# Finally starting my house



## sprucegum (Oct 15, 2014)

We are planning to build a new house on a piece of land we bought a couple of years ago. The area where the house will go is covered with low grade trees. A friend is in the logging business big time and told me if he ever had a down week when his equipment was not too far away he would cut and process the trees into fuel chips. He called yesterday and said he was on his way, by dark last night he moved a monster grapple skidder, a feller buncher, and a chipper onto the site. The loader slasher to feed the chipper is coming today. He gets the chips and will save out the few good saw logs for me and I get my lot cleared without lifting a finger or paying out money. Hope to have some pictures to post tonight.

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## Foot Patrol (Oct 15, 2014)

Nice!!! Cant beat Free.

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## barry richardson (Oct 15, 2014)

That's the way to barter!


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## sprucegum (Oct 15, 2014)

Home for lunch here is a few pictures. He will not get started on the house lot today as we decided to clean up a couple of acres of low quality stuff first. It is mostly dead and dying tamarack and balm-of-gilead , there are a good number of small maple and cherry trees that will be left to grow. They should grow much faster once the other trees are gone. The feller buncher can reach out and shear the cull trees then place them in piles for the grappel skidder to grab.

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## sprucegum (Oct 15, 2014)

a few more

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## SENC (Oct 15, 2014)

Well done with the pics, Dave!


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## Mike1950 (Oct 15, 2014)

Sure have to sell a lot of chips to pay for that kind of gear!!!! Nice spot for house.


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## sprucegum (Oct 15, 2014)

My estimate of the replacement cost of the equipment on my project is in the 2 million dollar range. Chips are worth around a grand/box trailer full and they will produce around 10 load on my project. I doubt they could make it on chips alone, most of their jobs are large and produce a good variety of logs from chips to high quality veneer logs.

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## sprucegum (Oct 21, 2014)

Here are a few more pics of the land clearing. They are taken at quite a distance as the last thing these guys need is someone getting in the way. The faller buncher cuts the trees and stacks them in bunches for the grapple skidder. They are then pulled to the loader slasher. The slasher is simply a big circular saw the enables the operator to trim the more valuable saw logs and pulp from the chipper wood. The higher value product is set to one side and the chipper wood including all of the limbs is fed into the chipper. The chips go to a wood burning power plant, the pulpwood goes to a paper mill, and in this case the saw log are staying on site for me to mill. Nothing is wasted even down and half rotted trees are picked up and chipped. The chipper burns around 10 gallons of fuel/hour and can fill a box trailer in about 1.5 hours. The load delivered to the power plant is worth $1000-$1200.

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## sprucegum (Oct 21, 2014)

Taylormade said:


> Color me jealous. I need to clear out a slice of land for a driveway on an adjoining piece of property I bought and the thought of it makes my head hurt. Good to have friends!!



A friend but he is not working for free normally he would pay something for the standing timber but I am giving it to him in exchange for some very careful cutting and the few saw logs. He will not get rich by any means but will better than make expenses and keep himself, his son, and one employee busy for a few days that otherwise would have been down time. I always love a deal where everyone gets what they want and no money changes hands.

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## Kevin (Oct 21, 2014)

Dave what species are those trees? Spruce?


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## sprucegum (Oct 21, 2014)

Kevin said:


> Dave what species are those trees? Spruce?


Very few spruce. Mostly tamarack , balsam fir, red maple, and cherry. Yes we did run cherry through the chipper, please don't hate me for it the devil made me do it.

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## sprucegum (Oct 21, 2014)

Taylormade said:


> I totally get that, just saying that it's good to have friends in beneficial career fields. Just like my buddy who owns his own tree service another who owns a septic service, and my other buddy who owns an HVAC company. It's GOOD to have those friends in Florida.
> 
> BTW, congrats on the land and the new project(s)!!


This will probably end up being about a 5 year project. I would not even be clearing the land this fall if the opportunity to get it done cheap and easy had not come along. I feel that I need to sell something to raise money to start this project in earnest and they ain't beatin down the door to buy in this economy.


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## Kevin (Oct 21, 2014)

sprucegum said:


> Yes we did run cherry through the chipper, please don't hate me for it the devil made me do it.



That ain't right. You might have 7 years of bad luck now. I hope not, but chipping cherry is liking pissing on an elf's shoe - very bad luck.

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## HomeBody (Oct 22, 2014)

That is some awesome equipment. I've never seen any stuff like that around here. You wouldn't need it for corn! When I win the lottery I'm gonna buy me some toys like that. Gary

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## sprucegum (Oct 22, 2014)

My friends son runs the feller buncher, he is about 25 years old and started learning how when he was 13. He can be tracking swiveling the cab and cutting trees all at the same time. He can cut a good size tree and carry it away in the upright position and lay it where the skider can grab it. If he does not keep the tree balanced perfectly it can destroy the boom on the machine causing many thousands of dollars in damage. The thing never stops moving except to cut larger trees, smaller ones are cut on the move. He will cut several smaller trees and use the hydraulic fingers on the cutter head to keep them upright until he is ready to place the on the ground. His mind must be thinking about 10 trees ahead to cut as fast and efficiently as he does.

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## sprucegum (Oct 22, 2014)

Kevin said:


> That ain't right. You might have 7 years of bad luck now. I hope not, but chipping cherry is liking pissing on an elf's shoe - very bad luck.


never heard the elf thing before, man you look short in that picture you posted in the PM thread,

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## Kevin (Oct 22, 2014)

sprucegum said:


> never heard the elf thing before,



I like to make stuff up as I go along.

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## sprucegum (Jul 15, 2018)

Four years later it is finally happening. Insulated radiant slab house with attached garage. So far I have pretty much worked alone setting forms for the footings and frost walls. I hired a concrete contractor to fill my forms because it is just too much for me to handle alone. The same contractor will pour the slab when I have it ready to go. I have some help coming in a week or so and hopefully we can get a roof over it before snow flies.

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## Eric Rorabaugh (Jul 15, 2018)

Dang what a house! What are the dimensions?

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## Nature Man (Jul 15, 2018)

Congrats on getting underway! Looking forward to watching the progress in the days ahead. Chuck

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## sprucegum (Jul 15, 2018)

Eric Rorabaugh said:


> Dang what a house! What are the dimensions?


Overall it is 28 x 102 with a little 4 x 24 jog. The garage is 28 x 40 and because it has no basement the utility room takes up roughly 100 sqft. It does look big but I'm sure it will fill up fast, my wife insists on hoarding family things that our children care very little about. I on the other hand am a preservationist of pretty wood, tools, firearms, and fish poles. Having dealt with our aging relatives and their handicap inaccessible homes we are looking to keep most of the house at ground level. It will have a little upstairs space in the form of a guest room and some attic storage but nothing will be up there that we have to access.

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## andy close (Jul 18, 2018)

Very cool. I hope to be able to do something similar someday. I always thought it would be nice to design & build my own home, especially in a location like yours!

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## sprucegum (Aug 25, 2018)

It has been a long slow process so far with the typical construction issues. The local power company has been exceedingly slow and everyone else that I deal with is extremely busy this year. The concrete radiant heat floor is finally in place and it looks like I may get electricity next week. I have a load of framing material scheduled for Tues. and some good help lined up for the next 4-6 weeks. Still hoping to be dried in before cold weather hits so I can spend the winter doing inside work.

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## Mike1950 (Aug 25, 2018)

looking good- What fuel will heat radiant? Nice job on insulation. Warm floor makes for warm house.

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## Nature Man (Aug 25, 2018)

Hope all goes well for you in the next few weeks, as Winter's coming! Chuck

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## Wildthings (Aug 25, 2018)

Nothing like having 2 half nakid old guys in hip boots to do your floor!!

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## sprucegum (Aug 25, 2018)

Wildthings said:


> Nothing like having 2 half nakid old guys in hip boots to do your floor!!


Yup 4 old guys doing all of the work and the new kid on the crew ( far right by the blue manlift) TEXTING.

They look a little rough as most concrete guys do but they know their business with the exception of the texting kid.

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## sprucegum (Aug 25, 2018)

Mike1950 said:


> looking good- What fuel will heat radiant? Nice job on insulation. Warm floor makes for warm house.




Probably fuel oil, natural gas is not a option here. Propane and fuel oil are about equal net cost. Propane burns more efficiently is cheaper /gallon but has less BTU's / gallon. Propane I have to hire a gas tech. at $85/hour to do the install. Heating oil I will do myself and get my oil burner tech. buddy to tune the burner for a $50 bill and a couple beers. The house will have super tight r-30 walls and around r-60 ceilings with a heat recovery ventilation system. 

I have done all of the concrete forming and radiant install myself. I hire a professional crew to pour it concrete , it is a big savings over having them do all of the work. The big slab was 24 yards they came at 9 AM had it in place by 11 and were done troweling loaded up and gone around 4 PM

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## sprucegum (Sep 9, 2018)

Delay after delay but finally got in two good days. I had most of the layout and window framing parts cut when my 2 helpers came. Hoping to have 2 more for this week so with me that makes 5. One young one who is clueless and one old one (me) who knows how but moves pretty slow, the other three have it together so I guess me and the kid count for one so I'm calling it a 4 man crew. Some heavy rain in the forecast so we may not get a full week.

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## barry richardson (Sep 9, 2018)

Looking good Dave! Are ya hoping to get it closed in by first snowfall?


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## sprucegum (Sep 9, 2018)

barry richardson said:


> Looking good Dave! Are ya hoping to get it closed in by first snowfall?



Guess that depends on when it comes, I have seen the first one come before the end of September but we should have good outside working weather at least until November. I have some really good help now and we should have the common rafter and beam ceiling center section framed this week. The remainder is trusses except for the valleys. The trusses could come any day now. Doing screwed on metal roofing so that should go fast.

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## sprucegum (Sep 15, 2018)

We had a little rain this week so we lost a couple of half days but we did manage to get the ceiling beams and rafters up on the kitchen living room section. The beams are eastern white cedar that my son harvested last winter. I milled them in April so they are not really dry Not the strongest wood but not too far from other native softwoods. The bedrooms above will be guest rooms for when grandchildren their parents visit. I am hoping my trusses for the remainder come soon, they have been ordered for just over 3 weeks and they told me 3-3 1/2 weeks lead time is normal.

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## Nature Man (Sep 15, 2018)

Great progress! How are those 8x8 (?) rafter beams attached at the ends? Chuck

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## sprucegum (Sep 15, 2018)

Nature Man said:


> Great progress! How are those 8x8 (?) rafter beams attached at the ends? Chuck



they have a tendon that overlays the main carrier and the space between them is solid blocked . I would have liked to mortise the carrier but it is only a 10 x 10 and it would have weakened it too much. I wanted to mill it 12 x 12 or larger but the logs just were not big enough. White cedar is a slow growing tree and the logs tend to be crooked and have a lot of taper. We used 8" ledger lock screws to attach them.

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## Ralph Muhs (Sep 15, 2018)

This is my kind of project. Looking forward to future pictures. 
Solar stuff. Slab. Any timber frame components? Tell me more.

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## sprucegum (Sep 15, 2018)

The only timber framing is the floor system pictured. I have done some timber framing but chose not to on my house because it just would not work out well for the floor plan that we wanted. A few beams in a high ceiling will have to do. The largest section of roof is aligned well for some solar panels and the electrical service will be laid out for easy connection of a grid tie system but it will not happen this year. The house will be super tight with about a R-30 in the walls and R-50 in the attic. It will have a heat recovery ventilation system. We are also planning to use a heat pump water heater.

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## TimR (Sep 15, 2018)

Very cool! Gotta stay on top of things to keep moving along. We just finished a busy week and are in about a final mode and hoping to be in by end of October

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## sprucegum (Sep 16, 2018)

TimR said:


> Very cool! Gotta stay on top of things to keep moving along. We just finished a busy week and are in about a final mode and hoping to be in by end of October



Sounds like you are about a year ahead of me.


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## TimR (Sep 16, 2018)

sprucegum said:


> Sounds like you are about a year ahead of me.


It’s been quite the ordeal. Most up to now not much fun and a whole lot of nothing going on till we parted ways with builder. Things are moving well since we took over contracting the subs. Saving grace is a really good finish carpenter who also did our siding.

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## sprucegum (Sep 16, 2018)

TimR said:


> It’s been quite the ordeal. Most up to now not much fun and a whole lot of nothing going on till we parted ways with builder. Things are moving well since we took over contracting the subs. Saving grace is a really good finish carpenter who also did our siding.



That is a phrase I have heard many times over the years "he is one hell of a finish man". Often means he is just that a finish carpenter not a builder. Planning and executing the build along with coordinating all of the various subs can be a task. I used to build 3 bedroom 1 bath ranch houses one after another, 2 of us could slap one together in about 6 weeks but it usually took almost that long just to get permits, get the dirt work done and the foundation and utilities in. I have been working on my house since May and really just got things going 2 weeks ago. The power company has had my money since mid June and we just got a temporary service last week. Sure does seem good to listen to a radio instead of my generator.

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## sprucegum (Sep 19, 2018)

Long day setting trusses today. Boom truck was late didn't show up until 11 so we had a early lunch and worked strait through till 5:30 but we got it done. Trusses have a small piggy back truss that finishes the top.

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## sprucegum (Sep 29, 2018)

Really happy with the progress. It is pretty much water tight and I have contracted with a roofer to install a standing seam metal roof. I still have two good men helping and we can now work inside or out as the weather dictates.

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## B Rogers (Sep 29, 2018)

Wow, you're making great progress. We built a house about 5 yrs ago. 13 months later we finished. Twas a long year, working a full time job and building a house in the evenings. But it was worth it. Yours is looking good.

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## sprucegum (Sep 29, 2018)

I built the last one in 1988 I was 37 somehow it was easier then.

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## sprucegum (Oct 7, 2018)

Not much noticeable change from last week as it rained all but 2 days. We did manage to get most of the roof trim on, the remainder of the week was spent inside strapping ceilings and such. My son did get the road ditched and finish graded which is good to have done with winter on the way.

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## sprucegum (Oct 28, 2018)

Not much that shows from the outside the past couple of weeks. We got the inside of the garage insulated and drywalled, I am finishing it first to have a shop to work out of for the rest of the build. The roofer came Friday and made some good progress on the roof but rain will keep him away much of the week. The mason is starting the chimney tomorrow, rain forecast but he will be inside until he reaches the roof. My windows are getting delivered this week but I will hold off on installation until the roof is done.

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## woodtickgreg (Oct 28, 2018)

I always love the look of a metal roof.

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## Eric Rorabaugh (Oct 28, 2018)

Oohhh standing seam roof! Nice!!

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## TimR (Oct 28, 2018)

No kidding, standing seam is a last forever practically. I figure our metal roof should outlive me and misses, though not standing seam.
How long a drive do you have to maintain?

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## sprucegum (Oct 29, 2018)

TimR said:


> No kidding, standing seam is a last forever practically. I figure our metal roof should outlive me and misses, though not standing seam.
> How long a drive do you have to maintain?


The Standing seam is pretty expensive but I take a lot of comfort in knowing that a roof replacement is not something we will have to deal with in our lifetime.

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## Arn213 (Oct 29, 2018)

Standing seam metal roof is the typical material that my wife’s company specifies for Architectural roofing here in the south. We just specified it to an addition on a house for a house and her parents has it on theirs. Should last a last time and there are a good deal of period house here in Charleston- there are ones with old metal roofing that has stand the test of time......with annual hurricanes and all.


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## sprucegum (Nov 2, 2018)

Working in my new garage today. It is pouring rain outside so I'm cutting some soffit material and staining some doors that I made for the attic storage area over the garage.

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## Herb G. (Nov 2, 2018)

It's looking good & coming right along. I helped a neighbor's brother build his house about 30 years ago.
We hauled concrete in wheelbarrows from sun up until sun down. For a week straight.


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## TimR (Nov 2, 2018)

sprucegum said:


> Working in my new garage today. It is pouring rain outside so I'm cutting some soffit material and staining some doors that I made for the attic storage area over the garage. View attachment 155015
> 
> View attachment 155016


Looks like good progress. I have the Bosch compound miter on the similar gravity rise stand...pretty impressive. Hardly seems worth typical cost till you actually use it, then it’s an easy justification.

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## sprucegum (Nov 3, 2018)

TimR said:


> Looks like good progress. I have the Bosch compound miter on the similar gravity rise stand...pretty impressive. Hardly seems worth typical cost till you actually use it, then it’s an easy justification.


I have had that saw and stand since 2002 and it has seen a lot of use. The stand is very easy to use but I have seen people almost hurt themselves trying to get it open. Also very easy to load in the truck alone I just rest the handle on the tailgate, lift the opposite end and slide it in.


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## sprucegum (Nov 3, 2018)

Got my doors in they still need hinges and glass but they will slow down the wind and rain that is on the way. A bit of a job alone but with the help of my scissor lift I got it done.

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## sprucegum (Nov 27, 2018)

Roofers finally finished the roof just ahead of the snow. Good thing it was a guaranteed price it took like forever, weather has been a factor but they were not here quite a few days that were pretty nice. They did a great job. I'm really glad to have them gone as they were in my way quite a bit as the materials had to be stored in the house and having only two electrical outlets made a cluster of cords and splitters, no compromise with these guys if they can't plug in 2 battery chargers, a radio, metal shears and seaming machine they go home. One day we had a power outage and they almost got away from me lucky my generator was handy by.

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## sprucegum (Dec 5, 2018)

Not a lot of it shows progress, still pecking away at interior partitions and a huge list of little things. The garage doors came today, they did a nice neat job on the install, they rolled in at 6:45 am and were packed up and gone before 10. I'm liking the look. Nice to see the blue tarps gone and it will make it much handier for deliveries.

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## ironman123 (Dec 5, 2018)

Dave you are "getting her done" little by little. Looking good so far.

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## TimR (Dec 5, 2018)

Looking good Dave, the progress has to feel good.

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## Nature Man (Dec 5, 2018)

Those are right smart looking garage doors! Thanks for the continued progress reports! Chuck

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## sprucegum (Dec 6, 2018)

ironman123 said:


> Dave you are "getting her done" little by little. Looking good so far.


Sometimes it is hard to see what got done, I am working alone most of the time and the days tend to be pretty short this time of year. It is 6;45 AM now and it is not fully light and it gets pretty dark in the house by 4PM. It also has been snowing pretty regular so snow plowing takes up some time. I like to work alone and really don't want to spend the money for full time help, so I work at things that I can do alone until I have a good list of two man work. When the list gets a day or two long I have a carpenter and his helper come put in a day or two. It works good for them because they don't always have warm inside work and I have all of the necessary power tools. They can drop what they are doing and just show up with tool belts and hand tools.

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## ironman123 (Dec 6, 2018)

That sounds like a pretty good plan Dave.

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## sprucegum (Dec 7, 2018)

Not my favorite job but it is not a bad day to insulate. Temp outside is dropping like a stone. My old beater wood stove is doing a fair job taking the chill off .

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## Mike1950 (Dec 7, 2018)

All wired and plumbed? I had an old Ashley wood stove. Looked somewhat like that.


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## Eric Rorabaugh (Dec 7, 2018)

Mike1950 said:


> I had an old Ashley wood stove


Must have been REALLY old!

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## sprucegum (Dec 8, 2018)

Mike1950 said:


> All wired and plumbed? I had an old Ashley wood stove. Looked somewhat like that.



Most of the plumbing is roughed in. I am adding a layer of 1 1/2 inch foil faced foam board over the studding and furring that out another 1 1/2 inch to make a mechanical cavity for electrical . All of the joints and corners are taped or foamed to make it as air tight as possible. My walls will be 9 1/2 inches thick and have a R value of 33 with very little air leakage or thermal bridging. 
.

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## sprucegum (Dec 8, 2018)

Mike1950 said:


> All wired and plumbed? I had an old Ashley wood stove. Looked somewhat like that.



The stove is a King basically a copy of the ashley. Found it on CL for $200 I offered $100 and they took it. It is in pretty good condition. I have a Crawford cast iron cook stove that will take its place when the house is done. I expect I will need a outside air source to get any natural draft stove to work in my air sealed house.


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## sprucegum (Dec 8, 2018)

Eric Rorabaugh said:


> Must have been REALLY old!



The stove is probably from the 70s the antique cook stove that will take its place is from around 1920 and I'm not saying another word.

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## sprucegum (Dec 8, 2018)

Same wall today with foam board. I use a few nails with roofing tin washers to hold it in place. The 1 1/2 inch furring strips go on next and are fastened with 4 inch screws into the studs.

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## sprucegum (Dec 13, 2018)

The snow is not too deep to get through with 4wd so Monday I broke a trail to one of my wood stashes and moved it into the new garage. It is a mix of cherry maple and ash. Probably over half cherry all decent quality and stickered under cover for 4 or more years. I'm guessing about 1500 bdft . I have as much or more stored in another shed that is mostly maple. Guess I will go with hardwood trim.

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## Nature Man (Dec 13, 2018)

What a beautiful stack of wood! Chuck

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## sprucegum (Dec 24, 2018)

A little Christmas eve plumbing and heating . Of all of the trades i have dabbled in this one has saved me the most money over the years. Private well and septic and my own house plumbing inspector cant bother me .

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## sprucegum (Dec 31, 2018)

The electrician finished up the garage today. Love these led lights, great light no shadows. If I ever get the house done so I can build a shop I will use the same lighting.

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## sprucegum (Jan 5, 2019)

Another Saturday spent working at the house. Getting some interior walls framed.

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## sprucegum (Jan 26, 2019)

I work almost every day on the house, I like to save time consuming laid back projects for weekends. Built the water supply manifold today. By the time I dealt with yet another snow storm and made a trip to the plumbing supply it was nearly 10 AM took a short lunch break and quit about 3. I would have finished tying in all of the pex lines had I not run out of crimp rings. I have a ball valve shut off for each bath, the laundry , and kitchen.

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## sprucegum (Mar 10, 2019)

sprucegum said:


> A little Christmas eve plumbing and heating . Of all of the trades i have dabbled in this one has saved me the most money over the years. Private well and septic and my own house plumbing inspector cant bother me .View attachment 157591
> 
> View attachment 157592


I got this heating system up and running just before New Year. I had the oil tank topped off tues. and it took 175 gallons. I started out heating the partially insulated garage, then around the first of Feb. I started heating about half of the downstairs also only partially insulated. We are now heating the whole thing and it is almost as tight as it will ever be. My goal is to heat all 3300 sq ft including the garage with a tank of oil (250 gallons) and one cord of wood. Given that we used less than 3 gallons/day thru the coldest part of the winter in a half insulated house I think it is a realistic goal. If it all works out our yearly heating cost at todays prices will be about $750 for oil and a cord of wood from cull trees on the property.

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## sprucegum (Mar 10, 2019)

Spent the morning sanding ceiling beams . Like most of my tools my sander is 20 plus years old and it gave up this morning . Guess I'm headed for the box store for a new one.

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## Herb G. (Mar 10, 2019)

Man, I see some serious cracking in those beams. I hope they're not load bearing.

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## sprucegum (Mar 10, 2019)

Herb G. said:


> Man, I see some serious cracking in those beams. I hope they're not load bearing.




They are load bearing. I don't feel it is a issue, it is the nature of beam construction, just adds a little character. The floor system would probably hold several times the weight it will ever get from the 2 small guest rooms above.

https://www.mcilvain.com/how-to-prevent-cracks-in-your-large-timbers/

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## sprucegum (Mar 11, 2019)

Got tired of sanding at noon today and decided the put a coat of polyurethane on the ones I had ready. It is bringing out the color and grain in the white cedar.


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 11, 2019)

I see the ends are chammed down some. IBC code for beams go off the smallest part. So if it has a tendon end, the tendon size is the beam size to be rated. Northern white cedar has much more strength if the pith is contained. If milled out, the weigh rating drop as it is more prone to failure.

Those look plenty close. What is the run?


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## sprucegum (Mar 12, 2019)

Trust me people they will not fail. You are not seeing the whole story. The joists are full 8x8 the carrying beam is full 10x 10. There is a whole stick framed floor system on top of this , 2x6 16 oc that makes a mechanical cavity for heating, ventilation, and electrical. The room you are seeing is 24' wide, due to roof slope the rooms above are only 13' with over half of that width being sloped ceiling. 13' wide centered over the carrying beam. The sq footage above is only 400 sq ft at 40 lbs/ sq ft that is 16,000 lbs. I would trust it to hold 80 full size people if in fact you could find 80 really close friends willing to do a group hug. Honestly Mr. Peet I have never seen a EWC log 12' long that was large enough to mill a full 8 x 8 out of without boxing the heart. Boca code also requires grade stamped lumber mine is not. Grade stamped softwood lumber is a joke I can go to any lumber yard and find grade stamped framing lumber with red rot, splits, and cracks. Here in VT. we are still allowed to harvest and mill our own lumber for our own house without government oversite.

Reactions: Informative 1


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 12, 2019)

sprucegum said:


> Trust me people they will not fail. You are not seeing the whole story. The joists are full 8x8 the carrying beam is full 10x 10. There is a whole stick framed floor system on top of this , 2x6 16 oc that makes a mechanical cavity for heating, ventilation, and electrical. The room you are seeing is 24' wide, due to roof slope the rooms above are only 13' with over half of that width being sloped ceiling. 13' wide centered over the carrying beam. The sq footage above is only 400 sq ft at 40 lbs/ sq ft that is 16,000 lbs. I would trust it to hold 80 full size people if in fact you could find 80 really close friends willing to do a group hug. Honestly Mr. Peet I have never seen a EWC log 12' long that was large enough to mill a full 8 x 8 out of without boxing the heart. Boca code also requires grade stamped lumber mine is not. Grade stamped softwood lumber is a joke I can go to any lumber yard and find grade stamped framing lumber with red rot, splits, and cracks. Here in VT. we are still allowed to harvest and mill our own lumber for our own house without government oversite.



Now we have the whole descriptive picture. Thanks for posting Dave. Glad to hear VT still lets you do things without big brother. When you get into Ontario, Canada, there are plenty of groves with 20"-30" DBH by 50' - 70' tall Eastern White Cedar. Just a matter of location. Looking good, keep us in the loop.

M. R. Peet...

Reactions: Like 1


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## sprucegum (Mar 12, 2019)

Mr. Peet said:


> Now we have the whole descriptive picture. Thanks for posting Dave. Glad to hear VT still lets you do things without big brother. When you get into Ontario, Canada, there are plenty of groves with 20"-30" DBH by 50' - 70' tall Eastern White Cedar. Just a matter of location. Looking good, keep us in the loop.
> 
> M. R. Peet...


 To get a clean 8 x 8 with the heart boxed you need close to 12" top end and it needs to be strait. To remove the pith it would have to be twice that size. Cedar has a lot of taper and rarely grows perfectly strait or round for that matter.


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## Arn213 (Mar 12, 2019)

sprucegum said:


> Trust me people they will not fail. You are not seeing the whole story. The joists are full 8x8 the carrying beam is full 10x 10. There is a whole stick framed floor system on top of this , 2x6 16 oc that makes a mechanical cavity for heating, ventilation, and electrical. The room you are seeing is 24' wide, due to roof slope the rooms above are only 13' with over half of that width being sloped ceiling. 13' wide centered over the carrying beam. The sq footage above is only 400 sq ft at 40 lbs/ sq ft that is 16,000 lbs. I would trust it to hold 80 full size people if in fact you could find 80 really close friends willing to do a group hug. Honestly Mr. Peet I have never seen a EWC log 12' long that was large enough to mill a full 8 x 8 out of without boxing the heart. Boca code also requires grade stamped lumber mine is not. Grade stamped softwood lumber is a joke I can go to any lumber yard and find grade stamped framing lumber with red rot, splits, and cracks. Here in VT. we are still allowed to harvest and mill our own lumber for our own house without government oversite.



On post #33, Dave has a photo of the “skeleton” before it was closed up. You can see it is “over built”- good thing in my book, but what a pain for someone trying to take it apart. I love the “honest construction” in which you ran the same 8 x 8 on top of the main beam and exposed it and connected the cross beams.

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## sprucegum (Mar 15, 2019)

About 40 hours of sanding sealing and sanding again . Finally getting the finish coat on . I'm guessing another 20 to 30 hours to paint the drywall between them.

Reactions: Like 2 | Thank You! 1 | Way Cool 1


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## sprucegum (Mar 30, 2019)

Hoping to get started on my kitchen build next week. I have more room in the new garage than in my shop so I will do much of it on site, today's project was a temporary bench assembly table in the garage. Nothing fancy just 2x4s OSB and a old vice.

Reactions: Way Cool 1


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## sprucegum (Apr 4, 2019)

Been getting some painting done this week. Two more days should finish the ceilings and wall

Reactions: Like 3


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## sprucegum (Jun 9, 2019)

The interior work is starting to wind down. I still have many hours of exterior work to do but we need to move soon so my focus has been inside. Nothing worse than moving furniture to do trim work. Sliding barn doors are all the rage now so we had to have a couple to keep up with the Jones. After what seemed like for ever the kitchen is finished .

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## drycreek (Jun 9, 2019)

Looks great!!!

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## B Rogers (Jun 9, 2019)

Great job. Really like those doors and beams.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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