Marv, Mrs Ahab and I are enjoying the work, doing it yourself is not for everyone as it's quite hard work but the feeling of satisfaction more than makes up for any aches and pains we're feeling

daepp, thanks again for following my build
Our design has a few unconventional aspects to it, mostly to do with my man cave :rolleyes: lots of 'eerr's not seen that before :confused:, ahhh I get it now ;) and we could do it this way :)' from both our architect and structural engineer. Both great fun to work with as they totally bought into what we were trying to achieve. Without their help we wouldn't be doing what we're doing now. Posting up elevation drawings/structural plans I think would spoil the element of surprise so apologies for being mean but you'll have to wait while I update as it happens ;)

Steve F, as long as you guys are enjoying my rambling's I'll keep posting the good, bad and the ugly as we go along

PS I'd so love to live in So Cal, visited once a long time ago and it still remains one of my favourite holidays

What a heavy week!

Once the last 3 garage steel beams were delivered Mrs Ahab and I got stuck into lifting them in place, only 400lbs/180kg each so only one lifting rig required as they were much easier to move around.

I spent quite a bit of time preparing the oak beams, lots of sanding, planing, measuring, more measuring and yet more measuring before a bit of chain sawing.

Best way I've found for cleaning up old reclaimed oak is with a small angle grinder with a 4.5"/115mm flap sanding disc in 40, 80 and 120 grit grades. Removing the guard makes using it easier but it requires care and total concentration. Not the most dangerous tool in my box but most of my fingers have been nibbled and I did a good job trying to grind my left hand off at the wrist 😭

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1537563604.jpg

Then back to more heavy lifting, front one up first as this was the easier of the two, size is about 13" square and was a heavy as it looks, we put it up without any probs in about 20 mins

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1537563760.jpg

While we all sat out the rain waiting to lift the large rear beam, too big and dangerous to do with everything wet, Mrs Ahab and I decided to push on lifting 2 of the 3 smaller 9" X 6" oak/elm joist beams into place.

Then the sun came out so the 3 of us got onto the big rear 13" square beam, was a little trickier as we had to clear the porch roof one end before lowering into place, on top of this it was heavier too and ground conditions were soggy to soft. Didn't take any photo's as I was little too occupied with keeping it all safe to record the moment

All that sanding and blood was worth it as the oak has really brought some substance to it all, old house and new build starting to feel as one. Really like how the left hand upper stone quoin is orientated to match the oak beam, better to be lucky than good 😉

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1537564097.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1537564194.jpg

Our builder finished driveway wall stone work, really pleased with it, one course of stone above the door lintel and 2 courses above the window, the proportions work very well, adds a bit of height to it all

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1537564291.jpg

A couple of looking down views, first picture shows how much skewed off the new build is to the house, only square room of the whole build will be my man cave, squareness being a very important consideration but more on that later

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1537564390.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1537564467.jpg

A couple of days late with my latest update but it's been a long week so haven't got round to it until now

As they say 'while the builder is away the amateur will play' and this is what we got up to

Picked through my stash of oak 4" x 3" joists, only needed 8 in total but it took a bit of sorting as I wanted to use the straightest and least rotten

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538342720.jpg

After many hours of measuring, hand cutting, chiseling, lifting, trial fitting and, more hand cutting, more chiseling, more lifting, more trial fitting and then a final sanding I finished all the joints without making any mistakes, phew! ��

Considering there was a few 100 miles and a few 100 years between the joists and the beams when they were originally created it all looks as if they've been part of my house since it was first built. With the help of lots of old woodworm holes I've got exactly the feel/look I wanted to achieve.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538342895.jpg

The joints on the middle and front beams match up perfectly as they both came out of the same 17th century cottage but the rear beam was from a separate out building so needed new joint positions, not a problem as it just adds a bit more patina to my build ��

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538342978.jpg

I hired a lifting rig and and with Mrs Ahab's help we got the 5 steel beams across the drive way up in a couple of hours. Then I shimmed everything level, lifting up one end of each beam with one hand while jiggling bits of slate/wood underneath with the other hand was quite a tiring job. I'm definitely a lot fitter and stronger than when I started but ache more in the mornings, must be an age thing ��

All the oak is just for show, holds nothing up as the steel will hold up the 1st floor joists and inner block work which in turn will hold the roof structure up.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538343113.jpg

This is what people see when they drive/walk by, seem's to have gone down well with our neighbors and passers by as no one has complained yet.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538343203.jpg

With all the old, random shaped timbering out the way it was onto the easy peasy job of using power tools for cutting, notching and fitting the new softwod joists and noggins (pieces of wood spacing the joists and my new favourite word ��

Also in the background is the stack 50mm thick insulation sheet for the wall cavity I cut down from 9 full sheets, did this under floodlight and was pleasantly surprised they all came out equal sized pieces.

Initially I had real concerns my man cave ceiling would be too low or the 1st floor would be too high to the original floor over the drive or the oak beams too low over the drive but it's all worked out better than I thought it would.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538343327.jpg

Still got the driveway softwood joists to do, will be more of the same as above my man cave area

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538343445.jpg

Yesterday some nice men turned up in a big truck carrying lots of poles and put up the scaffolding for the first rise (check me out with me builder lingo ��).They were great fun as all their banter made me feel like I was in a Fast Show Sketch!

This morning Mrs Ahab and I chucked a couple hundred blocks up, so our builder can start with the 1st floor wall block work. Should keep him busy so he doesn't suffer the post holiday's blues too much.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538343531.jpg

My fill in job is starting to get more of a priority as the nights are get colder so I spent a few evenings practicing my stud walling and roofing skills making a temporary winter home for our hot water/central heating boiler, need to crack on with plumbing it all in and doing the electrics

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538343711.jpg

That about it for this week.

1st floor wall has a bit of a unique twist to it, both my architect and structural engineer had never come across what I wanted to do before. Not really surprising as it was our first project working together and as I've been told a few times before I'm not wired up right and think differently ��. Hopefully my next update will allow me to explain it all.

Hey no fair where is the cold rain that I had to deal with ? :D Looking good and I still have the AC on in my man cave but it's getting cooler .......... finally ! Do you have to worry about termites in your area ? You are turning the corner and it's starting to look like a building nice work . http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat6.gif

Amazing work. Puts my new home construction to shame.

Thanks for the update, inspiring as usual. I'm a hack woodworker and seeing the beams line up and work together is a thing of beauty. Well done. Looking forwarding to seeing where this goes.

So very impressed by this build!

Thanks guys,

Very much appreciated as I have to confess after last weeks big push I ran out of steam :( a little bit mid-week but a day of stone cutting yesterday got my mojo back

When designing during my real job I'm continuously fighting/clawing back in 0.5-1.0mm/0.02-0.04" increments to try and make the impossible fit into the possible. This build is no different in that respect but I'm working in 12-25mm/1/2"-1" increments to maximize heights/floor space etc

Hard to see in this picture but it took a day of cutting and chiseling on the front curved oak beam to fit the front steel beam down 50mm/2" low enough for the 1st floor level

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538773093.jpg

While I was softwood joisting above the driveway and notching the big oak beams our builder made great progress on the inner block work walls

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538773356.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538773449.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538773541.jpg

Now to reveal the unique twist with the walls. The front and rear walls on the ground floor are 300mm/1ft thick but the walls above on the 1st floor are twice as thick 600mm/2ft thick, hence all the extra steel beams along the front and rear walls

My architect, structural engineer and builder all went 'what :eek:, not done that before and why :confused:' but as soon as I explained they bought into it and enthusiastically made it happen.

The reason is quite simple, for my man cave I'm not after a period correct ye olde world interior feel but as much floor space as I could possibly fit in. However the feel of the new upstairs living areas had to blend seamlessly into our existing house which has thick walls and 400mm/16"deep window cills that feel more castle like than house like.

An extra 4x2 wooden stud wall with plasterboard would have been the cheap/easy option but wouldn't have felt/sounded/looked robust enough so an extra course of block work was the right way of going about it.

The rear house wall is the only wall that runs directly into the new build wall above the driveway which is the best perspective to show how thick the upstairs front and rear walls will be.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538773704.jpg

It took a full team effort to finalise the positions for each of the 3 front windows, again we tried to match the house but make it work with the new build. Took a few goes and lots viewings from across the road.

The upper windows are slightly offset to the lower man cave windows by 100mm/4" and 150mm/6", a mirror image to the house window positions. The window over the driveway is central to the oak beam not the width of the driveway, sounds wrong but keeps the distance between each window more equal.

Hard to see with all the scaffolding in the way but it's possible to make out the lower edge of the 1st floor window openings. Looks about right, only way we'll really know is once we've finished the structure and the scaffolding has been removed.

Also thanks to Mrs Ahab and our builder the front scaffolding is all loaded up with stone to start the external 1st floor stonework

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538774045.jpg

One aspect of my man cave that concerned me was would the height of the garage ceiling be tall enough. As we started from a fresh slab and the extra 150mm/6" added to the 1st floor level to create enough driveway height clearance the garage ceiling is plenty high enough at 2.4m/8ft.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1538774301.jpg

This opens up a couple of different options for how I fit it out. One option is to incorporate something I've only ever seen in a F1 pit garage but this would involve taking the hard road requiring lots of extra work which I know I'd enjoy the challenge of making.

Not a big update for this week as not a huge amount of progress made

While I spent quite a bit of time chopping more stone, Mrs Ahab measured and stacked it

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1539560507.jpg

Our builder did some work on the stone work on the front wall

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1539560671.jpg

The stone above the driveway oak beam is looking spot on and we're trying to match the stone course thicknesses above the beam with the house stone courses. Beam visually seems to be shrinking in size but with the help of weathering it's looking good so far!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1539560759.jpg

In other news we now have running hot water again :D First time since we demolished the garage back at the end of June.

Hard to tell from the pictures but it's starting look like a house has been added to our big extension build rather than a small extension added to our house 😎

Just in time with the hot water!

What a labor of love this project is. May your enjoyment living there be far in excess of the sweat put in.

Sorry for the dumb question (I think the info is right in front of my nose but tough to see in 2D) but here goes:

- In the first pic above, is the oak beam sitting in front of the steel beam?
- And if so, while it looks like the oak beam is carrying the weight of the stone, it's actually the steel beam that's doing so?

Thanks.

astrochex, I've got to do things right, never been good at taking short cuts or cutting corners, building is physically quite a tough job but we're enjoying it

Hi David,
First pic are the bolted garage opening steel beam's, stone sits on one beam and internal block work on the other
2nd pic is the front driveway opening, stone sits in front of the steel beam's and the oak is only carrying the weight of the stone, the steel beam's will carry the internal block work wall loads and roof loads. Please shout if I didn't answer your question

Another week gone and first frost this morning, winter is coming ☹️

We are working as a slick, well oiled building machine, me on the stone chop saw, Mrs Ahab measuring and stacking and our builder laying the stone.

Rear driveway beam looking good, forgot to take a picture of the gable end as this is where most of the action was going on, stone now chin height

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1539986598.jpg

A bit of internal wall block work

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1539986706.jpg

Dummy front window frames positioned, lots and lots of measuring as we are fighting heights again ie window cill to floor height, window height and top of window to sofft/facia board so I'm stealing 1/2"'s here, there and everywhere to try and make it all work

Upper windows are slightly offset to the lower windows as per the original house but mirrored, window above the driveway is central to the oak beam and not the drive. Trying my hardest to build in a bit of oddness here and there to match the original house and owner 😉

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1539987107.jpg

Our builder spent a day tidying up loose ends as we have a building inspection next week, fingers crossed Mr Building Inspector is happy 🤔

The 'to be cut' stone pile is now low enough I can see the garden, as it's such a $hit heap some gardening was needed 🙄, moved 3000 salvaged garage roof tiles, finally admitted to myself they have to go as the colour doesn't match the house roof tiles, also moved on to the driveway 2750 roof tiles, these will go on the roof and tidied up my garage salvaged wood pile which we will burn over the winter in our big fireplace.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1539986894.jpg

Bought my first bit of man cave equipment, hopefully it turn's out to be an Ebay bargain, new and unused 😎, need to make a soundproof hut for it alongside the shed, 200 ltrs should be plenty of capacity for all sorts of compressed air fun

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1539986952.jpg

F1 keeps calling me, the force is strong with this one, I'm weak, couldn't keep saying no so I've only got 5 weeks of building time left to finish the roof, I love a challenge so bring it on!

I love this. Keep it up !

-Lorin

Ditto. I have nothing substantive to add other than admiration and respect.

thanks gents, glad you're enjoying this thread

Just to prove it does rain :( in the UK, I ventured outside today to take photo's of this weeks progress. Short week as we had a long family weekend in Brugge for some R and R, what a great place to wonder around, beer, frittes, moules and frittes, chocolate and lots of old buildings to look at :D

My evening job under flood light was moving/stacking all the old garage roof tiles to hopefully sell them, of if they won't sell I'll throw them away. I need to make access room for maneuvering the roof steels

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540657973.jpg

Front is taking shape nicely, about halfway up the windows now. We've used jumper's (a larger stone at the edge of the opening that covers the height of a couple of courses) on all the windows except the middle one. A more subtle detail which matches the lower windows of the original house

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540658264.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540658355.jpg

Gable end wall is looking really good, quite a way up until the roof line. This wall will have a window and hand carved recessed date stone to try and disrupt the boring, vastness of the wall.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540658181.jpg

Front wall internal block work is coming on, the window reveal is angled out to match the original upstairs windows and really shows off the 'fat walls' on the upstairs window openings

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540658970.jpg

'skinny wall' downstairs man cave window opening for comparison

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540658697.jpg

After many hours of roof tile moving and many more hours of stone chopping (managed to wear out wore the gas strut on my stone saw), We've moved so much I found our drive way wall that Mrs Ahab built last year :cool:, almost forgot it was there. The monster pile of to be cut stone has gone down very fast :eek: but there should be enough left to finish the build.

My favorite thread on this or any other website.

You and the Mrs. are beasts!

How are you planning on matching the roof lines?

Wow, thanks for endorsement, I will pass it onto Mrs Ahab and our builder.

Shame I haven't got any pictures from my composite projects as I think you'd find build thread on morphing composite F1 aerodynamic structures a much more worthy read.

Yes, we plan to match the pitch of the roof but there will be a slight step down on the ridge line due to the front of the new build being set back slight from the original house.

The roof angle is 60 deg as originally it was thatched and with a reed or straw roof such a steep angle is needed. It prevents the capillary action of the water wicking upwards and keeping the roof soggy

I did not know that was the reason for the steep pitch. Physics is never far away...very interesting.

A couple of thing I really enjoy about this thread is that you and your wife are doing most of the work, the incredible attention to the details in terms of staying within the ethos of "old" (if that makes any sense), and joy you guys bring to your efforts that comes through in your posts.

It is completely refreshing. My wife and I are planning upgrades to our farm house and we hope to be as faithful to the plan as you guys are.

I'll stop being a fanboy - post updates as you can.

I had to step back from my fanboy posts, Paul, as they were interfering with the Capt's presentation.

Yes definitely a fantastic thread on their amazing project. Keep it coming !

I had been hoping for a much shallower roof leaving the window in the house wall exposed. There I go again, I'll stop now.

I am loving watching your progress, carry on.

Cheers Richard

Wow.

Just WOW.