House

[RobS]

OK, it's not really a tractor project but I'll get a lot of seat time out of it. Here's a shot of the plans we just had finished up for our new house. This is where all my time, energy and MONEY will be headed over the next year. Hopefully, I'll have an actual photo to post sometime in August '02 /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MikePA]

Wow! Great looking house!! Looks like quite a bit of roof. How many squares and what material, cedar shakes? What will the siding be?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Absolutely beautiful Rob...! /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Love all those windows... and God's natural light coming inside... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[DFB]

Rob, Gonna use fishscales on those peaks?

Very impressive design indeed. Especially the curved window detail. Are those glass transoms depicted over the first floor windows. Looks like high ceilings too. What's the sq. footage gonna be.

For a time I had a big 2 story house w/full basement, attic, etc. It was great. 9ft ceilings, 72" high windows, porches front and rear, slate roof, 6 " wide mouldings thruout. Enjoy /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[s1120]

WOW! looks realy good. I also will be building this spring. Mine will be a little smaller, but I can't wight.

 

[RobS]

Thanks guys. Yes, a boatload of windows. I counted 50, but fortunately the window suppliers count multiples as one. It's just over 3200 square feet. We've been working on the design for the last year. 10 foot first floor and 9 foot second floor ceilings. There is a third floor with regular stairs but we won't finish that (yet). Same with the full basement. We're even putting "storage" trusses over the 3 car garage for more potential space.

We're using the same "theme" that we did on our current house. We're putting the money in the base structure and "thrifting" a bit on some of the cosmetics. For example, 2X6 walls and upgraded windows but vinyl siding (and fishscales) and asphalt shingles. We're going to do some of the work ourselves, but not much. The big savings are in the areas we just cannot commit the time to. We are going to build the porch below the roofline just to make sure the boards "go the right way". I've always been ticked that our current house porch boards run parallel to the house.

Thanks again for the compliments /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

Rob,
Are you building this yourself or contracting it?

 

[DVerbarg]

Rob,

It looks beautiful! We moved into our new house last April after building for one year. I wish that all the money went into it during that year, but it keeps going and going and going...

Your idea of build the basic structure well and skip on cosmetics is what we did also (to some degree).

A couple upgrade ideas while you are building (you probably already thought of these). Since you are in the colder north install the plastic tubing in the basement floor for radiant heat, we did the install ourselves and the tubing only cost $900. We later splurged and had someone install the boiler. You might also want to consider putting the radiant heat in the garage, its wonderful to have the garage at 55 degrees and have the snow and ice melt off (make sure that the ice and snow have a place to go /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif). Radiant heat makes all the difference for how a basement "feels".

What type of insulation are you getting? I had planned on fiberglass but was talked into the "stabalized cellulose". Its great! It does cost more than fiberglass but the R-Value is incredible and the difference it has made in my windy area is very nice. The cost to heat my new house (4300 sq ft) is the same as my old house (2000 sq ft - fiberglass insulation). The "old house" had new doors and windows with similiar r-values to the "new house" so I know the heat was not escaping there. The ROI on the "stabalized cellulose" is probably around 3 years for us.

Have fun working on your house and keep us updated with pics as you go along.

DaveV

 

[RobS]

Richard, we had originally planned to contract ourselves but as the design got more complex we did a reality check. Also, a similar style house was going up near our property and they did their own contracting. It's been a year and a half for them and they have finally moved in, though it's not yet finished.

We shopped a bunch of builders and found one we really click with so we're going to use them.

Bottom line for us was a complete lack of connection in the sub-contractor base. We knew we wouldn't get any kind of priority and just cannot afford to have the project drag on.

If/when we build the barn I want, we'll contract (or actually build) it ourselves /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[RobS]

Dave, we have the cellulose insulation in our current house and do like it. Added on a couple of years ago so got to see the insides of a wall after about 8 years. No settling whatsoever. I did try to pull some speaker wires up an exterior wall a while back. Needless to say, those wires are still dangling from the speakers to the floor in plain view /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif That stuff is dense /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif