I'm traveling this week, which is a good thing because I'd probably want to drive up every day to check on progress. :) I'm told the lumber will be delivered on Monday, and the framing will start on Tuesday. There's no rain in the forecast all week, so even if they are delayed a couple days there should be SOMETHING to see on our usual Friday evening trip up there.
Here's all the little bits I haven't updated on individually...as I think I left off with the rough plumbing.
After that the concrete guys started on the post tension engineered slab. In a post tension slab system, steel cables are criss-crossed throughout the foundation area before the concrete is poured. Then after the concrete is poured and begins to cure, the cables are tightened to add tension and strengthen the slab, making it even more solid than it would normally be. While traditional re-bar helps hold the foundation together to minimize cracks, the cable tension grid provides active reinforcement to the slab to help eliminate nearly all concrete cracks. But here's what it looked like:
And here's what it looked like during the pour - pictures courtesy of our builder! We were so excited to see this big step in real time!! You can tell how early they must have started based on the sun just starting to rise here and most of the concrete is already poured! The concrete guys were awesome - ahead of their schedule - whereas every other trade has either started late, not showed up at all... you get the idea. We told our builder to see if the concrete guys know how to do framing and plumbing and electrical. :)
How I wish Tate could have been there to see the concrete truck! So cool!
And here's the finished concrete product AND final grading around the houses!
We'll try to take a family pic at our front door every step of the way.
After a lot of research and debate, we decided not to move the giant cedars that were right behind the houses. We intended to use them as privacy screen along the back of the property line, but experts gave us only a 50/50 survival rate and said "if it costs money, don't do it - cedars are overgrown weeds." our builder had been telling us that since the beginning, but he hates cedars so we felt his opinion wasn't objective. oh well, now that they're gone you get a much better sense for the back yard size, (and slope)! The slope is what we were trying to avoid, but given all the foundation/soil engineering nonsense, this is where we landed. It's definitely manageable to play, though we'll probably have many a ball rolling into our rear neighbors yard. The bigger issue is figuring out how to get a pool in there without spending a million gajillion dollars on retaining walls.
The slope doesn't seem as bad looking down from the other side of the lot (from inside mom and dad's house):
And mom, dad, and the nugget on their front steps too. They've been working hard lately - don't they look great?!
So I hope to have some really exciting photos to share next week with something that's starting to resemble the shape of a house!
Here's all the little bits I haven't updated on individually...as I think I left off with the rough plumbing.
After that the concrete guys started on the post tension engineered slab. In a post tension slab system, steel cables are criss-crossed throughout the foundation area before the concrete is poured. Then after the concrete is poured and begins to cure, the cables are tightened to add tension and strengthen the slab, making it even more solid than it would normally be. While traditional re-bar helps hold the foundation together to minimize cracks, the cable tension grid provides active reinforcement to the slab to help eliminate nearly all concrete cracks. But here's what it looked like:
And here's what it looked like during the pour - pictures courtesy of our builder! We were so excited to see this big step in real time!! You can tell how early they must have started based on the sun just starting to rise here and most of the concrete is already poured! The concrete guys were awesome - ahead of their schedule - whereas every other trade has either started late, not showed up at all... you get the idea. We told our builder to see if the concrete guys know how to do framing and plumbing and electrical. :)
How I wish Tate could have been there to see the concrete truck! So cool!
And here's the finished concrete product AND final grading around the houses!
After a lot of research and debate, we decided not to move the giant cedars that were right behind the houses. We intended to use them as privacy screen along the back of the property line, but experts gave us only a 50/50 survival rate and said "if it costs money, don't do it - cedars are overgrown weeds." our builder had been telling us that since the beginning, but he hates cedars so we felt his opinion wasn't objective. oh well, now that they're gone you get a much better sense for the back yard size, (and slope)! The slope is what we were trying to avoid, but given all the foundation/soil engineering nonsense, this is where we landed. It's definitely manageable to play, though we'll probably have many a ball rolling into our rear neighbors yard. The bigger issue is figuring out how to get a pool in there without spending a million gajillion dollars on retaining walls.
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| Nugget's marking the middle of the yard for my picture. :) He's always willing to help! |
The slope doesn't seem as bad looking down from the other side of the lot (from inside mom and dad's house):
So I hope to have some really exciting photos to share next week with something that's starting to resemble the shape of a house!
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