Meggett Fishing Shack

Soooooo.... I had typed out the last post but then forgot to post it, so that's why there are two posts back to back.  This one will be alot more in-depth, with better pictures!  Sorry about that! Since finishing the framing, we have been very busy.  Some of the most important systems have been installed, namely the Prosoco CAT V fluid-applied weather barrier, and the MidState roofing underlayment.  Seems like almost overnight, we went from "camping" in our old house due to the numerous and immense roof leaks, holes in the walls, and other major construction obstacles, to a dried in, semblance of a house  Even though the only access to the new portion of the house at the moment is through the garage, it is still nice to have a closed in space next door to mitigate some of the air leakage and weather from coming in unwanted!  We can even park our cars in the garage! First thing to happen after the framing was completed was the installation of the exterio...

After about 8 weeks of bad weather, the Christmas holidays, framing challenges, more material orders than I can count, and allot of time spent with Judah (our amazing framer), we have a house!  The roof decking was completed today along with all the eves, rakes, and overhangs.  All that is left is the rear porch roof and columns, the small eyebrow roof over the garage doors, all the shear wall bracing and steel stealing, and miscellaneous odds and ends.  Overall, it's a pretty impressive structure.  The ceilings are really high, and the trusses look fantastic even in their raw form before being sanded or sealed.  The rear tall wall was particularly challenging, as it is 28 feet tall in the center, 36 feet wide, and needs to withstand hurricane force winds.  It contains a large steel moment frame as well as some creative LVL framing to transfer the wind loads into the side walls as well as into a center wind beam, which carries those forces to a reinforce...

Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will reach another major milestone; the trusses will be set in place for the main roof.  We have been in the framing stage for the past 5 weeks or so, and alot of progress has been made.  The garage and room over the garage is nearly complete, and the main walls of the house, except for the complicated rear wall, are in place.  Linz and I have spent countless hours preparing the main trusses, which included alot of complicated cutting, planing, sanding, routing, and hole-drilling.  I tackled the first truss on my own to save myself some embarrassment in case it didn't go together as-designed, but it turned out perfectly and the framers finished the other one today.  More about the trusses below. We wanted exposed trusses in the large vaulted great room of the house, and decided to just vault the entire structure, settling on two heavy timber scissor trusses to complete the look.  Alot of "heavy timber trusses" in modern co...

For most houses on crawl spaces or slabs on grade, this wouldn't be that big of a milestone. For our house, this is a MAJOR milestone, as the house has raised concrete slabs over crawlspaces, not at all typical for residential construction around here.  The entire foundation process consisted of 3 individual concrete pours, all of which required a pump.  The final pour, included in this update, was the concrete for what are our finished interior floors on the main level, and the porches.  The surface treatment of the concrete was important, as was the ultimate level of flatness, since it will all be visible.    I took a chance on not cutting control joints, and we did get some minor cracking, but it is all manageable and will likely not even be noticed once the house is finished.  We also received the first shipment of steel components, which were fabricated locally in Hollywood and are based on the detailed drawings we provided to the fabricator.  T...

It's been a while since I posted our last update o the project.   We got the site staked, which is the surveyor coming in and establishing with pins on the ground where the new structures will be located.  In our case, this is easier said than done, as the new addition and garage have to be square to the house, but also have to be carefully planned so as not to extend over any critical line setbacks or property line setbacks.  We used a combination of the surveyor's pins, the drawings, and some field "adjustments" to get the layout "right".  At least that's what we hope.  We will not know for sure until the surveyor comes back and surveys the now-complete block walls to ensure we haven't crossed over any critical lines.  Site Completely Graded and ready to Layout Footings We had some significant personnel changes occur at the onset of the project, which I am coming to find is a very normal thing.  Getting subcontractors to show up on time...

Not to turn this into a personal blog about me and my issues, but this has not been a good couple of weeks.  It started out with copious problems with our foundation contractor, who we ended up letting go after numerous failures to actually get the necessary permits and start the work.  Permitting will be another topic I discuss later.  After finally working with another contractor to get started (Mike Amerson of Amerson Construction has been super helpful), we have our foundation and masonry permit in hand.  We do not, however, have an actual mason lined up through him to do the work.  Charleston's building market is still booming, and labor is at a high demand.  We are still looking, hoping to have some additional pricing soon.   On top of that, after having an injection in my back about 4 weeks go for a herniated disc, my back gave out again last Saturday during a tennis match, so I've been out of commission for a while now.  Of cours...