Thread: New House Being Built

Here's the progress to my new house... May be ready by May. The garage on the left is NOT a garage... It's my new workshop. WooHoo!

Originally Posted by urleebird

Here's the progress to my new house... May be ready by May. The garage on the left is NOT a garage... It's my new workshop. WooHoo!

I'm confused...I thought the workshop was to the right of the garage.

RT

Nice workshop, Bill

I have to ask you (proffesional deformation), what kind of walls are those (thickness and insulation type) and what is the typical climate where you building? Are you helping with the construction?

have fun
Nenad

p.s. hey, what hapeened with the pinning blog!!

Originally Posted by superfly

Nice workshop, Bill

I have to ask you (proffesional deformation), what kind of walls are those (thickness and insulation type) and what is the typical climate where you building? Are you helping with the construction?

have fun
Nenad

p.s. hey, what hapeened with the pinning blog!!

Pinning Blog: I gotta do the work first. I don't have any pictures yet. It may be a while... Much to do with the house. I haven't even been able to keep up with a decent supply of razors on my site. I have, like, 200 to fix up. My current house needs some sprucing up before we sell it, so I haven't had time to play.

Here in central California the temp seldom gets below 30 degrees F. However, summers give us over 40 days of temps over 100. Often, I've seen 3 weeks straight where it was consistantly 106 ~ 109. Today is cold at 45 degrees. Last week we set a record at 75 degrees for two days.

Walls are 6 inches thick with R~19 insulation. Roof is R30. Those are chipwood panels that will get stucco siding.

Nice, Bill.

My wife categorically stated that in the next house the garage will be for the cars. She is tired of having my workshop take the space especially in winter when it is nicer to get into a warm car instead of a freezing metal can.

I can also relate to Nenad's question. We had a Yugoslavian friend from Austria visit us a about 20 years ago and his comment on the local house construction was "Kuchi is papiri" translates to "Houses out of paper". He was more used to the brick and stone solid wall construction. He was shocked that we felt safe in such flimsy houses.

Originally Posted by vladsch

...his comment on the local house construction was "Kuchi is papiri" translates to "Houses out of paper".

I sure understand the "paper house" comment. I remember on one of my first trips to Austria I was in a Hotel room that overlooked a 2-story house being built across the street. Its walls were over a foot thick, with large beams and masonry incorporated into their construction. Later, while walking around town, I saw buildings built in the 1100's, etc. and thought to myself that NOTHING in the US is likely going to last 800+ years!

At least Bill's house has some waferboard sheating to help give its walls some strength. On my previous house (here in Arizona), if the Styrofoam "weather barrier" under the stucco ever disintegrated the whole structure would likely have collapsed. Regardless of what the engineers said, I just couldn't believe that a flimsy 22-ga metal brace nailed diagonally on the outside of the studs (under the styrofoam) was going to keep it's walls standing against the 75+mph winds we would occasionally get when a micro-burst moved through the area!!! (I subsequently sold that house and now live in one with the walls constructed of reinforced cement block.)

Vlad, I can't believe that you remembered your friends comment, which writen properly is "Kuche od papira", and, true, means Paper Houses!!! I am amazed...

Well, "paper houses" is the term we use here to desribe American houses compared to our own. Many of my professors (architecture school) went specializing in the States, and brought back interesting experiences about USA architecture. The Paper houses is not neceseraly bad thing, they are sure built for their micro-environment, and maybe half of the price of the monstruocities we build here... And I personally like the American way of building. You build very fast, cheap, and if you don't like the house after 10 years, you move without too many strings attached. Here, you build a house for life Actually, my country house, built at the beggining of the last century (which is considered new there), has ground floor with stone walls 2 foot (60 cm) thick. The first floor is made from the construction very similar to your walls. It is called "Bondruk" and we sure know that Le Corbusier was sketching the houses there at his travels trough Balcans... And we have and use objects, mostly churches, built in the 9th century, and regulary have concerts in amfitheaters from 3-4 century BC...

Nenad

what I see in the pics worry me. that' looks like 2x4 exterior framing. Even with the osb, I'd be inclined to go with a 8 or 10 with tbar on the corners in a quake zone. No way i'd do 2x4 in mountainous or quake areas, or nevada/arizona for that matter (sand and dirt shifts too much).

It's going to be a looker though, that's for certain. Hope it makes you happy.

Nenad, I agree the attitude towards the house is the real difference.

I was born, and until age 9 lived, in Tashken, Uzbekistan. The city was considered not old, it was only 1500 years old. Now, Bukhara, that was an old city, it was 2500 years old.

I remember looking at buildings over 1000 years old as a kid and not appreciating their history.

Now having lived in North America for the last 30 years a 100 year old razor feels like it has history. It's all relative to your surroundings.

Originally Posted by vladsch

I remember looking at buildings over 1000 years old as a kid and not appreciating their history.

My history professor has roman corinthian capital (top base of the column), dating from ~2 cen.AD for coffee table in his office, how apropriate, huh...

Nenad