Feb 27
Building Our House -- January and February 2010
I started framing our house in December ... and oh baby, we are having fun. You can see that one of the biggest problems is just keeping snow out of the structure. Things continue to move forward, but it is painfully slow because I am building it in my "spare time". I designed it, engineered it, and am now slogging my way through the building process. 95% of the time I am alone, but I have lots of friends who are willing to help if I would just plan ahead a few days. The problem with this flying job is that it's easier for me to lick my elbow than it is too make a plan. We never know when jobs are going to pop up, so I live by the seat of my pants mostly. I am pretty flexible so I don't really care, but sometimes it would be nice to be able make a plan. This is just a shout-out to all my friends who have offered to help, who have helped, or given me advise along the way.
The house is roughly 32x46 and when it is all done it will be about 2500 sq. ft. My favorite aspects of these house plans are the high ceiling, big windows, concrete floor, glass block, exposed steel I-beams, rope swing, removable wall (into office), counterweighted liftable stairs, and killer view of the mountains. I am hoping the house will be pretty much one big play ground. I have a massive glulam beam that will run length wise (46') free-span through the house at 21' feet off the floor, and I am considering hanging a man-sized Johnny-Jump-Up from it, because seriously ... they look like fun. I got the glulam beam on craigslist last summer, actually I bought three of them, but the other two will hopefully be used in my new hangar some day. We share this piece of property with my brother and my dad. We currently live on this parcel, in a small cabin just 200 yards from the building site. It is a ten acre parcel that has no gas, water, or electric, but it's on an airstrip and that's what really matters. We drilled a well and hit good water at 125 feet. A Kubota generator and battery bank system provide power to the cabin. It's actually a great set-up but it's really expensive. People who want to get "off the grid" to save money ... are crazy ! We hope to get power some day, but for now the generator works ... just expensive. Last year the generator went up in flames ... that was pretty amazing. Samantha and I were in Argentina and I got an email from my brother showing the generator shed with flames shooting 25' out the roof.
We only live here in the winter because from May-Sept we live up at Sheep Mountain for the bulk of our flying season. I will post more pictures as progress is made. If you want to see the first portion of this project look at these images posted Jan 11th.
I want to know how many of you tried licking your elbow ?
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Building Our House
Comments (3)
Feb 28, 2010
Steve C. said...
I dunno, Matt, looks like fun to me, regardless of the snow on the floor. Over the coming summer, I'm starting the same kind of project in the area (in this case, on the grid). Might be able to lend a hand when the prime flying season ends.Never occurred to me to lick my elbow, though...
Feb 28, 2010
Matthew Keller said...
Hey that's cool, misery loves company :o) No I am kidding, I have really enjoyed working on the house, and living so close to the building site is GREAT. I hope your project goes well, and stay in touch Steve. Cheers,
Matt
