Aside from the childhood joys of Lego (other educational building sets are available), this is the first house that I've tried to build. To be fair, my lack of building experience was never a secret but my brother and his family invited me to help them with the project anyway. I arrived in California on 'Day 1' of the project, 25th August 2010, and after nine weeks of building we've just erected the last external wall and 80% of the roof is already in place. There've been several interuptions along the way; torrential rain, various parties, grape harvest, dope harvest and long rides along the Pacific Coast Highway, but nine weeks still seems amazingly fast when you consider that there are only three people working full-time here. Fortunately for my brother and his family, the other two dudes on the project; Steve and Nichola, are at least proper builders. I hope that in all of our haste we haven't overlooked anything major, but with 80,000 nails and 42 screws holding 2,200 square feet of house together, it really shouldn't fall down before I leave town ....
Pressure treated mud-sills were bolted directly onto the concrete walls and then garnished with joist hangers. Within two days a floor had magically appeared and we were up above the dirt. The first floor walls, or the ground floor if your reading this in Blighty, were erected within a week using ’SIPs’, Structural Insulated Panel Systems. Each ‘SIP’ measures 8’ x 4’ and is six inches of polystyrene sandwiched between two sheets of OSB (Orientated Strand Board). The strand board overlaps the polystyrene filling by 1” on all four sides. The SIP sits on top of a 2” x 6” pine base plate with a 2” x 6” pine spline inserted into either end of the panel. The second ‘SIP’ shares the vertical spline with the first SIP and the two are nailed together. Add the third, fourth and fifth SIP, turn the corner and continue. It’s an amazingly simple system and the end result seems a lot stronger and thermally efficient than conventional stick-frame building. If we’d been building a square house then we’d probably have been finished after a couple of weeks, but this house isn’t square. It turns at an angle of sixty degrees making certain things slightly complicated. Thus, only 80% of the roof is finished because we can’t quite work out how to the join the two ends of the roof together.
Window and door openings are really quite easy. You either leave a gap in the panels for the bigger openings, such as French Doors, or you get out the chainsaw and create smaller openings for windows. It really is that simple. At three points there will be ’Bottle Walls’ where assorted wine bottles are set into the wall and embedded in cement. The bottle walls allow light to enter the building but also provide privacy. We need 400 wine bottles and we’re working on emptying them as quickly as we can ......
There is no mains supply for water, sewerage, electricity or gas, so the house is classified as being ’Off Grid’. Solar panels will provide the electricity with a back-up propane generator for running heavy equipment in the workshop. Propane will also be used for cooking and all of the Winter heating will come from a large centrally located wood burning stove. Water is pumped from the well using solar power and black sewerage drains to a septic tank. All grey water is collected and recycled around the house while rain water is harvested, stored and used for the garden. It is hoped that once up and running, the property will be self sufficient for all power, water and food. No more utility or food bills. Of course, it’s not practical to produce all of the food that you require, but with the local system of ’trade’, excess meat, eggs, fruit and vegetables will be traded for items that are not grown or reared on the property. It’s hoped that with an amazing 97% of solar catchment, excess electricity will in the future be directed back to the grid to generate an additional income from the land ......
I’m leaving California on the 16th of November and the family hope to be living in the property by Christmas. I assume that they mean Christmas 2010 and while it is possible, I think it‘s a very ambitious a deadline. On the other hand, we’re currently a few weeks ahead of schedule and well under budget, and those are two things that you seldom hear in the same sentence. So maybe they will be living on Lone Tree Ridge this Christmas and my 7 year old nephew Sam will be enjoying the 14 foot fireman’s pole that we installed for him today.
www.justgiving.com/geoffgthomas
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