Second Floor Takes Shape

We now officially have second floor walls, although since they have not built stairs, and since I have no ladder, I can only admire them from a distance. 

On the left side of the photo that is the upstairs guest room.  On that rear wall, you see a big opening for the double window in the master bedroom, then just to the right of that, an opening for the french door that leads from the master sitting room out onto the second floor patio.  The right side construction continues the master sitting room into the master bathroom, walk in closet, and upstairs laundry room. 

That last door you see (barely see) walks directly into the attic storage.  The small window next to that is in the upstairs laundry.

That's all for this weekend.  Sunday isn't a workday.  We will resume on Monday morning.  Just an update on some other progress.  All the rest of the appliances have been ordered.  We found the oven on sale a week ago and bought it from Lowes.  Since I wanted matching appliances, as much as possible, I found a Bosch Cooktop and Bosch Dishwasher on sale at sears and ordered them both.  The fridge also has been ordered.  It is a Samsung french door 26CF.  I also ordered the Island vent hood and that is scheduled to be delivered on Monday.  Everything goes into storage in our contractors warehouse until it is needed. 

Trusses Arrive and Second Floor Appears

Finally, there is progress on the job site today.  The long awaited trusses arrived right on schedule this morning and were installed throughout the day. 

Workers walking what will be the second floor

The trusses overhead

Plywood going up around the outer walls

Looking into my kitchen from the dining room

Truss over front porch

Looking up in great room

Still open above these trusses.  The rest of the second floor decking should go down Saturday morning, and then hopefully some walls. 

Dead in the Water

If you are checking this blog regularly, you probably noticed that I haven't posted for several days.  Well, that's because nothing new has happened.  Construction has been at a standstill waiting for some custom build trusses to be constructed.  The trusses are the long beams that make up the ceiling of the first floor and the floor of the second.

My understanding is the trusses cant be made until the first floor has been framed out since they have to measure the walls to make the trusses exactly the right size.  You can't cut them down if they are wrong.  Once they measure the first floor wall framing, then it takes 3-4 days for the trusses to be made.

Delivery is expected for 6:30AM on Friday, so hopefully I will have lots of progress to post Friday night. 

Day One of Framing

 Busy day on Perk Lane today!  They delivered the first shipment of lumber this morning and managed to frame out the entire first floor by quitting time. 

Standing in driveway looking at garage

Garage

Front porch

Standing in kitchen looking at half bath.  Once the trusses are installed for the second floor, they can remove these temporary braces on the first floor walls.

Kitchen Pantry

Finished Slab

The slab was finished yesterday.  I was actually walking around on it today.  The cool thing was the framers actually has been out and marked up the slab with red lines where the walls go.  I have to say it REALLY makes the rooms look small.  I know that once the walls are up, it helps to give you a better perspective.

Concrete Arrives

It was a busy morning this morning on the construction site.  The concrete trucks started showing up early this morning and by noon they were done. 

Garage Entrance

Front Porch

You can see that half the front porch still isn't filled in. The last truck is on the way to take care of that little piece.  Notice the metal straps around the edges of the foundation.  Those are required for windstorm protection.  There are 19 of them around the outside walls of the house.

Last Truck

Ready for Concrete

Went out today to find that the inspector had signed off on the foundation.  That means tomorrow is concrete day. 

Concrete trucks pour on Friday, then the slab needs to cure for 3 days.

This wooden form took us a while to figure out.  At first I thought it was my kitchen island, but it just didn't make sense where it was.  I think we finally figured out that it is the downstairs bedroom shower.  I think they need to mark it off to slope the concrete towards the drain.

It is hard to see here, but the blue pipes sticking up are for my kitchen island.  The pipe from the inner wall to the island will be 220v. electric for my cooktop, and 110v. for my outlets.  The pipe running from the outer wall to the island is a gas line, just in case I ever want to switch the island to a gas cooktop.

Appliances Already?

Yes!...I know my house is just a mound of dirt and rebar so far, but when you find a good deal, you have to jump on it.

Our contractor told me about this BOSCH double oven at Lowes that he had seen marked down.  It was a catalog special order item for a customer.  Apparently when it came in, it was the wrong size and didn't fit.  Originally a $2,500 oven...I picked it up for less than half price.  It will sit in storage for a few months, but I couldn't pass it up.

Rebar and Water

The pest control man was out today spraying underneath the foundation for termites. 

Once that was done, it was time to put down the plastic liner and then the rebar.

You can see that the plumbing is covered at this point.  The building permit has a signature from the plumbing inspector that it had passed the inspection.

You can see the heavy rebar down in the footings.  Almost time for the concrete.

This was the other accomplishment today.  They finally came out and installed the water meter.  We needed this to be done before we could pour concrete.

2 gallons used and counting.

Building Permit

If you haven't noticed, everything posted so far in the blog has been "catch up" pictures.  As of today, this will follow progress as things happen from day to day.  Not much new to report today.  I went out to look for a few minutes and the plumbers has capped off all the water lines in the foundation and  filled them with water to pressure test them.  I didnt' see any leaks so I guess that was a good sign.

The other thing I noticed was that I saw the building permit posted for the first time today.

It is nailed on to a tree in front of the garage. 

 

It even shows my address on it.  It is the first time I have known what my actual new address is goign to be.  Up until now it has been been referred to as Phase II, Block 1, Lot 7. 



Rough Plumbing in Foundation

I can't make heads or tails out of some of what I see here.  I am guessing that where I see pipes in the foundation, but no corresponding plumbing on the first floor, what I am seeing in plumbing drops down from the second floor through walls. 




Foundation Forms Go Up

I realize that some of this is going to be boring right at first.  Lots of dirt getting moved around.  Here is the rough foundation forms going up.  It is exciting to see the outline of what will someday be your house.  It is funny how the foundation looks so TINY.  It makes you wonder if they are setting things up right. 

Corner of garage...they moved the forms back 5 feet to try and save these 3 trees...hope it was far enough and we can keep them.

You can see some of the trenching under the foundation for footings. 

Rear Patio

Front porch.  Pile of dirt is right up against where the front door will be.

Looking towards front of lot.  That bump-out on the side will be the office.

The House Plans

OK...the lot has been selected and cleaned up.  Time for House Plans.  After many months of looking online for house plans, we found a basic floorplan that we liked and took them to a local architect.  He took the plans and did a wonderful job customizing the house to suit our needs.  Here is the final version of what he came up with.  

We went with a 2 story floorplan.  Total square feet is about 3500.

Electrical Plans

Basic Layout - 3 bedroom 3 1/2 baths, master bedroom upstairs with sitting room and private balcony, along with one addition bedroom upstairs with private bath.  Downstairs is the third bedroom with private bath (for us it will be a gym), great room (living room dining room opening into kitchen), an office, and a two car garage.

Foundation and some technical specs

We actually moved it further back on the lot than this plans shows.  That allowed us to save a few more trees and get us further from the road noise.