Country Savvy

I really love being creative, and for building this house, it is a real advantage.  We have a floor in and want to divide the house up into rooms.  Since my wife and I had come up with a basic plan for the main floor (it will have a loft), I had reinforced the floor joist to accommodate the extra weight as I installed them .  Now I framed in the walls, with a little creative framing where the walls attached to the rounded wall.  Since the outside skin is bolted together, I used the bolt ends on which I added extensions to fasten the walls.  With a little research, I found the proper way to build stairs (spacing is very important), built them and started the joist for loft.  As we were putting the joist in, it occurred to us that we needed a walk way from the north end to the south end.  Wanting to keep the space open over the living room, we covered the space over the dining room on the south end and a bedroom on the north end.  This made a nice cozy room below for TV viewing.  With a floor covering on the loft, it was time to insulate the outer skin.  Having gone through one winter with a propane heater, we decided that we did not want rain falling from the condensation on the tin.  We found a contractor who would come up (on a weekend) to spray the inside with two inches of foam insulation.  This doesn’t sound like a lot of insulation in a house, but the benefit is radiant solar heat on the tin, warming the upper areas and preventing condensation.  With the foam on and a coat of white flame retardant paint, we were ready for the radiant floor heat installation on the main floor.  Because the proper layout of tubing is necessary to prevent cold spots, we found a contractor who would install the tubing only.  To save money, again we had it done on a weekend. (Sounds like I am cheap, but when they travel from 160 to 240 miles to come here, it is necessary to save as much as possible.)  Next we needed the gypcrete poured.  This was a problem, but with good negotiation skills, we were able to have it done on a Saturday.  I had all the materials here in advance. They showed up with equipment and people.  All the contractors mentioned here, did the work on the weekend with volunteers who I paid directly, and I paid the contractor for the use of his equipment and supplies.

At this point, we were ready for the tile flooring.  Deciding on tile is a real chore.  But with many visits to tile companies, we decided on a 16″ tile that we both liked.  With my trusty flatbed trailer I went to Albuquerque and loaded the six ton of tile, mortar and grout.  If you think I was going to unload these, think again, i backed the trailer into my workshop and left it to be unloaded as I was ready for it.  Running my base lines through the house, I was ready to start with the tile. Since I am not a young man, laying 2500 sq ft of tile takes some time.  I must say that I did an excellent job, the lines are straight, and as I went around the island in the kitchen and the walls, my tile met perfectly.  From the kitchen to the mud room is 70 ft, with a perfect line and is one of the things people notice as they walk into the house.

Next we will talk about the plumbing, electricity, coax, telephone and building the manifold for the radiant floor heat.

As a Senior Citizen, it is becoming a challenge to keep up with all the new and exciting technology available to communicate.  I consider myself average to above average in technical knowledge.  Here are some of the things that just don’t seem important in media and communications.  TIVO and iphones are way unnecessary.  Although I use email, and twitter, it is probably as far as this old man really will go with newer communications.  When I have a problem, I still pick up a land line telephone and call whoever I need to talk to.  Most often nowadays, voicemail is the only answer you can get.  Online chat is an option, but unless you have DSL, this is not very good, and takes way too much time (which I have plenty of).  A person could text message, but that is hard to do with arthritic hands, and who understands all the abbreviations used anyway, I don’t.  I still speak English, write words out fully and try to use punctuation. I did try to send an ecard to my granddaughter for her birthday, took four hours to find out how to send it and get it done.  (then she replied with a “who is this” message).  I have a cell phone that takes pictures, which I have taken two.  It will also text, I have sent three.  It is capable of downloading ringtones, I spent two hours downloading one and making it work.  I have 300 minutes a month on my plan and only use about 10 minutes a month.  I have eleven lane line telephones, and use them maybe an average of twice daily.  I have Satellite Internet, satellite TV, marginal cell phone connections and a land line telephone.  I record a program from the TV maybe once every three months (OK to wait on a rerun if I miss a program), and if it is cloudy, there is no Internet or TV. Someone needs to explain why I need more up to date communications, and then I would have to go to college to learn how to use them.  Sometimes I long for the days before TV, dial telephones, and computers.  Life was simple then, and most of us old people still can relate to actually talking to real people.

Wow, work required to prepare to build a house is really time consuming.  Although the prep work is done, designing and engineering the construction within requires a lot of thought.  Working with curved exterior walls is a real challenge when you do not want to attach any interior wall to the exterior shell by punching a hole in the skin.  Not being a professional builder by trade, a lot of research on materials to use was necessary.  From plumbing, electrical and support, it is necessary to determine all aspects of a home.  Once I decided on the materials to use, I had to locate availability and find the most economical place to purchase.  Since this home is located so remotely, it was necessary to haul most of the material myself.  I was also able to locate a lumber company that provided free delivery.  Also, I was able to locate some recycled lumber (my wife pulled a lot of nails) to use for framing.

Now we are ready to start nailing boards together.  First we framed in the garage and mudroom.  We wanted a work room for material storage.  Since this portion of the house was on a pad attached to the actual house, it was traditional framing and roofing.  We used the garage for storage, and the mud room portion for living space.  With a wood stove, a couple plastic chairs and a TV, we were able to spend time out of the 5th wheel trailer and have a little more room.  With this room done, we were able to get by until it warmed up a little in the spring to start on the rest of the house.

Gosh, here come spring.  The first thing necessary was to enclose the south end of the arch building.  (I had enclosed the north end with the garage and mud room.)  To enclose it, it was necessary to build the front porch first.  With a porch the width of the building, we were able to put up scaffolding.  The front of building is three stories from the ground in front, so building the framework and putting 4X8 ft sheets of OSB was a real chore for my wife and myself.  Measuring and cutting the arch pieces required lifting the OSB twice, once to mark for cutting and the second time to nail.  (Along about now, we decided that a air nailer would be a good investment.)  Now the front is on and we are ready to start inside.  With the warm spring comes wind.  In New Mexico, we have some fair to middling winds.  Since the front was unsupported for 17 foot height, a high wind would likely blow it down, and true to Murphy’s Law, we had a high wind (100mph).  The front was bowing in and out a good 6 to 8 inches when we finally put the bracing up to hold it in place.  Touch and go for awhile, but it held.

To attach the floor joist to the stem wall, it was necessary to take 2X10’s and use redheads to bolt them to the concrete.  Purchasing a hammer drill, I drilled holes on the three sides that were concrete.  After bolting the 2X10’s to the stem wall, I nailed metal hanger for the I-Joist.  With these in place, I determined the span length, to be too long, so mixed and poured concrete pads for post to support the cross frame work for additional support of the I-Joist. The cross support is made of 2 2×8 plus 1/2″ OSB sandwiched for strength.  These are under the I-Joist at 10 to 12 foot intervals.  Next we prepared the double I-Joist for the support wall placement.  It was necessary to insure very strong support for the support walls since the second floor of the house will be resting on these.

With all the I-Joist in place it was time to cover them with flooring material.  For this we used 3/4″ tongue and groove OSB.  (How did the older generation build without an air nailer).

In my next issue, we will continue with the framing of the walls, building steps and changing plans.