Our Building Process

Dear Friend,

We have exciting news! Mickey and I have started a company that designs and sell house kits, similar to the one we built here in the summer of 2024. We'll be introducing our company name and website soon, but in the meantime, I thought I'd show the simplified process of building the shell of the house in photos. There is a lot involved with every step (as you know by reading my blog this past year!), but in the interest of giving a broad overview, I'm just giving snapshots of the basic steps. :)

Here we go ...

Start with a buildable lot, and a location for the house site, driveway, septic/sewer, water, electric/cable tie-ins.

The yellow box is where we initially thought we'd put the house, but the final house location ended up being closer to where we initially put the septic field (orange box). So, obviously, the driveway and parking spots (in red) changed as well.

Decide on house size / design / orientation.

We wanted master, laundry, and 1.5 baths downstairs, with main living spaces facing towards the sun and views to the south.

We wanted 2 bedrooms and a full bath for kids/guests upstairs. One-and-a-half story houses have less usable square footage on the second floor, since the slope of the ceiling reduces head height at the edges, but we'll use that space for extra storage.

Once design and location are set, clear and level the land, and build the foundation.

We opted for an Alaskan/monolithic slab with radiant heat, which required some plumbing to be done first, but we could've started with a full basement or crawl space and built a wooden platform as the 1st floor decking/flooring.

Along the perimeter of the foundation, set the wooden sill, which is held in place by the anchor bolts embedded in the concrete.

Build the skeleton of the house one "bent" at a time. Since we were building a 1.5 story house, our bents included the beam to support the second floor, and later we would add the the roof rafters (top pieces of wood shown below).

Once the first bent (which looks like a goal post) was assembled, they put the roof rafter pieces at the top just to see the overall shape; those get added later to 1.5 story houses.

Nail the first bent, straight, square, and plumb, to the sill.

Repeat this process (we did it 13 more times), bracing the bents with scrap 2x4s to keep the spacing correct and to prevent them from toppling.

The number of bents varies based on house length and design.

Tie bents together with the 2x6 decking that becomes the first floor's ceiling and the second floor's floor. The single story house would not have this step - or the crossbeams connecting the posts together.

We divided the 2nd story floor into 3 sections, and installed one section at a time.

Once the decking is done, build each roof rafter, sandwiching a collar tie across for support, and this structure interlocks into the top of each post. One story houses attach the posts directly to the rafters and then erect them in one step.

This cape-style house is 24 feet wide, so it needed a bit more manpower for these steps than a 14- or 18-foot-wide house would.

Repeat this process (we did it 13 more times), bracing the rafters temporarily to stay in place.

The upstairs may look small here, but once finished, the volume feels quite generous!

Attach 1x8 tongue-and-groove sheathing across the posts and removed the bracing. This sheathing becomes the interior walls. Also cut out the sections where windows and doors would go.

Because these building materials are so sturdy, they can be exposed to the elements for quite a while. This house endured many storms during the building process.

Rafters go up, and sheathing goes around.

The sheathing brings stiffness and stability to the posts and beams. Now they become one unit.

A view from the inside. It feels like a house already!

Our doggie loves that sunny spot still!

Continue the sheathing up the rafters to form the second floor ceiling. Because of the wider span of this house (24 feet), we added additional support posts a few feet in.

You may notice that the house is kind of built like a ship, but upside down!

Attach the house wrap.

We were a little sad to be covering up the beautiful wood!

Install sheets of insulation. The thickness and R-value of the insulation required will be determined by your local code.

This insulation was backed with fiberglass, which made it more rigid, but less pleasant to work with than the foil-backed insulation panels.

Secure the insulation with wood strapping. We needed 3 inches of insulation on the walls and 6 inches on the roof.

The great thing about having at least two layers of insulation is that you can overlap the seams for less air infiltration (lower energy bills), though it also means that the house is so airtight that your ventilation needs increase in order to have better indoor air quality.

Install the windows.

Installing the windows was the fastest job of them all!

Insulation and strapping on the walls and roof complete, and windows installed.

Secure metal roof panels to the strapping. The strapping also provides an air space so that it is a "cold roof" that doesn't touch the house, which increases energy efficiency.

Once the panels were installed, we put on the roof ridge. You can see that the windows were weather-proofed with flashing tape as well.

We opted to stain and then paint our wooden siding before installing, but we could have done this step later - or not at all.

The paint store gave me aqua-colored stain as a primer for our hunter green topcoat. Next time my final color is dark, I'll request gray-colored primer instead.

Secure siding to the strapping, which also provides an air space for better energy efficiency and more longevity for the siding. We're so close to finishing the shell!

The guys found this step very satisfying.

Installing the doors was a bit trickier than the windows, but we figured it out.

Ta-da! The building envelope is complete!

We paid a bit extra for exterior window trim, which I painted a darker green than the body color. You can see where our exterior lights will be installed.

I'm bummed I didn't close those upstairs windows for a nicer photo!

At this point, we could add a porch, a deck, an addition ... but for now, this house is strong and sturdy, warm and cozy, and was ready just in time to hunker down there for the winter. We couldn't believe how comfortable it felt, even on the most frigid New England days - and the energy bills were so low!

I'll do a post on the interior at a later date.

xo,

P.S. Our oldest daughter, Jordan, just graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, and we couldn't be prouder!

One proud family! We're missing one daughter, who had a performance that day. And we're missing two pairs of shoes - oops! Too used to living the country life. :)

P.P.S. Now where will we find a group of would-be-carpenter college kids for our next build? As architect Léon Krier points out, "the apprenticeship of traditional craft skills [must] be considered alongside science and the humanities as one of the three privileged ways of awakening and training the mind and the body."