Do-it-yourself house building...God help us

[retired_young]

here's a shot from the walkout.

[retired_young]

<font color="blue"> My wife and I are in the process of building a home for my parents on our property. To add to the "misery" the property is 105 miles from our house! </font color>

Kieth, there's certainly a lot of love in your family! While I could see doing this again for kin, I don't think I could imagine having to travel 105 miles one way in the process.

We're fortunate...we have only a 5 mile trek over the river and through the woods.

By-the-way, yesterday we had a bear at the site. He/she wouldn't pick up a hammer so we had to kick him/her off the job.

Have a happy Fourth all.

R-Y

[KJFoster]

That's my take as well. If you show up on site we put you to work! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] However, the only bears in Texas are in Waco!

[retired_young]

Anyone now living in the Northeast knows what a washout the past three weeks have been. We were making pretty good progress up until late July. We had 90% of the rafters up, framing near complete and subfloor in then the 3 week cycle of rain and thunderstorms came (slated to end today).

Yes, there were pockets of dryspells for an hour or two, but let me tell you... It was a little unsettling to be standing on a metal scaffolding 32 feet in the air with nothing between me and the rocks of God's country (OK, I did have a harness).

And the idea of individually setting a set of rafters with flashes of lightning followed by the bass line trembling of thunder echoing among the hills and valleys around me...did I mention the scaffolding was metal?

Needless to say the wet stormy weather has slowed us down considerably. To date, rafters are done. And we have 75% of the roof sheathing up (getting soaked as I write) and the wall sheathing up as well. Electric panel is up, 300 feet of underground wiring installed and pulled (that's a back breaker-220 service means heavy wire), well mechanicals are in, phone lines are connected (no, this was not the preferred sequence), and final sewage line connected to house and septic.

We hope that the next 2-3 days will be warm enough to dry things out so we can install the roofing felt, drip edge, ice shield, and shingles. The roof is a 45 degree pitch and I'm contemplating renting an arial lift to place the remaining panels. Not sure if it will help with the felt and shingles, but it may make somethings go faster. At this point its a choice between time or $$$.

The wife has extended the project plan to include an October move in date. I'm still driven to August 25th...reality is probably somewhere in between.

Despite the delays though, this has been an extremely awesome experience. Lost 25 pounds, regained some muscle tone that I thought was gone forever, and have impressed many of the locals with our progress to date (a little ego stroking is nice now and then).

Much, much, much more to do, but being half way through the project I would encourage everyone to do this (self build from ground up) at least once in their lives - even if its just a barn. The payoff in the form of learning and experience is huge.

And while there have been and will be few "oops" along the way, the end all be all is that this project is probably as close to a lasting legacy (short of offspring &amp; charitable foundations) that I will ever come.

Still having fun.

R-Y

[egon]

Good Show!!

Egon

[Gatorboy]

Love to hear of your progress.

How about a picture or two of your current progress.

[Boondox]

RY -- The one brilliant idea I had while working on my own 12/12 roof was to borrow the main sheet and tackle from a sailboat and use it both to support me on that steep angle and to winch myself safely up and down. It worked great!

Like the others, I would love to see some pics.

Pete

[KJFoster]

Well, our "little" project house took a nose dive the other day. My Dad, while working on the house, suffered a heart attack. As heart attacks go, this one was mild and resulted in a bout of dizziness and somewhat blurred vision. My Mom, like all Moms, seemed to instinctively know what to do. She gave him a couple of asprins and rushed him to the hospital in Yoakum. They stablized him and sent him to Victoria, TX to Citizens Hospital, where they placed him in ICU. This was on Friday the 15th.

Citizen's scheduled Dad for a dye test on Sunday morning where we learned that things were not so good in the heartland. Dad had blockage in at least 4 arteries, with two of the blockages at 90 percent.

The Doctors advised a Coronary Bypass Operation and we concured. So on Thursday the 21st he went under for what we thought would be a quad bypass. Turns out that he needed an additional artery reworked so the end number jumped to five.

Dad did VERY well in recovery and came home last night (the 27th) for the recovery phase. I'm writting this on my birthday - the 28th - and I can't think of a better present than to have Dad home and on the mend.

If any of you are thinking of starting a project like this, I strongly encourage you to get a physical first. We tried to get Dad to do so but he insisted that he was fine. In reality he wasn't and this could have been the last thing he ever did.

Had things turned out worst, the land my wife and I had purchased for retirement would have been ruined for us. I don't think I could have ever lived on property that my Dad had ended his days on. There would have been to many hard memories to ever feel at home there.

Moral of the story - get a checkup BEFORE you start this difficult of a project. You'll live longer and be able to enjoy your hard work for years to come.

[GaryM]

I'm sorry you had to go through such a time with your Dad. But happy that things seem to be going well. I understand what you say about the property too.

Good luck to your Dad, and you too.

[Bird]

Keith, sorry about your dad having the heart attack and surgery, but glad to hear he's doing well.