Day 13 - 02/27/2007

Wow...I only hope we can keep this pace!

We finally have some truly visible results...results that can be seen from the road. David and his crews were out there bright and early this morning and when we pulled up @ 5:45 this evening, the brick masons were packing up for the day. They are 90% complete. A little work on the garage door and across the front of the house and we are ready for the carpenters!

It looks like we are in for some rain late in the week, so the carpenters may not get started until next week, but we are ready for the framing to begin.

Day 12 - 02/26/2007

Got block?

We do! Fortunately, our lot is fairly flat, so there is not a great deal of block work to be done to lay the foundation. Our lot does slope to the back left corner and this is where they will put the access-way for the crawlspace. They are expecting to lay 9 courses of block at the highest point. That will be about 5 1/2 feet of head-room in the crawlspace...more than enough room to store the lawn mower, leaf blower etc. This is huge because we opted to not dig out the crawlspace for a basement hoping that the lot sloped enough to give us some storage area under the house.

With all that area under the house, the builder is talking about hanging the 1st floor heating / AC unit from the floor joists...I'll need to do some checking on this. The prime spot for this will be directly below our bedroom! I surely don't want to be awakened each and every time the heater blower or AC compressor comes on!

We have some time to research, but just something else to think about.

Here's a picture of the block scattered about the lot.

Day 09 - 2/23/2007

Not too much to report this week. Kind of a slow week as we wait for the brick masons to finish a job so that they can get started with ours. The ground treatment was done for insects this week and the block has been ordered and scheduled for delivery on Monday.


We'll (hopefully) have more to show next week.


Ciao!

Day 3 - 02/16/2007

Well, here's an update from Day 3 and we have concrete in the footers. I spoke with the builders today and it will likely be a week from Monday before David (my neighbor) will be available to lay the block for the foundation.

Here's a picture of the footers filled with concrete and gravel spread over what will soon be our crawl-space:

Day 1 -- Where it all begins!

Let's get it started...

Okay...so around 3:45 this afternoon, I called Mandy and was able to talk her into taking a ride with me up to the lot. We only closed on Monday afternoon, but I wanted to see if the builders were able to get the house corners setup on the lot and maybe some pin-flags marking the general outline of the house. Well, I roll up and find an excavation crew digging footers on our lot! It has only been 2 days since we closed and they are already moving dirt!!

I couldn't stand it, so Mandy and I ran home for me to change into my jeans and boots so that I could go back out there and make sure that all of the changes and modifications to the floor-plan actually showed up when the footers were dug. I didn't mention that it was almost 5:45 when I finally got out there and that it was a balmy 27 degrees!! Brrr!

So I pull up and start walking around the lot only to realize that they are finished digging the footers! The re-bar is laid in the trenches and it is ready for concrete!

Here's a picture showing the footers dug. Click on the picture(s) to super-size them! The footprint of the house does not look all that big, but we'll see how it starts to take shape over the next few months.












There are several other pictures that we thought we'd show on here: One is another shot of the footprint taken from the other side (with heavy equipment!!). The last one is a picture of the electrical meter box.






























I expect that they will be pouring the concrete by Friday and will let it cure over the weekend. They should be laying the block for the foundation next week!

Keep your fingers crossed for us. If they keep moving at this pace, we will be framed in and in the dry in a month or so, but as we enter the spring rainy season, we can lose weeks without any trouble.

We'll be back soon!

It's about time!

Well...GMAC finally got their act together and we closed today. It is amazing how quickly you can sign away your life!

The builder's are hopeful that we can break ground in the next week or so...they have to get a building permit and have the house sited on the land. Once this is done, we are off and running. We are very fortunate to have our neighbor laying our block for the houses foundation and doing the brick-work for us. David and his dad's company have been in the masonry trade for 3 generations. We have selected a brick and are in the process of choosing a shingle color.

Just after signing the contract to build, Mandy and I were joined by a few friends at our lot for a little celebration. This will most definitely not be the last time we celebrate on this lot, but it will the last time that this lot is celebrated on without a house to live in!

Here's a couple of pictures of us at our "lot party." Mandy has her champagne...I have mine!

















(For a super-sized image, click on the pictures!)

Over the next 7 months, Mandy and I will be making decisions by the dozens. We will write back when we have more to tell.