Worked all day yesterday on the driveway and area surrouding the new building to get a handle on the mud. I gave gravel on the property but it is time consuming to get it to where I need it and time is not on my side with with winter coming and too much to do, so I bought 100 ton of stone and spread most of it. Now I can get in and out without wearing my knee high boots all the time and without tracking mud everywhere.
The roof and chimney are installed so there is no more rain getting in and interior work can be done. The place can actually be locked up when I am not there, but I don't think that would stop a crook. Not much there to steal anyways, just some jacks, and shovels and such. I find most crooks are not looking for tools that they could use to make an honest living. I did not take any photos the last two trips up there. Don't know why just didn't, even the wife wanted to see some so after I get done with a job I am doing for a neighbor I will take a ride with my bride to show her the progress.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Workin" at it!!!
I finally got the bungalo moved to the property last week. My son Tom, my friend Jack, the Amish Craftsman, neighbor Jim, and I Dragged it down the street and into place. Tom drove my four wheel drive deisel dump truck in low range and pulled while I pushed from behind with my loader and helped guilde it all down the road. When we got it to the driveway we pulled past on purpose and hooked up from the other end with Jim's small dozer. Then we pushed/pulled it to the site I had prepped. The move went better then I could have hoped for, just a couple of wires across the road had to be pushed up out of the way and one of the skids broke, but it did not stop the move. All in all it went well.
The weather has been crap around here, rain for the last three weeks and if I waited for things to dry up the Bungalo would be setting up the street until spring. I have dug drainage on the high side of the hill and stopped the water from pooling near the site. I still have to get it up higher and set on cribbing to finish up the foundation. Spent the day there today but gave up on trying to jack the building because of the water dripping off the roof, will attempt to get it done tomorow. I did get some more grade work done and that allowed puddles to drain away. The ground is so soft from all the rain, lucky to get anything done at all.
The weather has been crap around here, rain for the last three weeks and if I waited for things to dry up the Bungalo would be setting up the street until spring. I have dug drainage on the high side of the hill and stopped the water from pooling near the site. I still have to get it up higher and set on cribbing to finish up the foundation. Spent the day there today but gave up on trying to jack the building because of the water dripping off the roof, will attempt to get it done tomorow. I did get some more grade work done and that allowed puddles to drain away. The ground is so soft from all the rain, lucky to get anything done at all.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Guru
When did I get so smart?
It seems that everyone I know calls me to give them the solutions to all their problems. After taking my bride to the grocery store yesterday I planned on sneaking off to the building site and spending a pleasent day just doing site clean-up with my tractor and chainsaw. One quick stop at the Amish Craftsman's place to tell him we are going with a High-Tech insulation system under the metal roof and give him a time frame for delivery, he asks me if I know anything about the reel mower he pulls with a horse to mow his lawn. Spent the next two hours configuring a sharpening stone, sharpening, and adjusting his ancient piece of equipment. It now cuts like a dream and he says he will take my labors off the bill. Sounds like a fair tradeoff to me.
I can not keep my nose out of it!
If it's mechanical, horticultural, or involves a thought out solution something inside me kicks in and I have to get involved even if it should not be my problem. Is this self distructive behavior or just unbounded creativity?
My wife has turned me around!
For years she has been telling me I should be charging people for my time, that if they knew what to do they would not have called me. Turns out she is right. People do not mind paying when the problem goes away. To this day I have a hard time taking money from neighbors and friends, but not from most of my relatives. The exception is the neighbor across the road from my present location, they are users if you let them be. This "Don't mind paying" theory has proved itself true over and over again, Call Backs! I get plenty.
I should change my name!
Maybe to "Jack" as in "Jack of all trades", or maybe "General", as in "General contractor", or "Mr. Goodwrench". There is not much I won't have a go at, electrical, plumbing, foundations, carpentry, weld fab work, equipment repair, underground work like sewers, French Drains, utility buries, driveway installs, and I love "From the ground up" projects!
OK My Point!
Over the years I have amassed a huge collection of tools and equipment and every hobby I have tried ends up making me money. So I have decided to not fight the feeling, if someone wants to throw cash at me I am playing catch. I barter my skills for things I want and anyone who deals with me comes away happy. No better feeling for me then figuring it out and fixing it, whatever "IT" may be.
It seems that everyone I know calls me to give them the solutions to all their problems. After taking my bride to the grocery store yesterday I planned on sneaking off to the building site and spending a pleasent day just doing site clean-up with my tractor and chainsaw. One quick stop at the Amish Craftsman's place to tell him we are going with a High-Tech insulation system under the metal roof and give him a time frame for delivery, he asks me if I know anything about the reel mower he pulls with a horse to mow his lawn. Spent the next two hours configuring a sharpening stone, sharpening, and adjusting his ancient piece of equipment. It now cuts like a dream and he says he will take my labors off the bill. Sounds like a fair tradeoff to me.
I can not keep my nose out of it!
If it's mechanical, horticultural, or involves a thought out solution something inside me kicks in and I have to get involved even if it should not be my problem. Is this self distructive behavior or just unbounded creativity?
My wife has turned me around!
For years she has been telling me I should be charging people for my time, that if they knew what to do they would not have called me. Turns out she is right. People do not mind paying when the problem goes away. To this day I have a hard time taking money from neighbors and friends, but not from most of my relatives. The exception is the neighbor across the road from my present location, they are users if you let them be. This "Don't mind paying" theory has proved itself true over and over again, Call Backs! I get plenty.
I should change my name!
Maybe to "Jack" as in "Jack of all trades", or maybe "General", as in "General contractor", or "Mr. Goodwrench". There is not much I won't have a go at, electrical, plumbing, foundations, carpentry, weld fab work, equipment repair, underground work like sewers, French Drains, utility buries, driveway installs, and I love "From the ground up" projects!
OK My Point!
Over the years I have amassed a huge collection of tools and equipment and every hobby I have tried ends up making me money. So I have decided to not fight the feeling, if someone wants to throw cash at me I am playing catch. I barter my skills for things I want and anyone who deals with me comes away happy. No better feeling for me then figuring it out and fixing it, whatever "IT" may be.
Friday, September 22, 2006
It Is Happening!
Progress!
The site prep work is almost done and the building is getting its roof. Yesterday I went to my Amish Craftsman with my machinery and pulled the building outside to get the roof put on as it was getting to tall to stay inside. Dropped off the windows and doors for installation then went to the site and did grade work. I have photos of all this and when I get it figured out I will post them.
The site prep work is almost done and the building is getting its roof. Yesterday I went to my Amish Craftsman with my machinery and pulled the building outside to get the roof put on as it was getting to tall to stay inside. Dropped off the windows and doors for installation then went to the site and did grade work. I have photos of all this and when I get it figured out I will post them.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Three steps to Heaven
I have a plan and the wheels are turning. My house is being built, off site by an Amish craftsman even as I type this post. It is compact little place 32x20 built on skids and will be dragged down the road and placed on the foundation. The house is rough cut hemlock, post and beam. This is my interim house, where we will live while the real house gets built. It has two 20x10 sleeping lofts on each end and is open to the roof in the middle. Downstairs will have a bathroom, kitchen, and small living area. I love High-tech low-tech marriages and this little place does that well. The south facing outside wall is all argon gas filled windows with a long overhang to keep the sun off them in the summer and invite the sunshine in all winter long. The windows are a re-cycle from a sky scraper up-date, that my guy Marc got his hands on. The roof is steel in red with rigid stryfoam four inches thick all mounted over white pine sheeting, planed smooth on the inside face as it will be an open roof with a skylite over each loft. They have blinds to control the sun. Two sides are getting covered porches to expand the living to outdoors and to give me a place to strip off my dirty duds as I am a SLOB. In my area outdoors is the place to be nine months of the year, the other three can be a real mother as we get winter in all its glory.
For heat I am using an outside wood burning water boiler and radiant heat in the concrete slab under the house with a small propane furnace back-up so I am not a slave to the system when we are not home. The boiler is oversized as it will be used to heat a portion of the barn and the new house that is going to be built into the hillside will use it when it needs it.
A large amount of the materials I am building with are salvage or my own creation. The reason I went to the Amish craftsman was time considerations and his price is right. So we did a barter for his work, I have trees that become logs and he has a mill that makes boards so a deal was struck. I provided the doors, windows, roofing, fasteners, electrical supplies and he is doing the building. My freind Jack is going to help me do the plumbing, electric, and finish work.
This place will provide me with shelter while I build my home and will become a guest house for company when my place is done. The clock is ticking on my working for the man existence, 14 months until I pull the plug. We brainstormed many ideas on how to make this all happen and this little shelter made the most sense to me as we now live 40 miles from the property and a commute seemed like a waste of my resourses and we will have a nice addition to the homestead after the wash is all hung out to dry, for about what I would have spent in fuel to travel back and forth.
The target is to have this livable by spring, move my saw mill to the site plus all my barn lumber that is already cut. The critters will need a barn before I need the real house so here is the progression. The Amish built love bungolo, a small shop to house the tools, the barn and then the real house.
Water? This is a problem I am still pondering. Do I spend money on a drilled well that will eventually not used ? The property has an artisean well on it but it is 4,500 feet away from the house and I am going to create a water feature that uses this supply and also feeds my needs. The property also has a spring fed stream that runs clean water most of the time and three ponds. Right now I am leaning towards drilling because of the time factor and cost of piping the water 4,500 feet at this time. My water feature will be done without a lot of conventional plumbing and be multi-functinal so I do not want to waste my energy doing things twice.
The real house! Wait until I tell you the plans we are going underground! But that is for another post and another day.
For heat I am using an outside wood burning water boiler and radiant heat in the concrete slab under the house with a small propane furnace back-up so I am not a slave to the system when we are not home. The boiler is oversized as it will be used to heat a portion of the barn and the new house that is going to be built into the hillside will use it when it needs it.
A large amount of the materials I am building with are salvage or my own creation. The reason I went to the Amish craftsman was time considerations and his price is right. So we did a barter for his work, I have trees that become logs and he has a mill that makes boards so a deal was struck. I provided the doors, windows, roofing, fasteners, electrical supplies and he is doing the building. My freind Jack is going to help me do the plumbing, electric, and finish work.
This place will provide me with shelter while I build my home and will become a guest house for company when my place is done. The clock is ticking on my working for the man existence, 14 months until I pull the plug. We brainstormed many ideas on how to make this all happen and this little shelter made the most sense to me as we now live 40 miles from the property and a commute seemed like a waste of my resourses and we will have a nice addition to the homestead after the wash is all hung out to dry, for about what I would have spent in fuel to travel back and forth.
The target is to have this livable by spring, move my saw mill to the site plus all my barn lumber that is already cut. The critters will need a barn before I need the real house so here is the progression. The Amish built love bungolo, a small shop to house the tools, the barn and then the real house.
Water? This is a problem I am still pondering. Do I spend money on a drilled well that will eventually not used ? The property has an artisean well on it but it is 4,500 feet away from the house and I am going to create a water feature that uses this supply and also feeds my needs. The property also has a spring fed stream that runs clean water most of the time and three ponds. Right now I am leaning towards drilling because of the time factor and cost of piping the water 4,500 feet at this time. My water feature will be done without a lot of conventional plumbing and be multi-functinal so I do not want to waste my energy doing things twice.
The real house! Wait until I tell you the plans we are going underground! But that is for another post and another day.
It feels good
I never really fit in. The blame should be squarely placed on my upbringing . My parents taught their children to think for themselves and I took the lessons to heart at a very young age. I am the son of an immigrant mother and a bohemian father neither who did things like everyone else. Politically I am off the map, the elephants and donkeys are spouting the same message from both sides of the aisle, send us your money and we will set you free! Bullshit, the only thing you will be free from is your money. Being a simple man I believe in family first and will do whatever it takes to protect and take care of all that are near and dear to me. Local Puffed Suits hate to see me coming anymore as I do not take anything they try to shove down my throat at face value. The farther up the food chain politians climb the better liars they become.
For too many decades I tried to fit my sqaure ass in the round holes everyone drilled, it never fit right. As I age, less and less of my energy is spent on fitting in as I work towards my visions of how I want my world to be.
For the longest time I was convinced that I must be some sort of freak for not wanting the greenest weed free lawn,(I don't even want a lawn) not wanting the largest square foot house in the nicest suburban neighborhood, not wanting a mini van or a soccor wife, or for not wanting to wear anything besides T-shirts and jeans. Well I have come to realize that I am not alone, it is just that that people that tuely think like me build farther off the road and tend to keep to their own kind.
Now my eyes are open and I once again learned the lesson well. My new house is being built way off the road on a south facing hillside of hard scrabble that won't grow grass. I get bonus points, mine is the only property on the road.
As for keeping to my own kind, thank God Al Gore invented the internet so we can talk. Did I happen to mention that my barn is going to be 12 times the size of our house?
For too many decades I tried to fit my sqaure ass in the round holes everyone drilled, it never fit right. As I age, less and less of my energy is spent on fitting in as I work towards my visions of how I want my world to be.
For the longest time I was convinced that I must be some sort of freak for not wanting the greenest weed free lawn,(I don't even want a lawn) not wanting the largest square foot house in the nicest suburban neighborhood, not wanting a mini van or a soccor wife, or for not wanting to wear anything besides T-shirts and jeans. Well I have come to realize that I am not alone, it is just that that people that tuely think like me build farther off the road and tend to keep to their own kind.
Now my eyes are open and I once again learned the lesson well. My new house is being built way off the road on a south facing hillside of hard scrabble that won't grow grass. I get bonus points, mine is the only property on the road.
As for keeping to my own kind, thank God Al Gore invented the internet so we can talk. Did I happen to mention that my barn is going to be 12 times the size of our house?
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