The cup runneth over!!

Writing this blog somehow seems to have a positive effect on the building process.  Every time I have posted, there has then been a flurry of activity.  Thanks to the powers that be!  It has been a very busy week and I can hardly keep up with the day to day changes going on at the property.  I'm uploading new pictures every day.  

The main purpose in writing this blog is so that our family far away can see the progress on the house and so that someday if we ever decide to build again we can read this and change our minds we can look back on it and see how it all came together.  I have been posting the updates on Facebook, but I may stop doing that.  If you still want to keep up with what we are doing you can always subscribe.  :-)

Some people wonder why we are building this house in the first place.  We just have two kids at home now, one of which will be gone in a year (sniff.)  It will be a big place for the three of us left.  However, our intention is that eventually those kids will want to come back (wait, are we crazy to want them to come back?) and bring their kids.  Rather than have a vacation house somewhere, we decided that we just wanted to make our home... home.  That and the horse thing.  My dad should have known all those years ago that when I touched that first big velvet nose I was a goner!

So, here's the progress beginning Friday April 27:

The poison ivy is back.  I learned that you can't use a weed-eater on it.  You can't burn it.
You can use brush killer on it but you might hurt the tree.  I can tell that this is
going to be an on-going saga...

This is what the ground looks like below the concrete of a pier and beam foundation system

This is what happens when workers aren't careful with their power equipment.
Yep, those are plumbing lines.

Wednesday May 2:

Here's the repair.  You bet I am keeping track!

Here's Susie checking out the set-up:  Ready for concrete!

On Wednesday May 3, our project manager, who is a very young guy, called me.  When I saw his name on my caller ID I wondered... what now?  But he was just calling ME because Jim was out of town and he had to tell SOMEONE that they were going to pour the concrete the next day.  He was very excited.  I thought it was cute.

On Thursday morning, as Robert and I were watching for the bus from the front window of our current house, we saw a cement truck drive by on the main street by our neighborhood.  I said, "I wonder if that is going to our property."  He hopped on the bus and I hopped in the car.... and sho nuff...

When I got there, there were 8 cement trucks on site.
The foreman told me they had ordered 20 trucks.

What a glorious sight!  The hallelujah chorus was playing in my head.

It really was amazing to watch this team work together.  Everyone had a specific job.

I wasn't quite as close as this picture appears, but when I started to get splattered
by concrete I decided I should probably step back a bit...

These pictures were taken at about 8:20 am.  They told me the concrete would be
completely poured by 10:30 am and hard enough to walk on by 4 pm.

I'll bet you didn't know that it takes about 3 1/2 minutes to empty a cement truck.
I found this online when I googled...The average capacity of a standard cement mixer truck is around 8-9 cubic yards (216-243) cubic feet. Lots of people think that it is 9 cubic yards, hence the expression "the whole nine yards."

Later that day...

Monday May 7:

The wood is delivered!

Rooms marked off with treated lumber

Today, May 8, 2012... I was very surprised when I drove up and saw how much they had actually framed!  

It is going to be hard to take pictures that actually mean anything to anyone else for awhile since they all look basically the same.  

Tomorrow we meet with the builder to talk about how things are progressing... as in what might be a projected completion date.  Not that we're anxious or anything!

The glass is half __________

If only Jim knew how to blog, he would be able to give better updates than I do.  As hard as I try, sometimes I end up being the "glass half empty" person and I focus on the fact that we are 3 months behind schedule and I miss all the little signs of progress.  For awhile, I was beginning to think that I needed to title a post:  "They know how to build houses in SEATTLE" because every time it rained nothing would get done for a week while we waited for everything to dry out.. just in time for it to rain again.  I tend to want to micromanage things and so it was all I could do to keep quiet.  I hope our builder appreciates the silence.  (While I was screaming in my head.)  

Here's a chronicle of the last few weeks: 

Robert checking out the heavy equipment. Thankfully there were no keys onboard.  People who don't do this for a living shouldn't mess around...  (When we built our house in Virginia someone started up the backhoe and couldn't figure out how to turn it off.)

This is all of the underground plumbing.  Someday I might want to look back and see where it all began.  Or maybe not....

Here is is all covered up and ready for the rebar and concrete,
as of April 26, 2012

After the recent tornadoes in the area, some people have asked if we are putting in a tornado shelter.  Well, this is our storage area below ground level, which is accessed through the garage.  So, I guess we have a tornado shelter by default and these photos from a few miles away make me very glad that we decided to put in the extra storage.

yes, that is a semi truck flying through the air.

This is the sewer line that runs all the way across the property

This shows the buried sewer line and how green everything is after all the rain

Mud.

More mud.  This is where the first concrete has to be poured, and that can't be done until it is dry.

Once it finally did dry out, this is how they prepared the foundation.  

After 2 weeks of waiting...

Yes!  We finally have concrete!  I never thought a piece of cement could make me so happy.  It's the little things, right?  This was poured on April 26, 2012.

Three's the charm... it took 3 tries to get our stone selection right.  We're going with the one in the middle.  Not sure about brick colors yet.

 So that's the progress.  It should take about 2 more weeks to get the foundation finished and then the walls can start going up.  The forecast is for dry weather and less screaming in my head!  All around me will appreciate that.

What can be accomplished with a little good weather?

A couple of days after I last posted (complaining) we went to the property and the forms for the foundation had appeared:

We were so relieved that we were actually started on THE HOUSE.  Well, that was enough to open the heavens and we just had the 9th wettest March on record!  3 inches of rain in one week and 5 inches in one day the next week.  Progress barely creeped along.

muddy foundation

Critters creeped around...

Raccoon tracks in the mud.  Right through the kitchen, no less.

Our resident hawk ate dinner on the front lawn.

The outhouse house was built...

Well at least it adds some privacy from the front!

And we waited.  And wondered why on earth couldn't someone do some actual work!!!  Well, it turns out that rain is a lovely thing unless you are trying to drive a 35 ton cement truck onto mud.  Yes, I looked it up.  That is how much a fully loaded  cement truck weighs.  And, since we brought in truckload after truckload of dirt... we now had lots and lots of mud.

Thankfully, we have had a nice dry spell over the last 11 to 12 days and progress has been made.  I never thought I would be so glad to see a cement truck but my heart actually made a little leap the day I drove up and saw this:

And this is what they had done:  

Drilled and filled 72 18 inch wide, 10-12 feet deep piers.  Messed up the nice flat foundation, but what do I know?  According to the builder, they hit water 10 feet down (what a surprise) and so they had to do some "extra engineering that cost them an extra couple thousand dollars" so the foundation would be totally stable.  We are grateful that they did the right thing!

The next tasks:  digging out the storage room that will be accessed off the garage and laying all the underground plumbing and electrical pipes:

Please notice the glorious sunshine!

This is what happens when a backhoe digs through the buried electric line.
No, it can't be fixed with electrical tape.

That is a really looooong sewer line.  

Trying to figure out which pipes are which is a bit of a puzzle, but this looks
like the powder room and guest bathroom downstairs.

And bringing.... MORE DIRT.  Every newly dug swimming pool in North Texas is contributing to our building project!  

We usually spend some time walking around the property every day.  It is now knee deep in grass and weeds wherever there isn't dirt.  Susie loves to come and explore with us:

She's really not too much of an outdoor girl... other than
almost daily walks around the neighborhood sidewalks.
So going to the property and being a "farm dog" is quite
exciting for her and she is usually exhausted afterwards.

And no leash!  

it is hard to remember how far we've come.  So in remembrance:

Here's the little old house as it looked last summer and the way the same location looks today.  When all that dirt gets smoothed out it will make a great riding area or more pasture.  The builder thinks we might actually finish up the house in late September or early October.  Here's to a few months of good weather!

The View From Here

You have to look closely, but Robert is actually up in this tree.  It's a good thing I wasn't at the property when he was up there because I would have done that mom thing and freaked out.  

Here's the view from where he was:

That is Joe down there in the white shorts.

I know that kids have to be kids and I am thrilled for them to have the space to do it in but I still get that pit in my stomach whenever I look at these pictures.  The thought crossed my mind to inquire into some sort of protective gear if they are going to continue climbing the trees.  I know that would go over really well!!  But you can't blame me for caring... and not wanting to end up in the emergency room with a mangled child.  Enough on that line of thought since it is stressing me out.

Generally, the view over at Golden Gate has not changed drastically over the last 5 weeks.  I promise that one of these times you will get to see pictures of more than just dirt and trees and more dirt.....

Oh, well, here's a picture of dirt with Jim in it!  Showing that they have been moving the dirt piles to build up the foundation since the lot slopes from front to back.  It has taken THREE WEEKS to get this done. They are at least 24 days late getting the foundation started.  Construction hours allowed by the city are 7 am to 9 pm Monday through Saturday.  It has become clear that those are not our builders' hours!!  If you suspect a bit of frustration in my tone you would be correct.  

Surprising as it may be, the CITY actually did their project of cleaning out the creek bed in a timely manner!  The (suspected beaver) dam is gone and now the water can freely flow through our bend of the creek if it so chooses.  Some rain would help it but would also slow the snail-like pace of the building site, so I'm not asking for rain right now.  The turtles are still at home along with regular visits from a great blue heron and a flock of geese.  

The other project that has been completed is the thinning and clean out of the trees on the opposite side of the creek.  This time done with a tree permit and the city's blessing...until the neighbor behind these trees called the police.  Rather than fight another battle, we decided to leave the back part more natural and so they don't have to see us and we don't have to see them:

The plan is to put a bridge across the creek at some point in our landscaping so that we can go over there without having to wade through the mud and/or water.  It is a nice little piece of land.  (We hope the neighbors won't call the police on us when we're over there.)  You can see how the grass is greening up nicely as it has been so warm here lately.  At least SPRING is on schedule, if not a little early!  (hint, hint.)


Here's hoping it won't be another 5 weeks before I have some actual building progress to report.