My woods spot

[Walker]

Thought i would share. This is my house, been working on it for 3 years now. we cleared the lot by hand and machine, I roughed in the 800 ft driveway and assisted in running some of the heavy equipment to build it up. Installed the septic system, plumbing, about 1/2 the electrical, etc. etc. The house is built with SIP panels (Structural Insulated Panels, good for R28), roof system is made up using energy trusses, 1" continious foil face on the bottom cord with 18" of blown in on top (about R50). the wife and i have put an unmeasureable ammount of time and energy into the place from design through construction. We both like "old" and on the interior there are lots of antique features that i salvaged personally; newell posts, hand rails, doors as well as a lot of salvaged materials. The newest interior door is from the 1920's. I have lots of friends and family to thank for helping us along the way. Anyway, it isnt the Taj Mahal but we are really proud of it.

The entry porch is timber framed with 200 year old beams from my in laws barn that we took down 3 years ago. A lot of work but worth it. might have enough left over timbers to build a small garage this summer....

As far as the neighborhood is concerned, one side of the property is 650 acres of conservation land and i cant see any of the neighbors houses. Sometimes the neighbors drop by though, mama bear and 3 cubs in December, big fat racoon last week, coyotes at 200ft away, grey fox in the driveway.....kind of rural :wink:

Now if it would just stop snowing i could finish the entry porch roof and deck! 16" of the white stuff last Sunday and more on the way.

 

[thatismytruck]

That is fan-freaking-tastic!!!!

thanks for sharing.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

so beautiful.

 

[maddogrider]

WOW that is awsome man. Are you gonna clearcoat the sideing or does it get paint.

 

[Walker]

The siding is cedar and has 2 coats of Sealonce, front and back, all 5000 linear feet of it....Sealonce is a relatively new environmentally friendly preservative that appears to blow everyone else out of the water. 10 year warranty on a vertical surface, we'll see. I do want to leave it natural though. All the trim on the extrior windows and doors was left over cedar decking from work, had to sand off the grey, but the price was right.

I would stongly recommend using SIP panels to anyone building a house. They went up easy and fast, house is very tight, quiet and efficient.

 

[maddogrider]

So is the sip panel like a standard thickness wall like 4 9/16 or 6 9/16 and do they bolt together

 

[Walker]

The panels we used measured 4ft x8ft and were 6-1/2" thick. Basically two pieces of OSB plywood with 5-1/2" of foam inbetween. the panels spline together. to anchor to the deck and tie the top of the walls togeter the foam is removed along the edge to make a recess of 1-1/2", this allows a standard 2x6 to fit in the gap. In one Saturday we stood up all the lower level walls with 8 volunteers. On sunday i installed the top plate and tyvec with a friend so the framers could come in and build the deck during the week. FAST. The panels were a premium material wise compared to conventional lumber but with free labor it worked out. There are no studs in the panels so that you have no thermal breaks to allow cold (or heat) to creep in. the same theory was used on the roof system by installing a 1" continious foil face barrier on the bottom cord of the trusses before strapping and erecting the interior walls.

 

[Walker]

Here is a shot of the panels stacked and ready Saturday AM. Note heavy equipment in the foreground, i guess i cant take all the credit for site work..

Walls almost done, building a header for the entry door.

wrapped and ready for the second floor, Sunday evening

 

[maddogrider]

Thats cool man how do ya do the wires and heat if the walls are filled with foam?

 

[Rat Rod]

Shhhh....be very quiet.

You'll notice in the first photo the great north American Tonkas performing their mating ritual. :lol:

 

[maddogrider]

Shhhh....be very quiet.

You'll notice in the first photo the great north American Tonkas performing their mating ritual. :lol:

OH OH gonna have alot holes to fill in if you let those little booggers keep doin that :mrgreen:

 

[elvis51]

Shhhh....be very quiet.

You'll notice in the first photo the great north American Tonkas performing their mating ritual. :lol:

lol that is too freakin funny!!! i wanted to be the first one to comment about something like that but steve ya beat me to it and with and even better punch line. that totally made my night man!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Easy E

 

[Walker]

I should apologise for the untasteful photo with the mating Tonkas, i realize this is a family orientated forum.

As far as the electrical goes. Many people warned me that wiring up one of these was a nightmare, but i though it was fairly easy. We located as much as we could on interior walls. For the wall outlets we just roto-zipped the OSB, dug out the foam then either A: used an installers bit to drill down through the bottom plate into the floor system or B: if the outlet or switch box was near a door or window we would make a horizontal chase to the opening and then run the wire down to the floor before installing the blocking around the frame. You can cut a vertical groove in the OSB with a skil saw if necessary.

All the plumbing drains are pretty much stacked and runs through interior walls. I used PEX for all the supply lines, that was easy.