Building a house

I have old entries from our old website that I intend to put here.  The old software I was using kept some from seeing the site, so I am re-doing everything with this new system.  I still have to learn how to manipulate these photos, etc.  I will keep working on it.  You may be able to access everything at www.offgridlife.com otherwise keep looking here.  Roger 11-20-2011.  The photos below are inserted in reverse cronilogical order, going back in time.

   This was taken after the interior of the kitchen area was complete, to test an upload with the trial data-card from the cell phone company.  It worked OK, just not as fast as the satellite internet.

   It snowed on the first day of spring in 2006.  This is a neighbor's house, actually was an original ranch lineshack.

   December 2005 - Most house functions usable.

    November 27 2005 - House can now be heated.  This stove was replaced a few years later for a more airtight model.  I did not yet have the house completely insulated with 5.5 inches of insulation.  The insulation helps for winter heating and summer cooling.  Even if I do not run the air conditioner, the insulation keeps the relative coolness of the nightime from leaving the interior as fast during the hot days.  This is the same living area that is shown in the second photo above.

  November 10, 2005 - Metal roof is on and most sheathing put up.  I was doing this mostly by myself so it took some time. 

  October 29 - It took time because I used lots of hurricane clips and every thing I knew to make it solid. Lots of extra nails and screws.   If the house can't stand up to the occasional high winds here, I have no one else to blame.

   October 19 - The rv on the right is where we lived during this period.  We could have started the house sooner, but the roads were too bad to haul materials up here due to unusual rainy weather in the fall and winter of 04-05.

   September 2005

    August 1, 2005 - This must have been during a monsoon rain period.  I had painted the floor first, but the heavy rains still soaked in some.

   August -  My son was here and helped with the beams.  Tung oil was applied to the douglas fir beams.

   The double top plate ties all the interior and exterior walls together

.   July - First walls up on northeast side.  I had help lifting up only one of the walls.  The long sides were made up of two joined sections so it was possible for one person to do it.

   June 2005 -  I have the floor joists in and the floor panels are being laid.  The pile of dirt in the background was later moved.

  May 2005 - The foundation piers are about done.  Large bolts will hold the foundation beams to the concrete.  I mixed all this concrete in a wheelbarrow with a shovel.  I had quit my outside job in late May to work on the house full time.  I dug the holes for the piers 3 feet deep or down to bedrock, which came first most of the time.  This house foundation is on natural ground, no fill to settle down later.

    April 2005 - I finished this little 'studio' so JoAnne had a place to do her artwork.  It also had a propane water heater and bathtub and washer.  So it was a washhouse and a bathhouse too.  No more trips to the laundramat. 
We discovered a new spring up a canyon on our property so I hauled in two 2500 gallon poly water tanks and put them up on the hill.  They were gravity-filled in a couple of days.  We now have all the running water we want (for now);  so are ready for a washing machine, a studio/bath house with hot water heater.  We have a constant 35 lbs. water pressure.  Later on we had an excellent well drilled for almost unlimited water.
   March 2005 - This is the second 2500 galon water tank I hauled in to the property.  Someone we worked with saw the load going down the interstate, and laughed because they thought it was too much for a pickup.  The tank only weighs 200 lbs and I have it tied down securely.  Do-it-yourselfers just do it, I suppose others try to get someone else to deliver such things 8 miles up a sometimes 4 wheel drive road over a mountain.  I hauled every piece of material for this house and farm myself with a pickup and flatbed trailer.

   January and February 2005 -  The big wash down by the highway still flooded often, so it was necessary to stay in motels when we couldn't get home from work.  I got the required permits to build a house and that involved an approved plan and inspection of the septic system.  For once, I am completely legal.  When unloading the septic tank, I let it get away and it bounced in the hole, but facing the wrong way.  Here I am using a logging principle to roll it back out of the hole to re-position it.  It was a muddy mess in this normally dry place.

    This concludes this story for now, there is much more before we got to this point, I may add some later about how we found this property and moved everything we owned here, including 25 angora goats.  If you can get there, it is up at www.offgridlife.com/rogers_record.htm