Home Sweet Home

I guess Allen and I are not the only ones that think the valley is a good place to build a home. I have been finding tons of nests of all kinds lately right around the house. When I was clearing back behind the house last week I spied this little nest. I wondered if it is a hummingbird nest? Someone of more authority would have to tell me; I don't know much about such things. The curious part is that it was built about 3 feet off the ground in a little baby tree. I thought this was awful close to the ground because of predators and such.
You can see here how small it is. It is about the same height as the diameter. I loved how the outside was kind of flowing and loose and the inside was so tight and precise. Excellent craftsmanship.
I'm not sure if you can make out what this is since it's so close to the color of the gravel on the driveway. It was a rather large hornet's nest that fell onto the drive and busted apart. We have found 6 or 8 hornet's nest around the house site since moving out here. All of them abandoned, thank goodness. I have never encountered that many of these things in such a compact area. They were all in an area of about one acre. I wonder if that is unusual or does each group of hornets just build a new nest every year and it's just the same ones moving around? But I don't think their nests would last that long once abandoned. I was of the idea that all wasp-type critters were pretty territorial so this seems like close quarters to me. And why have they all been abandoned? Did something get them, similar to what's been happening to the honey bees with the mites?

Tell Me What You See

We didn't get alot done on the house this weekend due to bad weather so I thought I'd post about this curious little guy. I was sitting down by the house late one afternoon after work, having a sandwich before going back to work on a project for the BFA (big fancy architect), when I looked down at my feet and saw this thing. He was just sitting there on top of the ground with his big, bulgy eyes looking up at me. I had been digging around in the area a few days before with the backhoe trying to carefully place some big rocks and must have unearthed him for the first time in about 43 years. I think I have mentioned the history of my land before but if not I'll explain again. Many years ago, in the early 50's, I think, Fred's (the man I got the land from) brother and father decided they wanted a lake so they went about building an earth dam across the little creek that now runs along my driveway. As a result, a lake of about 25 acres formed over one section of what is now my property. Well, in about 1963 a huge storm came and Fred said it rained for about 3 days and the dam broke. They apparently thought it was too much trouble or expense to rebuild the dam so they abandoned it and that's the way it stayed until about 2 years ago.
When I tell people this story alot of them seem troubled about a lake having been there and some even suggest that it is not a good place to live. I think they picture the area flooding again but without the dam it obviously can't do much. Or they feel bad for the men who went to all that trouble to build something to have it fail later. But what I have come to realize and tell people is that I probably would never have been able to do what I have if that dam had never been built. The lake served its purpose for a time but that dirt was going to be needed later for someone else. See, a huge amount of dirt was needed to build the road into the property and it would not have been very practical or cost effective to try to scrape up the dirt from all over the property and there was no way I could have afforded to have had it hauled in. So, it needed to already be there, waiting. I'm not saying that it was meant special for me exactly but that maybe Providence knew that someone would come along willing to work hard to make something out of it. Even the drainage pipe from the overflow valve of the dam worked to make 4 great culverts for the driveway, saving me about $400-500 on that alone. When I look back over things and time it's interesting to see how that seemingly unrelated events and/or people seem to flow together to make certain things happen. Of course, it's easy to see in hindsight but I often think we are not given foresight because mankind always thinks he knows how things should really happen and we would screw it up. Back when I first opened my studio up here, it was just a offhand or impromptu decision to come to this area. I didn't really think it would lead to much and my original ideas have ceased to exist. I had to close my gallery but much more has opened up to me now. That's another thing I think people put too much emphasis on; supposed failures. Some things are just not meant to last long whether it be businesses, relationships or dams. Now, I'm not saying we should not work hard to make the most out of what we have and try hard to make things succeed. Of course I believe in hard work. But, something ending is not always the end of the world. It may not help us but it might be for the benefit of another and as good human beings, that should still make us happy even if we never know about it.
Maybe I'm just trying to compensate for a bunch of bad decisions in my life with a bunch of philosophical crap or trying to give up the responsibility of planning ahead by adopting a come-what-may attitude. I don't know. I tend to have alot of faith that things will always work out for the good if you believe and maybe that sort of people just tend to see through rose colored glasses. So, what do you think; are there events and people that are fated to be in our lives or is it all just one big crap shoot???

Loose Ends

Well, alot of stuff has been going on these past couple of weeks. I've been working so much I haven't had time to post much but here is a summary of some of what has happened. Allen finished framing and sheathing this end of the house so now it is completely framed except for a couple of small interior walls. The outside is ready for roofing and siding. We used up alot of scraps we had on this so that was good. I hate to waste material.
It's so neat to see on the inside! It actually looks like a house now! Now to start planning electrical and plumbing. Well, the next immediate thing is to get the permanent roof on but we are planning utilities too.
While Allen was working on that I got the backhoe! Those things are sooooo much fun. I started cutting the area that will be parking next to the house. I do pretty good but I am a little slow with the machine but I think I still made fair progress. This is not a really good shot; I don't think it really shows how much I cut and moved. I will have to build a retaining wall here at the front of this cut as it will be about 4 ft. into the hill there with a set of steps going up towards the house.
I also gathered up all the many piles of rocks that I have all over the property that has been accumulating for months and took them up to the house. You have to throw them in the bucket by hand but its great to just be able to dump them wherever you want them. I have a pretty good pile at the house but I fear its only going to be a drop in the bucket for what I need to build this wall.
I started clearing this area behind the house too in preparation for putting in a french drain at the base of the retaining/foundation wall here and backfilling this area. There will be a large flagstone patio and walk here that leads to the entrance to the house, which will be in the dogtrot part of the house. Which, of course, is just porch now and won't actually be a dogtrot until I build the other half of the house. Which hopefully will be in the not-to-distant future. If I survive this. I will be clearing quite a bit more here but leaving the bigger trees for shade. There are also a number of dogwood and redbud trees that I want to keep. I'm trying to keep lots of the native plants that are attractive and that also includes wild hydrangeas and ferns.

Here I Am

No photos today though; just a little update on what's been happening. I'll have some current photos shortly. We really didn't work on the house this past weekend so there wasn't much to show. We thought we should take more advantage of having a free backhoe so we did some more road and clearing work since we were kind of to a stopping point on the roof. Allen cleared the way that the water lines are going to run from the spring to the house and consolitated some brush piles that we have been trying to burn up and took them away from the front of the house so it looks much better. In the process, he uncovered many good rocks that I am going to need to build the wall under the house so we loaded 2 full backhoe buckets of rocks and took them up to the house.
On Sunday I went to a lecture that an architect presented here in town on passive solar houses. I didn't learn much but it was interesting to go to anyway and see that there is growing interest in the subject.
On another subject but still related to the house, I have been lent to another job that needed a carpenter for awhile so I am not on the Big House right now. The job I have been sent to is a branch of a children's hospital down here. Hospitals in Birmingham are big business and are constantly being renovated, which is what we are doing even though the hospital isn't 7 years old. Anyway, renovations mean they are tearing out and throwing away LOTS of stuff; great stuff if you are willing to deal with it. So, I have got enough insulation to do the entire house, 3 practically brand new bathroom sinks (Kohler no less), stainless steel lock sets and maybe some other stuff. The sinks even still have the fixtures on them but I will probably buy something a little more residential looking. Money is starting to get a little tight so this comes right in time and hopefully the insulation will not have to sit long before being installed. I wanted to buy the insulation that is available nowdays that is not made using formaldahyde but when you are offered completely free, basically new material it is hard to turn it down. It is a standard fiberglass bat-type roll insulation so it's good stuff. Maybe any fumes have already dissipated. Truely green materials can be very hard to come by in this area or too expensive for me to afford but I think it counts to reuse what you can because that saves any material (green or otherwise) from having to be manufactured, which is where alot of enviromental problems come from and plus the materials are not thrown in a landfill. It still pains me greatly to see how much is still thrown away. But if the owners of the buildings do not put it in the specs to recycle the materials, then it is rarely done.

One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor

Well, this is this weekend work. We about got it topped out. Here is Ted and Allen discussing how the plywood was going to lay out on the rafters.

These are the rafter tails on the clerestory eaves. We were still making them Sunday and putting them up as we went. So far all of the overhangs seem to be sufficient to keep out the summer sun.
This was quite a bit of decking to get put down but it went well. Getting it up on the roof was the hard part and made Ted and Allen grumble about being old.
Now, this is the south side which will hopefully recieve the winter sun. We were missing one last 2x10 for something so we couldn't quite finish that last little bit of roof on the end there.
Just a view from the inside. It's shaded inside now!! Allen is felting the roof today; I've been a little under the weather. But it's starting to look like a house now!

It Won't Be Long Now

Hopefully, it won't be long before this thing is topped out! I wanted to add one more pic of the rafters (a detail shot) but Blogger was having "issues" and wouldn't let me add anymore photos and I don't have time tonight to mess with it. Anyway, we got the last of the rafters up! Yea!!! We also got the rafters tails on that go on the lower end ( I don't think they were on when I took this photo) but we still need to add the ones on the top end that will make that overhang over the clerestory windows. Once again Ted came to help and it was greatly appreciated as these rafters were very heavy. I bought 24 footers but we had a little drop so they were around 22'-6" when cut. The boys at the local lumber yard were very sweet to let me pick through a whole new bundle of 2x10's to get what I wanted. They will just load up the first ones they snatch up if you let them and these needed to be pretty clear and nice. Next, we will deck this part and then it's time to add the sleepers and insulation etc. and the final roof. I am aiming for the end of Sept. to have the full roof on.
This is just something that I thought was funny that ya'll might like. Last weekend we bought a watermelon from the local farmer's market and put it in the creek to chill. Well, we forgot about it until this weekend. So, I go trotting down to the creek to retrieve it and was a little suprised to see it still there, same place and seemingly undisturbed. It wasn't until I reached down to pick it up that I saw somebody had beat us to it. I guess it was a little turtle found this and realized he had hit the motherlode. He ate his way in one side and out the other. It was completely hollowed out!
Can you imagine being so engulfed in food that it surrounded you? That you could just roll around in what you were eating and then to actually eat it all??!! Maybe he had help; maybe there was more than one turtle. I hope he enjoyed it but it seems like he did by the way he ate every speck of red.

The Light From Above

On Saturday we got the clerestory windows framed up completely and sheathed too. The Great and Wonderful Mr. Ted came and helped us again and he also got a good many rafter tails cut out. For my part, I ran up and down the ladder delivering material and then cooked lunch. I grilled some hamburgers and corn on the cob that we had picked up at the farmer's market that morning. So, it was a pretty good day even though the heat has come back with a vengeance. It had cooled down to the very low 90's but this weekend it worked it's way back up in the high 90's.
Now, here you can see all the windows that are going to be on the south side of the house ( on this half) and that are used for solar gain in the winter. I have calculated the square footage amount of glazing (just glass) here and it comes out just slightly below 7% of the total floor square footage. I believe it was somewhere right at 65 sq. ft. of glass and this side of the house is 936 sq. ft. The solar book that I am going by recommends between 7 (for this area) and 12 (for very northern areas) percent. That one window on the far right, next to the 3 kitchen windows, will be shaded completely by a covered walkway so I did not include it.
Pablo had posed some interesting questions and I thought I might elaborate on them some. He asked what I was having to pay to have the power lines brought in. Well, all utilities are required to get their product to you (meaning the edge of your property) at no expense to you. Once they reach your land, then you start paying. The new power lines and poles will mostly be on Fred's property (since the closest pole to come off of was on his land) so all I had to get was his permission to cross his land. I believe the power company will set one pole on your land for free and then however many else are required to reach your site, you must pay for. They can span 350 feet between poles so they only need 4 poles, I think, to reach my house; 2 on Fred's land and 2 on mine. If I had wanted to have the power lines run underground from the place they hit my land, that would be very expensive I believe. Such large service lines would require them to be buried very deep and I would have had to pay another contractor to come in and possibly have that inspected etc. etc. Not worth it to me. Now, if you are building a house you will have to put in a temporary power pole at the house site and you buy the meter box and breaker box. If you are in a city limit that has building codes you will have to have an electrician pull a permit and hook this up for you. This cost varies of course. I am waiting to see if the power is going to cost me anything as I am not completely sure about all of the power company's policies.

Night and Day

The past couple of weeks we have been concentrating on getting power lines run to the house site. The land is pretty inaccessible except for the road we put in; steep hills, lots of thick forest. We have kinda been putting this off for whatever reason but we just had to get to it. I was able to procure a free backhoe, which helps greatly, and if you can swing that you generally don't get a choice about when you get the equipment so you just have to stop whatever else you are doing and use it. Anyway, we did not want the power lines to come down the driveway because the power company loves to whack a 30 foot wide swath all the way down the lines and it would have just destroyed the looks of the drive. So, we had to convince them it would be easier on everyone if they would come in this back way. There is a small subdivision at the end of the valley (and the land) that they could come off of so we cleared this road to show them the lay of the land and that it is actually closer this way. The power man came out and Allen showed him around and he agreed to do it this way! I was very happy. If another house is ever built out here it would be on this side anyway and so the power will already be there. Now, I know I said that I wanted to avoid wanton destruction of trees coming in one way and this road looks horrible so I know somebody is thinking, "that really helped". Well, here's my thinking. The drive has old growth forest also (which is very pretty and home to many critters) and this area is relatively new stuff. Very thick and not too pretty. Another big thing is that, to everyone's horror, the power company here has started using RoundUp to keep the land under their lines clear. They spray everthing anywhere and it looks horrible and I believe is very unhealthy. In this area of my property, I intend to keep it cleared anyway for pasture and can possibly keep the power company from spraying if I can keep the foliage cut back. The power company will only have to set 4 poles so I don't think it's going to cost me anything and eventually I want to run underground from the last pole to the house. I don't like to see power lines etc. It will probably take a few weeks to actually get the lines in so for a while still we are on generator power.
I just happened to be up at our little apartment at sunset and snapped this pic. This was unusual because we have been working so much lately alot of times we don't actually get to the apartment until way after dark. I thought it was a cool view because you can see over into the next valley.
Well, this weekend our friend Ted is coming to help us again and we will continue to frame the rest of the roof. I want to have that done by the end of this month. I am going to have to start setting some hard deadlines to motivate us more.

5 Months, 2 Weeks, 2 Days

Well, I haven't been gone quite that long but it was longer than I thought. Time flies when you're having fun or just working way more than you should. Not alot was going on with the house itself for awhile as we were trying to get a road in the backway for the power company to bring the lines in. I don't want them to come in down the driveway but that's another post. Anyway, this past weekend we were back to framing and got the roof over the kitchen area framed, decked and mostly felted. Many thanks to our good friend Ted who came and helped us on Saturday. It takes quite a bit of time to cut out and sand all those rafter tails.
Allen didn't have a good pair of tennis shoes to wear on the roof so I got decking duty. That's okay though. That's one thing that you can look back at and really feel like you accomplished something cause you can cover so much square footage with just a few sheets of plywood.
We are using 5/8" CDX plywood for the decking and since the rafters are going to show on the inside we will put the roof insulation (1 1/2" rigid foam board)on top of the decking between sleepers with the metal roofing on top of that. I will use some type of nice 1/4" plywood or other covering (bamboo?) to finish the interior ceiling between the rafters. The clerestory windows will frame up next over the metal beam here and then we will put up the rafters that span the living room area.
I just LOVE the way the rafter tails look on the inside when you get a whole wall of them. The bottom of the metal beam here is at about 10'- 8" so it's a nice, open feeling but not too high I don't think. It feels very comfortable to me. I'm very excited by this! It almost feels like a house!! I hope everyone now can see how this monstrous beam I built is going to work. I know it's hard to imagine some of this crazy stuff without seeing real drawings. We are still winging it a little but I am happy with how its coming. Well, looks-wise not time -wise. I am so ready to get moved in. When we get the whole roof on it might be camp out time!!

Mysterious Ways

This is the tree that fell on the house. It had mostly broken off at the bottom but Allen went ahead and cut it completely loose so we could move it. As you can see, it was very rotten and only a matter of time before it fell. I had been all around this tree, clearing brush and various things but had never noticed it's bad shape. But, it seems someone had. I had gotten very frustrated with how long it was taking to build that steel beam and get it set. It seemed like every weekend for a month, something would happen to slow me down. Of course now, I see why. As I stated in the previous post, if this tree had hit either the steel beam or the finished roof it would have been very bad monetarily and would have set me back a good period of time in getting moved in. I do not profess to be a very religious person but I do know which side my bread is buttered on, so to speak, and I do have great faith that things will work out. I guess some people would just see this as good luck or chance and that's fine if that's what the person wants to see but I just don't believe in luck or coincidence. I believe everything happens for a reason. The Giftee was looking out for us as has happened so many times in the past. I have tried to learn from experiences like this and now when things seemed to be unusually hard to get started or move on with, I try to step back and look at the situation. Maybe I should take another course or just let things move at their own pace, you know? Don't try to force it. We all get very impatient in life (me especially) but I believe sometimes the thing to do is just to relax and believe. For years I could never learn to float in water on my back. I just could not let go and relax. I can't do that! I'll sink! I have to be in control of my body; something bad will happen if you just flop out there in the water! But you know, the water will hold you up just fine and it feels so good.......
While looking around the tree and cleaning up, I spied this clump of mountain mint (pycnanthemum incanum) growing nearby. I love this stuff. It grows pretty prolifically in this area. It's also called horse mint. It's great for relieving congestion and opening up your sinuses. You can throw a big handful of leaves in a pot of boiling water and let it simmer for a few minutes, then either inhale the fumes or drain the leaves and make a poultice with them that you place on your chest for 20 minutes or so. You can also make a tea to act as an expectorant and to help relax you.

Oh, Happy Day

I think Allen and I were so happy to see this thing finally go up that he got a little trigger happy with the camera. Normally, I have to tell him, "make sure you get a photo" but he did all this on his own. Of course, then he said he wanted some topless but I told him that nobody would realize he didn't have his shirt on.
I am fastening the beam down here to the box beams with lag bolts and then later the framing for the roof etc. will fasten to the top of the steel beam and hold it more.

It's higher up than it looks! It took less than an hour I think to set this thing once we had rebuilt the rigging and stuff. I'm glad this part is over! Now, he says he is going to take me out for sushi to celebrate. We'll see. I still have alot of clean up on it to do also before it's completely done.

This photo should give you a better idea of how it sits in the house and how it will carry the rafters. I know up until now what I have shown didn't make alot of sense probably.
Here, all of the rigging is down and gone. Just have to start the framing again! YEA!!!! I am pleased with how it come out. I think it looks really cool! The architect will probably hate it even though it's his own design.

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This

This is the time of year down here in the South when severe thunderstorms can pop up within a matter of minutes, sometimes every day of the week. This is one of those weeks. We don't get too many tornadoes during the summer but can get very strong winds. I thought I was going to have a relaxing day after work and get caught up on a little project I am working on for the Big Fancy Architect. But you kow that old saying, "if its not one thing it's another or the same damn thing over and over". I came home from work and turned on the county road that leads to my property. I started noticing lots of limbs and things in the road. It had come a big storm on the job in Birmingham so I figured this was part of the same system. Then, as I got closer to my place, I started to see larger trees down in people's yards.......artificial flowers scattered in the road. What?... that one confused me for a minute and then I remembered that there is a small cemetary on the road. It was the arrangements that had been blown off of the graves. Then I got to the lady's land that lives across the road from me and she had 2 very large trees down. I had a sinking feeling. I called Allen and told him that I thought we needed to go check on the house. I went on up to where we are staying now and checked on Fred's place (it was OK) and headed down to the house. Allen had gotten there before me and I found his truck parked about halfway to the house. I climbed over the tree and started for the house; there were a few limbs down here and there. Then I saw this. If you look close you will notice the tree in the back in the unusual horizontal position. I thought to myself, well, it could have missed the house and just fallen in the back yard.
Nope.... Now, there are several silver linings to this that I keep repeating to myself. 1. It missed the framed and decked part of the roof. 2. the steel beam was not set yet and if it had been the force of the tree could have bent it and that would have REALLY been bad. 3. this area of the roof was not framed or decked, which would have been costly to repair. The rigging that we had put up to hoist the steel beam actually saved alot I think. It was destroyed but it slowed the tree down and so there was not alot of damage to the exterior wall of the house.
It did bust the top plates and the sheathing some and pushed the wall in several inches but it won't be too bad to fix.
The part of the tree that went in the house snapped off and fell in the kitchen area. It gauged the floor some but didn't hurt my beam! I don't know how much you can tell from this photo but it was a mess. I was hoping that the steel beam would be set this weekend and we would be framing shortly thereafter but now we have to get all this cleaned up and repaired. I did get all of the tree out of the house this morning but then another storm came and we had to quit. Allen can't get his chainsaw to run either today (which is very unusual) and so we still have the main bulk of the tree leaning on the house to get off. Well, that's the joys of country living. Sometimes stuff just happens so you just step back and take a running go at it again. It really could have been much worse.

Details

I had this collection of just nice little details I had noticed at the Big House I'm working on and thought I'd share. Lots of limestone all over the house and it all has little fossils or other evidence of its sedimentary origins. It's interesting that they cut and set all of the sediment lines vertically. I wonder if that was on purpose?
A small detail out of some large carved medallions on the back of the house.
Fossils?
Beautiful old craftsmanship. All being ripped down and replaced.
Neat shadows at noon time.

Come Together

The actual welding of the truss has begun!! Here I am putting on some stiffeners that will hold the flanges from pivoting. Not that they would anyway once they're welded but these things are handy to hold the webbing upright as we are positioning them.
Finished product. The 2 end pieces of webbing each got 2 pair of stiffeners and the 2 middle pieces of webbing just got 1 pair each. This took longer than I expected but then, everything does I think.
I'm just trying to show scale in this photo. We really don't have good room to get a shot of the whole truss at once. After it is in place we can though.
This is the other end. I was just placing the pieces on the flange about where they go as I finished them. We are going to have to do some measuring and see exactly how much space we can have in between each section of webbing. I'm afraid we are going to have to add either another small section of web or a solid piece to each end. I believe we have too much space within the truss and not enough webbing to cover it. We can't space the web out too much or it becomes a structural issue. That is the top flange laying on the floor behind this stuff. After all the web is in place and tacked we will place the top flange on and square it up etc. and then weld it.

Oh, What a Tangled Web.....

OK! So it's all cut out! The webbing for the truss that is. I finally got it all cut out and polished and ready to start welding together yesterday ..... and then it started raining. So, next weekend maybe. These pieces are 18" tall and 1/4" thick. I just grouped them all together so I could get a good shot, so this photo may not make any more sense than the drawings. But soon you will see that I'm not crazy and that these pieces do actually make something. The big one in the middle has been darkened and oiled and the others had not, that's why you see shiny, silver places on them but they will all be dark when finished.
Here, Allen is building the box beam that will support the truss on top of the walls. A box beam is basically a stud wall with 2 layers of plywood on both sides, glued and nailed like crazy.
The plywood layers are staggered of course, to increase the strength. We are using a commercial construction adhesive for gluing.
This is the beam from the other side where the 2 layers have not yet been put on so you can see the framing. This one did get completely done and we have to build one more for the other side of the room.

Red, Hot and Blue

I thought this title would be good with the 4th a couple of days away and also, I've been in a Cole Porter kinda mood lately! Well, I have gotten all of the webbing sections cut out for the big truss and will start welding them together tomorrow if all goes well. I had a little trouble at first with these things because we just had one old, ragged tip for the cutting torch and it was too big for the size steel so I was getting alot of slag adhesion. We got a new tip though and now it cuts like a dream! Happiness is a warm cutting torch!
Here you can see most of one of the sections leaning up against the horses. Three of the sections are about that same size and then one that's real big. Anyway, not very exciting I know but it actually was to me. It's like a big sculpture. Made me remember why I got that art degree. Despite the incredible heat today I had a blast. It has been in the upper 90's here for several weeks now and there's nothing like being bent over molten steel to just add a little more heat to it all.
Allen started on the siphon today that will draw water up out of the spring and take it down to a reservoir where it will then go to a hydralic ram and be pumped to the house. Or that's the theory anyway. The spring here in this photo is about 9 feet deep. It has gone down some lately because of lack of rainfall but it seems to be putting out quite a bit of water still. Allen added a long run of pipe from this siphon down to the stream and it was putting out about 5 gallons a minute the last time we checked. We are going to monitor the flow and see if the spring can keep up. Of course, we don't need that much water flow but we want to see what we've got to work with and can adjust it down later. More about this later when we know more about what we are doing. This is something that we are just having to experiment with. We don't even know that the hydralic ram will work but at worst we will just have to pump the water from the reservoir to the house with an electric pump. I don't think we can use a solar pump because it's much too shady in that area.