar to even things up. We're into Saturday evening now. Finally set tile Sunday and grout yesterday.

We also started setting porch posts after many hours of painting them. I made the final cut a tad long which meant raising the roof slightly. Man is that heavy! Run back to the rental house for my hydraulic jack, which has always leaked a bit. Start working but no jack pressure. Low on oil, back to rental house for oil. Hours later, first post set. It does look nice though.

Several other projects this weekend with similar frustrations. It's actually kind of relaxing being back to work /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[s1120]

Just got a call from the builder. Tomarrow we dig! Planing to pour on monday!!!!!!!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Lets get building!

 

[RobS]

Hey congrats Paul! Let the good times begin and bring on the pictures.

One tip from someone who's about to check out of the housebuilding phase... save a little of that enthusiasm for the last few weeks of the project. We're wearing a tad thin lately but the end is clearly in sight for us /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[s1120]

Going to head on down tonight after work. Hope to have a few pictures later.