A slow 2 weeks...Garage slab was poured

Well, these last two weeks were rather boring. They finished backfilling and then they compacted the garage area and the area for the front porch and back patio with a special compactable soil.

They then put some gravel and rebar in the garage area preparing it for the slab to be poured. Then, it sat for about a week.

Garage compacted

Front porch compacted

Back patio compacted

Garage with gravel and rebar

We'd drive by every day and see nothing, which was disappointing and a little frustrating. Then, one morning after dropping my son off for school I swung by the property and saw the trucks and guys working. I stood and watched them work for a while. I'm sure they thought I was crazy. It was about 40 degrees, SUPER windy, which makes the cold a million times worse and I was in a t-shirt and basketball shorts. I always appreciate watching people do a good job at whatever they are trained to do. These guys worked fast and as a team. I chatted with them for a bit and then had to get home and get back to what I needed to get done.

I was happy to see one truck.

When the other one showed up and they were pouring at the same time I was pretty impressed with the teamwork from these guys.

They had a really cool way of getting the grade. They had big nails with "L" shaped brackets secured to them at a certain height and the bracket fit right into a long aluminum thing in the shape of a 2x4 that was about 10 feet long.

Before even half of the concrete had been poured they were working on smoothing it out.

Started turning white as it dried out.

A day later they came back and cut some lines in the concrete.

This was 5 days ago. No news on the next steps. Lumber should be next and framing but we have started looking at fixtures for plumbing so they can start to frame it out correctly.

Hopefully they'll start the framing soon. We were told the framers that our general contractor uses are the best in the area but that they were a few weeks out. This was back at the time we met to order our windows and exterior doors so maybe in the next week or two. I'm hoping! When not much goes it feels like things are dragging out from day to day, which made the last 2 weeks, a slow 2 weeks!

Wrapping up the framing - Plumbing and HVAC

Garage is open and now that the framing is done they uncovered the windows. The final awnings were being built. Final set of awnings are now over the garage. Blue roofing material went on parts of the roof this week. I imagine it should be done by the end of next week. We showed up and found a bunch of mechanical heating/cooling equipment in the garage early in the week. We changed the stain color for our beams to Dark Oak with the tongue and groove being stained at 50% of the same color so we have some contrast. More of the roof. Most recent photo of the front of the house. Back porch is done. See the pictures below for the process. Picture from the inside with the upper wall still open. Picture from the upstairs bedroom looking into the backyard and onto the new pack patio/porch. Chimney was added! Heating/cooling and plumbing coming along nicely below the house. In the crawl space it is clear that they've been working but not much to show in the actual house as of yet. T...

Here we go again!

Trusses arrived today! This was the first of two loads! That's a lot of trusses. This week, in preparation for the trusses the crew came out for a few days to get some of the upstairs done that didn't need the truesses. This is looking from the great room into the kitchen and above the kitchen and front room we have some bedrooms. They started the staircase and I noticed that under the landing there was A TON of wasted space. See above and below. I asked our builder about in and she said she'd talk with the crew. The steel beam arrived for the garage. It is very big. The crew finished the stairs and opened it up BIG TIME! I was super happy about this. It increased the storage in our house dramatically. I'm six feet tall and can walk into the farthest back part of this closet standing straight up. IT IS AWESOME!!! More closet. Where the ladders are stored is about 6 feet tall! Landing on the staircase. Down this hall will be another bedroom and a loft and my music roo...

Foundation Prep

The soil on our lot was not great for a foundation so we had to dig a deep hole and then back fill it with soil that can compact well enough to support the house. We had to put 3 feet of backfill in! We watched them bring load after load of dirt and then smooth it out and compact it and then do it all over again until the full 3 feet were filled in. Last night I took my daughter up there after soccer practice and we walked around on the final grade. Footings and forms should be going up next week!

Building A Farmhouse - Our Custom Home Construction

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