2nd Floor begins

The house continues to shoot up at an amazing rate.  They are making real progress on the 2nd floor.

1st Floor Framing, nearing completion...

Another long day for the guys - this time, Saturday.
Today they had 8 guys on site putting up the remaining first floor framing.

Framing has begun!

Today I stopped down to drop of water and Gatorade and got there just in time to see 84 Lumber delivering forklift loads of 2x6 studs and massive loads of plywood.

Also, the engineered limber I beams were on site as well.

Today I expect to see serious vertical changes.

Garage slab pour a.k.a. "Making our mark..."

This morning they poured the concrete slab for the garage.  Pretty amazing to see it all come together like this.

Anyway, we wanted to write in the concrete... cause, you know, that is what you have to do to concrete when it is drying.  As I understand it is a law.

So, I stopped by at lunch and walked up to the slab. There was a guy smoothing out the surface with a trowel, and I asked him:

"Is it OK if I write my name in the cement?"

"Is this your house?"

"Oh, yes.  I'm Chris, the owner."

"Well, then, go ahead... it is yours."

Thought that was a kind of funny exchange.  "No, I don't own it, but I'd like to write 'Killroy Wuz Here!'".  I'm sure it must happen.

Anyway, I made the mark.

2011

scRagz 

 

Now, I feel like the house is ours!

 

 

Too, F'ing Hot!!!

First of all, I cannot imagine working the way the construction crew does in 85º heat... let alone 101º.  But, they would it seems if it were not for the fact that the concrete guys can't do their work in these temperatures.  Don't know the exact details, but it seems that if it is too cold or too hot, the cement does not set correctly and will not provide the needed compressive strength.

Hopefully monday will be better...

Mmmm, better, but wetter.

Backfill

Today they began to backfill the foundation.

Actually, surprising how much dirt that actually used up... the large pile on the front of the lot is completely gone.  Tomorrow they plan to dig the foundation to the garage.

Due to the "overdig" they are going to need to take out some of the arbor vitae on the left of the lot and take off a few of the larger limbs from the tree.  They will be cut by a professional as opposed to being ripped out by an excavator - so that is good.  And, I suppose the fact that we are going to be doing some pretty significant work around the root ball... the less it has to deal with leaf wise, the better.

Here's to hoping.

Sub-floor is in... we have a true basement.

When you start with a large pile of wood, like this...

...and a team of guys with air-nailers,












You end up with...

 A floor... with a hole for the stairway, and

 

a true basement.