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Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

I've been working towards this thread for some time now, after dropping info into my tractor thread and the metalwork thread, some folks asked me to document the construction of my house, and all the things I'm going to build to make a life for myself in the country.

So here goes.



Back in the late 90s, my folks bought an acreage just outside Calgary. Having just started university, I moved out there with them and immediately decided that I never wanted to live in the city again. Apartment/condo life is fine for some folks, but not for me. I consider suburbs to be a blight on the face of the planet, and I can't afford an inner city home.

It's difficult to justify living in the country just for the sake of living in the country. There are environmental reasons not to, the commute is longer and wastes energy for one. Houses aren't as thermally efficient as concrete built apartments, though they're pretty good nowadays with modern insulation. One of my friends likes to say that he turns his heat off in his condo and lets his neighbours heat his place. Grass yards, while sort of pretty, are an awful waste of water and otherwise productive soil, not to mention the machines you need to care for a large yard in a reasonable amount of time.

Fortunately, I think I can justify it and reconcile my views with my actions. As many of you know, I like to blacksmith. A hobby that makes a lot of noise, takes up a fair amount of space, and requires a sizable yard to keep all the equipment in. New suburb lots in Calgary are all of 30' by 90' (if you're lucky) and cost around $120k+ Canadian. Not only would it be extremely difficult to put a shop on such a small parcel of land, I would make my neighbours extremely mad at me with all the noise, light, and smoke.

Back in February of 2009, I found a listing for a newly subdivided group of single acre parcels out in a tiny little Hamlet not far from my parent's place.


There wasn't much to see, a few trees on each side of the land to separate the lots from each other.


Power poles and a bit of earth.






A recently drilled well, all ready to go.


However, it's out in farm country, and the view is pretty nice.






The people across the road have some horses and a nice big area for them to run around in.




In March, I bought my lot for $135k Canadian, given Calgary's real estate market, it seemed pretty reasonable to get what I need.

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Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

In March, I took possession. Everything from where my truck is sitting, to the fence at the back and between the trees is my lot. This is looking east.


Looking south.


Looking north east.


Straight north.


And here are the horses on the west side. They seem pretty friendly, and quite intelligent as horses go. They're complete attention whores when their owners come home.


This is about the time that I bought my tractor and started restoring it. I knew I wanted a garden to avoid having to look after a lawn, and I may as well grow some food for myself in the dirt. I figured it would be a little difficult to look after a garden this size and work full time by myself, so a general workhorse machine would be of great use.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

The summer passes by without event.

I go out to my place a couple of times to trim the grass at the front and the weeds that grow everywhere. Thistle and dandelion are the most invasive, but they won't be as much of a problem once I get my tractor out there to start cultivating everything. Doing it with a weed whacker that's underpowered isn't all that effective, but at least it works.

In the meantime, I'm looking at house plans, getting quotes and ideas from builders and getting all of my finances in order.

By the time October runs around, I've got everything pretty well settled, and construction begins.

The basement is excavated, and the footings go in.








The trench from the power pole to the house.


Then the concrete wall itself goes up. And the pilings for the garage pad.



The power meter and the circuit breaker board.






Piles for the porch, and the roof.


The guy who does the water and septic is like a loving construction ninja. He dug the hole for the tank, put the tank in, and buried it along with all the water and sewer lines in a single day without anyone knowing he was there. He's the same guy who did my parent's septic system and he did the exact same thing.


He also put in a hydrant for me. The lever opens a valve that's deep underground so it can be used in the winter, hopefully, and doesn't have to be drained before freeze up.


I was extremely lucky in that October and November were pretty mild. The cement went in without the ground being frozen which means it should be nice and solid. Hopefully my foundation will last for a very long time.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

In November, I got wood.


No, I mean like a lot of wood. Enough wood to embarrass a porn star.

The garage. Obviously the most important feature of the house.


Braced for the wind.




Looking west from my living room.


Looking south out the double doors to where the little deck is going.



Then about a week later the second floor goes on. Good thing too, everyone that walked by asked why the house was so tiny and the garage so huge.


And the roof trusses.


Pre-built stairs. In my house.
:goonsay:


The deck. I was concerned about this being plain lumber instead of treated, but then I remembered that my builder did the exact same thing on my parent's deck and porch and they're over 10 years old now with no sign of rot. We live in a pretty dry environment. The posts are treated, and that's what matters here.


My awesome view from my den. It's hard to make out in the pictures, but in person you can see the rocky mountains on a clear day.


Looking north from the den, these folks put up a nice looking modular home during the summer.




Checkin out the neighbours.


This is my closet.


Shower goes here.


Toilet room.


Tub.


Laundry room goes upstairs where all the bedrooms are.


This is a shot of the two two extra bedrooms and their closets. This is the south side of the house.


Looking up to my den.


Towards the master bathroom.


Kitchen on the main floor, bedroom above.


Living room on the main floor, other bedroom above.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Still November. The roof goes up, interior framing is almost done.


A week later, the exterior doors are on, the windows are in, and the plywood skin is complete.




I really like this picture, though the circumstances in which I took it aren't so good. My dad was driving us all out to take a look at my house, we were talking about how it was hard to see the edges of the road, and he drove into the loving ditch. We had to get my sister's boyfriend to bring his truck and tow us out. I snapped this as we waited.


It was dark by the time we got out of the ditch, but I was still able to see that the shingles had been put on.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Approaching the end of December, things are looking good.

That's an insulation company's truck there, they're blowing in insulation where it's needed. Also, you can see the start of the siding.


More progress.






During this time, they pour the basement floor.


Then I get my drywall.


In the master bedroom, looking at the den and the master bath.


The den. The window is a perfect height to put a desk under.


Master bath. Excuse the particles, I have ghosts or something.




Secondary bathroom.


This is my laundry room again. When I chose my appliances, I got front loading machines, being a tall dude, I wanted those little drawer units to lift them up a little. The salesman suggested against this, being that my laundry room is on the second floor, he claimed the vibrations would be bad for the house. As an alternative, he suggested that I have the framers put in a little raised platform that the washer/dryer can sit on without the amplifier effect of the drawers. The framers and drywallers seemed to like it, I think it became their defacto kitchen while they were working :v:


One of the bedrooms looking at the closet.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Mid January, finishing materials start arriving.

The walls get taped, mudded, sanded, and their first coat of primer. These are all my baseboards, door casings, and window casings.


My doors. I like this style, looks like they belong in the country.


My kitchen door leading to the mud room and the garage. I had no idea my builder was going to put in that little arch, but I like it.


Basement gets insulated, vapour barriered and generally sealed up.


Garage gets drywalled. Hell yeah.


Drywall gets a nice coat of primer.




And the siding gets done. Pretty much.


Then the doors get cased in maple.


And the windows.


I picked three kinds of flooring for this house. Maple hardwood, lino, and a bit of tile. This is subfloor for the tile in the toilet room in the garage door area.


The interior doors go up. That black stuff is just some dirt it picked up in shipping, it'll come right off once it gets cleaned.


Framing all done in the master bath.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

This last week, my cabinets were installed.


The first thing you see when you walk in the front door is this. My liquor cabinet. :dance:


Kitchen's starting to look good.


Stove goes on the left, dishwasher on the right.


Fridge goes here.


Slide out pantry. Microwave goes to the left.


Spice rack. :dance:


Medicine cabinets.


Half bath.


Main bath.


Master bath, two sinks.


Above the laundry machines.


Stair railing goes in. I would really like to re-do the iron work in this myself someday, the basket twists are nice, but they're soulless machine creations. This will eventually get stained the same colour as my cabinets, as will the baseboards and window/door casings.





Man, what's all this gravel here for?


Insulation under the garage doors?


Oh poo poo, I have a garage floor. :razz:


Also the pillars are getting cased.


Classy.

AbsentMindedWelder
Mar 26, 2003

It must be the fumes.
That's a loving nice house. It's cool to see it go from a hole in the ground to a whole house... eh? :razz:

toomanyninjas
Feb 10, 2005

DOGOLD, I WANT YOU TO CALL AN AM-BOO-LANCE AND WHEN THEY GET HUR I WANT YOU TO TELL THEM TO
KEEP SMILING!
That's awesome. We're restoring a 120-year-old farmhouse on just over 4 acres, so I think I have an idea how it feels for you to see your house turn into what you want.

Brekelefuw
Dec 16, 2003
I Like Trumpets
God damnit Slung Blade. Everything you do makes me jealous.

Senor P.
Mar 27, 2006
I MUST TELL YOU HOW PEOPLE CARE ABOUT STUFF I DONT AND BE A COMPLETE CUNT ABOUT IT
If you don't mind my asking, how much did it cost for the land and construction of the house+appliances?

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Brekelefuw posted:

God damnit Slung Blade. Everything you do makes me jealous.

Sorry? v:unsmith:v

Senor P. posted:

If you don't mind my asking, how much did it cost for the land and construction of the house+appliances?

Total cost will be somewhere around $470-485k Canadian.

But that's not including all the poo poo I'm going to do later, but more on that as I come to it.

AbsentMindedWelder
Mar 26, 2003

It must be the fumes.

Slung Blade posted:

Total cost will be somewhere around $470-485k Canadian.
You do realize, that the garage you're going to be building, and the tooling inside of it, will outclass that number by several times, right? :gonk:

George Carlin's rule of stuff, will apply!

(Hint: Build the biggest drat garage you possibly can!)

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

dv6speed posted:

You do realize, that the garage you're going to be building, and the tooling inside of it, will outclass that number by several times, right? :gonk:

George Carlin's rule of stuff, will apply!

(Hint: Build the biggest drat garage you possibly can!)


The tooling I need won't be too bad unless I get a mill and a lathe.

Powerhammer's gonna be around 15k probably, unless I can get a nice used one.

Bigger forge, built mostly from materials, probably 5-600 bucks.

Power bandsaw for cutting metal around 700.

Air compressor and tools, probably 3000.


The attached garage is 33x30, so that's pretty good for a lot of stuff. I do want a shop though, separate from the house.

Hungry Gerbil
Jun 6, 2009

by angerbot
Awesome. I'm looking forward to future updates. :)

What are your plans for the rest of your lot?

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Hungry Gerbil posted:

Awesome. I'm looking forward to future updates. :)

What are your plans for the rest of your lot?

Out front I will have fruit trees, berry bushes for hedges, and a little grass, though, after the driveway, there won't be a lot of room left. Immediately behind the house, I will have a fire pit, benches, more berry hedge, more fruit trees, a smoke house, a platform for my hot smoker, and a table for outdoor picnics.

A shop will be built eventually. Whether I do that now or in a year or ten is up to the financial world.

Everything else will be vegetable garden, along with a chicken coop that I can move around (I'm thinking something that I can hitch to the tractor and pull around) a great big compost setup, beehives, and if I can handle it, some meat rabbit hutches. There's a small protected (meaning I can't drain or fill it) wetland at the very back of the land that runs all along the hamlet, if I get really ambitious, I might try to keep ducks or geese in it or something, though it only has water in it until August or September.

With this and all the other stuff I plan on building, I hope to produce enough content to keep this thread going for several years, at least.

dwoloz
Oct 20, 2004

Uh uh fool, step back
Very cool to see the whole process, looks like it'll be a beaut

What are the white pipes from the ceiling in the garage?

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

dwoloz posted:

Very cool to see the whole process, looks like it'll be a beaut

What are the white pipes from the ceiling in the garage?

The ones in this picture?


Honestly, I'm not really sure. There's fibreglass insulation up there between the garage ceiling and my bedroom floor. But it could be a vent of some kind.

Stroph!
May 6, 2008
Yep you're living one of my dreams. What's your day job?

Hungry Gerbil
Jun 6, 2009

by angerbot
Bees, chickens, rabbits, a vegetable garden... sounds like a lot of work.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Stroph! posted:

Yep you're living one of my dreams. What's your day job?

I write and design software for SCADA systems.

Basically, if you've ever seen a control room where you have a billion monitors with pipelines, electrical grid, traffic control, city water/sewer stuff or things like that, the company I work for probably had something to do with it.

I mostly just do database conversions from old systems to new ones and write the odd custom application for a project, or a communication protocol. The little remote terminal units that gather data from devices and send it back to our system all have their own proprietary communication languages and it's always a bitch to get them to talk.


It will be a lot of work, but that's why I have the tractor, it should help an awful lot when prepping the land and keeping it all nice and cultivated. This year I'm just going to start with the garden, and see if I can keep up with it. This first summer is going to be busy as gently caress because I'll be planting a lot of my trees and bushes.

Koskinator
Nov 4, 2009

MOURNFUL: ALAS,
POOR YORICK
This is a quite big house. I've been following your tractor thread and never seen you mention it, but do you have a family to share the house with, or are you making it this size for the future family you will have? (:pervert:)

bimmian
Oct 16, 2008
Looks amazing. I love the cabinetry.

Messadiah
Jan 12, 2001

Slung Blade posted:

The ones in this picture?


Honestly, I'm not really sure. There's fibreglass insulation up there between the garage ceiling and my bedroom floor. But it could be a vent of some kind.

Central-vac pre-wire (pre-tubing? what)

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Messadiah posted:

Central-vac pre-wire (pre-tubing? what)

Entirely possible, but I think they ran all that through the wall between the garage and the kitchen down into the basement.

Koskinator posted:

This is a quite big house. I've been following your tractor thread and never seen you mention it, but do you have a family to share the house with, or are you making it this size for the future family you will have? (:pervert:)

I mentioned it a few times, but I didn't try to make it a central feature of that thread. The house is just for me right now as I am one goony-as-gently caress bachelor. I would have been fine parking a motorhome on it and building an aircraft hangar to work in, but that would have been a pretty lousy investment. So, house it is, and if you're going to build a house, may as well build a fairly nice one if you can afford it. It's a hell of a lot harder and more expensive to tear one down and build again if you're trying to upgrade.

Zuph
Jul 24, 2003
Zupht0r 6000 Turbo Type-R
You're living my dream, if my dream were 800 miles further north.

chedemefedeme
May 25, 2007

Until then I need your help
figuring out the logistics!
Beautiful home. Just built mine about a year ago and your photos reminded me about parts I had already forgotten about the building process. It sure is something to see your home go up.

My only jealousy of you is that fine basement. I live in Texas, in a subdivision right on the brink of the country. Air is clean and the spaces open..but basements were forbidden by ordinance. Bummer, but I got everything else I wanted.

You think you're having fun now just wait for all the things you decide to do over the first 5 years you're there. I swear I've spent as much money each month on home improvement as I have my mortgage...

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

My, uh, garden arrived today.






I may have slightly overestimated my seed requirements...

madlilnerd
Jan 4, 2009

a bush with baggage
You can always sell seedlings to colleagues. I made some pocket money last year doing that- everyone in my department bought a sunflower seedling to give to their kids. The tomatoes were pretty popular too and courgettes.

You can't sell off leek seedlings though. People think you're scamming them with blades of grass.

SamDabbers
May 26, 2003



Your tractor thread was awesome and your house thread is turning out equally awesome! I look forward to seeing your place evolve :)

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Progress is going to be kinda slow for the next couple of weeks as paint prep goes on.

Priming, sanding, filling, leveling. It all takes time, and it needs a couple of days in between to dry and cure.

Few small things to report though. They moved the rail to the other side of the stairs. I'm not really sure why, I was fine with where it was originally, though it was wrong compared to the house blueprints. Either way, no matter, I'm fine with it where it is now.


The trim on the pillars is done.


And the garage interior is either primed, or painted. I can't tell which it is, no light, so no picture.

Boll
Dec 29, 2005

Not that Boll
Awesome thread!

Coming from a country where people live in brick houses only, I have always found the plywood/drywall combination a bit weird. How do you manage insulation?

In my house there's a outer brick wall made of regular brick clay and an inner wall made of a special kind of clay ("moler", 30% clay / 70 % diatoms). These bricks reduce the amount of heat lost because of the reduced heat transfer efficiency of diatoms versus clay. Between these two walls there's a space filled with Rockwool.

Hungry Gerbil
Jun 6, 2009

by angerbot
Looks very nice already.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Boll posted:

Awesome thread!

Coming from a country where people live in brick houses only, I have always found the plywood/drywall combination a bit weird. How do you manage insulation?

In my house there's a outer brick wall made of regular brick clay and an inner wall made of a special kind of clay ("moler", 30% clay / 70 % diatoms). These bricks reduce the amount of heat lost because of the reduced heat transfer efficiency of diatoms versus clay. Between these two walls there's a space filled with Rockwool.


Insulation is handled through layers of different material.

Consider this image of the basement:


So, starting from the inside of the house and working outwards, we've got paint, drywall, a plastic vapour barrier to keep out moisture, fibreglass insulation, the plywood skin of the building, a layer of tar paper or tyvek plastic sheeting, and then the siding.

The fibreglass and the vapour barrier are the two biggest parts of the insulation equation, keeping moving air currents out and the thermal barrier of the fibre means very little energy is lost or absorbed through the walls. The roof is insulated in a similar fashion, but the fibreglass is generally much thicker and has a higher R value.

Boll
Dec 29, 2005

Not that Boll
Ahh, missed the fibreglass in that picture. Thanks for clarifying it for me. I guess I should had figured that all the empty spaces in the woodframes would be filled with something. :)

Jonny Quest
Nov 11, 2004

For insulation purposes it also doesn't hurt to caulk the poo poo out of everything you can. The floor along the sill plate, the holes cut in junction boxes, interior corners of the drywall, on top of the walls (from the attic) where the drywall meets the 2x4 cap plate...etc.

It's a pain in the rear end but easier to do now than after all the attic insulation is blown in.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

Everything has been caulked.

The builders went through a million cases of the stuff after it was all framed.

Dr. Chim Richalds
Oct 21, 2008

The Popular One
Another great thread, Slung Blade. How you manage to do it all, I'll never understand. How do you find the time to work full-time, work on your tractor project, deal with building a new home, drive to and from work/your parents house/your new house, and update these threads about your projects? Do you ever have free time? Thanks for the great reads, they're an inspiration to be sure. The only thing I don't envy is that cold, cold weather.

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Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

Dr. Chim Richalds posted:

The only thing I don't envy is that cold, cold weather.
Seriously. Every picture of his I've ever seen looks like it was taken on a slightly more scenic Hoth. Slightly.

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