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View Full Version : A New House-Update #16 Long-With Pix



Karl Laustrup
02-03-2006, 9:36 PM
February 3rd, 2006

Well, it's Friday and our mild weather has come to an end. At least until sometime next week. As one of the guys said "We've had enough spring, it's time for winter".

We have walls!!!! Exterior walls that is. They are all up and the crew has begun the layout of the interior walls. They will have to wait until Monday though.

I have found a few errors of my design that I hadn't realized from the drawings. The window placement in both the front bedrooms does not lend themselves to a variation in the placement of the bed. I was hoping for placement on at least two walls. In each case the bed would partially cover the window on one of the walls. Oh well, live and learn I guess.
Next time.

Overall I'm happy with the design, although the bedrooms are coming out smaller than what I envisioned in the drawings. The kitchen appears like it will have ample room and yet be compact enough to accomplish cooking without feeling like you're running a marathon. While not an overabundance of counter space, I think there will be enough. Especially between the stove and the sink and I think I might get to build an island on wheels for some extra storage and prep area.

Here's some pics of the walls up and a couple of pics of the bottom and top plates for the interior walls laid out where they will be. Kind of confusing right now, but without the roof on I'll be able to get a birds eye view of the rooms next week.

Thanks for looking. Have a good weekend. Next update Monday.

Karl

Ken Fitzgerald
02-03-2006, 9:54 PM
Karl,

Your contractor seems to have made good progress this week. The Wisconsin weather has been coorperative too! A few more good days and you'll be roofing that rascal!

Looking good!

Andy Hoyt
02-03-2006, 10:22 PM
Karl - Looks great!

Think really really hard about the window locations and your, "Oh well, live and learn I guess."

If there is ever a time to adjust them it's right now.

A minor change order and an hour or so later, it's all done.

Seems like short money if it's important. And hey! It's YOUR HOUSE - and the banks.

Bruce Page
02-04-2006, 12:03 AM
Karl, it is really moving along!
Ditto what Andy said - now's the perfect tiume for any adjustments. Moving a couple of window frames around would not be a big deal at this stage of the game. The master bedroom in my home only allows for one furniture arrangment, I'd love to have more options.

Kirk (KC) Constable
02-04-2006, 12:58 AM
I've always found that a room looks small when it's laid out on the floor...once the walls are up it seems bigger. This doesn't make any sense to me, but there it is. :)

KC

Vaughn McMillan
02-04-2006, 5:55 AM
Great progress. Karl. That lot has gone through a bunch of changes in the past couple of weeks.

I third the suggestion to consider the change order to move the window placement. Your disappointment with the window placement down the road will potentially last a lot longer than the sting from the slight additional cost to make the change. Just sayin'... ;)

- Vaughn

Karl Laustrup
02-04-2006, 7:54 AM
Thanks for the input guys. As I was thinking the same thing about changing the windows, I'm going to discuss that with Brian Monday. He's been on vacation in Mexico all last week. I told him it would probably be snow and in the teens when he got back. Looks like I called that one as our weather is going to be at least cold.

Been playing with my Adobe Photoshop Elements today and trying to learn more about the program. Never really took the time before. Anyway, here's some of the pics from this post with descriptions of what your looking at.

Karl

Steve Ash
02-04-2006, 8:23 AM
Just curious Karl, why don't they put the sheeting on the walls before they stand them up?

Matt Warfield
02-04-2006, 8:40 AM
During winter builds, my grandfather didn't put sheeting up on the walls until they were ready to sheath the roof. That way there wasn't extra snow accumulation when a surprise snow storm might hit. He hates shoveling snow. :D

Karl Laustrup
02-04-2006, 9:35 AM
During winter builds, my grandfather didn't put sheeting up on the walls until they were ready to sheath the roof. That way there wasn't extra snow accumulation when a surprise snow storm might hit. He hates shoveling snow. :D

<TABLE class=tborder cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR title="Post 293945" vAlign=top><TD class=alt1 align=middle width=125>Steve Ash</TD><TD class=alt2>Just curious Karl, why don't they put the sheeting on the walls before they stand them up?</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

I'm not sure as I was afraid to ask Steve, although Matt's answer sounds reasonable. I didn't want to appear any more clueless than what I already am. :o :D

If you notice there is no bracing on any of the walls either. Without the extra rigidity of the roof the walls would be vulnerable to blowing down in the wind maybe and we've had plenty of that lately if they were sheathed.

Of course dummy me couldn't figure out why they are building the interior walls before they put the roof trusses on. I think I figured that out. Cause the roof trusses are partly supported by the interior walls, right.

Besides that I think I'll be able to get a ride on the lift to get an aerial view of the floor plan next week. Wouldn't be able to do that with the roof on.

Karl

Jim Becker
02-04-2006, 2:19 PM
Of course dummy me couldn't figure out why they are building the interior walls before they put the roof trusses on. I think I figured that out. Cause the roof trusses are partly supported by the interior walls, right.

Yes, it is very likely that some interior walls will be considered load-bearing walls relative to the roof trusses.

Kirk (KC) Constable
02-05-2006, 12:55 AM
Also easier to stand up the interior walls without trusses in the way...

Brian Hale
02-05-2006, 7:05 AM
Looking Good Karl! Are you getting excited yet? It's a big project designing and build a house, even if someone else is doing the work.

If i may make a suggestion..... Once they start putting the wiring, plumbing and HVAC in, take pics of everything before the insulation and/or sheet rock goes up. Years down the road you'll appreciate knowing where everything is.

Best of Luck!

Brian :)

Karl Laustrup
02-05-2006, 8:17 AM
Thanks for that tip Brian. I am planning on doing just that, especially on the wiring. The plumbing and HVAC duct work will all be running in the basement/crawl spaces so they should be fairly easy to track.

I've been excited since the day the tracked backhoe took the first "bite" out of the old house. As we are getting walls up my excitement is going up in increments of 10's I think.

Karl

Bart Leetch
02-05-2006, 9:46 AM
[QUOTE=Karl Laustrup]February 3rd, 2006



We have walls!!!!

I gotta ask Karl. Why did they wait to sheet the walls till after they raise them??? Dad & I always sheeted the walls as we framed them & then set them up. Of course some of our houses were framed in the shop in the dry & hauled to the site & set up too. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.

Another thing Karl measure everything in the ground in relation to the house water plumbing , wiring, drain lines, septic tank, built in sprinkler lines if you have them etc. & make a drawing. Tape it on a piece of cardboard & put it away where you know you can find it. You'll be glad you did. Dad always had a map like this & boy does it save a lot of head aches. It also is a nice resale item when your ready to sell the place. When Dad sold his place we had a couple come in to look at it that had been looking for a place for 2 years, he opened a cupboard in the garage & commented I've looked at 50 or 60 houses over the last 2 years & never seen anything like this map they bought the place. Of course there were other things like the fact that there was plenty of room for his semi truck & trailer & he could park both under a roof too.

Ernie Nyvall
02-05-2006, 10:18 AM
Wow, I need to get out more often. I just read all your threads on your new house Karl and it looks great!

I'd love to have a basement. I've never even been in one except for a parking garage, but it seems like a good place to put a TV and watch scary movies... or for someone like John Hart to make dog food from horses... I can just see the mad scientist now.:eek:......but I digress.

Thanks for all your posts and pics on this. There's always something to learn watching a house go up.

Ernie