New house build ,a photo journal of a modest design

Thought this might be of interest to a few folks here. Not really a Grand Design, more of a modest one.

The Chef household is currently building a new free standing “granny flat” or stuga. This will be roughly 30square meters and have one bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen/living room.

The actual work is ongoing so I’ll update this thread as and when new exciting things happen.

In the meantime these highlight the ground work and prep done so far.

The location, bottom right:

Tree felling:

Drainage work needed for the land:

Excuse flatten the land as we had the machines already on site:

The base:

Major groundwork complete:

Grass and path take place:

The cycle track and climbing frame work continues:

Got to love Sweden

And part 2, the actual house build.

Laying out the base:

Prep for the concrete fill:

Final base:

A frame takes shape:

We have a roof:

A new angle:

Hmm cossy:

And that is how I left it this morning, Oct 7.

Fantastic ! Looking Forward to the updates.

Wow!
I’m always amazed at the skills of STWers.

looks an awesome project

Looks great. Looking forward to the updates!

Thanks for posting and updates us. Looks great

Thanks folks.

I’m always amazed at the skills of STWers.

I can not take credit for the actual build, that’s in the hands of our builder.

Vision, garden work, painting, and financing are where I can play a part, not the construction.

There’s only two fellers in the pic! IGMC

What this thread needs is a lazy haphazzard brickie who doesn’t know what he’s doing but is related to a neighbour, and a hugely overengineered design.

Without that it’s quite dissapointing 😛

Very nice.
How long will you live there for?
It”s just 30m2 is fine but when you get more stuff and kids etc it soon becomes too small.
I lived in a 28m2 chalet for a bit and it just got too claustrophobic for me.
At least you can go for a walk in that beautiful scenery.

I need some land!!

I love threads like this! Good luck with the project.

While the diggers are/were there you should have got a cheeky pump track built around the parameter..

Right today’s update is that we now appear to have an insulated roof.

And a photo from a few weeks ago of the finished climbing frame and cycle track:

How long will you live there for?
It”s just 30m2 is fine but when you get more stuff and kids etc it soon becomes too small.
I lived in a 28m2 chalet for a bit and it just got too claustrophobic for me.

Our house the one behind it, (roughly 160 square meters), this for friends and family who want to visit for longer than a weekend, and potential income from hiring out.

As much as I’d enjoy the minimalist challenge of living in a 30m2 house, two young boys and a wife who works from home would put a strain on things!

As much as I’d enjoy the minimalist challenge of living in a 30m2 house, two young boys and a wife who works from home would put a strain on things

Yep, you’d definately be needing a mezzanine in that case 😀 and some looong solitary walks . . .
As I love timber frame buildings and because we are in the process of building one as our family home, I am full of questions such as what material are you using for wall insulation and what wood are you going to have it clad in?

Will there be a STW discount applied to the

potential income from hiring out.

😉

Hmm. You had a digger, loads of lovely boulders, gravel and loads of land and that is the best bike track you could come up with? 🙂

Wish that land/houses were cheap here in the south. We rent a bit of a farm in Skåne but I have built a mini pumptrack and drop off ramp. I am jealous of you plot though, that has possibilities.

The base is a standard 300mm L, with 200mm of “cellplastisolering”

Timber is Christmas Tree/Spruce, again very standard construction over here, double wall with 145mm + 45mm with 190mm of isolation, the roof has 260mm of isolation and has 300mm beams.

Can provide more details pictures if needed.

Guests welcome alwillis, I’m 15 minutes drive from the airport and excellent riding on the door step.

Cheeky GEDA, I’ve a 7 and 5 year old, so the track is in it’s first of hopefully many iterations. Saw your last film, looking pretty good for a limited space!

What this thread needs is a lazy haphazzard brickie who doesn’t know what he’s doing but is related to a neighbour, and a hugely overengineered design.

You should see the step I built for the workshop on Saturday – 250kg sand base with 300 kg of concrete blocks on top – possibly the only step designed to withstand a direct hit from an ICBM…

I must admit my kids like running around the one I built. I will have to get them using it properly. Maybe have to build another one along with some bigger jumps/drops for me 🙂

I assume you are actually in Sweden…
If so, how do you tend to heat your homes over there…do you just rely on good insulation & a constant low heat input ? I’m guessing you have some very cold /long winters…

how do you tend to heat your homes over there.

In our main house we have under floor heating controlled by a thermostat in each room, the actual heat and hot water is provided by a geothermal ground sourced heat exchanger.
The basics are explained here[/url]. We also have a wood bring stove that is used mainly for a cosiness factor rather than a main heat source, although it puts out quite a lot of warmth.

The new build will use an air pump to warm the house and we may install a small stove if budget allows, although this is a nice to have requirement at the moment.

Explanation of how they work:
“A fan draws the outdoor air into the heat pump where it meets the evaporator. This is connected in a closed system containing a refrigerant that can turn into gas at very low temperatures. When the outdoor air hits the evaporator the refrigerant will turn into gas.

Then, using a compressor, the gas reaches a high enough temperature to be transferred in the condensor to the house’s heating system. At the same time the refrigerant reverts to liquid form, ready to turn into gas once more and to collect new heat.

Using an inverter-driven heat pump compressor, the system can be regulated so that heat output matches the exact capacity required at any given time. This means the heat pump will only consume the exact energy needed, making it highly efficient.

In the summer, the refrigeration circuit is capable of operating in reverse to provide cooling on demand.”

Right time for an update, we now have some internal wall structures, the bedroom on the left the shower room on the right. The bedroom is designed for two single beds with a small bedside table in between and wall cupboards.

In the shower room you can see the drainage for the shower space on the left hand side.

Not expecting a lot of action for the rest of week as I know the builder has other jobs to do, so I’ll most likely return to this thread on Monday.

In the mean-time I need to decide on the floor colour and material, finalize the kitchen design, and specify where the air fan will sit with regard to potentially adding a wood burning stove at some point in the future, (which I’ll be a challenge as its a double cross race weekend).

Right, time for an update.

I’ve been away on business all week so was glad to see a lot progress has been made in the meantime.

The electrician has been and wired the house so we have wall sockets and lighting fittings:

We have internal walls:

And we have an internal ceiling:

Lots of painting to do in the near future.

Still on the time plan, still within budget, although the kitchen might mean we creep nearer the upper limit regarding cost.

Given it’s so well insulated and air tight, what to you do about ventilation / stopping it smelling of human sweat etc?

They’ll be a fan in the bathroom, an extractor fan over the hob, and an opening window in the bedroom and bathroom.

So hopefully this and the fact the heating is based around moving air around the space will mean it won’t be too smelly.

Good question though.

If it’s that well sealed then sounds like you could use an air exchange\heat recovery unit. They’re pretty effective and not that expensive. I’d have thought they’d been quite popular round your way.

Love it!

If only I had the room on our land to built a granny annexe well away from the house like this. Not that my Mil is in any way untolerable when she visits, but she’d appreciate it as much as us!

If it’s that well sealed then sounds like you could use an air exchange\heat recovery unit. They’re pretty effective and not that expensive. I’d have thought they’d been quite popular round your way.

That’s what I was expecting. I keep meaning to change our bathroom extractor fan for one.

you could use an air exchange\heat recovery unit

That’s what we are planning on using, not sure of the actual model yet but most likely something from Mitsubishi:

Nice, I’m green with envy.

Can I ask a couple of Q’s? I’m tempted to rob your design for my back yard (but a little smaller)

I’m looking to build a pent roofed shed type thing as per your design, so I can steal a lot of sun during the day but still have the garden getting the setting sun in the evening. How good is the roof you are building against wind and the elements, is there any minimum overhang specification? I hadn’t thought of having overhang like that, although that side of my structure will be facing the wind.

I presume it’s strong enough for the amount of snow you get?

What’s the expected lifespan of the wooden building? And what’s the maintenance routine?

Ideally I think I’d build a single skinned block wall with a roof thrown on, but wood is tempting if it’ll last and I love the look of your design.

I was thinking more like this:

http://www.vent-axia.com/range/hr25.html

What does that actually do Footflaps?

I’ve Googled, no answer needed.

What does that actually do Footflaps?

Heat exchange extractor fan, sucks out warm smelly air from house as well as sucking in cold ‘clean’ air from outside. A set of fine copper pipes inside exchanges the heat so something like 80% of the warmth from the extracted air to transferred to the clean air coming in.

Thanks 🙂

I’m tempted to rob your design for my back yard (but a little smaller)

I presume it’s strong enough for the amount of snow you get?

What’s the expected lifespan of the wooden building? And what’s the maintenance routine?

Feel free, PM me and I’ll send you the files I’ve got.

The roof will have a ribbed roof mounted in a week or so from clix. The structural design has been approved for strength.

We’ll paint the house using an undercoat and two top coats. This should last 10-12 years before it needs doing again. If any of the wood does go bad then we’ll simply replace that single panel.

OK another update.

Luckily the storm faded out quite a bit before it hit/tickled us, which meant nothing bad happened to the semi exposed exterior.

This week the outer walls are being set in place, especially nice is the fact that they are already painted with one layer of under coat meaning we don’t have to rush to do it and can wait until spring.

The inner walls are finished, as is the ceiling, which does mean that I’ll be painting this weekend, (beautifully timed as the there are no national cross races taking place!).

So it’s off to decide upon and buy paint.

Next the roof needs to be set in place, as well as the windows and door, then its time to start on the interior.

😀
Liking.