Westbrooklawn - new house project

[westbrooklawn]

I purchased 3+ acres last November to build a new house. I have really enjoyed the new house projects of 3RLL, KarolinaKubota, and Hunterridgefarm, just to name a few. I had promised in an earlier post that I would try to document my project... I have been lax in doing that to date, but hope now that things are starting to move, I can keep on top of it. All comments, advice, etc. are truly welcome. I hope you will enjoy my thread as much as I think I will enjoy my new project. Pics (going back to Nov. '07), will start in the following posts...Thanks!

Dick

 

[westbrooklawn]

The following pics show my lot when I purchased it last November... 2 pictures of the front of the lot, one of the old cleared path going into the lot, and one of an old cleared spot on the middle of the lot where my shop will be built.

 

[westbrooklawn]

The next pics are 2 taken from the old clearing looking towards the front of the lot, and 2 taken in the same direction after I had bush hogged the brush. This is the area where the house will be built. This view will be looking at the back of the house after construction is complete.

 

[westbrooklawn]

There were some old stumps on the lot that I dug out with my L3400 and BH80-X. The following two pictures show one of the stumps in my WR Long bolt on grapple.

 

[westbrooklawn]

When I got ready to clear the site where the house footprint would go, several friends came to help. They brought chainsaws, one buddy brought his JD tractor, and my son was able to bring a Kumatsu Mini Excavator he had access to. Of course I had my L3400 on hand also. This really made clearing easy. The following pics are from that day.

 

[westbrooklawn]

I have some additional pictures of grading for my shop, and initial placement of shop uprights which I will upload later this evening. Hope you enjoy!

 

[Bird]

Looks like you're off to a good start in a pretty location.

 

[westbrooklawn]

Bird -

Thanks for the comments. It really is a pretty wooded area. I'm acting as my own General Contractor on my house and shop... I feel like I am off to a pretty good start, but I also realize that the frustrations will start to kick in as I try to coordinate subs... I have seen that already in trying to get my footings dug, and with the construction of my shop. It should be an adventure!!

 

[EddieWalker]

Very nice setting.

How about a few details on what you are going to build? Square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms and what it's gonna look like when you are done.

Looking forward to following along with your progress.

Eddie

 

[swampvol]

Great pictures Westbrook. How do you like your grapple?
How much does it hinder your la463 lift capacity?

 

[westbrooklawn]

Eddie -
Thanks for the comments. You are one of my most admired posters... always interesting topics and informative advice. The house I am building is a Donald Gardner plan, the "Dayton". It is a story and a half, 3 BR, 2 1/2 bath with a bonus room and attached 2 car garage... right at 2400 sq. ft. heated. You can see the floorplan and pics at dongardner.com , search for "dayton".. I have changed the plan by making the garage a side entry instead of front as shown in his plan. I am going with hardy siding, but adding stone to the front porch area to create an accent.

My shop is a metal building... 28X36 with two garage doors and one walk in door, concrete floor, and fully insulated. It's being built by Carolina Structural from Wilson, NC. They have a website also if you are interested in looking at their designs... a bit different in that they have a metal siding that looks like lap siding... very attractive.

swampvol -
I really like my grapple. The weight isn't too bad... but the LA 463 only has a lift capacity of around 1100#, so I do sometimes notice the reduced lift with the grapple on. The picture I showed with the stump gives you an idea of how much it can lift... that was max, and I couldn't get it any higher. I will say that the WR Long grapple is built very sturdy... probably a bit of overkill for the capacity of my loader, but I know I won't break it!

 

[westbrooklawn]

A few more pics of some of the progress to date. Some of the grading for the shop area, and some of the process of setting the steel posts for the shop last week. Also a pic of the graded stone... ready for the concrete man to form and pour.

 

[westbrooklawn]

Just a couple more pics... house foundation flagged for footings to be dug. They should be dug and poured this week.

 

[ctpres]

Finished a shell home by myself and can offer some ideas that worked well.
1. 5/8 inch fire code sheet rock everywhere. If you are more then 5/10 minutes from fire station it could save your house. It dodn't realy cost that much more in the end. Trim work around doors is a little extra work. Sound transmission from room to room is less.
2. If your ceiling texture does not cover completly, paint ceiling first, colors ok, then texture and don't paint again. If you don't like results you can paint. I used ceiling white and "stomp and drag" for texture. Grey texture on white ended up great.
3. If on well make kitchen sink cabinet as big as possible for futue water treatment equipment such as reverse osmosis. Make space and power for future water softner and run seperate cold water line for outdoor faucets.
4. Wire house for everything even if you don't put it in initially. Wire is cheep. Use cat 6 wire if you can. New stuff that has higher data rate. I have every room wired for audio, video, data, burg and fire with video and phone/data on every wall I could ever imagine getting used. Don't forget video in kitchen and phone in garage bathrooms and utility. Run several conduits away from house to future outbuildings for video data/phone power.
and water.
Have fun.

 

[tony123]

Looking forward to following the thread! Enjoying all the photos.

tony

 

[UpstateSC_Papi]

Wow - You had me at the driveway pics. All the color around you in the Fall. Amazing...

I'm jealous of the grapple and BH. Sigh...

Best of luck with the Self-Contractor thing! Doing it ourselves, as you probably already know, and "knock on wood" no major issues yet!

Keep the pics and updates coming!

Michael

 

[WBWI]

Great looking lot/location. My wife and I moved into our new home last July and I really enjoy watching these new home building projects. We took photos just about every day and posted them on photobucket so they were easy to share with friends and family.

 

[Tractors4u]

The house I am building is a Donald Gardner plan, the "Dayton". It is a story and a half, 3 BR, 2 1/2 bath with a bonus room and attached 2 car garage... right at 2400 sq. ft. heated. You can see the floorplan and pics at dongardner.com , search for "dayton"..

We build a Don Gardner house as well. We reversed the plan, and stretched the house just a little bit to make the living room and master bedroom larger.

Here is the link to it.

http://www.dongardner.com/images.aspx?pid=190&fn=renderings\256f.jpg&f=

And a picture of the finished house.

 

[westbrooklawn]

ctpres -

Thanks for the tips. My oldest son is a Captain with the Charlotte Fire Dept. and he asked me to look into a residential sprinkler system. Apparently they are the up and coming thing... only about $1/sq. ft. to install (around $2500 for a 2400 sq. ft. house). The sprinkler heads are recessed and pop down if they go off... as a result they blend in with the ceiling and are hardly noticeable. In most cases there is only one head per room. His point is that they would only go off in the room where there is fire, and you would only be dealing with water damage in that one area vs. the potential of losing your whole house. I think I will be checking it out....

 

[Megado]

Sounds and looks like an exciting project. Looking forward to following the thread.

Best of luck!
Jim H.