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Good shot of the framework befor the skirting went up!

   Happy Monday! Just kidding! Who’s gonna be happy about that! Although each year on my birthday I tell everybody that I no longer celebrate birthdays, which is when they always remind me that birthdays are better than the alternative? I guess that would apply to Mondays too…

   I decided I would give you the next episode in the BOL saga today. I’ll pickup where we left off last week, just after the home was delivered. So, we now have a large tube of a building sitting on the cleared and leveled site. We have a small slope running cross wise where the home is located. This has the back door sitting at just about grade and the front door roughly three feet in the air. We actually had to jump across about a 30 inch span to get in and out the back door when we first got to start working on it.

Another view of the framework and supports

   I have a basic level of understanding and competency when it comes to construction. I knew I had to add a nailer or additional “Bottom Plate” around the perimeter of the building to work down from for my skirting to attach to. I used all pressure treated 2×4 material for this. Basically I built a wall framework that extended down to ground contact. I cut the studs slightly long so everything fit together snuggly at compressed against the ground well. I made the framework with the studs on a 24″ center. I knew that I was going to use 4×8 sheets of Hardiboard, concrete board, to skirt this all in. Even though this isn’t our dream house and theres a chance it could be moved off the lot at some point in the future I wanted to make sure the skirting would survive the elements and ground contact for the long haul. 

   After I had the frame completed, I went around the bottom plate and predrilled holes for the pins I was going to use to pin everything to the ground. I probably could have gotten away without adding the pins but I would be backfilling around the entire length and didn’t want to chance the bottom being pushed in with the weight of the dirt. I debated weather to use rebar for this or EXTRA large nails. I forget what the penny designation for these giant spike like nails was? Anyway, I decided to go with the nails, this reason I have also forgotten over the last 12 months as well?? Go figure, with all the other things going on in life, I can’t remember why I did something a year ago? I do rememeber that I used to have a much better memory for this kind of trivia! Here’s where I say something about youth being wasted on the young, or some other bit of jealousy…   

  

 

 

 

 

 

Skirting complete!

Ok, the framework is complete and its time to move on to the actual skirting. I chose to go with those 4×8 sheets of the Hardiboard as they should be impervious to the piles of snow and wet material that will end up against them. As an added bonus, I was able to cut 3 sections out of 8 feet of length. Just barely made that work but did save some money on that bit of good fortune, purely a coincidense that the measurements came out right! I picked a starting point and just worked my way around the entire length. You can see in the photos that it worked pretty slick.

   I worked my butt off to get this part of the project done and it still took me a couple of weekends to get her taken care of. I knew I couldn’t delay as this was a MANDATORY step if I didn’t want frozen pipes that winter. As much as I don’t like to work when its hot out, I like working in the rain and mud even less!

   ***Whoops, I forgot a step – the utilities? I’m to far into what I’m sharing with you to scrap this and start over so I will go back and fill you in on this bit of excitement next time we talk about this…

   Back on track, we had the skirting completed. This is where the story on skirting stopped. Unfortunetly, I was under the impression that because I had the skirting installed I would be spared anything getting under the place and making themselves at home. I was sadly mistaken! I remember a neighbor had dropped by to see my progress and I proudly showed him all the skirting I installed. He liked the job I did well enough but he asked me something that day that I can now look back on and wonder why it just hadn’t clicked??? He said, “Thats great! Are you planning to back fill up against the walls/skirting now?” I explained that of course I was planning on doing it when I determined what I would do for my final grade, ground level, around the house. He just said “OK, but make sure you do a little backfill at least”. He actually did me the favor of driving his tractor over and filling the long trench that ran all the way across the back of the house in for me. He’s a great neighbor and you’ll hear me mention him from time to time as he and his wife have taken a shine to us and have been very generous in their helping out!

   Needless to say there is another post coming that will explain how I was shown the error of my corner cutting ways. Oh, I’ll share what I’ve learned as we go through this experience together, good and bad. Just what I know you would expect. I’m no genius and make plenty a mistakes, I say this to further illustrate that if I can do it, you can to!

   Alright, I again thank you all for your comments and criticisms, keep them coming. I’m still waiting for someone to step forward and offer to do a guest article/post. I’m no glory hog, I’d love to share the spotlight with you guys. I know for a fact that a lot of cool projects have been done and we could all benefit from sharing our experiences… Enough of that for now but please do me the favor of spreading the word to your friends that “Prepper Nation”  is here. See ya tomorrow!

 

Prepper