Framing Begins

The framers were anxious to get started on the house so as soon as the storm let up they were chalking for the walls and getting the first load of wood delivered. Today the first wall studs went up. The guest bedroom outer wall was first. In the photo you see the header for the window and the studs on either side. This window looks out on the oak tree by the garage.

The walls are first laid out on the floor. The top, bottom and verticle studs are then nailed together, still on the floor. Headers for windows and doorways are also added. When the wall section is done it is raised to its upright position. On this first day, in addition to the guest bedroom wall, the inner wall for the lower master bedroom and the outer wall for Rob's office were also put in place.

This Time the Pouring Is Concrete

Monday, March 27 was the day for part two of pouring the concrete slab. Steve and his crew arrived early in the morning to get things ready. As workers prepared the metal forms needed for the second story deck footings a question arose regarding their location. Steve noticed that the location of the deck supports varies from one page of the plan to another. It became apparrent that the holes that hd been dug are not far enough towards the front of the house. If left in their current location, the deck will not be long enough to reach the area where the stairs lead to the roof top deck. Fortunately, Steve noticed the discrepancy and new holes were dug in the correct locations.

The next problem is that the concrete company doesn't want to send out their trucks. It rained over the weekend since Rob put in the metal road plates and the concrete rep saw the road. They assumed the road is in bad shape and didn't want to get another truck stuck. Steve assured them the road is in better shape than the last pour and convinced them to come see for themselves. The road is approved and finally the trucks begin arriving. The photo shows how well the road plates worked. One helpful benefit of using the plates was that the concrete trucks driving over them did a great job of compacting the road base and dirt used to repair the soft section so it is now in great shape.

For most of the pour, the concrete trucks dumped their load into a pump system that used augers to push the concrete through a hose. The photo shows a close up of the concrete going into the hopper. For the garage they were able to skip the pumper and go directly from the truck. Getting the garage poured at the same time as the house was one benefit of this being a two step process. Since they had already poured the front of the great room, there was time to do the garage on the second pour. Apparently, garages are not always poured the same time as the house, but done at a later time. Given all the hassles with the road, it was good to get it done when the road plates were in place and the road was passable.

The second round of concrete was butted up against what was poured the first time. We've been assured that this should work fine. In the photo showing the concrete being smoothed you can see where the old pour meets the new in the lower left corner.

We were really lucky to get the pour fit in between rain storms. At the end of the day, just after Steve's crew had finished with the slab, another storm came in. This was the biggest storm yet. After this storm fhe condition of even road 406 would have been a problem for the concrete trucks.

Getting the Road Repaired & Ready for Concrete Trucks

Following the fiasco of getting the concrete truck stuck it's become a top priority to get the driveway repaired so the slab can be finished. Getting the driveway so the heavy concrete trucks won't sink isn't being helped by the relentless storms that keep dumping more rain.

In an effort to reduce the water flowing through the bad section of the drive, Rob and Ken Graham, our neighbor, mixed road base in with the wet dirt, put in a culvert to reduce the water from seeping through the ground,and dug a drainage channel to send some of the water into the nearby meadow area. The picture shows the repaired corner.

The concrete company was still concerned about their trucks getting stuck so Rob arranged to rent steel road covers to cover the 50 feet where the ground had been soft. In the photo the crane is lifting one of the plates in place Using a giant bolt screwed into the plate which was then removed once the plate was in place. Multiple plates were overlapped to make sure the soft area was covered. Of course it rained some more after the plates were setup, but everything should be ready for pouring on Monday.

Celebrating the Foundation of Our House

Saturday was our party celebrating the start of building our house. After postponing the party the previous weekend due to rain (and snow) and the failure to pour the foundation concrete we were determined to go ahead no matter the weather. At least this week we had some concrete poured.

After Thursday's fiasco with the concrete truck getting stuck, the road was questionable for any vehicle. Of course it rained more on Friday, making it a big, muddy, bunch of puddles in the mush area. Rob came up with a temporary solution that used wood planks to span the mushy section. Basically, he created a floating bridge so cars could cross the mud without sinking. He laid down boards crosswise from more solid ground, over the rut where the concrete truck got stuck, to the middle of the road which also was firmer. Then longer boards, former power pole cross members, were laid end-to-end over the cross members. These are the boards on the left side in the picture. Additional long boards were set up on the right side. As you can see, this was a great temporary solution. Everybody was able to get across and drive down to the house site for the party

We so appreciate all of our family and friends who joined us at the party. There was a nice break in the weather with the sun coming in and out from behind clouds, though it was pretty nippy. Those who came enjoyed a winter picnic, the beautiful green hills and some early wildflowers. It was also a great time to see the creek

All the rain has raised the level of the creek to its highest level this season. A few people and a couple of dogs had fun checking it out. Niece Alyssa dipped her feet in, though I don't know if that was on purpose or not. Fraka and Tom's dog, Marmite, was ecstatic playing on the shores. Fraka said Marmite was bouncing up and down and running around in circles, ultimately running in to the creek water

A highlight of the day was the creation of remembrance stepping stones. Rob built some forms the size of patio pavers. On Saturday he mixed up some concrete, poured it into the forms, and our friends and family members wrote remembrances in the concrete. The idea was inspired by the concept of placing a special foundation stone commemorating the setting of the foundation of the house. The stepping stones will become part of our patio and will be a wonderful reminder of everyone who shared in the celebration of the laying of the foundation of our house. Everybody was so creative in the design of their stepping stones. They're really cool and I'm thinking it would be nice to create some more. I'm looking forward to being able to put them into our patio.

Foundation Concrete Pour Is NOT Smooth

Today was the day. It was not raining so it was finally time to pour the foundation slab for our house. I left campus after my morning class and drove up to see the pad being poured. When I got to our cul-de-sac I saw a concrete truck AND a big tow truck. I wondered if the concrete truck in the cul-de-sac had mechanical problems...If only things were that simple. As I drove down our driveway it became obvious that there was a far more serious problem – a concrete truck had gotten stuck at the curve just after the crossing over the marshy area. The back wheels were buried beyond the axel on one side. As you can see in the photo, this meant the truck was leaning precariously. A towing crew had been summoned and they were trying to figure out how to get it unstuck.

In the meantime, the concrete crew was working on the part of the slab which had been poured. Three trucks had made it through, so most of the outer wall and interior footings had been poured. For the floor, the front part of the great room and part of the area by the islands was poured. According to the crew, there are about 4 or 5 more truck loads to go to finish.

Back at the stuck truck scene, they winched it back a few feet and got it more thoroughly stuck. Now the wheels opposite those that are stuck are raised up off the ground. The risk of it overturning increased. So, the next step was to stabilize it. That was done attaching a pulley to a tree and running a cable to Mr. Graham, our neighbor's, tractor. An additional cable was run from one of the tow trucks.

Lightening the load by dumping the concrete was the next step. Unfortunately, the truck sat too long and the concrete hardened inside. That sent the concrete truck mechanic ordering a chisel crew to be ready to go to work on the mixer when the truck is unstuck. So now they had to get it out fully loaded. With two tow trucks winching and the concrete truck in gear, they slowly pulled and slid it out of the soft part of the road.

The road is trashed. Steve, the foundation contractor, did a quick smooth job with his bobcat, but the road is still mushy. To fix this we expect to have to dig out the soft dirt for several feet, like what was done on the section crossing the marsh. A culvert will need to be placed to drain the water under the road. On top will go lots of roadbase. This worked great on the other section which handled the concrete trucks without a dent.

So now we have a partially poured foundation. Plan B is to come back during the next dry spell and use a series of three pumpers to pump the concrete from the trucks down to the house. Basically the concrete trucks would stop at the turnout just above where the road is bad. A hose would go from the truck to a pumper to more hose to another pumper and so on down to the house. Plan A is to spend the same money and get the road fixed so the concrete trucks can go all the way to the house. Since the road has to get repaired so we and other trades can get down to the house, we'd save money by not adding the cost of the pumpers.

We have decided to continue with our party up at the property this Saturday. Guests will have to park above the bad spot and walk down. Not what we'd hoped, but doable. Hopefully, the good karma of our friends will help us overcome this misfortune.

One thing's for sure, today's mishap was worthy of an HGTV "Dream Home" episode.

Water, Water, Too Much Water

Rain continues to be a problem for the foundation. Its rained just about everyday for the last week. The end of last week the temperature dropped so low that it snowed in the foothills. When we got to the property on Sunday you could see a snow covered hill just over the ridge from us. We figure it probably snowed at the property but not enough to stick to the ground.

All this rain made a negative impact on the prep of the foundation. Quite a bit of water was pooled in the trenches for the footings. In some spots the dirt walls of the trenches had collapsed some dirt into the trench. All this damage means that one to two days of work is needed to get things ready for pouring the concrete. The crew worked on this yesterday in hopes of a break in the rain so they could pour tomorrow. However, it now looks like the pour could be Thursday. Maybe. Arg.

Rob is up at the property tonight putting in the last of the electrical conduits. He's really outfitted us with lots of conduits that wil run under the foundation concrete and then come up into the walls. This was especially critical for the great room, so that we'd have outlets in the middle of the floor. In the first photo, the two low-to-the ground, round pipes are the housings for installing the center outlets in the center of the great room. In front of that, next to the plumbing for the bar/counter sink are conduits for the electricity needed for the bar. These will feed the dishwashers, waste disposal, outlets and anything else electrical. The electrical conduits are the smaller, grey pvc pipes with white caps. They are wrapped in a white material that is required by the county. I think it provides some insulation at the point where they go through the concrete.

There was pouring yesterday; but it was rain not concrete!

We were scheduled to have the concrete for the foundation poured yesterday. However, rain were forecast to come in late Sunday night, which itdid. So the pour was post-poned. The weather forecast for Wednesday, tomorrow, looks promising so we're hoping the concrete will be poured tomorrow.

Rob got all the electrical and low voltage conduit done by Sunday evening, in the dark, before it rained. He's done a very thorough job, so we'll have wiring coming up through the concrete into the walls and to exterior locations. This includes two electrical outlets in the floor of the great room. We tried to figure out a variety of couch and chair placements so that these outlets would be conveniently located and just under the furnature. Undoubtedly, we'll come up with furnature placement that is different and these will be off somewhat. That's the breaks; at least we've got outlets in the middle of the floor somewhere and won't have to snake extension cords across the floor.

We also fit in attending the home and garden show over the weekend. In the name of saving money, we spent some. We ordered out hot tub which will be werehoused until we need it in the fall. We also ordered the downstairs woodstove which saved us $500. We're getting another Jotul, like the small one we already have that will go in our master bedroom. Since we knew the brand we wanted and the store was at the show, it made sense to get the extra savings. We're getting the biggest woodburning model which is supposed to heat approx. 2500 sq. feet. Jotul stoves are very attractive. They are cast iron with intricate detailing and ours will be in an ivory ceramic finish. This gives it a shiny, smooth and rounded look, much more appealing than basic black with sharp, boxy edges.