Started insulating and berming the east wall

I took off work a couple of hours early yesterday so that I could work a little bit on the house, knowing that the weather this weekend would turn cold with a possibility of rain and/or snow. I ordered some more dirt to be delivered and was assured that it would be on site this morning. It didn't make it.

With the two loads of dirt I had already, I put up insulation, starting where the retaining wall meets the master suite. The insulation needs to be an inch thick (on the buried walls, but 2 inches thick on the roof, which we're not ready to do). The sheets of insulation need to be staggered so that the seams are overlapped.

After I had insulation up, I began putting dirt up against the house, which would hold the insulation in place. I also used some lumber to prop the upper portion of insulation against the house until it can be fully bermed. We're not there yet. It'll take much more than just two loads (approximately 15 tons per load) of dirt.

Jeremy helped me a little bit and we did quick work. This morning, I resumed, but did it mostly on my own (had a little bit of help from Rachel).

I put in a 100 ft roll of water line, extended into the house. On the outside of the house, a portion of this will be buried by the berm, so it was important to have this in place before resuming insulating and dirt work.

I put in about 8 more feet of insulation and partially bermed it, and then propped the upper portions with lumber.

We did get some rain this morning, and the cold front came in. As of 15:00, the temperature sensor in our car port read 32° Fahrenheit, and we were getting sleet.

The dirt never came and I ran out of dirt to continue putting up insulation and berm. That was frustrating. I have this four-day weekend, and I'm not going to be able to do this kind of work. I really wanted it done.

I have a mountain of dirt from the original excavation, and I could put that behind the garage, but I don't like driving the tractor back there when the ground is soggy (like it is). So I was hoping that I could work on the east side of the house with purchased dirt.

I suspect the reason the dirt guy didn't deliver, is that it rained a little bit. That would weigh down the dirt and make it weigh more. The trucks are only rated for a certain amount on our roads, and it would be illegal for him to be driving with a full load weighted down by rain. However, I've noticed that the big construction sites still get their dirt on days like this.
It's frustrating, but I did get work done that you can actually see. Progress is happening. I figure I'll piddle around a little bit during this four day weekend, and I'll likely have photos to post.

I do plan to put in about 8 hours at my job some time this weekend, to make up for time I took off this week on the house. It's worth it.

PS. Ten minutes later, the temperature in the carport was almost a degree lower. So I'm not sure how much colder it is expected to get. I'd work in it though, if I had the dirt.

They knocked down (or took down) some fence!!!

I called home and spoke to our son and found out that the dirt was delivered today. I was happy about this. However, I was infuriated when I got home (in the dark) and found that part of the fence was down. It was either taken down on purpose or knocked down. Either way, I was mad that there wasn't even attempt to put it back up after delivering the dirt.

I worked hard to get that fence in. The fence posts were hammered into sandstone. They weren't easy to get in.

I managed to get the fence back up with the help of our son, but it'll never be as good as it was. That's a bit frustrating.

I think this guy (the dirt guy) is giving us a good deal. I hate to complain. However, the next time that I ask him to deliver dirt, we're going to talk about the options with regards to the fence, and I hope that if it needs to be taken down for some reason, that I'm the one doing it. I just can't believe he just left it there on the ground, and even drove over it. That fence is bent up now and will never look or function the same again. I just can't over how inconsiderate this guy was.

Anyway, it was dark. I didn't get a real good look at the fence, so I don't know if there are more repairs needed or not. I do have the fence back up and hope that it'll function for us a while longer (at least throughout the rest of the construction process).

Redid some waterproofing

I didn't go to work today. I wasn't feeling well, and I figured I could work on the house and vomit in between (as needed), but I couldn't really do that at the office.

So I managed to apply Ecoline-R on the east wall of the master suite module. I found out the major difference between the Ecoline products and the Blackjack stuff that I was experimenting with. The blackjack is great as far as it goes on really thick, and it stays tacky for quite some time. This allowed me to stick some insulation on top of the footings and it would stick. That was good.However, the blackjack stays tacky for over a day (so far). This is nice for adhering insulation, but I like the way the Ecoline products dry and go on thinner and more easily to work; and they don't stay tacky. The Ecoline products are more expensive, but easy work is a good thing.

I think the blackjack stuff is great for the tops of footings, and the bottom of the walls where they meet with the footings. I'm sure there'll be some other places where this material will be a good solution to use. However, I've learned that you get what you pay for, and overall, the Ecoline products are better (in my opinion).

I was frustrated that I had called a dirt and gravel company. This was the guy that had done some work for our firestation, and the mayor of our community (he lives across the street from me) recommended this guy. I figure I'd help the guy out, but I was frustrated because he said he'd be here first thing this morning. He wasn't. First thing was after noon.

I wanted to get one load of washed gravel, which I did get delivered. I also wanted two loads of fill dirt. I didn't get those. So I was off work today, but didn't get my day maximized as far as things that could only be done with me home. I sure wanted that dirt.

This other company isn't as reliable as the company I had been using, but I was trying to help this guy out because he was an older gentleman and he was a minority (I wont say which). I figured I was doing a good thing, but this guy isn't reliable. I'll give him another chance. His son made the delivery today, because he was taking his wife to the doctor. I figured that maybe the son doesn't do this full-time and so maybe the dad is more reliable.I'll give him one more chance.
I got tired today and so there was a limit to the physical labor I could do, but I did apply the Ecoline material to the entire surface of the east wall, including the retaining wall. After that, I was moving dirt with the tractor for a while, because I could do that and ride the tractor. It was less strenuous for me (since I wasn't feeling all that well).

I had originally hoped that I could take off work this Friday, but since I was off work today, I kinda figure that I can't get off Friday too. I'm behind at work.I had hoped though, because according to the weather forecast, it's expected to rain on Saturday.

PS. I added a subscription page (Click).

2007.12.16 Not much done

I didn't get much done (again) this weekend. Rachel & I spent the afternoon cleaning up tree limbs from my parents' roof and backyard. The neighbor's tree did it, but the guy was unwilling (inconsiderate) to help a couple of elderly people out. You'd think that he'd at least have helped clean up, but he didn't. So we did.

The fence is torn up and will need to be replaced. There was roof damage as one of the limbs went about 4 feet through the surface of the roof. It's been temporarily patched until it can be repaired by a carpenter.

We got a truck load of firewood out of all this work, but it's green and therefore wont be usable for this winter. By the time I got home, I was pretty tired.

I'm a bit frustrated about the house. I went out lastnight to put some waterproofing (Ecoline-R) material at the base of the walls so that I can insulate and bury them. I noticed cracking in the waterproofing that I did already, and I think this is because it's been exposed to the UV rays too much. Too much time has passed and I didn't get it covered, and now I'm going to have to do it again.

This is not a one-man job, but one man is doing it.

2007.12.15 Put in Half a Day

I put in approximately half a day of work today. It was snowing most of the time and cold and windy. I moved some more gravel around the french drains on the east side of the house. I put down some filter fabric on the gravel, and then started backfilling with dirt.

Due to the wet ground, the tractor got stuck. It took me, with Rachel's help, probably about 30 minutes before I got unstuck.

I had to take frequent breaks because of the cold. I had two jackets on, with a hood, plus my hat. My feet and my face froze just the same, so the breaks were important.
I would've had dirt and gravel delivered this week, but the ground was saturated, and so that wasn't an option. Hopefully, I'll get several loads delivered next week and we can get some real progress made.

I don't feel good that I didn't get more work done. It's only me working and there's a mountain of work to do. This is so frustrating.

Put in a couple of hours

I got off work and put in a couple of hours before dark. I moved some dirt around back to give the footings a bit of protection from the frost. There's moisture out there. I also moved some gravel around in places that I'd previously started putting gravel.

I want to thank the visitors to this site that have signed the guest book. It's nice to see who all are interested in what we're trying to do. We'll eventually get the house built.

2007.12.11 Still no Electricity

There's still no electricity at the homestead. I can't work on the new house in the icey rain, and I can't work in the dark. I wish I could.

It's the second day without electricity. I did see a service truck from the electric company in the area, and he was near some downed power lines, so hopefully we'll have electricity soon.

Lastnight, I couldn't get our generator started, so we couldn't put minimal power on things like the freezer and the refrigerator. That gave us an excuse to clean the refrigerator out and put that stuff in the carport, where the temperature was around 32 degrees and certainly wont get above 40 for a day or two.

I got out today and took the generator to a mechanic and he was able to get it started for us. So we'll have at least minimal power this evening, even if we don't have power to the whole house. I'm not sure yet how to wire it up properly so that things like the well pump can run. It's hardwired, rather than something that can easily be plugged in. I've heard rumors of being able to rig up a plug from the generator that can go into the dryer electrical outlet. Supposedly, you cut off the input power (from the grid) at the breaker box, and this prevents any "backflow" of power to the grid. Supposedly, this will power the house.Even if we don't do that, we'll at least be able to string a couple of cords from the generator to the freezer, refrigerator, and maybe one or two other items in the house.

Needless to say, without power, we'll not be doing much with the new house.

Update as of 20:18, the generator is running. We had the network router and two computers running this evening, along with the refrigerator and the freezer. So we're not roughing it, except for water. I had to fill 5 7 gallon jugs of water and haul them from my parents' house in Tulsa. Their house is fine, but there's a concern about the roof as trees from their neighbors disintegrated and part of the debris fell into their back yard and partially on their roof. I'm hoping there's no serious damage.Oddly enough, the one tree left in their yard actually didn't have any broken branches. Go figure!

No Electricity

Power is out at our place. We got an ice storm yesterday and lastnight. At around 5:15 or so this morning, the power went off at our house. Evidently a tree either fell on a power line or a power line just fell fro the weight of the ice. Either way, we have no electricity at the house. This means no lights, no electric clocks, no water (because we're on a well), no television, and no phones except for a couple that are directly connected rather than the cordless phones.

We have a generator, but it's only good for connecting extension cords into it, and the well pump is directly wired so I'm not sure how we'd get electricity to that from the generator. We should be able to keep the refrigerator and freezer working enough though. We're keeping them closed and figure the generator only needs to run for about 15 minutes at a time, about every four hours (if the power doesn't come back on by then).

The roads were a hazard too. The weight of the ice had trees either broken and in the road, or else hanging down over the road so low that you couldn't drive under them. A couple of hours later, we tried again and were able to drive out of the neighborhood and get to work.

Not much this weekend

I didn't get much this weekend because of cold weather and rain. I worked a few hours yesterday. It was misty and cold, but not like the freezing rain we got today. And it was rainier today so we mostly stayed inside.

We took time yesterday to go to the annual Farm Show they have in Tulsa. It was free and I wanted to see what types of third-party add-ons and gizmos they have for our tractor, as well as some of the other things we might need for the homestead.

We bought a nifty work table that folds up nicely and stores in a small space. It's got 11 gauge steel and has wheels, so it's sturdy and heavy, but easy to move around because of the wheels.We figured we'll need it for working on the house. We rigged one up when we built the current home, but that wasn't so easy to move and it wasn't very sturdy. It worked, but I'm glad we'll have a better set up this time.

There were vendors selling sprayed foam insulation and other products of interest. There was a vendor selling steel framing, which is what we'll use. There was the insulated concrete forms (made of foam). There were vendors selling fence and gate products.

Mainly it was free and it got us out of the house.

Would I do it again?

Someone asked me today if doing it again, would I have Terra-Dome put up the shell. My answer is yes.

This person was asking because he and his wife are planning to build one of these homes in the spring.

I said I'd still have Terra-Dome do the work, but that if I didn't mind paying more money to get more finishing done, that Earthlog Equity Group is more of a one-stop shop sort of business. They finance. They put up the structure. They help with waterproofing. And, I might be wrong, but I believe they also finish the home out if that's what you want. It just costs more to do it.

Like us, this guy says that he plans on doing most of the work himself, rather than getting it all done by someone else. He's done the research and found Terra-Dome to be less costly than anyone else building one of these types of buildings, and so he'll probably contract with them.

I will definitely say that building your own home is not for the faint of heart. If you want to do it, you can. If you don't mind taking out financing or if you're afraid of doing so much work, then my advise is to check with Earthlog Equity Group. Since I haven't done business with them, I can't say how good they are. I just know they provide more services than Terra-Dome, but that it comes with a price. Their website is very informative, and they seem to be very customer-friendly. I have been impressed with them in this regard.

Worked some this evening

We got some productive work in this evening. It wasn't as much as I had hoped for, but there were three of us instead of just one, so it was the man hours.

A friend just recently bought property an hour from our place, and he and his family plan on building a Terra-Dome style house. Their's will be bigger and a bit more grand. Currently, they're planning to do the footings on their own, and save some money.

The Encouragement Helps

We've received several messages of encouragement today. It feels good to get that. There are highs and lows and I've been going through some lows. There'll be highs again.
I feel a bit awkward feeling sorry for myself. The coach of our hockey team resigned today. I don't know if he resigned on his own, or if he was asked to resign. Either way, that guy sure can't be feeling good right now, and he's one of the best human beings I know. I wish he and his family the best.

One thing I'll say is that when I'm struggling at my job, no one heckles me or boos. I'd hate to be a professional athlete. Their highs are greater than mine, but their lows are too.
I'm sticking it out at my job. It's not a bad one and they treat me well. Plus, the pay is pretty good (not as good as when I was a contractor, but I get more benefits now).

I wish I made enough money to hire some professional help on the house, but I can't. So I guess I'd continue to work my way through it slowly. The cold weather is here and I'll be working in the cold. It could be worse. At least we live this far south. Working in 40 degree (Fahrenheit) temperatures is much more comfortable than just a hundred miles north of us.

Rachel says I should consider working full-time on the house

I've been depressed that there's so much work to do on the house, and I'm doing it virtually on my own; and getting very little progress done. I look back at where things were a few months ago, and we've certainly made progress, but we're way, way, way behind from where I hoped to be right now. And there's so much work to do to get to that point where I wanted to be.
So I've been depressed and it's been getting worse.

This weekend, Rachel suggested a couple of times, that I should strongly consider quitting my job and working full-time on the house. The thing is, I remember when I was unemployed before and it didn't feel good not having that income. We did fine, but we had to cut out all of the frills.

I was able to finish the house we're in now, so being able to work full-time on it was a good thing. But when I was ready to get back to work, I had a difficult time finding a job. And when I finally did find one, it was for approximately half the pay.So the idea of taking off and working on the house full-time appeals to me, but then I wonder how hard it might be for me to find a job months later when I'm ready to go back to work.

So I'm not ready to quit my job yet. I'm going to ride it out a while longer and see how things go. For one thing, there's been an idea passed around at work, suggesting that we might be able to go to 4 10 hour days. That would give me every Monday or Friday off work. I could get more work done on the house, and maybe that would be enough for me to feel progress being made.

Maybe it would be enough for me not to be so depressed like I am now.

Still, Little Progress

The weekend started off to be productive. I got in about 6 hours of good work on the french drain system north of the garage. I had an early hockey game so I scrambled to clean up and changed and drive to Tulsa for the game.

The game was the poorest performance I've seen in a long time. This is to contrasted one of the best performances of the home team in probably 3 seasons. I'm hoping improvement though, as I saw what they're capable of last Tuesday. They were great.

Anyway, today, it rained off and on. We had church this morning. It looked like it was going to clear up and be nice, but then the cold front hit. Meanwhile, instead of working on the new house, I was busy working on a plumbing issue with the current house, which consumed the bulk of the afternoon.

By the time I had a lunch/supper, it was getting dark and it was colder.
So, with the whole weekend, I got about 6 hours of work in. That's not enough. It's depressing. I'm just not getting enough work done, and there's so much work to do. I'm going to have to start working in the evenings, which I've done before, but this time, it's a lot of outdoor work in the cold. I'll have to set up some lights so that I can work, and try to get a couple of hours of work every evening.