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

[Snake Farm]

I posted a thread about three months ago about building my daughters house and several of you expressed interest in a thread about it and Tripper said put it here in the build section......So...here we go with my latest build! Yes it's a bit off topic but it's occupying all my time at the moment so it's all I have to offer.

I've been a little slow in getting this thread started but frankly I'm off to a slow start on the house. We have had the wettest spring/summer here that I can remember, including a forty day period earlier this spring in which it rained a total of thirty days! So needless to say I'm way behind at this point....hope I can make it up somewhere.

I know everyone likes pictures so for the next few days I'm going to post up a bunch of pics with short captions until I get caught up to where I am currently. Then I'll try to keep things updated weekly.

First a little background. My son-in-law is a mechanical engineer working in natural gas compression and transmission and my daughter ran a successful photography business until the spring of 2008. That's when they developed a five year plan for themselves and my daughter shut her studio down and they hit the road in this rig....



.....this would be their home for the next four to five years as my son-in-law worked various compressor station building/rebuilding projects up and down the eastern third of the US. Then they would settle down, build a home and start a family.
Then in the spring of 2009 to mine and Mrs. Snake Farm's delight they purchased about four acres that joins our property here on Paradise Road. Knowing they would be settling down close by made the rest of their time away more bearable for us.

So, after being back home for a few months living in their one bedroom apartment above the photography studio, and the birth of our Grandson last September, in January of this year we started to clear ground for their new home.

View of new home site from the shadow of their current home......



Must have built 50 of these.......



Some days the weather cooperated........



And some days it didn't......



Cut enough firewood to heat my shop for the next 3 or 4 years.......





Also cut 60-70 saw logs and had my uncle saw them into lumber.......



Cut approximately 100 trees of various sizes including this big Poplar......



To be continued.....

[Snake Farm]

The big Poplar required some safety chains to make sure it didn't go on that garage or power line......



I've cut a lot of trees in my time but my Dad has cut a lot more so I let him handle this one......




At 76 he can still lay one where he wants it........in fact he paced this one off and stuck a stick in the ground and said "the top will land right here"......I never found the stick afterwards



Once the trees were out of the way it was time for the official ground breaking ceremony.......



The guy in the tie and pocket protector is "Gunner" the chief architect/inspector........



Here he is checking the layout.......



Then comes the real ground breaking.......100 trees leave 100 stumps!



Starting to dig basement hole......



Getting close to grade......



To be continued....

[earthman]

You are a blessed man SF. A joy to watch this happening.

[Snake Farm]

Form-a-drain to form the footers with. Just like the name the perforated plastic form is also the footer drain......



Getting the outside perimeter in place......



Gunner comes to inspect......



Sewer and floor drains along with conduit for water lines are put in place under footer.....





Once inside form is in place in goes some rebar.....





And finally concrete!



There were a lot of rainy days in between these sunny ones.......



Finally getting close to laying up some walls.......



To be continued.....

[Snake Farm]

Here comes the first load of blocks.......



My first time using these but I like them already.......sure beats lifting concrete blocks!



Alright, now we're getting somewhere!



Okay, we were getting somewhere.......did I mention it has been raining a lot



Drilling for rebar dowels.......



Ripping the first course........



A little scribe work for a tight fit to the footer.....



And we are stacking!





To be continued.....

[Snake Farm]

Practicing my golf swing.........okay, I'm bending rebar



The horizontal rebar lays in the webbing and after the wall is stacked full length vertical rebar will drop into the rings of PVC pipe to keep them in close proximity to the dowels........



Guess what, it rained again.....this tool shed/office is my only shelter at this point.....



Yeah, it's a bit cramped.......



A little cave in from the rain......



Rare sunny day......on my way to 7-1/2 courses high for a total of 10 feet...



All stacked up and starting to brace.....



Brace system has built in brackets for walk planks.......



If you want a hole through the wall now is the time......you don't want to have to cut through 6 inches of concrete and rebar later.......



Dropping in vertical rebar.....



To be continued.......

[Neverdone]

Well that looks alright!!! You could come do one for me anytime!! So what color they going with? Flat Black? Primer Grey?

[gold03]

I built a house about ten years ago and used ICFs for the basement. I like them a lot. Next time I build, I'm doing the whole house with them.

Interesting footing form system! Do you put ground clot against it to prevent sand from infiltrating and plugging it up?

[bruno]

I don't know anything about building a house , but I really like your pink toolbox

[shakey56]

Very impressive, my friend. I really am enjoying your thread. Thanks for taking time to post it. Looking forward to more.

Lynn