Got my well and septic permit! Now the work begins.

[Don P]

If he'll let you I'd use my own, especially if it justifies a new tool  8).

[thecfarm]

Good idea about handicap accesible.We have 3 foot doors in our whole house,closets and all and only a couple overhead cupboards.We went with mostly draws,open it,not there,close it and keep searching.I got tried of coming home to my wife's other house and finding everything on the floor from the cupboards because she was looking for that certain dish.Than I would have to put it all back in.Our outlets are about 2 feet off the floor too.Our fire place was made about chair height.That comes in handy too and makes it easier to mantain.Good luck with your home.

[Don P]

Going on with that thought, in bathrooms we've been running a row of blocking around the whole room centered on 36" off the floor for future grabbars if needed.

[badpenny]

  Don P, best idea since the zipper, hadn't thought of that, and will use it when I frame up walls for my own bathroom. Thanks a bunch

[Thehardway]

Footings are poured.  Stacking ICF's should begin next week.  Still waiting for power company to hook up temp power.

[Raider Bill]

I'm right behind you there! Hopefully footers next trip if I have time after getting the power hooked up!
What are you using for temp power? I know what my power co requires for the actual pole but I need to build the meter base, riser,  circut breaker and have recepticales available probaley same as you.
Any ideas? I'd like to put everything together here in Florida then purchase the pole on location and mount everything.
AdditionallyI'll need to power the well pump from the temp pole for now to get water for the doublewide.

[Don P]

Congrats on gettin outta the dirt  8)

Our power co and inspector have copies of a temporary pole diagram they hand out. We had one 10 day period a few years ago that they required a real humdinger of a temp service. We failed, the electrician bought new parts and rebuilt the pole to the new spec, we passed, and a week later we were back to the old way  :.

[Thehardway]

I'm still going around and around with the power co. and inspector on the temp pole.  Power co waiting on inspection and the inspector saying he will allow what the power co. does.   Tha handout they gave me was for 200A permanent underground service.  I'm only doing a 100A temp underground.  Local contractors said I could use SE rated cable but inspector isn't too sure and says I should replace it with USE to avoid a call back if the power co won't connect to SE.  I do know that they now require an "in use weather proof cover" to be used and all receptacles bust eiter be GFCI or wired to a GFCI breaker.  The power co supplied me with a 100A meter base when they came to flag the path.

Pole must be at least a 6X6 and must be treated. you must have a disconnect or main breaker or no more breakers than can be turned off in six passes of the hand.  Everything must be labeled.  If you do your pump it must be hardwired in. There can be no receptacles on the branch circuit unless the breaker is a GFCI. I'll  tell you all the peices and parts I used when it passes inspect and power co. has hooked up.

You can buy a ready to go temp box at Home Depot for about $90.00  Might be money ahead as I am approaching that real quick trying to rig up my own.




Hope this helps and good luck to you.

[Thehardway]

County inspector passed my  Buried temp. power service this PM.

Here is what it consisted of for those interested. 

1- 10' treated 6"X 6"
4- 18" treated 2"X8"

Nailed 2X8 peices across pole to make mounting for meter base and service panel.

1- Square D 100A rainproof QO Load center
2- 20A QO breakers
2- 20A GFCI duplex receptacles
1 - double gang weaterproof Box
1- 1/2" offset box connector
1- Weather proof "In Use" cover
1- 100A meterbase
15' - 2 AWG AL direct bury Service entrance cable w/ground
6' - #6 bare copper ground wire
1- 8' Grounding rod
1- 5/8" Grounding clamp
1- 10'X 1.25" S40 PVC conduit
3- 1.25" threaded connectors
2- 1.25" plastic bushings
5- 1/4' straps
1- 1.25" straps

Will try to take a low res. photo and post.

I used 2 breakers and 2 GFCI outlets.  I could have placed 2 GFCI's on 1 breaker but used 2 because I didn't want to be overloading and popping breakers when using heavy duty drills or beam saw and having to reset constantly.  I will have a full 20A per duplex receptacle.

My ICF's are on the road enroute to the job and I will start the stacking process Fri. weather permiting.  Thanks to TS Barry we got  1-9/10" rain yesterday & it looks like I am building a swimming pool.  I will have to pump it out tommorrow and hope it dry by weekend.

[Qweaver]

Hey Hardway, your floorplan is almost the same as the cabin that I'm building.  Mine is 24' x 32' living area and a loft covering 1/3rd and the rest open to the roof,  but with covered porches all around.  Here is the page with some partial plans.  https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=19307.0

Looks like you've got a great start!  Good Luck and have fun...we are.
Quinton

[Thehardway]

My ICF blocks arrived last Thurs.  The truck that delivered them got side swiped by a Pepsi truck who blew a RF tire and lost control.  There were quite a few damaged forms but we unloaded all of the undamaged ones on Fri. 

I layed out the outside edge of the wall and squared everything on the footer with guide strings.  Will HILTI a few metal studs to the footer to serve as track and straight edge for the forms.  I layed out two courses of block (2X16"=32" high) 33' long w/corners in about 15 min. by myself.  This stuff goes together FAST!!!.  I now have to begin building window bucks.  I am going to use 1/2" CA (Copper Azole) Treated Plywood ripped to 6" dimension against the concrete and then finish out the window header and jambs with SPF 2X dimension lumber.  Inspector said metal flashing would be OK but I think the plywood will go much faster and it won't be subject to warp/split as much.  Should be easy to keep everything nice and tight and square.  Suprisingly you are to allow 1/16" per course of blocks for settling when the concrete is poured when you build the window bucks. 

Qweaver, I like your plans and I have also added a 8X 24 rocking chair porch to my plan.

Thanks for everybody's ideas and input. this is definitely the best self build website on the internet.  I'll continue to update with progress.

[Joel Eisner]

I vote for a 10 ft wide porch so you can have a table etc.  That is what we did and it works great.

[jpgreen]

Great thread... -subscribe-