Tornadoes

[BIGNASTY]

I like that! This old house was built probably before there was a concrete supplier within a hundred miles so it has a crawl space. Geez, I wouldn't go under there with a gun at my back. Every year when the termite inspector crawls under there I stand in awe at his bravery.
- Ed

I didn't get to build our house, Our Niece's and Nephew's built it when we retired. We had them all at one time or another living with us to go to school or learn a trade in Calif. So they got together with Penny sent us to France to follow the Tour De France bike race around for a month and they built it for us to say thanks Uncle BIG and Aunt Penny for putting up with us.

We paid for it all and I had been investigating build ideas for years, when the concrete trucks came and poured the basement slab and filled the ICF basement forms word got around about some whacked out dude doing some WEIRD building ideas. The concrete was poured the year before we retired. Lots of contractors came the family said they didn't get to see to many of the new building ideas. Most build like you with a crawl space, along with the germaphobe thing, I really don't care for small places either, not terrified of them just rather not do any investigating in them.

Built Penny's Sisters house and a couple that came from where I worked, I built theirs using the same plans and ideas. The only thing that I didn't like about all the ideas is that it made for TO TIGHT A HOUSE if you can believe that!! we have windows cracked in the dead of winter because it gets to hot with the kitchen wood stove going, its right at 1900 sq ft

I would like to know how well the SIP's Construction method would stand up in a tornado, hurricane we have some pretty stout winds 85 MPH last winter couldn't even hear it until someone came in the house and open the door.

 

[Killgore]

The kids really treated you all good, and I know you are proud of them.

I personally like the ICF method having spent nearly 25 years in concrete construction primarily running ready-mix operations and doing tech service work. The barber's kid that needs a haircut and the mechanic whose car won't run describe me. We've got a gravel driveway and the only concrete was poured for the front porch several years ago. It wasn't my doings, just the way the old place was built back in the 20's. It's been added on so many times that you have to go in the attic to find the original roofline. Nothing is square, 2X4's are 2X4's, and you best drill the hole before hammering the nail. The only thing new about the whole deal is a sign in the front yard that says 'For Sale". Oo.
- Ed

 

[BIGNASTY]

The kids really treated you all good, and I know you are proud of them.

I personally like the ICF method having spent nearly 25 years in concrete construction primarily running ready-mix operations and doing tech service work. The barber's kid that needs a haircut and the mechanic whose car won't run describe me. We've got a gravel driveway and the only concrete was poured for the front porch several years ago. It wasn't my doings, just the way the old place was built back in the 20's. It's been added on so many times that you have to go in the attic to find the original roofline. Nothing is square, 2X4's are 2X4's, and you best drill the hole before hammering the nail. The only thing new about the whole deal is a sign in the front yard that says 'For Sale". Oo.
- Ed

Yes it was pretty nice to come home from France and turn the corner and had been thinking WHY DID WE GO TO FRANCE with all the work I had to do, but Penny was the master mind of this. They even tried to fix up the old 1986 1/2 Nissan Hard-body pick up that I had to go back and forth to work, but gave to them that had 3 motors, numerous clutches, thank God for lifetime brake pad replacement, and decent Calif weather so I could ride my Bicycle to work and back.

Sounds like the house that Penny and I sold to an investment company not long ago and that they cant do a thing with the property cause its a Historical Heritage Home. In Calif its a big thing to save such homes. When I bought the home in 75 it was already plenty years old, Penny and I lived in it for 30+ years. It was a PITA to work on, I ran new elect, plumbing over the years, it had to stay as it was built in looks. Lath and Plaster walls, crawl space floor with 1/2 basement. The only thing that we were aloud to change and it still had to resemble the look of the original was the roof. It was ceder shake roof that the original owner had sprayed used motor oil on to preserve the roof. It worked but if a spark would have got anyplace near the roof it would have been a disaster. Calif didn't want it changed I had to go to court to get a permit to do what was aloud and get an attorney to file a suit against Calif if ANYONE was ever hurt because of their stupidity in this matter Calif Historical Society was held responsible, they kind of had a BIG CHANGE IN THOUGHT when that happened, then we filed suit for reimbursement for attorney fees and won that.

We wanted to upgrade the kitchen with new cabinets and fixtures, the cabinets had to be built in the same construction method as the originals. I can hold my own with cabinets but most of the joinery was done by hand, its pretty hard to replicate that with my machine based skills. Fixtures were going retro at that time so the old style wasn't that hard to find.

They didn't like the swimming pool that Penny dug with the Ford tractor but couldn't do a thing about it. They could only hold me to the home and garage in the way it was built and looked.

That was a learning experience that I hope to never have again. But the home still looks nice nobody lives in it and the Historical Society gives tours every weekend, the pool is gone.

 

[Killgore]

Late in the afternoon while looking for Talley's Mill Pond just off the battlefield of Spotsylvania where one of my great-grandfathers had won fame while serving with the 11th Mississippi Infantry, I stopped to ask directions of a gentleman working on his pasture fence. Turned out that he had bought the Talley Homeplace and of course one thing led to another. It seems he couldn't even make the old antebellum home liveable due to historical society rules and regulations even though it wasn't being used for anything. I felt sorry for his predicament and would still be there talking if not for Jennifer waiting in the truck.

And yes, I found the mill pond where Vaiden Hughes and his brothers had charged across the mill pond dam into military history. It was almost deja vu.
- Ed

 

[Killgore]

Monte, sorry about the thread running wild. Although Vaiden and his brothers, Perrin and Billy Ray, would probably tell all of us that it was like running into a tornado.
- Ed

 

[jhenderson]

Thanks for all the info. I think expense is probably the biggest reason folks down there don't have cellars. RI is as bony as it comes, digging is HARD,but all of the 100 + year old houses have a cellar. I imagine the cold has something to do with it. As BIG said, the house is warmer with the air space below.Even when allthey had was a stone foundation and dirt floor,they had cold storage for vegs and canned goods in the house. Weather was a big thing back then. A lot of farm houses are connected through the mud room all the way to the barn so they didn't have to go outside to feed and milk. I'm just used to basements.2 houses for sale side by side, one with, one without. The one without goes a lot cheaper than just the cost of the basement.Nobody around here wants a home without one.

 

[mfurrh55]

Monte, sorry about the thread running wild. Although Vaiden and his brothers, Perrin and Billy Ray, would probably tell all of us that it was like running into a tornado.
- Ed

No problem, Good reading