A roof over our heads

So, despite the rather slow and uneventful pace of this blog, the house has been going like gangbusters.  Shortly after the first floor was built in a day, the second floor was constructed.  A temporary staircase has been built to lead from the first floor to the second floor and a few sheets of plywood are all that keep me from landing in the basement.  Now I don’t have a real strong fear of heights, but it’s a long way down!  There aren’t any steps to the basement as that floor still has not been poored, so a ladder is propped up for days there is work being done down there.  I’m all for exploring the house, but I’m not quite ready to be climbing down that ladder…

The outside of the house has a protective Tyvek wrap and while in this picture there are holes cut for all the windows, in real life there are already windows installed there.  I’ll get pictures up of that sometime…  The plywood panels have been laid for the roof (and again, in real life, the shingles are on).  In this picture, they are sitting in packaged stacks jusr inside the fence.  We decided to go with the Weathered Wood color of shingles as we thought it would match best with the Mulberry color of the house.

This last picture is a view from the second “kids” bedroom.  It overlooks the neighbor’s house and the backyard.  When we chose the style and size of our house, we made decisions so our house wouldn’t be huge or tower over other houses in the neighborhood.  I can’t imagine what kind of house we would have had if we didn’t make those considerations!  The direct view at the neighbor’s house is their gutter and roof….

Going Up?

Welcome Home!  The first floor is framed to the point where we could walk through the rooms and know what they would be.  Looking at the picture to the left, you can see a stripey dumpster at the edge of the picture.  Then there is the front door, then a window that looks into the den/office, then the double door for the garage.  Everything looks good so far, except the door out the back of the garage, which is supposed to be a double door.  Easy enough to get out a saw and cut a bigger hole, I hope.

This second picture is looking into the kitchen from the hallway.  The small window will be to the right of the oven, and there is another small window that is to the left (out of the picture).  The large window will be over the kitchen sink and faces out over the backyard and where the deck will be.  I an only imagine that it won’t be too long before I’m standing at that window washing dishes and looking out over my yard…

This is a view from the kitchen towards the front of the house.  The dining room is in the foreground and has a large south-facing window and the living room is at the front of the house, with a window that I know will be just perfect for a Christmas tree.  The stairs going up to the second floor and down to the basement will be just to the left of the dining room on the other side of the wall.

I must say, now that the walls are up, the garage looks bigger and the rest of the house looks smaller to me.  I’m glad that way back when, Mike Brady the architect encouraged us to go larger with the house.  As unsure as I was of it back then, I’m glad he convinced us.  The kitchen and family room, open to each other, are a large space in which I’m sure we’ll spend countless hours entertaining family and friends.  Now if only we could speed up time to get to all the parties!

First Floor

We have our first floor!  The floor of the first floor has been added to the house!  All of the subfloor has been put on and now there is a big hole where the stairs to the basement will be.  The basement floor is still unfinished.  We will have radiant heating in the basement floor, and the tubing has to be laid down right before the concrete floor is poured.  I’m not sure how that will happen now that the floor is on, but I’m sure it will happen somehow.  Next step: walls!

Wood On Top

When I drove by the site of our new home last week, I saw a few large stacks of lumber – which to me means progress! 

I guess our framer was a little sick and was delayed in getting our project started, but now it has begun.  The foundation was poured a few weeks ago, and now we have wood on top!  The knee wall was constructed and now the framing can begin later this week. 

We have also been given the task of making the first big decisions.  In the next week and a half, we have to decide:

• * the exterior color of the house (siding, trim, windows, gutters)
• * the color, material, and style of the front door
• * the color of the roof
• * the style of the fireplace and what kind of hearth we will have (brick, stone, tile, floor level, bench, etc.)
• * whether or not we want a double oven in the kitchen

…and there’s probably something I haven’t remembered.

While all this sounds like a lot of fun, picking a house color and front door is a pretty big decision!  We have about 75 colors to choose from for the siding and trim alone.  We have three for the windows (and we’ve already chosen white), and about 25 for the gutters and soffits.  Then we have to decide if we want the siding and trim to be the same color.  Or for the gutters and trim to be the same color.   No pressure there!  That’s the face of the house – what people will see first – what people will comment on.  We certainly don’t want to be boring and pick something so neutral it makes you sad to look at it, but we also don’t want people saying “Glad I don’t live next to that ugly eyesore of a house.  I can’t believe they picked that color!”  So, we’re going to make the best use of our next week and a half.  And if it comes down to it, we’ll just close our eyes and point.

If These Walls Could Talk…

The home that we are building is on the site where a house stood for over 50 years.  That house was home to my husband’s parents, and my husband’s grandparents before them.  And now we build our dream home.  It was a bitter goodbye to my husband’s mother, and while we miss her and think of her often, we wanted to be sure to feel her blessing on our new home.  And I’m sure she will give it.

Strong Foundation

So, today, on a glorious, sunny day, we had the rock laid and concrete walls poured on the hew home.  We arrived just in time to see the last load of white rock be poured.  The slab for the basement and the backfilled dirt around the concrete walls will be poured on top of this rock, which will apparently allow for good drainage.  The forms were already up to hold the concrete for the walls and the cement trucks were lined up on the street.  They waited to offload the cement into a small hopper, which fed to an upward sloped conveyor belt, onto a flat conveyor belt, and into a large rubber sleeve that a worker directed into the correct spot.  It was quite the process!  Once the concrete was between the forms, workers used hoes and small shovels to get out air bubbles and smooth the concrete.  One lucky guy got to “climb in” between the forms to make sure there was enough concrete under the window wells.  We almost thought he was going to come as a bonus with the walls!

In-ground Pool

So we’ve been experiencing a lot of rain lately.  So much rain, in fact, that a whole month has passed and we have seen no measurable progress.  We continue to be the lot on the block with the largest lawn ornament (the digger) and the largest in-ground pool.  I’m sure the neighbors are not jealous.  Our “pool” is about 15 feet wide and 10 feet across, with a guesstimated depth of 2-3 feet (not that anyone wanted to go in and measure).

With the strong storms we’ve had lately, it appears as though the neighborhood might have been without power when we visited yesterday.  And it’s a good thing we had the tree in the backyard trimmed way back because I don’t think it would have weathered the storm as well in it’s previously overgrown-bush-like state.

Next week is supposed to have one day of potentially heavy rain and four days of clear, sunny skies.  Hopefully that is enough dry time to get the digger in the backyard, excavate the swimming pool, and pour the foundation for the new home.  Fingers crossed.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Well, it has been one month (today) since the old house came down.  And other than the cement basement being dug out the day after house demolition, nothing new has happened.  Except rain.  Buckets and buckets of rain.  So, instead of a new foundation, I think we have an inground pool.

We are hoping that the rain isn’t too heavy this week (though we know we can’t avoid it entirely) and that next week is sunny as predicted so we can get going on this whole house project!

A house without a pool, I’m okay with.  But a pool without a house is not my favorite idea.

No Harm Done

I have noticed that quite a few hits on this blog are from people doing searches on asbestos levels, asbestos exposure, and asestos removal.  And people who know what we’re doing with our house have asked if removing asbestos, or even just being around asbestos, is harmful to one’s health.  Well, apparently a steam pipe with asbestos coating exploded in New York’s Grand Central Station and someone at Slate wrote an article and now those questions have answers.  For those of you who don’t want to read the article, I think the answer – in the case of our house and Grand Central Station - is no harm done.

Rest in Peace, Old House

We were blessed to have friends and family around us during the demolition today, but for those who were not able to join us, here is a little slide show to help you experience what the morning was like.  We arrived at the house at 6:40am with coffee and donuts in hand.  Demolition started promptly at 7:30am after our builder helped us bring out the totem pole and the demolition crew found a few treasures that they wanted and we didn’t care for anymore.

We took one last tour through the house and shared some of the history of the family and the house with the crew.  Whether or not they were really interested, I don’t know, but they listened, and I think they knew then just how momentous this occassion was for us.

And then, once all cars and people and valuables were out of the way, we all stepped back and heard the crunch as the digger’s big scoop dropped through the roof of the living room and we knew there was no turning back.  Once through the roof, a hole was made in the floor into the basement.  The digger operator, with incredible finesse and precision, proceeded to pull the house inward and into the basement.  It was then scooped out into the waiting trucks.

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The walls were down by about 9:30am and the basement was empty by 11:30am…  These guys knew what they were doing and made quick work of the whole thing!  They are supposed to be back tomorrow to dig up the concrete slab in back and the walls and floor of the basement.  The driveway will stay for now.

And that is the final goodbye to our old house…
Now we look forward to building our new home!