Crapbox turned dreamhome

[novaman854]

Follow along as we SLOWLY turn our run down home into our dreamhouse with 3 car garage. We purchased the house in 2003 because it sat on a beautiful 9 acre lot with a 1200 foot driveway. The remodel began in 2009 and its still a work in progress. I am new to all this so bear with me as I learn to post pictures etc. Thanks for looking.

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[CreteCoater]

Interesting. OK....subscribed.


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[novaman854]

The original home was constructed in the early 1980's. It was supposed to be a solar home I believe, but the house was never actually fully finished. Plywood floors, no heat (other than a woodstove) an unfinished bathroom upstairs, etc etc. It was also home to over 30 cats, probably 15 dogs, many many chickens, and even a few goats! As mentioned previously, I bought it for the privacy. I knew (or at least hoped) that I could eventually turn the home into what I envisioned. Being my first home, I had NO idea what I was getting into.

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

I am by no means talented in construction, but I am not afraid to get my hands dirty. First I needed to tear down the small outbuildings that were in the way of the addition. I also relocated the propane tank by rolling it out behind the house and running a new connection out the basement window (which, by the way, promptly got me in big trouble with the propane company, who quickly took back their tank and discontinued service). During the rest of construction I had to run down to the local gas station and fill a 40 gallon propane tank to provide our hot water and dryer - hahaha. I also cut down any trees that were in the way with the help of my brother.

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

Excavation finally began and we discovered that the entire property is ALL ROCKS. You can see my beautiful wife Heather (not my wife when the picture was taken) next to the rocks to show how large they were. The picture directly above is taken from inside the house. I am standing where the garage will end. This gives some scale on the size of the project. The original house was about 1300 square feet. The new house will be almost 3000 square feet of living space, plus almost 1000 square feet of garage space. The garage bay all the way to the right will have 12 foot ceilings to accommodate a lift. We hired Ken Walsh, a talented architect/builder, to draw up the plans and to build the house. I had admired his contemporary style homes for years and was thrilled that he finally was willing to help us (I chased him for over a year trying to get him on board). I told Ken that I wanted a two car garage (which turned into a 3 car), and I also told him that I didn't want to be able to tell it was an addition, I wanted it to look like it was one uniform design. Both my wife and I were amazed at the design he came up with. We tweaked some things here and there, but his vision was exactly what we were looking for.

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

One of the jobs I took on to try to save some money was to cut two doorways through the original foundation. I borrowed a diamond blade saw and went at it. After cutting both the inside and the outside, I had to hammer drill the last inch or so. It was a surprisingly messy, tedious, and exhausting job. But I got it done in time.

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

Damn cat!!

 

[novaman854]

 

[theoldwizard1]

I assume #12 is the the outbuilding you tore down.

What is that in #13 ?

Now do you deal with boulders that big ? #23 and #24

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

#12 was a shed I guess you would call it. Although it was badly rotted and had no door. #13 was a chicken coup. Both buildings were torn down and burned. I would have posted earlier pictures of the house, but they are not digital and I don't have a scanner. As for the rocks, to the left of the house is a sharp dropoff probably 15 feet down. So all the rocks were placed into that hillside and covered with dirt. This widened that side of the "yard" about 15 feet or so (and we are now building a screened porch on top of the rocks 4 1/2 years later). There was one boulder that was too big to move (the builder wanted to blast it at a cost of $800.00), but we just dug a giant hole behind it, and rolled it into the hole out of the way of the foundation.

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]

 

[novaman854]