The last house I will build! (Project)

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gumpy

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Joined
Nov 25, 2017
Messages
2,438
Location
Clifton TN
My wife and I are in the process of building our own house. I am going to try to catch up this thread with the progress so far and keep it updated. Any ideas would be appreciated!
 
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A sign we saw in North Alabama while driving up to purchase the land. We were having questions until we saw this.
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In April 2017, my wife and I finally found a piece of land we liked and purchased it in May, 2017
 
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This is a Google pic showing the location of the house site. 7 acres of mostly woods at the bottom of a hill, with farmland nearby. Located 1/4 mile from the Tennessee River.
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Laying out for the footing. Part of the land was in the flood zone. We had to have it all surveyed and 100 year flood study conducted to put the house site out of the flood zone.
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We had moved here, (Clifton Tennessee) from an even smaller town, Hollywood Alabama. We are living in our 5th wheel camper until the house is complete enough to move into. Meanwhile, until the utilities were in we lived at a marina campground.
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After some inactivity, with lots of prayer, BANG, God moved and we had to get out of his way and let him work. All the utilities were finished in one week.
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They had to drill 347 feet thru several small streams of water to be satisfied with quantity of water. We ended up with 348' of water. The water level was up in the well casing above the ground.
 
Digging the septic system was an ordeal. No dirt over the rock. We finally found 1 spot the installer could put a 36" lowboy septic tank in. The first dirt deep enough for the field lines were 200' into the woods from the tank! We had to clear all this out big enough for a backhoe to get thru and work.
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The power was put up while the septic was being dug. There was no lines out where we were so we had to pay for all but 1 power pole @ $770 apiece. The only place to put a pole at on the site was next to the septic tank.
 
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Construction on the house began.
The footing could be dug only a couple of inches at one corner. It's on a solid boulder. A bible verse readily comes to mind, lol!
 
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We are up to date. The block corners are built up and some of the first run is done. Last week in 3 days we had over 6" of rain. Now the temps are to cold to keep the mortar from freezing before it dries!
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It will continue in Gods timing, not mine.
 
Being where you are you might want to either get heat tape on those pipes soon or some sort of cover with heat. Even with my well tank being in the crawl space my pipes would freeze in Winter until I boxed in the area with Reflectix and hung an incandescent bulb for warmth.

I'm not surprised you had a tough time finding a spot for the septic. A neighbor had to dig five different times trying to find an area that would perk.
 
My wife and I are in the process of building our own house. I am going to try to catch up this thread with the progress so far and keep it updated. Any ideas would be appreciated!

A good atchetech saved us in many ways, well worth the money. If not just watch the workers. We owner built our house and saved ourselves lots of money on builder. Not because we wanted to but it was all we could afford.
 
I like it! Is the water table too high for a basement, or are basements not built in your area? Most, but not all homes in my area are built with basements. I know that one piece for us, further up north, is that basements help to keep pipes from freezing.
It's solid boulder under it. Anywhere from 2" on the low side to 16" on the high side. I kinda wish we could put one under it but can't. For the money it's the least expensive per sq' of the build. All we want is 1000 sq' heated area. 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 4x8 walk in closets and a 18x20 great room for Lr-Dr-kit combined. The land and house will have about $86k equity in it when complete. NO STAIRS! Ramp going up to ft front and back porch.

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Top drawing is floor plan, bottom is roof plan.
 
Being where you are you might want to either get heat tape on those pipes soon or some sort of cover with heat. Even with my well tank being in the crawl space my pipes would freeze in Winter until I boxed in the area with Reflectix and hung an incandescent bulb for warmth.

I'm not surprised you had a tough time finding a spot for the septic. A neighbor had to dig five different times trying to find an area that would perk.
They tore up my whole front yard with a backhoe looking! Pipes are wrapped and buried. A heat lamp is in the front and rear cargo areas.
Engineering scetched out how we had to install it to meet perk requirements.
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A good atchetech saved us in many ways, well worth the money. If not just watch the workers. We owner built our house and saved ourselves lots of money on builder. Not because we wanted to but it was all we could afford.
I'm the architect, contractor, hired hand, and chief bottle washer. I'll hire someone to help me set the trusses and put the metal roof on. The rest I'll do.
 
All looks good Gumpy, first house building is fun in all kinds of ways.

Very cute and happy little girls too.
Not my first. I'm a residential contractor in Alabama and Florida. It's just been awhile and spine fusion since I built one, lol.
Those granddaughters live for the weekends they get to go stay with Mimi and gumpy. We love them girls.
 
Thank y'all for your interest! I'm living my last big dream. Pray that my health holds out to the finish. I told the bank I wanted 9 months to build it. Should only of took me four months!
 
I'm the architect, contractor, hired hand, and chief bottle washer. I'll hire someone to help me set the trusses and put the metal roof on. The rest I'll do.

Good news. And since your all these things you know my advice is good for a novice who isn't any of these and is building blind. Mine kept finding things like ' shortcuts ' or not building to specs. He was a commercial archetech and made sure he built it tough like I ask him to. Guy laying foundation said , " this is overkill" I said, 'great'. Rebar every 3ft and walls poured solid. We live in Fl. every door ,window poured solid . 2/12 rafters.

Good luck with your home.
 
Good news. And since your all these things you know my advice is good for a novice who isn't any of these and is building blind. Mine kept finding things like ' shortcuts ' or not building to specs. He was a commercial archetech and made sure he built it tough like I ask him to. Guy laying foundation said , " this is overkill" I said, 'great'. Rebar every 3ft and walls poured solid. We live in Fl. every door ,window poured solid . 2/12 rafters.

Good luck with your home.
Specs in Florida are unreal! I didn't build any houses in Florida. I just got my licence because of my job. I was general manager of a door company and the owner payed me to go to class to learn the codes, get the licence, and then use the contractor licence in the company. Worked out well for both of us. You can never know to much about anything!
 
Specs in Florida are unreal! I didn't build any houses in Florida. I just got my licence because of my job. I was general manager of a door company and the owner payed me to go to class to learn the codes, get the licence, and then use the contractor licence in the company. Worked out well for both of us. You can never know to much about anything!

It is always nice when you can get the company to pay for training or education. I never, ever turned down free learning. I would have even gone to a cooking class if they offered to pay. :LOL:
 
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