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Partial Earth Sheltered Home

64K views 335 replies 23 participants last post by  Nealtw 
#1 ·
I am in process of building a new house partially below grade. The best way to describe is a daylight basement with a roof. I want to post some photos but not sure if I can post from my Ipad. I will have a lot of questions as this project goes forward as I am doing a lot of the work myself.

Thanks
JM
 

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#246 ·
I have started making kitchen cabinets out of Hickory. I found a company in Kansas called "Raw Doors" and highly recommend them. I only ordered a few to see what the quality was and they are excellent. The sanding is so smooth they feel like glass. The one in photo is for a slide out shelving unit I will be building over the electric fireplace. I will be spending less than $1000 for all the kitchen doors. I bought some kiln dried and planed hickory lumber locally for the door frames.
 

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#251 ·
Decided to put some wainscoting on the dining area walls. I had some extra window casing and used some popular and edge trim to make top piece. The bottom will have same baseboard as rest of the house, 5 1/4 inch. Added self unit as the wife has a lot of seashells to display from our two year Navy duty in the Philippines.
 

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#252 ·
My super insulation using the polyiso boards, plus system design using in house exposed ductwork is going to pay off. I keep the 1 1/2 ton heat pump on 24/7, set at 65 degrees. With lights and running power tools my electrical bill was $43 for Dec and $44 for Jan. This is in southern middle Tennessee 1200 sq feet. During the summer I ran the AC during the day only and my bill never was above $30.
 
#255 ·
Bathroom is done and wife has decorated. Still have some tile and kitchen cabinets to do. We may be in house before it is done. We listed our present house last Monday hoping it would sell by mid summer. We had three offers in
Three days after listing with others waiting to see house. Ended up selling 10k over asking price.
 

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#259 ·
Jim

Only have the foundation done. It would be very helpful to have now but
I have a 40 by 40 hangar at Tullahoma airport to store stuff. Without that I don't
Know what I would do. Garage foundation is totally done but no framing yet. I am considering a steel frame building but the cost/benefit might not be worth it.

Thanks
JM
 

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#260 ·
Due to our house selling so fast we have moved in with no kitchen and some other tile left to do. I have decided to build garage to have a place to work to build the kitchen cabinets. I hired a couple of guys to help with framing and will do the rest myself. I am putting on a hidden fastener roof which is almost done.
 

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#267 ·
That is really nice Jim, I like all of them. I know what you mean being glad to get off your knees, that is torture at my age. I put down some engineered glue down flooring in our bedroom the last couple days and I have blisters on my knees, glad that is behind me.


I do still plan to stop by and visit with you, I appreciate the invite.

Now wonder your puppy is so large, both breeds of those dogs are huge.
 
#268 ·
Started on cabinets, doing lower first as we currently only have bathroom sink. All my plumbing is replaceable and cutting the back of cabinet was difficult to allow it to slide over pipes. I am using some modular granite I bought off Craig's list for $350. For that price I got about 50% more then I will need. I will be needing some advice on how to glue it together. It will have a total of four glued joints.
 

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#269 ·
Base cabinets are well under way. I have glued down (silicone) the first piece of granite to get the sink up and running. The sink is removable in case it ever needs to be replaced. I am making max use of heavy wire pull out shelves from Lowes. I purchased and finished all the doors several months ago.
JM
 

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#270 ·
Finished base cabinets and installed the granite counter top. Our local tool rental place had a 31 inch cutting tile saw which worked well for my 24 inch deep granite pieces.
After watching a lot of videos on installing granite counters I decided that since I didn't have tools needed and having four joints I couldn't do it exactly perfect and left 1/8 joints between the granite pieces to be filled in by black tinted polyester glue. The material recommended for this purpose. I will glue this afternoon and considering I will only have about $400 in entire top including the $350 paid for the granite, I can live with a less than perfect job.
 

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#272 ·
Jim, thanks
It seemed to turn out ok. The glue/grout line could have been a little darker but overall much better that a cheaper type counter like Formica. I ended up using a premixed grout from Lowes instead of the polyester glue which had a very short working time. The granite was already glued in place with silicone and didn't need an actual glue.
 
#275 ·
I know you will be glad when all is done. I lived in one of the houses I built and it seemed like it took forever to finish. Everything you do is just one more thing you will have to do. :smile:
 
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