Temporary Power

And on this day, contractor dad said: "Let there be light!".

Well, not really lights...just temporary power!

Framing - Day 8

The upstairs is getting all its walls!

Chris is rooting for Germany in the world cup game on the tv - can't you tell??? :) The fireplace will be to his right where there are 2x4s on the floor.

Kitchen - mom was nice enough to roughly lay out boards as to where things are, so we could actually get a picture of things. Chris is checking out the island and the pantry is behind him.

Family room and eating area.

Master bedroom.

Master bath and walk-in closet.

One of the kid's bedroom.

The other kid's bedroom.

We also got our garage floor!

Framing - Day 6

When we were at the house today, he had the rest of the upstairs floor on and the hole for the stairs completed. He was still working when we left...on a Sunday!!

Framing - Day 5

5th day of framing - wow he moves fast!!

Garage side walls

Play room and guest room in far corner with bathroom to the right.

Chris' office in the right corner and storage in the back

Going up...

Upstairs.
(Berenstain Bears: Inside, Outside, Upside Down anyone? :) )

View from family room upstairs.

Framing - Day 2

End of 2nd day of framing and walls around basement are up!

Chris' office is in the far corner with the rec room in the middle.
This is looking at the rec room and what will be a guest room in the far corner.

Lumber Delivery

Lumber has been delivered and is ready for framing!

Pouring Basement Floor

They poured the basement floor this morning. Lumber is delivered on Monday and framing starts on Tuesday!! Woo-hoo!!

Perfect Morning Soccer

Chris and MacGyver found the perfect way to enjoy the early morning world cup games! (Sorry I woke you, MacGyver! :D )

Basement Insulation Approved

Mel - You aced your test! The under slab insulation passed inspection today. Tomorrow they are pouring the basement floor.

Basement Plumbing Approved

The pipe was approved this morning. Pending the approval of the Styrofoam tomorrow, we can pour the slab for the basement floor and the garage floor on Friday!

Pipe, Back Fill, Styrofoam Insulation

The plumbing under the basement floor got installed and is ready for inspection. I made sure they knew what they were doing because if this goes wrong, we will have to jack hammer the cement floor to get to it! They laughed and assured me it was all right!

Dirt was back filled around the sides of the house.

You can pretty much walk to the front door now!

And you can almost drive into the garage. (Side note: it was so dark and grey this morning that the flash went off on the camera and I think that is a rain drop that I caught on film(?)!)

Thanks to Mel's help - she lined the footings with Styrofoam insulation. It is suppose to help against wind and cold (maybe Chris can explain the physics of it to us....). It is all ready for inspection, too!

Underground Power, Phone, Cable

We laid the pipe that the power, phone and cable will run through from the pole to the house. I guess they pull the wires through when they are ready since we covered up the hole! :)

We found more water! I had to stand on the pipes as Gary was back filling the ditch to keep them from floating! By the time we got to the end of the ditch and the water kept getting pushed toward me, it was about thigh high. Unfortunately, we were all too dirty to get a picture of me dumping the water out of my boots!

Foundation Sealed and Basement Backfilled

What started out as a project Chris and I were going accomplish, quickly became a project for someone stronger! All of the exterior walls of the house (besides the garage walls), needed to be sealed to prevent water from leaking in any small cracks. First, all the large nails that were used to hold up the cement forms needed to be removed. The hammer and pliers we were sent to the jobsite with did not do the trick! Thankfully, dad recruited my (second?) cousin Neil and a sledge hammer to come and do the job. In the end, I heard it took over 4 hours just to get the nails removed!!

He also applied a very sticky and messy sealant!

Our 60 yards of recycled concrete got filled into the basement - it wasn't enough, so more will be added this week! Some plumbing will go in and then the cement floor slab will go on top.

Finished Foundation

Forms are already off the foundation walls!

Looking from backyard at house.

Front corner - master bath will be on top here.

This are will be back filled and the garage slab will be poured on top (had to dig down because our soil is too good and therefore not firm/solid enough to just put the garage on top of it).

Because the soil dug out has so much organic matter in it (good for me and my garden, not good for a stable back fill), we had to bring in some recycled concrete to back fill with. This is the first of 6 loads!

He's a Breast Man

I brought the groceries in and set them down for MacGyver's regular inspection. I went to talk to Chris and we both realized that MacGyver wasn't with us (which, in general, is unusual!). I apparently left him at his inspection too long....he found the chicken breasts and had got into the packaging inside a plastic bag and had one of the breasts in his mouth!! (I had to sacrifice getting a picture of that in order to get it out of his mouth!)

Foundation being Poured

Our foundation finally got poured today! We had two days in a row with not too much rain and with all the new rock, the cement trucks made it just fine.

He just walked along the top of the foundation and filled it up!

After it was full, the other guy came through and smoothed and evened it out.

The guy standing on the scaffolding on the left had a joystick device he was using to control the arm of the pump truck. He just moved it right along with the foundation guy - up and down and side-to-side.

We also got our meter box for our power - now we just need to run the wire from the power pole to the box so we can have the power! :D This is its temporary location. Once the house is done, the meter will go on the side of the garage wall.