Starting a new home

[sr160009]

At least my grass is growing. Now i gotta mow The first pic was from 3-23-07 and the second pic is from today, kinda like a before and after exept from a different angle.

 

[EddieWalker]

I am planning to visit there in June and need to know of a lake close to Arlington where I can catch some bass.

Lake Fork is just an hour or two from the Dallas area, and it's considered the best bass lake in the nation. There's allot of good lakes in the area, but if I was to chose one lake to fish, it would be Lake Fork.

sr160009,

That house plan is just about perfect. Every plan has it's trade offs and strengths, but yours is very strong on it's use of space and open feel. The only thing that jumps out at me is the breakfast nook is kind of tucked into a corner, but changing that would mean redoing the entire master suite.

I copied it and will copy some of your pictures as you progress for a client that I have who just bought a piece of land and is looking at plans to build.

One thing you might want to look at is a makeup desk in the master bath. It looks like you have some room there, and it's one of those things that the wife will really appreciate.

Eddie

 

[sr160009]

sr160009,

That house plan is just about perfect. Every plan has it's trade offs and strengths, but yours is very strong on it's use of space and open feel. The only thing that jumps out at me is the breakfast nook is kind of tucked into a corner, but changing that would mean redoing the entire master suite.

I copied it and will copy some of your pictures as you progress for a client that I have who just bought a piece of land and is looking at plans to build.

One thing you might want to look at is a makeup desk in the master bath. It looks like you have some room there, and it's one of those things that the wife will really appreciate.

Eddie

Thanks on the house plans, my wife and I drew them from scratch and it took time, lots of time. We definitly wanted an open plan and I hate wasted space, you are going to have some wasted space, but I think we will be very happy with this layout. The breakfast nook was an issue for me, because I really want it in the back of the house so we could see the pond out of the window. After some discussion, we decided we would rather have the view in the master bedroom instead (I could not have a good view out the window from every room )

We are going to have a makeup desk between the 2 sinks in the master bath as well.

 

[ocaj11]

sr160009,

Can you post a picture of your elevations? I think you did a really nice job with the floor layout and was curious what the outside was going to look like.

Thanks.

 

[sr160009]

sr160009,

Can you post a picture of your elevations? I think you did a really nice job with the floor layout and was curious what the outside was going to look like.

Thanks.

The only thing I really have is the outside drawing from the home design program. I am pretty good as far as the floor plan on the home design program, but I am not that good when it comes to the roof and exterior walls with this program. Here is a drawing anyway. The front roof will have 2 dormers on top which this drawing does not show. The roof will have a 8 pitch and the porch roof will have a 4 pitch. Hopefully it give you an idea what it will look like, I see it more clearly in my head than in this drawing.

 

[ocaj11]

Thanks for posting. It looks pretty good to me.

I tried to use one of those programs for the last house I built and finally gave up. I certainly didn't have the patience to figure it out as well as you have.

Good Luck.

 

[sr160009]

Anyone out there know a go away rain dance. We have no new progress. It has rained every day since last Monday. I know we need to rain to fill up all of the lakes, but I need about a week or so to get the foundation poured. Then it can rain all it wants to.

 

[sr160009]

MORE AND MORE RAIN, I wish it would stop for couple of weeks. It may be a while as the weater people are predicting more rain.

 

[NCDeere]

My wife and I are in the process of getting the construction loan approved. I can feel your pain with the rain. Right now our weather is very nice. I hope it stays that way once we get started. Keep on sending the pics. I like to get ideas from those that have gone before me.

Bryan
Lincolnton, NC

 

[sr160009]

My wife and I are in the process of getting the construction loan approved. I can feel your pain with the rain. Right now our weather is very nice. I hope it stays that way once we get started. Keep on sending the pics. I like to get ideas from those that have gone before me.

Bryan
Lincolnton, NC

Feel free to give your opinions and questions as we go forward, because this is a very overwelming experice for my wife and I.

It looks like we may make some progress this week, it has not rained in 4 days . Hopefully we can get the concrete poured by the end of this week. We still need to plumb everything out and bring in the sand. I hope to have a few pics by Wedsday or thursday.

 

[sr160009]

Update 5/16,

Well it has dried out enough for us to start working again. We have had the sand truck deliver the sand and we are starting to dig the trenches for the plumbing. It looks like we are going to be to pour the concrete on Tuesday, the pad will be ready before then, but we are not able to get the concrete until then (The concrete company is booked till then). Here is some pics of the pad right now.

 

[sr160009]

Here is a pic of the waterline trench coming from the meter to the house. We are going to put a temperary facit on it right now till the construction is done.

 

[fishpick]

Here is a pic of the waterline trench coming from the meter to the house. We are going to put a temperary facit on it right now till the construction is done.

Being a northern climate guy - this is awesome to watch you building this house completly wrong... I'm learning and loving this - keep the pics coming!

 

[sr160009]

Being a northern climate guy - this is awesome to watch you building this house completly wrong... I'm learning and loving this - keep the pics coming!

I know you northern guys build houses totally different, due to the cold winters. I am Glad we don't have to build like ya'll do, because the way we can build a home we will save a lot on costs. This house will be a little over 2900 sqft of living space and a porch of 950 sqft, also we will have a 28' x 24 detached garage with a 2 story on it. We are looking at $220,000.00 for the entire Project and we are not skimming on stuff eithier. I think that is very cheap for what we are doing.

 

[jinman]

Scott, I just have to ask one question. Why is your waterline trench curved? I like to use straight trenches with 45º, 60º, or 90º corners. It makes finding the waterlines easier in the future. I do curve trenches when they follow roads or driveways, but yours doesn't seem to do that.

 

[sr160009]

Scott, I just have to ask one question. Why is your waterline trench curved? I like to use straight trenches with 45º, 60º, or 90º corners. It makes finding the waterlines easier in the future. I do curve trenches when they follow roads or driveways, but yours doesn't seem to do that.

Jinman,

My uncle did the waterline trenchs and I asked him that also. He told me he needed to go between to pine trees that was in front of the house. I think he was just using that as an excuse because he had not ran a ditch whitch in a while, and was not paying attention. Just mark it as a bad job lol.

 

[sr160009]

Update 5/21/07,

I made a trip up to the place yesterday to check out the progress, we have just about ready to pour the concrete. The pad is plumbed now. We decided to use PEX pipes for the waterline in the house. It is about 35% the cost of copper and all of the plumbers (that use PEX) that we spoke to said they would not go back to copper pipes.

We started to put some of the steel in but we are waiting till right before the concrete is expected to arrive (we have is scheduled for Wedesday morning) to put the rest of the steel in, because if it rains we would have to redig the ditches. The weather people are calling for rain all week, so hopeful it will hold off till after we pour on Wedesday. Here are a few more pix......

 

[sr160009]

Here is one of the temp. water faucit.

 

[sr160009]

A few after I mowed.

 

[EddieWalker]

I don't know your concrete guy, so this might not apply, but be very careful of those guys who don't use chairs for the rebar. I've only seen this done here in East Texas, but for some reason, they like to leave the rebar on the ground, then pull it up by hand to center it in the pour.

I've seen enough jobs done like this to know it doesn't work. They get some of it up, but it's not consistant, and you will have areas where the rebar is at the bottom of your pad.

Rebar needs to be in the middle of the concrete to have it's maximum strength. At the bottom or top of the pad, and it's almost useless.

A very large bag of plastic chairs isn't very much money. If I was you, I would insist that they have chairs under the rebar befor pouring. Don't rely on them saying they will, be sure to make sure!!!

When I'm the General Contractor on a job, I make the concrete subs angry by doing this, but I'll supply the chairs and force them to do it my way. They grumble and tell me it's a waste and it's not needed, but when it's all said and done, I know the rebar is where it's supposed to be.

This is also why I don't like wire for pads. It's impossible to get it centered in the concrete, and even though wire is stronger then rebar when poured correctly, it's rarely true because the wire is always at the bottom of the pour.

Your place sure looks nice after you mowed!!!!

Eddie