Starting New House Finally!

[Alan L.]

Those shutters and stain really give the house some character, Alan. I like it! It's starting to look like "home" to me. When I look at the front, I automatically start thinking of how the landscaping and flowerbeds will look. Not that I've ever finished my own, mind you.

Thanks, we are pleased with the progress. Mrs. Alan L. will handle the shrubs and flowerbeds, and I will till it up and put in a yard. It will be a lot of work and I'm almost petered out.

We have been the cleanup crew and have burned what we could to save money, but its been alot of work. We finally got a dumpster for $300 and have it almost full of stuff that won't burn. I have put about 4 or 5 bucket loads of broken brick and chunks of concrete in the pond, to give the minnows and crawdads a place to hide.

I computed 11,600 brick and Acme came out and measured and said I needed 14,000. They are done and I have about 2,500 or so left. Acme is supposed to pick up full bundles, but the brick layers busted into every bundled except one, so I'm afraid I'll have to eat 2,000 brick through no fault of my own. Thats about $920 with tax. I also have about 15 sticks of that cedar left, at $20 per stick that it looks like I will have to eat.

I should start my own building materials surplus outlet....

Mrs. Alan L. says the floor people are on the premises.

 

[scott_vt]

Afternoon Alan,
Wow, I hadnt looked at your progress in a little while, your home is really turning out quite nice ! I really like how it looks with the brick, and Im sure you and the wife are going to make good use of that porch !

If you have any money left after this project a couple of nice white rockers should make the place look quite comfy after a long day of working the property !

 

[_RaT_]

Alan, I don't know how I missed this post. I just went through 18 pages. Thank You very much for all the reporting, it was most educational. I was wondering about the piers that they drilled way back on page one. What are the details of this? Why not just dig footings? Is it soil related? We do stuff like that for point loads, but not like you did here as you could not have that many. Thanks again, Mark

PS glad to see you put money into some quality stuff. Great windows and doors.

 

[Alan L.]

Alan, I don't know how I missed this post. I just went through 18 pages. Thank You very much for all the reporting, it was most educational. I was wondering about the piers that they drilled way back on page one. What are the details of this? Why not just dig footings? Is it soil related? We do stuff like that for point loads, but not like you did here as you could not have that many. Thanks again, Mark

PS glad to see you put money into some quality stuff. Great windows and doors.

RaT, its a soil thing here. We have expansive clay soils that swell when it gets wet and contracts when it dries out. The best thing to do is to put piers down to bedrock, but we really don't have any bedrock here, so they just drill them about 15 or 18 feet deep and it gives the slab some protection from movement.

The post tension cables help too.

 

[Alan L.]

Stairwork and cabinets. We also got the hardwood floors down (unfinished), but somehow we didn't get any pictures yet.

The trim carpenter is showing up Thursday.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Alan,

The house really looks great. I like the combination of brick and wood on the back.

What is the roof pitch...9/12?

 

[mikim]

Alan - the extra materials are for the big smoker in the back yard. you'll have a grand time building it! with all that brick & cedar it'll be a beauty.

 

[Alan L.]

Alan,

The house really looks great. I like the combination of brick and wood on the back.

What is the roof pitch...9/12?

The main roof is 12/12, and the shed roofs are 4/12.

 

[rox]

Real pretty stairs Alan, and I always always apprecite a landing. It is much less fatigung to walk up a set of stairs if there is a landing, it gives you a little rest, so much easier than straight up.

 

[Alan L.]

Alan - the extra materials are for the big smoker in the back yard. you'll have a grand time building it! with all that brick & cedar it'll be a beauty.

I hope I don't end up having to use ALL of the bricks for a smoker.

Rox, on the stairs, the landing just happened because its the only way to get enough climb in the room available. Based on a mountain cabin we stayed in we put a window near the landing, so one can sit on the stairs and look out at the pond. However there is a hopefully minor issue in that the stair trim comes right to the window jamb leaving no room for the lower casing trim on the window. Hopefully the trim guy can figure out something to do with it.

We are now selecting granite for the kitchen. The GC's source has a couple of slabs of something called juparrna gaviota granite for only $30 per square foot installed. There are 68 square feet of countertops in the kitchen, so thats a litte over $2000. Other choices he would have to order are $12 a foot higher and quartz is $50 a foot. The granite has a light brown swirl pattern with what looks like grains of sand in it, and has a glossy finish. I got this from a picture my wife took, I have yet to see it in person. We'll decide on that tomorrow, but she seems to like it pretty well. I want to have a look and make sure it looks of good quality and standard (3 mm) thickness.

The mudroom will have laminate with wood edge, the master bath probably solid marble, and the other two baths will get one-piece cultured marble.