Building our Dream Home a.k.a. Delusions of Retirement

[EOTE]

It's coming along nicely, I love the work ethic. Keep it up!

Thank you for the kind words.  When we talk about work ethic, it's a whole different topic.  My 30 year old son says I don't have an "off" switch and admits that I can out work him easily even though he is a gym rat and can lift way more than I can.  
I learned the value of hard work at a young age and my father did a lot to instill that into me.  I remember when I was 13 my dad took me to the hardware store and bought me a lawn mower and then took me to his office supply store and handed me an empty address and appointment book.  He then told me not to come home until I had some mowing jobs.  By the end of the day I had 3 mowing jobs and by the end of the summer I was making $400 a month (in 1965) and I paid him back for the mower and book.  
During the school year he made me come down to his store and wash windows and sweep the floors.  Later on when I could drive I started making deliveries.  By the time I was 15 I was repairing and overhauling office machines.  
One of my first full time jobs (and first career) was as an ag equipment mechanic.  As you know, when the season is right the farmers would be out in the fields from sun up until sundown.  I learned when the work was there, that I was too, helping the farmers by fixing their equipment and getting them back to work.
That work ethic that I developed early on in life has stuck with me.  Now that I am retired and took on this project of building our dream home, there is often only one person that can do the work, and that is me.  My wife helps on the weekends but she is still working full time so I am the one making our dream come true.  Sure, I could hire someone to do the work, but at the end of the day, I can look with satisfaction at what I've accomplished and thank God for all the talents and abilities he has given me to accomplish our dream.  I know that my wife appreciates it too.

[EOTE]

Progress is being made!  You are doing a great job.  You are taking on a big project and it is great to follow you here.

Glad the catchers shin guards helped out, though I would not want to test them.

Thank you for the kind words and encouragement.  When you are one man making a big dream/project come true, the progress can be quite literally painfully slow.
Thankfully, I have not tested the shin guards or the impact gloves but I've tested my hard hat, protective glasses and even my sawyer's leggings.  It's actually much easier learning safe work habits and abiding by them than having to repair bones and muscle for careless actions.  
Thankfully my leg has healed enough to resume normal work so my goal is to try and have all trenching done and plumbing laid this week.  I want to be ready to pour concrete in a couple of weeks.

[thecfarm]

What's does the 12 Mexican saying mean?
I work alone here too on The Farm. But I would not do a home project. Good for you.
I am outside doing something, claiming back a grown up pasture takes mine time up. And a bunch of other projects too. My projects, I can put them off and sit on a stump and watch the world go by.

[EOTE]

What's does the 12 Mexican saying mean?
I work alone here too on The Farm. But I would not do a home project. Good for you.
I am outside doing something, claiming back a grown up pasture takes mine time up. And a bunch of other projects too. My projects, I can put them off and sit on a stump and watch the world go by.

Thecfarm, this is from the first post of this topic.  It explains my 12 Mexicans expression:


 
 
Meet my crew, lovingly called "12 Mexicans".  No, it's not racist!  It is a compliment because I used to manage crews of temporary workers who were usually Mexican, and they would work their hearts out.  I totally respect that and honor them by naming my tractor in their memory.

[thecfarm]

Got it. Thank you.

[EOTE]

I spent the last 4 days with a mini-excavator trenching for all the utilities for the house.  Since I had rented the excavator, I decided to also trench for power to my Sawmill house and Drying house.  Electricity will come from a pre-installed fuse box on the barn next to the meter.  Water will also come from the same location at the barn as the house will utilize the rainwater collection system of the barn.  The septic system required approximately 200' of trenches all pitched to grade.  Also, the courtyard will have a gutter drain which will drain to the south through a 4" flexible pipe.  Last, I excavated around a well we found on the property when we bought it.  The previous owner had contracted with someone to clear about a quarter of an acre so they could make the place more sale-able.  Unfortunately, they did not know the well existed and drove the dozer over it breaking the concrete cap and crushing the first concrete ring that makes up the well's wall.  Our hope is to be able to remediate the well as a backup to the rainwater system or to provide irrigation water during the dry months.





I was originally going to rent a trencher but couldn't find one that would make a 6" wide trench and maneuver successfully in back of the barn.  However, the mini-excavator did an excellent job. Here is the trench behind the barn for the power to the house.

 



This is the rest of the trench - a total of 160'.



 

For the sawmill house, a simple 120/240 outlet box is sufficient for now.

 

 

The 60' trench between the sawmill house and the drying house hit literally hundreds of roots.





This is the trench for the main sewer line in the house. My wife is checking the pitch with the laser.  After that we trenched in all the feeders.
  




This is the old well I hope to repair.  I dug down around it so I can replace the first concrete section and be able to remove the broken cap that is wedged in the second section.

 

 

Tomorrow starts the process of installing all of the PVC and conduit for the house, sawmill house, and drying house.

[hedgerow]

Looks like your getting good at running that mini. Your yard is starting to look like mind did 20 years ago when we bought this farm with a 90 year old house that needed remodeled and building's put up and all the utilities needed to be replaced from a well to electrical to a new complete sewer system. 

[EOTE]

We got rained out while trying to install the septic plumbing so we moved indoors and finished making the last of our shiplap.  Next time it rains we will be setting up and running T & G.



 

Over 250 - 1 x 8's.



 

[Dakota]

That's quite a wack of 1x8's.  Nice!

[EOTE]

That's quite a wack of 1x8's.  Nice!

We've had to make over 6,000 square feet of 1x6's, and 1x8's for the house.  We are not using plywood or OSB for the exterior sheathing on the roof or walls.  1x6's will be for the walls and 1x8's for the roof.

[EOTE]

The ground dried out enough for us to get back to plumbin'.  Today we measured, cut, and glued all the sewer system in the house.  My wife was a great help as the 4" PVC DVW pipe can be a bit awkward to handle when working with the wye's.



 

We finished up a bit late so we were losing light.



  

Tomorrow I will connect the sewer line to the septic system and then recheck all measurements of the plumbing stubs.  I don't want a sink or toilet stub coming up through the concrete where it don't belong.  (It would be kind of embarrassing having your toilet in the living room.  :D )

[Ljohnsaw]

That's a lot of drains!  What will you be back filling the trenches with?  Sand under the pipes first?  Or just dirt?

[EOTE]

That's a lot of drains!  What will you be back filling the trenches with?  Sand under the pipes first?  Or just dirt?

The red dirt here is really fine and fills in well and also compacts well.  We made a point grading the pitch of each trench by hand using our laser before we laid the pipe so backfilling will be pretty painless.  We've also been blessed in that there are no rocks to speak of in the soil.  Before we chose the site for the house, we studied the soil maps for our property and chose the best location based on the soil type.  This soil is extremely stable as we have found with our barn, sawmill house, and drying house.  No cracks in the concrete after 3 years!

[Old Greenhorn]

 (It would be kind of embarrassing having your toilet in the living room.  :D )

Oh I don't know about that. It could be kind of handy in your later years. :D You might start a design trend.
 Man, you do nice neat work. Good on ya. I am enjoying watching this come together.

[thecfarm]

Nice ground you have there. 
Here they had to remove the dirt and bring dirt in for drainage. My soil does drain good, no clay at all, but the big rocks are a problem.
Just up the road,I buy gravel for my driveway. He has 3 septic systems at his place. Just dig a hole and put a tank in and he is all set. And than the other way about a mile from here, I have bought gravel too. There are many gravel pits close buy. As Jeff says 20 lakes in 20 minutes. I can say 20 gravel pits in 20 minutes.

[farmfromkansas]

Looks like a really fun project.  Would also like to do that, if my wife would move, but with my back don't think I am up to it.  One thing I would like to tell you, I took down an old church a few years ago, and where they used tar paper over the ship lap boxing, the boxing still looked like new, where they used plain, the boxing looked like it had been soaked every rain.  Had lap siding.

[EOTE]

Got the house sewer system connected to the septic system today.  Now to recheck the retaining wires and measurements on all the stubs and start backfilling.   


 

One thing I did on all the stubs was to wire them to rebar to maintain their location.  Final check for plumb will be during backfilling.



 

[farmfromkansas]

Your plumbing job looks great.  Hope your layout fits after you put up the walls!  Every time I hired plumbers, they had to use a sledge hammer and break chunks out of the slab to move pipe so things fit.  On my daughters house, I did the ground run, and it all fit.  And I'm not a plumber.

[EOTE]

Your plumbing job looks great.  Hope your layout fits after you put up the walls!  Every time I hired plumbers, they had to use a sledge hammer and break chunks out of the slab to move pipe so things fit.  On my daughters house, I did the ground run, and it all fit.  And I'm not a plumber.

I'm not a plumber either but I can read plans and measure.  Initially I put in metal stakes at the center where each plumbing stub was supposed to go.  Then I took a coupling the size of the pipe for that stub, centered it on the stake and placed 2 - 3/8" x 24" pieces of rebar on either side of the coupling.  I assembled the plumbing stub and the feeder pipe and wired it to the 2 pieces of rebar.  Once I had everything connected, I checked the measurements of each plumbing stub again to ensure that it was still in the same spot.  After backfilling the trenches, I measured a 3rd time to ensure that the locations matched the plans.  It's not rocket science but it is diligence to ensure that everything fits.  This method also helps to catch errors in measuring and layout.
I am trying to finish up backfilling trenches and preparing the forms in between rains.  

[EOTE]

My neighbor decided to buy a drone so I got some pictures from him.  

What's nice to see is my building site forms are square!


 

The picture shows some backfilling and leveling in progress.

[EOTE]

The neighbor with the drone is willing to take updates so I can see the progress over time.

This photo is with the backfilling done but the trench drain in the courtyard area is not yet completely in place.



 

[Hilltop366]

I'm not a plumber either but I noticed that you did not mention testing, the plumber I did hire for a apartment building build put temporary covers on all the pipes and installed a stand pipe and filled the drain system with water to test for leaks. 

[EOTE]

I'm not a plumber either but I noticed that you did not mention testing, the plumber I did hire for a apartment building build put temporary covers on all the pipes and installed a stand pipe and filled the drain system with water to test for leaks.

I did test the water main because it would be a nightmare to try and repair it once buried.  The first picture shows a joint that was leaking when I tested it with leak detector.  I had to replace this joint.


 
I installed a gauge and pressurized the pipe.  During the first test, the pressure began dropping about 5 psi/hour.  So I got out the leak detector and checked each joint for leakage.  The above picture shows the leak.  Once fixed, and repressurized, the pressure has held steady.  (Actually it increases with the daily temperature increases and it decreases when the temperature cools.)  After backfilling, the pressure remains constant and the gauge will stay in place and pressurized until after the concrete is poured.


 
The septic system is a different story.  Since it is connected to the septic tank, I opted first to inspect all the joints the day after assemmbly and then to use my bore scope after backfilling to ensure that all pipes show no deformity or any joints show separation.

[EOTE]

We finally finished everything for the foundation (monolithic slab) so we contacted our concrete contractor to come and review the site and schedule pouring the foundation.

We had to make a slight adjustment to the plan...the depth of the septic tank inlet was actually about 6" higher than I remembered (never rely on memory for accuracy) so we ended up having to adjust the final grade of the pad accordingly as the pitch on the sewer plumbing would have put the end of the sewer line in the concrete instead of below it.  It's something I should have checked before beginning the site excavation.  Fortunately, it was a fairly easy fix, we just dug up the septic tanks and drain field and set it 6" lower.   :D :D :D  (If you believe that I have some beach front property in Arizona that's for sale).  Actually, we just added another 2" x 6" to the concrete forms, backfilled the extra 6" with red dirt, leveled and compacted it.  

We set the trench drain for the courtyard as well and ran a 4" flex line to the south for drainage.

We have one small addition to make this afternoon - I am going to trench in a 4" PVC pipe to run the AC tubes through as this will be the easiest way to route them to the HVAC units.

It is so good to complete this phase of the construction.  I can't wait for the contractor to give us the pour date.



 

[Crusarius]

I really like the pipe idea for running future lines. You may want to run more in case you ever want to drag electric phone or anything else other locations, like to your new shop