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That’s an amazing story, and thanks for sharing. You must be an exceptional individual. However with a rudimentary level of knowledge in some of those categories, I cannot fathom attempting to do a whole-house construction based on you-tube knowledge. Baffling. Best of luck to you and yours, I hope it all works out for you.
Our Overarching Feedback to posted comments of all six parts… and THANK YOU!
HATS OFF TO SURVIVALBLOG:
JWR/Hugh have done a stellar job at mitigating posts/comments from reflecting a run-of-the-mill Internet blog/YouTube/Facebook feedback tragedy. No non-family friendly content in these comments.
TIME LINE:
I’m not going to divulge timeframes reading JWR’s book How To Survive The End Of The World As We Know It, became Preppers, and transitioned to Homesteaders, but here’s a non date specific timeline.
Start: This project started with a non-debt purchase of a log home package and our thorough selection process in wood/styles/roofs/beam structure.
1-year lapsed: land search fitting our detailed metrics making a non-debt purchase. The log home company needed ten-days word to fire up the lathes and have the entire kit complete, packaged, and ready to transport. That’s why we could wait a year after purchasing the log package kit to seek land.
1-year lapsed: Delivery of the log package, excavating, building the crawlspace, and subfloor. The subfloor was securely weatherproofed with tarps now.
7-months lapsed: logs stacked, gables constructed, beams set, T&G ceiling installed, windows and doors installed, logs sealed and stained. The roof sealed with synthetic tarpaper and strips of 1x4s to ensure longevity of protection.
10-months lapsed: roof foamed, steel installed, log siding nailed, porch complete, and chimney/stove working. We stayed the winter months—fun.
8-months lapsed: is at where the article ended. It’s a process and a labor of love through and through.
DEBT FREE:
There’s a glaring OPSEC violation with SSN/name/real home address/DOB, et al. being placed onto a mortgage/loan application. There’s no risk of forfeiture of property/assets by being debt free. You can also purchase your property LEGALLY without ever tying the above information to your public record [which your neighbors will look up to see who entered their community]—FYI!
YOUTUBE:
All work was performed by ourselves, or by a day laborer [winter was setting in], or by contractors that were mention [minimally used]. I spent the better part of a year, figuring, documenting, planning, drawing, and repeating to come up with the desired results needed for someone with limited/no construction experience. All requisite knowledge, tool utilization, equipment understanding, and material selections were from watching many hundreds of hours [closer to 1000 hours] of YouTube videos and taking copious notes. I didn’t move to the next video until every aspect of the job was documented even something as minute as the proper placement of nuts and bolts. This included but not limited to plumbing, electrical, log staining, tile flooring and grouting, stacking logs, subfloor construction, tin roof placement, IFC block installation, concrete pours, excavating, PEX plumbing lines, interior wall erection, et al.
All topics, once completely outlined, were follow-up with a visit/conference call/discussion with a licensed professional in that particular field. With this much time and treasure on the line, we were not about to allow this to slip into a debacle, or as some commented “giving it a whirl.” No, not us! We always held the requisite knowledge and the comfortably knowing we had that knowledge prior to moving forward with any task in the milestone.
REBAR comment—thank you:
We trusted the expertise of the team of Masons in our interviews with them, and nothing has happened to the structure, after many years for time to settle.
ELECTRICAL comment—thank you:
After a few tweaks all signed off by the Inspector! We’ve used deep-cycle batteries [ones for the solar panels], charging periodically with the generator, for over a year. Since we’re a debt-free project, we haven’t the capital for the solar panels, backup generator, and set of batteries as of yet.
OPSEC comment—thank you:
Again, we are all at different levels here! Some believe calculating Satellite geosynchronous orbits and timing it correctly to enter/leave a property inside a hollowed out mountain cave when no satellite can see them—is OPSEC. We don’t have the luxury. Ask any CIA agent and they blend into the foreign community they’re planted.
Everyone allowed semi-trucks to their property, had equipment dropped/fetched, held a messy construction site, and did normal things to construct their off-grid homes in our area. We didn’t stand at the end of our driveway donning capes covering our faces when the nosy neighbors stopped by—that’s a huge violation of OPSEC and would trigger them in giving a second look. Sometimes OPSEC is blending in as a normal person—the gray-man/woman.
Negative/Positive People
Two cardinal rules: “Remove all negative people and associate with people who have gone where you want to go.” We associated ourselves with right thinking Conservative/Christians and GC/Construction guys with the requisite knowledge to complete this project. Gleaning every bit of knowledge right to the Nth degree. No exceptions.
Naysayers: surrounding yourselves with negative influences having a “can’t do” attitude is a recipe for disaster. There’re plenty of those on both sides of our families. Their mouths are speechless now!
PURPOSE of sharing:
Information here is to demonstrate how one can overcome doubt, finances, negative family members, and achieve a dream. “God gives us men the dream, and that dream is what attracts a woman—fulfilling that dream makes your bride even more attracted to you.”—Grandfather once told me. There’s nothing more attractive to a woman than a man going places in life that she’s onboard to go!
Until we meet again,
X. Liberal & China Doll
May I ask one more question please? How did you make a living during this 3+ years? Did you work full time and do this weekend’s and evenings? Did you save enough before hand to live on the whole time? Did you work part time? Did your wife work making money while you took the time to build the house ( like a neighbor of mine did)?
Also did you live on site or elsewhere through this process? (I guess that is two questions.)
I’m a corporate CPA. I take contracts with major corporations and usually work remotely once I spend an initial two weeks on their campus meeting their teams.
My wife doesn’t work in a wage earning position and with the feminized carnage implemented in society we don’t have plans for her to work. We want to part of the solution and that’s the solution.
Since moving up to the Redoubt our annual expenses are Taxes, insurance, and Propane. That’s it, no mortgage, no utilities, no association dues, no harassment from fines with California associations. I soon won’t need to take full year contracts now with just under $4000 per year to live. We will be semi-retired from this sacrifice. Another benefit of the Redoubt.
My wife is just as guilty of this success as I am or anyone who helped. She did a lot of the planning and ground work in designs and layouts. This truly is a marriage benefit to entertain this project and for me to not take contracts the entire year and work remotely from the property. VPN worked fine with those monthly hot spot cards we purchased at Walmart. Good signal and could conduct conference calls and webinars from our location.
Someone with a remote job configuration or travels to go to work as a consultant would be a shoo-in for the Redoubt. FYI.
We are here full time now and renting out our previous home. The housing market keeps increasing and it’s not time to sell just yet.
Hope that helps.
Thank you for the info and the whole series. I wish you many excellent years in your new home.
I am VERY grateful for you sharing your adventure! I would love o be able to do the same, but my skillset does not run to constuction talents. I’ve always said “measure twice, cut once. Cuss three times, throw away that first piece and redo the whole process.” Sigh. And my Dad was a carpenter and built our house, with my mom 8 months pregnant and climbing up to the roof hauling one brick at a time. I miss them
Excellent story.
Thanks for all the tips I’m sure it will help many, many people… BUT… I have some concerns re: your wood stove install.
I was a journeyman woodheat technician for almost 9 years for the largest wholesale / retail wood heating store in Northern California (now out of business mostly due to CARB / EPA) and have installed approximately 2,500 wood burning appliances, many of which are documented in Sunset Magazines DIY book(s)” Fireplaces and Wood stoves” – 2nd Ed. When I/we were not installing, we were sweeping chimneys, probably half again as many as our installs. There were many Chimney sweeps in the area so we only serviced our customers as needed since our primary job(s) was selling and installing. I now live in the Northern Great Lakes and burn wood around 8 months+- a year
1st) you say you cut a 6″ hole through the logs to accommodate the 6″ stove pipe. I hope you added the proper MINIMUM clearance (2″) for ‘Class A’ pipe (a 6″ pipe would require a 10″ hole, 6″ pipe plus 2″ of clearance all around = 10″ and so, 8″ pipe would require a 12″ hole) This is regardless if it’s through the wall or up through the ceiling / roof.
2nd) (and hopefully, you DO NOT have a catalytic converter on your stove) you say you have to clean your chimney every 2 months. If that’s the case, you’re doing something wrong (no insult intended).
Either your firewood is nowhere near being cured (dry) and/or your wood is an oily wood such as pine or birch (but after proper drying, should be fine, I burned a lot of birch when I lived in Alaska), or you may be burning too low a fire thus not allowing the smoke to combust (smoke is just unburned gasses) and/or your air intake(s) are blocked by ash. It is rare to have to clean your chimney more than 2x a year and most times… once a year, the exception might be if you have ‘spark arrester cap’ up on top and it’s not unusual for them to clog thus allowing a build up of soot towards the top of the pipe. (and don’t be surprised if you find a birds nest up their after summer, that is not that uncommon)
If your chimney is not surrounded by trees, I’d eliminate the wire mesh part of the cap. A well burning stove will not let sparks ‘fly’ up and out the chimney but be advised, some local building codes require it.
Of all the appliances I’ve installed, to this day (that I know of but am also sure of) none of my installs have ever started a house or nearby woods fire and a great percentage of those installs were in drought ridden areas, in other words…very dry.
Hope this clarifies a few points for future installs by other readers.
An amazing accomplishment for both of you. Plus a great story for your grandchildren! A few pictures here and there would have made the narrative more understandable for non-construction folks.
I agree with X Liberal’s comment about construction costs being a ripoff in the Redoubt.
My wife and I were shocked with the quotes we received from contractors for a garage with an overhead mother-in-law apartment. We are no strangers to building, and they were much higher than prices charged in the Southeast.
I don’t know if it’s supply and demand, or if it’s builders charging more because most of their clients are from California, and are used to paying ridiculous prices for everything. Can’t say I blame them either way, they charge what the market will pay. I did overhear two sub-contractors saying how they adjust their prices higher if the property is more expensive, and they think the owners have more money.
My wife and I have joked that if a good builder from the South would come up to the Redoubt
with his crew, he would do very well.
Despite the inflated cost of construction here, we still have no regrets about moving to the Redoubt., we’d do it all over again.
J and M
I am a Contractor in the redoubt, We charge based on what the market supports. The South for the most part has always been cheaper in most markets. If a Contractor came up from the Southern states, he would charge what the rest of us charge, or he wouldnt last long. Gas prices, building materials, and so on and so forth dictate what we charge. There are certain areas of the redoubt that have been successful at keeping home depot and Lowes out, Moscow Idaho comes to mind.. All there is for a hardware/lumber yard is Moscow Building supply.. the closest home depot is Lewiston. Even Pullman Washington, just 5 miles away doesnt have a home depot or lowes.
I hope they covered all the bases, but with zero knowledge going in I don’t see how he sorted the real information from all the nonsense on YouTube. People post on YouTube because they can, not necessarily because they have any clue what they’re talking about. I’ve seen so-called DIY “information” that not only defied common sense but also defied the laws of physics. It often sounds good on the surface unless you have a clue going in and can spot the stupidity.
Example. A float as a canoe accessory. Sealed tube. The idiot adds foam inside because we all know foam adds buoyancy. The idiot doesn’t know buoyancy is simply a function of weight and displacement. Adding foam inside the tube only added weight and resulted in less buoyancy.
Example. Capturing rainwater in a barrel to water your garden. Idiot says set the barrel on concrete blocks to increase pressure to 15 psi. Sure, we all know raising the barrel will raise the pressure. Idiot unaware you get one atmosphere of pressure for each 33 feet of pressure head (vertical distance from water surface to outlet), or roughly 1/2 psi per foot. You’d need to put the barrel on a tall roof to get 15 psi.
These are the ones that come quickly to mind, and I could go an and on. Total lack of knowledge does not prevent people from displaying that fact on the internet. Beware of internet information. Real books exist. Try them sometime.
This site is one of the best. Original information seems solid. Be cautious of submitted articles, some writers seem to reach beyond their knowledge base to fill space.
First you make reference that these people are frauds without any requisite proof and then insinuate that you are the authority of Survivalblog content and what’s authentic whereby referring to these people as “Stupid”.
As an attorney, I would have to illustrate this document would hold up in a court of law as factual and truthful. We know YouTube doesn’t post timeframes of demonstrations of tasks. These people added timeframes to back their story shared. Then we have a professional contractor early on confirming that these timeframes and chronology of tasks are spot on.
Their story would hold up and your comment would be tossed out of a court of law. “Stupid??”
@Susan,
The most important thing in a submitted article isn’t that they get all the details right, it’s that they actually tried what they are doing. It’s about first hand experience. Whether that experience is planning the project or actually doing the project doesn’t really matter, though the best articles are written as the the project is done or an account of it shortly afterwards. The writer doesn’t necessarily understand everything they are doing either.
The examples that you give are a prime example of this:
Both of those examples give you better performance and the author of the video might not fully understand it. What is important is that they are showing you what they did. They can relate their successes, failures and progress. You get to see their learning in progress.
Not everyone is an expert in every situation, but they are sharing their ideas and progress. They even learn from the comments that are left from other readers. It’s a community.
X Liberal & China Doll, thank you for sharing your story of building your new home. Congrat’s on ur move to the redoubt & I wish God’s blessings upon you!
A useful series for those dreaming of a move to the redoubt. X Liberal provides a real life example of the work and expense involved–more than three years and easily north of $300,000 to get into their new home. And there are still major expenses ahead. (A well, barn, tractor and greenhouse are all expensive, but necessary for self sufficiency in this north country.) Still the determination of the young couple to succeed and their commitment to hard work does bode well for success here.
After decades in the redoubt, I do have a different perspective on his “nosy neighbors,” however. City people do not realize that they are moving into an entirely different culture when they come here. Country people will call on new residents–not to be nosy but as a part of our own OPSEC (though we don’t call it that). It is important to the safety of our own families to find out if the newcomers: (1) know where their property ends and ours begins and whether they respect our property; (2) how big of a danger or nuisance the newcomers will be due to inexperience or ignorance; (3) to determine your character–whether you are honest, sensible and willing to learn.
The redoubt may look like a low regulation area compared to the cities, but we have lost a lot of our freedoms in the last 30 years because of the influx of urban dwellers. While newcomers are excited about fulfilling a dream, they also bring a set of assumptions and expectations that can have caused us all harm.
Your country neighbors are not ignorant rubes–many of us have advanced degrees too–and we’ve been successfully self-reliant for a long time. That good old boy down the road is likely a much better prepper than you are—but YOU WILL NEVER KNOW IT. We don’t call it OPSEC, we call it common sense.
Thanks X Liberal and China Doll for sharing your experiences. Good luck on your continuing adventure.
Thank you for sharing the process. It looks daunting, but I see that you concentrated on focusing on each step rather than what all needs to be done. Just milestones.
wow ! you guys accomplished a lot. I would add a few suggestions. Consider adding a small solar system or a larger one if you can afford it. Propane is great and we use it, but eventually it will run out. We are plumbed for a small propane refrig, but are hoping to invest in an energy efficient electric refrig. soon. We also have a good cellar that would work. I would have a Lot of firewood set back as chainsaws use gas. Cutting wood by hand would be a huge job. One reason old homestead places are small. Lots of warm bedding would be a good idea. Please don’t get the idea that you need to go so nice to be set up. It’s great if you can afford it but honestly you could live in single wide, put in cellar, a simple solar system . establish a garden , maybe few chickens, propane tanks (propane cookstove) and add other useful items as you can. That would be preferable to waiting and doing nothing.