Thanks for the great book and website. Jeremiah H., Lehi, UT

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Finding Subs

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 1/24/2008 11:19:17 AM

The “The Owner-Builder Book”, Chapter 7, page 87, has "Suggestions for Finding Subs".

Where we will be building*, some of those suggestions will be impossible for us…

3. Attend home and garden shows where you may meet subs...

No such thing anywhere near by.

6. Join the local Home Builders Association...

That is almost 70 miles away, and that town is high end very expensive, and definitely not the type of home we want.

7. Seek out the subs who did work on "Parade of Homes"...

No such thing anywhere near by.

I will need to make sure and ask the subs about any additional charges for mileage and/or driving time.

UPDATE: I talk to Mark and he suggested putting the subs up at the local motel that is only 9 miles from my build site.  Dah, slaps self, what a great idea!

* The estimated population (July 2006) for Eureka, MT is 1,028: Males = 488, Females = 529

   The nearest city with population of 50,000+ is Missoula, MT (157 miles, pop. 57,053).

Brian's Forum Posts: 22 Journal Entries: 28 Interview Answers: 50 Average Forum Rating: 3.78 Send Private Message My Construction Website Image from Brian's blog 1/24/2008

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The Owner-Builder Book

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 1/22/2008

My "The Owner-Builder Book" arrived today! :-)))))

Actually, I ordered it for my local library, but I may have to buy another copy so I can make notes in it.

UPDATE: Yup, I ordered a bunch of stuff from the bookstrore.

1st design changes

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 1/18/2008

We had a very productive meeting at the Heartwood offices with the designer and owner of Heartwood changing the 2^nd floor and other very minor tweaks.  We strongly understand it is much more cost effect to get this early part of the process correct.

Received 1st set of drawings

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 1/4/2008

We received the 1^st set of drawings (27 pages via email) from Heartwood, and they are 99.9% exactly what we originally gave them.  But, we found a problem with our original sketches… the bottom of the 2^nd floor bedroom windows are 5’ 8” above the floor!  When I was working on our plans, I had a very hard time visualizing if the 2^nd floor windows would or would not work.  (I do not have any construction building experience.)  So, I changed the 2^nd floor from a long rectangle to more of a square.  And as a result, we will have a better south facing roof for solar collectors to heat water for domestic use and radiant underfloor heating.

Heartwood Timbercraft Homes

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 11/19/2007

After 5 years of log & timber frame shows, many log & timber frame magazines/books, googling, and a few trips to timber frame companies, we decided we wanted Heartwood Timbercraft Homes (http://www.heartwoodtimber.com/) to design and build our hybrid timber frame home, and we have placed a $2000 deposit to start the design work.  We gave them 3 - 11”x17” graph paper drawings.

Why Heartwood you ask?

1)      It is very important to us to have the timber frame company erect the timber frame and install the SIP panels.  The new town we will be living near has a low population (1,028) and it will be very hard to get bids.

2)      Heartwood has two production/design sites: West Coast (Port Townsend, WA) and Midwest (Tecumseh, MI).  It is only a 100 mile drive to have face-to-face meetings with the Michigan design staff, and we will save on shipping the timber frame and SIPS by using the Washington site.

3)      The Director of Sales (Dave)

a.       He is not the typical bright white starched monogrammed shirt wearing 40 gallons of stinky cologne salesman... he is a real down to earth get his hands dirty builder!

b.      He listens very well to what we think we want, and sometimes provides suggestions (and the reasons why) to some of our ideas.

c.       His suggestions are from OUR view point, and not pushing to make a few extra dollars.

2007 Trip

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 6/15/2007

4500 mile round trip from Michigan to Montana to work our land.

We hired a different road building company to gravel the new 1/3 of a mile long road.  Since we are buddies with Billy and Roy, we got a deal on the gravel… only $2/cuyd instead of $4/cuyd.  It took 383 cu yds of pit run gravel!  So, gravel and equipment time came to $6951.90.

Photos

New 1/3 mile long "driveway" to new house site.

View from new house site looking straight west.

2006 Trip

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 6/15/2006

4500 mile round trip from Michigan to Montana to work our land.

Where we will be living, there is no such thing as a “driveway”… they call them “roads”.  Since we did not have a four-wheel vehicle, we have not been able to use our old road to the new house site.  We hired a local guy to cut in a new road that is not as steep as the existing road (8% grade vs. 12% grade)!  The new road is 1/3 of a mile long and cost $1670 just to cut it in (no gravel).

2005 Trip

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 6/15/2005

4500 mile round trip from Michigan to Montana to work our land.

We have become very good friends with two local brothers (Billy and Roy) that have been in the logging business all their lives.  We asked Billy to find someone to thin our land because we are scared to death of forest fires.  Only one logging company came out, but they declined because about 95% of our trees are Douglas Fir and not worth their time.  (Our property was a Christmas Tree Farm.)   We asked Roy if he would be interested in working for us.  Since the saw mills closed and he was out of work, he jumped at the chance.  He is clearing/thinning just using a chain saw and no other power equipment!  I have never met anyone that works as hard as Roy!  Due to fire restrictions, Roy can only work thinning in the fall and burning the slash piles in the winter.

2004 Trip

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 6/15/2004

4500 mile round trip from Michigan to Montana to work our land.

2003 Trip

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 6/15/2003

4500 mile round trip from Michigan to Montana to work our land.

Closing

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 9/9/2002

Closing… we own our Montana land FREE and CLEAR!

Photos

A double rainbow over our land has to been a very good sign!

Took out mortgage

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 8/30/2002

Took out 1^st mortgage on our current house in Michigan.

Our offer was accepted!

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 7/24/2002

Our offer was accepted!

Found Our Dream Land!

Posted to EurekaMT-Timberframe by Mike in Eureka, MT on 7/19/2002

After traveling 2000 miles all over the Northern Rockies (Idaho & Montana), we finally found our dream land! We made an offer, put down earnest money, and drove 2000 miles one-way back to Michigan.  (A total of 6000 miles in three weeks while living/camping out of our mini-van looking for land!)