A Little Stressed

[Ryder]

A neighbor had a heart attack in the bathroom-fell against the door-small bathroom-tiny window-big man..He died before they could get in to help him-took rescue over an hour to shove the door open enough to get to him.. One of my phobias now..

Not to be a smart ass, but EMS needed a bigger prybar. That is slooow.
Maybe there were good reasons, I don't want to question decisions when I wasn't there.
Trapped in the bathroom is not the heroic death I see for myself.

I was thinking same a John. Knock a hole in it, grab and pull out , tear it down.
I wonder what kind of a bathroom door that was?

 

[peg4x4]

Itty bitty town---Wife fluttered around for a while calling other people to find someone to tell her what to do.
Husband wouldn't ever let her make a move without his permission,so when he couldn't tell her what to do,she didn't know what to do..
Now they've got lots better equipment and training and that episode was one of the reasons why.

 

[3waycross]

ILH I don't want to rain on your parade re. a log home but I will share one thing with you. One of my friends(a very smart guy) had a tremendous log home built a few years ago. Lived in it for 5 years and then sold the property for a fortune. Bought twice as much land with a real nice modular on it and lived happily ever after.

When I asked him if he would ever own another log home he laughed so hard he almost got sick. According to him the only good part about owning that house was the compliments from people driving by or visiting. The upkeep was never ending, neither was the constant dust infiltration and fighting every kind of vermin known to crawl through the smallest crack.

BTW my son did something pretty cool with hardwood flooring. He bought a pallet of random(pre-finished) flooring at a builders auction and used it to do a wall in his garage. He says now that he wishes he would have done the living room instead.

 

[I luv herfrds]

3way here is an example of the type of house we are looking to build. It is not 100% logs. It is called a Post and Beam home.
This is NOT the house we are building. (I wish. )
There is 2"x6" studs between the upright posts.

 

[3waycross]

Real nice! If I remember right my friends major complaint was the way they MOVE constantly. If this design works better then go for it.

 

[TheBullLady]

Great suggestions from everyone.. I'm glad you're building ILuv! We're also going to build a new house, which we hope to get started on this spring. Lots of preliminary stuff we can do ourselves, but are going to be $$$. Running the electric and the water is going to be high, since we're building waaaayyy at the back of the property, but I'm also determined to do this right, since I've never had a new house, and don't plan on more than one!

We've got a simple plan picked out, and the hubby doesn't care about anything that I made decisions on, so it works out good. The best thing about it will be a porch around all four sides. I can hardly wait!

In the meantime.. does anyone have any suggestions / opinions about steel frame construction versus wood frame?

 

[I luv herfrds]

3way this house is designed to not move. The logs are either screwed or spiked together.

Bull Lady I have not seen too many homes build with steel frame, but I have heard that it does cost more, but there is less chance of settling.

 

[1982vett]

3way this house is designed to not move. The logs are either screwed or spiked together.

Bull Lady I have not seen too many homes build with steel frame, but I have heard that it does cost more, but there is less chance of settling.

ILH, bad foundation engineering/construction is what increases the chance of settling. Steel framing isn't going to keep it from settling if the foundation isn't right.

One thing about steel, you aren't culling thru all that crooked lumber. You won't get away from lumber totally. Anywhere you want to attatch something to a wall (cabinets, heavy pictures, wooden door frames and such) will need wood blocking for support. You would need to plan for things like this before any sheetrock goes up.

 

[hillsdown]

We have problems with our log home but probably the same or less than people with a "conventional" home the thing is that when it does need the odd upkeep or repair eventually it does cost alot. Our home was built from imported soft pine from Quebec ( which is a h@ll of a ways to travel) and the original builders did not cut corners as this was their dream home, but sadly the neighbors did not accept them so they moved on.

ILH this is your dream, Hoss gave you great advice. God luck and I cannot wait to see picks..

 

[I luv herfrds]

Thought I would check out the 30 day free membership offered by Direct Buy, but the closest one is in Canada.
So we are out of luck there.

 

[rockridgecattle]

Thought I would check out the 30 day free membership offered by Direct Buy, but the closest one is in Canada.
So we are out of luck there.

Good thing. We checked it out. We wanted to see what they were about and went to a free semiar. We had a greeter who sat with us and chatted about the direct buy thing. On the table with us was a magazine flyer with products and prices. As i was asking the greeter questions, she took the mag and never gave it back saying only members were aloud to view. I wanted to see if the value was worth the cost. Could not give me an answer on that. Basically I think if you bought alot, a massive alot you might save, but the membership fees were really really high, so your savings had to cover the membership fee and then some, yearly. When we looked into this thing, they were called "Total home". Now direct buy

 

[greatgerts]

Thought I would check out the 30 day free membership offered by Direct Buy, but the closest one is in Canada.
So we are out of luck there.

Good thing. We checked it out. We wanted to see what they were about and went to a free semiar. We had a greeter who sat with us and chatted about the direct buy thing. On the table with us was a magazine flyer with products and prices. As i was asking the greeter questions, she took the mag and never gave it back saying only members were aloud to view. I wanted to see if the value was worth the cost. Could not give me an answer on that. Basically I think if you bought alot, a massive alot you might save, but the membership fees were really really high, so your savings had to cover the membership fee and then some, yearly. When we looked into this thing, they were called "Total home". Now direct buy

The original builder I was going to go through has some sort of deal worked out with Direct Buy to where he gives them your information (One thing I didn't like with them) They will keep calling and calling, no matter what. I still get calls 5 months after I stopped dealing with that builder.
I am hoping to have ground broken this week on my new house. This will be my home that wasn't a college rental or the parents' so I am wanting to do it right the first time.
The builder that I had mentioned before was a pretty slick salesman and just about "had me in". I had looked at all of their stuff and seemed a little high on price, but figured it was more designed at prices near the city and it may drop in the country. Well, I got talking with a buddy that does some excavating and he told me about how a few people he knew got screwed over by this guy and their houses ended up costing over $100,000 more than what they were quoted at AND there were mistakes made that were not fixed. So, I called the lawyer right away and said we needed to do whatever we could to not deal with this jerk any more.
I got a letter back saying the company wanted $60,000 as that was their expected profit on the house. My lawyer replied back saying basically "tough ****", and I have not heard anything from them since.
Since then I have found a very good builder that is more local, and his bid was $80,000 less than the other guy.
I hope that anyone going through building a house does not have to deal with jerks like this. OH, the BBB did not have anything bad about the original builder and I did not see anything bad on the internet or anywhere I had searched until I had talked to my buddy. I just do not want anyone to go through the crap that I had to go through, and I haven't even broke ground yet...

 

[kerley]

You know the more posts you make the more you give yourself away TMBP. Why dont you man up and admit who you really are. I guess you still raise Salers and your poor wife still teaches elementry school and you live on the river in the two story house you built yourself. Bla Bla Bla
Tom.