Foundation This Week!

To finish up my one story from a previous blog, the lone tree was pivotal in deciding to move the site pad 20 feet forward which helped to save the tree. As it turns out, the tree will be the center point from looking out from the family room. Very cool! Now for some more pictures!

Here is an essential element to any construction site! The potty contractor was great and delivered the same day ordered. :-)




Okay, it doesn't look like much right now but best as I can determine this is the front entry to the house. It should look much more interesting once the concrete is poured and the foundation is in.











This picture is not particularly interesting but a shot of the master suite. The form board closet in is where the closet will be located on the front of the house. Notice at this point there is no trenching. The plumbers are coming in the next day to do the rough in plumbing.









This is where the form has an open section to allow for the tractors to come in to do the plumbing rough in and eventually the trenching for the foundation. It is the coolest thing to see this mini tractor squeeze through and then get inside and do all kinds of digging and excavation.








On day four of the rough in work, the foundation crew had to come back and make some adjustments in the forms due to some inconsistencies with the plans. Ultimately no big deal because it is much better to catch design issues BEFORE the concrete is poured, but this still set the project back about a week. This picture shows a plumbing pipe which will need to be relocated as it is now right next to the form.







This shows progress of the rough in stage on the master bedroom side. The pipe outside the form will be for the septic system. I just hope it is located in a good spot for the septic installation which will take place after the framing is completed.









Here we have the freshly dug and filled trench for the main water line. You should have seen me when this first started. I heard the sound of cracking wood and didn't quite know what was going on and came running and screaming. I thought a trencher would be use but a mini back hoe plowed a hole out and the line was laid and in quick time. The operator was very good at not disturbing any more than needed to lay the line and you can barely see from the front of the lot where the line goes towards the house. I just got ahead of the plumbers the morning of the trenching and devised the best path for the water line in a way that did the least amount of damage to the major tree. The pictures makes the path look bigger than it is on the site.


Ah...sedimentation fencing..how I love you and may I count the ways. I have layed 500 feet of this fencing around the perimeter of the property so to keep various parties from creating trails in and out of the job site. I will also set up a power pole right near the job site so that there will be no need for contractors to got out to the main t pole for power.














This is the cabling which give the strength to the post-tension slab. This sat on site over a weekend but I wasn't too concerned about someone just walking off with it! I tried and couldn't even lift it. But the guy who made the delivery was very strong and had no problem man handling this stuff.

The next blog will show a much more advanced situation with all the plumbing complete, and trenching done for the steel cabling and will be as of the day before the pour!

Lot Clearing and Pad

It's been a few days since my last post. BUT much progress has been made between fits of activity contrasted with periods of waiting around. This post is going to be all about pictures...of the lot clearing and pad. There was a two week period between the initial clearing of the lot and when the pad work took place. You can't rush the process at some stages and the engineers must have their say at critical times in the process. Here are photos from the initial clearing. I am such a newbie and have learned so many lessons. A great reminder about how good God is and is gracious to help me through all mistakes in my project management!

Here is the first picture of the bulldozer clearing a path directly into the heart of the lot.
















And this next is a good shot of the claw doing its work.


















This tree turned out to be pretty pivotal in the overall plans for location of the pad. More details to follow.

















Two weeks later the pad and driveway were completed. During the two weeks it rained, core samples were taken and analyzed and much other behind the scene work by the multiple parties involved.

It just so happens that the scheduling of the pad work had to take place while I was away for three days on a business trip. There were many phone calls working out the final details. The most critical event was a meeting the night before my trip at the lot with the contractor. He was instrumental in helping me visualize the layout of the house and where to set the pad. We got out to the lot late in the afternoon. Then we measured and staked out the corners. BUT the cool thing was running construction tape from each stake which helped me see what the house would actually be sitting on the lot.

When I returned from my trip this was my first look at the lot. The drive way is now complete and the culverts installed. The driveway is made from concrete wash out which will set up in 2-3 and make for a rock solid construction driveway. The goal is to have a strong driveway for the big concrete trucks to make it to the pad site even if conditions get soggy.
















Here we have where the turn around will be located next to the garage. I have to admit its a little hard to see but the idea was to have a 30 foot wide pad next to the garage. So how did we get to 30 feet? No secret....a visit to the next door neighbor who had a 30 foot pad and he felt it was the right size. Anyway, we were so occupied with carving out the pad site with a 10 foot buffer that the garage pad was a last minute consideration which we had to decide on before the dozer left.































This is the smaller of two culverts which was necessary to help bridge over an old revine.















I will follow up with more as there is an immense amount of stuff I have left out.

But the critical take away is that all is ready on the site for foundation . It will be about a week at the earliest before the foundation work can begin.