G'mornin Ya'll

I've shared this story in private with a few friends on the boards.......but it's one of those tales that I think just needs to be told......we hear and talk about all the "bad stuff" goin on in the world today and not enough is said about the good deeds folks do for others!!!

Long story short, the "economic downturn" has kicked our ass's severely with a 75% reduction in net income between Mar and July of this year resulting in the impending foreclosure on our home .....that's the BAD news......

the GOOD news is that a VERY good friend offered to "front" us a 1.75 acre parcell of virgin land that is very densely wooded for what he paid for it 6 years ago
( 8K )......the land is on old indian camping grounds located about 20 miles South of Durant, Okla ( we'll be 5 miles from the Choctaw Casino.....meet n greet??...lol!!!).....the VERY good friend also happens to be my wifes ex (we call ourselves husbands in law..lol) and he's a custom home builder by trade.......he also volunteered to put up the money for the building materials to build a 852 sq ft cabin (and use his framing crew to build it), with 2x6 walls, metal roof, beaded pine ceilings, pecan flooring that were going to cut ourselves on his sawmill along with the Western Red Cedar for siding......only a 100 year old Falls River cast iron pot belly stove that I got junkin an old building with a friend last year for heat and a 10k btu window unit in the bedroom and another in the Great Room for cooling......I took out just enough trees for a drive and the house pad!!!

We'll have spent a total of $3500 to get water, elect, and a septic system and we're going to owe Mike 20K payable at $800 a month for 25 months and we'll own the whole damned thing outright!!!!!

Needless to say, we're also giving up internet service for the time being with the exception of my iphone so my time here and at clusterbusters is gonna be real limited for awhile......I can publish videos to youtube, so I'll use this thread to provide links to those as we go thru the building stages......we've been on hold for the past 3 or 4 weeks on getting the septic system installed and the footings dug but it looks like we'll finally get started towards the end of next week!!  If the weather cooperates (yeah, sure that'll happen), we should be in the cabin by early Spring at the latest!!!!

We are truly blessed beyond belief!!! 

DD

Very cool my friend.  Get a coop built and get some hens.

           Potter

Dang Denny, that's awesome news. Couldn't happen to a nicer person.

Joe

What a wonderful turn of events.  I'm very happy for you both.  You and Jen must be doing the happy dance!

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DD...
Congrats!  Sounds like a fun project with secluded beautiful surroundings.  I would love to reside in an area you describe.  Upload some photos when you get a chance?

What a great deal for you and yours!  Glad things turned your way!

Carol

Wow Denny, that is fantastic!  I love it when goodness comes back around!! [smiley=grin2.gif]

Thanks for sharing about the casino Denny.  Now Phil's going to leave me to move in with you and Cindy  ;D

Den...sometimes good things happen to good people. Looks to me like you'all are making your own good fortune.

Sounds like a cozy delight to me...good on ya brother!

Best,

Jon

Great news Denny. glad it worked out for you guys. Been wondering how it was going. Give husband-in-law a big hug for me - tell him I still want one of those beds... dang he does pretty work... may have to come up there a meet him before it's over...  :) :-*

Wonderful!! :)

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I couldn't be happier for you.

Charlie

flipperlips wrote on Nov 4^th, 2011 at 7:57pm:

Thanks for sharing about the casino Denny.  Now Phil's going to leave me to move in with you and Cindy  ;D

...oops!!! Sorry Jen!!!  lol!!!

DD

Hey Ya'll,

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving!!!  We spent the day in Okla at Cindy's Mom's after Mike and I checked the footings for water damage....had 5 1/2 inch's of rain last weekend but we were OK!!  Sure glad I took the time to pump that 400 gallons of water in the septic tank though cause it would have floated for sure!!!!  Still not sure how it does that but I DO know that they will float!!

Thought I'd update this thread this morning with some links to my photo bucket account of the project thus far along with some related youtube vids .  We're goin to the building supplies place in Celeste Tues mornin for the materials and should begin framin the pony walls for the foundation by the end of next week!!  Woo Hoo!!!!

The link for the photo album of the land project is

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One of the pics is of Mike's "project" house and I've got a couple of video's of it published to youtube......I tried to name them the "Redneck Virtual Video Tour", but he wouldn't let me since he was usin em as an ad to sell this place!!  LOL!!!

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This video is of the drive in to the property on Treaty Road....the wooden bridge spans the creek that runs directly behind Mike's 5 acres which adjoins our property...umm, and ya don't need to watch the end of it where I miss the stop button so ya get to look at my pants leg and the truck door...lol!!

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Probably gonna be real busy for the next few weeks so I'll take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance!!

DD

3/4 inch tongue and groove Hickory floors.  WTF.  Try and buy that item.

                Potter    

Wow congrats to you both....the pics were gorgeous....have a merry christmas and new year....-huggles-

Potter wrote on Nov 27^th, 2011 at 2:42pm:

3/4 inch tongue and groove Hickory floors.  WTF.  Try and buy that item.                 Potter

LOL!!  Yeah Joe, pretty sure he either cut that on his Timber King mill or had it custom milled as he has several friends with mills.  We're gonna try to get hold of enough pecan logs to mill for the floors in this cabin.

Here's that pic of the bed he made for us that I told ya about.

---

Oh my...that bed is beautiful beyond description.  Make it King sized and I could stay in it forever.   What workmanship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Linda_Howell wrote on Nov 28^th, 2011 at 9:32pm:

What workmanship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

200% agreement on the workmanship. It looks amazing.

Hard for me to believe it's only been 20 days since I last posted to this thread!!!!

....where to start?? ....I guess the trip to the building salvage place to buy materials....the final plan for the cabin ended up bein 896 sq ft of heated space with a 10 x 16 screened in porch off the bedroom, and a 8 x 16 covered porch outside the loving room....

....the first item we went to find was the 8 windows....the plan incorporated seven 3 ft wide by 6 ft tall and one 3 ft by 3 ft for over the sink..... These were vinyl, dual pane, argon gas filled, low E windows that we had been quoted for $135 each.....so Mike and I go out to the ware house to check em out and we see this group of all wood cased Sierra Pacific windows....two 3 ft by 6 ft, two 3 ft by 5 ft, and two 3 ft by 4 ft.... And there was also a 2 ft wide by 30 inch tall, and a couple of 18" tall by 48" wide. We knew that just one of the 3 ft by 4 ft had a list price of over $500, so we pulled out the plans, figured out how to modify it to use the expensive ass windows, and then went in and ask the sales guy what kinda price he'd give us on the package....Jason, the salesguy, sez "oh!! Those are expensive units y'all!!!  My heart kinda sunk, but he said" let's go look at em....we get to em and. He sez " yeah, these 3 ft by 4 ft list for $539, the rest are higher than that"......then he sez "if you'll take all 6, you can have em all for $500"!!!! I asked if he'd throw in the 2 ft by 30" for $50 and the two 18" by 48" for $20 ea and he agreed!!!!  Close to 5 grand worth of windows for $590!!!

We had planned on sheathing the exterior and interior walls with OSB wafer board and milling our own siding, but Jason sez "if you want those windows,  I have some cedar siding that will go good with it that I can make you a deal on"!!!!  Enuf cedar to cover ALL exterior AND interior walls for $1000!!  That's less than 15 cents a foot folks!!

Next stop, blue streak, beaded white pine ceiling for the whole house......$771 ( 49 cents a ft)....

......got all of the rest of the materials to dry the cabin in ( with exception of the exterior doors), including floor and 2x6 wall insulation and all of the material to build a 12 x 20 workshop for a grand total of $8881.75!!!!!!!!!!  The only other expenditures this far are $125 for cement pads, and $865 for concrete and steel for the footings!!!!

When we rolled up this evening we were ready to start hanging truss's....the ridge cap and screw for the metal roof will be here tomorrow nite so we should have the truss's lathed and the metal on Weds....30# tarpaper go's on Thurs along with setting the windows and we'll start the exterior siding and the Cornish on Friday!!!!

This has truly been one of the most exciting experiences of my almost 65 years of life!!!  We've built at an ez enuf pace that I've able to step away and snap pics with my iPhone on a regular basis, so I have a great slide show of the cabin coming up from the ground!!  Unfortunately, the connection out here in the wilderness is weak so it's been impossible to publish videos to YouTube or upload pics to my photobucket account but I hope to get into Denison sometime this week so should have links to post for those soon!!!

What an amazing ride y'all!!!!!!

Dallas Denny

Oh Denny, it sounds like you're on a wonderful adventure!  Congrats on the major score for the windows, you really did good!

Can't wait for future reports on how construction is going.

I hope you had a wonderful Holiday!

:)mel

Updated photobucket with cabin construction pics today at

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and here 

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we're actually much further along (finished installing the metal roof yest) but didn't have time today to upload anymore......will do some more in a few days.

Dallas Denny

Looking good Denny...of course I know you're much further along since you texted some pictures to us  :)

Yeeeee Feckin Hawwww!!  Started campin out in the cabin today!!!  NO runnin water (but I got the outhouse built yesterday....you step into it from the door outta the dining room and it sits right over the trunk line goin into the septic tank) but we'll have a sink and a commode by next weekend......3 heavy duty ext cords from the temp pole for electricity.....insulation on the walls in the 20x24 foot section we're campin out in but nuthin coverin it.....but it already feels like home!!!!  Cindys in the kitchen ( temporarily the bedroom) sawin logs and it's rainin on the metal roof!!!

Here's the link to a video of the exterior that I shot for Mike and published to youtube.....he wants to quit framin these 3500 sq ft and up homes he normally does, and just build a couple of these cabins a year for his retirement!!!

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Never in my wildest dream could I have imagined this was what we were gonna get to build when we started!!!

DD

Denny...it's beautiful,looks very peaceful and serene....congrats.....Lenny

BTW,while watching the video and listening to the birds in the background...i could not help but let my imagination take over...and i actually saw granny "B" walking out the front door with a cigarette dangling from her mouth  :D :D :D...anyone else see that :o :o :o

Door close. Doors open. Couldn't have happened to a better man.
tachead [smiley=applause.gif]

tachead wrote on Mar 8^th, 2012 at 9:00pm:

Door close. Doors open. Couldn't have happened to a better man. tachead [smiley=applause.gif]

Yep.  What the grunt said.

     Potter

I think this is a damned fine thing.

All the best,

George

Can't wait to see it in person.. You're doing a super job...  :-*

Yer gonna need some jp-5 so ya can burn shitters.  My favorite job in-country.

     Potter

Potter wrote on Mar 9^th, 2012 at 8:15am:

Yer gonna need some jp-5 so ya can burn shitters.  My favorite job in-country.      Potter

Oh yeah Joe...the smell of burnin "honey buckets" with just a hint of napalm thrown in...ahhhhh, now there's a memory that ain't gonna go away!!!  LMAO!!!

DD