Recently in Early Construction Category
Tim Carico sent me some pictures he's taken along the process. Maybe I'll share some of the earlier ones later, but it's late tonight so I'm not going to post them all now. I did want to get the ones up that he took today, 29 September, showing the progress putting up walls in the great room. The guy in the picture is Sherman Davis, the builder. Looks pretty good doesn't it? It's getting more exciting every day.
Bev and I went up on the 27th to check out the progress. The power company has the conduit from the house site down to the pole and has started pulling the line through the conduit. The framing of the first floor bedrooms, baths and laundry room are done. Here are some pictures. The first picture shows Bev and I having our first meal in the dining area.
Bev and I went up to the property on the 12th. We were eager to see the progress. The power company had begun to bury the conduit for the lines, the posts had been put up in the basement, more joists were in as were more beams. There are also bonus pictures, one of me with my friend and photographer Randy Taylor and another of our friends, Jerry and Jennette Morris. Enjoy ..
The big excitement from the pictures on the 8th was arrival of the power company materails. Floor joists and beams are being added. Here are pictures thanks to Randy.
Jerry and Jeanette Morris took some pictures in the early excavation stages. The pics were on their camera and I got them off this weekend. Thought I would share some of them with you.
After the masons got the two courses of block added, the builders put the band back on. Here are a couple of pictures from August 28th.
The builders proposed erecting some of the basement walls shown on the plans as future walls to function as load bearing walls and omitting the metal posts in the plans. The issue focused on the plans calling for the posts to go through the slab and put weight directly on the footers rather than rest on top of the slab. The slab had been poured over the footers rather than around the footers as it should have been done, so at that point the closest thing to the designed method would be cutting or drilling through the slab so the posts could rest on the footer. I insisted on the posts resting on the footer based on advice of an engineer who indicated that to allow the weight of the house to bear on the walls that were not designed to be load bearing would likely cause major cracks in the slab. The builders also raised a question related to the plans calling for yellow pine floor joists. I understood the builders' concern with yellow pine twisting and bowing more than other spicies of wood so I concurred in the builders substituting other types of lumber for the joists, studs, sill and top plates. I got some pictures of deer at Randy's house on September 2nd but the next pictures I received of the house were from September 4th. They show the stairway walls in the basement and some floor joists for the first floor. Here are some of those.
It's been a while since I posted. We've had some set backs, but now appear to be again making progress. Bev and I along with our friends, Gwen and Bruce Bronson, went up to the property on Sunday, August 23rd. Some pictures from the 23rd follow.
I measured the basement walls and discovered that they were 7" 9" where they were supposed to be 8' 9". I called the builder and after some discussion it was determined they had to add another course of 8" blocks and a course of cap blocks. They had to remove the band which had already been installed and get the masonary contractor back. The masons couldn't come back until Wednesday the 26th. Here are some pictures from the 26th.
Randy sent these two pictures on the 21st. They poured the floor on the 20th and put the band on the 21st. Looks pretty good doesn't it? They're going to frame the stairs up to the main floor Monday and do floor joists after that. The walls around the stairs and the basement mechanical room are load bearing so they have to do those before doing the main level flooring. Bev and I will probably go up to see everything first hand on Sunday. Seems like a long drive for only a short time, but I really want to be there and feel the aura of it.
It rained in the afternoon so they didn't make a lot of progress. They did get the concrete in the walls and that was the main thing for today. I try to stay positive and excited. Slow progress is still progress. Randy is still providing the pictures and we really appreciate his help. His emails are humorous and he's very dependable. We look forward to his updates every night.
