Building our new retirement place

[MarieIG]

+1 A friend of mine has a spiral staircase in their summer house because of its small footprint. It is a PITA. I would not go with a spiral staircase unless there is no other practical alternative.

DH and I looked at a rural house with a spiral staircase last fall. It had a very small footprint, and I was actually concerned about using the staircase. I flat out told the agent that I wouldn't be going downstairs if there wasn't another way to get there. (No we didn't submit an offer on the house.)

 

[OldShooter]

Those are bought by young people who know they are going to live forever.

 

[skyking1]

I used to think they were cool maybe 30 years ago.

 

[street]

When I was kid my parents were good friends with a couple that had a spiral staircase. I remember we would go visit them in tow and was always amazed with the staircase. It was the coolest thing on the planet. Lol

I would have one and would think twice about it. In those old homes all had steps up so not sure what the difference would be for me.

 

[skyking1]

Updates!
I hired an experienced builder designer framer to help me digitize my plans and go over them with me.
He has made many helpful suggestions that will save me time, and will also help with layout and framing on the rake walls.
He also has some good framers he can recommend to help out. More on that below.
Together we got enough details done to send them to a structural engineer. He will go over them and give me an estimate for his services and probably get them done by first of May or so.
I have a few options on the engineering.
I will be ready for submittal for permit early in May, just about the time of the first of two carpal tunnel release surgeries.
I had hoped to get it done sooner but the wheels of L&I turn slowly.
This will hamper my hammer swinging for a while, and I have let off the throttle for a 2023 Certificate of Occupancy.
Now the realistic goal is to get it dried in for winter and finish it early in 2024. I will hire some of those framers as needed.

 

[Ronstar]

Updates!
I hired an experienced builder designer framer to help me digitize my plans and go over them with me.
He has made many helpful suggestions that will save me time, and will also help with layout and framing on the rake walls.
He also has some good framers he can recommend to help out. More on that below.
Together we got enough details done to send them to a structural engineer. He will go over them and give me an estimate for his services and probably get them done by first of May or so.
I have a few options on the engineering.
I will be ready for submittal for permit early in May, just about the time of the first of two carpal tunnel release surgeries.
I had hoped to get it done sooner but the wheels of L&I turn slowly.
This will hamper my hammer swinging for a while, and I have let off the throttle for a 2023 Certificate of Occupancy.
Now the realistic goal is to get it dried in for winter and finish it early in 2024. I will hire some of those framers as needed.

You've got a good solid plan there. My only thought is to refrain from heavy labor until you heal from carpal tunnel surgeries. You don't want to mess yourself up more in the midst of a build. There will be still lots of work on the house for you to do after you've healed.

 

[skyking1]

I've got those framers on tap, Ron. I can run the job from this seat here, and nobody has to lift too much that way.

I operated a 1056 with outriggers and a swing carriage at the Expedia Corporate headquarters remodel with GLY. I will get a swing carriage if at all possible.
https://www.gly.com/projects/expedia-seattle

Here we are setting an imbedment for a sky bridge between buildings, using a 15' long jib.

There is nothing heavy enough to rig that would need a jib. having a swing carriage just
makes anybody look really good on a class 7 forklift.

The I-joists are not terribly heavy, but nobody needs to manhandle them. I'll put a couple at a time on the forks and shoot them out to the framers, who will be on proper scaffolding.
safety first.

 

[Ronstar]

^Excellent! It helps to have the right equipment. And someone like you who knows how to use it.

 

[skyking1]

I have 5 heavy beams that will set off the forks.
I will rent an articulating boom lift for all the awkward soffit work that does not scaffold well.

10~15K in equipment rental on a 300K house build is not a big deal. I think the John Deere 120 will be parked there if I don't have work for it on jobs. I can keep nice driving lanes with that.
here she is hanging 10 on a footing excavation.

The site has nice slope for the walkout basement, which is NOT nice for the forklift and boom lifts. The boom lifts in particular will just limit out if you have too much slope, so I will get a large enough one to reach from a few designated flat spots and roads.

 

[skyking1]

I got an estimate back of less than $3,200 for all the basement and foundation engineering.
He also listed all the t&m prices when we have changes. It looked like a pretty good estimate up front.
We're going for it!

 

[Ronstar]

^ I don't remember much about structural engineering prices, but $3,200 sounds good to me.

 

[street]

Interesting! Keep us posted on the progress. When do you think, will be a start date for your dirt work to start?

 

[skyking1]

best case, middle of June.

 

[skyking1]

The first surgery is in the books today and I'm chilling out. I'm going to haul the excavator to a job on Friday and have another guy operate it. I can hang out with them and show them how to use the laser Etc.
I preloaded and chained it down the other day, fueled it. The job site is a bit sketchy so we will load and bring it home that night.
I staged the dump truck there yesterday with 7 tons of pea gravel in it. I'm not concerned about it in the least at the sketchy site.
It can sit there until I am comfortable with shifting a 15 speed road ranger (surgery is on the stick hand.)
The other operator is a fellow union operator and we met on my 2nd job out of the hall in 1991. We have kept in touch and worked on some other projects over the years.

 

[MarieIG]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery Skyking1.

 

[skyking1]

thank you @MarieIG

 

[SonofCohoes]

My Carpel tunnel release was a breeze.

 

[skyking1]

I've heard that many more times than the complaints of lost strength.

 

[Chuckanut]

Damn that spiral staircase looks nice.

Yes it does. I’ll let you haul the awkward heavy stuff up it. [emoji3]

 

[skyking1]

^ agreed!
I'm really not hauling anything on our stairs in the new build. I can drive up to the basement french doors, and my little friend here is coming along for the upstairs stuff.

 

[pacergal]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

 

[skyking1]

I got word from my engineer today on the 6'x 10' cantilevered balcony engineering. His part = $350
It comes out of the sunroom on the drawing I posted a while back, and also doubles as the weather protection over the front entry. It will add a lot of space to the sunroom.

I gave the go ahead to add that to the engineering work.

The beauty of it is I can add any non-structural columns or details to it down the road. It's a win.

 

[street]

Looking forward to your start of the build.

 

[Ronstar]

Looking forward to your start of the build.

+1.

 

[skyking1]

Today is the day, I am submitting the plans for review and writing a check.
I know that many people are reticent about sharing details about money, but this is fun.
I recently pared the checking account to put in a higher interest account, and I have $103 to spare when I write this check for plan review