Day 15 - Basement walls poured

The weather cooperated nicely today and the foundation crew finished putting the forms up, adding the rebar, and was ready for the concrete to be poured by 2:00 PM. Hopefully the Derecho (very strong thunderstorm with high straight-line winds) that they are predicting tonight weakens and we don't get too much rain so that they can take the forms off tomorrow. Here are some pictures during and after the work from the day.

Foundation crew finishing up the forms.

Front view.

Concrete poured by the garage opening.

Partition between garage doors.

Not exactly sure what these brackets are but I am guessing they are used to hold the frame.

Inside and below where the fireplace will go.

Step in foundation for the walk-out basement doors.

Retaining wall sloped foundation.

Front porch.

Day 14 - Wall forms

The foundation crew actually was able to start working this morning despite the wet and muddy conditions. They actually pumped out a lot of the water around the house and had a lot done by lunchtime.

When we got to the house around lunchtime, Steve had some questions for us regarding the walkout basement. The way the land slopes and will be graded requires that we either increase the slope of the grading or wrap the dirt around to the back of the house some to allow the yard to flow well. This is on the opposite side of the house where the retaining wall is. The impact of wrapping the lawn around the back of the house is that it requires that our windows on that side of the basement not be as tall. They are currently 72" tall windows but will need to be shrunk to 48" tall. To make it flow well, all windows in the basement will be scaled down to 48" tall, but we are increasing the window width from 36" wide to 40" wide. This will help offset the height reduction some and allow as much light to get in as possible. This is especially important since this is the north facing side of the house.

Now it is just a race to finish setting the forms and rebar and getting the concrete poured before the rain is supposed to start Wednesday evening. I think it should work out...

Setting up the forms.

Wall forms.

Overhead shot of wall forms.

Side view.

Inside of wall forms. I am assuming that the bracing is for the rebar to rest on.

Flooded footer.

View from the front of the house.

Day 13 - Rain Delay

So after a pretty decent weekend, the rain decided that it would come on Sunday night and rain off and on all day today keeping the foundation crew from doing anything today. So we still have all of the forms on pallets on our lot but not a single one has been put up. The corrugated black tubing for the drain tile has been delivered and some half forms for the garage area. Hopefully the ground will dry up quickly and they can get all of the forms set before the next rain on Wednesday.

Wet ground keeping the foundation crew away...

Half forms for garage foundation walls.

Corrugated black tubing for the drain tile.

Day 8 - Nothing Much

Not much happened today. A couple more pallets of forms were delivered for the walls, but the foundation crew was on another job, so no work was done today. Hopefully they will start putting up the forms and rebar tomorrow. It will take a full day and maybe a day and a half to get everything setup before they can pour the concrete into the forms. Sure hope the chance for rain that the weathermen are calling for is low. Apparently the foundation crew can work if there is just a little rain but not if it is a downpour and the ground gets muddy. It is more for the workers safety than the concrete setting. So without any updates for the day, here are a couple of pictures from Day 6 that my uncle took:

A picture of me taking pictures.

Jake, king of the mountain!

Me and my dad.

My mom and the kids.

Family fun.

Day 7 - Gravel Poured and Wall Forms Delivered

This is just a short post showing the updates from today. Not a ton happened...gravel was poured where the slab for the basement will be poured. Also, the forms for the basement walls were delivered with the hopes that tomorrow they can be put in place, rebar added, and walls poured. If not, then it may not be until Monday until they can pour the walls. So here are the pictures from today:

Gravel poured for basement floor and the many wall forms.

View from the side.

View at basement level.

Pallet of wall forms.

Day 6 - Footers Poured

Today was the perfect day for foundation work. Footers were poured and the forms removed by the end of the day. Here are some pictures from the days work.

Footer showing the drainage pipes.

Footer by the garage dropping down to the basement.

Rebar for the retaining wall that is needed because of the over-elevated house next door.

Retaining wall.

Bump-out for where the fireplace will go.

Zoomed out view of footers looking toward the front of the house.

Pads for the structural columns of the house.

Pads for the deck.

Front porch footers.

Tomorrow, the plan is to fill gravel where the slab will be poured for the basement floor. We are also hoping that the forms for the walls will be delivered so that they can pour the walls on Wednesday. We will post more pictures as things change at our house.

Day 3 - Not much...

Well, the order of the day is rain. Which is fine since the inspector for the footers was fully booked today and won't be ready till Monday. Since Monday is supposed to be beautiful, this works out perfect!

Rainy view while I work...

I'm the meantime, check out some other pics from the first couple of days...

First actual hole.

Enlarging the hole.

Finished product.

Jake decided that he would rather come to the dig site than go swimming...that's a true boy for ya!

So awesome seeing our kids make friends even before any walls are up!

Jake and his new friend Ty.

Day 2 - Finished Rough Excavation

Here are some pictures from the finished rough excavation. Things went really smoothly today which was great! Apparently, most of the houses in the area had tons of rocks that had to be dug out which really slows down the excavation. Our lot had hardly any rocks and actually had a lot of good topsoil. Our excavator Mike did an excellent job making the backyard flat all the way to the woods. During the excavation, we had to lose 5 trees that was in the back yard and discovered that we will need a retaining wall on the right side of the house where the house-on-a-mountain is. Despite these issues, I think the back of the house will turn out great. Enjoy the pics...

View looking towards the back of the house.

View looking towards the front of the house.

Kids having fun running in our future basement...

The footers for the garage wall of our side-entry garage.

Side view looking where the garage slab will be.

Day 1 - First Dig Pictures

So at last, we finally have begun the construction of our house. On May 29, 2013, the first layer of sod was broken and by the end of the day there was a partial hole in the back corner of the house. It took a while to get started because of an issue with the house to the right of our house. Apparently, the house was built on ground 4 feet higher than it should have been and they had to figure out the best way to grade our lot to make sure drainage would not be a problem. This cost us a couple of hours and the first dig didn't start until about 4:00 PM.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Carrie and kids going for a walk while we wait for them to start.

Still waiting...

Discussing the issues with the excavation...the offending house is in the picture.

Bulldozer ready to be unloaded.

Survey equipment to make sure they dig to the right depth.

Clearing the rest of the brush so they can start...

The (almost) first dig.

Sod mostly cleared.

 That is all of the pictures from the first day. Pictures from day 2 and the completion of the rough excavation will be up shortly.