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The flexible ducting inside of the house goes around the metal pipe for the vent. You use a hose clamp to cinch it tight.

@@HarkeEstate Thanks so much for taking the time to send your answer. In checking, my ducting inside the house (30+ years old) is solid aluminum, rather than flexible. Bummer!

Thank you!! It’s a girl!

YAY

😊

Yes! That’s the plan!

Because they’re durable, last longer than any other type of conduit, and don’t leach and contaminate the water supply.

1993 Monterey Cobra

Better Built Truss

@@HarkeEstate did the framing contractor talked over with Better Built Truss? Or You talked over with Better Built Truss and you ensured it gets delivered for framers?

@@randomom-l8q The trusses were part of the framer’s job. They coordinated with the company for the trusses.

You are so incredibly sweet! Thank you so much! 😊

Yes! 3rd!

3.5 years, 2 years and newborn

😊

😂

Jason built a shed and we had it padlocked.

ruclips.net/user/shortsqeBSKch17sE?si=rL-KwOlc9dyYk9WW This shows a photo of him building the shed.

@@HarkeEstate nice. he built the shed while waiting for permit? And why did you need huge storage locker?

@@randomom-l8q It took him about 3 days to build the shed. We got the storage locker for all of our furniture and stuff, we were living in a rental house before and moved out and needed somewhere to store things until the guest house was finished.

@@HarkeEstate how much sqft is the shed and how much cost? Did you also add electricity or water connection inside it?

We go through and vacuum after!

😂

Yes, they’re the hot and cold lines.

We used Houseplans.com. I used a mix of GIMP and Microsoft paint to modify the plans.

We did all of our plumbing with copper. Copper is more expensive and more difficult to install but copper outlasts PEX. PEX is cheaper and easier to use but has the potential to leach and doesn’t have as long of a lifetime. We’ve chosen copper over plastic in other areas of our home like our external vents. A lot of new construction is cheaply built and not made to last. We went and overbuilt our entire house with all of the high end finishes and options. We didn’t start plumbing or electrical until a majority of the frame was finished. Jason talks to our framers all the time and they both know what the other is doing in terms of framing and plumbing.

We looked it up as we went. The main thing is to follow the applicable building codes, but once you know the guidelines you’re working within you have creative freedom. Like electrical outlets must be placed at least every 12 feet along a wall, but that’s not to say you can’t place them every 4 feet to have extra outlets. Nope, never worked on construction sites, but plenty of hands on work as an experimental physicist.

Yes, we’re doing all of the electrical wiring ourselves. It’ll all be inspected by the building inspector and needs to be up to code but doesn’t need to be done by a certified contractor. We’re also doing all of the plumbing, duct work, and sprinklers ourselves.

@@HarkeEstate 👍👌

The whole house is going to run about $470,000 total with us doing a large portion of the labor. We are subcontracting out the framing, stucco, and drywall.

We live in California, and with earthquakes we cannot build with bricks. This is a custom home we are building largely ourselves, and we’ve overbuilt the entire house including the foundation and frame (2x8 exterior as opposed to 2x4). I agree that many other homes are built quickly and cheaply, which is why we are building ours to last. We’ve decided to go with a Mediterranean style home with stucco siding, clay roof tiles, rockwool insulation, all copper water lines, copper vents, etc.

The main house is 4500 sqft, 5 bed, and 4 bath, but we have 3 kids and an au pair. We’re going to rent our 1200 sqft, 3 bed, and 2 bath guest house. Certainly not as large as the 10,000 sqft homes in the neighborhood. They all sit on 20 acres of vineyards with a 2 acre house pad each.

Thanks for reaching out about this! It takes about 30 minutes to upload the 4K version after the standard definition version posts. 😊

The proper tools help so much, that rebar tying tool in particular saved us so much time on the main house. We tied the guest house rebar by hand and it took a long time and was very tedious.

We’ve used our little blue tractor for so many jobs over the years, from trenching the underground electrical and water lines, digging the 100 foot long septic leach field, digging holes for percolation tests, installing fence posts, moving dirt around the property to grade the land, moving base rock around the property, landscaping, etc. It has paid for itself many times over.

What can we say? A lot of hard work has happened between 2019 and now to take our property from a dirt lot to 2 houses. 😊

Since 2019 when we bought our property we’ve been owners/builders building up our property largely ourselves. We installed our utilities, obtained our permits, built our guest house and are working on our main house. We are both PhD physicists working full time and building our house ourselves (everything besides framing, concrete finishing, and stucco). We cut out labor costs in the Bay Area and are building with cash and are going to build around $4M in equity, build our dream house and rental property. People have been interested in our story, the timeline, the process and the costs, if you’re not interested that’s completely fine, you can just swipe the other way.

Making progress everyday! 😊

Hello to Brazil! 😊

@@HarkeEstate Yours work is wonderful.

@@valmirs.dourado Thank you so much! We appreciate your kind comment!

Oh that’s the one job where I immediately knew we’d have to subcontract out. In our timeframe there was no way we’d be able to do that on our own.

@@HarkeEstate yep exactly. Too much work and very dangerous too.

Thank you so much! We really appreciate this kind comment.

We’re building 2 houses 90% ourselves with cash in the Bay Area while both working full time and raising our family and are making multiple millions in equity in the process. Some people have been very interested in the process, timeline, cost savings of the owner/builder route, etc. If you’re not one of those people, that is completely fine, as no one is requiring you to watch our content.

😊

You mean with the blue plastic hangers? Simpson makes them and it holds the anchors at the specific height and spacing per the structural engineering plans.

@@HarkeEstate ya, I think most people just put them in after you pour your concrete and wiggle them in after.

@@concice1843 There’s a way and then there’s a better way! There are lots of ways to cut corners on a build, but this is our own house so we went above and beyond code on every aspect we could.

We’ve been married almost 5 years now ❤️ Beauty, brains, and a good work ethic.

I applaud you both. That is truly hard to find!!

@@dannynoel6936 Thank you! Truly appreciate that. We’re both physicists by day, house builders by night and have two (almost three) kids under 4 years old. It has been a full family adventure, but we’ve all been embracing and enjoying it.

Rest assured the whole foundation was made 100% to the structural engineer’s plans, was overbuilt as compared to the county requirements, and inspected by the county inspector.

Thank you!

Thank you! Documenting the great adventure. 😊

We looked at Zillow. Since land doesn’t have an actual address it put it really far (30 minutes) outside of where we were looking. Luckily my husband recognized a sign on the property and we drove down from our rental property and it was actually really close to the area we were looking for land in. We’re about a 30 minute drive.

Thank you! I appreciate the encouragement and the tip.

Our oldest loves running around outside and playing in the dirt. While we were doing rebar he’d ask almost every single day to go outside and play in the dirt. Now he asks to go to the big house to play. It has been a great experience getting to involve the kids when we can. While we were doing rebar, we’d usually get our youngest son down for bedtime before we’d go outside with our oldest, but some evenings we’d start right after an early dinner and we’d bring him outside for an hour to get some fresh air before bed. It has been so nice living in the guest house right next to the job site so we can just put the kids to sleep, grab the baby monitor and go work outside.

You’ll get there!

@@HarkeEstate thank you!