Upstairs has all the walls erected and straightened

The framing is all done for the main level, although the roof joists are not up quite yet.  This is a view from where the kitchen sink will be towards the front of the house.  The kitchen is open to the small family room that will have the South wall (right in this picture) mostly made up of windows, the East wall with a large square window near the corner, and the front door and sidelight will be located on the left side of this picture.

The shot below is taken from the front (East) corner of the house that is shown in the photo above looking back at the kitchen window over the sink with the back door located to the right leading into the mudroom.  There will be a wall just to the right (North) of the mudroom door that separates our bedroom from the kitchen.  From our bedroom, there is a door opening onto the deck which is shaped like Oklahoma (a 14x16 main section + a 6x10 panhandle section in front of the mudroom).  Three double-hung windows are next to the door from our room onto the deck, which will be covered with a standing seam metal roof.

The shot below is from the same SE corner as above, but looking to the North into the space where the Study / Guest Room will be.  There will be fluted glass french doors leading from the family room into the Study.

This photo is looking to the Northeast in the Study.  The window on the right looks out into the front yard, and the window on the left looks onto the side yard.

Thar be Walls !!!

The first walls went up a couple of weeks ago using a really cool process of building the wall sections laying flat on the subfloor and then tilting them up with wall jacks - I have some pictures of them in action that I'll post in a bit. 

The sections, once constructed flat, are framed and sheathed with the house wrap already applied prior to being tilted up and secured.

The North wall went up first, then a section of the West wall. 

This is a shot of the East wall being fabricated laying flat.  In the distance, you can see a tan Land Cruiser that is for sale - cheap - to anyone making a reasonable offer...

Concrete piers for front and rear decks are poured and ready

The front and rear decks required piers on footings to support them - these things are going to be strong enough to park a truck on!  These are in the back and are for the stairs down from the deck/mudroom/rear entrance to the house.

These piers are in the front of the house and will support the deck that will extend South from the front door to the SE corner of the house, where there will be a landing and the stairs will turn towards the street.

The girls and I felt we needed to leave a permanent impression for archeologists in distant times...

Here are the forms for the footings and piers before they were poured for the rear stairs and part of the foundation that will surround Lael's gigantic closet (she's talking about making it her desk and bed area, reserving her actual room for playspace).

Lots going on - floor framing & subfloor installation in March

Sorry for the long delay in posting.  A trip to Hong Kong and Spring Break occupied much of March, so I'm a bit behind.  These photos were taken in late March, and things are finally taking shape in this quick visible progress phase of construction.

The framers are doing great work, using engineered I-beam type floor joists, laminated beams and a steel I-beam that carries the main weight of the house from front to back.  The photo below shows Lael sweeping out what would conventionally be a 7x9 walk-in closet, but may become her two-level playhouse with desk area and futon (her idea).

The image below shows the 5 inch laminated beams that support the stairwell opening and the walls above.

This photo shows the steel beam, the laminated beams and the engineered joist structure.

Deck and back stair excavation + partial demo of the old garage overhang

We discovered that we could add a 65 square foot walk-in closet to Lael's room for about an additional $1500, so at an incremental $25 per square foot we decided to go for it.  The space beneath the mudroom was planned as an insulated crawlspace, so it made sense to dig to a full depth foundation and increase the house square footage. 

The footings for the rear stairs and the back deck were also dug out as the additional foundation space was done, so that will allow us to proceed with framing starting this Friday!  They'll pour the footings and the slab after the lower level is covered, so weather shouldn't hold that up as it did the foundation walls.

Below you can see the section of the foundation that was left open for access to the walk-in closet and the excavated area for the rear deck and stair footings.  They say we're close to one of the points when progress happens with impressive speed, which we'll be very happy to witness given the plodding pace it feels like they've been making so far...

Foundation forms were removed last week - we are close to having a full foundation and starting the framing!

They covered the top of the foundation for a bit of insulation while the concrete set.  They left the forms up for about 5 days due to the cold weather.

They took the forms off and let the concrete set up for another few days before any of the slab preparation was done. 

The foundation and footing exterior was waterproofed on the 26th. 

The first step in subslab preparation consists of getting all of the plumbing pipes laid out and properly buried.  As soon as we get 3 days of good weather in the forecast (snowing again today) they'll put down the blue board closed cell insulation, tape it to create a vapor barrier and impermeable layer to work with the radon fan, and then pour the slab over that insulation.

Foundation wall pour - post 2 - the skilled labor

This part of the process was well supervised.

The guy on the left below wearing the hardhat is the remote control operator.  He controlled the location of the Putzmeister boom and the flow of the concrete out of the boom that the guy on the right directed.  The two other guys above are operating a big vibrating thingy that works the air bubbles out of the concrete.

The crew on the inside of the foundation was hitting the forms with sledgehammers to encourage the concrete to flow into all the nooks and crannies of the forms and fully encase all of the rebar.

The process took about 1 hour per cement mixer, so about 4 hours total including cleanup.

The foundation walls were poured on February 12th! - post 1 - heavy equipment

This is a top-down view of the foundation wall forms - you can see the wood panels inside that will be the window openings on the South wall of the lower level and the rebar lattice.

Mr. Obrien showed up with the Putzmeister concrete pumper truck to get the concrete from the cement mixer to the foundation wall forms.  The extended boom is shown below.

They had to maneuver the boom around the big pine tree on the NE corner of our lot.  Not much room between that pine tree and the cottonwood in the neighbors' yard, but they didn't snap a branch.  Pretty good Putzmeister handling, if you ask me...  The really cool part of it was that the controls were in a remote control box that an experienced video game player operated.  Mom & Dad, remember the time I had to write 10 reasons why I should be allowed to play video games?  Well I didn't know about this one, but it would have been another good one to add to the list.

The cement mixers just backed up to this grate mounted on the back of the Putzmeister and poured the concrete into it.  We used the maximum percentage of Fly Ash we could, which is a byproduct of burning coal.  That does two good things - it keeps it out of the landfill and also stiffens the concrete. 

This is a shot of the first of the 3 cement mixers that came to dump their cargo into the Putzmeister...

Foundation wall forms completed - Feb 11

The wall forms were completed on the 11th - this is a detail shot of some of the rebar and a window form on the East side of the downstairs family play room.

They put nails into the window forms at a bunch of odd angles so that when the concrete is poured on the outside (nail side) the nails hold the window forms in securely.  The actual windows will be mounted on the inside (non-nail side) in a few weeks.

These are the completed forms.  The lattice of rebar inside is really a few tons of metal reinforcement - much more coverage than I anticipated.

Lael enjoys doing quality checks at each stage of the game.  Most of the bracing for the foundation forms came from the old house and will go to the wood recycling site after the forms are removed.

Foundation Exterior Forms are up

The exterior forms for the foundation were put up today, so it really looks like progress is being made even though it will still be another 4 days or so before the concrete is poured. 

The reinforcments used to hold the rebar in place are very labor intensive to install.  Each one of these was put in by hand, and the rebar lattice will be threaded through them as the next few days of prep work for the pour take place.

Ruby has been keeping an eye on the proceedings from the front yard of our rental, which you can spot in the distance on the top picture in this post - the camper is parked in the driveway.  This is a shot of her on top of one of the dirt piles as she sniffs around the site to make sure nothing is out of place.

Drainage system is in, foundation wall forms going up.

The drainage system under the slab and around the perimeter of the foundation was quite a project to put in.

Ruby thought she needed to help pack down the gravel over the drainage system.  Indispensable help to the contractors, I'm sure.

Below is the same corner Ruby was checking out at the end of the day today.  The corner form is set up, and the sump pit access is capped off. 

The Firm Foundations crew was not happy about the state of the rebar when the excavation / drainage crew finished their work, but they got them straightened out in the morning and got the corner and a few of the side pieces up this afternoon.  Next steps are to put the rest of the exterior forms up, then put in the window forms, then install the mesh reinforcement and additional rebar that will strengthen the concrete walls, and finally put the interior forms in place.  They think they'll be ready to pour walls next week, which is a bit later than I had originally been told, but that's not a huge surprise...

We have concrete!

The footings were poured last Friday and the forms were removed today.  They are doing additional excavation around the footings to prep for the drainage systems (inside and outside the footings).  The foundation walls are scheduled to be poured later this week, then the slab should go in the following week.  Forward progress has begun!

Fun with dirt piles...

What do you do with huge piles of dirt in the yard next to the garage?  You jump into them, of course!

(** no children were harmed in the production of this image - this is Lael, of course)

Footings get formed up

Firm Foundations came in last week and put the forms in for the footings.  When asked about the weather and whether or not it was OK to pour concrete with the 40 degree temps we were having, the response was "this ain't our first rodeo".  They use blankets to protect everything and say it is no problem to pour now.

Foundation snag

Well, the first "discovery" of significance is that the combination of the water level being higher than anticipated and the soil's capacity for water-induced expansion makes it necessary to put in more drainage and to bring in more "non-expansive" soil for compaction so the footings have a more stable platform.  The impact is that the foundation wall sections we were going to be saving have now been torn out and a bit more excavation and site prep have been done. We'll end up with an altogether new everything now (except the garage, which will just get a facelift).

They've also brought in the additional soil, done the compacting, and done the additional excavating, so the lot is pretty jam packed with piles of dirt waiting to either be hauled away or backfilled around the new foundation, which is supposed to start being poured next week.