almost out of the ground...

this week, the formwork for our foundation walls was nearly complete. all that's left to do is install the anchor bolts within the formwork. the anchor bolts are cast into the foundation and then the wood framing is screwed into them, thereby anchoring the house into the ground. what you see above are metal forms, shored up by the long 2x's leaning in. these 2x's have spring-loaded adjusters (i don't know the techncial term for these) at the ends, so that the walls can be very precisely adjusted and straightened. inside the metal forms is our network of steel rebar, specified by our engineer. and by the looks of this network, i say bring on the extreme winds because this baby is going to outlast the cockroaches.

above is our footing drain. this is a perforated pipe that runs around the perimeter of the foundation to drain water away from the house.

this is a view of the house site from the back yard. the finished floor will be just below where that top 2x is located (about 12" below the top of those forms). once it's backfilled (after the framing goes up), and we move some earth around, the finished floor inside will ideally be at the same level as the yard.


and this is the view from the driveway, facing the garage door. not really all that informative at this time, but i just thought it was a cool picture.

footings

don't have much time to post now, but i'd thought i'd get some of these up before our next post, which will hopefully be sunday night, when we will have full foundation walls! these are our footings, which is what the walls are attached to through what is called a keyhole (a groove cast into the footings, and this steel rebar sticking out of the footings.

that's billy, checking things out in the distance, with bill our mason, who works with another guy named bill.

and this is our work permit. woop woop.

A Hole

We learned this week that the entire property is rock. All of it. A big thanks to Walter for surviving a full week of hammering. Above is the massive hole for the foundation, with a tiny Nina peering over the edge. The near end of the hole will be our garage, and the far end will be the full basement. The dirt to the left will be terraced up to our rear patio. To the right of the hole will be the stairs to the front door. Here's another view of the hole...


In some ways, having all that rock was a blessing. The driveway that was in place when we purchased the lot stopped well short of the garage. We were able to use the excavated shale for the driveway extension. See below...


This is looking across the new portion of the driveway. The house will sit on top of the hill on the other side of the driveway.

It wasn't just the house site that needed hammering. Check out these pictures of the electric/phone/cable trench. It runs through the section of the property that's all pine trees, then follows the driveway up toward the house.


We also hammered out trenches for the septic lines and another big hole for the septic tank. A lot was accomplished last week.

Well, that's about it for this installment of Bill + Nina's Excellent Adventure. We're hopeful that we'll see a lot more progress this week. Walter's trying to get all the septic pipes, electric and phone cables, and conduits layed this week so he can close up the trenches. What's even more exciting is that he'll be placing the forms that will be used for the foundation. Our local architect will hopefully meet us on site this weekend to give his approval. It's possible that we could have our foundation in less than two weeks!

Thanks for reading. See you soon.

progress

hi. here's the hole in the ground as it looked on saturday. walter's breaking out the hammer this week, so next week this photo will look drastically different.

below is a pan of our future backyard and pool area. walter has been gradually thinning out the small trees and underbrush, exposing the rocks and moss that give the property its character. have a look...

stack o wood below.

that's all for now.

groundbreaking

When we went up to check on progress this past Saturday, we arrived to find the beginnings of a giant hole in the ground. The photo above is taken from the same vantage as the first photo of last week's post, and from now on, this will be my weekly photo spot from which we'll be able to mark our progress. I am trying my best to mark the corners of the house, as it is really difficult to gauge from the photo. Billy + Walter are standing at the southwest corner, and the big orange piece of equipment is pretty much at the northwest corner. The right side of the photo shows the backyard area where the pool will eventually go. Whenever that might happen. Here's a view of everything as you come up the driveway:

Below is a photo taken from the southwest corner looking east.

As the trees get thinned out, a lot of the shale outcroppings are being exposed, and they look amazing. Hopefully all the moss will be able to survive after the trees are gone (moss thrives in the shade). The big dirt hole above is a good sign - that means no rock and therefore no expensive laborious hammering required for excavation...in that spot. Walter did hit some rock on the west side of the home site, but so far he thinks it's shale and will therefore crumble pretty easily. The good news is that we only need full basement space enough for our mechanicals (which won't be a problem to get), and so, if there is too much rock as the excavation moves north, we'll just make the rest of the basement a crawl space.

We'll be in London this week, and therefore won't be up to visit the site on Saturday, so check back the first week of May for more progress, when hopefully there will be a more recognizable building-shaped hole in the ground.

HURRICANE WALTER!

Despite what you see above, there was no actual hurricane. Last week, our G.C. (general contractor), Walter Heitmann (above), officially began work on our site. We had met with him previously to go through and mark which trees go, and which stay. The above photo was taken looking at the home site, looking northwest. Clearing is a delicate process because once you cut a tree down, you can't put it back. Obviously we'll need to clear the immediate area around the footprint of the house. As for the surrounding area, we don't want some huge artificial clearing, but we'd like to clear enough so that 1) trees don't one day fall on our house, and 2) we have enough sunlight shining into the house and on the yard area. So we are doing this in stages. When we went up on Saturday, we marked some more as keepers, and some as gone-ers (I don't know how to spell that). This week, Walter and his team will be chipping up all of the smaller felled trees and brush, and putting aside the larger ones to dry so we can make furniture out of them - we have mostly white oak and pine, and i think some hemlock? So, this will be the process until we are happy with the rough landscape - clear enough for the house and yard area, then gradually thinning out the surrounding land. Hopefully in another week or two, we can start excavating! Here are some more pictures - click on them to enlarge:

Updated 3D Model

Nina and I updated our 3D model, and we're thrilled with the result. Our color palette consists of four surfaces:

• Red cedar, stained black - siding
• Red cedar, with a clear finish - garage doors, front door, covered deck floor and ceiling, and front planter
• Aluminum/Steel - roof, windows, and cable rail around the deck
• Poured concrete - foundation

Click the image for a larger version.

Updated Plans

Our plans have changed somewhat since they were posted back in November. We've moved the entrance to the garage, removed the wraparound deck, and made some minor adjustments to the framing to account for the shear walls that are required by code.

Check out the updated plans below, and stay tuned for some exciting 3D images this afternoon...

Garage/Basement

1st Floor

2nd Floor

fireplace

hi. i just haven't posted in a while, so i thought i'd post this elevation in our main space. it shows our groovy fireplace.

haus

Here is the view of our house looking southeast. I am finally fiddling around with a 3D modeling program called Rhinoceros, which is what was used to create what you see above. As you saw from our plans, we would enter the house from inside the garage, but a guest could just park in front of the garage, climb the steps you see beside it, and enter through the front door. They're really not going to be white, I just haven't finished the model yet. The land is also not so grassy, and there are tons of trees everywhere. So just look at this as a basic collage of sorts - I'm still figuring out the quirks. Here are some more views:

This is just around the corner from the first view - looking southeast. The porch above the garage allows you to either enter the front door, or just come around the back to our yard area, which won't really be a yard, just a rough play landscape, hopefully with a pool.

This is the view northeast. I'll keep working on the interior of the model, and post those later.