Building a new house and shop (3 Viewers)

[1911]

Did some more sanding and skimming with drywall mud on the dome ceiling of the family room. I'm only going to have to do this for one more dome (the kitchen/dining room), and they're only light smoothing/finish coats, but I'm getting tired of doing it. I could never do this for a living, and admire anyone who does. Getting nearer to the finish line though.

One satisfying thing I did over the weekend was to get my gym/weight room completely floored with 3/4" rubber horse stall mat. The mats are 6'x4' and weigh 100 lbs. each; very awkward to move very far. Had a friend help me unload them off my trailer and into the house; after that I was on my own to move and cut them to fit (a PITA) but I'm pleased with the result. These give a really nice firm but cushioned surface to lift on. You can drop heavy weights on them if necessary without any harm at all.

I'll wait to mop off the footprints until after the baseboards are installed and the mirrors put up on the wall.

 

[1911]

Landmark day for me yesterday, the eternal skimming and sanding of drywall mud is finished! Not only that, but also the inside of the house is completely textured.

A last minute trip to Home Depot for the last four boxes ever of mud:

Plastering, skimming and sanding has been such a way of life for the last age (it seems like), it's actually hard for me to comprehend that it's finally over.

It's been humid here (still in the tail end of our annual rainy season) so it will probably take a few days for the rest of the texturing to dry, then priming and painting will recommence for the rest of the house. That will give me time to fix the mrs. dryer and catch up on a few other things in the mean time.

 

[45Kevin]

Very nice work and it's been a long road.
Love watching your progress.
Is there a reason you need to mow your roof?

If it is not to late, check out Ikea cabinets.
They have a fairly good quality of cabinet with lots of selection.
At a much lower cost than custom.
And installation isn't difficult if you can read a tape and use a level.

 

[1911]

Very nice work and it's been a long road.
Love watching your progress.
Is there a reason you need to mow your roof?

Thanks!

I planted a mix of native grasses on the roof and they came up well (several years ago). What I have found though, is that wind and gravity deliver a lot of weed, shrub, and tree seeds that sprout and grow. Many of these have deep tap roots that I do not want to penetrate my various layers of waterproofing plastic and sheet foam insulation that are under the top soil, so I must either be up there pulling them all the time, or I can just mow in the spring and early summer. If I keep it mowed, the native grasses do a pretty job of thriving, but if I let the weeds go too long they will begin to crowd-out and shade the grasses.

If it is not to late, check out Ikea cabinets.
They have a fairly good quality of cabinet with lots of selection.
At a much lower cost than custom.
And installation isn't difficult if you can read a tape and use a level.

We looked at a number of pre-built cabinets at different places, but didn't see many of the sizes we need - this is a very unconventional house, with some unique dimensions, and a huge kitchen with an island more than 14' long with cabinets underneath and custom enclosures for the dual convection ovens and the gas range. And floor-to-ceiling bookcases on one wall of my office.

So, we decided to go custom-made, but we got multiple bids. It surprised me how much the spread was in bid prices was; the highest was 80% more than the one we chose, for the exact same specs. The one we chose was not only one of the lower numbers, but also gave much better service in terms of coming to measure (multiple times), drawing up plans, and communication. The two most expensive bids did not seem very interested at all in communicating and made only cursory efforts to come measure or provide plans. I guess they have plenty of business without ours, or maybe they are used to high-end builds where they do not have to compete and people pay whatever they ask.

The cabinets should be delivered in a week or two. We're currently painting walls in all of the rooms where cabinets will go, scraping floors clean to prepare for laying the LVP, installing surface-mount LED lights in the ceilings, and digging and cutting out the HVAC vents in the floor. I also went to a stone yard in the neighboring county and brought back the stone I'm going to put on one wall of my office. I've bought out all the local inventory of surface-mount LED lights twice, and still had to order more on-line.

 

[PAToyota]

If I keep it mowed, the native grasses do a pretty job of thriving, but if I let the weeds go too long they will begin to crowd-out and shade the grasses.

You'll find that most "wild" plantings are still mowed once or twice a season for exactly the reasons you mention.

The one we chose was not only one of the lower numbers, but also gave much better service in terms of coming to measure (multiple times), drawing up plans, and communication. The two most expensive bids did not seem very interested at all in communicating and made only cursory efforts to come measure or provide plans.

The two things I try to stress to clients are having decent specifications and "feeling out" the bidders to see how they are going to be to work with. The two biggest issues I have are people trying to get bids with limited information and people going for the lowest bidder even when there are red flags about how they are going to be to work with.

It sounds like you've got things well under control!

 

[1911]

Cabinets are mostly in; still an upper shelf and a couple of other pieces in the kitchen, and they're still building the floor-to-ceiling bookcases for my office. Also got a bunch of flooring laid this past week or so.

Kitchen cabinets:

Cabinets and flooring in the master bathroom. You can also see that I hung the mirrors in my weight room, at the back of this photo:

The cabinet installers were not used to installing on to concrete walls; they broke a few Tapcon screws learning how but persevered and fixed everything.

Flooring in my office:

 

[knuckle47]

Looking really beautiful…. This is going to be so relaxing to enjoy and live in…congratulations again

 

[Michael B]

It’s starting to look like a house now!

 

[waiting for time]

Congrats on your progress.

 

[PAToyota]

Looks great! I can only imagine the "feels" you're getting after all these years to finally see parts getting finished!

 

[1911]

The cabinet makers were back today, and installed the bookcases in my office and the last high shelf in the kitchen:

Painting continuing.

 

[1911]

The house my dad built (literally) soon after I was born had a stone wall on one end of the family room, and I have always wanted, but never had, something similar in a house of mine. My wife was ambivalent about the idea of having one in the family roof of this house, and decided she didn't want it - so I planned one for my office room. I've had the material for more than a month, finally started on it five days ago, and just finished it last night. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It looks even better in person/closer up. It was my first time to try anything remotely like this. Using a laser level made it much easier.

It's not real stone, it's a "cultured" stone (i.e. painted concrete) veneer that comes in panels of various lengths. It was half the cost of real stone, and a tiny fraction of the labor that would be required to lay real stone.

My wife likes it now that she has seen it on a wall, so I may yet convince her to do some other parts of the house. I'd also like to put some on the outside walls of the house. She is artistic, and has offered to paint the surrounds for the outlet and Cat-5 boxes to make them look like the stone.

 

[65swb45]

Lee, I have had to face this SO many times with Tina that Ive lost count, Pretty much every time I even started talking about the next project I get the same ‘the juice isn’t worth the squeeze’ kind of pushback from her.

And every time I am finished she ends up basically saying ‘hey, this is pretty nice’. I’ve gotten used to it after 45 years.

In fact, she felt the same way about my first FJ40. Really glad I didn’t listen to her then.

 

[1911]

Lee, I have had to face this SO many times with Tina that Ive lost count, Pretty much every time I even started talking about the next project I get the same ‘the juice isn’t worth the squeeze’ kind of pushback from her.

And every time I am finished she ends up basically saying ‘hey, this is pretty nice’. I’ve gotten used to it after 45 years.

In fact, she felt the same way about my first FJ40. Really glad I didn’t listen to her then.

In her defense, my wife talked me into buying my 40 when I was on the fence. She's never complained about any of the motorcycles, guitars and other musical instruments, or guns I've bought either. But her decision making (more particularly the lack thereof) on house stuff is driving me crazy.

 

[PAToyota]

But her decision making (more particularly the lack thereof) on house stuff is driving me crazy.

As an Architect, a certain amount of any residential project is also serving as marriage counselor...

Some fairly typical issues are having:

• a "money person" and an "aesthetics person" and trying to please both of them
• two totally different aesthetics and trying to find some middle ground
• at least one person who can't picture anything - despite all attempts at 3D modeling and rendering
• the "fad" person who wants whatever they watched that week on HGTV - and yes, that changes from week to week through the project...

And now add in AI images that defy the laws of physics (much less code requirements) that someone has absolutely fallen in love with and you can't get through to them that it cannot exist in reality...

 

[1911]

Some fairly typical issues are having:

• the "fad" person who wants whatever they watched that week on HGTV - and yes, that changes from week to week through the project...

I had a daughter-in-law who was exactly that person! Fortunately (for other reasons), she is now my ex-DIL. She was sure that she was the New and Improved Joanna Gaines, and that all the things she saw on Fixer Upper were really her own ideas.

 

[1911]

Been busy spraying cabinet doors and bookshelves, and I installed a dual-zone mini-split heat pump/AC in one end of the house, for our master bedroom and my office. I did everything myself, except to vacuum it down - I have a friend who is an HVAC pro for a living that is going to come and do that for me.

@knuckle47 will appreciate this: all those years of bending copper tubing for antique motorcycle oil and fuel lines made bending and flaring these mini-split lines easy.

 

[WarDamnEagle]

Nice work. Great job all around; really like the unistrut supports.

 

[1911]

Nice work. Great job all around; really like the unistrut supports.

Thanks. Unistrut is the adult Erector Set, and PVC pipe and fittings are adult Legos.

 

[knuckle47]

@1911 well, impressed…. you are so correct. Beautiful job and clean radius…I am guessing you had no real issues on the install? Is that a plastic pad under the compressor?

I am looking forward to your review of this split system.. it has been on my list. I was looking for the ceiling cassette model and keep reading a lot about them but can’t seem to locate one a a decent price. Since the pole barn is here, I am converting the garage into a larger great room. It is about 24x26 and some of these units claim to cover that size easily, plus they are quiet and lower cost than a new central unit. I am also counting on my home a/c to just add one more duct and be enough to cool the area. That would be the simplest .

Congratulations!! The startup should go nicely