Finally some progress

foundation
Originally uploaded by bredto

So it's been raining for about a week and finally this past Friday it stopped long enough for the crew to get out and do some work. They poured another 3 feet and then assembled more blocks. I'm thinking they should have the foundation complete early next week.

Nothing

We were rolling right along there with the foundation, but unfortunately the weather has halted production. While it has been raining a bit on and off, our foundation guys is afraid if it rains while they put in the floor it could be ruined. Now we wait.

I'm traveling a lot for the next several weeks and even the misses is going on a trip or two. I'll see if I can convince my mother to get up to the land and take pictures of our progress while we're gone.

Two rows

ICF going up
Originally uploaded by bredto

The visit to the land this afternoon showed us that the IFC foam block started going up. The crew set two rows and placed some rebar in the forms, but haven't poured any cement yet. You see the wife in standing in a gap in the wall? That'll be where the walk out basement doors will be. You can also see that the trees are slowly turning green too. 

Here's a close up of the IFC blocks from the top down and you can see how thick the foam is. At the end of the day, it's supposed to give a R-41 insulation value... or something close to that. That'll be important since my office will eventually go down there.

foundation work continues

foundation work
Originally uploaded by bredto

Yesterday we went up to check things out and water our dying plants. The crew was there pouring and packing gravel into the foundation floor. You can see in the big version of the photo they installed PVC pipe on the inside perimeter for drainage and are covering it with the stone. This was Wednesday and they said they'd were shooting to have the foundation complete by Friday. That seems like a lot of work. We'll see. I'm anxious to see the walls up as we'll then know where our windows will be.

Starting the ICF

installing fox blocks
Originally uploaded by bredto

Now that the footers are in, work has started on the foundation proper. We're using insulating concert forms (ICF). Traditionally plywood forms were used then torn away to leave the foundation walls. With ICF foundations, the forms are made of thick rigid foam blocks which remain up for extra insulation.

Footers complete

footers complete
Originally uploaded by bredto

I went up to the site today and actually ran into Dave, our foundation guy, as they were wrapping up work for the day. They poured the footers and are going to placing the foam block forms for the foundation walls this coming week. He guesstimated that the foundation should be complete by next Friday (May 16th).

You can see the four squares in the center for the lolly columns, the lame metal columns that support the house in the basement. I told Dave that it sucked we needed so many columns since sometime in the future we'd like to have a family room down there. He said he was going to talk to the engineer about installing a steel I-beam so we can minimize the number of columns. Dave is a good guy.

Mistakes were made

We got a call from our contractor today. He informed us that Ritz Craft made a mistake when installing our fireplace. First of all, I had no idea that our house was already being built let alone near completion. Secondly, mistakes? Awesome. Just what I want to hear. This will be fun telling the wife.

As it turns out the error is in our favor. We ordered a half stack fireplace (stones surrounding it half way up the wall terminating in a mantle) but they installed a full stack instead. Apparently, it's quite a bit more expensive, but RC is eating it. Cool!