Homestead mailing list

[Don Bowen <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

At 12/2/2006, you wrote:
> Don's question is what is easiest. I think the answer is qualified by
> the skill of the builder. Masonry, carpentry, finish carpentry,
> roofing, stuccoing, plastering, and the rest are all easy for those
> with large experience but hard for novices.

Easiest is perhaps the wrong word but it will have to do.  Another 
qualifier could be cheapest.  Remodeling an existing structure is an easy 
way to go but as Gene says when does it become easier to just start all 
over.  I lost my front teeth from a sledge hammer blow when I was around 
10.  My father driving 2 bys under a house that was built in 1910 to level 
a corner.  The sledge slipped and as I was holding things my face was in 
the way.

Older houses often have substandard wiring and plumbing.  Single pane 
windows, no vapor barrier, and minimal insulation do not do well in today's 
expensive energy world.  I friend in Spokane lived in a house built in the 
late 40s with sawdust as insulation.  Over the years it settled and a leak 
in one corner made a mess.  To fix it he had to completely strip the siding 
off one corner (dry rot from the leak) which soon became a job of where do 
you stop?  The remainder of the walls had to have holes drilled near the 
top and foam sprayed in.  In the end he felt we should have stripped the 
interior completely and installed modern insulation.  That way he could 
have u[graded the electrical to handle computers and a modern sound system.


Don Bowen              Awl Knotted Up                       KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com
My travel journal
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html

I am omnivagant.  
> From bartermn AT epix.net  Sat Dec  2 21:46:43 2006
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Subject: Re: [Homestead] Solo building methods
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Don Bowen wrote:

> Easiest is perhaps the wrong word but it will have to do.  Another 
> qualifier could be cheapest.


Cheapest and easiest for one man, or "How I built my barn," Pole 
building, no doubt about it. Rough-cut 2x lumber spiked to treated posts 
with board and batt siding, cut rafters, steel roofing over 1x boards.