Progress on our Dream House


Construction Day 60 February 19 The framers have started on the house. We are outside the house starting to bring in more dirt to begin sloping the new grade to meet old grade. The beginnings of the interior walls are up.
Construction Day 59 February 18 The framers were on time and the second floor of the garage is mostly complete except for the roof. We know we are making progress when there are stairs. The concrete pumper was late so the framers could not start on the house. The block walls are now complete and framing for the house can begin tomorrow.
rear view of garage
Stairs!! We have stairs!
Construction Day 58 February 17 The framers are continuing on the garage. The second floor deck and the South wall are up. They are putting together the West wall next. We passed the final inspection for the block wall and that will be poured tomorrow.
Construction Day 57 February 15 The masons are finished with the house walls. Another inspection and another solid pour and the major block work is complete. The only part left to do is the columns and those will be completed later. The framers can start in the house next week when they should be almost done with the garage.
The view out the window should be good for the sunsets. Brian is standing in front of the 12½' high window opening. The walls tops out at 18' which is also the ceiling height for this room.
The view in through the front door opening.
Construction Day 56 February 14 This must be progress. There are two trades working on the site at the same time. The masons are completing the house walls and continuing with the front columns. In addition, first floor lumber was delivered and the framers are here framing the garage.
Construction Day 55 February 13	The masons have completed laying the block for the next solid pour. They are replacing the window sills that the former mason screwed up (and some of the blame goes to Rinker Materials, too). Just another expensive lesson. This level of the concrete pour will be completed today along with the first level of columns in front.
Construction Day 54 February 12 The laying of block for the garage is complete. The blocks for the house have been laid to the next pour level. The pouring is scheduled for tomorrow since we've already passed both inspections. The lumber for framing is being delivered on Friday, and the framer is starting at the same time.
Rear View
	02/12/03 — Inspection is required, again, and then another solid pour of the new blocks. Then, the masons can complete the height of the walls to 18', and another inspection and another pour. Hopefully in less than a week, the framer can start. The lumber is on order and waiting for delivery.
Construction Day 53 February 11 After two weeks of the mason crew saying they would be here "tomorrow," we finally realized that tomorrow will never come for them. So, we've had to interview and hire another mason to complete the job that the first one abandoned. Lesson learned: don't pay for work completed in a timely manner.
	02/10/03 — During the down time, we were able to get quotes on solar heating installation and installation of a lightning rod system. The window company came to the site to verify the window dimensions and informed us that the sills installed in the windows were wrong. Now the sills have to be removed and replaced with block. The truss company failed to check their voice mails and the floor trusses arrived 2/10. In the interest of protecting our investment and our trusses, we moved all the floor trusses inside of our current home.... really.
Construction Day 52 January 22 The 6:00 am start was a little early, but at least we are moving forward, again. The lintels and downrods are being poured with concrete for the current height of the blocks. In three days the masons will return to mount the blocks up to the final height of 18'. Then, another inspection and another lintel pour.
01/14/03 — Please Mr. Inspector, may I have some more? Well, we "passed" the inspection this time. All the inspector did was look at the letter from the engineer and passed us. He did not even look at the building, again. He could have given us a partial pass originally, but he didn't.
01/13/03 — Got the "necessary" letter from the engineer. Headed to the Building Department to "file" it up.... never mind. Also, we have to pay $30 for the inspector to come out, again. At least in the meantime, we have selected our framer and gotten bids on framing materials. The framer is ready to start right away.
01/09/03 — Still delayed - Now that the inspector knows where the information is in the blueprints, the house passed, but the garage failed until the inspector gets a letter from the engineer stating the way we put up the wall is structurally sound. Good thing we didn't get a vindictive inspector.
01/07/03 — We visit to the Building Department downtown to get confirmation that the blueprints have the required information and to have the failed inspections overturned. We should not have failed since the information the inspector needed was right there in the blueprints. A re-inspection is scheduled.
01/06/03 — Another delay - We failed the lintel inspection simply because the inspector did not find the lintel information on the blueprints. He didn't look at the right page because the information was there. We had to go to the Building Department to have them confirm that the information the inspector wanted was indeed in the blueprints. Now, we have to wait for a rescheduled inspection tomorrow.
Construction Day 51 January 2 The masons are finished with this stage and the block walls are as high as they can go before the inspection. The inspection is scheduled for the 6th. The walls are currently at 10' high for the house which is the height of most of the first floor ceilings. The garage walls are 8' high. Brian is standing in the breakfast nook which is part of the kitchen. We are still having a lot of rain which is why the floor and walls are wet.