Antebellum House Built Entirely From Scratch

Antebellum House Built Entirely From Scratch BUILDINGS Houses 27-5-42 My wife and I built this antebellum house entirely from scratch. It measures 83 ft. square and has 28 columns and a porch all the way around. There's a little more than 10,000 sq. ft. of living space. The first floor has a big workshop and a garage. The living area is on the second floor and has 3,136 sq. ft. It took us 8 1/2 years to build. We made our own molding and did almost all of the work, including all of the plumbing and electricity. I taught myself computer aided design and drew my own plans for the house. We built it because we wanted something unique. About half the house was our own design, and the rest we got by looking at books. The house is designed around three squares. The columns form the outer square, the exterior walls form the middle square, and there's a square den in the center of the house. The second floor is supported by a series of 10-in. steel I-beams. The bottom 8 ft. of the house is made from stuccoed-over cinder block, while the top 12 ft. is made from kiln-dried, treated wood. The columns measure 18 in. sq. and are made from 1 1/2-in. thick wood. The columns weighed 100 lbs. per side so we used a block and tackle to lift each side onto the porch, where we put the columns together. (Steve May, 41464 Ratcliff Dr., Prairieville, La. 70769 ph 225 622-2246)

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