"Paradise Road"......first house on the right

It's a miserably hot Monday and the second half is being poured.......



That's me walking on it three hours after it was poured



Kept it good and wet the rest of the day, and Gunner came to inspect the project...



Sawed some lines in it the next day and started putting down some wall plates......







Don't quite know how to act on these pretty days but I do know to "wring" everything I can out of them.

Quittin' time!



....feels like I'm starting to make some progress!

To be continued......

sgtpontiac said:

I don't think my house, basement and pole barn total 3800....that place will be a palace.......nice work..... gotta say wow again..3800 ft. basement...

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I meant a total of 3,800 square feet including the basement Sarge

Basement - 1,388
First Floor - 1,388
Second Floor - 1,088
Total 3,864

Guess it rained huh? hanks for the build with pics SnakeFarm.

You just reminded me why I hated concrete work for 15 years.
Did you pour with fiber in the mud? Noticed there's no wire mesh or rebar.
I always loved getting the project out of the ground.
Keep the pics coming.
Your grand son looks like a keeper!

Sarge has been dipping into his wifes meds again.

With all that gravel fill and poly that basement should stay bone dry for years.

I-R-POPS said:

You just reminded me why I hated concrete work for 15 years.
Did you pour with fiber in the mud? Noticed there's no wire mesh or rebar.
I always loved getting the project out of the ground.
Keep the pics coming.
Your grand son looks like a keeper!

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No fibers POPS, I've used all that stuff at one time or another but when I have a solid base with good drainage I don't use anything but a good 4,000 PSI mix. With proper relief cuts I've never really had a problem that I felt would have been prevented with fibers, wire or rebar.

bob w said:

Great fun and very interesting watching this build.

Twenty years ago we built our house out of styrofoam. It's a bit different system. Think of oversize cement blocks, 12" thick 16" tall and 4' long, only made out of styrofoam. The house is very quiet and draft free. It's doubtful the extra cost of our construction was worth it though.

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That sounds like an interesting house Bob, kinda like a high-tech straw bale house . Is there any special supports or does the weight of the roof just rest on a plate on top of the styrofoam blocks? Or does brick hold up the roof? Bet it heats and cools nicely!

GJunktionMike said:

.........With all that gravel fill and poly that basement should stay bone dry for years.

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We hope so Mike. As mentioned earlier my interior excavation was a little deeper than planed so there ended up being 6-8" of stone under the floor. The floor comes up 4" onto the wall and it's 12" from the top of the floor to the bottom of the footer. A solid poured wall is a pretty good deterrent to moisture anyway plus with the stryrofoam, 40 mil membrane and all stone back fill I don't think water will have any choice but to go straight to the bottom and out.

Hey Sam, guess what it's doing here this morning

To be continued.....

This is some impressive work! Thank you for sharing!

I just got caught up, and wow, that is coming along nicely! You are doing great work!

Well here I am getting behind on updates before I even get you caught up.

Once basement floor was poured I could finally get to some framing......



A little cuttin'.......



A little drillin'........



A little nailin'.........



And we are getting some basement walls......



The basement probably won't get finished until later but the framing will be in place to support the first floor joists.....





Here come the 36' I-Joists........



To be continued......

Throw the easy ones on first......





Then comes the cuts, offsets and cantilevers .......







With the joists finally in place, here comes some sub floor......Weyerhaeuser Edge Gold, good for 200 days exposure......I did mention it has been rainy right?



Sure beats carrying it......



Sub floor going down......



Closing in on sub floor........



Sub floor down, got some more lumber and we are ready to start framing some more walls!



To be continued.....

You sure are working fast........ have projected date for hitting the street..... errrr... moving in? And I have to ask......... are those moccasins you're building in?????......

Neverdone said:

You sure are working fast........ have projected date for hitting the street..... errrr... moving in? And I have to ask......... are those moccasins you're building in?????......

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Nah, just posting pics fast. The deadline for finishing is April 5, 2014 and I'm way behind but the weather has been somewhat better lately and I've been averaging about 55 hours a week on it.......as for the moccasins, that pic was taken back when it was still raining about every 7.2 hours and those were my go between shoes along with rubber boots. The moccasins along with a good pair of socks perished later that day when I got out of sync and stepped outside without changing into my boots

Here we go, the only thing better than seeing the first wall go up.......



....is seeing some more go up







Go down back and it's already getting tall!



But into every good thing a little rain must fall.........



I did mention it's been rainy right?



So I took one of those rainy days and stretched some plastic over the hole and built some basement steps.......



Always good to have steps instead of a ladder.......



To be continued.........

Those look like 2x6 exterior walls.

You sure you are not in a rain forest?
Seriously, its looking like you are on roll now!

That third window from the right is a little out of plumb.
Just kidding. Looking great even tho it is still wet.
I love the smell of wet lumber but don't like working with it.
Keep hammering or shooting those nails.

I love the smell of saw dust all day long.

If the deadline is April 5th are you planning on taking the winter off??? It appears so far you will be done by Christmas........ Nice work!!!

GJunktionMike said:

Those look like 2x6 exterior walls.

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Yes Mike, the plan called for 2X6 walls on the first floor if a usable attic is desired.......so we went with the 2X6's downstairs and the upstairs walls will be 2X4. The usable (walkable) area of the attic will be 12' X 34' with full stairs going up.

Dirtyrat said:

You sure you are not in a rain forest?

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I am beginning to wonder.

I-R-POPS said:

That third window from the right is a little out of plumb.
Just kidding............
Keep hammering or shooting those nails.

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I fixed that right after I took the pic POPS As for the nails, hammerin' some and shootin' some

Neverdone said:

If the deadline is April 5th are you planning on taking the winter off??? It appears so far you will be done by Christmas........ Nice work!!!

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Thanks for the vote of confidence! It's just us "Grandpas" (me and my son-in-law's Dad) so it will probably be closer to April than Christmas.........but we can always hope.

Then one day the rain stopped and I managed to finish framing the first floor walls......



and get crackin' on some sheathing......





I staggered the top joints in the sheathing so that a sheet will bridge across the top of first floor wall, over second floor system and onto the bottom of the second floor walls......



Threw in some more beams.......



.....got another load of I-Joists and started the second floor system



Another load of subfloor.........



Worked a little late that evening......





To be continued.......