Floor Joists and Supports

It was a hot one out there today!  We should be getting some cooler weather here soon though.  The heat didn't slow construction on our project.

Another view of the driveway.  Some fill still needs to be added on this side of the garage.

Materials staged Friday before Labor Day weekend. 

Starting to look like a real basement.  Support columns are in place as well as the headers and floor joists.

Side view of floor joists atop the sill plate and support header.

First of seven pictures from our front porch. 

An opening for the stairwell.

A quick look at the kitchen...  through the garage walls.

Garage meets the house.  The big dirt pit there seems to be a dump for  unnecessary building materials.

Garage.

Front porch looking forward.

Porch looking a bit to the right.  You can see a stack of flooring/framing materials yet to be used.

And of course a closer look at that stack.

Backfill and Driveway

 

Today saw backfilling around the foundation and the driveway beginning to form.  Also, we met with the materials supplier to choose our windows and shingles.  These needed to be ordered today for delivery in the next couple weeks.  While we were at the supplier, we also picked out our siding and exterior trim.  We'll post some picture of these soon. 

 

From the back left corner of house showing the two egress window wells



Dirt piled up at the back of the house

From the back left corner looking down into the basement.  The rough-in plumbing stubs will interfere with the roller derby once the house is done!

Shot from near the street showing the driveway taking shape.

The garage has been partially filled, quite a few more truck loads will be needed to complete this phase!

Prepping for the Drain Tile

      Drove over to the lot this morning and found the foundation walls had been waterproofed.  The tar goes up about halfway on the exterior of the walls that will make up the basement.   

Left side of foundation

After dinner, Karen, G and I drove back over to see if any further progress had been made.  Several truck loads of gravel had been dumped on the lot for use in and around the foundation.  Also, the drain tubing was on site ready to be installed.  

Gravel piles

Drain tubes

By the end of the week, we hope to see the tubes in place around the foundation.  Gravel will fill in around and above it.  Also, the basement floor should be poured and the foundation backfilled.  

Week 2 - Walls and Water Works

Though the week is only half over, we've already seen the removal of the foundation wall forms.  Being able to walk our temporary sand moat and run our hands along the actual foundation walls just makes everything so real!  

View of the garage. 

The back corner and left wall which contains the two egress windows.

Looking in one of the egress windows.

The previous pictures were from Monday afternoon.  The picture below, taken today (Wednesday),  is looking in the same egress window as the picture above, but this picture has the plumbing for the basement bathroom roughed in.

Roughed in plumbing for full bath.

We are eagerly awaiting the drain tiling, well-digging, weather proofing, and everything else that comes before they start to back-fill and we have more of a house and less of a house hole!

Day 5 - Week 1 ends in wet walls!

The foundation forms were built-up on Friday in time for the foundation to be poured!  We almost have a basement!   We were able to see just how much fill-dirt will be needed too - yowzza!   

The walls from the from right corner.

A close-up of the poured walls in the forms.

The walls from the back corner. The window bucks are in there somewhere!

A close-up of the forms.  We'll have a faux brick look to our basement interior and exterior walls.  

So, we'll just be waiting for the walls to set.  Next week our basement should officially be a basement!

Day 4 - It's raining, they're pouring!

It was so rainy this morning, we thought for sure nothing would happen with the house.  Again, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the footings had been poured.  Rebar, which will be used to help hold the foundation walls, was set into the footings.  Our egress window bucks and sewage pit were hanging out around the outskirt of the house hole.

Footing under our front porch.

Footings from the back corner.

Egress window bucks and sewage pit next to K and  Little G for scale.

Can't wait to see how we finish out our first week!

Day 3 - Footer and Foundation Forms! Fantastic!

Yesterday was a beautiful day!  But...nothing happened with our house.  A trip out to the lot today yielded a much more exciting outcome.   A wooden canal snaked around the inside perimeter of our house hole and rebar lay within ready to turn into the foundation of our home.  So crazy to look at these boards and feel so much reverence and affection knowing that they will be witness to our family growing up, to birthdays and graduations,  to our retirement, to our future grandchildren, to the creation of so many memories!   Sappiness aside, here are the pictures!

View from atop a dirt pile.

Another view from above. This one includes the garage.

Close up of the footer forms.

A view from the back corner.

The foundation forms!

Our dream really is taking form right before our eyes!