Building our free Home (1970...)
                                   Something updated 03/05/2013
                                   

I was 23 when I figured out how to have a FREE home. I new it wasn't going to be easy. But the rewards were great! Both my wife (Lea) and I had full time jobs. Lea, a secretary at the Red Cross, for $6,000 a year in 1970. That was the KEY! Use her money for material for the house.

My experience:
Wood building: Telephone man and son of a boat builder. Biggest thing I've built, a duplex dog house.
Electrical: I wired an out side light for a duel carport. When I flipped the switch the breaker blew.
Plumbing: Put in a sprinkler system to water the backyard.

Things I contracted out.
Concrete slab: "monolithic pour" (one pour).
Plumbing: "roll out" (pipe under concrete).
Block walls and fire place.
Air conditioning installed.
Pool installed.

Things I did:
Framing
All electrical (200 amp power box)
Duct work install
Fire and alarm system
Bathroom tub and shower, tile work
All plumbing
Counter tops
Built-in micro wave, stove and oven
Tub, stools and sink installs (5)
Telephone wire
Complete home speaker system with door answer
Underground return air duct
Cabinet doors and draws (134)
Wet bar
Painting
Land scraping with double width, front turn drive

We started, by buying a home lot. The money came in at just about the right speed. I had no idea what I was doing, figured things out as I went. Six years had passed, only working on the weekends building the house. Balancing two full time jobs, wasn't the easiest at times. It was the summer of 1976, the "move in" was finally in sight. Sold the house we were living in, in town. Now with a little cash, we had just what we needed to make it livable, concrete floor, one sink, one shower, one stool. Central air, about to be turned on. Fence in the backyard for the dogs (Andy and Buckwheat) and a pool. Lets go camping in the new home!

This was the first time I got a mental boost, my free home is really going to happen. Things happen fast at first, then it really slows down.

My wife, "I can't see it ever getting done."

This is me, no electric, everything is cut by hand. This is one of many saw horses filled with 2X4's, becoming studs for the walls inside. My hair was black then. This is the back patio looking into the master bed room. Small 6" windows on the right, to light the bath rooms.

This is where the studs were being use. The very first rafters started today. I was over the family room. This is the very first time I hammered in studs or rafters in my life, it's all new to me. Now that I'm looking at this picture, I can see my Dad to the left on a ladder, he was 67 at the time. That was a Saturday, a regular work day on the house. This Saturday was the only day in 6 years I ever had help. Even though one of them dropped a rafter, 2"X10"x14', on my head that day, knocked me to the floor.

This was really a great day. The framing was done, on to the rafters. You can see the hole (socket), high in the fire place, one end of a 32'X16" beam will rest. The other end will rest on the short beam between the two pillers  in the living room and extend across the dinning room to the outside.

This was a Saturday, I asked a 2nd lever over construction (Frosty) if he could help me put a beam up in the living room for my house. He said, "Sure." A new foreman drove a truck out to the house, he new what he was doing.

There was a big problem with this. Under the wax paper covering the bean was the word TOP, I had no idea!

I'm on a 7' ladder guiding the beam to the fire place socket. I was talking to the foreman, inching the beam closer. Long story short I had a 50 50 chance the word TOP was now at the top of the beam. IT WAS! Lucky me.

That's Clide and George Haus, two guys that came that day, from work, to help with the rafters. The pillers you see were knocked over in a wind storm. The doorway goes into the family room. The window with the jacket hanging from, became a fire place in the family room. The other window is the kitchen window with a serving bar to the pool. A favorite place for humming birds to hang out, today.

I'm running electric here, there was about 2000 feet of 12-2/gnd. I had no idea I could run any smaller wire. I just knew that every light and outlet needed wire. Some things I did knew, no more then 9 lights on a circuit, no more then 6 outlets and keep all lights and outlets on separate circuits. Sounded like a good idea. Everytime you see me, I looked like I knew what I was doing. I DIDN'T HAVE A CLUE! As long as I kept it a secret, everything went smooth.

What do I do next?

This was always a late Sunday chore, making a list of material, for next weekend. I had no idea how much longer this would take. I only know if I didn't keep coming out each weekend it would never get done.