Building my Dream

Thanks for the questions Art - just the kind of thing I need to help finalize things.

- Is it just the plan, or is there a pole on the overhang partially blocking the overhead door?
That is the plan view - no blockage

- Is the overhang for lumber storage? If so, I'm curious as to why the overhead door is there.
The overhang is to allow some outside woodworking, grilling, getting in out of the rain, etc. There is no access from the sides/back, so I need the overhead door on the front.

- or is the overhang the "Front porch"?
Partially that and the other things mentioned above.

- the windows... you may want to be careful with window height so that they don't block any benches or cabinets. Are they 4' off the floor?

I ordered 4 windows to get started. Final placement and qty are TBD. 1 for sure will be in the finishing room, and another will be beside the front door. I am debating bout how high they should be. Is 4' the recommended height?

- are you going to be putting DC and/or electrical into the floor for central machines? If so, talk to Larry, he did that! You want to be REAL sure of machine placement then.
No, considered it - but without knowing what tools, tool placement, and the probability of changes - I decided to pour a solid floor and run drops from the ceiling. (almost went with a trench in the floor)

- is that stove for heat? Seems like this placement might get in the way of prime lumber storage + work area. What about tucking it into that corner between the bathroom and the finishing room. That seems more out of the way (and yet somewhat central).
Yes, and I like your location suggestion. I wanted it out of the way as much as possible. Will eventually have central heat/air, but can always use the wood stove for scraps and supplemental heat.

which way is north?

The shop is facing South East - ish

SPIDER
The fellow (and his relatives) in the photo is a common site. They are in all the holes and hollow spots. The bite is similar to bee sting (from what I read - no personal experience yet). They are NOT shy. Each time I disturb one of their abodes, they run out to see what all the commotion is about and stare at me. The one in the photo would not move. Did not move when I dropped the quarter for the picture, or when I picked it up. I had to use a stick to get him to move so I could continue working. They seem to think they own the place :D
 
I ordered 4 windows to get started. Final placement and qty are TBD. 1 for sure will be in the finishing room, and another will be beside the front door. I am debating bout how high they should be. Is 4' the recommended height?

Actually that was just a number tossed out that I was pretty sure would be higher than any bench/cabinet that you might want to put against the wall.
(I'm not a professional builder, never built a shop, but I love dreaming and working things out in my head.)
I do think that natural light is good, and having a view out is really good.
If you have a great vista, you might position for that, or for seeing the driveway or house, or just whatnot.
 
Almost ready to start building the shop. Rain started today, so may be delayed. Hope to start on Friday or Monday.

Got the irrigation trenching done this weekend
IrrigationTrenchesWeb.jpg

Planted some apple trees we found on clearance
AppleTrees.jpg
New method of placing trees in a plastic tube to protect, shade, and train the trees. We will use these tubes on all our new trees.

Got some more of the fence done
CedarFenceWeb.jpg

And removed a HUGE stump.
BigStumpWeb.jpg
This one maxed out the tractor. Could not curl once the stump was off the ground. If you look at the rear tires, you might see that they are just touching :eek: - It was a balancing act.

I also uploaded a short video riding up the driveway and into the home/shop area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBK-as5eR_4

Hope the next pics will be of the shop going up :type: ...
 
Wow, looks great Rick, the fence looks really good, nice job on that!

The video is great, I tend to forget how much space some of you have over there :D :thumb:
 
lookin good as usuual rick,, the being able t see out and have natural light is a big asset in my book it makes you fell part of the landscape..if had to do over i would have more windows but i have a heat thing to consider,, we get winter up here..
 
try to set your windows 54" off the finished floor in a shop. that way after trim you`ll still have 4' under them.
 
Hey - did anyone else hear Banjo's during that ride up the driveway?

:rofl:

That's some access road! I don't know that I could keep up with that much property and maintenance. Just reading some of Travis' posts on live in Maine makes me tired.

I'm more of a little house in a cute little town with a town square and a statue of a colonel in the park kind of guy. Hopefully there are some nice small towns left when I'm ready to retire!

Things look great Rick. Keep the pic's coming.

Cheers

Jim
 
So, heres a stupid question :huh:

Have you thought about how you are going to get access to the interwebs once you get the house built? :type:
 
Oh boy that video made me envious. Great work and kudos to you for all the effort. Looks like a real nice piece of land.

Just caught up after a while and that fence, man i like it. :thumb:

Not one of these "perfect" looking production jobs. Has a nice natural feel to it.
I was just thinking wow you lucky you aint got to worry too much about SNOW. That driveway would call for you to have a snow plough too.:D
 
Keep on working there Rick!!! Looking good. I know the fence should be naturally rot resistant, but are you going to spray it with anything? Around here, they look good the first year, fair the next, by the third and fourth year a horizontal here and there start failing. Think the "tongues" are the weak link? Drop that there root upside down somewhere way out of the way, in a couple of years you can go back, Mother Nature will have washed all of the dirt out of the root ball, some spalting will have taken place and it will yeild many high quality bowl blanks and pen blanks!!!
 
Keep on posting.

I am sure I can say we are all loving it.

The video was a great idea. You really have a great new home/farm.

The nut trees will provide your retirement money.

Where are you in SC ? looks like near the coast with all that sand.
 
Wow, that is a seriously long driveway. Don't think you're going to get many trick-or-treaters on your door! ;)

So far you've talked about planting trees there, and about your shop. Haven't noticed any mention of livestock, so is the fence just because, or is it for keeping things out? :huh:
 
...so is the fence just because, or is it for keeping things out? :huh:

I'm betting it's to keep out the Pecan Rats. Ugly critters, about 4 to 5 feet tall at the shoulders. They can strip a pecan grove clean overnight. I don't think they're very common in Canada, but they're all over the place down here. :eek:

:rofl:

Rick, that's quite a chunk of land you've got there. Thanks for the video drive-through. :thumb:
 
Thanks for the window height info. Will probably add a couple more windows in the front.

I called the phone company before we purchased the property to be sure we would be able to get DSL coverage once we moved in. I guess they will run the phone lines on the power poles that were installed to get electricity to the shop/house.

My wife is planning to coat the fence with SPAR varnish. (mostly to try and keep the color). In a year or two, un-coated cedar fence will turn gray. Usually, these fences weather pretty well - maybe because of the mild winters.
The fence is mostly just to delineate the property line since the open field covers my property and my neighbor's. No livestock plans. The fence may help keep the pecan rats at bay...;)

The property is located just outside of Pelion, in central SC. The area is sandy, and there are a few commercial sand pits to the east. Once we go down further toward Black Creek, the soil gets darker and less sandy. The home/shop area is only about half way down toward the creek. Maybe I will upload another video sometime later to show the bottom half.
 
Thanks for the window height info. Will probably add a couple more windows in the front.

I called the phone company before we purchased the property to be sure we would be able to get DSL coverage once we moved in. I guess they will run the phone lines on the power poles that were installed to get electricity to the shop/house.

My wife is planning to coat the fence with SPAR varnish. (mostly to try and keep the color). In a year or two, un-coated cedar fence will turn gray. Usually, these fences weather pretty well - maybe because of the mild winters.
The fence is mostly just to delineate the property line since the open field covers my property and my neighbor's. No livestock plans. The fence may help keep the pecan rats at bay...;)

The property is located just outside of Pelion, in central SC. The area is sandy, and there are a few commercial sand pits to the east. Once we go down further toward Black Creek, the soil gets darker and less sandy. The home/shop area is only about half way down toward the creek. Maybe I will upload another video sometime later to show the bottom half.

Rick I've heard real good thing about these products from the professionals on another forum you may want to look into them rather then using spar varnish which would be hard to re do later.


http://www.nam.sikkens.com/product-category.cfm?product_category=exterior
 
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