Framing: day 2

We have a second floor! The guys were still working when we got there. We didn't want to interrupt them so I only got pictures of the outside. They worked until dark last night so I'm assuming they will do the same today. Trusses will go up tomorrow! 

Framing: day one

We rushed home from work today because we knew there would be some framing done today. Boy were we suprised when we came around the corner to this!

Side if the house. Man door for the garage. Garage door in the front. 

Inside of the garage 

In the front door through the foyer

Huge! Front window :)

That big hole is the sliding door

Inside the living room

From the living room looking at the kitchen. 

The living room :)

The fireplace. And Junior...

Back of the house

Back/ side with the chimney 

Front!

The guys worked hard today! They were still there when we got there about 5:00. They must have left to get dinner or something while we took these pictures. They said they were going to work until it was dark! I can't wait to see what it looks like tomorrow!

I kind of want to skip work and just sit and watch them build it!!

Until tomorrow...

More Materials!

Yesterday (Tuesday) there were more materials delivered to the house. We were busy all night moving some furniture to our storage unit. We have been very blessed to have our family hand us down some furniture. The storage unit we started renting to store our appliances has turned into a furniture store! We will most likely go shopping for appliances this weekend since there are some deals for the Labor Day holiday weekend. It is the last big sale before Black Friday- and we DO NOT want to get trampled for a refrigerator.
I have heard that they are doing some framing today, so I will probably be posting tonight too :)
Here is the trusses that were delivered yesterday!

And the beautiful sunset that we will soon be enjoying every night!

Backfill

Not a lot happened this week. We had to wait for the bank to inspect the basement walls before anything else could happen. 

Yesterday most of the dirt was back filled.  Our contractor was worried that our garage needed some extra support so we had gravel filled in. It actually is starting to look more like a basement and garage now!

In the background you can see they delivered some lumber. More is supposed to be delivered Monday and the framing will begin!

These supports are all around the basement to keep the weight of the dirt from collapsing the wall. It was like 8 feet of dirt that was filled in!

The black circle is the sump pump. We haven't had to use it yet! The little white pipe in the wall is where our well comes in the house. 

That is the front porch. You can kind of see the slope there...

It was hard to get a good picture of the hill in the front yard. I think we might try to flatten it out a little bit. Eventually. 

Stay tuned for the exciting week next week!!

Week 3- block!

We have block walls! 

Last Thursday the block arrived and they started building the wall this week! 

Kyle is walking on what will be the side if the garage and mud room

The left side is the front of the garage and the porch on the far end

On Monday they started the wall...

The back of the garage in the forground and back of the house in the background. 

The porch. 

Kyle standing on the porch...

Inside the basement. 

Inside the garage. 

Today they have the wall almost done! 

Kyle and his dad standing at the front of the house

Side of the garage

From the back of the house inside the basement

I wouldn't want to walk across that! 

If you saw the little cut outs at the top- those will be where glass block will go to let light in the basement. 

What I was suprised about today was how much we are going to have to backfill for the final grade. Only 2 rows of blocks will be showing when the final grade is done! That's a lot of dirt! I guess we have a lot though! 

It rained on and off yesterday and today so I was very suprised they got so far! And the basement is not holding water at all! Great news! 

It is supposed to be nice the rest of the week. Maybe they will get the waterproofing done this week and start framing next week?? High hopes!0

Footers

So far this week the footers have been installed and we have electric! The footers were formed up with wood first, and they were filled with concrete today. The electric company had to come out and move the pole they installed last week because they didn't like the placement. They also trenched the electric line back to where we have the electric panel and installed a transformer back there. We are thinking they will start stacking the blocks for the basement next week.

Kyle walking around in the basement :)

The BIG day!

We finally made it to dig day! Yesterday was a big day for us! We were more busy than I thought we were going to be.

First, we met our new field manager. Our old field manager took a job in Alaska, so he is no longer with Wayne Homes. I'm glad that happened right at the beginning rather than in the middle! Kyle and I still had some work to do on the meter center so we could get it inspected. After we finished that up, we had (still have) to but down some brush and trees along the road so we can see better out of the drive way. Shortly after we got started on that, the excavator showed up. We took a little break from cutting because we wanted to see the first scoop out of the ground. While the excavator was coming off the truck, the electric company showed up! We had no clue they were coming out. Kyle went to talk to them while I stayed with the excavator. The guys on the excavating team were awesome! They let ME take the first "bite" out of the ground with the excavator! ME! I have never been in heavy equipment before and it was an experience! Sadly, Kyle took too long of a video (or I took too long scooping) that his phone didn't have enough memory to save it! We are getting new phones next month. I hoped that maybe the trail camera we had set up to take pictures caught me, but you can't really see me in it. MAJOR BUMMER!!

After all that excitement, there was more. All at once- more electric company trucks came with the pole to be set, the building authority to inspect our temporary power, and a stray dog. Very busy and productive day!

When the pole was set, and we got our electric approved *yes* it was lunchtime!

We went back to cutting brush but didn't get too much farther before we decided we needed to wait for another day. There were vehicles in the way, and we needed some rain boots!

The excavator guy showed us that we have some fools gold in our soil. If only it were real!! We looked through some of the dirt from the basement and found some interesting things- rocks mostly. I know we're cool right? Kyle found a few large flat ones that will make good garden rocks to paint something on, so we set those aside. 

After I gave Kyle a little geology lesson, we were done for the day. We are hoping the rest of the build goes as quickly as the first day!

Here's what we have now- a giant hole that will soon have a house on top of it.