Research and Development

[danny_bot]

Hello,

I?ve been a fan of the log home association for about two years. Suffice to say, I?ve been bitten by the log home bug. I?ve even purchased some property on the Oregon Coast. I hope to build a home at some point. However, I?m not rich ? so the property I bought is difficult to build a ?traditional? house on, it has no utilities, and the road is 100 yards away.

I hope to take the class as soon as I can. So for now, I?m just researching how I can get things going with the county (not a fun process).

Anyway, the reason for my post ? I?m looking for a member who was building a home near Stevenson/Carson, WA. He had a really great website that tracked his progress. Does anyone have that link?

Thank you!

[RockEngineer]

I think Woody's house is the one you are talking about up in Home Valley, WA overlooking the Columbia River. It's looking pretty good.

http://www.geocities.com/naniorr/mypage.html

[StressMan79]

I would attempt to live "off grid" with a solar generator, etc. You can build with a portable generator for power tool use. I know it sounds like even more work on top of building your own house. And it will be. But imagine, Never having to pay another utility bill, sewer/water bill, etc. That is what I'm planning for the self reliance and the bills going away.

-Peter

[Woodman]

Here is another link to our website, the geocities site has problems from time to time.

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/woodman/

[MMayer]

I've seen some people struggle with 3 or 4 people on those block and tackles, or use a vehicle to pull the rope. It looks like you were using chain hoists - that might be the way that I go as well. Something you can do yourself and it stays where you leave it without having to tie it off.

Can you give me some specifics on your hoists? Chain link size, tonnage, lift length, etc.

Thanks - Mark

[Woodman]

I used the 1 ton chain hoists from Northern Tools. They have a 20 ft lift. The 2 ton hoists are only $20 more but the 1 ton were adequate for my purposes. Several of my logs were 48 ft long and 17" at the butt, Douglas Fir. No problems!

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_18546_18546

I needed 25 ft of lift so when I got up to the limit of my original chain hoists, I went to Harbor Freight and bought two of their cheap hoists, removed the chains, cut each one into 2 pieces, and spliced the chains into my four 20 ft hoists. This gave me four 25 ft hoists. (I looked all over the place trying to find the right size chain with no luck. Then I happened upon Harbor Freight hoists.)

[greenthumb]

Woody, how are the Harbor Freight hoists compared to the Northern ones? Do they look like they're made by the same company and rebadged? That's a good idea on splicing the chains- I have some 10' hoists I picked up cheap that will need extensions... but I do need to pick up a couple more hoists.

[Woodman]

They are very similar and some parts appear to be interchangable. I could not find any 16' or 20' lift hoists at Harbor Freight in Portland.

[greenthumb]

Thanks for the reply Woody. By the way, your house looks amazing!