[{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/cabin/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Cabin"},{"body":"It\u0026rsquo;s bigger than you think One of 4 truck ready to be unloaded from our dirt road and up our dirt driveway One of the benefits we like about a log cabin kit is that everything needed to dry-in the house is delivered all at once.\nLogs for the walls Interior first floor joist Interior sub floor Interior partition walls Tounge \u0026amp; Groove panneling for great room ceiling Roof rafters Roof sheeting Roof shingles Windows Exterior doors 2nd floor tounge \u0026amp; groove ceiling + floor Exterior stain for logs It\u0026rsquo;s all there. Guess how many full length tractor trailers that takes? In our case it was 4.\nAlso, like everything associated with our house, we had delays. Our original delivery date was scheduled for May 19, 2026. Something happened, no drivers, major DOT activity, who knows, but our delivery didn\u0026rsquo;t show up until May 20th with three trucks, and the final truck on May 22nd. It was a setback, but not a terrible one because\nStaging That Logs up by the house site. They\u0026rsquo;re so pale. Four tractor trailers full of materials is a lot. Like, really, it\u0026rsquo;s a lot. We thought there was enough room up by the build site to stage everything, and there probably was - but then we woudln\u0026rsquo;t be able to move around. Unfortunately some stuff had to remain down at the bottom of the property. Once the driveway is properlly cut up at the top there will be more room to maneuver.\nThere\u0026rsquo;s just too much stuff! Also, with a 50 foot wide driveway, that\u0026rsquo;s only cut to about 18 foot wide for driving, there just was no way these 30 foot LVL beams were going to make it horizontally. In the words of the excavator guy - \u0026ldquo;that\u0026rsquo;s a crew problem.\u0026rdquo;\nThis be driven up long ways once it\u0026rsquo;s time for it An 800 foot driveway is great, until you have to unload a bunch of tractor trailers full of supplies. It\u0026rsquo;s not the end of the world though, and at least it\u0026rsquo;s been a beautiful few days.\nYour browser does not support the video tag. Taking a load of logs up the driveway Rain in the forcast for this weekend. Yay. Thankfully everything that can\u0026rsquo;t get wet is tightly enclosed in plastic, and everything else is just wood and meant to be out in the elements on a jobsite. The first delivery is done, holiday weekend ahead and next is marking the corners for the foundation.\nThe next delivery is superior walls for the foundation - 4-6 weeks out depending on their timing. We can\u0026rsquo;t wait!\n","link":"https://our.quaint.house/posts/log-delivery/","section":"posts","tags":["logs","cabin","delivery","materials"],"title":"Cabin Delivery"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/delivery/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Delivery"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/logs/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Logs"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/materials/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Materials"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/","section":"","tags":null,"title":"Our Quaint House"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/posts/","section":"posts","tags":null,"title":"Posts"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Tags"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/construction/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Construction"},{"body":"Time to Dig After what was actually years of waiting, the excavator has shown up and began it\u0026rsquo;s work. This is where the fun begins. This is where things start moving and visions start to come.\nThe stone at the front is too much for the excavator too! The drive down was marred with traffic and detors, but he made it here with enough time to unload and review the plot plan and locations of everything. We walked the property and noted all the undergrowth that happened in the 2 years since they had last seen it.\nWhere does the house go, where does the garage? What about the driveway and septic? The prior owner did a ton of work clearing the large trees and generally making it flat and easy to visualize. That was 3 years ago. All the work was excellent in letting us visualize where the house should be. However because it\u0026rsquo;s taken so long to get to the build phase, the undergrowth has taken over. Pricker bushes, saplings, vines, all sorts of stuff has made it difficult to do anything.\nWhat things look like after only one and half days of work! Things move fast, and the above photo is from the same spot a day later. The generall footprint of the house is clear and ready to go. There\u0026rsquo;s still plenty of underbrush along the rear and where the garage is going. There was a few hours of work done to clear a staging area for the cabin delivery which is coming tomorrow!\nAn elevated view of the lot from a drone. One other thing aparent among everything here is stone. So. Much. Stone. I knew there was plenty within, but I thought that it was going to be small and managable sized. Two pins have already broken on the exacavator. We\u0026rsquo;re waiting on delivery of a larger sized one, possibly with a breaker also.\nAll this area was cleared and leveled out as staging for the cabin. There is plenty still to do - clear the driveway section through the woods, fill in the rock with gravel, and then plan out the corners for the hosue \u0026amp; garage. There is one gigantic boulder that is in the way, and will either cause the driveway to curve a bit, or will need to be chipped away. We\u0026rsquo;ll find out exactly what that means for everything this coming week when we lay out things. But overall half a week down and tons of improvements!\nI knew this boulder was there, but I was hoping it was smaller than it looks ","link":"https://our.quaint.house/posts/excavator/","section":"posts","tags":["foundation","construction"],"title":"Excavator Delivery"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/foundation/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Foundation"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/diy/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Diy"},{"body":"AKA - Microplastics What\u0026rsquo;s that saying, the path to hell is paved with good intentions? That\u0026rsquo;s what I think of erosion control, especially on large, rural, wooded property.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re not familiar with erosion control, it\u0026rsquo;s the black woven plastic fencing you see around construction sites.\nOne portion of the silt fencing being installed On paper erosion control sounds like a no brainer, let\u0026rsquo;s stop the soil, debris, and water from contiuning down to neighboring properties effecting buildings. Let\u0026rsquo;s be sure no extra soil makes it to the street to clog up storm drains. Let\u0026rsquo;s keep everything clean and as if nothing was happening.\nThat works in the city, in the suburbs, on small lots all next to each other. None of those describe my lot, my 8 acres of woods, with acres of woods between myself and my neighbors, with 900 feet of existing driveway between me and a dirt road. State law dictates that it be present. Common sense (even among the inspectors) says this doesn\u0026rsquo;t need to be there.\nAnyway, the last 2 weeks have been spent putting up the silt fencing along the designated areas of the plans. It\u0026rsquo;s not hard work, it\u0026rsquo;s just a lot of it, and when you live an hour away that time adds up.\n","link":"https://our.quaint.house/posts/erosion/","section":"posts","tags":["diy","pre-inspection"],"title":"Erosion Control"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/pre-inspection/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pre-Inspection"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/research/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Research"},{"body":"Southland Log Homes As mentioned earlier, we choose Southland Log Homes as our log home kit supplier. I have to say everything about working with them has been a breeze. In fact I originally set up an account on their website becuase it was the only way to access their design system (which is free). Being early in the process, I didn\u0026rsquo;t know what I was doing, but I\u0026rsquo;m a computer guy, so I played around with webapps.\nA few days after I signed up, I got a phone call from a sales rep. Normally, I\u0026rsquo;d brush this off, but Southland offered a ton of useful information on their website, a ton of floorplans, and a ton of insight into what I was looking for. I spoke with their sales rep, I spoke with my wife, we went through things. After what felt like forever, but was probably about a week, we we decided that Southland was the place for us.\nFloorplans They had several floorplans that we liked, and with back and forth with the sales rep we got semi-accurate quotes for materials from them. We spent hours every night looking over floorplans, thinking about how we would use the hosue, live in it, and grow our family. When we started looking we were a family of 3, but we knew we were going to expand. Covid provided us with the perfect oppertunity to plan a work from home capable lifestyle.\n","link":"https://our.quaint.house/posts/southland/","section":"posts","tags":["research"],"title":"Southland"},{"body":"Government, Weather, or Bank All work comes with delays be it needing a midnight snack while your writing your final report for class tomorrow, to a snowstorm grounding your flight home. Building a house has more moving parts that just about anything else on individual will ever do. We had crazy aspirations when we started that we\u0026rsquo;d be in our house in 9 months max. Any guesses as to how long we\u0026rsquo;ve been at this? [tiny](The sidebar shows current countup)\nThis is very location dependent of course, some localities are better than others (and I would love to live in one of those permits, where we live we don't need permits areas). My local town, county, and state have tons of red tape when it comes to building a house. From septic approval, to storm water runoff mediation. We\u0026rsquo;ve had nearly 2 years of back and forth with various governemnet agencies awaiting each\u0026rsquo;s approval. Having a well respected local civil engineering firm help you is the only way to go to move through the processes.\nEngineering The same way you would interview a builder, you should interview the engieering firm that\u0026rsquo;s going to do your work. Are they well staffed and can take on your job? Are they familar with all the laws that are relevant to your property? Are they reasonably priced?\nThose questions will determine if you\u0026rsquo;re looking at a fast turn around, or a long slog.\nGovernment Of course, you\u0026rsquo;re still at the mercy of the government. And that will be the case from the moment you submit paperwork up until you\u0026rsquo;re waiting for that C/O. Be nice to them, they control everything about your build and can be the difference between \u0026ldquo;this nail need to be 6 inches from the top, your\u0026rsquo;s are 5.5 inches, I\u0026rsquo;ll be back next week when you\u0026rsquo;ve fixed it\u0026rdquo;, and a much smoother experience.\nWeather Government is a known entity, and after two or three inspections or interactions you\u0026rsquo;ll get a feeling for what type of situation you\u0026rsquo;re in. Weather on the other hand is anything but predictable. Again this is very location dependent, some states (or areas of states) only have four working months for building, if the house isn\u0026rsquo;t dried in by winter you\u0026rsquo;re either in for a bad time, or a 6 month delay.\nWe live in a traditional 4 season state - hot summers, mild or missing sping \u0026amp; fall, and a hit or miss winter. As luck would have it as soon as we got most of the blocking government approvals and were ready for pre site visits by people, we got dumped with feet of snow. Nearly 6 weeks were stuck under between 8 and 18 inches of snow, and subfreezing temperatures keeping that snow around for longer than expected.\nMoney Where\u0026rsquo;s your funding coming from? Traditional mortgage backed by a bank? Gold is at amazing highs? Sold some organs? Whatever your funding source, make sure it\u0026rsquo;s easy to get to and get from. This might be a surprise to you, but when people are getting paid, they tend to work better and faster.\nAlso, make sure you have budgeted at least 15% overage because nothing is cheap. Be it a tarrif, a spike in gasoline prices, or new minimum wages, you are almost guaranteed to go over budget so be prepared to either cut something out, or have the funds available to cover it.\n","link":"https://our.quaint.house/posts/delays/","section":"posts","tags":["time","pre-work","research"],"title":"Delays"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/pre-work/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Pre-Work"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/tags/time/","section":"tags","tags":null,"title":"Time"},{"body":"Log Home I\u0026rsquo;ve had many different ideas over time as to the style of house I wanted to build. From geodesic dome, to earthship, I always wanted something unique. Unfortunately those two are hard to find builders to build, and even harder to get past local town building departments, (not to mention buy in from family!)\nA log home on the otherhand satisfies the desire to live in a unique house, while also being easy to describe, visualise, build, and approve. We\u0026rsquo;ve been calling it our tree house. I like it.\nSouthland Log Homes Did you know that there are several dozen different manufactures of log homes in the country? From fully custom bespoke sweedish cope style logs hand hewn from gigantic timbers and stacked once at the \u0026ldquo;factory\u0026rdquo;, then painstainkly taken apart and shipped to your lot and put back together. To the more Henry Ford style assembley line of milled logs that stack like the lincoln logs from your childhood.\nEach style has pros and cons, but more importantly, each style has a different cost. As you can imagine one is signifanctly more affordable than the other. And ultimately when building a house, cost is everything. We always knew that we wanted the milled log look, it fit more with what we wanted in our house to begin with - log style exterior, and a flat wall interior that looks more like panneling.\nWe signed up for Log \u0026amp; Timber living. We read that magazine for weeks, we watched YouTube videos, we researched companies. Ultimantely we decided to go with Southland Log Homes.\nFinding a Builder Building a log home is not the same as a traditional 2x4 built house. A log home from a kit company is easier to erect than one of the hand hewen style of course, but there\u0026rsquo;s still tools and skills needed. Luckilly the companies know this and have builders on file that they can link you up with.\nWe interviewed 3 different builders, all gave a pretty close estimate for turn key service, so from there it comes down to vibes. When it comes to a contractor the vibes you get from them and their prior work often say more than anything else. Willingness to share prior work, willingness to be flexible with timing and communication, fast communication. It all adds up and can turn an already stressfull situation into something much smoother.\nAs it turns out, the willingness to be flexible turned out to be the most important attribute. Delays come next\u0026hellip;\n","link":"https://our.quaint.house/posts/style/","section":"posts","tags":["research"],"title":"Home Style Choice"},{"body":"Keep looking\u0026hellip; I\u0026rsquo;m not a city guy, nor is my wife. We each grew up in the suburbs on average sized lots in average sized houses. There\u0026rsquo;s nothing wrong with that, it\u0026rsquo;s just not what we want. We searched for property that fit our criteria:\nAt least 5 acres access to electric \u0026amp; high speed internet within 90 minutes of our family reasonable price Honestly, #2 is pretty easy to get because we aren\u0026rsquo;t about to homeschool our children, so anywhere we looked would be on a road.\nThe others\u0026hellip;well, you could probably combine any two of those easily. Getting all 3 is the holy grail. We had the misfortune of looking right at the end of covid when prices were still high and inventory was low. This is where a great realtor can help out. We only had to look at 3 or 4 lots before we found the one that fit everything!\nGet a Survey! It doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter if the sellers provide a survey. It doesn\u0026rsquo;t matter if the property is staked \u0026amp; marked \u0026amp; fenced. GET. YOUR. OWN. SURVEY. as a contigentcy of close.\nIt\u0026rsquo;s a few thousnad dollars and a week to add to the timing. It\u0026rsquo;s worth it. Ask me how I know?\nRaw land vs. Development We did not want to live in a community. We did not want to live in a cookie cutter house on lot 7B of 34 that a developer owns. We especially did not want to be beholden to an HOA.\nWe wanted land free and clear of any restrictions, covenants, and rules. That usually means that price is cheaper up front, but cost is more expensive to build. And that is what we are seeing. The property we found had a driveway cleared and roughed in, had a build site cleared of trees, had the septic field identified and marked. But that doesn\u0026rsquo;t mean that there isn\u0026rsquo;t work to do, or money to spend.\nThe land was cleared, but exactly where we want the house? The driveway was roughed in, but did it meet maximum grade? There\u0026rsquo;s still trees that should come down because they pose a threat to the house one day.\n","link":"https://our.quaint.house/posts/lot/","section":"posts","tags":["research"],"title":"The Perfect Lot"},{"body":"Our House! For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to build my own house. Too many collective days, weeks, and years spent fixing things across my family\u0026rsquo;s assortment of houses, wondering what we\u0026rsquo;ll find behind a wall, beneath the floors. How are these wires run, why isn\u0026rsquo;t there a plug here. Just why?\nFor almost as long as I can remember, I have wanted to live on as much land as I can afford, deep in the woods, in the mountains. I\u0026rsquo;ve always loved the outdoors, nature, and privacy (which is irnoic given I\u0026rsquo;m documenting this entire process on the internet).\nI\u0026rsquo;ve gone through phases, from traditional stick built, to (in my opinion), an ace looking Geodesic Dome. But I settled on a traditional Log Cabin. It\u0026rsquo;s timeless, beautiful, and fits with the land and mountain vibe.\nThrough the years, through weeks of due dilligence, countless research on companies, floorplans, layouts. We picked a company, picked a builder, and had at it. That was in early 2021. We thought we\u0026rsquo;d be in our wonderful new house by early 2022.\nWhat happened?!\nCheck in here and read, watch, and see as we build our house, from finding the lot, to site layout, to floor plans, to hopefully moving in. It\u0026rsquo;s been a long process, we\u0026rsquo;ll love explain it all!\n","link":"https://our.quaint.house/posts/welcome/","section":"posts","tags":["diy"],"title":"Building Our House"},{"body":"We\u0026rsquo;re building a custom log home with Southland Log Homes. Follow along each step of the way in our journey building our forever home.\n","link":"https://our.quaint.house/about/","section":"","tags":null,"title":"About"},{"body":"","link":"https://our.quaint.house/categories/","section":"categories","tags":null,"title":"Categories"}]