house back down.

Just in the nick of time the home was set back on it's foundation this fall. The snow hit and has been coming down ever since. Unfortunately, the house movers didn;t want to remove their 60' steel beams so we are unable to finish framing up the small addition - if we do, they won't be able to get the beams out. Sounds like setting the house back down was pretty uneventful. I was able to stop by soon after, but it was dark and I wasn't able to see much. I asked my brother to take a couple of pics on his way home and this is what he sent.

Modern Plans

This won't work where we are because of the floor plan we have, but it would be cool to remodel to a modern design like this home. Something about real clean lined modern urban design on a forested piece of land is appealing to me. As apposed to the so common cabin style home. Our floor plan is more cut up, but if I were starting from scratch, this would be a cool design with the expansive wall of windows to take in the view.

New Foundation

The new foundation is finally in and hopefully this week the house will be set back down on the new foundation and get buttoned up for the winter. When spring comes we'll begin working on the cosmetic type remodeling. Snow started falling soon as the foundation was poured so hopefully we'll have enough time to get it all framed back up and closed in. Replacing the foundation is going to be much nicer in the long run, but not as much fun as remodeling cosmetic things because with items like flooring and cabinets you can see immediate improvement on the property. Still, i'm excited about the new foundation.

Barn Door Hardware

I'm on the hunt for something a little different for the wyoming house. I found this barn door style hardware for couple of doorways where I'd like to save some space, but don't really want a pocket door. This sliding track is pretty cool, but not cheap. There must be a better deal to be had. Still, probably cheaper than tearing the wall out, buying pocket door hardware and reframing and finishing the walls.

You have to look at the overall expense when making decisions in construction. Building several homes over the years has taught me that a decision seemingly less expensive now, may not the most cost effective in the end.

Commercial Siding

I'm digging the siding on this place. I like the windows too, but I'm sure they are more expensive than I want to pay. The siding may be too since it's commercial, but I'd rather not have to paint a house over and over so I'm leaning towards some higher than residential quality siding. I just need to locate where i can purchase it.

Wood Burning Stoves

I'm learning some things I didn't know much about fixing this old place up. I have been on the lookout for a cool modern style wood burning stove for our wyoming house. I have found several options but none of them are matching up to what was already there before. At first I thought I could just tear into the wall and move the fireplace flue up or down to accomodate the stove that I had purchased - oh how nieve I was. Apparently when a fireplce flue is built they start at the bottom and work their way up. As a result, it's pretty difficult to modify the existing flue since all of the weight of the chimney pipe is bearing on the bottom fittings. So I have had to look at other alternatives for our stove that aren't quite like my original plan.

Option 1: built a small platform (about 6" high) and install this stove:

Option 2: No platform, and go with this round design.

The rounded design isn't my favorite, but I think we're going for a modern style interior so either one would fit with the decor. These Morso stoves are apparently really nice. My parents have one in their home and [after owning many over the years] say that it is better than any they have owned. The glass stays clean and the convection design puts out a real even heat and burns longer than other stoves. I was hoping to get one installed before winter, but I don't think it's going to happen. I'd have to have all of the tile behind the stove done and with the home being raised 6' in the air right now with no power, it will be difficult to get it done. Priority is just getting the home back on the foundation and closing it up for winter.

No foundation

Well, the old foundation is officially gone. Now the excavation work begins to dig deeper so that the new footings and foundation are below frost depth. The old one was just few inches under ground which just doesn't fly in this part of Wyoming where the winters are fairly harsh. I hope they can get it all buttoned back up before winter hits.

Door Knobs

I've been in the hardware business for some time now. Ever since I started I wanted to eventually design and have manufactured a square knob wth a rectangular rosette. Well, Emtek beat me to it. Oh well, saved me some headache I guess. So I'm thinking of these for the wyoming house. We'll see if it goes along with everything else we put in the house, but today I'm liking them.

Raising a Home

The home has been lifted off of the foundation. And they did it without cutting down any trees!! I was stoked. I thought for sure they would have to cut some down to get those 60' beams in there. It's hard to snake a 60' beam through lots of pines and aspens, but they were able to do it. The lifting process began on Monday and the home was lifted 24" off the foundation by wendsday afternoon. We did have to disconnect the power on one side, and disconnect the plumbing in the crawl space. When the new foundation is set, the home will sit about 6" higher than it is now which will improve the situation. When I bought the home the ground sloped toward the home. Even after grading the land back out, the dirt level was right up next to the bottom of the siding. 6" was about all we could raise it without incurring a lot more expense so I figured that would do. I'm hopeing to make it up to WY this weekend to check this out. It's just cool to see something like this happen. I wish I could see someone else have to pay for it, but I think it will be well worth it in the long run. I debated quite a bit about replacing the whole foundation or just the trouble spots shown in the last post. My decision to replace the whole thing turned out to be a wise one. When the home was lifted Phi, [the guy doing the 3work for me] said that all the cracks we thought were hairline turned into full blown problem cracks as soon as the pressure was taken off. The footings turned out to only be 5" thick as opposed to 12" like they should be in the area. And the foundation wall was only 6" with no rebar - the norm around here is 8" with rebar. So I'm not excited about the expense since the liviability of the home will be about the same, but knowing the foundation is solid and not going anywhere will go a long way for sellability in the future. Not to mention eliminate problems that I might have with interior finishes cracking or seperating because the foundation is settling. Now the work begins for Phil, removing the old sections of foundation and hauling them off. I'm glad I opted not to handle this improvement by myself. You have to have the right kind of equipment to do something like this. I'll stick to things I know and have the equipment for like finish work, tile and hardwood.

Picture below is the power panel we had to disconnect. I had to run down to the local power company and ask them to disconnect it. I was surprised how willing to work with me they were. Having worked in construction in larger cities I guess I am just used to utility companies more concerned about following a "process" that they don't really care at all about any kind of personal service. Every one at the power company was very helpful I came in on a Friday and they had it disconnected the following Monday. Looks like originally the power was not put in conduit- which it should be, so thats an expense I wasn;t planning on. But the power box is just 50' or so from the home so it shouldn't be too bad.

The Problem Areas.

So i took a trip up to the house to survey the situation. The foundation issues seem to be worse than when I bought the place so I have decided to replace the whole foundation and just do the job right the first time. Here are some pictures of the foundation cracks that keep getting bigger.

There are several cracks like these in various places around the house and after another hard winter, the cracks are worse than before. This is why when you do a project you should do it right. Because someone down the road will have to redo your work if it's not done right.

lifting a home

so i need to lift the home to be able to replace a section of foundation. As it turned out it costs almost as much to lift the entire home as it does to just raise/level the half that needs the foundation repair. There is a good section that is actually in pretty decent shape, but I'm thinking why replace just half and possibly end up having to replace the other half later should the older section fail. So I think we have decided to lift the entire home and replace the entire foundation. Crazy? I've been called worse things. Crazy expensive? kinda. What i worry is that if I ever need to sell the place, the old foundation will be an issue and may make an otherwise easy sale not happen.

One of the problems we face with raising the home to do the repair is that there are a lot of trees on the property. The home lifting company thinks they may need to cut down some trees to be able to get their beams in place. I never considered that as an option and of course I really don't want to have to cut down any trees. I've got to meet the contractor up there to see what our options are.

Firewood

My brother needed some firewood and I knew a place where we could find some. Our property in Wyoming has several fallen trees that I wanted to get rid of, so we went up for the weekend and went to town with the chain saw. Since I bought the place I have had two big Aspen trees break off at the base and fall over in a wind storm. I guess when the trees are dead and decaying at the base it's hard for them to withstand the pressure. We spent the morning cutting up the trees and then used a log splitter to chop it all up for heating my brothers home.

I remember cutting firewood with my dad growing up. I have 4 brothers, so my dad generally did the cutting and we all carried the logs to the truck to load them. It was very tiresome work when the trees we found were on steep slopes. This weekend we were grateful for the tools we had that made aquisition of firewood a little easier. We cut the dead trees down with the chain saw then cut them in half. Then hooked them to the 4 wheeler and drug them up the hill to the truck and cut them up and loaded them right by the truck - this was a lot easier. Next time though, we're taking the log splitter as well so we can cut and chop before we load. When you get older you have to work smarter.

This had to be one of the most enjoyable firewood outings I've had. The scenery was incredible with the fall leaves all over the mountains in the distance. It was peaceful and quiet up there and a recent rain had cleaned the air and left that nice mountain rain scent. It was hard work, but we had fun.

Heating a Second Home

I spoke to a seasoned veteran in second home ownership this last weekend to ask his opinion on the best way to heat the home and keep the snow off the roof. I was thinking maybe I would add a propane furnace to keep the home at a minimum heat during the winter - just enough to keep the roof warm, hoping the snow would melt and slide. Our neighbor who has had a cabin up a the lake in Idaho for 30 years says he never heats his home in the winter. But he does have a steeper roof so the snow just slides off. Since our home is in the middle of a bunch of trees I'm thinking the roof pitch is our problem. I did heat the home for a few weeks after shoveling off the roof and a new snow storm came and the heat really didn't make a difference.

So here is what I think I need to do:
Increase the roof pitch from its 4 or 5/12 pitch it must be now, up to an 8 or 9/12. Replace the old metal roof with a new standing seam concealed screw roof while also removing the turtle vents and replacing them with a good ridge vent. I was thinking about adding a roof over the deck and possibly enlarging the front porch with a carport area, but I am wondering if it's such a great idea to add valleys to the equation of an already problematic snow situation.

I was pleased to know that my neighbor has his cabin set up pretty much the same as our mountain home for winterization. There is a low point in our crawl space to drain all the pipes and winterize the home with RV antifreeze. Then I just have to be sure all the traps have antifreeze in them and make sure the water is off and pressure tank in the well house is drained.

The Front Door.

This is the front door after removing all of the snow off the roof. The huge snow bank made it easy to climb back on the roof to finish the job. You can't see it, but the front door really isn't that great. We'll be replacing it likely with a 5 or 6' french door with no grids so we can enjoy the scenery when inside. We're still working on the window and door configuration on this, but we definately want to punch some holes in the exterior walls to take advantage of the surroundings. Right now the front door is half glass with a tight grid pattern. The back door is the same. I think we'll replace them both, maybe with single doors again I guess - just depends on what other windows we go with in the main living area.

The Snow

A lot of snow falls in the winter time. I didn't plan to visit the home this winter but after having someone check on it for me... the report was that the 5' tall gate was buried in snow, so the roof must have quite a bit on it. I made the trek up on a weekend with my brothers and we cleaned it off. It took us most of the day to clean the roof off. I'm not sure how much total snowfall there was, but it was very compacted and wouldn't slide off the roof, so we took it down shovel by shovel. As I mentioned before there were a couple of trusses that needed repair when we bought the home. I beleive it was because of the super heavy snow load so I thought it would be wise to clean the heavy weight off to eliminate further damage before we were able to get the trusses fixed.

I think increasing the roof pitch would be a good idea on this one.

The home.

Here is the home. It was a stick built house, though it looks a lot like a modular/move on home. The home itself is built pretty well, but because of neglect the deck needs replacing and a couple of trusses need to be repaired due to excessive snow loads. Unfortuantley, whoever poured the foundation for the original owner didn't do it right and the west side of the home has a section of foundation that will have to be replaced or repaired. I think we will be replacing it because the repairs that could be done won't eliminate the problem in my opinion. We negotiated with the seller and were able to adjust the price of the property to offset the cost of the required repairs.

The back of the home has a nice large deck, but it is not covered and as a result is falling apart from years of lots of snow piled up on top. We'll probably have to rebuild it and cover it. Another negative of the home is that the roof is not steep enough for its location. Its sits in the middle of a whole bunch of trees and doesn;t get much sun, so if the home isn't heated the snow just piles up.

This is the inside of the home. I guess I should say was the inside of the home. The first weekend we owned the place i went up with some brothers, my dad and brother in law and we went to town tearing out the 70's carpet, brick and that hideous tile beneath the woodburning stove. I'm sure it was cool when it was new, but it's not anymore.We tore out the old green doorknobs, dark dingy doors, casings and baseboards, vinyl flooring, tile tub surround and anything else that we didn't like. I had immediate plans to retile the bathroom and get at least one room refinished so that we could use the home through the winter and remodel it slowly. I had big plans for the place last year and went home that Sunday thinking of all the great things we could do with it.

2 Days later I was at the ER with my 6 yr old daughter in the middle of the night. The cancer she had fought and put behind her the year before was back for round 2. We were devastated. Obviously she is much more important to us than an old home in the woods so it has remained pretty much untouched since. It is now just over 1 year to the day since tearing into the place. Our daughter went through a bone marrow transplant and spent most of the year at the hospital, but she is finally home and doing much better. So as life begins to settle down a little, I am reminded that I have a property that needs to be fixed up in the event that I need to sell it to pay for these rediculous medical bills. So i have started weighing the options for remodel, and started this blog as a place for me to save my ideas and the remodel process.

Views

This is the main reason we wanted this property. It's very peaceful with rolling hills covered in trees. I have been to the property many times over the past year and every time I see wildlife. No bears yet, but plenty of deer, moose or small critters. One strange thing is that the home that was built here 30 yrs ago really doesn't take advantage of any of these views. Go figure.

Where it all started.

In the spring of 2007 my wife and I started casually looking around a beautiful valley in Wyoming for a nice piece of land we could purchase for investment with the possibility that we might move there eventually. We looked at many pieces but most were either too big, too expensive, not in a location that we loved or they were just flat farm ground. I love flat farm ground - it's beautiful - but I'm not a farmer so this just wasn't of interest to me. I didn't want to own a large piece of land that was all weeds because I live out of state and can't keep it watered. And if we were ever to move there, I didn't really want to have my home in the middle of a large field of weeds. Maybe my views would change living there and I'd water it and enjoy moving pipe all the time, but I kind of doubt it. What we were trying to find was a couple acres that had some mature tree growth on the lot that bordered the forest or had some privacy.

One weekend in July we were up visiting my parents. I met with a realtor friend we know up there and saw a few different properties but I just wasn't stoked about any of them. I had pretty much retired the idea of finding something we liked this year and we really weren't in any hurry anyway. Buying real estate is expensive so I didn't want to rush it.

Just before bed that night my wife picked up the local paper and saw this little home in the forest advertised for sale. I didn't want to buy land with a home, but she convinced me to at least look at it. The next day we drove out to take a look. The home was nothing special but we both saw some potential in it. The land however was beautiful. Since I was a kid I've always wanted a home nestled in the trees with scenery out every window. This place has it. After a couple of months of negotiations we bought the property. The home needs some work, but having built several homes ourselves, we figured we could handle it. So this is how our "Wyoming House" came about. On this blog we'll document the remodel and progress of turning this old delapidated home into a comfortable weekend getaway. Below is a picture of our drive into the place. The home sits on 5 acres covered in quaking aspen and pine trees. the little structure shown is the well house.