To The Work Squared

I'll be goin' on up t' th' land come Satiddy. It'll be warm like that day, so's I can stomp 'round a bit and pick me out a good place t' build muh playce.

When'n I be gittin' back, I'll post sum pitchers hair fer'n y'all t' see.

Preeshadit.

We Stake Our Claim

Today, we took tape measures, hammers, and stakes, and made a preliminary outline of the house my sister wants to build.

We tramped about the place, looking at several possibilities, but settled on something that a) is above the 'perc' site, b) is not too near the dry 'wadi' or gulch that separates the woods/rocky area from the large field, and c) was accessible to the crude driveway the farmer had cut for us during the summer with his 'dozer.

Our friend Jerry helped us think all this through. He will be the one who will draw the house plans and elevation from which the builders will work. He also knows practically everyone in the county and has an 'in' with the local inspectors.

All in all it was a great day. My brother in law and I plan to go back to the land on Saturday to clear that staked out area with DR Brush Mower(tm) and chainsaws.

Here's hoping we keep all our fingers.

P.S. I found a large cache of dressed field stones! Using them, I was able to erect about three feet of a preliminary dry stacked wall using the 'one over two over one' method. It worked tremendously well, and even without supports or sides, it stood steadfast even with my considerable girth pushed against it!

The land awaits. It literally flows with milk and honey.

Hey Spaz, You're On Your Way!

We finally got the 'gang' together today for a meeting to discuss the house build for my sister at the property.

The contractor, his sister (who runs the business part of the thing), my sister, her husband and I met for the first time all together after much back and forth and phone conver- sations.

For our part, my sister and her husband were mightily impressed; they realized that A.) these guys knew what they were talking about, and 2.) they had found people they felt comfortable with going forward with the build.

The next step, according to the contractors, is for my sister to get a set of 'stamped' plans together so the 'concrete' (no pun intended) bids can be made.

Then, as that is being done, I will be in Middle Tennessee to start scrounging around for firms or individuals who can level the building site and complete the drive-way into the property.

All of this leads us to the actual build in the spring.

Meanwhile, my personal house build (the 24'x14' slip form stone house) can begin!

Meeting With The Builder

Well, it turns out that my sister and her husband, in light of the recent economic turmoil, have decided to build without bank financing.

This is good news for me. This means I can build without having to worry about how my dirtcheapbuild will impact their bank loan and inspection.

We are gathering for a meeting with their builder this week; this is a company I have found for them, the owners of which are interested in building an insulated concrete slip form house. That is what my sister's family wants.

I will be, of course, gleaning off them!

In other news, I secured a job only 30 minutes from the house site, so I will be moving forthwith to begin my build this fall and winter.

The latest plan I'm pursuing is the use the slip form stone building methods outlined here.

Can't wait!

We also plan to plant fruit trees this fall for the future years.

Anyone have any suggestions?

...We Ate SAND

"When they was no meat, we ate Frog

When they was no Frog, we ate Crawdad

When they was no Crawdad to be found, we ate sand.

You Ate What?

We Ate Sand.

You Ate Sand?

That's Right."-Raising Arizona

By great good fortune, I stumbled across 4 tons of bagged sand--for free.

My friend, Bob Luttman, called me and said he was cleaning out a warehouse and had over 100 80-lb bags of sand--where did I want them?

Bob and his brother Ron have been cheerleaders and supporters of my gleaning house project since the inception; it was Ron who gave me all those sliding glass doors when his company did an apartment renovation.

So, I had Bob bring the sand down to Southaven, MS, where I could get them and take them the 15 minutes to my burgeoning storage shed in Hernando.

What can one do with sand? Build a slip form stone house, that's what. Concrete and cement. Cob. You name it.

The brothers Luttman might just get their names enshrined in the gleaning house hall of fame yet!

...And Destroyed Everything in its Path

We've been to the Mountaintop.

And we've seen The Promised Land.

On a bee-you-tee-ful August day, 8-8-08 at 8:08am, to be exact, the four of us met the former owner of our land and our new next-door neighbor to start carving out a property line through the thicket and woods.

It began with our finding four deer in the field/clearing part of the land. my sister exclaimed, "Those are MY deer!" Yes, sweetie, they are. Deer that carry glocks, shoot first and ask questions later.

The neighbor fired up his bulldozer (he called it a 'doze-your') and started running up the bottom part of the property line, using the exposed rock areas as a potential drive way. About 300 feet up into the land, we found the surveyor's stake and Ralph then made a left turn into the bottom part of the 'flag' towards the east.

The plan was for the four of us to follow along in his 'Gator', a six wheeled, chain driven diesel-powered ATV. My BiL, however, chose to scout ahead of the 'dozer on foot, whilst Sis, her son, and I grew restless watching the 'dozer power a path through the trees and rocks.

The power of the 'dozer amazed us. Nothing stopped it--until it found poor traction on bare rock while trying to climb a slight rise in the land. No problem, the 'dozer simply went off into the brush and came up around the rock incline and continued his path of destruction.

As I said, we grew restless watching this, so we decided to start following the various old logging roads through the property. We found that the Gator went pretty much anywhere, and the logging roads, like our new driveway, were build largely on top of the rock outcroppings. We wound our way up the hill and had a great time exploring parts of the land we'd not seen before.

Finally, after about two hours, the farmer's attention span waned. My BiL by this time had been covered with blackberry bramble scrapes, my nephew was hungry, and my sister and I were just plain excited over the possibility of the build.

We had already had a great trip to Middle Tennesse; we'd been to some lumber companies shopping for windows and doors and were outraged at the prices (thinking $3,000 for the doors alone). But then we--on my insistence, of course--went to one of the local Habitat for Humanity ReStores and saw that the same companies that ask top dollar for windows and doors and scads of other materials donated the exact same stuff to the ReStore and now they cost less than 30% of what they were listed for in the store.

Suddenly, the Crazy Brother/Uncle who'd been preaching a cheap build looked a little less crazy; that tin foil hat had turned into a builder's hardhat. They started to believe that it could be done for less.

In addition--and in another post--we have great news from our potential contractor on the job.

Stay tuned.

The Incredibly Morphing Build (or, How to Put the 'Con' in Conventional)

After months of toying with the ideas surrounding a more experimental project, it seems we are moving inexorably towards a more conventional build.

My family have it in their heads that what they will have by way of housing should be more of the 'normal' house and are questioning possible alternative building methods--which is fine, 'cause it's their money--but with every eschewing of a non-conventional method, the price seems to climb exponentially.

The caveat to all this is that their build might require--probably will demand--a construction loan. That severely limits what they can do because banks are loathe to loan money on building methods they have not experienced much.

Ah, well; we do what we can.

However, there's some bad news here for me.

How this impacts my build is that ANY building on the land must not only meet code (which my house would in any case), but it must also meet the building standards of the lender. These standards may often exceed the local Wilson County code. Thus, unless I can get really creative, I may be looking at a conventional build for my house.

More on this topic, soon.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of my granddog, Bucky; I post this because he always makes me smile.