Question on difficulty in building a B&P Home

[Gunny]

First let me say the following and then I will ask my question. (the first part is not meant to be rude at all): I am not looking for sympathy or help in building a home. I want to build this home with my wife and enjoy the time together. However, I am a disable veteran. I have all my fingers, toes and I can walk but I am limited in some ways. I can put out about 4 hours of low to moderate work a day. Less if it is heavy lifting. If I do more than that I end up in bed or on the couch for several days to recoup my energy and let the pain subside to a tolerable level. I rebuilt our current bathroom from the ground up (literally) and replaced some rotten rim joists on the house in my current condition. I took my time, had some difficulties, but it was doable. Okay, my question: Based on the minimal I just shared, do you think it may be possible for someone like me (and my wife) to build a B&P home on our own or with minimal contractor help? Help meaning with the roof, some plumping/electrical, well, septic, phone, etc. I know, many factors involved but a general idea on overall difficulty is all I am looking for. I already put my email address in to be notified when the next class is available. I will attend the class even if my wife and I cannot do this by ourselves. We have decided to go this route, calculated the risks, and figured what the heck. Life is short, enjoy it while you can.

I have a 40' 5th wheel my in-laws gave us to live in while we build our home. I will hire out to put the roof up but I want to do most of the rest on my own. We are going to sell our current home/property and move out on the bare property we already have while building. We are thinking about taking a year to build it if that seems feasible. A year because my wife would stop working for that year then start back up. I have my own gunsmith business I run from off of my current property but I would take off that year also. While we can afford to buy a house we would like to go this route instead if it seems possible. That is my reason for the question above.

Thanks and I am looking forward to learning and doing.

Gunny

[Gunny]

I can't edit the main post. I was going to ask if anyone knew when a next class date might be? Like I noted before. I signed up for email notification for the next class but I was wondering if anyone knew when that might happen.

[loghousenut]

Gunny,

If you can afford to buy a house, you can afford to build the LHBA log home that you really want. My opinion only but probably shared by a few of us. A good $10 hand or two can go a long way on this type of a build.

Time has a lot to do with it. My main disability is a fear of heights, 100 extra lbs., years, and mileage... And I have a bit of a lazy streak. All said, we'll be able to live in our place before we die there, and if I weren't so set on building it all myself (and Wife and Son), it woulda been done long ago. Mostly I want to enjoy every minute I put into this project so it'll take me a while longer. When done it'll be the coolest home in the area and it'll be ours with a yearly payment to the County.

If this thing is what you and the Boss want, you can do it. Don't go looking for us to hold your hand when you fail... But we'll be there watching and laughing when it happens.



And you won't fail unless you really want to.



PS... A year is not enough time in my mind unless you're one of those quick study, let's get moving it's 4:00am, whadyamean we don't work on Saturday?, get back up and there I'll throw you the tools, just walk the ridgepole darnit!, we're 15 minutes behind schedule, LUNCH?!!!, where are you going it's only 8:00pm?, kinda guys who is married to a more industrious woman. It would help if your last name were Wiley (inside joke, more on the members side).

Just my opinion and there are plenty who would say a year is doable, but it'd be a stressful year and I'm not into stress or divorce.

[rocklock]

Short answer- yes.
But it will be longer than a year if you insist of doing most all of the work.
We have a guy that can stack log and put the roof on. He can get you over the hump with all the grunt work.
Or you can sub out lots of stuff.

But I would suggest that you take your time and only build what you can afford when you can afford it.

My log home is debt free. We only build 5 months a year because we can. We have been at it for 6 years.

If you have the motivation, you can do it, but it will be hard work.

[rreidnauer]

The LHBA building method is easy, but labor intensive. The only way to make it less so, is to throw more money at the project. (in the form of help and/or equipment)

After taking the class, I'd strongly recommend attending a build or two, and see what you may be getting yourself into.

[Gunny]

Thank you all for your advice and information. It is nice to know that it can be done slowly. I will plan on more than a year then. Or at least one portion, then the next, etc. I don't mind hard work but my body doth protest at times. :) I usually tell it to shut up.

My hope is to build it mostly ourselves but I also know there will be things I cannot do. At those points I will have to hire out. I will probably have to hire out more than I want but I will work that part out when I come to it.

So, the next point is reading, and reading, and reading, etc until I can get into a class. We do not plan on moving onto the property until next spring. Hopefully there will be a class by then or soon there after. I did a good amount of reading on this site already. Looked at student homes, etc. Nice work.

Thanks

[jrdavis]

Gunny --
First and foremost --- Semper Fi !!
Second. We the very willing led by the Highly Qualified, will learn to do the unbelievable with so little that we can do the impossible with NOTHING. Oorah.

So to echo the others, YES. You can do it.
as you probably learned with the bathroom project, it took 2-3 times longer that you first thought, but you stuck with it and completed it.
Now every time you go into someone elses bathroom, You look at THEIR professional job and judge your own work against it. (and don't say you don't) haha :)

Welcome to the "few and the Proud", log home builders.

JD
USMC 1980-1986
2nd gen jarhead

[John W]

Gunny
Another retired military guy here.
Time equals money, and equipment and paid labor equals time. First, I won't pretend to be a member, but I'll pass along a piece of information that I've read on the threads. On the member's side, there's a place to buy and trade equipment. The thing with equipment, is if you get a good deal on whatever you need, after the build you can sell it for close to what you bought it for, and pass that good deal along to another member. So the net cost is little compared to the time and physical labor you save. If you can buy a tractor/loader (whatever) to do all/most of your heavy lifting for you and after you complete the build and sell it, the net cost is $500 or $1,000 to use it for a year, why not? Just my two cents.

[blane]

Hi Gunny,
Yea you can do it but like everyone else says not in one year. My son and I have been working on our place 3.5 years now with very little in the way of rest. Working a full time job and building on the side is rough but very rewarding. You are welcome to read through my blog to get an idea of what you are about to get into.

[BoFuller]

I'm working full-time for 3 more years and that's when I hope to be finished with mine.

[patrickandbianca]

If you can work on the house 3 hours a day, 7 days a week, that is more hours than most of us can work on our places in a week.

I say go for it. Take it easy, work smarter not harder, build as small as u can and you will be done before you know it.

Patrick

[jrdavis]

Gunny --
Here's an actual account of the 2.5 hours the other night on someones build.

Arrive 6:25
view the site -- owner on the ridge pole looking down
talked for 15 minutes about ridge pole and rafters.... He came down finally cause my neck was kinking (okay maybe cause it was 100 degress in the sun)
Discussed pinning the rafters and how to keep them from sliding off the ridgepole and caplog.
grabbed the sledge and went back up the ladders (I climbed the outside butt and pass corners)
pounded the rebar in to pin the rafter to the ridgepole.
owner climbed down and got the drill to bolt rafters together, I watched him go.
hooked up the electric ext. cords, brought drill back up to the RP via ladders. hooked up his saftey cord and shimmied across to the rafter.
drilled the hole, put bolt thru, -- wait. can't find bolt in pocket. must have fallen out.
I shimmy DOWN the wall search for bolt.
find it --- use ladder. remove 2 splinters from arms.:rolleyes:
hand bolt to be put in, drop washer.............. forget it........ drop nut. hummmmmmm
back down, get washer and 2 new nuts from the trailer (where's LHNut when I need him)
climb up ladder, tight walk the floor joist (4 inches wide isn't very wide as dusk is coming, BTW) scurry up 2nd ladder. hand over 1 nut. I holding the other for safe keeping. just in case. :)
drop cresent wrench.... HEY are you doing this on purpose? I'm in my 50's with bad knees aleady!!!!! (Just kidding Tim)
Get cresent..... back up ladders (yes plural, as in 2) tighten bolt.
rest. gravity is strong at 30 ft.
grab drill and take down as dusk in coming hard.
pack tools away. get drink. shake hands. say farewell
8:45pm

1 rafter down. 12 more sets to go...... (thats 2 weeks of after work only to complete)
THATS one day, after work.
I'm just saying.
Yes, there are things to NOT do again. have bucket with extras in it on cord, pull up from RP, in case of tools or bolts, nuts dropped.
but still there are things as 1 person working, it can take a while, but WOW, did it feel good to hug a Ridge Pole.
Whew.
A delightful drive home 2 hours.

[rocklock]

There are many ways to skin a cat.
Rafters I pre drilled my rafters and raised then two at a time so my son could just throw in the bolt. We raised them in the same place using the same blocks and ropes then spread them out by hand.
Our member from Japan described an easy way to lift the rafters already bolted. It made my way look really silly, but then I didn't have the boom truck at that time. I just had a pickup.
There is a book called " working alone" that describes many ways of doing it all by your self. I have bought the book twice and I still can't find it.
And then there is us. Some times we can be helpful.

[jasonfromutah]

Great questions.

I have been at it for a little more than 3 years. I am 42 so I have fortunately been able to involved with everything on the build.

However, your brain will play the biggest role in your build. Given what you have said, I would absolutely take LHN's advice and hire a "$10 and hour" hand. I have 3 sons and my sons friend. Heck, I am in pretty good health and I still have them running around doing stuff for me. Doing this will save you a lot of labor!

The build process is not really complicated. You will realize this when you take the class. Desire and comittment will take you a long way. You will also have a lot of nay-sayers. Do not listen to them, they will shut up when they start to see it come together.

[loghousenut]

And always keep a couple old silver dollars in your pocket. When you drop that washer and wonder if it's worth the trip down and back up just for ONE WASHER, you can drop a silver dollar and make it worth the trip.

[jrdavis]

And always keep a couple old silver dollars in your pocket. When you drop that washer and wonder if it's worth the trip down and back up just for ONE WASHER, you can drop a silver dollar and make it worth the trip.

uhm --
LHN you need to mention that to harmtim
I'm not sure he is reading this thread and I'm going to help him again.
I'd like for him to "drop" a few silvers to make it worth my while. :)

Gunny--
Lock and Load.
Just pull the trigger.

Done.