Stop Work Order

I look at the pictures from the last post--near Thanksgiving, and everyone is in shorts and t-shirts. Tomorrow is New Year's Day and I have no progress to report. I got a stop work order from my friendly neighborhood building inspector because I didn't have pictures, only a written description and engineering specs on the next phase of my project. The county had approved the plan, but I guess they hold the right to change their mind in mid-stream. I hope to hear back from my very patient draftsman and engineer next week and we can get back on track once again. I haven't even started putting walls up yet and I am beginning to become concerned about my two-year limitation on my building plan approval. What happens if I don't get it finished, or I run out of money due to all these set backs? Do they make me tear it down and start over? Probably I get to pay all the fees over again.... Kind of like a 21st century version of debtors prison. I will keep you all posted as to my progress.

With most of the work done on the music studio, I have turned my attention to the house once again. With the help of Paul and Mike, and an interesting guy named Cougar, we were able to pour the floor for the garage. I didn't get any pictures of the finishing work because I ran that machine--due to my extensive experience with floor buffers in my early years at the Air Force Academy. It took 14 yards of cement to fill the stem wall and cover the 30 X 31 foot floor.




Paul and I cut some expansion joints in the slab--that I will fill later with silicon. I am trying to keep the slab moist, to cure slower. This has raised the potential of some very shallow puddles that my grandsons have enjoyed. Probably not that healthy with the cement dust in the water, but both moms were not present, so hopefully I won't get in trouble. They never read this blog anyway.

In my Bob the Builder role, I had a busy week last week and this week will be a frenzie of activity. I completed the stairs down by the music studio and put in a stone threshold. Here are a couple pictures.




I was also able, with the help of Paul and Mike Wynn, to build the trench from the well to our home site and run the water line.



I am not sure how people did these tasks before the kind of equipment we use today. Speaking of that, I also rented a tractor (for a small fortune and an option on my next born child--I think I am pretty safe there) to fill in the house area prior to pouring the slab--which will hopefully take place later this week. Fortunately, I have some able help on the tractor with my grandson James, and of course the ever present expertise of Mike and Paul.

I am working rebar and getting the sub-floor ready for the radiant floor heating at the new house. Nothing worth a picture. I did pretty much finish the music studio on Friday. I put in the trim and the wood floor on Thursday, and then the base board and a few finishing touches on Friday. Matt moved in a lot of his music equipment and Tom's keyboard on Friday evening--then promptly left to play a couple gigs on Saturday. He will start setting things up on Monday. Looking for some great music to come from those four walls... Here are a few final pics.

Almost done with the Music Studio! Here are a couple pictures of the inside about a week ago.


Remember, this is only a 10 foot by 12 foot building with 10 foot walls..., 12 1/2 peak. I put tongue and groove 1X6 boards on the ceiling for the acoustics. Turned back really well, but lots of work. I put in a small loft mostly for storage of musical instrument cases, etc.



The outside is about two-thirds painted and is starting to look pretty good. By the end of this week it will be completely done. I also hope to have our house back on track this week. I got the upgraded engineering plans approved by the county last Wednesday--so we are cleared to proceed with the slab and the structure!!!

Still waiting on some engineering approvals on the house.... In the meantime, we are making some headway on the music studio. A little trimming of the branches around the studio's front porch.

The outside walls are coming along. We should have them done tomorrow.



I was over at a friend's house a couple days ago and watched the moon rise over the local hills. It was spectacular and my iPhone picture doesn't do it justice. What a great area to live in.

So the music studio is coming along... The blue on the concrete blocks is not the final color. That is the sealant.



It is a 2X6 frame for better insulation.



The inside floor will be raised for better acoustics.


And I have had plenty of help.


The roof will be metal. We are testing it out in case we want to go that way on our home building project. Vicky and I went down to the local metal fabricator and picked out what we liked and cut it on the spot. A little harder than a paper cutter, but the same concept.




I got the rafters up yesterday!



We are also advancing on our home. The subfloor plumbing is almost done.

Saturday, 16 August, we laid cement for the house footings. That's me in the ball cap working on my "leaning on the shovel" technique in case I want to become a professional road worker.

Hard work, but we got it done in five hours.




We had rented a rebar bender/cutter, but realized we would be a little short, so Tom "volunteered" to cut an additional 90 pieces of rebar the hard way.

Did I mention that this simple project of building a house was not enough for this intrepid builder, and I have added a few side projects just to keep it interesting?

I am also building a small music studio on the side of a hill, putting in a 60 foot by 32 foot garden (complete with an underground wired protection from gophers and other subterranean varmints and a fence to keep out the deer and discourage the raccoons, skunks, etc.) and I put in a fence and gate around my daughter's front yard. We are also putting in some fruit trees, and connected to the house project, I needed to build a pad for a 2,600 gallon water tank.

Here is the 10 by 10 pad for the water tank:




Here is the music studio pad. Tom decided he didn't want to grow up to be a cement worker. (For this pad we mixed 36 bags of pre-mix cement by hand and poured by shovel. Lots of great exercise.)