Clearing Land

Last year I spent the last part of summer and most of fall cutting trees from around the house to create a bigger lawn.  This past winter my wife and I burned the piles of brush from those trees.  Now this summer we had a gentleman come and do some dozing work in exchange for me mowing his lawn this past summer.  I feel labor for labor is always an even trade.  After he was done, I dragged the dirt and we collected the majority of rocks and sticks.  We then put down some grass seed that I bought from the local feed store.  They told me this seed would grow anywhere in any type of soil...we shall see.  My wife then spent several days throwing hay that we purchased from a local down on it.  Within a week it started to grow and so far is coming along real good.

Fall 2014

It's been a long summer of hard work, but my lovely wife and I have now started actually building the house.

Digging out the grade beam around the slab.

Plastic vapor barrier down and placing down Styrofoam.

Styrofoam prepped.

Pex pipe laid out.  I made 2 zones.

I prepped the slab.  We paid a contractor to conduct the pour.

Wall lumber has arrived!

Walls starting to go up.

 

Starting to put up sheeting.

 

All done and now waiting for the trusses to show up.

Summertime 2013

Its been a very short summer and with working all the time I have not had the chance to work as much on the house as I would like.  I added more sand to the perimeter of the foundation area and have also leveled the sand within the foundation perimeter.  The past few weeks I have taken an hour here and an hour there and have been slowly placing the high dense 2" styro around the perimeter for heat retention.

Beyond this I have also been clearing the future yard of trees to the side of the house.  Along with clearing these trees, I and my wife have been cutting and splitting the trees for firewood.  We have also been piling all the branches into piles for burning in the near future.  We have a combination of poplar (yellow tulip), oak, maple and birch trees within this area.

2013 Spring

It's been awhile since my last posting.  It was one long and very cold winter but we made it through with no loss of limbs or life.  The snow has only been gone for about a month now and the white stuff was replaced by wet stuff.  It seems like we have had more rainy days than sunny days.  Now though it looks like spring is here and I have posted a simple picture of the homestead as it now stands.  I built a little tiki bar for under the canopy using used material I had laying around.  Tiki torches are set up around the yard and the fire pit is ready from some summer time relaxing.

On the construction front my wife and I are waiting for the delivery of some more sand which will be placed around the forms I set up last summer.  This sand will help strengthen the sand that is under the forms so that the weight from the cement once we are ready for that does not blow out once we place it.  I will post more pics once we are to that point of the construction project.

More Slab Work

Its been a very busy summer, but I was able to get some time away from work to finish putting in the waste lines that are under the slab.  I did not get any pictures of this process, but I had a plumber look at what I did and he gave me the thumbs up.

Once the sanitary drains were in place, it was time to move the sand around and level it with the forms.  Using strings stretched from side to side and a 8 foot board cut to the right depth for a screed I moved the sand around within the frame and leveled it up as best I could.  Next it will need to be packed and then the grade beams need to be dug out, re-bar put into them, vapor barrier placed down, styrofoam laid out, wire mesh plopped down and pex pipe draped across the whole according to its heat zones.  All that will need to be placed and then the cement can be put on.

Before that though, I need to get my cousins skid steer and move some sand I have in a nearby pile around and build up the edges around the form to keep the slab from blowing out the sides when it is poured.

Chicken Coop Revisited

After some though I have moved the chicken coop to a different location.  The reason for the move is that it ended up being to close to the well.  For now I have moved the building (it is on skids) to its new location.  Not only has it been moved, but for now until the new house is built rather than housing chickens it will be housing tools and building materials.

Well Building 2

I have been slowly going ahead with getting the well shed built.  I spent one Sunday a few weekends ago framing the walls.  As with most projects I start, this one is using mostly reclaimed material or new material off of the sawmill.  In the case of the walls, my father and I picked up several used 2x4's that the local village hall was disposing.  These had been used for shelves and the village had remodeled and was getting rid of them.  I took this stack and cut them to 5 foot lengths.

One part that is new is I purchased green treat 2x4's to line the base of the walls against the cement.  These were drilled to fit over the bolts that had been put in the cement and secured with a nut and washer holding this base in place.  Onto these boards the walls were then set and secured once they were framed.

Next I built some small trusses for the roof.  I cut matching pieces for each part, creating four of them in total.

After the trusses were built, I secured these to the walls and then cut 2x4's to place in the dead space between each truss.

Over the next few weeks I plan to finish the roof with boards and tin and use some plywood siding for the walls.  I have some used white tin set aside that I scrounged for the roof which should work very nice.