Since I know nothing of construction, how in the world do you pour and level the foundation in less than 60 min? And how level is level?

What do the neighbors think of the project?

astrochex, last post wasn't for the foundation but for the floor slab, pour the concrete into the middle of the pad, then the the 3 off us spread it about with rakes and shovels, it's quite a runny mix but still hard work as we leveled about 20 tons, level I would say would be around about an inch level

This week was quite tough, I spent 10 hrs a day every day hanging of the safe end of a 14" stone saw chopping up stone for the exterior wall, my right wrist and arm is feeling a bit beat up

We started with this, first pile is from the demolished garage, 2nd pile was bought years ago, it was from an old barn from a local country estate, should match the stone on the front of the house very well.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1532781622.jpg

and this, nibbled each pile down by a noticeable amount but still got a long way to go. Don't think we'll run out of stone somehow :eek:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1532781835.jpg

Turned it into this after 2 days for the exterior wall courses, every piece was chopped down to 5" wide. The garage wall thickness was 2ft/600mm and now 1ft/300mm. As the building regs require a gap to the 2" cavity insulation foam every single piece needs chopping down to size :( keep telling myself the extra 1ft of floor space on each side will be worth all this effort ;)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1532781898.jpg

This was the fruits of our labour at the end of the week. Mrs. Ahab was busy feeding me with stone to be cut and stacking the cut stone into neat piles of various thicknesses ranging from 2" to 8". Doesn't look like much but chopping stone is very labour intensive.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1532781985.jpg

It was quite hot and lots of sunshine this week, the slurry water spray from the saw was very refreshing, finished up each evening as brown as the stone :D

700 lightweight thermal concrete blocks delivered and our builder did this in 2.5 days, inner walls went up pretty quickly

Door will be access into a utility room and there will be a partition wall with another door to access the garage.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1532782182.jpg

Positioned the windows the same height as the house but had a slight debate on the horizontal position, in the end we agreed to make them symmetrical. Sometimes it can be a juggle keeping things odd to match the old house and me accepting I'm not working to my usual comfort zone tolerances of thousands of an inch ;) Mrs Ahab and the builder are very good at keeping me honest and putting up with my dithering.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1532782348.jpg

With the inner walls almost up its starting to take shape and gives me a real feeling of the size of my man cave. You can never have enough room but I think I'm going to be ok for what I've got planned for the inside.

Such a cool thread. I love that the build quality is modern, but there is so much time being invested in making it look old.

Thanks, it's like one giant backdate project ;) but without a ducktail :D

Forgot to answer astrochex's question about what my neighbor's think?

Most are very supportive as they've seen our level of work and attention to detail on a rear extension we added years ago.

Only one has complained to me about the noise (well it was Sunday evening so rightly deserved) and only one has moved house, don't think our building work was the reason why ;)

After a 23hr drive across Europe and stupid o'clock arrival time to end a relaxing vacation I woke up yesterday excited to see what progress had been made by our builder while we were away relaxing in the mountains.

All the hard work Mrs. Ahab and I put into cutting down the reclaimed stone before we left was time well spent. Couldn't be happier with the match of the new build stone compared to our existing house.

Driveway wall looks great
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535055002.jpg

End wall is a slightly different style to the front, slightly different joint detail and use of other types of stone in places, looks like a good match too.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535055673.jpg

The best wall by far is the all important front wall facing the road. After I repoint (remove the old mortar between the stone and replace with new mortar) and replace the eroded lower stone on the house both old and new walls should hopefully look like they were built at the same time rather than around 250yrs apart :cool:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535055264.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535055328.jpg

As it took us a week to cut down 30m2 or 36yd2 I invested in an ex-demo 16"/400mm dia. diamond tipped stone clipping saw. I always try to buy the best tools I can afford and what a joyful piece of kit this is to use. Will sell it on when done and hopefully get back most of my money compared to £1000/$1280 in rental costs.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535056247.jpg

Other than stone cutting and more stone cutting next on the job list is putting up the first of the steel work.

A couple of points. How long did it take to get planning permission from the local council to build this? It all looks great.

i did not know that Husqvuarna made stone cutting tools.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535055328.jpg

If I didnt see the pictures I'm not sure I would believe the new structure is, er, new. I'm blown away by your project, really well done. Makes my reno seem like childs play.

Thanks for the updates

Well done sir. Looking forward to seeing more!

You are a hard worker sir (and the misses)

I really get a kick out of the original Man Cave Build and this one.

The level of effort and care is really neat to see.

There are two other builds on Garage Journal in Switzerland that are equally impressive.

Well done!

Great return on your efforts with the old rock, Captian!
Must be nice to come home to it looking so good.

Funny that you mentioned repointing the house for color match.
I was marveling at how well the mason had done in matching his mortar to the house. That and the pattern in laying the stone, excellent.

Give it a year to weather in and most folks will be hard pressed to see any difference.

Really nice project!

Cheers Richard

recycled sixtie, from submission of plans to approval takes about 6 weeks, mine took a couple of weeks longer as I had to make a few amendments the council requested

Vincent, I'll pass on your compliment to my builder, he seemed very pleased with the match. I've only just noticed from the pictures the larger stone courses running at the top/bottom and sides of the house windows, will make sure we replicate that on the new stone work

Thanks, Jason911S

911Rod, Mrs Ahab is the hardest worker but I do enjoy a bit of hard manual labour, good for the soul!

Paul, please post links to the Swiss builds and thanks

Richard, I'll post up some close up pic's of the difference between new and old mortar styles, its' not so apparent in the photo

A good week so update time!

Making good progress, mostly been chopping more stone while our builder lays more stone

Off cut stone mountain is growing 😕 done a lot of cutting but it's a fraction of the size of my still to be cut stone mountains, at a guess I'm a 3rd through it all

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535839182.jpg

If I'm lucky 1 saw cut per stone but can be up to 6 cuts as well as some dressing of the edges and face with a hand axe, top is freshly cut, bottom is hand dressed

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535839366.jpg

Front wall is going up well and looking great, my OCD kicked in so I went for a large 7" course along side the bottom of the windows to match the original house stone courses. Wood frames are temporary window frames to get the window openings square and in the right place.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535839453.jpg

Driveway wall is also looking great with built in 18th century period correct EV car charging station/cable storage cupboard 😎 will finish it off with reclaimed oak boarded door and rustic wrought iron hinges

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535839611.jpg

Theme of the week for me when not cutting stone was lintels and padstones (load spreading blocks built in under where the steel beams will be fitted)

I knocked up a mould using some old scaffolding boards, cut up a bit of spare floor steel mesh to use as reinforcing bars and poured some concrete. 1st batch came out really well, still a bit green and 2nd set I poured today

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535839763.jpg

Also sanded up some of my reclaimed oak to make some window lintels, didn't go to mad as I'm trying to retain the character of using old wood, even made up some oak pegs to block up a few holes. Finish will be left la naturale so they will silver up nicely after a bit of weathering. Middle beam is as bought, others after a good seeing to with an 80 grit sanding disc

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1535839894.jpg

Had 2 work site injuries today, poor Mrs Ahab has done her ankle in ☹️ while shifting big 8" stone blocks and the water cooling pump on my stone cutter is a bit poorly.

As it's Sunday tomorrow Mrs Ahab will call in sick 😉 but I've got plenty of quiet jobs to be getting on with like measuring up where to smack holes into the house and maybe even a bit of tidying up

Nice progress! Glad you picked up on the accent line under and above the Windows.

Smack holes in the house? Are you going to bridge over the driveway and tie into the house for a covered drive? Could have covered access to the shop, wit a corisponding door into the house.

The Mrs has earned a few days off with her feet up.

Nice cast pieces too.

Zeke, I think mentioned spraying new wood with vinegar I think, to accelerate aging patina. Maybe he'll confirm. Could be a good way to treat the oak after the sanding.

Cheers Richard

Slightly kicking myself, I failed to spot we didn't copy the larger stones along the vertical edges of windows like on the original house lower windows. My builder and I had noticed them, just forgot as the wall went up. Not to worry as I have a plan to remedy this missing detail

I'll let the holes in the house and what happens afterwards answer your questions ;)

Thanks on the cast pieces, they are wide enough to sit on both the inner blocks and outer stone, would have had to buy custom built one's so when my builder suggested it I thought great idea. They probably cost me $1 each in cement as everything else used was just lying around waiting to be thrown away.

I'd like to know more about the vinegar aging trick, hope Zeke spots this thread, with our damp winters it doesn't take long to weather

I spent some time visiting a friend on her Dad's 600 acre estate near Morton in marsh. I thought everyone had lots of land there.

Awesome machine and an awesome build. Thanks so much for sharing!

Not sure if this tip will apply to your stone saw as well as it did for my commercial tile saw that I converted to cut concrete pavers.

I removed the pump from the pan under the saw and placed it in a clean 5 gallon bucket of water. This way the pump only takes in clean fresh water and not the nasty sludge that accumulates in the bottom of the pan.

Use the pan as a catch basin of sorts and draining it as necessary.

Love the stone work!

Billy, thanks for the top tip, will definitely run the new pump this way, wasn't covered on the warranty but I've been sent a new one as a goodwill gesture :)