Non Electric Homestead McMinn County (Athens: live, floors, shop)

[Forest Breath]

Glad you mentioned the hammer. I was using a regular little old hammer on Saturday and oh man was it tough. I think I hit the boards more than nails! I switched to Jimmy's hammer on Sunday and did MUCH better. It is one like you mentioned. I rarely missed and I also discovered the whole bit of letting the hammer work for you by holding it at the end and such. My hands were less tired on Sunday and no blisters formed.

I may rent a generator for one week and see how it goes, by picking a week that is going to be good weather. I can even take a few vacation days at work that week so we can work out 11 hour days on those.

Thanks for mentioning the battery operated drills and such. Chris has some B&D battery operated drills and saws with extra batteries. We will make sure they are charged and handy for those screws you were talking about.

[Cecilia_Rose]

Hi. Im another nosey Looky Loo. Harry sent me over to check you out. Came to add my two cents like the rest. Mr Chickpeas cents are worth a lot more than the rest of us tho.. He helped me too.

Ive lived like you plan. Not by choice tho. I grew up in a house with electric but no inside plumbing. Summers were spent at my Gr Grandparents cabin . In the middle of nowhere with no nuthin. I remember going to the outhouse in the snow. BTDT dont wanna do it again.

Just a thought but I remember reading somewhere that in olden times people put their cistern tanks up high so they would have water pressure. If you did this you could have a sink with running water. Then you could direct your drain into your garden so you didnt waste your grey water.

I dont know much about tornados but would heav homemade functioning shutters help. The heavy kind where you drop a board across them to keep them closed. Im thinking they might help with heat and cooling too. Harry and the guys would know more about that tho.

Oh and for your porch check with some of the window companies. You might be able to pick up somebody elses old windows for free.

Good luck with your adventure.

[Forest Breath]

Someone just gave me several 4x4's. They are in perfect condition. I was thinking about using those in the floor where I was going to put those other 2x6's. Thoughts???

I will not be doing either until tomorrow evening so I will wait on a resonse about using them.

Thanks everyone.

I am hearing frmo a lot of epople who "use" to live this way. I always here about how they have no desire to go back. I have no clue what is inside me that makes me miss it so much. Our outhouse was a far bit from the house and I remember well trotting off throught the snow to use the bathroom, the rain, storms, sleet, freezing weather too. Washing clothes by hand, baths at the kitchen sink or in front of the wood heater...or on the backporch is the weather was nice. The washboard, the pot of stew on the wood heater, wetn sheets hanging in front of the windows so the breeze will cool the inside a bit. I miss it so much and almost cannot control my mind when I think abotu how close I am to those happy times again. Yeah it is hard and all, I know that for a fact, but something weird is inside me that craves it and I just cannot wait to live it again.

[Eat]

Originally Posted by Cecilia_Rose

Just a thought but I remember reading somewhere that in olden times people put their cistern tanks up high so they would have water pressure. If you did this you could have a sink with running water.

I lived in a house like that when I was a little kid. We had a huge cistern over the coal shed that caught run off from the second story. Now that I'm older and wiser (?), I have to wonder what in the world kept the whole thing from crashing down. Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon. That must have been one heavy sucker when it was full.

[harry chickpea]

Cecilia has a very good idea about windows. (waves hi to Cecilia) Habitat for Humanity is another possible source, but window companies are even better.

4x4s vertically are better than a single 2x6. Load bearing wise, when laid out flat, they are worse unless glued and screwed into a 4x8 laminate beam. That means pre-drilling holes every six inches, laying a layer of construction adhesive or contact cement between them, and then lagging them down with 7" lags to set the glue. Normally lams are pressed together under extreme pressures. If you have a lot of them, consider using them singly in the walls, where you would normally double-up on 2x4s. That was a good gift you got. Don't use them for the piers, except if you want to use them for the six already mentioned.

As for missing the experience of a home like this, there is something important for you in it, and you need to trust your yearning. We all want to help you, but if you have a gut feeling that you need to do stuff differently, trust that, and ignore us. It is your dream. While we all want to join in, you are the one living it. If it is safety related, I'll let you know as best I can, like I just did.

[Cecilia_Rose]

Hey Mr Chickpea. (waves) Ive gotten stuff from Habitat.

Forest if thats what you want you should go for it. Ive grown old and fat and Im used to creature comforts now. I do have to admit in the warmer weather it was fun.

We're all offering suggestions cause its fun. We dont expect you to like all of them. But were glad when you find one that meets your liking.

Im offering finish stuff cause I know enuf about construction to be dangerous. Also sometimes you need to know what youre going to put where so you can tweak your construction in the beginning. I would think it would be very irritating to get it all built and then find out I put a window right where I need a cupboard to be. Or if I just moved the door 6 inches to the right....

Oh and this is for way later if your interested. . I used to get windows from the window guys for free to do decorative painting on. You can make faux stained glass windows or just paint scenes. I used special paints but its really easy.

[Bones]

Couple of more thoughts. I would scab a board to each of boards that butt to each other in the center. I would also put extra support where the wood stove and fire proof flooring and walls will be located.....

[harry chickpea]

Bones gives good advice. You might want to bring up the issue of the wood stove in another post, since safety is key when dealing with fire.

Now I have some links that could waste a day or more! Don't load the links in this post unless you have a bit of time to sit back and ruminate and appreciate.

Just to show the bones (<grin> Sorry Bones) of a couple of other homebuilt houses of a similar size, I've linked some pages here. The first house is by an engineer who has some rather creative but structurally sound framing. (Note the number of piers under this house. )

Building the cabin

If you want to see an overachiever in action, take a look at his efforts to provide power to his home. If you have a slower network connection, you may need to reload the page a couple times to get all the photos.

The microhydro plant

Moderator cut: removed links and text

[Forest Breath]

Thanks for the links. I checked some of them out and will have Chris check them out from home when he gets time. Today he dismantled our fire pit, herb garden stones and my personal altar. Then he took Perrin to the property and started hauling concrete blocks and wood the the home site. As soon as I get home, I will grab my granddaughter and drop Amanda off with Chris. They will begin the foundation additions while I take the grandkids and move rocks and transplant some of my favorite plants. It will be another long evneing but hopefully we can get a lot done. I am getting the fire pit moved over so we can have a nice fire in the late evening and let the kids roast marshmallows before we all head home.

I just hope we are able to get that foundation stable by the weekend and I can get another load of wood delivered the first of the week, along with a generator. Then we can start on the walls. I am doing 8 windows all the exact same size and 2 doors, one on the west and east walls. I already have the screen doors and the wood is ready for the closet.

I had planned to add more foundation in the area of the wood stove. There will be no bathtub or anything inside and such. Any critical issues I should be aware of that are common mistakes on the walls? My wood order for this load is 125 2x4x8's, 20 2x4x14's and 30 pc. plywood.

We are discussing insulation this evening and will add it to the floor before the subflooring goes down and will insulate the walls after we move in. We need to try to get it livable as soon as possible, but not so fast that we regret mistakes later. If we pull 11 hour days, that is OK, I plan to take a few vacation days when we start the walls and roof. We are still shooting for June.

I appreciate all the help. It is kind of ironic that my little "back in time" house is being built with help via the internet. LOL

[Forest Breath]

Glad I bookmarked that link to the website that was so helpful before it disappeared into thin air. It was great to see how she went from day one to current in building her home, and the insight, help and knowledge she shared on her wensite was really helpful.

So, I am just now getting home from another long day of work. I did not get any pics today because we were just really focused on working and it got dark before we realized it.

We accomplished A LOT today! Amanda and Chris started on extra pillars while I took my 9 year old granddaughter and 2 1/2 year old grandson to our current residence and dug up plants to move. I got about 8 clumps of Columbines, some Lilies, and Astible, A green shrub I for got the name of (lol), a hydrangea and a poplar tree sapling moved today. YAY! I only have about 70 more plants to go before June.

Then I hauled more concrete blocks in the trunk of the Buick from one end of the property to the other...LOL. We got....get this (Mr. Chickpea will be proud!)....14 more pillars done! Can you belive it? We now have a total of 23 and will add two more tomorrow evening. That will give us a total of 25 pillars altogether. I also plan to add another over where the woodstove will be as well. We added a bunch more 2x6's and left the 4x4's for another project.

So I have a question, where the joists meet in the middle of the floor, they come together at the straight end. Would it be feasible and/or needed to cut 46 2x6's about a foot long and put them on each side of the joist where they meet. Like this...

..........<[----]>
<[--------][---------]> current joist
..........<[----]>

Does that make sense? And if we do it, should we screw them in?

We laid the subfloor plywood on the top of one quarter, not nailing it down yet, and we all got up there after adding the other pillars and jumped around, danced and ran across it. THE FLOOR WAS STURDY, STABLE and SECURE! I cold not believe the difference between yesterday and this evening.

THANKS SO MUCH HARRY CHICKPEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have decided to nail the plywood down by hand, LOL.....because we are nuts I think. We all want to hammer the nails and we found out renting a generator for the air compressor is $120 a week. We figured we could save that money to rent one when we start the walls and roof and just get up there on our knees and grab our hammers and start nailing tomorrow or Thursday! We LOVE to nail.

So things look good and with the help of the kind people posting in this thread....hopefully they will continue to look good. I will personally invite you all to my Homesteading Party when I am moved in!