Metal house

So I was finally able to get some good info on how to build a metal house to live in, similar to the gallery we visited up in the mountains a few weeks ago.

What we both liked about the gallery was the beautiful dark red metal exterior walls, interior heated concrete floors, and sparsely fixtured interior. It also had lots of huge windows and double sliding doors. So I set out to find out how someone could build something similar, to live in.

I found out the construction process goes in this order:

find land

if land has been developed (water, electric, etc has been run to the site), get permit

if land has not been developed, the utilities must be run to the site, then a permit is applied for

pour slab

drains, plumbing, electric are brought through the slab

erect the building along with the roof

install windows and doors

work on interior

Just knowing the order of construction helps me feel more comfortable with the whole process. I still have lots of questions, such as what is involved in getting a construction loan. But the whole idea of building our own house, especially getting to work on it myself, really intrigues me. I can totally imagine moving in, to spend my days installing cabinetry and lighting, and tiling the bathroom. I loved remodeling our old kitchen and I know this is a much bigger project, but it sounds like so much fun.

Old kitchen before and after: before, typical mid 1970s nastiness.

Jason is giving "the finger" to the floor in the next pic, because the tile had been laid with about an inch of mortar under it. I would hit a tile as hard as I could with a sledgehammer, and it still wouldn't budge. It took him about four hours of extremely hard work to get it all up. Luckily we didn't have to replace the subfloor.

And the after:

I loved this project. We tore up the old ceramic floor (I needed help with this) then laid large vinyl tiles that look like slate. I wanted real slate but it wasn't in our budget. The vinyl was actually really nice, because it hid dirt well and could be completely sanitized after the dogs would track in crud from outside.

After the flooring, I was on my own. I sanded the cabinet frames and doors down to the wood, stained and sealed them, added new pull and hinge hardware, under counter lighting (hard wired!) and tracks to the drawers. The drawers weren't on tracks previously, just wood rubbing against wood, making them very hard to open.

I installed a new range hood, new slate backsplash and painted the walls.

I ordered a Corian countertop, my one big splurge, with a huge sink. Found a fabulous european faucet online for 1/3 the cost at Home Depot, installed it, caulked around the counter, then almost cried because I was so proud of myself.

I had really wanted an appliance garage louvered door to cover the area where the microwave and toaster oven site, but the kits were hundreds of dollars. For a kit!

So anyway, I love to make stuff. And I really want to make a house.