Mid to Late August

 Framing, Pictures, Roof  No Responses »
Aug 122019
 

The “update list of links” idea is working well for timeliness, so this page will take Chenoweth East thru the end of August. Join us on the journey! We love visitors, so if you are in the area (see Maps, above) and want to visit, send a note to Help@ChenowethEast.com, or leave a message at 502-633-9529:

  1. Carport and back veranda – beams are up!
  2. Delivering trusses – and almost 30 min. sitting on a busy KY state highway because the driver couldn’t figure out how to get up the hill!
  3. Truss installation – the crane that did this cost us $700 for about 3 hours and could lift 120 ft. in the air
  4. Framing, framing, framing – and only one of the crew speaks English, and he isn’t always there
  5. Main roof started – and it rained, and water stood on the subfloor and … when will the roof be complete?
  6. Roof almost covered – the gray liner is waterproof, so we can wait awhile before installing the metal.

Update in Pictures – June to Early August

 Driveway, Foundation, Framing, Pictures  No Responses »
Aug 062019
 

Now that we are in the thick of actually building, there doesn’t seem to be much time to do the posts! So, for a picture overview of progress, here are links to different folders that progressively bring us up to early August. Enjoy!

  1. Digging the foundation – high lift and Bobcat – early June
  2. Building material – the wheat field near I-64 where we will probably get some of our straw bales – late June
  3. Annex footers – the lowest part of the foundation, which is on solid rock for the annex – mid July
  4. Main footers – includes video of the giant concrete pump truck – mid July
  5. Annex foundation walls – formed and poured on the footers – mid July
  6. Main foundation walls – formed and poured the same day, but footers buried in dirt this time – mid July
  7. Legal immigrant from CA – and a great volunteer, I might add 🙂 – mid July
  8. Back filling and the rocks – the Bobcat in action, both filling in against the annex foundation AND carefully setting aside Beth’s rocks 😉 – mid July
  9. Guest shelter – will have a roof, sides, a table and chairs, lighting at night, cool drinks, snacks, etc. — for the volunteers who work with straw & plaster – to rest their bones now and then… – July thru Sept.
  10. A beautiful driveway – it’s a little steep at the crossing, but the trees along the way are so wonderful – July
  11. Building stuff – here’s all the kinds of things which go into a house – late July
  12. Main house floor – the foundation finally gets a floor on it! – early August
  13. First floor framing – the post and beam frame goes up (except for the utility and master bath, which are stick framed) – early August
  14. Main 2nd floor – TGI, beams and subfloor, plus some amazing views of the trees all around – early August
  15. Main 2nd walls – most of the walls are up on the 2nd, and getting ready for the roof rafters – early August
  16. Main porches, shaping up – giant posts and beams make the back veranda outside the master bedroom look amazing, plus the 2nd ceiling rafters are in place – early August
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High Lift and Hoe Ram

 Foundation, Pictures  No Responses »
Aug 052019
 

Here is the hoe ram in action, breaking up the rock which is in the way of the footer for the annex foundation… It is a Bobcat lift with a special attachment on the front. In case you’re wondering, the ram itself is powered by hydraulics.

Here’s the highlift in action clearing the site for the main house.

Rock & basement

 Driveway, Pictures  No Responses »
Jul 042019
 

In the last few days we have been buying lots of #3 rock, plus something called “crusher run” by the dump truck load. Because of the rain, it has been going on the road and … sinking :-O Obviously, this is not a plan, except that we’re 6 weeks behind schedule, so it’s … the plan. As you can see from the photos, we have a very rocky driveway right now. At least, it works, and it will have to work in the near future because massively heavy CONCRETE trucks will show up soon, and there will be no giant helicopters to fly the concrete to the foundation forms. It has to be carried by the mixer trucks and poured in through a chute.

Junk in the pipes – before/after

 Driveway, Pictures  No Responses »
Jun 122019
 

In previous posts I described the process (and hassle) of cleaning out the pipes which the crossing is built on. Since doing that, the pictures nearby represent the highest the creek has gotten since then. In point of fact, in spite of all the rain, the crossing itself has never been covered. PTL! Hopefully, this record will continue as we build the house … unless we really get some rain.

Beth and Ginny

 Pictures  No Responses »
May 032019
 

The lady of our future home has been a vital part of everything from the beginning … even when Ted was musing about building a rammed earth home (another story) back in the mid-80s! Now that we’re on our way, Beth’s new assistant is Ginny, our faithful Australian shepherd mix. Here’s Ginny explaining to Beth how to pound in a corner stake just the right way … 🙂

Found a claw

 Pictures  No Responses »
Apr 162019
 

After roughly 10 tries last week, we found an excavator with a claw (the grabber thing above the bucket in the picture). It got the crossing cleaned out! Since then, the creek has been happy, and we’re moving forward… Notice the large rocks in the picture of the crossing. Some of them are too big for 2 men to lift! Hopefully, the creek will go around them now and will stay off the far edges of the concrete. We will eventually need to modify the intake pipes so less debris will be caught in them, and more will flow over the top. In the meantime, you-know-who (aka, the builder – aka, not the builder’s wife) will be getting down in the creek and cleaning out debris by hand so as to avoid renting another Bobcat.

UPDATE on 4/24

The creek did get over the crossing, and the riprap in the picture did it’s job. There are a few logs here and there, but TT just got a new chainsaw so … [sound of chainsaw revving … 😀 ]

Highlift, meet dead oak

 Pictures, Trees  No Responses »
Apr 062019
 

A friend recently asked me, “What’s a highlift?” Behold…

Our driveway, it turns out, needed to go right through a place where this huge, dead oak tree was standing. We got a bid of $800 to drop it, but then Drew, our UBuildIt guru, said one of his operators could just push it over. So — that’s what happened! Note the size of the trunk. Wish I had been there at the time, because it must have been quite a show.

Highlifts can do some amazing things…

We Need a Claw!

 Pictures, Questions  No Responses »
Mar 212019
 

…with a backhoe attached to it. That’s because the creek keeps cutting the ends of our crossing out every time the water gets high, and before we can fix it we need the culverts cleared of debris. See? We think a claw on a backhoe for an hour or so will get all the logs & stumps picked up and dumped on the other side, where the creek itself will wash them away. Here are the stumps and things that need to be moved.  Know anyone with a claw on the end of a backhoe? If so, leave a comment on this post… thanks!

Dig ready? – not – yet…

 Pictures, Schedule  No Responses »
Mar 152019
 

Weather (wet) and paperwork (govt.) have combined, and we have missed our goal… but we’ll keep at it. In the meantime, here’s our site plan. Notice the shaded area around the creek at the upper part of the diagram – it’s a big floodplain. That means the Army Corp of Engineers is very interested in what happens there. I had a friend tell me he built a dam across the same creek (further upstream) and the ACOE apparently saw it on an aerial map and paid him a visit. It worked out, but … we don’t really own that land – the Army Corp. does. But we pay the taxes. Sigh…

After 35 years of dreaming…

 Pictures, Schedule  No Responses »
Feb 262019
 

…here we go! As one might note from previous posts, our progress since 2007 has been somewhat uncertain. The 2008 financial meltdown, family and business issues and the general rush of life have meant that now, finally, we’re on the way! Won’t you join us? Please subscribe (send a note to Help@ChenowethEast.com), or just check back periodically to see the progress. Our next goal is coming right up — to be “dig ready” (foundation) by March 15th.