Building a Home

Folks think that my office on front of the house is the entry to my house.
I can see how that might confuse someone.


The front door is in place at the end of the house.
My dinning room table is in the house.(6ft oak= old traditional lion claw legs)
This dinette survived the fire but has some fire retardant chemical damage. not bad.
When the fire department was putting out the fire, they sprayed some kind of stuff that would prevent
the fire from spreading and that is the stuff on the dinette. I got most of it off.

That don't seem like much but= It makes it seems more homey.

Instead of sitting here taking a break, I should be out measuring and cutting the insulation black board for the eve of the office.

A whole front view of the House.
(note: There is a Mimosa tree and Variegated Cane in front of the deck. The cane will be dug up and move and the Mimosa stays)

excuse the mess



This message was edited Jun 18, 2011 1:11 PM

I have that exact same set!

Wow, You have a nice read also, im impressed . very well done and ill have to keep a closer eye on this thread also ..

Thanks Freedom.

CajunKy= I noticed that this dinette had a very thin coat of varnish/polyurethane when I bought it and I noticed that others who had the same dinette was loosing their finish coat after a few years. When I bought mine, I put two extra coats of polyurethane on it and if I had not, the finish coat would of been ruined in the fire. Thanks to those two extra coats, I was able to save its appearance. This winter when I am bored, I will lightly sand it and give it two more coats.
I want to buy some extra chairs like those cause 1. my daughter law rested her feet on the little leg rails and broke one.
2. I also saved a Secretary Desk that has the same lion claw legs and I think it needs a chair like the dinette set has. 3. One of the chairs that was in the fire still has a lot of the chemical retardant on it that I was not able to remove completely. That chemical looks white on the finish surface. Unless=== there is one chemical I have not tried using on the dinette and thats Denatured Alcohol. I used it on the Secretary Desk and it almost made it look brand new. There was colored card stock paper on the desk and when it got wet, the paper stuck to the desk and there was dark pink squares on the desk surface that I could not remove with any cleaners.. Denatured Alcohol cleaned it without hurting the finish. hmmmmmmm. forgot about that until now. (chatting helps you think)

We haven't got much done lately. Been spending money on Bills=catching those up. We still haven't got the upstairs End walls up yet but hubby says he will work on them this evening.

I will eventually put octagon windows in the office. I have one frame cut. Used 2x6s to make up for the outside insulation board and siding thickness. 8 boards were cut at 9 inches long and each of those 8 boards have a 22.5 degree angle cut on each end. How did I figure that out without reading a book? Well, The octagon is like putting together two perfect squares. When cutting angles to put together a perfect square you use a 45 degree angle.
Since this was two squares I thought maybe I should divide my degree in half(divided by 2) and I got it right.
I will use Liquid Nail to put the boards together perfectly then let that dry then nail them together. Liquid Nail helps me position them perfectly before nailing. It's very aggravating to nail something like this with so many pieces. If you get one piece wrong , it's heck removing the nail and repositioning it. But , using liquid nail means I need a level surface, secret hiding place away from children and dogs.

Everyone knows what an octagon looks like but I still had to take a picture. These are just sitting in place = not connected yet.

It must be so nice to have skills. I just kinda stumble through things and get lucky every now and again.

I made the stupid mistake of sitting a bottle of Mean Grren cleaner on my table and forgetting it when I went to do something else. I now have a white ring on the table clear down to the wood. So I fixed it by keeping a table cloth over it. LOL Works for me.

I am so amazed at how quickly and wonderfully your place is going up! Takes me two weeks to get the screen door back on the track...lol! So proud of ya'll... :D

Thank you so much Hineni

Cajun , that Mean Green really is some mean stuff. And so is Grease Lightening. I would lightly sand the surface where the finish was damaged with 220 grit sand paper, stain it with Golden Oak stain, Polyurethane, sand with cardboard and polyurethane again. For those who didn't know it, You can take cardboard and strip the paper off one side of the cardboard til you see the ribbed surface and use it as a very mild sand paper for a smoother finish.

Been a painter half my life and have stripped and finished antique furniture during parts of my life. Makes doing things at home easy by knowing how. Love to paint.

Hubby found some time to frame in the upstairs end walls. I just watched with a beating heart. He scares me on those tall ladders and I wouldn't go near the edge until it was framed. Then I helped him set the window.

Insulation board / window in

The sky and clouds were so picture perfect purdy that it looks fake.

The end walls are double framed.
Seems to be very sturdy.

Last night= the end to a very hot day with many more to come.

beautiful ...

Girl, it's gonna be a real house in no time!!!

All I am doing today is cutting wood for the overhang. Most of it is cut already. We had put it to the side to get the insulation board on. It rained yesterday. No leaks. What a relief. Watched the storm roll in from the upstairs window. Pretty.
My lawn chores are falling behind. I need to catch up on all chores.
I am working on getting my Kitchen moved from the shed to the house.....I won't have hot water right away but I know
how to heat water on a stove.
Funds are low. Gotta save up $1900 for the roof shingles and labor expense. Things will be very slow going around here from now on. Of course , we have the siding already. Will put that on after the overhang is finished.

upstairs= end wall

Very Nice ... nothing like building your own home..

Will it be paid for as you go?

The house itself has no loan. Paid as we go. But= we owe on the land. 10 acres. Should be paid for in about 4 years. So if something happens financially and unable to pay for the land then we loose the house. Scary but no different than it would be if we owed on all of it.

If it came down to loosing it all , we would sell it first.

Plus, Part of the 10 acres is divided. 1 1/2 acres of that has a clear deed that the greenhouse business sits on.

This message was edited Jun 29, 2011 8:02 AM

I have a brave husband. He is my hero. There is no way I would climb up there and do what he is doing.

Overhang construction

I can't stand a microwave taking up my lovely counter space. I like empty counter space. Nice and neat.
We built the microwave space into the wall under the stair case. Stairs next to kitchen.
For now, the box is lined with OSB but later it will be lined with Oak to match the kitchen cabinets.

The stove is in the kitchen and working. The refrigerator is in the kitchen and working. One 6 foot base cabinet is in the kitchen and it has all my canned tomtoes in it plus other canned goods. Coffee pot is set up too. The first meal prepared in the new house was======nasty fried hot dogs. Yuck
Bought plumbing supplies yesterday and a new bathtub with new shower wall Kit for the master bath.
Working on Plumbing and getting the kitchen sink in today. Some electrical.

LOL @ nasty fried hot dogs ... food is just fuel for the machine, some just taste better than others ....
Coming along great, one never know exactly how much work goes into building something untill they do it themselves

I could never do it but I sure am enjoying this thread.

Dunno if I mentioned it before or not=====I had a big leather sectional in my previous home and I was making payments on it. It was going to be too big for the new house livingroom so I asked the furniture store If I could exchange it for something that would fit in new house that I was going to build.............in addition to that I also needed them to hold it for me until I got the house built enough to have it delivered. They said they had never taken furniture back before in exchange for something else====but since I have spent over $10,000 in the past few years at their store , they would do it for me=====first time they ever did it. So==I had picked out 2 leather double reclining love seats. The kind that has those bronzey buttons on the front of the arms. I been paying on them for almost 5 months ==waiting impatiently to say Deliver. They deliver tomorrow morning and I am soooooooooooooo ready to sit on a couch and relax.
Hubby will be out for a few hours helping someone else= while I get the living room ready for furniture and cut wood for the overhangs.===and some laundry===and some dishes...............Life is a never ending story. I beg for boredom.

Boredom ? wuts dat ? hahaaa

So glad you found favor with the store.

Wish I could buy the rest of the cabinets I want for the kitchen. I have to put my Wants in my back pocket and work on the more important things.

This is the basic setup for the kitchen.......for now.

in the future, the kitchen will have one more 6 ft base cabinet that comes out as an island that separates the kitchen from the dining area. and lots of wall cabinets. Using a china hutch for the dishes until I get the wall cabinets.
Also , Sink counter top is temporary. Haven't decided on permanent counter top yet.

there is cold water to the sink. Setting up the hot water today,
setting in a toilet today.

Bath/shower set in place waiting on plumbing. Bath tub= 5 ft long, 32 inches wide, 18 inches deep.

a comfy place to sit.
Behind the love seats will be a Half Wall with support beams to the ceiling/ that will support the 2nd floor.
We wanted the livingroom furniture in place so we would know how high up we had to construct the half wall.


in addition to the half wall ==in the future===there will be 3 5ft wall cabinets that actually sit on the floor with an
oak counter top. The cabinets will only be a foot deep====a 1ft X 15ft counter top or some would call it a Catch All.
That counter will display Amber dishware and candy dishes.(turkey, chicken. rooster, etc.......) let me take a pic and show you.








This message was edited Jul 2, 2011 7:34 AM

way kewl design on you kitchen .. i likes it

some Amber

Thank you freedom. What is there now is nothing to compare to the future. The microwave that is set in the wall under the stairs will have a 16 inch X 10 ft counter top on the wall below the microwave===the counter top will also sit on wall cabinets that sit on the floor.

This pic are Some Amber serving or fruit bowls===the bowls are shaped like grapes and the bottom has the impression of grapes.
I don't have a pic of some serving plates that are amber with 3 impressions of Shrimp on the bottom = made in India..

Lookin' good! It would be dangerous for me to have my sink that close to the stove. I am sloppy. LOL

Hot water being installed today. Running water ran to bath. Already have a working Toilet.
Hubby gone shopping for Turbans? to install on the roof to pull heat out of the second story.
Up until now- we had temp power ran out to a power pole that was used for a mobile home.
Now hubby has installed a breaker box inside, located in the office. Now that breaker box is temporarily
hooked into the power pole box outside. Our Energy Company will not hook directly to the house until
the inside is completely finished.

The day is finally cooling off and I am off to hammer something.

Hey, having hot water is a great milestone!!

dontya just love progress

I am so excited for you guys. Can't wait for more pics!

the only new pictures I could take was all the plumbing and that might be kinda boring.

Everything is so slow right now. Hubby working away from home and only works on the house
about an hour each evening and most of Sundays.
Most of the overhang has been constructed except for the really high parts. It really does take an
act of congress for hubby to set up the long extension ladders and set up the heavy walk boards. He does
it by himself cause I absolutely refuse to climb up there...........Heck No. Plus = since I was yelling for hot water, he had to stop the overhang construction and make me smile by HOOKing up the bathtub plumbing.
No hot water to the kitchen yet but I can take a cool shower tonight. Cold is too cold.
And we can't put the outside siding on the house until we finish that crazy overhang..........
After the siding goes up,,,,,I can paint. no I haven't decided completely what color to paint it.
I had a few ideas and changed my mind..........Its a hard decision to make. sigh.
I did decide that it has to be light colors cause ===it's really hot in here with that black board out there so maybe I should cool it off some. The siding already has a primer on it. Light Gray.
Hubby once suggested a gray with maroon shutters.
I am thinking about it. The great thing about paint is=====You can always change it.

Love your house!
On the paint colors: I was told that light blue, white and yellow attract bugs; so don't paint it those colors. Grey w/maroon sounds nice.

I always liked sand with dark green or blue shutters. Makes a nice background for any flowers, ect. Gray would be nice too.

And the Final Decision is=============A sandy creamy color for the house.
And Do-Da-Bounce Dance cause we have Shingles for the roof thanks to a
low fixed interest credit card..............I said I would never use another credit card
but========never say never. Hurricane season is near====We need to get shingles on
this house. The small windy thunderstorms keep tearing up the roofing felt. Nothing major =yet.
Hubby will finish the over hang this week==by Friday. The roofer should be out Saturday.
I will be taking pictures this week.

And= I now have steel doors for the office and the back door===gotta find time to install.

And hubby is out buying a One Room Air Conditioner before I have a heat stroke. Our son
will have to sleep on a pallet in our bedroom so he can be comfy at night too. It was still 85 degrees last night
at 11pm. The heat index right now at 2:30 pm is 110. If it feels like 110, then it is 110.
The turbans on the roof are moving so fast that you can't tell they are moving.

I hear a thunderstorm approaching.

Later.