Finally Bought Some Land

[rwsaunders]

Jorn...we just broke ground on 10,000 sf facility in Vancouver, WA http://16749-presscdn-0-94.pagely.ne...redit-unio.jpg that will be constructed of CLT's. Right now, there are only handful of shops that fab the members in North America...most plants are located in Austria where the industry started. A few plants are in British Columbia, one in Montana and one that I know of in Oregon Oregon CLT - Cross-laminated Timbers. I suggest that your structural engineer and erector become very close friends with these folks, as there is a lot of up front time involved in making optimal use of the CLT benefits. We've also found that since most structural engineers are not experienced with the systems, the factory folks come in handy in serving to reign in the inevitable over-design that occurs. Most carpentry crews haven't dealt with CLT's either, so perhaps consider asking a few questions regarding their experience during the bidding process.

[j44ke]

Thanks for the advice RW. I'd like to know where the CLT's will be coming from. The engineer is actually the person who recommended CLT's when he saw the plans. But I will ask about the genesis of his idea and whether he has worked with them before. Good question to ask the contractors too of course.

[robin3mj]

Looks dope. Just make sure there's enough flat ground for me to pitch a one man tent.

[rwsaunders]

Jorn...I will ask our PM for the contact information of the CLT fabricator that we are working with if that helps.

[lumpy]

I'm happy to see the architect dedicated a tractor parking space in the garage. It looks like Mos Eisley Spaceport.
But in the woods.

[j44ke]

Just met our closest neighbors - holy smokes are they nice. Invited me in to their backyard, and we spent about an hour and a half shooting the breeze about the area and our two properties. Most important bit of info is their son-in-law bought a fancy tractor with a scoop, a tree stump and rock puller, and a snow plow. My wife already figured out that their daughter and son-in-law were avid cyclists - the daughter is on Strava - so that seems like a nice feature to the neighborhood. Also the town supervisor lives two doors down (no wonder the road is so nice, bet it gets plowed quickly too.) And lots of other good stuff.

Did I mention the tractor?

[j44ke]

More current drawings of the site plan and the relationship between the house and the garage. Unseen in the drawing of the house and garage is a large outcropping of rock, sort of like a surfacing humpback whale that runs diagonally from the SW (house "faces" west with driveway to its south) through the area where the elevation lines are closest together. Strange element really, because the slope is definitely downhill, but the rock sticks out of the ground there, effectively dividing the driveway off from the landscape in front of the house. Which isn't bad.

Also I've been talking with the excavator who is going to clear brush and ready the site for a detailed topographic survey. After that, he'll dig a trench for the underground electric, so the utility can connect the property, and rough in the driveway so trucks can reach the site in the spring when construction will start.

He did our perc test on a previous property that we were going to buy, but during a visit to the county offices, a little bird told him that the property had easement issues the seller may have failed to mention. He called us and saved us from making a big mistake. Honest, upright guy. So when I needed this job done on our new property, he was the first person I called.

Anyway, the seller of this property chipped a lot of cleared trees and spread it over the drive route they planned to develop. It was probably a good illustration for potential buyers but as I suspected, total crap for a road bed. Soft, soggy, rotten - none of the things that make a good road bed. So our excavator guy is going to have to dig it up and...then what? I guess we'll have to find a place to put it.

If anyone needs a sh^t ton of soggy mixed pine & deciduous wood chips, let me know.

Overhead site



Overhead house and garage

[davids]

Wonderful. I approve of all the changes.

What's that trail of flagstones lead to?

[j44ke]

Wonderful. I approve of all the changes.

What's that trail of flagstones lead to?

Outdoor fire pit made from a precast concrete dry well! Set them in the ground a bit, and they keep all the flammables contained but let plenty of oxygen reach the fire. And they radiate heat nicely.



Eventually that area may contain some sort of writer's shed/clubhouse/rocket silo.

[davids]

I have always wished that more poets had rockets.

Well, not Ezra Pound.

[s_curran]

Jorn, this is looking incredible, I really like the way it has progressed!

Some day we hope to build our own, we are both architects working towards being accredited. For now, we also bought some land and it came with a small cabin in Vermont, we've been learning renovation and doing it all ourselves. Nothing super major, but ripped out all the floors, moved some walls, taken some apart and put them back together, turned a ton of wood into dust, etc, new kitchen next. This is sort of a before/mid renovation photo of my favorite area.

[j44ke]

Sean - excellent! Not too hard to tell that beam is important. I like that the builder crammed three different sized windows in the corner. Think the small window was put in just because they needed one that opened and provided some ventilation? Always puzzling.

[s_curran]

Sean - excellent! Not too hard to tell that beam is important. I like that the builder crammed three different sized windows in the corner. Think the small window was put in just because they needed one that opened and provided some ventilation? Always puzzling.

Its a puzzling one for sure, and I believe a lot of it had to do with the bit being an addition and re-using old windows, not pictured, but just to the left of the photo there is another of the operable ones. It started as a hunting cabin, then has been slowly improved over the years, so there is some interesting archaeology. Importantly though, it has a really structurally sound and dry basement, and a really solid metal roof, also spring water that has been running for over 100 years.


Also, looking forward to construction photos!

[Jason Musgrave]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading through this thread Jorn, can't wait to see the finished product!

[j44ke]

Thanks! I get worried I trickle into the land of nod on some of this.

BTW, Sean, you might like our friends' house. It is one of the many school houses Pennsylvania decided to build in the late 1800's as part of their effort to educate all the children wherever they were in PA. There was a lot of research about what makes a good schoolhouse, so they decided on east/west orientation with southern exposure on one side for max sunlight and warmth. They are stone houses with walls about 2' thick, so the interior sides of the window sill are curved on the sides to effectively increase the size of the window as the sun angle changes during the day. Open plan except for a row of 3-4 columns that support the ceiling joists and thereby the roof. Various wood stoves but most photos show a big round potbellied wood stove smack dab in the middle of the room. The schoolmarm lived in some of them, but otherwise it had storage in the attic and an office in the back. There is enough space upstairs our friends have put their bedroom there. Previous owners put in a wall downstairs to make a second bedroom and a kitchen area, plus they added stairs and an inside entry to the basement. The house was solid when our friends bought it (bank sale, great price, huge headache) but the tenants just before foreclosure had stolen fixtures and appliances. But really, all our friends did was clean, sand and refinish the floors, plaster patch the walls (amazing plaster on the walls - so thick!) paint the walls, and then bring in appliances, wood stove (that was missing too) and revived the furnace, septic and well. Now they have a nice house, a little garden and a garage (and some crazy but harmless neighbors) they can go out to visit on weekends and not really worry about much. At least until they get a roof leak, but they've done a good job getting something manageable for not much money. And that house - you could stack another one just like it on top and it would hold no problem. Like a brick.

There is a lot of joy in a house like this, you know?

[RanOverMyTongue]

Gorgeous architecture. If you plan your lighting correctly you can maintain the wall transparency at night also. Your local codes most likely require 50-75% LED lighting, just do it all in LED. You won't really save anything by putting in non-LED fixtures and retrofitting lamps.

[Will Neide]

Did I mention the tractor?

I just bought a Kubota BX23s. Love the thing. Never thought I would need one, still not sure I "need" one, but it does everything front snow, mow, stumps, ditches, etc. I can't imagine not having it now.

I'd think you'd want a larger garage to accommodate all the tools/toys you'll acquire maintaining/enjoying your property. Also, make sure the doors are tall enough for future toys/tractors. I love the bike storage part of it!

[j44ke]

Gorgeous architecture. If you plan your lighting correctly you can maintain the wall transparency at night also. Your local codes most likely require 50-75% LED lighting, just do it all in LED. You won't really save anything by putting in non-LED fixtures and retrofitting lamps.

Thanks! That sounds right. Plenty if LED's planned with a few exceptions (think one is the bathroom?) but that stage of design is still to come.

I just bought a Kubota BX23s. Love the thing. Never thought I would need one, still not sure I "need" one, but it does everything front snow, mow, stumps, ditches, etc. I can't imagine not having it now.

I'd think you'd want a larger garage to accommodate all the tools/toys you'll acquire maintaining/enjoying your property. Also, make sure the doors are tall enough for future toys/tractors. I love the bike storage part of it!

I think that in the first couple years, we will be weekenders more often than not. So we'll want to contact with a local pro to clear snow, frogs, locusts before we arrive, and then I will keep things clear with a snow blower, frog tosser, locust lobber.

I spent about an hour standing in the middle of the area where the fire pit will be imagining a velodrome. Not sure why I didn't realize that could be a possibility from the get go. Can one of those be built using cross laminated timbers?

[j44ke]

End of summer lull while vacations occur. We've been proactive and indicated we expect a return to focus, and so we will have a meeting with the architects next week to receive a detailed progress report on engineering & updated work calendar for the fall and winter period. The design part of the plans is coming to a close, and now the challenge is meshing the spirit world with the real world of actual site topography, electrical/water/sewage and of course, budget - totally unglamorous and thus a step likely to be momentum challenged. Anyway, we're on it.

Meanwhile I have been thinking about very basic (and not so basic) structures that we might create somewhere on the property for purposes of picnicking or camping over the next year or so. Seems like some of these designs might be workable. We have a guy who has done some nice work for friends up there, so I am optimistic we could get this done fairly quickly and with not a huge outlay of $$. Why a structure? It just makes things a bit more hospitable for those who prefer not to sleep among the crawly things.

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[rwsaunders]

Jorn, my business partner and his wife found this on Craigslist and they located it on their farm...they will rent it in the future for "farmcations". For now though, they are going to live in it for a bit as they sold their home and their new place won't be done for another 2 months. It was custom built by a woman and her partner as a second home but they split, therefore the sale...pretty cool and check out the sauna. That's what convinced my partner's wife to go tiny house...at least for a short time.