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Once I found out how much excavation cost where we are, it was a no-brainer. It’s expensive, sure, but add in the cost (for us) of storing half your house, plus not having to temperature control a liveable space year round… made total sense
I don't live in a neighborhood with an HOA, but we had to do a HUGE amount of paperwork (and taxe$$$) with the county I live in when we did our expansion last year. I went around to all the neighbors and informed them of what we were doing, showed the plans digging, concrete, etc. They all signed a letter of support. Everybody was cool with it, even our neighbors who constantly cut down our trees and pretend they didn't. Curious if this is required in other areas?
Quoted from yaksplat:I have no HOA here either, but still I had looped in all of the neighbors, as to what was going on, just so there'd be no surprises when the dig happened. Showed them plans, had paint on the ground showing the extents of everything. I had to pay about a thousand for the permit from the town, but that also certified that the plans meet code for the town and state.
Yeah you did your due diligence. You’re in the clear!
Quoted from yaksplat:Still waiting on basement walls. With everyone getting paid to not work, my concrete company has only one laborer. Supposedly, I'll have some foundation walls next week.
Pretty sure the covid unemployment payments ended last week, so presuming the concrete company can FIND workers, you should start to see some progress soon.
Quoted from yaksplat:They've been offering $19/hr with no skills to start now for weeks. $300 per week in unemployment is still plenty when you still don't have to pay rent in NY.
Crap, it's a different world now but I would have loved to make $19/hr when I was first starting out in construction!
Quoted from Honch:Some people just like to complain. After watching your drone video, I'm not sure what this view is that your neighbor thinks you're obstructing? It doesn't look like anyone has a view of much of anything with the way your development is laid out.
So strange that you two were "neighborly" at one point and now it's bordering on animosity. Anyway, looks like it'll be a pretty kickass game room.
Pretty typical unfortunately. This is why there are real estate attorneys! (which is what MY neighbor does for a living...)
Quoted from Honch:I hope you guys are on friendly terms.
I mean yeah, mostly. He's cool for the most part. Not sure how cool his wife is. We had an issue with them hacking away at one of our trees which killed it, but both of us know it's better to be civil. I'm sure I've done stuff which pissed them off, but generally yeah it's all good.
W
Quoted from yaksplat:Good news / Bad news
Good news: Deck is built and completely sheeted. Ready for walls to go up.
Bad news: I did something stupid. While working after sunset I had a light set up while finishing the last few sheets. All day long I kept saying to myself, once I finish the deck, I'm putting up safety railings around the openings. Well, I shouldn't have waited. In a 20' walk to grab a hammer, I was walking towards the light and missed the corner of the 6.5' square opening. An opening that I had walked around dozens of times before.
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I fell.
11'- 2-1/8" down to stone.
Somehow I managed to bounce off the ladder that was there and I think that saved me. I landed on my right knee and left forearm.
I was back up the ladder 15 seconds later wondering what the hell just happened and how did I get so lucky. Ripped jeans, cut knees and forearm.
I finished the sheeting on the deck, cleaned up and went in the house. Then the adrenaline wore off. I messed up my right knee. I'm pretty sure i sprained everything. Nothing is broken and somehow I didn't hit my head or cause major damage. I'm thankful for that. We'll see how everything feels in the morning.
I'm embarrassed, angry and grateful all rolled into one.
Damn! Glad you survived, that could have been waaaaay worse! Definitely a good idea to do those safety railings. I don't know how you're tackling this huge job on your own. It's something to be proud of, but make sure you're *around* to enjoy it when it's done!
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:Wait until you get walls up, look around and say "What happened to all my space?!?". That's what I did when I finished my basement.
LOL yep, same! We just finished a 30% expansion on the house, 3 levels, and I thought it wa going to be HUGE!!! Now, where did all that space go...? (oh yeah it's filled with huge game machines)
Quoted from yaksplat:I have two connected sumps, with a backup generator incoming. Even then I'll add the water backup pump. Also, I have water alarms outside each sump planned. I have one on my current sump and it's saved me before when the float stuck.
I added a power inverter and HUGE battery backup in case our power goes out. It switches over automatically if the power fails. I still have to check the sump and float from time to time, but I’m thinking I can add a water alarm in the pit just in case. Nothing’s foolproof though, gotta eyeball it every so often
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:+1
I'm at 61 TB not including parity. I actually ordered 3 SSDs a few minutes ago that I plan to use for pool drives. One for my Docker Containers, one for VM VHDs and one because I need a larger cache drive.
I'm in love with the docker containers you can run. I'm running a self hosted Bitwarden instance, Pihole as a DNS sinkhole, SAB, Nextcloud, Emby, Crashplan, Radar and Sonarr.
I added a NVIDIA GPU a few months ago for transcoding 4K on the fly so there is virtually no load on the CPU during the transcodes.
I don't know what I'd do without that server!
What do you use Nextcloud for?
Quoted from yaksplat:Thanks!
We hope he does too.
I just had the HVAC guy out. He did my furnace last December and put the evaporator in there for the AC unit. He asked me, "Do you want the condenser on the side of your house with the moron neighbors?" I said absolutely! I was just amused that he remembered from the stories that I had told him. He also asked if i wanted the ultra-quiet condenser for an extra $1500 and then started laughing after he realized what he just asked.
That side of the house will have both condensers, a mini split and my trailer. We were originally going to have stone running a few feet up on the wall, but his actions made us decide against that. There will be no plants and just the sided house.
There's nothing that we would do to improve their quality of life since they did everything possible to hinder ours for the last year.
Are these the neighbors with the wimpy husband and the possibly abusive, definitely aggressive wife? Yeah… don’t spend the extra bucks
Quoted from yaksplat:Finally started roofing. I have about 40 square to do and this is the last roof of my life. I'm using Decra roofing, which are stone coated steel panels. It comes with a 50 year warranty. But somehow I don't think I'll care when I'm 95.
I started yesterday. Lots of messing around with ice shield and trim pieces. But today was a full day of nothing but roofing. 19% done, but I have 4 days of rain incoming.
212 pieces. 33 trips up and down the ladder.
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Very interesting. I did asphalt roofing when I was a kid, but I have no clue about these Decra stone/steel pieces. How do you fix them to the roof?
Quoted from yaksplat:Garage was finally poured this weekend. No more slogging through stone on a daily basis.
How are you finding the level of the pour? I discovered this weekend that I have at least a 2” drop over 13 feet in the new space which is making it a nightmare to level my games
Quoted from yaksplat:The floor in the garage is sloped about 1/4" per foot, so it's at least 4" from front to back of the garage. That's not far from yours. This is the same guy that did my basement too. Down there, there are a few low spots that are maybe 3/16" low at the most, but the floor was poured completely flat. I'm confident that the garage will be similar.
Garage slope makes sense, so you have good drainage away from the interior. Mine is the basement so I am not expecting too much water! (not to mention it should be draining toward the sump pit at least!). Another lesson learned to check - I never did concrete so it didn’t cross my mind
Quoted from yaksplat:Got a call yesterday at about 3pm, "We have an opening tomorrow to come out and do your insulation. I don't want to rush you, but are you ready?"
Rule one: When a sub calls and can get you in early, you always say yes.
Logistically I was ready. All inspections passed and the next step is insulation, but there's crap everywhere. Need to clean out the garage and everywhere the insulation is going.
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All hands on deck. Wife, three kids and I, all hauling stuff down to the basement. 6 hours to get the garage cleared to one bay of easy things to move and the basement clear in the area where the ceiling is insulated.
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Turns out this is a 3 day job and we jumped the gun a bit by getting everything cleared out, or as easy to move as possible. But at least they could chug away, unimpeded.
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This ceiling has been a pain in the ass since i started framing it. One guy spent most of the day on it.
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It's odd seeing rooms dark now. It's the first-time walls have been closed up. The two reapers still fit well in the laundry room
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I asked them if they itch. I was told that you get used to it and don't feel it anymore. That's something I never want to get used to. Just seeing this made me cringe.
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Insulation is made with MUCH tinier fibers than even about 15 years ago. I installed as a kid and usually wore gloves, but got exceptionally good at cold showers after a job (closes up your pores and ensures the fibers don’t stick). now I basically don’t even bother, it’s gotten so much better. Since Manville went out of business effectively, all competitors like RIS have a superior product.
Quoted from yaksplat:The one guy was telling me that the old yellow stuff was the absolute worst.
Johns Manville!
Quoted from mbwalker:Going to foam the basement walls, then frame? Or just leave alone?
When we built, the builder did a skim coat on the 1st floor (ranch) for air leakage, then standard insulation between studs. R19, I think (6" walls).
hopefully it was r-15 because that 19 will be compressed 3/4 inch, definitely reducing its R value
Quoted from mbwalker:Pretty sure it was R-19, but I could be wrong.
Either way, you effectively will get R-15. Still good!
Quoted from mbwalker:Just for the heck of it (I was curious), I did look up the R-19 batts (Mansfield), looks like 6.5", the R-15 is 3.5", So the R-19 sounds about right (right or wrong). Skim coat of foam was maybe a third of an inch. But I understand your comment about compressing and losing R value.
Maybe a little compressed - but still good. Heating bills aren't much and the house is comfy. I do think the foam skim coat is really beneficial.
If I build again, I think I'd look into using a ZipSystem or equivalent to get a thermal break between the framing and outside.
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You’re fine - I was just clarifying that a 6” wall thickness isn’t actually 6 inches of actual void space, and any compression (like at all) of a fiberglass batt will compromise its R-value. It’s seriously not a big deal, I was just getting nerdy about the technicality.
Quoted from yaksplat:They're still chugging along with the insulation, so i though I'd take the thermal camera up into the attic and see how things look.
All of the colors are relative temperature. So if you get an extreme temperature in view, it skews the whole spectrum.
All looks good here. No heat coming through the blanket.
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Here's an area where the blanket is over the top, but not yet insulated between the ceiling joists. You can see the expected leakage.
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And here's a view of the side of the existing house from in the attic. It appears that I have an area where there was either no insulation, or it just sagged really bad. Seeing that it's a perfect rectangle, someone didn't do their job back in '93.
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Not bad! This is a reminder for me I need to go do this in my basement; we have some really drafty areas I’m finding.
House looking good! What area are you in in tech? It’s been a weird couple of months, but I’m sure glad I spent the last 2 years doing AI/ML. Glad you landed on your feet
Quoted from yaksplat:That's one of those things where you can only do really what the company that you work for does. I'd love to get into AI, but have yet to work for a company that leverages it. I'm not a full stack dev, because I don't believe that there is such a thing. I'm a back end dev, primarily using Microsoft toolsets. Lots of database and API work.
Nice! Full stack developers exist … there’s just a major discrepancy between what the MBAs think it means and what we know it really means LOL
Also the same reason I’m not worried about AI taking over our jobs, but pretty worried the decision makers are going to use it before it’s time and we are all in trouble
Quoted from yaksplat:And then this just slapped up in the face this morning. I had taken most of the film off the windows yesterday. Everything is so bright from the morning sun. That was the plan, but it was nice to actually see the plan become reality. No wonder my neighbor is pissed. I have a fantastic backyard.
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This is my absolute favorite part of a build. I always see things out the windows I didn't expect. It's even more dramatic when someone else does the design, really good architects see things way ahead of time and it's this great surprise when you see it in person
Post photos of the under-cabinet lighting. I'm having trouble with that in our kitchen because we don't have a lot of wall cabinets
Quoted from yaksplat:In love using a chainsaw. They're a blast, but it's absolutely exhausting work. I always file all the teeth before starting. Just a few swipes on each is good enough unless you hit something.
Super important step most people forget. WAY more exhausting trying to cut with dulled teeth. My neighbor has a battery powered one which is surprisingly effective! It's real heavy but it lasted 5 or 6 hours of standard use. I'm looking into one of those fuel cell powered ones now, like the Paslode framing guns.
Quoted from yaksplat:It's just going to be flooring for a while...
Last night didn't finish well. I was spending more time unjamming my flooring nailer than putting floor down. My 15 year old Akuzuki was just not having it. Back in 2009, flooring nailers were easily a $600 item. I wanted to install some hardwood flooring, but i didn't want to rent the gun. I also didn't want to spend $600 on one. I checked amazon and there was a off brand nailer that everyone loves. It was $300. I still didn't want to spend that much. But a friend of mine was talking about putting in hardwood, but he was afraid to DIY, but really wanted to. I told him, buy me a nailer and I'll teach him and help install the entire floor. He was on board and i got my Akuzuki. It worked great. We installed 600 sqft of Ipe in his house. Amazing looking floor. Then I did floors in my parent's house. Then 1200 sqft at my neighbor's house. And finally 250 here in my house. Well, I think after 100 sqft here, the akuzuki decided to give up the ghost. Yesterday it started leaking air. Fixed with some liquid gasket. Then the jams started. First every once in a while, then every 10 shots. One nail about welded itself to the hammer. After the 10th jam i was done for the night. Each jam is removing 5 screws, removing the nail, then 5 screw back in. 5-10 minutes each time.
I left the last one in. I'll fix it later.
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Off to Lowe's this morning before work. Based on amazon, everyone loves the Bostitch, and great news, top of the line nailers are only $300 now.
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Everything has been great so far with this one. No issues and just moving along. 220 sqft done, 21% of that room.
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I'm a big fan of this wood. I like the variation. It's not going to show all the dust like other woods that are consistent in color.
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You made a great choice. I will pay $300 to save my back any day of the week. And you have WAY more to go! That $300 will be invisible after all the time you'll save.
Quoted from yaksplat:Into the slow burn. Lot of things going on, but not a lot to see. Some more rooms have been painted.
All of the vented soffit is in.
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There's now a permanent place for the side yard camera. Neighbor wasn't happy when he noticed it.
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Siding has been purchased.
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The hole of death has been opened up and we put in the staircase.
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The step locations aren't permanent yet. So it can't be used. I have to trim out the opening while it's still accessible. Once the steps are in place, that'll get difficult.
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Brick is nearly off the front of the house and new windows and the stone for the front are ordered.
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I thought i'd lend a hand to a neighbor repairing his sewer main. He's been over a few times to help me, why not return the favor. It had cracked 2" from the house and a tree root found the crack. A simple cut and a couple of 4" fernco fittings and he's back in business.
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Way to go helping out the neighbor. Will easily pay itself off in spades down the road.
Where did you source the staircase from? That is so awesome
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