I'm writing this blog for several reasons:
- For friends & family to follow our adventure.
- To keep track of what we did, what we were thinking, and where we spent money, for our future reference.
- As a resource for other people thinking about doing similar work. I deeply hope that our project inspires others.
However, there are some details of my house-building adventure that I don't want to share with the whole of the internet. For example <censored>. With that in mind, I've created a second blog for those details, at http://jbazuzihouse2.blogspot.com. If you want to see it, email me (JAY@BAZUZI.COM).
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Chainsaw
While talking to a guy about clearing our land, he suggested that I operate a chainsaw while he ran his excavator. This would be cheaper than having him get out of the excavator every time he needed to cut a log, or hiring someone else to run the chainsaw.
I didn't know how big a saw I should get. After reading online, I decided to get a Stihl. They're good saws, you can get parts for them, and the dealership is committed to supporting the saw in a way that, say, Home Depot is not.
I have about 10 minutes experience with a chainsaw, so I started by reading. I found this book helpful:
I didn't know how big a saw I should get. After reading online, I decided to get a Stihl. They're good saws, you can get parts for them, and the dealership is committed to supporting the saw in a way that, say, Home Depot is not.The local Stihl dealer also does equipment rental, and they had just added a saw (Stihl 250) to their rental inventory. I figured renting would be a good way to compare saws and decide if I really wanted to do this kind of work.
I rented their 250 for 2 hours, and drove out to the land. I picked a downed Douglas Fir tree about 10" in diameter. It took several minutes to cut through, and there was a lot of smoke. Everyone I talked to said it was dull. I took it back to the rental place and they insisted it was sharp. As a total novice, I had no way to evaluate the problem.
The local hardware store also rents equipment, and they had a Stihl 260 available. I rented it for a 4 hours (same price) and went to cut the same log. It was perhaps slightly faster, but not much. I took it back.
I didn't know what to do. Why couldn't I cut a log? Were these places renting dull saws? Everything I read says there's no use trying to cut with a dull chain, so why would they do that? Maybe I was doing something wrong. Maybe I dulled the chain somehow?
I finally decided that I wanted to own a chainsaw anyway, and would work out the problems as I gained experience.
The Stihl dealership was steering me towards the 250 model, but I decided to spring for the 260 PRO model - more power, more reliable. I have a lot of cutting to do.
Strangely, some people seem to be happy to chainsaw with almost no safety equipment, while others cover themselves head to toe. As a novice, I figure I'm more likely to have an accident, so I decided to get the safety gear.
I walked out of the Stihl dealership with:
$530 Stihl MS260 PRO chainsaw
It looks like the 260 was just replaced with the 261. Having a little envy right now. What did I miss out on? I see the the bar nuts are captive. I've already lost one in the woods & replaced it.
$25 Filing kit
I also keep a small brush and screwdriver in here, so that's convenient. I don't use the file guide now, as I've learned to file freehand and prefer it.
$90 Chainsaw chaps
Since almost 1/2 of chainsaw injuries are to the legs, I thought this was a good idea.
$7 Quart of bar-and-chain oil
I had no idea how fast I would go through this stuff. 1 quart of bar oil lasts through about 1 gallon of gas. I later went back and bought a whole gallon.
Now I see they sell one based on vegetable oils that's partly biodegradable. Maybe next time.
$17 6-pack of 2-stroke engine oil (makes 1 gallon)
I already had a 1 gallon gas can to mix in.
$20 Lockable carrying case
So I could make sure the kids wouldn't get in to it. It's not an ideal case - it would be nice if it had compartments for all the stuff I want to bring along, like the chain file, bar oil, etc.
I bought this chain saw helmet from Amazon for $45. Having a face shield, ear protection, and hard hat all in one unit seemed very convenient.
I already have steel-toed work boots.
One thing I didn't buy yet is special chainsaw gloves. Long with leg injuries, many chainsaw accidents harm the left hand. Statistics say I should get these, but I hesitate.
Total bill so far: approx $800 including tax.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Yurt
Our neighbor offered to sell us her yurt. It includes the yurt platform, which is a significant expense. We have to move it.
It's 30' in diameter, for about 700 sq. ft. internal space. It was made by Pacific Yurts in 2004.
In talking to folks about yurts, I've learned that there's a lot of confusion about them. Many people think you're not required to permit them because they are temporary, like a tent. The building inspector I talked to didn't agree. He says that you can put one up for < 180 days without a permit.
My understanding is that the building department is complaint driven, meaning they won't notice an unpermitted structure unless someone complains to them. I bet you could put a yurt up without a permit for decades, and unless you pissed off your neighbor, it wouldn't ever be a problem. And if that did happen, the 180 day clock wouldn't start until that day. That's not my plan, though - I am going to permit it.
To permit it as a dwelling I'd have to install heat, plumbing, and a septic system. I don't want to do that, so I'm going to just permit it as a storage building. I can't live in it, and I can't install plumbing or heat, but it would still be very useful during construction of the house. And I have the option of converting it to a dwelling and renting it out in the future.
One advantage of going through this process is that it's easier than permitting the actual house we plan to build. So it lets us learn about the process and work out a bunch of issues (like roads!) without tying it to all the complexity of a residence.
To get the permit, I have to fill out a bunch of forms:
- A Master Permit Application, which is pretty simple in this case.
- Address request
- Road approach
- Stormwater calculation worksheet
In some ways it's simple. There's no existing "impervious surface" that affects stormwater. There's no plumbing, etc.
The county requires engineering calculations on the structure of the yurt. Pacific Yurts sent me the documentation. It's 87 pages long!
It's 30' in diameter, for about 700 sq. ft. internal space. It was made by Pacific Yurts in 2004.
In talking to folks about yurts, I've learned that there's a lot of confusion about them. Many people think you're not required to permit them because they are temporary, like a tent. The building inspector I talked to didn't agree. He says that you can put one up for < 180 days without a permit.
My understanding is that the building department is complaint driven, meaning they won't notice an unpermitted structure unless someone complains to them. I bet you could put a yurt up without a permit for decades, and unless you pissed off your neighbor, it wouldn't ever be a problem. And if that did happen, the 180 day clock wouldn't start until that day. That's not my plan, though - I am going to permit it.
To permit it as a dwelling I'd have to install heat, plumbing, and a septic system. I don't want to do that, so I'm going to just permit it as a storage building. I can't live in it, and I can't install plumbing or heat, but it would still be very useful during construction of the house. And I have the option of converting it to a dwelling and renting it out in the future.
One advantage of going through this process is that it's easier than permitting the actual house we plan to build. So it lets us learn about the process and work out a bunch of issues (like roads!) without tying it to all the complexity of a residence.
To get the permit, I have to fill out a bunch of forms:
- A Master Permit Application, which is pretty simple in this case.
- Address request
- Road approach
- Stormwater calculation worksheet
In some ways it's simple. There's no existing "impervious surface" that affects stormwater. There's no plumbing, etc.
The county requires engineering calculations on the structure of the yurt. Pacific Yurts sent me the documentation. It's 87 pages long!
Road approach
I went to the county building department for information on applying for a building permit. I have to apply for an address and a "road approach". This turned out to be interesting. Here's a map for reference:
N. Jacob Miller is a paved, county-maintained road. Rainshadow Dr. is a private road that serves some upscale houses to the North. I think that those folks don't want to share their road with us.
When my area was platted, they drew in roads around each block, but none of them were ever built. My land is surrounded by Market, Fern, Moss, and Sutter streets, but they don't exist. It's all wooded, but people in the area cleared along the green lines marked above, and it's drivable.
I asked the building department if I could put a driveway in to Fern or if I had to go to Sutter, and they referred me to public works. There I learned that, since these roads weren't built within 5 years of platting, the county has no interest in them any more. So these streets don't really exist. I can put in a driveway to any of them, without a road approach permit.
However, an address would be on N. Jacob Miller Rd. The way the county does addresses is based on mileposts. They measure the distance from the start of the road to the address, in 100ths of a mile. Then they tack on an extra digit - evens on the right side of the road, odds on the left. In this case, we are 0.75 miles from the start of N. Jacob Miller, so possible addresses are 750, 752, 754, 756, and 758. And they are already taken:
To fix this situation, we have to create a new road (what would have been Sutter), with a new name, and number off of it. I can't use the name "Sutter" because it's already used slightly to the East. See it here, marked in yellow:
I may also petition to name what-was-never-Fern, because I'd like my driveway to connect there.
Once the naming happens, all the addresses around the new streets get new addresses, based on the same algorithm. For example, 754 N. Jacob Miller is about 500ft. down, so it might get 90 New Rd. If I don't name Fern, then 750 and 756 will get renumbered on to New Rd. If I do rename it, then they get numbers on Another Rd.
The name has to be unique in the county (here's the current list). It can't even sound like an existing name, so that emergency radio communication isn't confusing. It can't be vulgar or obscene. (Which is which?).
There's already a Memory Lane and a No Way in the area, so those are out. What names would you use?
N. Jacob Miller is a paved, county-maintained road. Rainshadow Dr. is a private road that serves some upscale houses to the North. I think that those folks don't want to share their road with us.
When my area was platted, they drew in roads around each block, but none of them were ever built. My land is surrounded by Market, Fern, Moss, and Sutter streets, but they don't exist. It's all wooded, but people in the area cleared along the green lines marked above, and it's drivable.
I asked the building department if I could put a driveway in to Fern or if I had to go to Sutter, and they referred me to public works. There I learned that, since these roads weren't built within 5 years of platting, the county has no interest in them any more. So these streets don't really exist. I can put in a driveway to any of them, without a road approach permit.
However, an address would be on N. Jacob Miller Rd. The way the county does addresses is based on mileposts. They measure the distance from the start of the road to the address, in 100ths of a mile. Then they tack on an extra digit - evens on the right side of the road, odds on the left. In this case, we are 0.75 miles from the start of N. Jacob Miller, so possible addresses are 750, 752, 754, 756, and 758. And they are already taken:
To fix this situation, we have to create a new road (what would have been Sutter), with a new name, and number off of it. I can't use the name "Sutter" because it's already used slightly to the East. See it here, marked in yellow:
I may also petition to name what-was-never-Fern, because I'd like my driveway to connect there.
Once the naming happens, all the addresses around the new streets get new addresses, based on the same algorithm. For example, 754 N. Jacob Miller is about 500ft. down, so it might get 90 New Rd. If I don't name Fern, then 750 and 756 will get renumbered on to New Rd. If I do rename it, then they get numbers on Another Rd.
The name has to be unique in the county (here's the current list). It can't even sound like an existing name, so that emergency radio communication isn't confusing. It can't be vulgar or obscene. (Which is which?).
There's already a Memory Lane and a No Way in the area, so those are out. What names would you use?
Parcels in my area
Long ago someone platted out the neighborhood as 270' x 270' blocks, with 60'-wide roads and an alley through the middle of each block. Each block had 10 rectangular lots. It never got built that way, but you can see the remnants of that plan here:
The brown outline would have been a block, and the red is a single lot. You can still see the shape of the alley, too.
Since then, many parts of the county's rights-of-way have been handed over to the property owners adjacent, resulting in the complex set of property boundaries you see above. (The process for doing that is either "vacation" or "quiet title".)
The previous owner of my parcels did a "boundary line adjustment", as well as vacating the alley. So my parcels run North/South, while many others run East/West.
The brown outline would have been a block, and the red is a single lot. You can still see the shape of the alley, too.
Since then, many parts of the county's rights-of-way have been handed over to the property owners adjacent, resulting in the complex set of property boundaries you see above. (The process for doing that is either "vacation" or "quiet title".)
The previous owner of my parcels did a "boundary line adjustment", as well as vacating the alley. So my parcels run North/South, while many others run East/West.
Monday, August 16, 2010
An updated floor plan
It has been a while since I updated this blog. I don't have much new to say, but here is the latest design.Things that have changed:
- Only one bedroom
- Kitchen changed shape - U opening West instead of South.
- Walls now 2' thick. The people who built the 1950 house I'm in now did the minimum then, and we suffer for it today. I figured as long as I'm going through the trouble of building the house, I want to over-do the insulation.
- Front door is now on the North side, near parking. The South side will open, perhaps a French door, but will not be a thoroughfare.
- The construction is likely to have large wood posts every 8' O.C. around the perimeter. On the south side, imagine the space between being almost all window, for solar gain and lovely views.
- Sketched in framing detail. Pairs of round posts in the corners, ideally from whole, peeled trees from our land. Pairs of 6"x6" milled timbers along the sides.
What's missing
The utility room may be too small.
We'd like some more closets.
I'm thinking the house could be a little bigger. We tried to buy a house last year at 1500 sq. ft. My design is about that, but has 2' thick walls. A 50' x 30' house with 2'-thick walls has 320 sq. ft. just in the exterior walls! I can add a little area and still call it 1500 sq. ft.
I threw a bunch of windows on the South. It's not quite right, just a sketch. Also, need a few windows on the other sides.
Slipform cordwood idea
I want to do slipform stone masonry for the first 2' of the walls. You rip a sheet of plywood in to a pair of 2' x 8' panels, brace with some 2"x4"s, and set them on either side of the wall as forms. Large rocks go in, followed by mortar. (To do a whole wall, you do it again 2' higher, repeating all the way up.)
I will attach my forms to my posts, making it easier to position them just right. I will only do 1 course of stone, as an accent and to protect against rain splash.
One of the problems in cordwood masonry is the detail where interior drywall butts against exterior cordwood. Cordwood typically has an uneven surface, and I want a clean, sealed joint with the drywall, for soundproofing.
My idea is to continue to use the 2' x 8' slipforms on the interior, as we build the cordwood wall. This will create a more even interior surface, which the drywall can butt against more cleanly. The exterior will have recessed mortar, as is common in cordwood construction.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Mapping out the land
I've been stuck on two problems. Later I'll write about the footing details, but right now I want to look at the mapping difficulties. This isn't the first time I've written about this problem, and it probably won't be the last.
The land is a full city block, 270 feet on a side. It is split in to two equal-sized parcels. The orientation is close to North/South, but appears to be about 3 degrees askew from true north. I can accept that error for now. (It appears to be ~7 feet off when I'm 1/2-way between two marked points, calculated as 'tan(3 degrees) * 270 / 2' but my trig is weak.). The great news is that it's already surveyed, with rebar at each of the corners.
I want to cut down as few trees as possible. I love the woods, and putting trees back is hard to do quickly. I know we'll clear some to build the house, and more later, but I want to do it incrementally. So, I walk around the land looking for areas that are already pretty clear, having few trees, or trees that are very small, or short-lived trees like Alder. I want to mark these down on the above map, but that is turning out to be tricky.
I tried using a compass and measuring tape, but ran in to a few difficulties:
- Taking a bearing on a compass is hard! Siting down the needle at a landmark is highly inaccurate. Maybe I can get within 5 degrees.
- The land is full of brush, making it hard to run a tape measure in a straight line.
- The land is full of brush (still?), making it hard to get around.
- The land is full of brush (no!), so I can't put up a reference string around the borders
I tried using the GPS unit that came with my Streets and Trips software, but it seems like the accuracy too far off for my purposes. I am going to try a GPS unit with WAAS next week.
As for getting around in the brush, I tried pulling Salal by hand (it works, but it's really slow) and I tried cutting with a machete (not much luck, maybe I'm not using it right). I'm going to look in to renting a brush cutter (a weed eater but with a blade instead of a string), and possibly buy a small tractor with a loader and excavator (should be useful in the future around the homestead).
The land is a full city block, 270 feet on a side. It is split in to two equal-sized parcels. The orientation is close to North/South, but appears to be about 3 degrees askew from true north. I can accept that error for now. (It appears to be ~7 feet off when I'm 1/2-way between two marked points, calculated as 'tan(3 degrees) * 270 / 2' but my trig is weak.). The great news is that it's already surveyed, with rebar at each of the corners.
I tried using a compass and measuring tape, but ran in to a few difficulties:
- Taking a bearing on a compass is hard! Siting down the needle at a landmark is highly inaccurate. Maybe I can get within 5 degrees.
- The land is full of brush, making it hard to run a tape measure in a straight line.
- The land is full of brush (still?), making it hard to get around.
- The land is full of brush (no!), so I can't put up a reference string around the borders
I tried using the GPS unit that came with my Streets and Trips software, but it seems like the accuracy too far off for my purposes. I am going to try a GPS unit with WAAS next week.
As for getting around in the brush, I tried pulling Salal by hand (it works, but it's really slow) and I tried cutting with a machete (not much luck, maybe I'm not using it right). I'm going to look in to renting a brush cutter (a weed eater but with a blade instead of a string), and possibly buy a small tractor with a loader and excavator (should be useful in the future around the homestead).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)