Started on new house

[Nat]

My wife and I bought a 7 acre tract and have decided to build a new house on it. I bought an old ford 555 backhoe and I've cleared the site and a 400' drive in to it. I dug the basement and footings and and the foundation is now in.
Picture #1 (121K)
I started the floor framing on New Years day. I got the kitchen and dinning room floor framed before calling it a day.
Picture #2 (120K)
My son helped me on Mon. and Tues. We got all the floor system in and all the subfloor on. I forgot how heavy that a 2 x 12 x 16 southern yellow pine is. The builder supply brought the materials out and unloaded them , so we used my son's Bobcat w/ forks to move material around and after the floor system was finnished we sat all the wall framing material up on the subfloor.
Picture #3 (125K)
It sure does make it nice to have some tools like these to make the job easier!
Picture #4 (127K)
I started on the shop at the same time and layed 8 courses of block, planning to frame above that to the 10 height I wanted. The building inspector turned it down, said you can only go 4 times the wall thickness high without having floor joist to tie the wall together, so I have the block mason coming back to run the block up to eve height and I will frame the front wall so the siding will match the house.
Picture #5 (119K)
The kids are grown and gone so Vickie and I will build a small "cabin in the woods" 1080 sq ft. I'll post progress as it happens, Later, Nat

[Nat]

Here are some pic of our current house. It sits on 3.4 ac. and is comfortable, but by selling it and building the new one myself I should be debt free and have some left over.

[Nat]

Here is another view of the current house from the rear. The elevation change of the land is another reason for selling, I don't like going up and down to the shop

[RaT]

Nice bit of "piddlin" there Nat. Good clean job. How large is the house?

[Nat]

I have been telling everyone it is 1000 sq ft. but my beautiful wife pointed out that some of her design changes now make it 1180 sq ft.
I only wanted an 800 ft house, but she kept adding to the master bath and closet, then the utility rm.
She makes all the small decisions, I make the big ones, only we havn't had any big ones to come up in 32 years of wedded bliss.

[Pat]

Nat, I see... a variation on the don't sweat the small stuff and everything is small stuff sceanario. Don't sweat the small stuff, she'll take care of it freeing you to concern yourself with weighty matters should any ever surface.

Your current digs look pretty neat. I'm sure you will learn to like what pleases her in the new house. I was given orders to design a single level house but could have a basement with an elevator so we wouldn't have to mavigate lots of stairs in our old age. Now we have 16-17 steps from main floor to basement or upstairs, and no elevator. I was able to hold out for straight run stairs with no intermediate landings curves or turns so chair lifts could be retrofited relatively easily if ever needed.

This just has to be our LAST house. I have noticed a trend. Our first house was 800 sq ft, next house was just under 1500 and then there is the house we are currently building (see OK farmhouse thread). I can't bear to think about what size would come next.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Nat]

You have me pegged pretty good. I tell everyone that if you see me excited you better write it down cause it don't happem often. Doc say's with my blood pressure I'll live forever.
Born lucky and getting better at it every day, later, Nat

[Nat]

I have some of the walls up. I used a styrofoam house wrap that my son used on his house and loves it. He says that the insulation is unbelievable.

[Nat]

I am framing the walls with 2 x 4 s 16" on center, and sheating with 1/2" OSB.

[Nat]

I see posts all the time asking about nail guns, I have a paslode impulse that I have had for 6/8 years and have never had any trouble with it, sure beats hand nailing. I charge 1 battery every night, and to this point I have used 3 cans of butane. A 2 pack of cans is 8 bucks and change at Lowes.