All Framed Up

 At noon today, this is what the house looked like.  The framers had put up a lot of the trusses and finished all of the walls in the house.  I couldn't believe that they were not using any sort of machine to lift the trusses into place, but were doing it all by hand.  It was very intersesting watching them do this and I wished I didn't have to go back to work and could have watched them longer

 The back of the house still needed to have the trusses put up but the ceiling for the covered back porch was in place.  I asked the builder to install a switch and stub out for the in-ground pool that will go in next spring.  I want to be able to control the pool lights from the inside.  It pays to think ahead!

The master bedroom now looks much larger than I thought it would be.  There will be a 9 foot ceiling in the bedrooms but the master has a large tray the goes up one more foot and will have crown molding halfway up with rope light behind it shining up into the tray.  I can't wait to see it finished!

In 3 short days, we went from having nothing but a concrete slab on our lot to this.  As of about 5:00 this evening, the house is almost completely framed.  The framers were putting the last couple of trusses in place while we were there.  Julie's sister, Jenny met us out there and I got to show her around the house and point out what all the different rooms are.  The guys framing the house are very nice and do not seem to mind us dropping by occasionally to observe their work.  Any apprehensions I had about the size are certainly gone now.  It really does put things into perspective the that gets added to the home.  This was the first time that Julie got to walk around inside of it since it has been framed too.  I know that she is very excited now as well.

The builder told me today that the framers plan on working on Saturday too in order to finish it all up before next week.  He has the plumbing schedule for Thursday and I'm sure many other things that I don't know about yet.   I have been told that once the frame is up, your house is about a third of the way done so I am careful not to get too eager to be complete.  I know there is a lot more ahead of us but that's the exciting part!

And up it goes...

Today was quite an eventful day at the home site!  The workers arrived to the lot bright and early this morning to begin the framing.  I drove by at around noon today to check on their progress and couldn't believe how much they had gotten done!

The sole plate was completed around the entire perimeter and attached to the J-bolts and several of the walls were already up.

All of the wood to be used for our home has been delivered and is sectioned off into neat piles.  Its hard to believe that most of this will be on the house in just a day or two!

There are about 15 or so framers working on the house currently so I know the frame should be complete soon and the trusses attached for the roof.  Its such a drastic change from a plain slab to a framed in home in just a matter of days!

 

The walls are currently being braced up as there isn't a roof or second floor above to attach them to yet.  My son, Corbin asked if those bracing boards will be part of the house.  I guess he thought we changed it to an A frame.  He was happy when I showed him where his room would be and he saw that he would have a window.  I did tell him that I was going to put bars on it when he is a teenager so that he can't sneak out (haha!)

This is where the french doors will be installed that lead out to the back yard.  They will be flanked by two windows which will be the height of the door.  This should allow plenty of natural light to come in for the great room.

I came back to the house at around 5:00 and was surprised yet again at the amount of work that had been done in such a short amount of time.  Most of the exterior walls have been put up and a lot of the interior walls as well.

The front door will be where the gentleman is standing on the left and the ceiling height will come to the top of the highest beam on the right.  It is so nice to be able to finally put this all into perspective and not have to imagine it all!  The area with the tall beam to the right of the entry will be one giant window looking into the dining room.

 I can't wait to come out tomorrow to see what else they have done.  I fully expect them to have started on installing the trusses if they continue to work at this rate.  Our windows were all ordered today so those should go in as soon as the framing is complete. 

The Slab is in!

Today was the beginning of a pretty exciting week for our home construction.  The workers were out all day pouring the concrete slab and finishing it.  They did a really good job and it is nice to see the actuall floor now.  I was glad to see that the J-bolts for the frame were spaced under 3 feet apart to ensure a nice stable home under these extreme wind loads this part of the country gets from time to time.

 

It is easier now to pick out the individual rooms but it is still pretty difficult to put it into perspective.  Our builder told us that the more things are added, the bigger the house will look.  I can certainly see that happening.  In this photo, I am standing in the master bathroom's garden tub and looking toward the back corner of the house.

The workers will be out bright and early in the morning to begin the framing of the house.  I am really looking forward to that phase of the construction.  From this point on, things will really begin taking shape and that means lots and lots of decisions!  Julie and I have already chosen our brick and trim color.  We are going with a dark grayish colored brick, white trim and a darker taupe colored hardi plank.  We have also chosen our double front doors as well and I think they are going to look amazing.  I will post a picture of them soon.  We will be picking out the granite for the kitchen and bathroom countertops very soon as well.  We have also narrowed our wood floors down to a deep stained hickory.  We haven't decided on the hand scraped or smooth texture.

There will be lots of updates to the blog this week since so many things will be happening.  Please keep in mind that any picture on this site can be clicked on to enlarge it for a better view.  If you would like email notifications whenever I add a post, please join this blog by clicking the link to the right of the page.

  

Ready for the Slab

 Not too much has happened recently due to the rain.  The slab was supposed to be poured last Thursday but we had some pretty bad weather that delayed it until tomorrow (Monday).  The ground has been prepped for the slab by the workers.

The fill dirt in the center was packed down with a machine and the workers spread out a plastic moisture barrier on top of the compacted dirt.  They then laid out a network of criss-crossed rebar that will act as a reinforcement for the concrete slab.  The re-bar is raised up by a series of plastic risers, allowing the concrete to fill in underneath the re-bar, providing a solid support.

The trusses were delivered to the lot on Friday.  There are so many different shapes and configurations than I had imagined.  Our roof is a 10/12 pitched slope so they are engineered to be pretty steep.  The house will begin to be framed on Tuesday so these will be sitting there until then.

The kids had a good time climbing all over them.  Corbin has been asked me when we are getting the "wood" for our house so he thought the trusses were all the wood that will be used for the house.  I had to explain to him that this was just for a part of the ceiling.  He was quite surprised.

Plumbing is in Place

    

I came out to the lot on Tuesday evening to discover that the plumbing has all been laid.  I took plenty of photos of where all the pipe ran to/from in case I need to do any repairs in the future.  I was happy to see that the plumbers installed larger pvc pipe in case my kids(son) decides to flush any more toys down the toilet.  That was not a cheap call to the plumber :(

The pipes with the black squares around them will be the shower and the garden tub in the master bath.  There are two bathrooms shown in this picture and one more out of the frame on the other side of the house.

I was shocked to see that the lot next to us was being cleared as well as the lot behind us.  It seems that our construction has prompted others to building as well.  It suppose that I will be putting the privacy fence up sooner than I thought.

                                                           Next up....concrete slab!

A fun weekend

     This weekend brought a couple of changes to the house as we inch closer to the slab being poured on Wednesday.  The block for the foundation was finished up and on Saturday, workers brought in six dumptruck loads of fill dirt for the foundation.  I was surprised when Julie and I took the kids out to the lot Saturday evening to show some friends of ours the progress and right around dusk, another truck drove up and unloaded more dirt into our living room!  They aren't wasting any time it seems.  

 

     I took my son, Corbin, out to the lot on Saturday afternoon and we had a good time walking  through  the wooded areas and doing some exploring.  We came across several bike trails and Corbin was very excited about the idea of getting his bike out there. 

   

     Later that evening, while I returned with the rest of the family and some friends of ours, we returned to these trails and did some more exploring.  I came across some tracks in the mud that looked similar to tracks that I had seen on our property a few days prior.  I took a photo of one of the tracks and researched it once I got home and it appears to me that it is a coyote track.  The back pads are diffidently different than a regular house dog. Because there are miles of wooded area east of our neighborhood, I am sure that a coyote or two has made his or her way through there from time to time.

  

    

    Surprisingly, the workers were back out early Sunday morning to spread the fill dirt from Saturday around and begin packing it into place.  The plumbing is scheduled to go in on Monday so they couldn't completely pack it before then.  It was really neat to be able to actually walk on a somewhat level floor at the height that the house will be built at. 

    

 

My Father-in-law, Gil, came out with me and the kids on Sunday afternoon and we brought the bikes out with us to ride.  We had a great time riding down the steep hill that our house sits at the top of and also on the bike trails that we discovered the previous day.  

 

    It will be so nice to have a place that the kids can ride free of the busy streets that we were so fearful of at our previous residence!  I have a lot of very fond memories of riding my bike all over in the country in Indiana where I grew up.  I'm excited for the kids to have this opportunity as well.

   

    Brooklyn wanted a picture with her PawPaw in her "room".  She is so excited about having her own room again.  While the house is being built, both the kids have shared a room in our apartment and I know a woman needs her space!

The foundation is 5 block high

 Most of the block was finished being laid today for the foundation.  It seems to be a little easier to picture the finished product with each thing that gets added.  I am still having a hard time putting the room sizes into perspective without walls being up but that will be solved in a couple of weeks. 

The remaining block should be finished off tomorrow and hopefully they will bring in dirt to back-fill inside.  After that, the plumbing will be ran throughout the house and then it will be ready to pour the slab.

The kids got a real kick out of it when I told them that their room will sit high off of the ground.  I want them to be involved in this process as much as we are.  Julie and I are going to help the kids out in making some sort of time capsule to bury maybe under their floor or perhaps under where the driveway will be.  Corbin is all into hidden treasure so I know that he will be all over that.

Starting to take shape

Click to enlarge any photo on this site

 

 Today, Julie and the kids and I went out to the lot after work to discover that the block has begun to be laid for the foundation.  It is getting easier now to picture the completed house with every thing that is added to it.


It's crazy to think that our floor level will be at the top of those blocks.  It seems so high seeing it like this.  Especially when you consider that the ceilings will be 14' high in some areas.  I spoke with the builder and asked him to raise it high in order to have steps that go up to the front porch instead of the porch being almost level with the driveway.  Because we will be putting an in-ground pool in the back yard, he said that it is best to not have a large drop-off from the back porch so we compromised on this height that we have now.  Actually seeing it in person looks more than adequate!

Click to enlarge any photo on this site

Julie and I are still undecided on the brick and trim color for the exterior of the house although we do have some ideas.  Our builder's wife is a professional interior designer and we are meeting with her on Monday evening to go over samples and get her input on what would look best based off of our tastes.

As an added bonus, while looking at our lot this evening, we got to meet the couple who purchased the 2011 Parade of Homes Dream Home behind our lot.  They are an extremely nice couple who moved in last month from Marcus Point in Pensacola.  The wife is a retired Lt. Colonel and the husband is a retired engineer from England.  Julie and I talked to them some time and we think that they will make great neighbors.  As we were talking, we also met the family that purchased the lot directly to the right of ours at the end of the cul-de-sac as they arrived to check on their own property.  They have plans on building soon as well and they too seem like a great family who seem to be our age.

We are very excited about what is ahead.  I know that there is still a huge mountain to climb until the house is complete but we are taking it one step at a time.

We have concrete!

Today, we had concrete poured into all of the trenches that the workers dug out for the footers.  I spoke with the builder today and he told me that they should have all of the block in place by tomorrow!

The blocks are ready to be put down.  I told the builder that I want the house built as high as possible in order to have steps that go up to the front porch.

It's still very hard to picture everything and as I have been warned, everything seems entirely too small due to the skewed perspective that no walls gives, but I have faith that it will all come together as planned.

But more importantly....

We have POWER!  Well...almost.

If you want to be notified when I make updates to this blog, please click the button at the top right of the page to follow it!

A Good Foundation

On Friday, September 9th, workers showed up to dig out the trenches for the footers.  Its nice to be able to see the shape of the house and the area of the yard that it will take up.

Julie and her Daddy are standing on the (future) back porch, staring at our (future) swimming pool.

Gil is giving us a crash-course in home construction with specific lesson in how to build a footer:

The cellphone camera obviously does not do it justice but I love the sunset view from this lot! 

Progress!

Here is a photo of our lot.  #39C in Robinson's Mill subdivision.  It is a new development subdivision in North Pensacola.  We were lucky enough to get the end of a cul-de-sac at the back of the subdivision!  After our last home being on a busy road, we can't wait to be in this quiet, traffic-free neighborhood and not have to worry about our kids playing outside!

On Monday, September 5th, workers showed up to clear our lot.  For the first time, we were able to see what our newly purchase land actually looked like!

Here is a view standing in the back of the lot and looking out toward the cul-de-sac

I love the sunsets on this property!

Our kids are just as excited as we are about our new house!  The builders marked the corners of the house with stakes and the kids are standing on the front and rear corners of the future home.

The Right Location

We chose to build in a new subdivision in northern Pensacola named Robinson's Mill.  We were attracted to the seclusion it offers being toward the end of a dead-end road and the sounds of nature all while still being close enough to the "city life".

The water mill at the enterance is a nice touch that helps to give a cozy feeling to our future neighborhood.

A left turn at the back of the subdivision will take you down Ironforge Road and the end of Ironforge road will bring you to our home.