Search:

Distempered Individualism

I often wonder,
If Ayn Rand and Bruce Lee were a,
Deliberate punch and kick to the West.

Were they living examples of excess,
In classical 'rugged individualism,'...

The new Secondary Owner Support (SOS) is a forum inspired by Reverend Fred Renfroe.
He was the Chaplin at the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, in Washington State.

He built a beautiful log home...

I once purchased a winch cable at Harbor Freight.

Not in the normal way, rather in the parking lot from a guy in a pickup truck.
He was an older guy in his early 70's if I had to guess.

We...

To be clear, I'm imaging most of these lessons. A few were articulated by Skip.
AFAIK, Skip mostly liked piers because the only decent alternative at the time was a traditional stemwall / footer....

Build cheap and small.
Roof on by fall, avoid too tall, avoid the fall.

Something like that ^

Exploring this concept further, a person's first DIY log cabin build should be a bit larger than...

I'm liking the idea of home designs that have a log wall height of 10' to 12'.

For someone building their first log home, I'd suggest start small and short.

Analogy: Bouldering versus climbing.

11) Buy your raw land cheap enough so you can break even, if you need to walk away during or right after the foundation phase.
It might not be the ideal location, if you can't do that.

Edited to...

10) Making the pier block forms is the second hardest mathematical task of a build (stairs being the first!).

If you can't do the math, or develop a hack, then perhaps your first course of logs...

9) We had a member in WA, one of the Pauls, who built for approx 15 or 20 years. It was his retirement hobby, up in the mountains.
He's the guy who built a log boom crane.

He reminds me that...

8) If your local inspector sees you do something novel, and do it well, then the rest of your build should go even better.
If you screw up your relationship with your local inspector over your pier...

7) You can screw up your pier foundation in a lot of ways, and it generally still works out fine.
For instance, if the elevations differ a bit between piers, just use a thicker sill pate or notch...

Can you imagine how much time a person saves using synthetic chinking?

I'm trying to wrap my head around the theoretical math.

Mortar chinking:

Shove in backer rod / insulation.
Hammer in a...

6) The amount of rebar and plywood required for an LHBA pier block system can be scavenged for free in most localities. Regardless of the size home you're building.

5) You can build the forms in the city, in your driveway, and stack them up to save space.

Trailer them to your build site on a Friday, and if the holes are pre-dug then by Monday you might be...

4)

A) Submit your log home plans, with a pier block foundation, to your jurisdiction.

B) If they reject the plan because of the pier blocks, then you are building in the WRONG location.

C)...

When I glanced at this thread the first time, here's what I thought JJ was referring to.

Skip saying something like this, on day two of class, near the end:



And then Ron's comment would be...

Let's Here, Begin Again.
Let's Here, Break-up Again

(2 more acceptable variations, imho)

3) As an owner builder concerned with finances: using pier blocks rather than a stemwall + footer will typically enable you to skip:

A) water proofing B) venting C) drainage system D) most of the...

2) LHBA Pier blocks are extremely hard to subcontract out, and have them done properly and on time (under budget).
If that gives you problems, then perhaps consider that it's not to late to sell the...

A few after thoughts and disclaimers.

1) I'm not a lawyer, I'm hardly a talented amateur.

2) It was this post:


That helped me start to look at, and understand, the issue with Moore's law....

1) If as an owner builder you have to subcontract your foundation, consider another course.
Because next you might be tempted to subcontract your walls.

[That's not intended as a slight toward...

I loved my father.
I hated my father.

To this day, I'm still learning lessons from him.
You can try it along with me.

His favorite foundation style was Pier Blocks.
It was the only one he...

I believe that I can now refocus upon log homes.
And so I shall try.
Certainly not because I want to be some sort of Industry Leader.

There is a need for affordable homes, in America and the...

Ps, The LHBA members who did live in the Seattle area, and worked at places like Microsoft, Google and Facebook (at or near retirement, manager / trainer level) were quick to discuss all sorts of...

Over the last two days I explored a thought.
That the Electronics Privacy Act of 1986 was passed under the rule of Moore's Law.
Considering all the implications of that, alone, is what I do.
...