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Hypnolobster
Apr 12, 2007

What this sausage party needs is a big dollop of ketchup! Too bad I didn't make any. :(

Motronic posted:

Yeah, maybe I'm missing something, but how are these not just timberloks (ledgerloks if you need them to be rated). That's how I put up the ledger against the existing barn when i built my office. Expensive but totally worth it, just not exactly a new concept.

That's pretty much exactly what they are, but there's a big range of sizes and they have very sharp threads that cut nicely. I use Spax and the big nasty GRK's at work interchangeably for 1/4"ish fasteners, but 1/2" lags it's 100% Spax. When we do big boardwalk and bridge projects, it's all white oak and 1/4" x 3" Spax washer head. We've screwed well over 10,000 of them in, they're universally loved.

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kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.

Motronic posted:

Yeah, maybe I'm missing something, but how are these not just timberloks (ledgerloks if you need them to be rated). That's how I put up the ledger against the existing barn when i built my office. Expensive but totally worth it, just not exactly a new concept.

Basically the same thing, just slightly different coatings, lengths, threaded lengths, head styles, and driver bit styles. If it is going outside I choose something corrosion resistant, otherwise I choose whatever has the head style, threaded length, overall length, and diameter I need.

I used ledgerloks for a few things because they are available longer (had to attach a 2x6 flat to a 4x6) and with a flatter head (needed it to sink into the top of an old joist that had split so the subflooring would go down smooth, but still suck the split back together.)

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Slight progress. Unfortunately not as much as I wanted, but oh well.

Started the weekend by preparing the snow equipment and repairing some tools, since the parts order came in. $10 snowblower from the 60s first:

gently caress this thing.

It turns out I took no other pictures of the process, but it's got a B&S 190402 engine on it. It ran when I bought it at a flea market (I figured what the hell, a running 2 stage snowblower is totally worth 10 bucks as a backup plan) and didn't run when it came time to get it ready for winter, so I replaced the badly fouled plug and still nothing. It was definitely getting fuel and had compression of some sort so I guessed coil or points, bought them and went to install... the loving points are hidden behind the flywheel! gently caress you B&S. Anyways, I got the stupid flywheel off with a "special tool" AKA a pipe wrench to remove the pullcord sprag (pictured) and a prybar and hammer to remove the taper-seat flywheel. New coil and points installed and it starts cold on the first pull now. Now that I am not worried, I can try to figure out how to upgrade the snowblower attachment on the tractor whenever I feel like it.

Then it was time to gently caress around with the $10 3/4" 750 ft-lb Craftsman air impact I bought at a yardsale. I swore I'd never buy a Craftsman power tool again since they are gonna go bankrupt eventually but for $10 I'll risk it. All it needed was new oil, an assload of O-rings, gaskets, and seals, and a spring for the trigger plunger... the previous owner must have dropped it when trying to fix it because the spring was just plain missing and as a result the trigger wouldn't come back up.



Then my sawzall needed some love. It's been slipping more and more (motor makes noise, nothing happens) over the last few years due to 6 years of putting up with my abuse. Turns out it has an overload friction clutch in between the ring gear and the crankshaft. A few bucks worth of parts online, plus I swabbed out all the nasty old gunky peanut buttery grease and packed it with axle grease, it's never run so smooth before. It definitely needs an output shaft bushing though, it's already pooping grease everywhere.


Then it was time to get my rear end in gear and actually work on the house. Vapor barrier time in the master bedroom!





A bit more seam taping and I am ready to insulate and sheetrock. The sheetrocking is going to be a pain in the rear end in this room, at least over the tie beams... not looking forward to it.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe
How are you going to get insulation in behind the vapor barrier? Blown cellulose?

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Blown in fiberglass. I thought I took pics of it last time but apparently I skipped that part and the images in most of the posts up to halfway through page 5 are broken anyways.

Seat Safety Switch
May 27, 2008

MY RELIGION IS THE SMALL BLOCK V8 AND COMMANDMENTS ONE THROUGH TEN ARE NEVER LIFT.

Pillbug
It's pretty strange seeing that upstairs window 'finished.' Looking forward to more.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
some loving idiot was a stingy bastard last weekend and used the several month to several year old bags of mortar sitting around from other projects. It mixed fine, but... never really cured for some reason. Guess what? moisture had already gotten to the portland cement and cured it in the bag basically.

so this weekend I get to undo all the basement wall repointing and anchor Jbolt work I did last weekend in prep for hanging the furnace! And then redo it. gently caress.

Don't try and save 15 bucks on mortar, kids.

Zhentar
Sep 28, 2003

Brilliant Master Genius
Hey, you can't win them all.


Going back a month or so to the hydronic heating chat, if the radiant floor isn't sufficient for your living room, you should be able to add in a panel radiator or fan coil for much less than the cost of adding in a high temperature zone.

cakesmith handyman
Jul 22, 2007

Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

I've a couple of bags of cement that were bought in August, will they be okay? If they should be okay will sealing them in a waterproof box preserve it longer?

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Depends entirely on the humidity, IMO. Airtight would be better than waterproof.

Turns out some cured and some did not. The bag that was fully open and seemed fine (it had some clumps in it at the top, which should have been a warning sign but I just picked them out) didn't cure at all, the bag that was not open and had clumps that fell apart in my fingers (which I assumed were just from sitting in a stack for months...) cured but is somewhat weaker than it should be. I am going to leave the noncritical sections of halfass cured mortar but the stuff that is holding anchors in needs to be redone I think.

In the future my rule is... if the bag holds its shape when picked up, has been opened more than a few days, or has clumps in it, it is getting left outside in the rain to finish curing and used as clean fill, since I have some areas of the yard that need to be built up eventually.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
One of my friends nagged me to update my drat thread and I really should.

Last weekend(?) I insulated the master bedroom:




The blowing machine was all hosed up and retarded and I would have gone insane if my wife wasn't helping me. Probably saved me 30 trips up and down the ladder to make the machine turn back on or reset the circuit breaker, which kept tripping. Still didn't manage to get it packed in as tight as I wanted but oh well.

You can tell where the roof is not insulated yet because it is in a closet and I am doing all the closets and the upstairs hall together later:


Since then I hauled in 6 sheets of 5/8 drywall for the end wall (due to thickness of window frame, I don't have to trim it at all if I use 5/8) and 10 sheets of 1/2 ultralight, and hung a couple sheets. More tonight probably.

th vwls hv scpd
Jul 12, 2006

Developing Smarter Mechanics.
Since 1989.

kastein posted:

The blowing machine was all hosed up and retarded and I would have gone insane if my wife wasn't helping me.

When did you get married?

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Exactly 2 months and 2 days ago, also on a Monday, oddly enough.

dreesemonkey
May 14, 2008
Pillbug
Was thinking the same thing. Congrats, Ken :)

Adiabatic
Nov 18, 2007

What have you assholes done now?

kastein posted:

You can tell where the roof is not insulated yet because it is in a closet and I am doing all the closets and the upstairs hall together later:


That's so cool

angryrobots
Mar 31, 2005

kastein posted:

You can tell where the roof is not insulated yet because it is in a closet and I am doing all the closets and the upstairs hall together later:

You mean where the snow is sitting? I would have thought that snow would sit where the roof/attic WAS insulated well, and melt where it wasn't.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
That's what I mean - the square cutout at the lower right corner of the snowpatch is the closet, the big melted area next to it is the hall outside the bedroom.

angryrobots
Mar 31, 2005

Gotcha. And the snowpatch is the big area of blown-in you just did?

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Yup! Well, half of it, the other half is on the other side of the peak.

A dumbass in an E250 running a stopsign and plowing into my daily driver crapcan blew my saturday to hell (getting parts and fixing the car) but I managed to get the panelboard for the furnace installed today despite that.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Last weekend was devoted to gorging on turkey. So far today I taped up a bunch of slashes in the vapor barrier from blowing in the insulation and then hung a few sheets of drywall. Nowhere near as much as I wanted to do today, but I am ready to do the slanted ceiling panels above the tie beams tomorrow, which should really be a barrel of laughs.

ExplodingSims
Aug 17, 2010

RAGDOLL
FLIPPIN IN A MOVIE
HOT DAMN
THINK I MADE A POOPIE


Hey, so a bit ago you mentioned you were thinking about running A/C, at least upstairs right?
If you're still considering that, even if you aren't getting the air handler and condenser right now, you might wanna start planning ahead for that. I don't mean starting ductwork and stuff, but you might wanna consider running some pipe downstairs (Unless you're gonna be that rear end in a top hat that puts the condenser on the roof :v:) So you can running it properly. And also avoid the possiblity of having to put up some ugly looking lineset covers.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
gently caress! I just closed up the best wall for that a while ago.

That being said, I left myself a great chimneychase full of empty for running poo poo like this, so thanks for reminding me to keep that in mind! I will run them there instead... Maybe I should write myself some notes about that in pencil on the wall or something.

Ductwork is going to poo poo all over my carefully laid plans for having s fully usable attic floor, I just know it.

E: today I did a bunch of wiring for the hall and stairway lighting, yesterday I did some sheetrocking, and tomorrow I do more sheetrocking and wiring. Things are going slowly, but not too bad. I would post pics but that will have to wait or this phone will end up the victim of an angry nerd with a pickaxe.

E2: also disassembling and cleaning the warded mortise lock on the front door and trying to repair it. I need to do some more work on that and find a few Corbin S ward keyblanks to make keys out of.

kastein fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Jan 3, 2017

ExplodingSims
Aug 17, 2010

RAGDOLL
FLIPPIN IN A MOVIE
HOT DAMN
THINK I MADE A POOPIE


Eh, as long as you have some space for running lines, I think you'll be fine.

What I was going to suggest is that you'd run them down the wall with hard pipe, get some unistrut and vibro-clamps, the kind that goes around the insulation, you'd be set for the next 30 years.
But, as long at you've got some way to secure them at the top and bottom of the chase you'll be fine.

And as far as running ductwork goes, it doesn't necessarily have to take up all the space there. This depends on your plans for where you put the air handler. If you put in the attic, you'll need to suspend it from the rafters, and leave space under it for the auxiliary drain pan. Which means you'll also be suspending your ductwork. Which will free up your floorspace a bit. Enjoy doing lots of duckunders though. Or, if you have enough vertical space in the attic, you could set the AHU vertically, and run the duct along the peak.

Or, depending on how you've got things built/planned out already, you could build a little closet for the AHU. Build a return box out of ductboard under it, stick a vent facing the hall, and you're good to go. This will also help you free up some space in the attic, as you can run the duct along the attic floor.

And this largely depends on what you're doing for duct materials, IE Metal or Ductboard or Flex, and how you're gonna be running the trunk. If you can post a floorplan with some measurements of the room size I can do some calculations to help come up with a decent layout for you.

angryrobots
Mar 31, 2005

How about a high velocity hvac system? I see they install them frequently on This Old House, especially in retrofits where duct space is at a premium.

Seat Safety Switch
May 27, 2008

MY RELIGION IS THE SMALL BLOCK V8 AND COMMANDMENTS ONE THROUGH TEN ARE NEVER LIFT.

Pillbug
I would probably just chuck a mini-split into the bedroom and call it a day, but I just love those little Mr. Slims.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
ES - thanks a ton for the info and help! I may take you up on that but I have fuckall for measurements atm, will have to do some. Unfortunately it is a very very cramped attic (1.5 floor house... I have to kneel and crouch to even fit at the peak of the roof) so anything on the ceiling will,basically make it unusable for storage. Fortunately it is a tee shaped house and the stem of the tee is where I planned to put the IDU because that wing of the attic is nigh unusable anyways due to being even shorter. That means I can run one outlet duct in the floor (hopefully) to the chimneychase, bump up, then tee down to both the office and spare bedroom easily, and have maybe a few feet of duct going the other way to the master bedroom, which has a wall right next to where the IDU will be. Return would be in the hall ceiling directly under the wing of the attic the IDU will be in hopefully.

If the IDU is simply too big for that spot, welp!

AR - a friend offered me his old ac system he upgraded from for free, so if that one doesn't fit my needs I dunno what I will do.

E: hall lights are nearly wired! We won't need flashlights to go downstairs anymore!

kastein fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Jan 4, 2017

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Wow I keep forgetting to post poo poo. Progress is slow due to the cold but I got the hall lights working yesterday while on vacation and the picky drywalling above the tie beams is almost half done. Once that is done I can really haul rear end because I won't have to do four loving picky cutouts on every 2x4 foot piece of sheetrock, I can just slap up nearly-full 4x8s.

Drywallin'










Hall ceiling lamp! There are 3, one at the top of the stairs, one at the bottom (right inside the front door), and one at the other end of the "hallway" (actually just the end of the living room) so that you can flip the switch and walk all the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night without finding more light switches. There are three switches for it, one right between the living room and kitchen and another at the top and bottom of the stairs. LEDs have come a long way since I bought this place, in 2010 they were pretty rare in a residential setting iirc and I bought these three daylight-hue 700 lumen units with 50k hour service life rating for 25 bucks apiece.

e: for reference, the triangular space between the rafters over the lamp is hopefully where the evap unit will be living, those are 2x8 new rafters and I think 2x6 old roof rafters for reference. It might be too tight in there, it might not. Also, my house isn't haunted by ghosts of ceiling lamps past, that's just a reflection off my cellphone's lens.

While drilling holes through 120 year old oak joists for the wiring, I determined that my drill and the joist are both stronger than my drill bits. Milwaukee right angle 1/2" gear reduction drills don't gently caress around.


I also removed and cleaned out the warded lock in the front door, since it would be nice to be able to lock it when we aren't home. You know, silly things like that. This never used to bother me because there were 2' gaps along the base of each living room wall where you could just crawl in if you didn't feel like opening the door or walking in through the missing wall in the kitchen or living room, but now that the house is theoretically securable, we want to be able to do so. There are a bazillion pictures so I'm just going to link the album. It's a Corbin S series and is kinda cool because it has a deadbolt that a key can open from either side, a pair of pushbuttons in the mortise that can lock the doorknob only, the internal and external doorknobs operate independent of each other (so the inside always works while the outside can be locked out with the pushbuttons), and a second keyhole that only exists on the inside so that you can use a key to lock and unlock the doorknob if you don't feel like opening the door. All of the blanks for these keys are apparently AWOL and I can't find my original anymore (it wasn't included with the house - I found it while doing demolition one day) so I ordered a few S series keys off Etsy and when they come I will braze up the slots in them and then carefully recut them to fit this lock. Locks are fun.
nerdy lock poo poo

Hopefully I can get the rest of the master bedroom sheetrocked soonish.

kastein fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Jan 13, 2017

beep-beep car is go
Apr 11, 2005

I can just eyeball this, right?



This is looking really cool, I wish I was half as handy!

How long are you planning on living here once you're done? I remember you saying either here or in AI that once you were done you were going to sell and build from scratch somewhere else (maybe closer to work?) but it seems like you're putting a TON of work building a tank of a house that nobody will appreciate (or pay accordingly for) when you sell.

Suburban Dad
Jan 10, 2007


Well what's attached to a leash that it made itself?
The punchline is the way that you've been fuckin' yourself




Good that the bit failed instead of catching and breaking your arm/wrist. I'm in awe at how loving mangled that bit is on the chuck side more than anything.

Suburban Dad fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Jan 13, 2017

dreesemonkey
May 14, 2008
Pillbug
What are all the low voltage boxes in your master ceiling for again?

Not Wolverine
Jul 1, 2007

kastein posted:

Wow I keep forgetting to post poo poo. Progress is slow due to the cold but I got the hall lights working yesterday while on vacation and the picky drywalling above the tie beams is almost half done. Once that is done I can really haul rear end because I won't have to do four loving picky cutouts on every 2x4 foot piece of sheetrock, I can just slap up nearly-full 4x8s.

Drywallin'

Is the plan to leave those beams exposed? Why is there an orange box above every beam?

Jealous Cow
Apr 4, 2002

by Fluffdaddy

Crotch Fruit posted:

Is the plan to leave those beams exposed? Why is there an orange box above every beam?

Gotta have power for Christmas lights duh

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

beep-beep car is go posted:

This is looking really cool, I wish I was half as handy!

Construction isn't magic; everything's documented and not really hard to understand. Anyone can do it so long as they take their time and learn about the correct procedures and designs. Case in point: prior to starting construction on my workshop my "handyman experience" was limited to painting, installing floorboards, and some very basic carpentry.

If there's a project you would like to do, I strongly encourage you to start researching actually doing it.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.

beep-beep car is go posted:

This is looking really cool, I wish I was half as handy!

How long are you planning on living here once you're done? I remember you saying either here or in AI that once you were done you were going to sell and build from scratch somewhere else (maybe closer to work?) but it seems like you're putting a TON of work building a tank of a house that nobody will appreciate (or pay accordingly for) when you sell.
Well, until I met my wife, the plan was live in it forever, but I kinda want to move to Washington ever since we spent a week out there a while ago... as a gearhead, being able to buy rust free 20, 30, and 40 year old cars and seeing them driving around on the road all day like it's nothing blew my mind. I saw more rustfree rare old jeeps (MJs, grand wagoneers, and J trucks, primarily) out there in a week than I had seen in the entire previous year in Massachusetts. And I'm real loving tired of winter and salt... getting to the point in my life where I like to be able to visit snow occasionally, but not have to deal with it when I don't want to.

I'll still make quite a decent amount on the place if I do sell it.

If we move out there, the plan is at least 2-5 acres, preferably 100+, depending on exactly where we end up, with a house and a gigantic hangar/workshop/garage built under the side of a steep hill. I mean, if we win the lottery.

Larrymer posted:

Good that the bit failed instead of catching and breaking your arm/wrist. I'm in awe at how loving mangled that bit is on the chuck side more than anything.
Amazingly it didn't fail, just twisted up like a pretzel and kept going. The chuck isn't loose at all, it just put a 180 degree twist in the hex part of the shank. I was amazed it didn't twist off.

dreesemonkey posted:

What are all the low voltage boxes in your master ceiling for again?
Low voltage power to the LED lighting that will be mounted up there.

Crotch Fruit posted:

Is the plan to leave those beams exposed? Why is there an orange box above every beam?
Yeah. I think I detailed it sometime in the last dozen pages but not really sure when so I can't fault you for not knowing, really. They're red oak tie beams and will be sanded down and stained. The orange boxes are all linked by "smurf tube" (ENT - electrical nonmetallic tubing - used for low voltage signal cabling and burial in concrete) and are for power to run the LED lighting I'll be mounting on the top of each beam. The plan is to use that as the normal room lighting, it'll be dimmable and since it's on the top of the beam illuminating the ceiling, it won't be harsh on the eyes when reading.

kastein fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Jan 13, 2017

dreesemonkey
May 14, 2008
Pillbug

kastein posted:

Yeah. I think I detailed it sometime in the last dozen pages but not really sure when so I can't fault you for not knowing, really. They're red oak tie beams and will be sanded down and stained. The orange boxes are all linked by "smurf tube" (ENT - electrical nonmetallic tubing - used for low voltage signal cabling and burial in concrete) and are for power to run the LED lighting I'll be mounting on the top of each beam. The plan is to use that as the normal room lighting, it'll be dimmable and since it's on the top of the beam illuminating the ceiling, it won't be harsh on the eyes when reading.

Pretty cool idea.

kastein posted:

If we move out there, the plan is at least 2-5 acres, preferably 100+, depending on exactly where we end up, with a house and a gigantic hangar/workshop/garage built under the side of a steep hill. I mean, if we win the lottery.

Ever go on garage journal? There are a few "SHOUSE / HARN" (Shop House / House barn) builds on there that are really intriguing. Eventually if I have the money I'd like to build a cabin / garage in a similar fashion (though not quite so big). The last one is almost the total package just because it's "done" and had to worry about heating it.

50x100 in texas
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=257468

33x80 in montana
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=325966

45x60 in OH (radiant in slab + lot's of spray foam)
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226535

ExplodingSims
Aug 17, 2010

RAGDOLL
FLIPPIN IN A MOVIE
HOT DAMN
THINK I MADE A POOPIE


I feel something like what guy has going on is really more of Kastien's thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=channel?UCd50A5qLv8FemVufSvDgkCQ

Plenty of space for living, and shop space, and then some!

SouthShoreSamurai
Apr 28, 2009

It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.


Fun Shoe
I love GarageJournal. I learn so much from peoples' builds there. I also learn quite a bit from Kastein and you, Dreese. Thanks!

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
That video embed is buggered to gently caress because the forums decided to try to convert your channel url into a video tag, but I figured out what channel you were talking about (this one) and yeah, an underground silo is something I'd totally be into. I dreamed of buying the adirondack airpark many times, in fact every time it comes up for sale again I think about it again, even though I don't have the money to buy it.

I don't really like the way a lot of gearhead housebarns end up, because I don't want to live in a corrugated metal prefab box.

Ideally though, we'd find a steep rocky east, west, or south facing hill and build what looks like a small house on the side of it. Except:
- there's a several thousand square foot shop with 20'+ ceilings buried behind the house
- the entire outside is granite, with all exterior doors and windows being vinyl
- roof is standing seam metal, eaves overhang 3-4' to prevent water running down the outside of the house and slowly eating away the mortar in all but the most severe storms
- 90% of the living area underground, taking advantage of the fact that once you go more than a few feet underground the temperature is 55 degrees year round, which means bare minimum heating costs even with minimal R value insulation and no aircon ever needed
- what appears to be a pair of large garage doors is actually a hangar style folding door with one regular garage door in it, leading to a tunnel back into the shop (my wife was most of the way to having her pilots license decades ago, and we'd both like to get our licenses one day and build a plane, thus hangar width)
- as many rooms as possible lit by solar tubes, the rest by LED lighting
- all structural steel protected by sacrificial anodes
- completely waterproofed on the outside of the non-shop section of the house
- shop section of house sound-isolated from the rest so I can use an impact wrench without waking everyone up
- all aboveground walls double-studded/otherwise isolated from the exterior wall by at least mid double digit R-value
- a grass or gravel runway out front

I figure the living room would be on the first floor with an exterior window or three and the master bedroom would be over it with the same sort of setup.

Probably cost a few million dollars to build all that, thus the "if I won the lottery" conditional, but that's what I really want to build.

Ideally I'd find a big old mine property with the hole already dug into the side of the hill and a biiiiiiig pile of tailings to bulldoze out into a runway and use as fill after pouring all the concrete for the underground house. I found a property like that in NH, but it sold a long time ago and I don't really want to put that kind of cash into being stuck in the frozen salty north anyways. I'm assuming there are places like that in Washington or northern California, though.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

Masonry construction and large underground spaces are both much more difficult/problematic anywhere near the Pacific Ring of Fire. Seismic safety is important. There's a reason very few houses in California have basements... and prior to 1989, basements were common in Oregon & Washington because prior to 1989 they didn't realize that they are now officially past due for their once-every-300-years 9.0 earthquake.

Also, steep unforested hills out here often turn into mudslides. You specified a rocky hill specifically, so you might be aware of that.

Anyway: look into Forstner bits.


Much better for drilling big holes into hardwood than your standard hardware store spade bit, and less unwieldy and prone to tear-out and mess than a hole saw.

e. Cautionary point: I've only ever used them in a drill press, so I'm not 100% sure they're great for hand-drilling big holes. Might be worth an experiment.

e2. Oh yeah also: that lead screw on the spade bit might be what got you in trouble. Very helpful to keep centered into a pilot hole, but they enforce a feed rate which, in this case, exceeded the bit's ability to carve through the wood. A plain cheapo spade bit without the lead screw likely wouldn't have failed.

Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Jan 14, 2017

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kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
I was drilling big rear end ugly holes for electrical wiring through joists in the basement, so I was pretty OK with whatever made the job faster and take less effort. I don't think I'd be able to lift my arms over my head right now if it hadn't been for the lead screw, those joists were hard as gently caress. Since it didn't rip my hand off or end up actually breaking the drill bit, I'm pretty alright with how that turned out. I've used Forstners before, but only for finish carpentry and the like, not for rough-out framing carpentry.

Good point on the whole earthquake thing, I'm not used to thinking about that :sigh:

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