I started this home building last April when I had my well dug. I'm currently finishing up the outside (still need to add some railings on my porch, and a little paint). Of course, I still have the interior to do, wiring, plumbing, insulation, sheetrock, and all the finishing work. I'm hoping to be finished by June, 12 months from the time I poured my slab. I'm posting pics of the outside construction process for any who is interested. Hope you enjoy.
Here's a pic of the completed well. I'm using a 24 volt dc pump and running it from 2 12-volt batteries until I set my entire solar array. I had it set up with a solar panel and a pump control, but I had no luck pumping the water with that configuration. The batteries worked before, so I went back to a battery hook up. Come to find out, I had a kink in my pipe. I had to pull the pump (again, about the 4th time, for various reasons) repaired the pipe line, and now I'm pumping water successfully again. I should have left it hooked up to the solar panel, but in a couple of weeks I'll have my full solar array set, so the batteries can function for me for now.
Here, I started digging the septic tank hole. I rented the backhoe and began to dig. I dug about 4 feet and hit sandstone and clay mix. I dug another foot and hit bedrock. I rented a jackhammer and dug another foot with it. The last foot I dug with a hammer and chisel and I shaped the sides with the hammer and chisel also. This part of the work almost killed me. It was 100+ outside, but cooler in the hole in the shade. But I had no wind to cool me off. I drank the well dry and sweated it back out.
The lateral lines were almost as much work as the septic hole. I dug with a shovel and pick axe. I discovered that post hole diggers are better than a pick axe for digging in clay. I used lateral lines instead of a leech field because I was stupid. If I were to do it again, I'd dig the leech field.
I didn't take any digital pics of the slab pour. I set my forms, put in pex and insulation for radiant heat, ordered 16 yards of concrete, called my friend and harnessed my kids, hired a nice person to run the float machine, and did the slab. The smartest thing I did in pouring my slab was hire the finish person. He came out early and actually ramrodded the entire pour for me. Without his help, I would have been sunk. I paid him $300. That was money well spent.
I started setting my studs as soon as the concrete dried. I used steel studs for the framing. I like the studs, but the prices were horrible. Price increases on steel occured daily. When I first began pricing, prices were comparable to the wood 2x, but when I bought, prices were more than double the wood. There are lots of things to like about the steel though. My 2x6 studs are a full 6 inches. When I messed up and put a stud in the wrong place, I could easily change it (and believe me, I did lots of changing as I built- build and rebuild was my motto.) Steel is straight, no warping, though I did get a few twisted when the wind came and blew a section of my not so secured wall down one evening.
Oops, forgot to mention I built a well house for housing my pressure tank and my solar array (inverter, charge controller, battery bank). The well house took me about a week to finish. I poured the slab for it by using sacks of mix. That was a mistake too. Next time, I'll mix the concrete myself with a concrete mixer. More about concrete later.
Getting the house framed. I enjoy this part of the construction. The smell of wood and the leveling of walls, and seeing things come together. I bought the osb sheathing at about the worst possible time, too. Right after the hurricanes in Fl. Prices jumped from 9.99 per sheet to 13.99 per sheet. I'm not sure what my average price was.
Here's a pic of the interior walls. The house is not large, but I'm using most every bit of footage. 880 sf. no halls, pocket doors where necessary. Not much closet space. We'll have to use creative imagination for increasing our useful storage space.
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