I was looking back at some old photos that I took when we first started the adventure. Giving up what little social life we had to get up close and personal with Home Depot.
1995 we had a big hole dug in the middle pasture of our 7 acres. We wanted to be at least 200 feet from the highway. We saw house plans in a plan book off the shelf in a grocery store and our dream started to get a little real. Lynn was sure that he could build this dream house for me. I was a little hesitant as the roof line on a 2 story house looked daunting along with all the bay windows. Which meant angles, lots and lots of angles. We had picked a Queen Ann Victorian house with a wrap-around porch.
We are talking about us doing most of the work but sub-contracting the foundation and roof, as Lynn doesn’t bounce anymore. He insisted that he could do it, but that is where I drew the line.
In the summer of 1995 we watched the beginning of the dream come to life. The footings and stem walls went up. We had one large ‘cement pond’. We had to get an elevation certificate as we were located in a flood plane. This meant that we had to build it above the 100 year flood plane. So we decided to dig a very large crawl space. Appx. 4 feet and almost 5 feet when we put the floor joists in. We built a solid concrete footing, electing to enter from the inside of the house. We have a problem with critters finding a place to get under the house. Not happening here. The reason for the large crawl space is Lynn is claustrophobic. He can almost stand his 6’2″ body up in there. The only problem we did no anticipate was the vents being lower than the elevation certificate. That would become an issue in 1996.
Now the building inspector stated that we had to put reinforcing re-bar every 16 inches for earthquake purposes. Hmm we did it but reluctantly. Added expense. I guarantee the stem wall will remain standing even if the house is shakes off the foundation.
I have attached a few pictures of what we finished in 1995. The 1996 came in like a lion. On February 1996 we flooded. More on that in the next post. Stay tuned. I continues to get better.
15yearsandcountingdream 