# Almost in the dry



## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

Thought I would share our latest project. It's taken us almost eight years to transition from the suburbs to our rural farm. We are currently living in a small cottage we built in 2006 (800 square feet) with our two children. We hope to complete this larger ranch home sometime this Spring.


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

Looking good.


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## ItchingDuck (Jan 25, 2012)

Very nice. You must be excited. Are you building yourself? Looks great!


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

I designed the house and am doing most of the finish out myself. I've built three houses myself previously (except for pouring the concrete) but I'm not as young as I once was  I keep kidding my wife that this is the last house I'm going to build and I'm planning to be buried behind this one!


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## seedspreader (Oct 18, 2004)

You have this posted on Country Plans forum too, right?


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

Yes, I posted more construction photos on Country Plans. You can also see our cottage, which was featured on Tiny House Blog at:

Tiny House Blog


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

Started the metal roofing and siding


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

Updated Photo









Foam insulation completed last week. We used open cell foam on the entire envelope.









Sheetrock in progress









Septic system passed inspection today


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

Looks nice.


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

Finishing up paint today. 










Next up, staining the concrete. We chose Kemiko's Cola.


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

Kitchen cabinets are being built by a friend out of quarter sawn red oak in a Shaker style. It's my wife's dream kitchen, built with several custom features. Here's an example, it's a cutting board that sits above the compost bin.










Here's a photo of the second bathroom's vanity.


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

Sweet !


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

Looking good, How does the concrete stain work? How would it do in a garage?


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

> Looking good, How does the concrete stain work? How would it do in a garage?


Car tires are tough on floor finishes. Most I've seen advertised are some type of epoxy.

The concrete floor stain involves a few steps:

1. Use a diamond prep wheel on the raw concrete floor
2. Clean the floor with Kemiko's floor cleaner
3. Use a pump up sprayer to apply two coats of acid stain
4. After the second coat dries, neutralize the acid stain with the same cleaner used in step #2
5. After floor completely dries, apply two coats of sealer
6. After sealer dries, apply multiple coats of liquid wax.

The liquid wax is the sacrificial coat that you reapply as necessary to keep the sealer protected.

You can few some videos at: http://www.kemiko.com/how-to-videos


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

Here's a quick cell phone photo of the first application of acid stain. Hard to see all the marbling but I think it's going to work out very nicely. It has been very humid here this week so it's going to take awhile to dry even with the air conditioning running.

The stain is actually a mossy green color when applied but quickly reacts with the concrete (foams and smokes) and turns to the color shown (Cola).


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

Thought I would share some more photos of the acid stained concrete. I still have to apply three coats of wax tomorrow.

Before









After


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## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

Floor looks really nice.


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

Choosing stain color and hardware for the cabinets. Sure like that quarter sawn red oak.


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## dablack (Jul 21, 2011)

I'm glad I saw this thread again. I've been meaning to ask you this on countryplans but I'm here as I will ask here. What size are the front posts? Are those 6x6 or 8x8? Also, what is their spacing? Is that 8' apart? Lastly, how tall is the porch ceiling? 

We have a deep overhang (shallow porch?) on the front of our house where I want to put posts but I don't want too small. 

thanks
Austin


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

dablack - Those are 6x6 posts spaced slightly over 8' apart. The porches themselves are 8' deep and have 9' ceilings.


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## jhambley (Nov 21, 2004)

First time I've poured a shower pan and curb.


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## A. Jones (Jun 4, 2018)

How much did the whole home cost? I really like your pictures and was thinking of doing something similar. Everywhere I look, I can’t get a narrow dollar figure. Everyone is usually saying $25-$100/sq. foot. That’s too big a gap to start planning.


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