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Jay builds a house: June 2011
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Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Monday, June 27, 2011. While we had the trenches open for electricity, we also put in water lines. Now, next to each subpanel there is a "frost-free yard hydrant." It looks like this:. The drain rock catches lost water without it making a mess. You can set a bucket on the rock, or hang the bucket from the hydrant. Wiring a second subpanel. Previously I wired up a subpanel to supply power to the septic system. The wire is so stiff that it...
jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com
Jay builds a house: Rafter units
http://jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com/2012/08/rafter-units.html
Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Friday, August 3, 2012. Once the floor was built, you'd think I'd build walls. No. Rafters first! I started by drawing the roof lines on the deck. Then I used them to mark and cut 1 rafter, including a bird's mouth. The bird's mouth. Cut didn't go well, and getting them right makes a big difference in how the roof goes together. I decided on a different approach. This blocking represents the wall, and aligns the ceiling joist:. 4 Place t...
jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com
Jay builds a house: August 2012
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Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Thursday, August 9, 2012. It's almost time to put up the roof framing. The rafter units are not too heavy to carry, but they're not light, either. And they're long (16'). And we have to put them on top of an 8' wall, which is a long way to reach. We passed one up today to see how it felt. Get a couple helpers for 1/2 an hour. A combination of the above may be the best choice. I decided to build a raised work platform, as a start. Most of...
jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com
Jay builds a house: Fixing a window framing mistake
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Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Friday, August 3, 2012. Fixing a window framing mistake. When framing a window under a load-bearing wall, you need to put in a header to carry the roof load. Typically it's built out of 2x lumber on edge, with plywood sandwiched between to make it the same thickness as the 2x4 wall. (2x6 walls are done a little differently.). I screwed up and put the header in sideways, with the lumber laying flat. This is far, far weaker. That formula i...
jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com
Jay builds a house: July 2011
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Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Saturday, July 30, 2011. The old compost pile got full in a big hurry. It took about a month! I did have 2 big trash cans full of food scraps ready to go in on day 1, though. Yesterday we built a new one. It's wire mesh fencing that we had from another project. A thick layer of straw goes on the bottom to provide extra carbon and catch liquid - we used a whole bale here. Now I just need a way to get out. Sunday, July 10, 2011. The outer ...
jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com
Jay builds a house: July 2012
http://jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html
Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Thursday, July 5, 2012. After completing the deck, we turned to the floor of the building. Joists continued 16" O.C., but the building is 10' wide, which doesn't divide by 16". Instead, the last 2 joists are spaced 12" O.C. Originally, we planned to lay the 4'x8' sheets of plywood subfloor along. The joists. Still, we installed the blocking anyway, to help stabilize the 12' joists. We applied subfloor adhesive to the joists, then dropped...
jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com
Jay builds a house: May 2012
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Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Saturday, May 19, 2012. We've been working on a small building. It's 10' x 12', with a 6' covered deck. It could be a small cabin, or a sauna. It would be easier to build if it was close to the ground, but I want to be able to get underneath, and I want the floor height to match the yurt. The gable roof overlaps the yurt roof enough to give a dry passageway. Lumber: 2x8 12', 2x8 16', 4x4 treated 10'. My plumb bob hanger has a 2" offset.
jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com
Jay builds a house: More subpanels!
http://jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com/2012/06/more-subpanels.html
Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Saturday, June 9, 2012. I haven't done any building for 2 weeks, so I thought I'd post some more abstract thoughts today, instead. Lots of cables run right next to each other, from the load center to other parts of the house. The worst case is usually the kitchen. You may have a separate circuit for each of:. Appliance receps (often two circuits or an MWBC). That's a lot of copper all running to one place. If you have an electric range, ...
jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com
Jay builds a house: November 2011
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Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Friday, November 11, 2011. Woodstove in a yurt. Because we live in the woods, burning wood to heat the yurt makes sense. We knew almost nothing about installing a woodstove, so the first step was research. Lots of research. The yurt manufacturer offers instructions, including this diagram:. They don't say. A common rule for posts is 1/3rd in the ground. That'd be 22' - a huge post! How would you haul one of those home? The wall band at t...
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Jay builds a house: Erecting walls
http://jbazuzihouse.blogspot.com/2012/08/erecting-walls.html
Jay builds a house. In which Jay builds a house with his own hands. Friday, August 3, 2012. To anyone who has done platform framing before, building walls is the most obvious of activities. For novices, there is a lot of complexity to work through, a lot of learning to be done. I spent most of my time reading, drawing, pondering, conversating. Oh, and resting my hammering arm. My first time framing a window:. Once framed, we tilted up the wall to see how it felt. Julie really enjoyed the chiseling work.
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