Slow

I've been slow. Progress has been slow. It's depressing. I haven't written about it, because writing shows how little progress has been made. However, for anyone continuing to check the site, I am writing this just to let you know that I am still working on the house.

Poured the Garage floor (finally)

I managed to get a concrete contractor out (finally) and we got the concrete floor to the garage poured. I took a bunch of photos.

Our goal right now is to get the garage closed in, so that we have a secure place to store tools and materials. We'll pour the slabs for the rest of the house after I finish the utility work that is needed below those slabs.

Earth Tubes

We actually worked on the house today. It was the first time in months. We did some utility work that will be below the slab. Most of what we did today was installing earth tubes (or cooling tubes) for bringing cool air in from beneath our pasture, with more pipes providing a return for pushing air back out to the pasture to be re-cooled. This air conditioning system will only require a fan to circulate, rather than a energy hog compressor.

See our photos on Flickr.

It Doesn't Feel Like Much Has Been Accomplished Lately

I was talking to Rachel lastnight about the house and feeling a bit down about it.  I told her that we just haven't done much with the house in the last month.  Really, ever since I ended my sabbatical (sp?) and took that job in June, I haven't done much with the house at all.  At least that's how it feels.

Rachel reminded me of the utility work that I've done.  I still need an electrician to pull the wire for the supply lines, and I need a plumber to weld the propane line segments together; as well as splicing the additional pex line for water.

I also ran a phone/data line between the new house and the current building we're living in.  This will allow for digital phone service between the houses, as well as a network line to hook up a couple of IP cameras out in the house.  I currently have 3 of them that aren't being used (they were once used but the old network line was cut multiple times because of carelessness in mowing and weed eating; I gave up after splicing a second time).

This new line is buried and inside conduit, so it wont have problems that the old one had.

That work was done.  The network line isn't quite to the old house yet, but it's waiting inside the well house (shed) and I'll finish hooking that line up in a week or so)(for now, it's protected from the weather).

Yesterday, Rachel helped me a lot.  I work so much better when she's working with me.  It's not so much that I need the extra physical labor (although there are jobs where I wish I had an extra man to pawn it off on).  It's more that I like bouncing ideas off her and getting her input on the best option to take on certain things.  In building this house, we figure it out sometimes as we go.  It's not just building from a plan.  We're doing some engineering from time to time; figuring out routes to take utilities, sometimes through the floor (sub-slab), which means I need her ideas.

Anyway, yesterday she decided to help.  I used the tractor and dug out a 48 inch wide trench about 16 inches deep, across the great room module, and then we used shovels to get the trench the rest of the way into the hvac room.  This trench is for earth tubes (see http://www.thenaturalhome.com/earthtube.htm and http://www.tech-faq.com/earth-cooling-tubes.shtml).  We will have four coming in from beneath the pasture, and four coming back into the house.  It'll be a closed-loop system for circulating air through; warm air will be send into the pipes beneath the pasture, cooling below 60° and then returning into the house to be circulated through, much like an HVAC system.  In our case, instead of a central HVAC system, we will have a central air filter/purifier and circulation system.

Anyway, those pipes are 4inches in diameter each.  We actually will have a fifth pipe, but that's for the garage.  We have one going into the garage and a return that leaves the garage going back beneath the pasture.

Rachel helped me figure out where the four coming into the house will travel benearh the floor, and then how to get the return air from the rooms of the house and get them back out of the house.  We know the one from the great room will leave from the west side of the great room, so planning that tube was easy.  3 more had to be figured out, and if it hadn't been for Rachel's motivation, I probably would've waited longer to get this task done.

We went to the store and spent a couple of hundred dollars on materials, and then when I get the chance, I'll finish setting up the pipe in the floor.  We have the trenches deep enough that crossing them with electrical and phone lines (in order to get into conduit/outlet boxes that are already in the concrete walls) in the floor.  

Anyway, after all that progress, it ground to a halt because we spent the bulk of today working on things other than the house.  At least I got that work done though.

Nothing Got Done This Weekend

Absolutely nothing got done on the house this weekend.  The weather was bad; the remnants of Hurricane Ike made it's way through our area.  We got 4 and a half inches of rain and a little bit of wind, but nothing like what they received east of us.  We got the easy part.

Sunday was mostly clear, but I was tired.  Rachel was tired.  Nothing got done on the house.

I'm feeling like I'll try to do some supply hunting this week and be prepared for the next weekend, with hopefully better weather.

Worked On the Utility Trenches. Worn Out.

I took the day off to work on the utility trenches. I rented a jackhammer to make the job easier, but I'm worn out more than I have been in a very long time.

The jackhammer made the work go faster, but I worked hard having to pick the machine up and move it around. The boulders had to be cut through though, and this area of the property probably has the biggest boulders we have. They were thick and wide.

At the end of the day, Rachel asked me if this was the right tool for the job. I said that "for this job" it was, because of having to be careful and not damage existing utility lines and the well. However, if it hadn't been for those, the right tool for the job was a backhoe.

August Was a Slow Month

August was a slow month. Actually, there was lots of things going on in August, but few of them had to do with the house. We were just so busy. It's a shame too, because this was an unusually cool August for this area. It was probably 10 degrees lower than we usually get for this time of year.

Anyway, there was the grand opening of the BOK Center in Tulsa. I took a few photos. (Click here to see). That was last Saturday.

I'm back on the utilities chore and feeling the need to get this done so that we can berm some more (and that area will be buried, so it's important to get the utilities done first), so we can finish the waterproofing and get the roof covered before winter.

And nothing has been done about the slab or any utilities within the house. I do have all the utilities done in the garage though.

We did some trim work in the current house. After living in the house for almost 4 years, Rachel felt like we should finish some of the trim. So we've done that work and it was easier (and cooler) than working outdoors.

With August behind us, I'm feeling the urgency to get back to work on our new house.

Why Is It Difficult To Get Contractors?

Someone asked me, and we've often asked ourselves this as well, why is it so hard to find contractors to help get work done on the house?  We've experienced difficulty with the trenching services, the plumbers, the electricians, as well as others.  So why is this?

As it turns out, we pay or are willing to pay, the same as amount as what these guys are getting through their commercial building customers.  The difference is that their commercial building customers are a source for repeat business, whereas we are not.  Therefore, if they aren't busy, they'll do work for us, but otherwise, we're going to keep getting pushed to the back of the queue as far as when they can work.

So it stands to reason that we've had trouble.  In comparing notes with other people I know in the area, who are also building (or have built) their own homes, it has been the same experience for them.  The best luck they've had is to pay for day labor and supervise closely.

Still Rushed but Not Stressed

After further consideration, and talking it over with Rachel, we decided that the money we were going to be paying for waterproofing help, and slab prep, was going to be a whole lot of money for not a lot.  It was going to be a lot in terms of progress that I have not been able to make on my own, but it was going to use up the rest of our money and wasn't a lot of value added.

So Rachel decided that she'll help me.  We're getting a list of things to do and products to buy, and looking to hire some local help.  Our plan is to get the waterproofing done in a weekend in August (before the rains come in the Fall), and get the roof covered as soon as possible.  This will be some dirt work.  I'll have to buy dirt as well as get someone to help move the dirt we have up against the house and get the berming completed.

Likewise, some local help can get us the slab prep work we need, and with Rachel's help, I can get the phonecalls made, the workers lined out and all the things done that I couldn't do and hold down a job at the same time.

This will save us a lot of money, which I feel a lot better being able to save and spend somewhere else (on the house, of course).  Rachel is happier about it.  I don't think Ralph Smoot (the guy in the Austin area that was going to help us) is happy about it.  He's not returning my e-mails right now and there've been no phone conversations since our decision either.

I had literally planned to get him to do the work up until dinner lastnight after work.  I had the contract printed out.  I had already given Ralph our address and instructions on how to find the place, so that they could have materials delivered.  All that remained was me provide a check and the signed contract, which I was going to Fedex for a Monday delivery.
At dinner, Rachel said she didn't feel comfortable with that decision and felt that it was an awful amount of money for what we'd be getting.

I can definitely say that this was nothing against Ralph or his son Conrad.  It was a money issue.  I wanted to get the work done, but I didn't like the idea of being out of money afterwards.  This way, it'll probably take us longer to get this stuff done, but we'll have the money left to go further on construction than we would have been able to otherwise.

I still haven't gotten a return call from Jay Scafe (@ Terra-Dome) because I had wanted to check and see if he had anyone to help us with the waterproofing, and what they might charge.  If it was a better price, we would entertain that solution for certain.  The thing is, Jay hasn't returned our calls.  He's either out of town, or just not checking his voice-mail yet.

Feeling Rushed & Stressed

I'm feeling rushed.  I'm under a lot of pressure.  It feels overwhelming, but I have to do this.

I have a unique opportunity to make some great progress in a short amount of time on the house.  However, this comes with a cost.  Money.  And we're almost out of it.  So I've had to ponder this to decide what to do, and I don't have a lot of time to make the decision.

Ralph Smoot and his son Conrad (see http://www.earthshelteredhome.com) have proposed to come and help us get our waterproofing done, as well as helping me finish the slab prep work so that I can pour the floor concrete.  The thing is, they have a tight schedule and I feel rushed.

Ralph is proposing that they come out in a couple of weeks.   I think this is good for their schedule, but he also says that it'll get in before the rain returns in the fall, and it'll give the waterproofing time to cure a bit before winter.

I have some factors that stress me out on this.
   1.  It's a lot of money, but the good thing is that it's a great amount of progress in a small amount of time.
   2.  Once the waterproofing is down, we've got to protect it, so it has to be buried within a few weeks.  We have to get the place bermed and the roof covered.  (but we can't do that until the floors are poured).
   3.  Ralph recommends no berming until the floor concrete is in (for wall stability).  So once the waterproofing is done, we're committed.
   4.  We are running low on money.
   5.  There is an enormous amount of floor prep that I don't think Ralph realizes, although I've documented it for him extensively.  It may be that he doesn't consider it to be as big an obstacle as I do, although his price for helping me on this aspect is minimal.  It's worth the money.
   6.  I work during the day and haven't had time to devote to calling slab contractors to see what their labor will run.
   7.  I'll have to purchase rebar and get that delivered to the site, and I'm not sure what 3800 feet of #3 rebar is going to run (yet).
   8.  We're running low on money.

There's a great opportunity here.  By the end of August, we could be months and months ahead of where we'd otherwise be.  It's just that we'll also be out of money so work will slow down after this temporary surge in progress.