Building our new retirement place

[Sorcerer]

Coming up on 5 years. Do you plan on completing the house by 2030?

 

[street]

Coming up on 5 years. Do you plan on completing the house by 2030?

Wow!! I knew it has been a while but I see that it will be 5 years in October. My hat goes off to skyking for keeping that fire burning!!

I'm not sure I could have. It will be a nice place when completed.

 

[old medic]

Wow!! I knew it has been a while but I see that it will be 5 years in October. My hat goes off to skyking for keeping that fire burning!!

Yes great steady drive... We bought this place 3-1-2018. Moved in 1 2025, and Its still not completely done.

 

[street]

Yes great steady drive... We bought this place 3-1-2018. Moved in 1 2025, and Its still not completely done.

old medic my hat goes off to you also. In 1984 my wife and I were married one year and we built our home from ground up, all hand nailed. The 1900sqf ranch on one level was erected in 3 months almost to the day.

We spent or first night there 90 days after the start. We had the crawl space 4ft hole dug and we went up from there. We had a contractor sheet rock tape and texture, plumbing was contracted out and I had a guy shingle it. Everything else was done by us and many great friends and family helped in the completion of this home. I took all my vacation and was there every morning till I needed to go to work and every day after work till dark building. Every weekend from sun up to sun down we were working on that home.

Now I'm not trying to pat myself on the back I just wanted to share our journey for our dream home. It was a journey and an experience I am thankful that we took on as a young couple with ambitious future in mind. We still live in that dream home, us two kids planned and built.

 

[skyking1]

@old medic I don't see it as being done after we move in and get settled either.
I have orchards and berries to plan and plant, a possible shop/DADU, a grain silo to upcycle into a gazebo ( now where to put that? Maybe above the sled hill with a west mountain and sunset view? )
I broke ground in September of 2024 so that is what I use for the start date, not the day we found the property.
If it makes others happy to badmouth the project that is sad but inevitable. Even reasonably nice folks can't help themselves.
Something in them has to make comparisons to others to somehow improve how they feel about themselves.

 

[Sorcerer]

Yes great steady drive... We bought this place 3-1-2018. Moved in 1 2025, and Its still not completely done.

I guess technically a property is never done. We renovated our entire house over 2-3 years...minus a small sun porch. I may knock it out this summer. Won't take long.

 

[Fermion]

Sheez, who takes 5 years to build a house...oh wait.

Heh, we are not done after we moved in last year either. Just ordered 10 gallons of interior paint from the Depot.

We broke ground during Covid and got our CO last year, so Skyking is well ahead of the game.

 

[Diogenes]

I broke ground in September of 2024 so that is what I use for the start date, not the day we found the property.

You're pursuing a substantial custom project, with yourself as manager. Aspects of your build are ambitious, well beyond the settled expectations of even high-end residential construction. Anything custom, done right, requires a tempo quite different from the assembly-line-style of construction, whether it's building a hot rod or a house. I am actually impressed that you and your team are making such rapid, systematic progress! A small team, doing such custom and innovative things, might be expected the take multiple years.

 

[pjigar]

Yes great steady drive... We bought this place 3-1-2018. Moved in 1 2025, and Its still not completely done.

We just finished 5 years in our homestead and we are just about done with all the construction projects (other than one more storage shed). Now I can finally focus on the outdoor projects which will take may be another 5 years. The key is to just keep chipping it away without taking long hiatus.

 

[skyking1]

I finally hooked up the Acrel meter that came with the inverter. Now it tells the tale of power in and out and used.

It is all there. When I checked the PUD's app for daily import/export it was at -45.92KWh. That reflects a little heat pump after sundown but before midnight.
The 3.5 Kw imported was when the heat pump came on briefly after midnight but before sunup. I have the house set to a very cool level at the moment, we will jack it up Monday afternoon after shooting the primer but not before. No use getting cooked climbing up ladders.
The temporary electric furnace is disconnected and no longer needed. The Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) can drive us out of there for 35 cents on the dollar and is ducted throughout for better paint drying.

 

[skyking1]

painting our way down today and stripping and cleaning windows, setting the screens in.
I had to keep this glu-lam exposed, when wrapping it would be easier. it is the nature of the wood fever.

This window will be remotely operated, and I have wire there for a weather cam focused on 75 mile distant Mt. Baker.

View from the elevator at the end of a long day.

 

[skyking1]

it is all painted, and my whole family is visiting today for the first time as a unit. I will cobble up a safety rail on the lift this morning so they can access all the floors.
I unwrapped all the beam it is all good. Exposed beams are apparently old school and everything gets wrapped, etc.
Those folks can stay off my lawn
Evening light playing reflections in the downstairs cupola, as viewed through the interior window opening in the ensuite wall. This is a spot for some possible stained glass art.

 

[skyking1]

the hydronic heat pump is installed and I commissioned it late last night.

Mark got it all soldered up, and then I flushed all the inside loops through that puropal softening filter, one at a time.
We cleaned it all up and he insulated the pipe.
It took me a while to sort it all out, and then I found the sweet spot for the inside loop flows. It leaned into the load and the temp came up nicely, using 16 amps.
It overshot the setpoint by only 0.9 degrees and the inverter magic thing happened. It slowed down, and eventually settled on about 8 amps to carry the load. No cycling, it just runs.

It operates smoothly from about 40% to 100%. I can work with that.
It shipped with an outside temperature sensor that I remote mounted by the power panels and meter. I can use that to implement ODR, Ourdoor Reset. It will adjust the floor temps based on the outside temps.

it was quite cozy during the test, with surfaces about 70.

 

[skyking1]

today I took delivery of 40 tons of fun, straight from the shot face.

Brother is there to help.

 

[skyking1]

 

[skyking1]

I built up the upper area and hit it with the compactor, then cut a bench for the upper wall.

I'd set them as instructed and lay them back, and he would chock them as needed.

Then we cleaned up the bottom area where the first 40 tons landed, and moved east and up.
I brought the truck around with a that load of smalls, and then got 12 tons of 3" road rock to backfill behind the wall.

Stacking from up top I really can't see anything and rely on the master of disaster.

upper wall is bulked and needing some chinking. I ordered two more big loads, around 30 tons or so.
Nobody but me on the mower gets to look at that far wall, so it will be a little more rough, shall we say?

 

[street]

Wow!!! Looks great!

 

[skyking1]

Thank you.
the purpose of the rockeries is twofold.
1) we need a walkout no step back yard off the kitchen door, even a small one would do.
2) the main reason for that lower wall position and depth is to cover that westernmost ground loop with 6' of soil. I had marked the corners of the loop with 8' tall 2x4s. That way I knew where I had to capture about 30" more dirt. It was stupid hard clay and we did not want to struggle to go deeper.
This is that left corner in the last picture for an example. I cut it down 2' to the 6' of cover.
The walls run around the perimeter of the 7 loop fields so I could keep them shallow in regards to the equipment room, and well covered. The clay I removed for the basement excavation is our storage mass.

 

[skyking1]

The big walls are done, all that is left is to gather up all the spare rock and then I can cuff it out with the 4' bucket and get some topsoil mix, and get it squirted by the hydroseeder. We want to plant some trees and shrubs and whatnot, but that can happen next season.

The Shasta daisies are the dominant life form and I will be tickled when they start filling in the faces of the walls.

 

[skyking1]

We got the downspout dispersion system installed, consisting of two type 1 catchbasins, fabric, 2x12 Pressure Treated (PT) boards with notches bolted to PT posts. Drain rock and perforated pipe.

Daisy helped, meaning she got under the fabric looking for mice and being a general menace.

Ready for some screened topsoil mix and hydroseed.

 

[skyking1]

I picked up 16 tons of spare rocks and moved them to the next wall location.

We cut and graded from the south to the north, from that big pile of dirt a few posts up and towards the back of the carport.

We brought the trench spoils the other way.

We are about 3 boxes short, and I know where to borrow it.

 

[skyking1]

It has been a long time coming since Harry and I inserted the sewer line between the ground loops for the heat pump, about 11' down from finish floor.

Frost free drain is in and we can walk out the kitchen door for the first time.

The plan is to put ~8' of pavers out from the house and carport. Note the depression that the dump truck was in, that we filled today.

 

[skyking1]

The floor tiles are all set in both showers. The tile guy is coming tomorrow to start on the walls. I had 18 pieces of 24x48 to unload from my truck and take to the *upstairs* shower.
Hello platform lift
That is 590 pounds of tile plus board cart.

Yes I took the stairs.

 

[ncbill]

Why tile instead of panels?

I had to have my bathroom freestanding shower rebuilt with tile due to the poor initial installation.

But that was over a decade ago so today I'd go with panels for easier upkeep.

 

[skyking1]

I like these tiles, 3/16" grout lines are not a thing at least not for us.
I borrowed that 3 boxes of strippings and schmeared I around with the big bucket. We will fine rake it out tomorrow and possibly hydroseed Friday.
Tile guy is on it and floor guy is starting next week.
Cable internet tomorrow. Checking off boxes all the time

We'll rake out and grade the gravel for pavers tomorrow as well, and that is it for the big excavator near the house.
I just confirmed that the city policy changed and we no longer have to pave 550' of driveway. I can pave a 40' approach at the street and then I will tailgate out some finer gravel over my big construction rock.
I'll get a decent sized tractor with a 6 way back blade to keep it tuned up.

The trick to maintaining a narrow drive is to put a crown in it and keep it. The tendency is to flatten it out, and then the drive gets wider as you lose all your rock. With a 6 way I can angle it in to bring the rock back in, and tilt it for the crown.
Then travel both directions with the offset to one side and your rock does not go away too quickly.