SV reX said:In reply to NY Nick :
You kill it for me by citing a YouTuber, not a builder, engineer...
That's kind of closed minded, there is a lot of good stuff amongst the trash on YouTube. I also said I have the ISO spec and have designed custom ones. Also built with a reputable company (Containerhouse International in LaPort, TX ) that has shipped thousands (like your boss) so I have some actual technical background in the matter. Agreed that it's not the solution for jh36 here.
Not closed minded. In fact, I looked up your reference and watched several of his videos, and read a lot about him.
That seems like the OPPOSITE of closed minded...
After looking deeper? I think he is EXACTLY what I dislike about YouTube. He is skirting building codes, local regulations, all energy code guidelines, and virtually every OSHA regulation in the book building a "castle" he claims is inexpensive but utilizes some VERY expensive techniques and takes a ridiculous amount of time to build. He is a YouTube hero through a massive amount of deception.
That's my opinion. You are welcome to yours.
You are also welcome to consider me closed minded.
In reply to SV reX :
I typically don't. That's why I tried to address it. I just felt like you were taking a little E36 M3 on me so I tried to clarify. Maybe you weren't. I'm good. I like what you contribute here so I don't want to start a feud in any way. I understand what you are saying.
This all reminds me of my cabin. Built in the 60’s, 20x 30 on a slab, started as a one room with a bath and utility closet. Massive triple 2x6 home made trusses, hobbit walls, think tongue and groove except groove and groove with a joining 1/2x1 board. The beauty of it is in the home made 2x6 with steel bracing doors, 2x shutters that are held shut from the inside with 1/4 x 1 steel bars. When closed up it would take some serious work to break into.
Bed rooms and a screen room were added in the eighties by dividing the open space with walls, there are no ceilings in the rooms, all open to the roof which is tongue and groove spruce. All interior walls are pine, dark brown stain on the outside, very low maintenance and sturdy.
I'm from the area originally. Well, Wyoming County just on the other side of Ieager. My family history runs deep in that area.
Like others have said, please respect the locals. They are truly great people that have held on and stayed there. They don't have the negative opinions of you that outsiders seem to have of them. They don't use the term Yankee there. I'd never heard that term used as an insult until I moved to the south, where I was treated horribly (by adults and peers alike) as a teen because I was from WV.
Ive been trying to get my hands on some property "back home" for a few years now with little luck. Almost everything is owned by land, timber, and coal companies. If you look on the WV GIS property viewer website, you'll see just how little land in southern WV is owned by individuals.
Edit: Saw your discussion about talking the neighbors and you have the right attitude. Awesome. There are three dirt tracks within proximity. Beckley, Princeton, and Hanover. Dad raced at Princeton and raced opening night at Hanover before we left for North Carolina.
In reply to jh36 :
Yes, that's what I meant by pinning. Basically you are partially using the rock as the foundation and don't want it to move/slide down the mountain
In reply to SV reX :
Well, shucks! Thank you.
I'll be glad to offer some input if needed. There are several of us on here.
I’ll see if I can find interior pics.
akylekoz said:
That looks like where they filmed this:
Duke said:In reply to SV reX :
Well, shucks! Thank you.
I'll be glad to offer some input if needed. There are several of us on here.
The truth is, what you did probably wasn't that hard. But it was RIGHT.
That's what you are trained in.
I respect design, but don't have the skill.
In reply to Scotty Con Queso :
Yeah...I hope you and everyone gets that I have the utmost respect for the people. On my last trip, my nearest neighbor literally said, "don't stay all the way in Welch. Stay with me here. What I have is yours." And he meant it. Also, This is family land going back a couple hundred years. My earliest memories are if this place. Anyway...I have nothing but respect for these folks. That said, there's a fair amount of shenanigans that go on there too. So in addition to the help of my neighbors, some thought will go into making the time away not stressful with worry. My easiest solution so far is simply not to have much there.
Edit. Cool that you grew up near there. I'm not sure when you left, but when I was a kid, Iaeger was still a town...not doing great, but still there. My family was deeply involved in the schools and my great uncle was the dentist. It is pretty much a ghost town now. Also...my father moved from there to Greensboro, NC so it seems we have had a similar journey.
Duke said:In reply to SV reX :
Well, shucks! Thank you.
I'll be glad to offer some input if needed. There are several of us on here.
Thank you! I really appreciate that.
akylekoz said:
I’ll see if I can find interior pics.
Beautiful!
In reply to jh36 :
I left in '97 when I was 12. The coal industry was going downhill rapidly and Dad knew it was either time to leave or see my brother (17 at the time) graduate high school and go straight into the coal mines like my other family members had done.
Ieager was on life support when we left but nothing like it is now. The funeral home there is the last business open or so I've heard.
The Hatfield McCoy Trail system is the only thing that has kept a lot of communities there from collapsing entirely.
Picture of some family land over in Hanover to add some more WV beauty to this thread:
In reply to Scotty Con Queso :
Beautiful. Here's the house my dad built after wwII...my grandparents lived here until my grandfather passed in 1973. It is a little rundown, but still standing proudly. Horse Creek.
The only business activity I saw was an accounting house. One of the Morgans (cousins) was operating it. Pretty much a ghost town. The very dreamy part of me would love to figure out how to bring some jobs in there. I had an idea that I tried to float through WV state economic development, but I was not getting anyone interested on the line. McDowell County EconDev was also not reachable. It was probably a pipe dream, but when I'm standing in it, I have a strong desire to help.
well....I'm going to sign off for a 12 hour white knuckle up the coast...looks like 12" of snow at home and I need to get there ASAP.
Keep er shiny side up!
In reply to jh36 :
Morning fog pic.
We are on the outer bank of the river so we see up and down with nothing across from us. Mom just bought the four acres across the road from me just to save the trees.
Ive mentioned before SWMBO and I are a little "prepper"-y.
We bought an old house last year and are turning it into our little half acre homestead.
Ive got a thing for old houses that will be around long after me with just a little care, and most of my family is in construction and I see how new houses are built.
All this to say we are currently looking for remote property probably in west TX, to have a family vacation spot, bug out place, etc. I grew up on a ranch out there, and will parrot what other have said. Roads and water are important. Sounds like you have water, access would be my next focus. Make sure you have legal unrestricted access, make sure you can access it easily and others cant. We did the electricity and no electricity thing. Its not so bad most of the time to not have it in a place like this, but sometimes you really need it, Id recommend getting electricity set up, solar seems like a good option here.
Id also want internet and cell service. Ive seen too many times where someone is injured or need help and no cell service is a problem, or something happens back in the real world and you REALLY need to know about it. Satellite phone is the easy button here. I like internet for access to information, not necessarily playing on the book of faces or tiktok, but if im out there in the middle of a project google is a nice asset, but I get the allure of not having it.
As far as structure goes, I plan on doing most of it myself, part of it as a legacy "pop did that/family property type thing", part this is the type of stuff i like doing when Im away from the real world, part I dont want it built to spec I want it over built. I see the way old houses are built with monster beams and old growth timber and 200 years later no worries about rot or bugs. Ideally Id want to use local stuff I source but in west TX i have a little oak and lots of mesquite. Mesquite isnt great to harvest for construction because its so crooked and small normally. If im not going to be there a lot, the last thing I want, is to worry about it. I want to know Ive got a sturdy structure that will be there when I show up, even if its only a couple times a year. Plan is to drag a camper out there first to have a place to stay while im building it.
Whatever you decide, I hope you do a build thread, this type of stuff is super interesting to me.
Edit: Metal roof for sure
Checking in on jh36. Looks like he was driving into some insterstate shut downs yesterday. Hope he made it home safe.
Scotty Con Queso said:Checking in on jh36. Looks like he was driving into some insterstate shut downs yesterday. Hope he made it home safe.
Thank you! I made it...and I feel so bad for the masses of people on 95 through Virginia yesterday, last night and into today. That is awful. I saw the red line forming on google maps so I veered off on 295 and took 301 and backroads to get back to Maryland. It made a normal 9 hour trip about 15 hours, but I got lucky with that route. It was not without some adventure...there was a 3 hour wait as trees fell and crashes were cleared on 301. Trees were popping around me in the backup which was a little nerve wracking. I had spent the holidays clearing some land in SC, so I had a chainsaw with me and sort of wanted the opportunity to jump out of the truck and clear a path...this was one memory maker.
In further traveling news, we saw 29 vehicles off the road through the afternoon. Some were the result of obvious poor decision making...some were probably accident avoidance. Some were the result of nasty, quickly changing road conditions....water, ice, snow on ice, etc.
It's the first time I've driven my wife's 2020 hybrid Toyota Highlander AWD in snow. It was surprisingly impressive....and my 1/4 mile lane had 8-12" of snow on it. I put it in "Trail" mode and EV and it silently did the job. Pleasantly surprised.
You'll need to log in to post.
