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Back in the 50s, my great grandfather built the house where my mother and my grandmother grew up in all by himself. It took him 6 years, but he had no help. He
by mrleiter 9y ago
Back in the 50s, my great grandfather built the house where my mother and my grandmother grew up in all by himself. It took him 6 years, but he had no help. He started digging into the ground with a shovel. He was a carpenter and bricklayer and used his spare time and skill to do it. This house is still standing and my grandmother still lives in it.
This is him with his wife, my great grandmother: https://i.imgur.com/y7sXvaa.jpg https://i.imgur.com/y7sXvaa.jpg
It was his greatest achievement. But unfortunately he only lived in it for a meager year before passing away.
- kstenerud 9y agoVery cool! If you have a picture of the house, I'm sure HN would love to see it!
- mrleiter 9y agoI currently do not have one by myself, but you can see some of it from Google Maps street view: https://goo.gl/maps/rXx5DKRT4K12 https://goo.gl/maps/rXx5DKRT4K12 It's this one: https://imgur.com/a/afZgOZ2 https://imgur.com/a/afZgOZ2 Naturally it has been maintained over the years, new roofing, new paint, but all in all it's the same house.
- verelo 9y agoThat is super impressive, and what a beautiful looking countryside.
- nostromo 9y agoThose large roof overhangs are so wonderful. Why aren't they more common in America? Not only do they protect your siding and walls (greatly extending the life of your siding) but they also have huge energy benefits in warm areas by keeping the sun off of your walls. Oh, and if you have a basement, they help keep it dry. Build bigger roof overhangs, America! http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/every-house-needs-roof-overhangs http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/every...
- woolvalley 9y agoBecause you often want more sunlight coming in, and just looking at those pictures, it looks like they block a lot of it. The trend in building is bigger and larger windows for a reason.
- lostlogin 9y agoDirect sunlight coming in is a little savage - indirect light for me please. Possibly relevant, the UV here in New Zealand will annihilate most things quite quickly, and me after a few minutes.
- lostlogin 9y agoThe high point as far as I’m concerned is the California bungalow that was a thing here in New Zealand from about 1910-1940. Huge eves, low slung, wide decks, great windows, local materials incorporated (eg timber, volcanic rocks, river stones). I had the misfortune of painting under the eves on one once. The weather couldn’t reach the wood and it had gone so hard that it was like sanding glass. https://www.renovate.org.nz/bungalow/history/ https://www.renovate.org.nz/bungalow/history/
- oh_sigh 9y agoBasically - they are more expensive to build. My dads friend was a builder in our town, and you can tell all of the houses he built because he was the only one who would refuse to build houses with small eaves, because he knew the problems it would cause down the line for the homeowner.
- burfog 9y agoWhat problems? Big eaves are dangerous. They make the roof far more likely to get ripped off in a storm.
- oh_sigh 8y agoThe problem for this area was mostly related to rain and keeping moisture aware from the structure(pine barrens). You're right about wind load, but in this area the trees provide a great protection against it.
- kafquaesque 9y agoCool to see this! Most people will never build their own home these days (even with the cost savings).
- Xuper 9y agoMaybe for the better. With current divorce law mess loosing something you have built yourself would ramp up male suicide rate even higher then it already is.
- hulahoof 9y agoWhy all the downvotes? We have serious social issues for not taking male mental health seriously.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- matte_black 9y agoIt was a rapid cynical contrast to the rest of the discussion.
- kafquaesque 9y agoMale mental health is definitely not a priority in society (it’s off-topic in this thread).
- icebraining 9y agoA problem is that you can't get a mortgage to build it yourself. Being cheaper in the end doesn't help you if you don't have the money right now.
- HeyLaughingBoy 9y agoAs I think about it (not in depth, though), does it matter? If you're building it yourself, you can't go that fast. The amount of building materials you can buy each month with what would amount to a mortgage+taxes+insurance payment each month would be just about what you could use up. So it would probably work out OK.
- ryan-allen 9y agoThat is sad. My Grandfather also built their family home, a feat which I'm still in awe of to this day. As one who builds things that live in a computer, but still has a messy visceral requirement of a roof over a head, imagine building a house! What an achievement. If I was born 20 years earlier I imagine I would have become a carpenter and been very happy.
- madengr 9y agoSame with mine, back in 1942. Lived in it until he died recently at 100. Had seven kids in a three room house, and wasn’t until the 60’s he expanded it. Of course the only time the kids were inside was sleeping. Unheard of today. He also joked that he had a hard time getting a loan. They wanted to see plans, etc. “Why the hell do you need plans for a house?”. He built aircraft; those you needed plans for.
- ryan-allen 9y agoHa! My mother shared a bedroom with two other sisters up until she was about 15 in the aforementioned house, it was different back then... Loaning standards were different back then, based on my acquired knowledge from The Big Short.
- madengr 9y agoYeah, that was a good movie. NINJA loans (No Income No JOB no Assets).
- saalweachter 9y agoI recently got a copy of "A Field Guide to American Houses", from which I learned the term "vernacular architecture" and that all the house names you hear on TV (Victorian, Cape Cod, Ranch ...) are just one slice of architecture, "polite architecture", and historically not a very big one. The way most of us think of architecture today, an architect designs the building to some (not necessarily well thought out ;-p) philosophy and then you go and build it out of the appropriate materials. In vernacular architecture, someone woke up one day and decided to build a house. They built it house-shaped, from whatever materials were cheapest and most available in their region at the time, using whatever techniques were common in said time and place. The patterns of vernacular houses in different times and places are fascinating; you're shining a flashlight through the region of a peoples' brains where the archetype "house" is stored and seeing what it looks like.
- linkmotif 9y agoBeautiful photograph.
- mrleiter 9y agoThank you!
- linsomniac 9y agoThat's awesome! My grandfather was in construction and built the house my mom grew up in, starting with plans sketched on a napkin. I regret not spending time with him in his shop when we still had him with us, now that I'm doing all sorts of remodeling on my own house. But, to be honest, the PTSD from WW II left me afraid of him. "Don't disturb grandpa when he's sleeping or he might think you're an enemy and kill you." RIP Bob.
- pascalxus 9y agoThat's impressive. The good old days. I wish this was still possible today. Unfortunately, with every last screw, bolt and wooden panel dictated by regulation, it seems it's not possible anymore.
- Romanulus 9y agoYet sadly enough people complain about the multiple trips back to HomeDespot when they forget to pick up said screw, bolts, or wooden panels instead of being told to use them.
- ggg9990 9y agoIn the suburbs there is a lot of regulation and that’s a good thing, but there are a lot of places in the US where you can build with literally or virtually zero building codes. (Except, usually, for septic).
- jjeaff 9y agoThere are building codes everywhere, but yes, many places that don't inspect. Where I am from in the south, there are literally no restrictions and that includes septic. You can go in a 5 gallon bucket and dump it out the window if you want.
- clairity 9y agopeople still build houses these days, even by themselves. will you really be so easily defeated by mere regulations? are they so fearful that you cannot even try? i spent 9 months building homes with habitat for humanity and found the regulations largely reasonable (like steel strapping for earthquake resistance). the lackadaisicalness of the inspectors on the other hand was frustrating. most of the build could have been done by a single person who possessed determination, ingenuity and loads of time.
- jbigelow76 9y agoHouses aren't being built anymore? No wonder there's a housing shortage.
- 9y ago