Finally Bought Some Land

[Mabouya]

Neat - I love the "microwave under the steps." Not one cubic inch wasted...

[ides1056]

Jorn- the precast concrete may well spall badly if you heat and cool it. I would check out that possibility before installing. I use a 55 gallon drum with some holes bored around the base.

Also, this is thinking back on earlier design, which may have been changed, but if you have holes in the roof that act as lightwells below and are not covered with a skylight, I would expect trouble. Snow falls in, freezes and accumulates, and problems follow.

I've used woodchips for woods roads, and they do turn to soil in short order. Don't waste money shipping the stuff elsewhere. Push it off into the woods and let it rot.

[rwsaunders]

Jorn...ask your excavator about the site soil conditions and if he would suggest placing some type of geotextile fabric under the driveway stone. It helps separate the subgrade from the stone (prevents infiltration) and more evenly spreads out the load of the stone and vehicles.

https://www.usfabricsinc.com/products/drivewayfabric

[j44ke]

Okay tomorrow we are going to have a meeting at the site with the excavator, the civil engineer, the architect and me. We'll do some marking out of the site for test pits to see where the stone ridges are (everywhere I am predicting) and mark out more of the site for clearing so we can finish the final surveying for locating the septic, house, garage, well and electrical connections. We decided that the roughed-in drive to the site would be better if it wasn't the actual driveway, because the actual driveway area won't stand up to the constant abuse that deliveries and large equipment will give it (we are trying to protect the 150 year old walls.) So we are following the original route into the site after the chips are all scraped up (a process that started earlier this week.) So hopefully by the end of the month we will have a cleared site, a roughed-in road into the site, the septic field area located and marked, the house & garage foundations located and marked, the route for the electrical connection trenched, and the well area figured out and ready for drilling. And if we are really lucky, but the end of October we'll have well and the electrical connection done. Then we can spend the winter getting the final aspects of the design worked out and all the approvals for building completed.

We have new plans. The garage is a bit different. It now uses cross laminated timber instead of a cement and refers to a kind of modish gas station to my eye, which isn't a bad thing. The glass windows shown in the below image are actually going to be opaque walls for the sake of security and heat. Both sections of the garage will have a garage door that opens completely, so there will still be plenty of inside-outside connection. And then the sitting area is still in the plans for post ride recovery and will be accessible to the bike workshop inside by way of a nice sliding door.

The house is roughly the same. However, the use of cross laminated timbers for the roof has changed the arrangement of the supporting columns and has returned the rectangular box-shaped storage area arranged throughout the house back into supporting structures. Because of that, we will be able to route the chimney up through the north wall of the cupola, which will now have a small built in porch in between that wall and the interior room space.

The roof engineering is really fascinating actually. Because of the cross lamination and the joining of different panels together as well as the overlapping of the two (yes two) layers of panels, the areas that can accept a supporting column are actually pretty limited. You don't want to have a column underneath a seams or too near a sky light - anything that would push up and separate the joints over time. So the engineer has been working on an analysis of the design versus the requirements of the roofing material and is developing a plan for the placement of the columns that works alongside using the aforementioned rectangular storage units as supports. In the end, I think there will be 6-7 alternating layers of wood making up the total thickness of the cross laminated timber roof.

We've also begun the design details on the kitchen, bathrooms and the living areas. I've included some images of those interiors here, but right now I'd say those plans are both surprisingly complete and still up to debate. They say the best way to test your marriage is to design a bathroom, and that's probably true. Or a kitchen and we're doing all of the above. So the designs are complete but the arguments...er, discussions of the details have yet to be concluded.

More after this weekend.

Overall plan w/garage changes:



New garage design



Kitchen



Master bath



Living room fireplace



New cupola design



Cupola view towards north

[htwoopup]

Jorn-
That is friggin awesome!

Bathrooms...saved my marriage by making it big enough for two vanities/ sinks/ medicine cabinets/seat with makeup mirror. She gave up a closet to make room for it which shows how much your statement about bathrooms is dead on because I would have bet against the giving up of the closet.

I really really love the looks of this abode.

[Matthew Strongin]

I like how your garage design has more bikes than you actually have. I'll send one of mine up for safe keeping (and to save on airline fees for all my visits).

[72gmc]

I also like the garage. My first thought: 7 bikes, how much room for growth is in that number?

On our bathroom remodel, I cared most about function and my wife cared more about everything else. So I told her my requirements and declared myself available for consultancy. Worked pretty well. I'll try the same approach when the kitchen remodel comes around.

[j44ke]

I like how your garage design has more bikes than you actually have. I'll send one of mine up for safe keeping (and to save on airline fees for all my visits).

Matt, I wish it was done so you guys could come up and stay while the power gets fixed. I am sure the baby and the bear would get along just fine.

[ides1056]

What will you do for heat?

Radiant floors in the bath are luxury at its best, and I would locate the bath in the warmest corner of the building.

[j44ke]

Heat is radiant floors hopefully run off geothermal. The bathrooms are both on the eastern side and on either side of an inset courtyard in the middle of that side of the building, so pretty protected.

Spent the morning at the site with the excavator, the surveyor and the architect. They all put their heads together and figured out what needed clearing, where to dig 4' deep test pits for the slab foundation and how large an area to include in the topo survey so we know where everything is going, including the septic so brush can be cleared for easy (and accurate) measurements.

Our excavator has gotten most of the wood chips up, but there are so many wood chips! Almost 2' deep in places. Incredible. So this morning a guy walked up after hearing the machines, and now our guy is working on a trade with this other guy who is building on a site down the road and has excess gravel. We need gravel, that guy needs wood chips. Match made in excavator heaven.

I like our excavator. He's saving all the good soil and clay from leveling the road bed to use in the septic berm. And saving all the rock he digs up on the site for use along the road, for wall repair or new wall building and whatever else. Everything is valuable, especially if you can avoid trucking it out or trucking new in. And every time I check him out with friends who know, he is right on with the building code, if not slightly tighter on the details. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but so far, he looks like one of the good ones.

Almost as bad as dating, getting these contractors lined up. Almost.

[Mabouya]

New garage design

Where do you park the tractor / snow-blower? As I interpret the image I see space for two cars.

I'm just one guy and a two-car garage isn't enough for me. I currently have two cars and two motorcycles crammed into mine and need to clear out some of the junk that's in there so I don't have to move a moto to get the other one out.

If I were starting from scratch I'd go with a minimum of a 4-car garage. Or a three car + a barn with work space and a lift.

Other than that, it looks great. :)

YMMV

[j44ke]

The garage will be a 2.75 car garage. The slot for the car will be 1.75 wide and the bike shop will be 1 car wide. The divider between the slot and the end wall of the garage will be large storage. There will also be a sink area, a gas heater and a compressor.

We have another buildable area on the property, so once we get the house done, we can start on the barn/guest house/missile silo.

[ides1056]

Run the numbers on geothermal before going that route. Expensive to install, and expensive to run.
Also, when you put in electric, put in whatever you might need should you install solar panels someday.

[j44ke]

The local library is all geothermal. I talked to the guy who did the well (yes singular) for the system, and he feels most systems have more wells as more wells equals more money. The library seems to be working just fine on one. However, they are doing forced air and not radiant, so that's where our engineer will come in handy. If he says no go, then we won't.

The house will have connection for future solar (or whatever form of alternative energy gathering is current) and all the connections for future AC.

[Badonkadonk]

bear? should be no problem, but we have quite a little infestation on the property in VT... has made me think twice about having my kids wander off into the woods.

[BSUdude]

This has probably come up, but I haven't followed along with this whole thread. Your biggest challenge w/ regard to heating & cooling will be the quantity of glass. Radiant will help w/ this vs forced air for heat. Given the design I assume you are looking at commercial type storefront glazing. I'm sure your architect knows this stuff and will educate you when the time comes (if he or she hasn't already), but your frames should be thermally broken. Your typical 1" IGUs vary a lot in performance as well based on coatings, color, etc. Make sure you look at the performance metrics of the glass vs just picking a color. Clear glass doesn't perform as well as glass with some tint. If I was looking at that design I would also cost compare a typical 1" IGU vs a thicker triple glazed IGU.

Your architect has done a good job of using the roof overhangs to shade your southern and western exposures to help your solar heat gain in the summer.

[ides1056]

Don't forget the ready supply of wood around you. Nothing beats a wood stove in winter.

[j44ke]

Don't forget the ready supply of wood around you. Nothing beats a wood stove in winter.

I have a bit more tree knowledge now, and I've realized that we have quite a few large black cherry trees at the house site that are likely to be removed. I think those will go to someone who can mill them into board, and then into some piece of furniture.

The fire place in the living room is a Morso insert, and if our friends' house is any indication, it should put out quite a bit of heat.

[NYCfixie]

I've realized that we have quite a few large black cherry trees at the house site that are likely to be removed. I think those will go to someone who can mill them into board, and then into some piece of furniture.

Thos Moser

[rwsaunders]

I have a bit more tree knowledge now, and I've realized that we have quite a few large black cherry trees at the house site that are likely to be removed. I think those will go to someone who can mill them into board, and then into some piece of furniture.

Cherry is such a beautiful hardwood. When we built our home, the most favorable tree harvesting quote that we received was from the gentleman who took into account the timber value of the oak and cherry trees that needed to be removed. The other folks were just harvesting them for firewood. The pines were shredded and chipped and sold as boiler fuel.