Hey all,
I thought I would post an update on our progress. I still haven't gotten my hands dirty which is frustrating, but we are making good headway of a bureaucratic nature.
The county building department has agreed to let us use our ungraded Oak posts if we assume they are the lowest grade. This lets the engineer off the hook who would not check my design w/o a grade stamp. If the plans are approved by an engineer then the county is ok with them. Interesting circularity! Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed that the posts pass muster at that low grade. Fortunately keeping the posts "in the round" increases their strength quite a bit. However, I know it may create difficulty later when I am attempting to attach square beam to round post (metal fasteners), but I have seen it done.
What I am discovering is that the building code promotes a "home depot home". Doing something unorthodox is going to be a pain in some ways but we are determined. We live off the grid and even that creates problems! Add straw bale walls, earthen floor, and a rubble foundation and holy moly you got some hoops to jump through (state energy codes, state ventilation codes, etc...). Also, my feeling is that the system requires a person to be "rich" to build a home (or to be willing to go into big time dept). That home depot stuff is spendy. Concrete foundations are spendy. Building with local materials taken off the land is cheap!
We are trying to build with materials taken within a few hundred yards of our property. Our goal is 75% local materials. Should be attainable because all the massive stuff is locally available. My neighbor Tom is actually bailing the hay for us. Our soil is almost 100% clay and trees are abundant. Surprising that in America this type of self sufficiency is discouraged.
Lastly we found an abandoned barn owner who is going to let us have at it! (not to worry it is not an impressive structure worthy of salvage, but will provide us with lots of planks, small rough cut beams, and siding)
Thanks to all of you who have been supporting us in our efforts. I don't think I would have even made it this far without your support and knowledge.
