I am thankful I had the opportunity to build this house!
I thought I would throw in this old wiring diagram. I tried to find some of the others but alas after 16 years they have been misplaced. The building was essentially split 24' and 32' lengthwise with the 24" studio and darkroom and the 32' living space.
Front of the House showing the carport in front of the garage, the garage is out of frame to the right with the pickup parked in front.
Back of House with deck. All this was done in one year and four months.
Master bath shower.
Top: a functioning kitchen with family.
Bottom: master bedroom with atrium doors to back deck .
Bottom: master bedroom with atrium doors to back deck .
Master bath vanity made out of knotty pine.
Stucco is finished.
Stucco contractor doing his thing.
Front of the House ready for stucco. They were three things that we did not do. The stucco, the sheetrock and the kitchen cabinets everything else was done by the family.
Outside walls are six-inch metal studs covered with half-inch CDX plywood.
I am either laying down or picking up the screw gun, because of the metal studs everything had to be screwed together including the sheetrock which was 5/8.
Although my youngest son and one son-in-law are the only ones shown on this page they were not the only ones that helped us, and I owe them a lot.
Putting down the vapor barrier and getting ready to pour the slab.
I had fabricated the steel using the slab to lay out and weld on. Another welder friend and I put the steel up in one day. It took me about a week to finish up the welding on the underside of the fabrications.
The frames of the House and garage.
Construction superintendent and official construction photographer (wife) running the level while setting the forms for the stem wall.
Me, my youngest son (running the idiot stick) and a son-in-law setting the forms.
Pouring the stem wall.
At the plant were I worked back in late 1986, there was a rumor circulating that it (the plant) was going on the market. I became concerned because I had planed to build this house.
There was a meeting called at the plant by management to quell the rumors concerning the sale of the plant. A company vice president conducted the meeting giving his speech about the rumors not being true after which he opened the meeting to questions.
As I explained to the VP, because of my age and my need to build a retirement home as we had always lived in company furnished housing, I needed to know for certain if I had sufficient time to build and pay for the home I intended to build. His reply was something like "You don't have to worry because you'll be able to be where you are at as long as you want to be, I guarantee it".
While I was building the house, I was working a minimum of 40 hours a week for the company, maintaining my 17 year old photography business. The House/business was 4000 ft.² with a 1000 ft.² garage/woodshop. I was fortunate enough to have sons and son-in-laws that were a great help. The local newspaper in an article referred to it as a family building affair.
We started building the house in March of 1987 and moved into it the next March and we lived in it one year and until July of 1990 when the company sold the plant that we were guaranteed was not going to sell, so much for the company VP's veracity.
As it turned out when the purchasing company took over the plant I was replaced by one of their employees consequently I had to stay with the selling company. The only plant close enough where I could have continued living in the House was less than 20 miles away and I was temporarily transferred their until permanent arrangements could be made. In that one month I came to realize that the superintendent at that plant was someone I could not work for. Therefore I was forced to sell the house to the company at a fraction of the building material because company's policy would not compensate for labor unless I had paid someone else to do it. I reasoned that I would at least get my material cost back. The executive-secretary of the division superintendent wound up with the house and she paid $55,000, I had receipts for $101,000 in material costs. the company paid me $65,000. I then chose a plant in the area where I am now.
Within a year after moving here, the plant superintendent where I was temporarily stationed was shot and killed in his office by another employee coming off a graveyard shift. It seems I was not the only person who disliked him.
There was a meeting called at the plant by management to quell the rumors concerning the sale of the plant. A company vice president conducted the meeting giving his speech about the rumors not being true after which he opened the meeting to questions.
As I explained to the VP, because of my age and my need to build a retirement home as we had always lived in company furnished housing, I needed to know for certain if I had sufficient time to build and pay for the home I intended to build. His reply was something like "You don't have to worry because you'll be able to be where you are at as long as you want to be, I guarantee it".
While I was building the house, I was working a minimum of 40 hours a week for the company, maintaining my 17 year old photography business. The House/business was 4000 ft.² with a 1000 ft.² garage/woodshop. I was fortunate enough to have sons and son-in-laws that were a great help. The local newspaper in an article referred to it as a family building affair.
We started building the house in March of 1987 and moved into it the next March and we lived in it one year and until July of 1990 when the company sold the plant that we were guaranteed was not going to sell, so much for the company VP's veracity.
As it turned out when the purchasing company took over the plant I was replaced by one of their employees consequently I had to stay with the selling company. The only plant close enough where I could have continued living in the House was less than 20 miles away and I was temporarily transferred their until permanent arrangements could be made. In that one month I came to realize that the superintendent at that plant was someone I could not work for. Therefore I was forced to sell the house to the company at a fraction of the building material because company's policy would not compensate for labor unless I had paid someone else to do it. I reasoned that I would at least get my material cost back. The executive-secretary of the division superintendent wound up with the house and she paid $55,000, I had receipts for $101,000 in material costs. the company paid me $65,000. I then chose a plant in the area where I am now.
Within a year after moving here, the plant superintendent where I was temporarily stationed was shot and killed in his office by another employee coming off a graveyard shift. It seems I was not the only person who disliked him.
