LOL when I had to stop working on it last November I sure did leave a mess. Not a trash mess but a tools scattered all over the site mess and having to figure out what I was doing and where I left off. LOL the order of things and how the layers have to go in in a specific order. It only tool 3 days to get all centered and things and thoughts organized again! The two biggest and hardest jobs that were left is spanning the Master Bedroom with the rafters and getting the post and beam that they have to rest on up. I did the post and beam today. I used temp treated 6x6 post and a temp beam built out of 2x6s and right off the bat made a error. This is pretty much the face I make when it dawns on me I did something REALLY DUMB and have to pry it apart after putting 600 nails in it so it will be there for all time..... At least I didn't use liquid nails A 1x6 was supposed to go in the groove NOT a 2x6 On the bright side I got a good board that I hope does not fall off a trailer on the trail the trespassers like to use! No getting around the post being heavy and the 2x6x16s heavy and clumsy to maneuver around. I used the simple trick of crossing boards on the post to hold them plumb while I got the beam built and the first two rafters across. The challenge here is I am doing all of the work by myself and the Master bedroom being 16'x20' is a real challenge to span with the rafters and to get beam square and straight. The top gap on the walls is intended a 1x6 is going to cover the gap behind the plywood and is needed for how I am going to do the ceiling. Why Skin the walls with plywood on laterals. BECAUSE IT IS EASY and I hate drywall I really do hate drywall but there is logic behind my wall madness I have to wait a year for the Red Oak 1x8s to cure, dry down and shrink. They are real wet and will take every bit of a year stacked in the shed with fans on them before they are ready to run through the planer/sander and across the table saw to angle the edges like / so they fit together nice and snug on the wall. So the plywood walls are what I have until then. The walls also need backing and I got this 1/4" plywood for $3 per sheet, no idea why but home depot had two full stacks of it marked down 2/3s off and I snagged both bundles of it. I am using R24 Insulation bats inside of every interior wall and compartmentalizing them for heating and cooling. The Master Bedroom and my corner office are going to share a 22btu Mini Split with 2 heads. The Living room and Kitchen are getting a 30k BTU with 3 heads. The Laundry room and bathroom get nothing except a space heater and whatever cool comes in from the living room. The laterals under the plywood..... You can't screw 1x8s to studs Unless you put them crossways but I am putting them up and down so laterals are the right prescription. So R24 Bats, skinned on wither side with 1/4" plywood and a 1" air gap on either side between laterals and insulation and finally 2 inches of red oak on either side. Each room will be very well insulated and very little if any sound will make it through the walls. I am going to skin the ceiling with plywood as well but don't need laterals up the as the 1x8s will be going across the rafters. Filling between the rafter with R30 Rolls and topping it with 3/4" OSB. Getting the bundle of OSB into the loft is the single biggest and hardest job of the house project....... THAT KRAP IS HEAVY and 38 sheets have to get thrown up on the rafters to make the floor. There are going to be 3 rooms in the center of the loft, A pair of 10x12 Kid bedrooms on the South End and 12x20 play/rec/tv room on the North half. 1200 Sq Feet on the first floor and 480sq feet of rooms in the loft down the center end to end. Loft is great for kids at 6' high ceilings and total head buster for me at 6' 3" tall LOL. I would have liked to have gone 7' but my Truss Stretcher Broker and without it 6' was all I could get. Mini Me says she will only be 5' 7" when she is all grown up and she has claimed the end loft bedroom as her own! What I started out with..... Was a Open sided hay and catch all barn I built in 2012. After I closed the side and put the doors and windows in and poured a 6" Concrete floor...... To where it is now..... Its easy to forget just how much I have got done and think only of how much there is left to do. It will take me another 6 months to completely finish it except for the Red Oak and Pecan walls and ceilings, I just wont put it up green and have to deal with the shrinkage on the walls and fresh milled red oak smells like rotten ass LOL. I am not afraid to talk Money and Cost I budgeted $65,000 for the DIY build to finish. I have absolutely everything now to completely finish the build and tallied up all of the receipts today. I brought it all in for $53,860. Real Estate Friend looked it over and the plans for finished and put a $255,000 value on it if I were to list it. Then saw the Red Oak and Pecan and adjusted the value to $345,000 because that stuff is ungodly expensive. A Contractor friend gave me a quote on what he would charge to build it and it was pretty much $200,000 even if I supplied the oak and pecan. I have no intention of ever selling it but was curious of its value and what I have saved building it myself. I strongly suggest that if you are NOT a Very Carpenter, a Good Electrician and fair Plumber and already have all of the tools to do the build yourself.......... That you hire a contractor to do the build. The Country Side is full of homestead/farmsteads with half finished houses that ran out of skill or money or both. I have looked at buying a couple and declined after see all the problems that would have to be fixed to get the build back on track. My County is No Zoning, No Codes, and No Permits needed. MOST of the Country is no longer like that. The only two things I have to get permits for and inspections are drilling wells and installing septic tanks and those permits and inspections are $15 and from the Health Department. And since we usually don't have a environmental health guy, its usually send them the $15 and they send you the permit minus the inspection. Every four years like clockwork the City gets Zoning out in the County on the Ballot and Annexing most of the County into the City. Every four years like clockwork we vote both down hard with about 80% consistently voting NO. That being said I do try to keep with the State Building, Electrical and Plumbing Codes. Most of those codes are just good practice and common sense, the ones that are just idiotic regulation for the sake of regulation...... I just ignore. LOL like screens in windows and doors mesh size...... If I followed code I may as well put a sheet of plywood in the window and call it a screen.... thats about how much airflow you get through that tiny mesh mandate. Or Code wants 2x10s for rafters that will be a loft or upstairs floor. Sistered 2x6s are just fine when the biggest load bearing span is 48" Not a reason in the world to use 2x10s for those short load bearing spans. IF I were spanning more than 10' I might use 2x10s or 2x12s. I did the cabin lost rafter which is a 16' span with 2x6s and doubled every other rafter and topped it with 3/4 OSB and can jump up and down on the loft floor and get zero spring or bounce. But because Mini Me will be living in the house loft, I am doing 12' doubled and 12' tripled every other one. and single 2x6s off to the side of the 12' Wide Central loft. The sides of the central rooms are just maintenance craw spaces and will hold my weight and tool bag easily. But we are only talking 9' wide spans on either side of the center rooms. So looking at it objectively I have gotten a long way in a reasonable amount of time cosidering I have done 99% of it by myself LOL obviously not my first rodeo but it is my last rodeo. I just don't have building another house in me after this one is done. This is the one I will finish out my life in, so I am doing a lot of custom stuff and hidey holes that I won't go into again.
Glad to hear you're finally getting a chance to get back to your projects,,, sure does give ya a good feeling when you start putting them big projects behind you and done. Not having to deal with inspectors is something I haven't been able to get away from for years . I usually never had any issues with them in the framing stage , as I always went with or above code ,, I'm the better safe than sorry type myself. And sheetrock ,, a couple of amigos and any amount of money is almost worth me not having to mess with it . But I will when I have to . A buddy of mine in GA., moved into a county , and started building a deck on his house , 1 Saturday morning, an inspector rode by , stopped and asked him where his permit was ,, he said he didn't think he needed one ,, he said the inspector said ,, " You can't own a hammer in this county without a permit " . Glad to hear you're able to start making some progress again. Did ya ever get that new mill ? Just wondering how you liked it ,, being all push button and all .
Yep and man has Hud-Son gone cheap on the engines. I got it about 3 weeks back and its still sitting in the crate. I am going to pour a 48" x 28' concrete pad for it and build a curing shed right beside it with a overhang that covers the mill head. I may just get another 24x42 Carpot like what I used for the Machine shed and just leave open on all 4 sides and build lean to off of it and 2 walls on the lean to to cover the head. I crawled up their back side the day it arrived and saw this piece of garbage engine on it. Total no name import engine under the Lifin brand. With a 250 hour very limited warranty. 250 hours is like 5 weeks worth of warranty when I start milling. They would be better off putting Harbor Freight Predator engines on them than this garbage. I have a pair of never used Briggs 23hp Vanguard V Twins I got for water pump replacement engines and to replace the one on the old mill when it wore out beyond repair. And a Newer Kohler Command Pro 25 all will fit the new mill. I will run the garbage until it pops or puts a rod through the block and put one of the good engines on it. Bands took as long as the mill to arrive but I finally got the two cases of silver tips from Woodmizer. ... And BANDS ARE NOT CHEAP now days. The last pic of the old mill before it walked away...... I ran that engine for 10 years with 2 rebuilds on it and that mill and engine had at least 5000 hours on it. Apologies again for how that all worked out. It was old and needed a good bit of work like all new bearings and little stuff that I broke or wore out over the years like the rubber on the flywheels but had 3-4 more years of life that could have been put back in to it. Just my opinion but you can't beat those old 23hp Vanguard V twins for dependability. They did make a few improvements based on our feedback back in 2010 on the machine. The Fuel tank and fuel draw system and the water lube tank. A big water tank with a kit for hooking a hose straight to it instead of having to refill it. Tank on the old one was 2.5 gallons and I had to create a hose kit for it. 2.5 gallons would not get you through 1 small log LOL I love the new fuel tank and fuel draw. The old one the fuel was pretty much gravity fed And thus sat high up on the mill frame. I put a cheap fuel pump in line and relocated the tank to low on the head frame on the old one. They are doing the same thing I did now days. I really need to get the pad framed and leveled up and get the concrete spinner truck in to pour it. But I have other concrete projects and want to do it all at once. A 24x40 patio in front of the house, a 16x46 pad out at the lake rec area to relocate the cabin to and sit it on. AND a 14x16 pad in front of the machine shed...... because always trying to find a piece of cardboar or plywood to lay on so the 3" rock doesn't shred you has gotten old LOL. So I need to do a couple of weeks of concrete pouring and leveling. Also lesson learned from the machine shed floor.... I AM NOT GOING TO WORK 22 yards in a day by myself EVER AGAIN! I think 1 truck per day with 6 yards makes a lot more sense
glad to see you and the misses doing better sir. I had to pour 22 yards in 1 day for the floor of my shop, but i had help from friends during the pour, thank god! it was supposed to be only about 16 yards but a couple of miss-calculations on my part meant an additional 6 yards were needed!
The thing about concrete is , you don't work concrete ,, concrete works you . And if you don't keep up with it ,, you'll have a hell of a mess .
