Building my home

[drm7]

A: Interesting. You don't see block homes here so I'm not familiar with the construction techniques.

My house is coming along pretty well. I hope to get some interior pictures up by the weekend. Most of the lighting is up. The rooms have been painted. The wood & tile floors are down. The doors and trim are pretty much done. I think there is going to be a week of nothing while we wait for the cabinets to be finished. I still hope to be in my 2nd or 3rd week of June. Cross my fingers!

 

[drm7]

A: Latest pictures are up, http://dougm7.googlepages.com/home. Be sure to follow the Interior link. The light fixtures are supposed to be period pieces. I must say, doing a craftsman would be fun because I love the craftsman lights. The back porch has been prepared for me to screen in. We are trying to make it look like a room instead of a porch with screen.

2 weeks from today the cabinets are schedule to go in. I still need to terminate all the phone/coax/network cables. That's going to take a while. I have 480 little wires to punch down.

I finally got to talk to someone at the local cable company office. They are meeting me at the house on Monday to discuss installing cable. They said I should be no more than 250' from their pole. By my estimate I am right at 250'. I'll get my 300' tape out this weekend. I REALLY want cable internet. There is a wireless company putting up a tower on a mountain near here soon. I have to be within 10 miles of the mountain. I'm going to use my GPS tomorrow to find out how far I am.

 

[Amkeer]

I fixed the link. http://dougm7.googlepages.com/home


Looks real nice Doug! I like the flooring and tile you picked. The interior does give you the feel of a country type of home. What finish is on the floors?

Like the write up you did for the panel. So your cable from the pole will be underground?

I am still waiting for the power company to plug in the meter to the temp pole.

The lintel and beam was poured yesterday.

 

[drm7]

Thanks. I didn't even test the link.

The floor is unfinished at this point. It will be sanded and stained after the cabinets go in. We want to darken the floor up just a little bit. Going for the aged look.

I hope to hook the wiring panel up in the house next week and start terminating the wires. All utilities are underground. If/when they run cable it will be underground as well. They said I need to be within 250' of the pole. They gave me a pole number to look for and I paced it off last night and by my guess I am right at 250'. The pole is across the street so they'll have to bore below the road to do it.

We built off gas generators. Didn't get the electric until a month ago. That's a story I'll go into later.

 

[labman]

My hardwood floor has stood up to such abuse for years along with the insults of housebreaking many puppies. It is a moisture cure urethane, Rexthane from Sherwin Williams. One package product which goes on as easy as any varnish except for the strong smell. Use good ventilation.

The biggest problem is that it only comes in an ultra high gloss. I found a satin finish version, but the place in Chicago could only ship it to a licensed floor finisher.

 

[drm7]

Those teeth are scaring me!

I need to check on the what product they plan to use. Being softer pine I want a good product that will hold up for years. I also want a satin finish.

 

[Amkeer]

Starting framing today. I am working from the right to the left of the home only erecting the bearing walls for now. I need to get these walls up so we can get the trusses set and sheeted. It will be nice when that is done so I have shade. Its hot!!!!!!

The generator I was using had a hard time powering up the compressor so that was a little irritating. Hopefully the power company will plug the meter in tomorrow.

Pics up!!!!

Lab, thats red oak correct???

 

[drm7]

It is nice when you get to see the "sticks" going up. Somehow I don't think that shade is going to stop the FL humidity.

Have you picked out your lighting and plumbing fixtures? I love craftsman style homes. The lights, trim work, etc are so cool. We had a lot of fun picking things out. We did a lot of research using magazines and the internet.

 

[labman]

''Lab, thats red oak correct???''

Yeah, it was the original floor. The pine may not stand toe nails or other abuse near as well.

 

[Amkeer]

The bearing walls are almost completed. The trusses will be delivered today. Installation of trusses will be Saturday with a crew of 6 and a crane. Moving along!

Lets pray everything goes as planned.

Pics up...

 

[Amkeer]

Trusses are being set tomorrow!

When they delivered the trusses the stack was about 12 foot high. They dumped the trusses and broke one of them. The truss company came out promptly, brought the truss back to the plant and repaired it.

One of the framing crew that is setting trusses cut his leg open. It will need stitches. The first casualty on the job. He did it on a truss gusset.

Pics

http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c186/amkeer/

 

[Amkeer]

Trusses are up! I have a weeks worth of bracing, straightening and putting the caps on top (piggybacks). I also have to run outlooks at gables.

 

[drm7]

Looking good! What is your estimated finish date again? I'm looking at maybe 3rd week of June. Only 1 day of work took place at my house this past week. The cabinets go in this week and I'm hoping the AC and water get turned on.

 

[Amkeer]

We are looking at October. It will be tough, but we are moving as fast as possible.

It is unbelievably hot out!!! You just feel like you can not drink enough water.

 

[Bret Chase]

wow... residential framers never cease to amaze me. if OSHA'd showed up they'd have been f*cked.

 

[Amkeer]

Pretty dangerous stuff to be sure! I was as nervous as could be while they were setting the trusses. They had them all set by crane in 2 hours.

One of their crew lost his life a few weeks back. He fell from twelve feet up on his head. Brain swelled and had passed by the time he made it to the ambulance.

People take construction for granted.

 

[Bret Chase]

sorry to hear that.. usually though if a fatality occurs, OSHA is on the company like fly on stink. IMHO, 2 hrs isn't enough time to safely erect those trusses.. pic # 4 makes it appear that your girder truss isn't even nailed together. I also noted the extreme lack of bracing though the layout of the trusses should resonably proclude the trusses falling over. there's also the rediculously dangerous "strongback" method of starting the trusses. I don't have the time to go into how IMO, it should be done.

 

[Amkeer]

I see the pic you are talking about in #4. That is another truss that is right next to the girder truss. You have the double girder then the truss 1 inch from that. The girder is nailed every 4 inches apart. The gable at the garage is supported laterally from the inside. The strongback was used to just set that drop gable truss. I went back the next day and added the permanent bracing also.

If I was setting the trusses I would have done things different, but I have to rely on the subs to do their jobs. These guys do this stuff every day of the week and this is not new to them. This crew will set trusses on over 150 homes this year. Its dangerous work and these guys move extremely fast! If these guys were not good at what they do they wouldn't be at my home.

Its my job to finish permanent bracing, conventional tie-ins and sheeting. So I will make sure that everything is exactly as it should be.

 

[Bret Chase]

What kills me is what residential guys get away with that we can't.. we get an OSHA visit about once a year, so we need to do things in an OSHA-kosher fashion. I drive by places with a "billy bob's construction" sign tacked to a tree all the time, and see wooden "staging" cobbled together or a set of crusty pump jacks with a single spruce 2x8 as a plank. things that would get us a $10k+ fine. the last truss job we did was a double hipped roof pump station this spring for KKW.. a grand total of 10 trusses.. (handed it over a week before this month's floods) it took us about an hour... the job before that was 2500 floor and roof trusses.. that one took a while.

 

[Amkeer]

I agree Bret about workers being careless about safety. Its rediculous! Its one of the prime reason I got completely out of working for general contractors on large commercial jobs. To much risk relying on others.