Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Tennessee
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 07-01-2008, 03:24 PM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
10,447 posts, read 49,589,806 times
Reputation: 10614

Advertisements

I just found this thread today. As someone who is in the business of building, naturally it caught my eye.

The property is just beautiful.

The only thing I did not like is the old wooden rickety bridge was far more charming then the city culvert. I loved that old junky bridge ! I guess there would be no way to get the heavy machinery over it though. Oh well.

Good job. You gave many of us something to dream about and yet others something to learn from.

 
Old 07-01-2008, 05:30 PM
 
28,111 posts, read 63,536,638 times
Reputation: 23240
Quote:
Originally Posted by desertsun41 View Post
I just found this thread today. As someone who is in the business of building, naturally it caught my eye.

The property is just beautiful.

The only thing I did not like is the old wooden rickety bridge was far more charming then the city culvert. I loved that old junky bridge ! I guess there would be no way to get the heavy machinery over it though. Oh well.

Good job. You gave many of us something to dream about and yet others something to learn from.
I liked the bridge too... maybe it was saved for the future pond project?
 
Old 07-01-2008, 07:00 PM
 
537 posts, read 730,301 times
Reputation: 1028
I sure have been enjoying your story. What a beautiful area to build your home!!! Looks like a lot of hard work, but it will surely be worth it. I wish you both much happiness in your new home.
 
Old 07-01-2008, 08:00 PM
 
Location: Sunny Florida
7,136 posts, read 12,651,078 times
Reputation: 9547
Lisa and Mike, I just found this thread today and have read the whole thing. What a great house! I've read Mother Earth News for years and have always been fascinated by people who build their own homes and live off the grid, but wondered how they accomplish it. You've done a fabulous job of showing us the process step by step. You should submit your story and pictures to Mother earth News, then the whole world could see your terrific work. You are really an inspiration to me! Best wishes and thanks for sharing.
 
Old 07-02-2008, 05:50 AM
 
Location: Where the sun likes to shine!!
20,549 posts, read 30,335,054 times
Reputation: 88950
evilnewbie- Our wind generator is a secondary system. We also have a smaller one and it only needs 6mph to produce power. The larger more expensive ones produce more power but what good is it if you can't get the thing to turn. We will eventually add more. And we will be very happy with whatever it produces on those long cloudy days especially in the winter.

Ultrarunner- Mike got the C30 with a front loader and a rear blade. So far it has saved our butts a couple of times. The cows have been pretty good lately.

Desertsun41- Yeah we were even afraid to cross that bridge with our jeep. We almost didn't go in and look at that property when it was for sale. I'm so, so happy we did. We had to change it out because there was no way we could get the concrte trucks in. I think the county took the bridge.

Sunnydee- That was really nice. Thanks.

I will be posting the first part of chapter 6 with more pictures tonight. I gotta go now. It's time to go work.

Lisa
 
Old 07-02-2008, 06:00 AM
 
9,124 posts, read 36,328,353 times
Reputation: 3630
Lisa-

Great pics and story- I love the idea of building into the side of the hill and using alternative energy. Keep up the good work, and keep the pictures coming!
 
Old 07-02-2008, 09:17 AM
 
2,066 posts, read 4,328,797 times
Reputation: 1992
OMG I love the view. I've been looking for something just like that... !!!
Lots of space, country/off the grid, rolling hills...
But no luck yet
 
Old 07-02-2008, 04:37 PM
 
Location: State of Being
35,879 posts, read 77,264,411 times
Reputation: 22751
What a great story!!! And your property . . . I am simply amazed. How I wish I could find property like that . . . just astoundingly beautiful. I am fascinated w/ your adventure and eagerly awaiting future details.

Thank you so much for sharing.
 
Old 07-02-2008, 07:42 PM
 
Location: Where the sun likes to shine!!
20,549 posts, read 30,335,054 times
Reputation: 88950
Hi everyone. As promised I am writing the first part of Chapter 6. We are finally up to date. I will try to post our story with pictures twice a week.

Chapter 6 Week of June 30

Monday-
It rained most of the day on Sunday so we decided to go to Lowes's to pick up our patio doors. It would give the property some time to dry out. It took us about 3 hours to go to Lowes, look around, get the doors, and get back. We got 2 6ft double pane Pella sliding glass doors with mini blinds built inside the glass. Yeah, no more cleaning blinds or curtains ever again. It was a very heavy load going back to the property.

When we go to the property our right-of-way had some fallen tree branches. It must have gotten pretty windy over the weekend. Once inside the property we found that a lot of different areas of our road got washed out. We knew this was going to happen. Remember we only put in a base(rough) road just to get our contractors and their trucks in. As soon as we get the house closed in we will have to spend some serious time on our road. This was the first hard rain we've had since we started building the house.

When we got to the homesite we found the backfilling along the back and the sides of the house started to settle.



It is about a foot lower in some spots.



We will have to add more dirt. The walkway to the front of the house also settled.



The side of the walkway washed out a little.



Mike did a quick grade on the walkway.

The first thing we had to do was get the doors off the trailer and inside the house. Do you know how heavy 6ft double pane sliding doors are? Well they were definitely too heavy for us. There was no way we could carry them down inside the house. So we had to take them apart by removing a glass door and the screen in each one. We got the doors into the house and then we started working.

We started working on our front wall by installing T-111, which is the sheathing and the siding all in one. We got some of the siding up and installed one door. We were so relieved that the door fit. When we cut the opening we only had the written measurements from Lowe's.



At that point Howard stopped by to check on his cows and give them some treats(I had a picture but I didn't upload it-sorry). When Howard left Mike and I went back to work and about 45 minutes later it started to pour. We were just about to put the second door in. It figures.


We had to get all the tools, which were soaking wet, back into the building. By the time we got everything dried off the sun came out. Oh well, it was too late by then to drag everything back out. Hopefully it will be dry for the next few days and we can get the house closed in.

Tuesday-

Today we worked on the siding for the back and the sides of the house. We had 100 feet of siding to install. That's a lot of work. I was the one measuring the boards for the back of the house. Mike came up with a system(idiot proof) years ago for measuring that I use. I am terrible at fractions and counting all the lines on a tape measure. So each line to me is a "dittie". Today I measured 10 boards at 44 1/2 inches minus 2 ditties. That is really 44 3/8". In any case it works for me. While I was measuring Mike was installing extra anchor bolts for our bottom plate into the top of the cement wall. He also added 2 x 6's(leftover-because we never waste anything) to beef up the back of the siding. After that we started cutting all the boards that I measured. Actually, Mike does all the cutting. Years ago Mike tried to teach me how to use a circular saw, my ponytail fell foward very close to the blade, Mike almost had heart failure, and now I am banned from any cutting. Now I just hold and help guide the boards while Mike cuts. After all the boards were cut I started painting the bottom few inches on each board. This is just a protective coating because our siding will be so close to the ground.



After they dried we glued and screwed them in place. Then we repeated the whole process for the rest of the boards.

The right side



And the left side



It was a very long day with a lot of up and down work but we did it. We got the siding up on the back and both sides of the house. We also got to use our well today to clean the paint brushes. Mike hooked it to our generator and the water pressure was great.
Our well



Ready for winter


Today-

We started our day by getting all the equipment out ot paint the back and 2 sides of the house. This is only a base coat to protect the wood until we paint our color. Mike got a new spray gun and it makes life so much easier. He sprayed and I followed behind with a brush catching any drips. It didn't us long to do that.
Mike prepping



Mike painting



It took us longer to prep everything and clean up after we were done than it did to paint.

Next we installed 136 feet of drip edge. This is just a thin metal edging that is screwed onto the plywood on the roof. It is used to divert water off the roof.


O.K. now it's time to put the metal roof on. As you all know we have 26 3ft x 17ft metal panels. The hardest part is getting the first one perfect. We started with the front left corner and laid down 12 more panels to the the front right corner. We got them as straight as we could and started screwing the panels to the plywood. We had to leave the last panel off because it had to be cut. Then we went to the middle left side of the roof and laid out the next 12 panels. We lined those up and screwed those down.
Then we measured the last 2 panels and Mike cut those. We put the cut edge under the last panel and screwed them down. Well about 800 screws later we got the metal roofing installed.

These are our chalk lines on the roof so our screws are in a straight line.



Originally we wanted to do the mountain theme for the home and have a green roof, dark green exterior, and white trim but that is not our goal. We have to be practical and keep this house as cool as possible. We will not have air conditioning because it uses too much electric. So we went with a white roof.

The roof does look a little odd because you can see the whole thing from the back and the sides of the house. It almost looks like a billboard or a platform. Eventually we will plant trees or a hedge surrounding the roof. I told Mike It looks like a helicopter pad and I hope no one tries to land on our house. LOL.

It's been a really, really long day. Mike and I are exhausted. While we are having dinner tonght Mike says to me" I don't really like the way the roof came out". So why didn't you say something, oh I don't know, about 5 hours ago?

So tomorrow we are going to try to reverse some panels. Mike doesn't like the overlap on the metal.

That's all for tonght.

Lisa and Mike
 
Old 07-02-2008, 10:08 PM
 
107 posts, read 300,216 times
Reputation: 144
Lisa & Mike

You guys ROCK!!! If you have "slowed down" at this stage in your lives, I would not have liked trying to keep up with you when you were going at full speed

My Dad and I have built some things together (home additions, garages etc..) and my Mom & Dad built their own house in upstate NY (no contractors, they cut every board and hammered every nail) so I can truly appreciate the hard work that you guys are doing.


My wife and I have 7 1/2 acres just outside of Cookeville and we plan to build our retirement home in about 8 years. We have a shop with power/water/septic so we can live on site while we build. I know that we won't be able to match your pace
I figure at least four to six months.

It is so nice that, in the midst of all this work, you take the time to photograph the progress and post it here for us to enjoy. Thank you so much! If it wasn't for my wife, we would have no photos of our projects lol

Hammer
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Closed Thread


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Tennessee
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:22 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top