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

[Snake Farm]

Are you going to build Gunner a huge shop to match his house?

Yep, a 36" X 50' is in the plans!

I could come live with you and help finish it.!!!!!!

It might come to that so keep that hammer ready.........I only got six months to finish it.

 

[Snake Farm]

Outstanding Ray. I am really enjoying this thread because I built a couple houses over the years. I love the smell of lumber and dirt. I know...that doesn't sound right...but it's true. Materials have changed so much, I would be lost now.

Keep building....we be watching.

Lynn

Thanks Lynn. The "smell" thing doesn't sound silly at all, I've always enjoyed the different smells of building.....from excavating to painting and carpet. I believe you could blindfold me and take me into a house under construction and I could tell you what stage you were in. I used to joke about doing a scratch-n-sniff book on home building........probably leave out "porta john pumping day" though

What kind of wall finish are you doing, I know you back east guy like your smoothwall.

Busted Yeah, it's gonna be smooth walls and smooth ceilings. I like textures too though.......Mrs. Snake Farm and I have a lot of this in our house......



.....spatter finish done with a texture gun and then knocked down with a wide knife.

Our main living area (kitchen-dining-living room) is this texture painted a terra cotta color with a white wash over it......gives it a nice warm adobe look



Still chipping away at house wrap and prepping window and door openings on the house.....



And yes, for you sharp eyed folks.....that's fresh cut flowers in the window



Us old "Grandpas" are pretty spoiled on this job My daughter fixes us lunch every day and we get to see Gunner every day and she brings us fresh cut flowers from her garden.

Windows are to be delivered on Wednesday [cl

To be continued......

 

[I-R-POPS]

Us old "Grandpas" are pretty spoiled on this job My daughter fixes us lunch every day and we get to see Gunner every day and she brings us fresh cut flowers

That's what good daughters do if they are raised right.
You are blessed.

 

[GJunktionMike]

I love the smell of new construction in the morning

Nice light-knockdown, looks good. Yep leave the honey truck day out of the book

Here Ray I'll swap a construction monent with you. For your viewing pleasure a 50'x50' 4 1/2 ton truss system going up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rw0IgGNvn4

 

[Snake Farm]

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

Us old "Grandpas" are pretty spoiled on this job My daughter fixes us lunch every day and we get to see Gunner every day and she brings us fresh cut flowers

That's what good daughters do if they are raised right.
You are blessed.

I've always thought that myself but if you guys noticed it too then it must be true You could haul off all my possessions in one trip with a big U-Haul but you couldn't stuff all my blessings in a cargo ship! And yes we have a great daughter and son-in-law......kinda scary with her being an only child we only had one shot at raising a good one but we pulled it off somehow.

 

[Snake Farm]

Well it's "a wrap"....... pun intended



I know, I know......I missed part of the gables but that was the best I could do leaning out the window backwards.......just needed enough wrap to install the window.

With the wrap on we started prepping window openings with rubber membrane flashing....











Took delivery of the windows Wednesday afternoon and got right to installing them.......



The inspector stopped by to see how we were doing......



He seemed to approve so we proceeded......

 

[Snake Farm]

A little caulkin'



A little levelin'



A little plumbin'



A little nailin'



Some more membrane flashing.....







And there you have an authentic "farmhouse" looking window without the "authentic draft" whistling in around them.



And the first sunset through the glass.......



To be continued.......

 

[Snake Farm]

Finished up the window installation on Friday......





A total of 23 windows including the two small ones in the attic, and although they don't seem big with the scale of the house.......



.....the downstairs windows are 6 feet tall, and I'm not



So, it was a pretty productive week ending with all the windows in and one door installed....



And Mrs. Snakefarm took time out of her busy day of crusin' to stop and see me yesterday



To be continued.......

 

[Snake Farm]

Nice light-knockdown, looks good. Yep leave the honey truck day out of the book

Here Ray I'll swap a construction monent with you. For your viewing pleasure a 50'x50' 4 1/2 ton truss system going up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rw0IgGNvn4

Cool vid Mike! Were you involved in that project? Always easier to build stuff on the ground like that but the craning always makes me nervous

 

[GJunktionMike]

Yep Ray, my only job was to run the video camera Joking aside I have to give credit to the crew, they were the backbone. This project had the 50'x50' in the video, but it also had 4-20'x20 tower roofs that were set the same way.

BTW I like the little extra touches in your building, this will make it a house to enjoy for years to come.

 

[I-R-POPS]

You little buddy

Makes me smile!
Great build and it's obvious you know how to build a house the right way.
Permits and all.

 

[maverickmk]

Looking good, nice work. It always makes the build a little less stressful when the "boss" approves

 

[YBeNormal]

Well now I'm all caught up on the build. It is looking great man![cl[cl

 

[Snake Farm]

Thanks guys for the kind words.

Been fighting some rain this past week but we are still making progress.....



My dirt guy moved his equipment back in and managed to get the stone and back fill roughed in, so no more walking the plank to get in the house!



With the grade roughed in out back I laid out for porch piers....



Dug them back down to original soil and poured 8" of concrete in them....







Dug and poured the last one this morning in the rain. Have porch framing material coming tomorrow!

Also been working on some framing details that were passed over on our way to getting dried in.......like these cubby holes above the basement stairs....





They open into the mudroom off the kitchen.......



The tall one will serve as a pantry and the shorter one will be storage.

Also finishing up final stair framing including divider walls and additional stringers where stairs will be open railing.....



To be continued.......

 

[GJunktionMike]

Man Ray you take your drainage serious [cl. I have seen a lot of basements go to pot because of water.

 

[Snake Farm]

Man Ray you take your drainage serious [cl. I have seen a lot of basements go to pot because of water.

Yeah, I guess I do Mike. The two biggest mistakes I see people making with basements are not making them high enough and not making them dry enough. So many basements end up with a 7 foot ceiling after plumbing and HVAC because someone didn't want to pay for another couple courses of blocks. And unfortunately it's usually money that causes a wet basement too because it's cheaper to do a footer drain with 8 or 10 inches of stone over it and shove dirt in the rest of it. When my back filling is finished there will be 60-65 tons of stone around this foundation but I don't think I'll ever have a water problem! And with a ten foot basement I'll still have close to an 8-1/2 foot ceiling after plumbing and HVAC.

 

[Snake Farm]

Worked on porch framing between showers yesterday......





There will be a 9'X28' porch on first and second floor with a low pitch hip roof tying into the house roof, so I need to get that up before I can start the metal roofing.......



Gunner stopped by this evening to inspect and he still seems happy with our progress. He's wearing his new fuzzy hat, it's part of his costume for Halloween so they're trying to get him used to wearing it...



And it quit raining about dark!



......yeah, that's what you think it is I hate to say it but I think I liked the rain better.

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

 

[JBailey]

This is definitely an entertaining thread, thanks for taking the time to post this up. We got some of that white stuff the other day too, luckily the ground temp is still to warm for that stuff to stick. Keep up the great work on the house.

 

[Neverdone]

Looks like good progress!!! Not putting block on the first level porch? Just a wood floor I take it.....

 

[Snake Farm]

This is definitely an entertaining thread, thanks for taking the time to post this up.

Thanks JB, like I said before this thing is taking up all my time so it's all I have to post about for now......and I do try to keep it entertaining.

Looks like good progress!!! Not putting block on the first level porch? Just a wood floor I take it.....

There will be a concrete slab patio at ground level and the treated posts will be encased with man made stone veneer to match the foundation and chimney. The first and second floor porches will have a beaded soffit ceiling and composite decking and railing so that when it's finished it will have the look of painted wood.

Finished up the framing for the first floor porch today.....



Threw on some temporary flooring....



And started up again..........





The 4x4 post is temporary support and will be replaced by 8" square aluminum columns.......



Made pretty good progress this week considering the weather. Taking the weekend off though.......Sunday is my and Mrs. Snake Farm's thirty fourth wedding anniversary and we are going away for the weekend.

Calling for mid 60's the first of next week so we'll hit it hard on Monday!

Hope everyone has a good weekend......cause I'm gonna.

To be continued......