And...anothuh notch!

Day 4 of framing: they've begun work on the upper floor. The stairs have been put in, so now we can get to all three floors.


the stairs


my kitchen (not huge, but hopefully what we need)


the front door, and above that, Rebekah and Sarah's room.

Taking framing to a new level

Progress continued on the house today, as they began working on the main level.

Second day of framing

Framing underway

Out at the street, a new sign appeared to advertise the newest phase of building...


The crews were hard at work today, beginning to frame the basement level. We already needed to correct a few minor errors, such as not leaving room for the duct work in putting the door headers too high.
And here we caught them putting up the frame with the opening for the window too high on the wall (it should be the same level as the door).

Here is where my washer and dryer will go!

Oops!

While the truck delivering the dumpster was backing (!) all the way down the long driveway from the street, he accidentally plowed over the orange cone atop a sewer tap (on our neighbor's property). You can see how the tire tracks go right next to the pipe.

Thankfully, they are willing to make amends for this problem, and doubly thankfully, it has not caused any sewer backups or problems for our neighbors!

A secret garden...

While we were at the house site, Sarah and I began creating her little "secret" garden. I guess she "needed a bit of earth" like Mary did in The Secret Garden.

Basement floor is finished!

Looking into the garage...and Sarah shows by her height, the height of the walls along the back, northwest side of the house.

The orange lines on the back of the concrete are to where the waterproofing needs to go. Next week, the grader should come out to backfill in next to the walls. The sewer and water have both been hooked up (although the plumbers need to come out and connect the house to the sewer/water hookups now). Once the waterproofing and grading are done, then we're on to framing!

Pouring the Basement Floor

The concrete company was out finishing the basement floor today. We got there just as they were finishing up. They washed off the wheels and sides of the cement truck and drove away.







You can see the basement area before the concrete was poured; the indented areas are thickened parts of the slab to provide extra support where there will be the most weight from the house.
















This last picture shows the finished floor -- all grey and shiny.

Rough Plumbing

Okay, the rough plumbing is in, inspected (and passed!). Next week, termite treatment and pouring of the slab.

We have a basement!

The basement walls were poured on Tuesday afternoon, and the forms were removed yesterday. They look great!

Today the plumbers are out doing the rough plumbing work, and the inspection for that should be on Friday.

We need to decide on soil termite treatments before they pour the slab floor sometime next week.

So far, we're on schedule.

A little progress on the basement

Friday the rain let up enough for them to begin putting up the forms for the basement walls. They haven't poured any concrete for that yet, but hopefully that will happen soon (if the weather holds).