The Log house Project begins........

MotorSeven · Oct 31, 2009

Since my tractor is an integral part of this whole project.....here it begins:

We have been living in a 500 sq ft apt in my 30x50 Arched steel building(yes there is a build thread on that) for over 2 years....it is TIME!

I had a local dozer guy push in a brand new road(1/3rd of a mile) up to the house site and dig my basement. My backhoe guy is coming on Tue to dig footers and we will start on the 12" block on Wed.

I bought a Woodmizer LT15 bandmill to saw my own logs for the house. I will be cutting/skidding/milling eastern red cedar for the house logs. I figure I need about 250 10' logs. The house will be 30x36 on a full basement.

I will update as it goes, but it may take 2 years....it's just me & the Misses doing 90% of the work.

Driveway:

MotorSeven · Oct 31, 2009

Basement:

NSBound · Oct 31, 2009

That's sure a beautiful piece of property you have there!

It will be interesting to see your progress reports! That driveway looks like it'll be interesting in winter!

theboman · Oct 31, 2009

Looks GREAT!!

I want me a Wood-Mizer!!!

tnhomestead · Nov 1, 2009

Sigh,much prettier road than mine!!! Love the river view,I have to walk a mile for one!!!! Good luck, you using your own trees?

EddieWalker · Nov 1, 2009

Beautiful place!! The road looks awesome and you should be very proud of how well it turned out. I love the way it goes through your woods!!!

It will be fun to follow along with your build. It's the type of project that I've always dreamed about, but know that I'll never do. So many dreams, so little time. LOL

Eddie

MotorSeven · Nov 1, 2009

Yes, I think I have enough ERC for the walls. If not, almost no cedar gets commercially cut here, so it is abundant.

C'mon Eddie.....you have come a long way since the "Shipping Container Era"

And I came a long way from living in a 24' Class C motorhome in a county park for over 3 years after my big "D"

That was only a short 6 years ago.....my how time flys when you are starting from close to scratch!!

If you look right over the nose of the 4wheeler, you can see the Quonset hut we have been living in for over 2 years....it's TIME!

RD

dave1949 · Nov 1, 2009

Very nice building site. I'll bet the 4-wheeler is going to get some miles put on the next two years between the quonset hut and the house site.

Just from curiosity and no knowledge or preference, what led you to choose eastern red cedar, and what other local species might you have considered? Seems like the ERC would have some built in rot resistance and bug repellant going for it.

I have read comments about log houses have to be this wood or that, but it seems people use what's available locally, and if cared for, might not make a whole lot of difference.

Looking forward to watching your project grow.
Dave.

Slacker · Nov 1, 2009

Looking forward to seeing the log milling operation. Nice looking road, does it have ditches?
I've milled some ERC with my chainsaw mill and it is tuff stuff once it's dry. The red middle won't take a nail for snot, cracks a lot. If your milling it at 6x6 or so it shouldn't be a problem. Please take lots of pics! I can host them if you need more space.

BlacknTan · Nov 1, 2009

It should be a great project..

You've got a beautiful piece of land and a first class road for access.. Enjoy the work fully from start to finish, and may all your dreams come true!

I'm looking forward to following along.

smfcpacfp · Nov 1, 2009

What kind of a timetable are you figuring for the project, or do you even have a timetable? I built my log house from a kit 32 years ago and it took longer than I expected?

Samandothers · Nov 1, 2009

Beautiful setting. I look forward to following the thread.

Will you do any treatment for insects or preservatives or will you will this be provided by mother nature and the cedar? Will you cure the cedar? How will you lock the logs together? Man some many questions that I am sure you will answer over the course of the thread.

Thanks for sharing!

WilliamBos · Nov 1, 2009

That is beautiful. I look forward to the thread.

Mike Costello · Nov 1, 2009

Wow, what a beautiful place to build a log home! You are really going to enjoy your project. In 2003-4 I designed and built my log home. It is made of Engleman spruce with 8" thick logs that were custom milled out of Idaho and shipped to my building site. There were a total of 494 logs in various lengths up to 16'.
My wife and I did much of the work ourselves and completed the project in 11 months. It was a challenge for me because I'd never built a home before, but we thoroughly enjoyed building our log home. So, go after your dream and enjoy it as we did! Mike.

MotorSeven · Nov 2, 2009

Slacker, yes, ditches and 5 tile's(culverts) where needed.

SMF, I figure 2 years start to finish....could be sooner depending on funds(no building loan).

Sam, no ERC needs no bug treatment, only a UV treatment on the outside & the logs will be 6x6's. 1"x6" rolls of fiberglass insulation, rolled out between each course of logs and between the end butts. The logs will be screwed together with Timberlock or similar log screws which compresses the fiberglass. I used this method on a pine log house I built in '83...works great, no air leaks at all.

Mike.....11 months?? wow, it took me a year and a half to build the last one & it was 1640sq ft. That one was the first house I built, and the first thing I built if you don't count a pair of speakers in high school. Y'all must have been motivated!

Thanks for the comments, yes this place is a lifelong dream....100ac, no codes, a big live creek and great neighbors...retirement is good!.......

RD

Mike Costello · Nov 3, 2009

MotorSeven said:
Slacker, yes, ditches and 5 tile's(culverts) where needed.

SMF, I figure 2 years start to finish....could be sooner depending on funds(no building loan).

Sam, no ERC needs no bug treatment, only a UV treatment on the outside & the logs will be 6x6's. 1"x6" rolls of fiberglass insulation, rolled out between each course of logs and between the end butts. The logs will be screwed together with Timberlock or similar log screws which compresses the fiberglass. I used this method on a pine log house I built in '83...works great, no air leaks at all.

Mike.....11 months?? wow, it took me a year and a half to build the last one & it was 1640sq ft. That one was the first house I built, and the first thing I built if you don't count a pair of speakers in high school. Y'all must have been motivated!

Thanks for the comments, yes this place is a lifelong dream....100ac, no codes, a big live creek and great neighbors...retirement is good!.......

RD

Yeah, I was motivated because the home we were living in sold faster than I had anticipated. I was there 7 days a week working to get the log home done and my wife would show up after work (RN) and we would work into the late evening. Just about wore me out! The home came in at 2057 sq. ft. with 1440 sq ft of porches front and rear.

bpattie · Nov 3, 2009

Beautiful Home and grounds Mike

MotorSeven · Nov 4, 2009

Very nice Mike!

Footers got dug. The one against the grade was tough as we got down into the real hard shale. The one on the ridge side we went about 3', then dug each corner and the middle down to 5'. The other two walls will get a post hole dug every 8' or so and as dep as the shale iwll allow. I also put in a shallow center footer across the mddle...it's 14" wide by about 8" deep. All footers are 24" wide.
The cost already went up as we decided to add a 25' footer for a retainer wall, but I kinda figured on that.

This is the DEEP one:

Retainer wall footer:

EddieWalker · Nov 4, 2009

Are you leaving those trees there? While a few trees are nice, it only takes a few too many to block the view that can totally change the feel of a place. Being on the hilside like you are, I'm wondering whether you are losing out on an incredible view with all those trees still there. If you took out 3/4 of them, it would still have the same feel, but allow you to see the valley and hillside. The bigger the view, the better in my opinion.

Congrats on the progress, gettting the concrete done will be a huge step forward!!

Are you in an area with code or engineering requirements for building on a hillside? While allot of homes that I've seen were built just like yours, the code changed where I'm from to require holes to be drilled into the ground to anchor the homes to the ground. It was an amazing amount of concrete that they had to use, and depending on the soil and distance from the edge, the holes changed in size and depth. Some were huge and require rebar frames to be set in them that were tied into the frameing. Of course, that was in CA where the earthquakes keep fueling code changes. Even though homes built 50 years ago without any of those features are still standing and doing fine, all the new homes have to meet the newest changes. Most of it seems like an excuse to spend more money on building a house, or to justify some engineers idea of over kill to make a name for themselves, but that's just me being synical.

Eddie