Groundbreaking
 

Well guys the Paratus family retirement home build officially started today....We had the groundbreaking for the house. Our Pastor, the builder (an elder in his church), the project manager, our realtor, representatives from two of our neighbor families, a friend I have known since he was 4 (35 years now)my wife my ASD 35 YO son were all present.

We happened to bump into one of the neighbor couples on Saturday and invited them, and they let the other neighbor couple know and they contacted us and offered to cater the coffee and donuts (they own a coffee/lunch place 10 miles down the road. The coffee and donuts were great.

The Pastor shared from Deuteronomy 28 about blessings for obedience. A wonderful and inspirational time was enjoyed by all. One of the neighbors, a lady a bit older then my wife and I, told the Pastor and I as she was leaving that this was the best morning she had had in a long time.

Good deal

Sure is!

Congrats!

Well progress continues. They have largely completed clearing the nominal 1 acre that will be the house lot. The have to get their big chipper in to turn the stuff to chips. There were not enough trees to be worthy of lumber and pulp locally is two blocked. This area was cut over in the early 90s and left to natural regrowth so plenty of poplars, sweet gums and beeches and a miscellany of pines, holly, winged elm and scrub oaks. The current plan is for the chips to be used as a border on the 900' of driveway in from the gate. This house building stuff has killed my gun purchase budget.

What style of house are you building? We moved into our new place almost 2 years ago but it feels like I am still working on it.

Some what of a craftsman. We elected to design from the ground up due to some special needs. First floor master with a second first floor bedroom with attached bath. Ground floor will be set up as fully handicap/wheel chair accessible. My wife and I don't currently need it but we have friends that will appreciate the accessibility features. Plus our plan is to leave in a bag when our times come. Upstairs will be an apartment for my 35YO Autism Spectrum son and another guest room with attached bath. Set up as an "L" shape with my son's apartment over the garage. Built on a crawl space with a wheelchair lift in the garage.

Full basement or Slab on grade?

Crawl Space. Full basement was out our spending range. Lots of excavation since the house sight is essentially flat.

PICTURES? I (we) would love to see pictures of the home you're building as it comes along. Ohhh... the pain of building a new home! But... you will be happy when you cross the threshold and spend the first night there. Congratulations and good luck!

Padre-
My Pastor was there for the ground breaking. The builder and project manager are both strong Christians. We are planning a versing party once it gets weathered in. A versing party is where folks are invited to come bringing their or using our Bible to inscribe appropriate verses on the studs and framing prior to the sheet rock. Of course I will be burning hot dogs hamburgers and chicken. I'll have to refigure how to post photos on this site.
Well Clearing is complete, chipping is done...the clearing contractor elected to haul some of the logs since his 700 HP diesel chipper gave him problems. An initial 4-6" of VDOT 57 rock is down on the drive way but not adequately graded to traverse in the sedan we were in today. My wife had thyroid surgery on Tuesday so she was not up to much walking or sight seeing today.

Well they have finished clearing the building site, spread the chipped trees and by lunch time were 1/2 to 2/3 the way done digging the footings. Where the digging was complete they have started with the three courses of #4 rebar with Chairs and driven anchors of rod holding it positioned roughly in the middle of the pour. According to the PM they will finish digging and setting rebar this afternoon. Current plans are for the county inspector and the project manager to inspect in the AM with a concrete pour late morning or early afternoon.
The footing crew are Latinos (Mexican I think) and they spoke politely to Mrs. Paratus and I and then were back to work...only paying enough attention to us to make sure we were out of the swing arc of the excavator. Hard working dudes. The 10-12000# Kubota excavator had a 24" wide 6-8 cubic foot bucket on it and every 20 seconds or so here came another scoop of dirt. I had helped hand digging some footers in the past...Shovels, pick maddoxs, wheel barrows, optical transits and witness sticks...heck of a lot better with this crew. Especially since I was not on the dumb end of a shovel.

Footings poured. Pinning on Monday with block and brick delivery.

So, the main framing will be Block & Stucco, as opposed to all Wood with that special sheeting (I forget what it's called)?

tyvek??

No, not Tyvek. I'm talking about some sort of thin "shingle" like substance that becomes the outside face of the unit. I think they're made of synthetic stone or something. When I was looking at building a place, they had mentioned this type of construction as being a whole lot cheaper than block & stucco. Supposedly strong enough to withstand a Cat-5 hurricane.



No thanks. I wanted "block & stucco." And I got it in the house I bought.

Well in this case this is simply the crawl space walls to support the frame house above. One of the building techniques that I looked at is Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF). The forms are built with insulation on them and then reinforced with rebar and poured. The outer surface is then veneered with what ever is desirable...stone, siding, brick etc. It produces a 4-6" thick reinforced concrete wall that is essentially bullet proof and storm proof. The only problem is that locally, when I researched it it was in the vicinity of $200+/SF and that is nothing but the poured walls and weather tight. No internal fixings, kitchens etc, no well and no septic. Not many local providers. If I was in tornado alley or in the hurricane prone coastal area ICF would have merited further consideration. Very few tornado totals here locally and the hurricane problems tend to be flooding or trees down on the structure. Site selection has remediated the flooding risk and the site prep has remediated the trees across structure risk.

I have thought about doing a small cabin using reinforced concrete blocks with a log "veneer" on the outside and paneling on the inside from my own trees. Gable-less sturdy metal roof.
I'd probably need a contractor to prepare the slab, but after that I can lay the concrete blocks myself as I have time and put in the rebar and pour concrete into the hollows.

Years ago our plans were for a small 2ish BR 2 bath house. Life has a funny way of changing things. My son is 36YO with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and can live semi independently...so he needed a place (his own on site apartment). Then over the past several years my wife has become friends with a younger woman with Cerebral Palsy. She is incapable of independent living due to the severity of the disorder and has an, at times, difficult relationship with her parents so she needs an occasional respite location. Then there is my daughter...Funny how things keep growing to consume available money....

Man, pictures of the progress would be cool.

Once I refigure posting pictures I will post some.