Ready to start framing (week 2.5)

Work finished up early this week with the Thanksgiving holiday. Rough-in plumbing for the basement was completed on Monday which allowed for the concrete floor to be poured and finished on Tuesday. They came back Wednesday and cut the relief joints in the concrete. The block walls were filled with concrete on Wednesday with the aid of a concrete pumping rig. You can see Tim and the concrete crew filling the wall in the picture above. Our first lumber delivery is scheduled for this Saturday to allow framing to start on Monday. Tim has told us that he expects the house to be "in the dry" in three weeks. Amazing! The next few weeks should show some exciting progress with the house literally taking shape before our eyes.

Block work is complete! (Week 2)

All of the basement and foundation block work was completed today! The exterior of the block walls were coated in Drylok and then a coat of foundation tar and felt paper. Two more loads of gravel were delivered today and spread through the basement floor. Drainage tile was placed along the footers and they started back filling with gravel. A significant amount of fill dirt will be needed in the 3 car garage, front porch, and to level out the front yard since the front of the house was built up to ensure proper water drainage. Plans were finalized on the location of bathrooms in the basement so the plumber can begin laying out the drain piping in the basement on Monday. The hope is to pour the concrete basement floor by mid week next week so the framers can begin some time around Thanksgiving. Interior basement walls were also finalized this week so the first floor trusses can be ordered. Floor trusses will be used so the majority of the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing can be run in the truss which will preserve at least 8ft ceiling height in the basement. Hopefully we will have good weather early next week so the concrete can be poured prior to Thanksgiving. According to the bank we are 6% complete within the first two weeks!

Basement walls are going up (week 1)

Monday was a big day this week as Tim prepared for rain on Tuesday. The excavators dug the footers, rebar was installed, the footers were inspected, and concrete was poured. A load of gravel was also delivered and placed in the basement floor to control the mud. It rained non stop from Monday night through early Wednesday morning. The layout was repined on Wednesday along with deliveries of block, mortar, and sand. The masons started laying the block on Thursday morning followed by all day Friday. Currently we have seven courses of block on one side of the house and most of the front of the house. Ultimately we are looking at approximately 13-14 courses of block so we are less than half way done with the exterior basement walls. Friday, Katie and I spent some time looking at front entry doors, windows, and brick. So far, brick is posing to be the most difficult choice we have had to make. We still haven't decided on a brick but we have narrowed it down to a brown or a medium red tone.

We broke ground!

After pressuring the bank for 5 weeks, the appraiser finally finished his report which let the bank finish with underwriting the loan. Today, we took the next big step by breaking ground! I was amazed at how dark and rich the soil was. They finished digging the basement in one day and the plans are to bring in a backhoe on Monday to dig the footers. The basement will be block filled with concrete. The basement wall will be approximately 4 feet above the current front yard height which will place it level with the street. The front yard will be filled in and leveled at a later date. To make up some time, a second framing crew has been lined up to complete all of the framing in approximately one week. I expect the next three weeks will show significant signs of progress. We're just glad we finally got started!

New Appliances

After several weeks of researching appliances in preparation for a future purchase we ran across a deal we couldn't pass up. We went around to several of the big box stores to start looking after church this afternoon. When we got home we saw a Sears add that said all Kenmore ovens were %50 off and cook tops were %30 off. I called to verify the add and found that it was truelly ALL Kenmore cooking appliances. Consumer reports lists Kenmore as having the least number of repairs and a CR best buy in the wall oven and cook top categories. So we decided on a Kenmore Elite double covection wall oven and a Kenmore elite 5 burner gas stove, both in stainless.

Still no update on the bank finishing up the loan. Appears the appraisal company is still making excuses on why they can't finish their report. Hopefully the report will get finished up this week...

We have power and water!

We now have power and water, at least on a temporary basis. Sweetwater utilities board has set a new transformer, which is located on the corner of our lot. A temporary meter and disconnet were installed on the side of the transformer to support construction activites. A new water meter has also been installed and capped off.

A surveyor has staked out the corners of the lot and the location of the house on the lot. Roger (?), a surveyor with GPS locating surveying equipment, optimized the position of the house on the lot based on the size and shape of the lot and water runoff. This will help ensure that there are no water issues in the basement. The house is placed approximately 50' from the road on the front, 25' on the side with the garage, and 16' from the opposite side.

The only thing holding up ground breaking at this point is the closing of the construction loan. The bank reported today that the appraiser has not completed his report, after two and a half weeks, and their management was contacted to force the completion of the report. Once the appraisal is completed there is another three days worth of underwriting before the paperwork can be forwarded to the closing officer. Hopefully by this time next week we will have a firm closing date!

Lot 19 Clover Hill

We took the first step of purchasing the lot on 10/2/09 and we received a set of 5 blueprints from Frank Betz on the same day. On 10/4/09 we met our builder Tim Sally at the lot and walked the lot to get a good idea on how the house would set on the lot. Lot 19 is wedge shaped with approximately 100ft at the street and fanning out towards the back with over 150ft of tree line and backing up to Hwy 11. The lot gently slopes down from the street toward the highway, perfect for building a two story home with a walkout/driveout basement. The lots on each side of us are empty and our friends Jason and Jennifer Dacus live two lots over.

Tim told us he would start taking some initial steps while we wait on the closing of our construction/perm. loan. We hope the loan will close later this week, if not next week at the latest. Tim will start this week by tentatively staking out the lot and a rough house placement, requesting temporary electrical service, and permits. It seems like both Tim and Katie/I are eager to get started as soon as possible. I learned this week that October is supposed to be the dryest month of the year so we are eager to "get the house in the dry" as soon as possible.

Below are some satelite images of the lot and house plans from the designers web site. I really don't like the colors used in the designers artwork, but that won't matter much since we are going the use all brick. Now the fun begins...