Building our retirement home

[KiotiKowboy]

The project has been making snail's pace.

The basement drains and basement plumbing are in place. The fill in the basement footing has been spread. House footings were dug - then it all came to a screeching halt ..... RAIN.

It's nice to see the basement is completely dry. The ground drains amazingly well. The hold-up is the surrounding surface ground is a muddy mess.

Looks like we have a dry week ahead, so I'm optimistic we'll see some concrete by weeks end.

In the meantime, we're still shopping windows. Interesting how hard it is to get a push-out casement more than 36"x72". We finally found a company that makes up to 42"x90". I'm sure the cost will be A S T R O N O M I C A L but we really want big windows!

Our pre-building budget allocated about $12K for windows. Looks like we will easily double that. By the time framing is finished, I suspect we will be about $20K above our projections to that point. I may be starting a thread on affordable tranquilizers pretty soon

 

[jk96]

You can usually have the factory mull several windows together to create a larger bank of windows. Fixed windows are also going to be available in larger sizes and cheaper. Might be an option for areas you don't plan to open.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

You can usually have the factory mull several windows together to create a larger bank of windows. Fixed windows are also going to be available in larger sizes and cheaper. Might be an option for areas you don't plan to open.

True. We have 2 sets that will be 4 units across. And, of course, fixed windows don't run into the same limitations as casements.

We'll have "some" fixed windows but we're trying to get 42x78 pushouts throughout and that is where it all went awry. I think we found them but the sticker shock may prove to be too much. We'll see.

 

[s219]

Our pre-building budget allocated about $12K for windows. Looks like we will easily double that. By the time framing is finished, I suspect we will be about $20K above our projections to that point. I may be starting a thread on affordable tranquilizers pretty soon

Heh, yeah, if you are looking for 3672 windows, your budget was way off!! I forget what we spent on windows, but it was multiple tens of $K and made me wince. I think we have about 50 panes in the whole house, about triple our last house. We punted on Anderson, since they were out of sight on casement windows if you wanted their good models, and went with Certainteed windows. So far they have been real good.

 

[Deere Dude]

After spending $8k for big Anderson casement windows in a new house in 1988, the next house in 2004 were a lot smaller double hung from a fair company. I hated the casement because big windows mean you have to bend over to almost the floor to unlock them and then crank them. Many times the windows are so big furniture is in front of the windows which compound the problem. But big windows look nice.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

After spending $8k for big Anderson casement windows in a new house in 1988, the next house in 2004 were a lot smaller double hung from a fair company. I hated the casement because big windows mean you have to bend over to almost the floor to unlock them and then crank them. Many times the windows are so big furniture is in front of the windows which compound the problem. But big windows look nice.

The casements we're looking at have side locks, so they're easy to reach - and - NO CRANK. They are push-out windows. We have cranks on our current windows and we hate them.

 

[Country Geek]

The casements we're looking at have side locks, so they're easy to reach - and - NO CRANK. They are push-out windows.

Where are the screens, or do they not have them?

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Where are the screens, or do they not have them?

The screens are interior, swinging open to push out the window then closing. We have opted for screens that are described as "more transparent."

 

[KiotiKowboy]

We've made a little progress, so thought I'd post a few updated photos.

The basement pit was dug - not an easy project in this rock - for the grinder and sump pump. Gravel fill is in place, along with the water barrier and steel for the floor pour - scheduled for sometime tomorrow.





We have run into a problem .....

Digging the trench for power and water has been a nightmare. The operator has broken a number of pins and destroyed a set of bucket teeth. The latest, a 3 foot thick slab of undetermined width. We are searching for a rock-saw trencher $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to complete this project. I'm not sure how this is going to turn out but power poles were certainly NOT in our plan.

 

[cat fever]

Wow, that is a lot of rocks. Good for drainage and holding soil in place, not so good on equipment.
Here is a picture taken this last March when I was fixing my leach line. Not a rock to be found, I was 7' deep.



Nice to see you are making progress though, hope it stays dry so you can start framing and get it dried in.