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!

Foundations

One of the things I really want is a big, open garage. We planned it all out in the drawings but recently we heard back from the structural engineer that they will have to put a post/column in the middle of the garage. We talked with our builder about what could be done. She asked about a bigger truss but the truss guy says that they can't build a bigger truss. We decided to pay the engineer to do the math and see if a large steel beam could be used because according to our builder she doesn't expect the beam to add that much cost, if its possible. The engineer is currently working on seeing if its possible. If it is possible they will likely have to make the footings bigger and that would add concrete cost but overall the cost can't be predicted until the engineer updates his plans. Once the plans are updated our builder can let us know about costs and at that point we can decide if the increase cost is worth it or not. I feel that paying an engineer a little mo...

Cranes and Trusses

The crane was scheduled for Tuesday so on Monday they got things ready. Early Tuesday morning they were cranking. Here's the crane from far away. The crane in action. View of the back dinning room. Great room with trusses. Great room as seen from the entry way. The upstairs bedrooms were done with this little perch of what became a hallway. This is the "before" so you can appreciate the after. They put the trusses on the upstairs bedrooms over the entryway and you can see that below. Trusses over the main living area and some of the trusses over the garage where there is some more living space. The crane was rented for 5 hours on Tuesday and this is what they got done. They will get the crane again this week and they are hoping to be done with the trusses at that point. They put up the front, east facing, wall of the hallway. Same thing from inside the garage. Back, west facing, wall of the hallway was done. Starting to push out over the garage. This...

Ugggghhhhh...

This was a text exchange with our builder from 2 weeks ago...COVID is essentially over but we're still dealing with the effects... A week after the text above this was done. They really only put the joists above the kitchen, dinning room and the formal living room area and finished the plywood walls. Above is a picture from the entrance hall looking through the main living area (where we will have vaulted ceilings) and into the dinning room/kitchen area. Kitchen looking into the dinning room. Stairs will go here. Front of the garage. You can see the stairwell poking up behind the garage. Full frontal... Looking from the dinning area down the hall to the master. Wood burning fireplace will go between those windows. Looking at the main living area from the kitchen. Looking from the house out into the garage. Same as above just panned right. Exterior garage. In all likelihood nothing will really change until the week of June 14th-18th and from there I bet it'll be a...

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