building a house

[HeHateMe]

Anybody on here build your home? I will be building in 2 years, on a farm surrounded by cattle pasture. Looking for experience and wisdom, everything from drainage, insulation ideas to cost control and hiccups experienced along the way. Would just put up a log cabin with solar panels but the wife is into modern architecture. Inb4 flat roofs leak...

 

[Nail Polish]

I put up a log House here in 2002...It's a very difficult undertaking..I can suggest a log home company if you wish..They are very good and will build the shell for you on your foundation.. You will need a General Contractor in addition to the LH people..

http://www.hearthstonehomes.com/

The guy who was my salesman/planner no longer works there. His name was Dennis and very helpful..

...If you have any specific questions, please ask..In the meantime, subscribe to "Log Home Living" which is a mag devoted to log homes..They have a lot of good articles and the advertisements help too


I used the "Square Appalachian" style logs. There is "chinking" between the logs..They used ground up car tires in plastic bags as insulation between the logs and under the chinking.

As for roof insulation, they put 6" styrofoam panels on top of the 2x6 planking..Then they used plywood on top of that, then felt paper and shingles...I swear..The snow never melts off the roof till the sun hits it...No inside air leakage at all

Another thing you will notice is how much more efficient the logs are for heat retention in the winter

Maintenance on a log house is brutal...It's constant, but the effort is well worth it as a well maintained log house is beautiful.

Also, allow for shrinkage in the logs...I have 10' ceilings , and after 5 years, the house shrunk 4" dues to the logs shedding moisture. If you went for 8' ceilings you would wind up with 7'6 ceilings which might be a little low for some.

 

[Les Grossman]

... I'm pretty sure he said he was NOT going to build a log cabin... because of the wifey and all.

 

[Nail Polish]

Ok then...N/m....lmao My bad..I saw "log house", got a woody, and shot my load prematurely

 

[Omeletpants]

25 years ago I build a house based on some ideas I had. Turned out to be the worst experience of my life. There are few businesses in the world dirtier than the home building industry. It's full of thieves, drug addicts, alkies and people that just dont care about doing a good job. All the cards are stacked against you. Expect to spend significantly more than anything you imagined. Good chance you will end up in court with someone in the food chain

I went in with a very detailed specification. I interviewed builders and chose the one I thought was best. He turned out to be a coke head and used the money I gave him to pay off other houses he had built. Like any pyramid scheme the money runs out and you hope it's not on your house. I ended up having to finish the house myslef and living in a hotel for 6 months. Had to find part time craftsmen to finish the work during the hottest summer in the history of Chicago (1988)

General tip:
-Dont design yourself. Find a builder with a proven floor plan willing to build on your lot. IE: your log cabin will be a nightmare to sell 10 years later. No one wants one but you

-Work with a bank and dont pay anyone a dollar until the bank OKs it and has the proper lien waivers

-Do tons of research on the builder, go look at his work and talk to reference

-Remember that everyone will try to use the cheapest materials possible

-Expect it to take much longer than you anticipated or they promised.

-Pick features, designs, color that appeal to the broad masses not your taste.

-Room size trumps everything else. If you think a room is big enough just go even bigger. Very hard to add size later. Spend that money on the right room size and add material upgrades later even if it takes years

-The last point then leads to the question: Is this your forever house or just a transition. Answering that question will indicate where you should spend your money.

-Avoid a septic system and well if possible. Treating your own water is a nightmare and the iron will destroy all plumbing systems over time

-Never, never, never, get a wood shake roof or wood doors.

 

[Nail Polish]

25 years ago I build a house based on some ideas I had. Turned out to be the worst experience of my life. There are few businesses in the world dirtier than the home building industry. It's full of thieves, drug addicts, alkies and people that just dont care about doing a good job. All the cards are stacked against you. Expect to spend significantly more than anything you imagined. Good chance you will end up in court with someone in the food chain


Sorry to hear that Ommy...Thats why you need a very good General Contractor. My experience as a whole was good except one guy got me for 3500.00..I chalked it up to experience as he lived in Indiana and wasnt worth the trip to track down..

But good points Ommy ..Wood shakes are trouble, but I've had great luck with wood doors

Another tip...if you use an Architect..They can usually recommend reputable builders..Ones they have used in the past

 

[Nail Polish]

Oops...forgot something

Always try and include the master bedroom on the 1st floor..If you go to sell..Old geezers don't wanna climb stairs to get to bed. Also, try and put the laundry room on the 1st floor...Same people dont wanna go all the way to the basement to do laundry

 

[HeHateMe]

You guys are awesome. I guess i should give more info. My builders are amish and already built a barn and a commercial kitchen space for us, but this is entirely new undertaking as it it has to be more inline with code and the wife's aesthetics...

 

[Omeletpants]

25 years ago I build a house based on some ideas I had. Turned out to be the worst experience of my life. There are few businesses in the world dirtier than the home building industry. It's full of thieves, drug addicts, alkies and people that just dont care about doing a good job. All the cards are stacked against you. Expect to spend significantly more than anything you imagined. Good chance you will end up in court with someone in the food chain


Sorry to hear that Ommy...Thats why you need a very good General Contractor. My experience as a whole was good except one guy got me for 3500.00..I chalked it up to experience as he lived in Indiana and wasnt worth the trip to track down..

But good points Ommy ..Wood shakes are trouble, but I've had great luck with wood doors

Another tip...if you use an Architect..They can usually recommend reputable builders..Ones they have used in the past

Most insurance carriers no longer cover houses with wood shakes.

I also had a wood front door and cedar garage doors. No matter how well you seal them moisture get's in a destroys the doors at some point. Fine in Arizona, not so good here

 

[Nail Polish]

Most insurance carriers no longer cover houses with wood shakes.

I also had a wood front door and cedar garage doors. No matter how well you seal them moisture get's in a destroys the doors at some point. Fine in Arizona, not so good here

Thats the diff...I have a huge front overhang/porch over the wood front door...It never gets wet...That probably saved it..I thought you meant wood interior doors. You are correct on the wood shakes..I have a hard enough time insuring a log house as it it..Premiums are sky high

 

[HeHateMe]

Ps, this also will be a house we die in, and a home on a property that has two homes built over a hundred years ago. We aren't trying to build another one of those. They are relatively modest but the owners farmhouse would easily be a million dollar home if built today. God bless old world craftmanship.

 

[Nail Polish]

You can still get that old world craftsmanship in a Timber Frame or Log House...My place is put together with pegging instead of nails from a nail gun etc, but if the wife aint happy, no one is!!

 

[Omeletpants]

Ps, this also will be a house we die in, and a home on a property that has two homes built over a hundred years ago. We aren't trying to build another one of those. They are relatively modest but the owners farmhouse would easily be a million dollar home if built today. God bless old world craftmanship.

OK, seems like you have some of the issues we described worked out. But focus on the room size and make sure that is right cause it's tough to modify later

For Example: in that first house I made the 2nd and 3rd bedroom way to small. In my current house I made sure that didnt happen with a office/den I added. Made it 20 x 20 with a 16 foot beamed ceiling and stone fireplace. At first I thought I went too big but now couldnt imagine having a den any smaller

 

[Nail Polish]

Ommy is right...The rooms will seem big till ya get furniture in em..Then its like WTF happened?..Always oversize the room, and ya never can have too much closet space

 

[Mitchapalooza]

Legos. Tons of legos.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[botfly10]

Holy **** just say no to flat roofs. I live in AZ where almost all hoses have a flat roof and every one of em leaks.

Also, don't let it wreck your marriage.

 

[HeHateMe]

Holy **** just say no to flat roofs. I live in AZ where almost all hoses have a flat roof and every one of em leaks.

Also, don't let it wreck your marriage.

I said no to a flat roof. It will be a chicken coop style roof, slightly graded from the front. 20 ft high down to 18 ft high is the current plan.

 

[botfly10]

Also, I was kinda serious about the marriage thing. There is a never ending series of tiny decisions when building. Just make sure to keep perspective and let shit slide if you and your woman start getting in fights about cabinet hardware and light switches and shit like that. It takes effort to not get sucked in.

 

[Nail Polish]

I said no to a flat roof. It will be a chicken coop style roof, slightly graded from the front. 20 ft high down to 18 ft high is the current plan.

I believe thats called a "mansard" roof

 

[Crystallas]

I wanted a rammed earth home structure, and I wanted to design it, completely wire it all myself, and I wanted to do my own ductwork. So I had to get my home built. I didn't build it myself though. There is an enormous difference between "getting a house built" and "building a house".

Biggest pain in the ass experience ever. Not the labor that I had contributed, but the red tape galore. Home inspectors in IL are crooked as all hell, permits for anything that isn't a cookie-cutter design are a big tug-of-war battle, and contractors are as two-faced from top to the bottom of the yellow pages.