My house going up!

[Volvo farmer]

Amazing things have happened in the last couple of months. I've almost got a house dried in.

Thought I'd share a few pictures of the construction process. There was nothing but dirt here at the beginning of May so things have moved very quickly. I've joined the framing crew for the last few weeks and learned one thing. Construction is hard work!

Here's the foundation. I tried to bury the North side in the ground a ways.

Here's the bottom story framed up. We poured a colored concrete floor in there with pex tubes inside for in-floor heat. Then the surface was cut into 3'x3' squares to look like big tiles.

Here's the floor for the second story completed.

Here's the east and west second story walls going up. We cut these in half and raised them by hand. It was scary enough that I hired a crane to raise the south wall. That sucker was 15'tall and had a LOT of lumber in it.

Here's what it looked like yesterday. You know you've got a good carpenter when he'll climb up 25 feet on a ladder and hand-nail soffit over his head without bitching. About two more weeks and I'll have a metal roof on, stucco, and the windows and doors will be in. I'll submit some pics when it looks more finished.

[Flying Z]

Hey nice work. That area looks like AZ up about 3000' higher than we are. Care to share the floor plan with us?

[richhagen]

Congratulations Bob, looks like it will be a nice house.  I see you used the wooden I beams for the joists.  At first I thought you were setting it up for a massive solar array on the roof, but then realized that it was facing north.  You'll get a lot of sunlight on that southern side with the windows.  Hot water heat?  Are you planning to put in one of those wood stove boilers?  Looks like it will be a nice home.  Rich

[bparks]

That's a great looking house, wanna sell it?  :-)

[Volvo farmer]

Actually SW Colorado. 6000ft.

I've got rudimentary .pdfs of floor plans. Things have changed a little from the architects plans and my ideas, mostly window placement. It's still 90% accurate though.

Hope these links work.

http://www.frontier.net/~bobwenn/house/lower%20FP.pdf

http://www.frontier.net/~bobwenn/house/upper%20FP.pdf

[MattB]

Wow Bob... Looks great. Makes me want to stop in for a visit all the more. But maybe I'll wait until the hard work is done  :-)  I expect you'll be busy for a while. When do you anticipate being able to move in?

I see you got talked into a dishwasher afterall...

Keep up the good work, be safe, and keep us posted!

-Matt

[drdongle]

So where is the battery room?

[Volvo farmer]

I've got a huge utility room downstairs but everyone I've talked to recommends a power shed. So unless someone can talk me out of it, the batteries, inverter and generator are going to live in a detached shed.

[drdongle]

I intend to put every thing inside the main house with a special room. That way I don't have to worry about keeping batteries warm. Or having to stumble out to the shed at night in the snow to check a problem.

[Volvo farmer]

Been busy and just realized I haven't replied to everyone.

Rich..

 Yes, hot water heat in the floor. Planning on pouring 1.5" of concrete for the upper floor, on top of OSB, with pex tubes inside. Solar eventually but probably just a LP gas water heater to start with. One of those wood stove boilers isn't exactly for me. Not much wood on site and I hear they eat wood and are smokey. I'd rather invest in $2K worth of hot water panels.

Matt..

 We're waiting for you to arrive so we can drywall those ceilings 14' high :-) You mean my black and white, four legged dishwasher cause I ain't putting in an electric one... yet. I'm completely out of money after the dry-in so the plan is two years pay-as-we-go to finish the inside. Might get impatient and borrow some to finish it up though.

Dr. D.

Maybe you can convince me. My first thought was to put the batteries and inverter inside, for much the same reason as you. Much of what I've read and a local installer advised me against it though. I'm not commited yet so I'm going to start a fresh thread on the subject. If you've got more to add, maybe do it on the new thread.

[drdongle]

Only major bugaboos I can think of is ventilation for the batteries, and fire/smoke detection and possibly fire proofing ( where needed) all which may be cheaper than a second building. Otherwise go with what works for you..........