Dollar Stretcher "Silly Questions" thread
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I KNOW! exciting for me anyway.
I was gone butchering ducks all day until after sundown yesterday. I guess the builder made it up in the afternoon. His wife called today to let me know that a bill would be coming (ya, we covered that saturday when I went to check out windows and doors at their salvage yard...) anyway, she said he was out yesterday and got tall beams up. I didn't see new ones in the moonlight, but I will head home before sundown today and check the camera for new pics of progress.
And I have to move some $$ to a new account.
I found out earlier today that my wool insulation supplier has gone out of business!! I emailed some new suppliers with similar products to see if I can get samples to try out. Fingers crossed! They are closer and I'm not in a hurry, but I need $$ amounts.
Anyway, off to work the polls tomorrow so I will miss another day of cool stuff at the homesite. I'm hoping the biggest beam won't be put up while I can't be there. But, given the builder's timing, I assume I won't get to watch it.
I was gone butchering ducks all day until after sundown yesterday. I guess the builder made it up in the afternoon. His wife called today to let me know that a bill would be coming (ya, we covered that saturday when I went to check out windows and doors at their salvage yard...) anyway, she said he was out yesterday and got tall beams up. I didn't see new ones in the moonlight, but I will head home before sundown today and check the camera for new pics of progress.
And I have to move some $$ to a new account.
I found out earlier today that my wool insulation supplier has gone out of business!! I emailed some new suppliers with similar products to see if I can get samples to try out. Fingers crossed! They are closer and I'm not in a hurry, but I need $$ amounts.
Anyway, off to work the polls tomorrow so I will miss another day of cool stuff at the homesite. I'm hoping the biggest beam won't be put up while I can't be there. But, given the builder's timing, I assume I won't get to watch it.
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well cripes...just deleted a reply because I'm TIRED. Working, covid, and the housebuild. 2 out of three of those are super positive and yet also stressful.
The subaru is dying...but I'm not going to decide for a couple of weeks or more when I can free up some head space from the build. The truck (KNOCK ON WOOD) is now the daily driver. Anyway.
Here's a picture of where the house is at.
![clip.jpg]()
The subaru is dying...but I'm not going to decide for a couple of weeks or more when I can free up some head space from the build. The truck (KNOCK ON WOOD) is now the daily driver. Anyway.
Here's a picture of where the house is at.
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Wow, it's going up so fast now. Those beams are massive! Will it have a sloped roof? (Because of snow, of course, right?)
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Thanks for the positive input! Hard to spend so much $$ so fast. Yes, going up fast. THe builder had the majority of the beams/posts pre-cut at his yard then trim to fit here. The guys, 3 crew members plus the builder framed the roof today. The builder doesn't climb ladders anymore due to a bad back or hip or leg or all of the above. BUT he directs and cuts bits and hands them up and is actually really nice to his crew which I appreciate. SO PATIENT which is NOT like me. I am a crap manager.
Here's the roof framed up
![Photo147.jpg]()
it was a busy day at the ranch. A friend from the next town had emailed that his son would be around with a 15 year old step nephew who was hoping to get his first deer and they would like to try my place. EXCELLENT> I texted them at about 1pm that there were 3 deer hanging out so the guys, the son of my friend, his step nephew and his brother in law, headed up. THere were 6 deer while they were driving the 10 min to here. THen zero deer when they arrived. But about 3:30 or so, deer came out of the timber on my west boundary (my place was logged 100 years ago and farmed since but I"m surrounded by forest). The young man felled his deer in one shot and she expired quickly. The friend's son is an excellent shot and was at the ready should things not go extremely smoothly. But things went great. They had her, it was a nice doe, fairly old and probably 65lbs of meat once they get her dressed out, field dressed and in the truck in a half hour. THe viscera will go to the critters and if there are some left in the morning, I'll serve some up as a protein boost to the chickens if they haven't found it quickly. The kid was respectful and thrilled. I was the only one who remembered to take a picture of him and his first deer. Sent that on right away.
Here's the roof framed up
it was a busy day at the ranch. A friend from the next town had emailed that his son would be around with a 15 year old step nephew who was hoping to get his first deer and they would like to try my place. EXCELLENT> I texted them at about 1pm that there were 3 deer hanging out so the guys, the son of my friend, his step nephew and his brother in law, headed up. THere were 6 deer while they were driving the 10 min to here. THen zero deer when they arrived. But about 3:30 or so, deer came out of the timber on my west boundary (my place was logged 100 years ago and farmed since but I"m surrounded by forest). The young man felled his deer in one shot and she expired quickly. The friend's son is an excellent shot and was at the ready should things not go extremely smoothly. But things went great. They had her, it was a nice doe, fairly old and probably 65lbs of meat once they get her dressed out, field dressed and in the truck in a half hour. THe viscera will go to the critters and if there are some left in the morning, I'll serve some up as a protein boost to the chickens if they haven't found it quickly. The kid was respectful and thrilled. I was the only one who remembered to take a picture of him and his first deer. Sent that on right away.
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couple more pics. One looking toward the SW corner of the house.
One of the wood holding up the loft (the plywood will go away...ignore that)
One of a custom bracket holding up the big a$$ log in the roof
The 2nd and 3rd ones rotated as I uploaded. oh well. You are all smart enough to figure out that the sky is UP.
![IMG_0475.jpg]()
![IMG_0417.jpg]()
![IMG_0449 (1).jpg]()
One of the wood holding up the loft (the plywood will go away...ignore that)
One of a custom bracket holding up the big a$$ log in the roof
The 2nd and 3rd ones rotated as I uploaded. oh well. You are all smart enough to figure out that the sky is UP.
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How exciting, Maggie! Will they have it dried in by winter? Wow, that's going to be nice.
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Great! Enviable beautiful !!
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Thanks again to all.
I brought the guys treats (cinnamon rolls individually packaged from a restaurant here...excellent) and they loved that.
ALSO a bit of scaffold fell on my head! OW. Got a tetanus shot today. No concussion or laceration. It's like a skinned knee on my scalp and a little bit of a stiff neck.
I don't appear to be hurt. I'd hit myself in the head with the solar panel over the weekend. Maybe there is a magnet in my head attracting all the metal?
I brought the guys treats (cinnamon rolls individually packaged from a restaurant here...excellent) and they loved that.
ALSO a bit of scaffold fell on my head! OW. Got a tetanus shot today. No concussion or laceration. It's like a skinned knee on my scalp and a little bit of a stiff neck.
I don't appear to be hurt. I'd hit myself in the head with the solar panel over the weekend. Maybe there is a magnet in my head attracting all the metal?
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my head and neck and tetanus arm feel MUCH better today. I managed to reach for my coffee in the car without saying "ow" on the way to work today. AND I can turn my head BOTH WAYS almost the full range. It's the little things.
The sheeting is going on the roof now. I leave before sun up and get home after dark so I don't have pictures. I didn't want to climb the icy ladder to get the photo chip out of the camera last night. I think I will be by my place during daylight tomorrow so I can talk to the builder and get my photo chip out.
The sheeting is going on the roof now. I leave before sun up and get home after dark so I don't have pictures. I didn't want to climb the icy ladder to get the photo chip out of the camera last night. I think I will be by my place during daylight tomorrow so I can talk to the builder and get my photo chip out.
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yesterday the roof sheeting went up and some wall framing of bits that will not be cordwood. very cool.
I stopped by today to plan windows with the builder and will finalize more of those tomorrow since, of course, I made a measuring mistake! Cripes.
While I was there, they put up the pretty beam that got taken down from below the loft and I REALLY REALLY like and wanted back in the house. They added 2 live edge supports for it.
Here it is going up:
![beam.jpg]()
I am standing in the living room area looking at the bedroom area. the part you see past the beam with boards sticking out...those boards extend from the loft and will form the ceiling of the bathroom. So the beam will hold up one bathroom wall and the interior bedroom wall...which won't go in until the code guy is gone. It's a studio home to start with. But I'm sure I will add a wall there eventually. I like divided spaces and kind of miss that in the wee shed.
I stopped by today to plan windows with the builder and will finalize more of those tomorrow since, of course, I made a measuring mistake! Cripes.
While I was there, they put up the pretty beam that got taken down from below the loft and I REALLY REALLY like and wanted back in the house. They added 2 live edge supports for it.
Here it is going up:
I am standing in the living room area looking at the bedroom area. the part you see past the beam with boards sticking out...those boards extend from the loft and will form the ceiling of the bathroom. So the beam will hold up one bathroom wall and the interior bedroom wall...which won't go in until the code guy is gone. It's a studio home to start with. But I'm sure I will add a wall there eventually. I like divided spaces and kind of miss that in the wee shed.
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Have you seen the wine bottles incorporated into cordwood walls? Very cool, and allow light with privacy, like in a shower stall.
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yep. I like that. I don't dare collect yet. They are freely available at the recycling center and I picked up a glass bottle cutter at thrift last year (or this year??....before now).
Big kombucha bottles also seem usable. I have a few of those to cut try. They are thick glass and a good size. A quart and a half or so.
I had to pump up a truck tire today (the one "good vehicle" isn't all that "good") and had time to watch cars on the highway while I stomped on the foot pump. EVERYONE looks at the house. I would too but still...
Yesterday I sat up in the loft on a lawn chair for a while and I think I won't be able to see the highway from up there while seated. I see the hill across the highway and other more interesting things.
Big kombucha bottles also seem usable. I have a few of those to cut try. They are thick glass and a good size. A quart and a half or so.
I had to pump up a truck tire today (the one "good vehicle" isn't all that "good") and had time to watch cars on the highway while I stomped on the foot pump. EVERYONE looks at the house. I would too but still...
Yesterday I sat up in the loft on a lawn chair for a while and I think I won't be able to see the highway from up there while seated. I see the hill across the highway and other more interesting things.
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We looked into cordwood but ended up finding out our climate would probably be too wet. Looked into straw bale, too. In the end we went with conventional construction. I still have the books on nontraditional construction. Fascinating reading. We looked into dome homes and sometimes regret not going that route.
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It'll be fun to watch your build as it progresses.
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I don't have pictures but thought I'd throw in an update:
the builder made boxes the size of the rough openings for the windows I want in the 2nd story. That's the part that is framed so best to get them in now even if I can't get the windows in yet. SO, he also kept adjusting where the porch roof would hit the wall. He told me to assume 30 or 32" above the loft floor level. So i drew up sketches of where the windows should be to account for the structural elements, stove pipe and some engineering restrictions. The sketches gave the window sizes (4' by 6' tall, 2' by 6' tall, and some clerestories). Then I put things like "as low as possible" and "as high as possible"....well, he adjusted the porch roof down to 12" above the loft floor and left 6" between that and the window sill. That puts the lower windows 18" above the loft floor. GREAT for the view and the feel of space and for the light BUT...also lower than code allows. I can put a guard across the window or restrict the opening. OR I could buy windows 6" shorter than the hole and put them in the top part of the hole with support below. I'm a few years out from windows but geez! Way to be literal, dude. Still, I think it will look fantastic and it allowed the max size of clerestory window which is key to passive ventilation (or so I hope). He got those clerestory windows up under the roof overhang so they can be open in rain as long as it isn't TOOO windy. That's excellent. I love a breeze through the house in the rain.
Yesterday I toured the Tribe's (where I work) tiny house internship program. It's in a giant warehouse with the doors open. Nice space. We were all masked up and spaced out. The interns are mostly very recent high school graduates. They are building real tiny houses on trailers! The teacher was in construction for 40years and is SUPER nice and funny. He said he sees them make errors sometimes and lets them finish a process before he corrects them. They undo what they did and redo it. He said by doing that, no one makes the mistake twice. I invited them down to see my wee shed and the current build. My builder likes to hire people going through college in his town and let them work their way through school. A lawyer for the tribe here made his way through law school by working for the builder.
the builder made boxes the size of the rough openings for the windows I want in the 2nd story. That's the part that is framed so best to get them in now even if I can't get the windows in yet. SO, he also kept adjusting where the porch roof would hit the wall. He told me to assume 30 or 32" above the loft floor level. So i drew up sketches of where the windows should be to account for the structural elements, stove pipe and some engineering restrictions. The sketches gave the window sizes (4' by 6' tall, 2' by 6' tall, and some clerestories). Then I put things like "as low as possible" and "as high as possible"....well, he adjusted the porch roof down to 12" above the loft floor and left 6" between that and the window sill. That puts the lower windows 18" above the loft floor. GREAT for the view and the feel of space and for the light BUT...also lower than code allows. I can put a guard across the window or restrict the opening. OR I could buy windows 6" shorter than the hole and put them in the top part of the hole with support below. I'm a few years out from windows but geez! Way to be literal, dude. Still, I think it will look fantastic and it allowed the max size of clerestory window which is key to passive ventilation (or so I hope). He got those clerestory windows up under the roof overhang so they can be open in rain as long as it isn't TOOO windy. That's excellent. I love a breeze through the house in the rain.
Yesterday I toured the Tribe's (where I work) tiny house internship program. It's in a giant warehouse with the doors open. Nice space. We were all masked up and spaced out. The interns are mostly very recent high school graduates. They are building real tiny houses on trailers! The teacher was in construction for 40years and is SUPER nice and funny. He said he sees them make errors sometimes and lets them finish a process before he corrects them. They undo what they did and redo it. He said by doing that, no one makes the mistake twice. I invited them down to see my wee shed and the current build. My builder likes to hire people going through college in his town and let them work their way through school. A lawyer for the tribe here made his way through law school by working for the builder.
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