All in a day's work

Rick: "I did all this!"

I have been told by many people that the initial stages of building moves very quickly.  I still had no idea how much could change in just one day.

Starting at 7:30 this morning, Rick, Ted and the framing crew of 4 men took a 750 pound steel beam (deceptively small looking in my mind considering how much it weighed) from a trailer and lifted it into place on the second floor.  Since my brawn was not needed I took pictures instead and worried for them all.  They got it into place with no injuries, but I imagine they will all wake up tomorrow feeling their efforts from today.

This is the final place for the beam.  Never to be seen again, buried in the floor.

Here it is in the ceiling of the dining room.

After the beam was in place, the framing crew quickly finished laying the floor joists and subfloor for the second floor.  They spent the rest of their day finishing the exterior walls on that floor.

While they worked on the house, a different group arrived to put in the septic system.  A small excavator and skid steer dug the hole for the peat system and then filled it in with the sand that a couple of dump trucks dropped off.  Then, a large flatbed truck arrived with a crane to place the 2 tanks in the ground.  After that, more dump trucks arrived delivering the gravel that goes on top of the sand bed that they had dug.  All of that to say, there was a LOT going on today!

Watching from the 'living room window'

Gravel bed for the septic

The next level

The men began laying the second floor today!  They were only able to do half of it because they are waiting on the steel beam to be delivered tomorrow.  The beam is necessary to provide the support for our open floor plan.  And yesterday, a different group of men poured the garage and porch floors.

Above, is a picture of the controversial porch door and living room windows (now in their permanent places).  After much debate, we opted to make the kitchen a little smaller in order have a larger living room.  These are tough decisions for me as I attempt to find a balance between everything.....

The boys were given some left over lumber and spent
the afternoon "building".

This is our cool, shaded porch this afternoon!

And....

Just

like

that....

....we have walls!

During lunch, one of the concrete guys played a little one-on-one with Zach.

Welcome to our new home!  (We are standing at the front door.)

Setting up

This week, was a lot of set up for the framing to begin and for the concrete floors in the garage and porch to be poured.  Trucks came and went unloading their products, providing the boys with plenty of entertainment.  Rick started grading around the house and in the garage.  The foundation was sprayed for termites and the center beam under the house was put in place.  Rick, Ted and John were able to start working on the floor joists yesterday.  I had big decisions to make with the windows (interior and exterior color, grids vs no grids) so that Rick could place the order for them. 

Added a few blocks

Over the weekend the masons arrived and laid the blocks for the foundation.  They did almost the entire house in a day but then came back today to finish the porch, fireplace and front steps.  This week Rick should be able to start framing!  

A Strong Foundation

Two concrete mixers came today and filled the footers that were dug on Monday.  

It is very difficult to get homeschool done when you have such excitement going on outside 

but somehow we managed to do both.

Broken Ground

Yesterday, with permit finally in hand, Rick broke ground on the new house!  A backhoe-loader came and made rather quick work of digging for the crawl space and footers.  Today, they put the rods in the footers so that after they pass inspection this afternoon they can pour concrete tomorrow.... (exciting stuff, huh?!?)

Rick and Ted

Marcus LOVED the backhoe-loader!
It must be a boy thing...

Footer dug.  Awaiting inspection so they can pour concrete.

Our Building Project

Our Empty Lot

I figure if you've found your way to this blog you are interested in how our house is coming along.  I will try to keep the posts short and with plenty of pictures.

Our contractor, Rick, did the Batter Boards for our new house two weeks ago (August 28, 2013).  After much debate, we settled on the location of the house in relation to the road, septic and neighbors.  We will be a little closer to the road than I would have initially liked (65 feet) but it gives us a much nicer back yard (which is really where I want the kids playing anyway).

Batter Boards