April 18, 2007 by matt

Kitchen Components

Eventually, I want to build all of the cabinets in our kitchen. It’s up in the air at this point whether or not I’ll be able to do it for the initial build (largely due to the amount of time it will take me and the fact that we need a kitchen before we can move in). If our initial kitchen isn’t built by me, then the next one (10 years from now?) will be.

With that in mind, here are some links I’ve been collecting.

Low-Profile Soft Close system from Blum – looks like a nice hinge – I don’t like slamming cabinets or drawers
Marmoleum flooring – a variant on linoleum (with linseed oil, not vinyl)
Cork flooring – we’ve always been interested in this, but don’t really like how it looks online – they also have linoleum in lots of colors
Bamboo, cork, linoleum flooring and more
Bamboo countertops – how cool is that?
Clarks Fork Timber – totally out of place and we’d probably never use it (and likely can’t afford it), but it’s cool none-the-less

April 17, 2007 by amber

Beginnings of a driveway and building pad

We went up onto the property last weekend and got to see the beginnings of our driveway and building pad. Unfortunately, with the rain we’ve had this last week the central part of our property is a bit of a mud pit, but we were still able to walk around and get some pictures.

This first picture is standing next to the stump pile, from just a little bit forward of where the second picture was taken in the post below. I’m going to try to keep taking pictures from this point as a reference as we progress.

This will be the entrance to our driveway. They’ve started to cut the driveway lane, but this part of the driveway will require some fill to level it out.

This is looking down the main part of the driveway towards the building pad.

Here’s the house building pad. They will be carving and leveling out an area in between those little white flags stuck in the ground.

Here’s a closer picture of that big pile of trees in the above picture. That’s Matt standing on the pile with Gregory in the backpack. These trees were pushed out by the heavy equipment as they carved the driveway.

This is standing on the other side of the pile, looking up the driveway to the middle/right and up towards the stump pile (where the first picture was taken) on the left.

The big pile of trees is on the left

April 5, 2007 by amber

Pictures

Matt’s parents are up in the area right now and they sent us some pictures of the property. A couple of weekends ago we had some people come in and cut down some trees so that we could have some more clear area and sunlight.

Here’s the pile of the logs

This is standing at the road and looking down towards the house site. This is not where the driveway will go, but this is where machinery has been accessing the property.

And this is above the house site, looking towards where the house and garden will be built. You can see all the trees that have been cut down to open up the clearing. The stumps will be pushed and dug out by the heavy equipment when they come in to cut the driveway and building pad.

April 3, 2007 by matt

Books in the sidebar

I entered many of the books that I’ve either referred to during design or plan to use during construction into LibraryThing and added a randomized sampling to the sidebar.

April 3, 2007 by matt

Concrete – Foundations, Coloring and More

I’ve been thinking about concrete a fair bit recently because some time in the next two months or so, I’m going to have to form and pour (or have poured) the foundation for our house. With that in mind, here are some links that look interesting.

The Rehab Guide: Foundations (690K PDF) – “This publication, The Rehab Guide: Foundations is one in a series of guidebooks produced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to keep the design and construction industry abreast of innovations and state-of-the-art practices in home rehabilitation.”
Concrete Floor Finishes
Fly Ash Concrete
Affordable Residential Construction: A Guide for Home Builders – Volume II (6.4 MB PDF) – ” offers detailed information for builders who want to incorporate affordable housing techniques into their house and lot designs, footings and foundations, wood frame floors, walls and partitions, firewalls, roof framing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and business and marketing efforts”
Concrete Materials Calculator
Portland Cement Association FAQ – I linked to this before, but it’s worth repeating

Concrete Stain product manufacturers

April 2, 2007 by matt

Weatherproof walls and housewrap

A recent Fine Homebuilding newsletter included a link to an article titled Making Sense of Housewraps.

I’m part-way through it, and it’s led me off to the Building Materials and Wood Technology site at University of Massachusetts which looks like a good source of building info.

Some links pertinent to housewrap and weatherproofing include:

The latest Fine Homebuilding magazine also had a small bit on Delta-Dry housewrap which looks very interesting and I will be exploring further. Some related links include:

New DELTA-DRY House Wrap Poised to Challenge Tyvek
Delta-Dry House Wrap (hgtvpro.com)

Building A Home For Our Family

Come watch the fun! Bring tools! We'll find a place for you to lend a hand.

Month: April 2007