Congrats, big time!! I live now in a BIG city but small town politics are here too; they just sneak up on you.

What? Are you building it with your own hands?

pinktoes - thanks!

We are building most of it ourselves. We have a guy doing the excavation, house pads, and foundation. I would attempt the excavation, but we are on blue rock, so I will leave it to him.

The framing will be a panelized package. We were going to do stick built, but the panelized company came real close to what the lumber yards quoted us on take-offs. We have some difficult/specialized beams and windows and were concerned about the local yard being able to handle them properly. We may our may put up the panelized package ourselves, depending on our lot/foundation guys availability. His bid was fairly inexpensive and the he can do it much quicker than us.

Our only other subs will be for the roof, insulation, drywall, and fire sprinklers.

We have a tall house (38' at the peak) and steep pitched (10:12) roof. I am afriad of hieghts, so that is why I am not doing the roof. Insulation is cheaper if I use the sub than if I buy it myself. Drywall is a pain in the butt. I needed fire sprinklers designed and installed by a pro to satisfy the fire dept, even though I think they are scared of me now, lol.

It shall be fun. My dad is buying a trailer and will be up a lot to help out. I also have a good friend who just built his own house and he will be helping out if he likes it or not.

I have a baby coming in 7 months. I would like to be done by then, but that is unlikely. At this point I am happy to be getting started.

I still need to figure out if I will be using pg&e or going off-grid for power. Will be visting some off-grid homes tonight.

Congatulations on both your baby and the beginning of your home.

We're small town too. So of course our major permit problem was the FD. We had to either do sprinklers inside the house or allow the FD to access our well if needed. We're in a high fire danger area so that didn't seem like a bad idea. At least we know the FD will be at our house if there is a fire. So, we went with the well which also ment putting in a fire hydrant. Then when we went to get our C/O the FD came back and even though we were permitted they wanted a seperate tank that overflows from the main tank and gauges or keeps a minimum # gallons set by them. Well...OK then!!!

Sounds like you are getting all your ducks in a row. Good luck. Can't wait to see pics!!!

Congratulations!!! How exciting two new "babies" to gush and fuss over! Hope you'll share pictures of both! Many blessings and well wishes!

Congratulations!! New house, new baby...both are reasons to celebrate. Good luck to you, I look forward to watching your project take shape!

Amy

Hey mikevon,congratulations on both. Are you any where near the moonlight fire? We were just up to our build and a lot of ash and smoke, but are in the clear. I guess it's something that you think of when it happens similar to living where there are hurricanes, tornadoes, floods,etc.

Congratulations, mikeyvon! You must be excited about that and the new baby, of course! We finally got our permit 7 weeks ago and we've been rockin' and rollin' ever since...walls will be framed by the end of this week (cross fingers) and the roof will take about two weeks after that (it's not a truss roof, we're doing stick-built).

Best of luck to you with everything,
Leilani

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Home Building Website

Thanks everyone! Now the fun begins. Digging starts today. It is a race against winter.

Babies are definately exciting. My wife has not been feeling well at all, which is not fun. It also leaves me with a ton on my plate. I get a 2.5 yr old to take care, trying to keep the house decent, we just started a new year of school and my class is almost double what it was last year, and now I am building a house. I think I can see the hair turning gray daily.

We are pretty far north of the moonlight fire (75 miles), but are feeling the effects smoke wise. Yesterday was a lot better than the last three days. It was like it was overcast, but you could taste the smoke.

kats - it is amazing the power the FD can have. Our fire board hired a chief 2 yrs ago that had been fired from his last three chief's jobs. Smart huh! His practices pretty much halted growth. He made regulations that were much stricter than county code, such as needing 20ft wide driveways, super high flow looped hydrants, paved drives, ect. He also tried to implement a mello-roos district. The board backed him the whole way. It was ugly but we fought it and won. We now have a new chief and a reeling board (who will most likely be recalled).

thanks again for the encouragement. I had some family and friends who have not made it up here request a video tour of our property. I now just need to edit it small enough to get it online. I will share when I am finished.

Hi Mike!

We are now weather tight and did almost everything ourselves. We also used panelized uninsulated wall components and hired a couple of workers. DH is afraid of heights so he paid someone to do the roof too.

We found the panelized construction guide for Yankee Barn homes to be helpful. www.yankeebarnhomes.com/constructionguide/index

Also, here's a picture of what 3 months of working mostly alone got acomplished. Keep in mind DH is working 4 days a week on the house but we also had an extremely wet summer.

ajpl, It looks great! Your home looks much like our will look. What kind of siding do you have on there? Are you doing a partial or full basement?

Our foundation guy made good progress yesterday. Lots and lots of rock, but thankfully no house size pieces yet. I am hoping I win the race against winter and am I dried in in the next 6 weeks or so.

I have some pics and when I get a few minutes at home, I will post them up. It is much easier to be on here while at work, lol. It seems like the only free time I get.

Mike,
Your excitement and enthusiasm are great! It really comes through in your posts...what do you teach? Perhaps your big class this year can be put to work on your house for 'extra credit' :) LOL! Best of Luck with the house and your new baby! Can't wait for pictures!

The siding is 4 inch coverage eastern white cedar clapboard. I stained it with Flood Semi Transparent Penetrating Oil in Rustic Honey Colour. The idea being that colour will prevent it from looking too orange like some cedar does that I don't prefer.

It's an 8 foot basement with floor joists on top so prety much 8 feet to the finished ceiling. We likely won't finish it until next winter though.

We had to get a rock breaker in when digging the foundation. It cost a bit more and took some time but it was worth it. We really like our location. We didn't have any house sized rocks but I was surprised some were the size of small cars!

i teach continuation high school. It is a self contained class, so 9th-12th grades all subjects. This will be my fourth year teaching and it still amazes me how mentally and emotionally tiring teaching is. With-out a doubt the most difficult job I have ever done, and I did hot tar roofing in Redding, CA (hot) when I was a young buck.

oh yeah, about the excited part. Hell yes I am excited. Life is great! I have the wife of my dreams, a child that is even better than my dreams, another child on the way, a job i actually look forward to going to everyday (well most days), good friends, and I will finally own my own house on a piece of land that could only be better if it were on a lake or river.

The beer is cold and life is good. What else can a man ask for at 32 (a longer day for more sleep would be one thing).

And occasionally gettin' the truck sideways in the mud!
Rock on,mikeyvon- best of luck!