All Dried In - Just In Time!

Much has happened since my last post! As you can see from the pictures, the house is framed! Yippee! The framers got the sheeting on the trusses just before the snow fell. As soon as we get a good day...maybe next week...the roofers will get the paper on and then the shingles. In the meantime, the framers have been working on some on the interior things they had put off to get all the roof completed in time. We also have a guy working on the timbers that will frame the front porch. Things look really nice and the house is really beginning to take shape! We ordered the windows quite a while ago, and they should be able to hang them next week.

Paul and I decided on a fireplace for the main room! It is the coolest! It reminds us of a ski lodge fire place. It is the perfect one for the look we want. We are very excited about it.

As a family, we are eagerly looking forward to spending next Christmas in our new home!

Framing

It has been quite some time since I last updated the blog! Things have been moving along rather smoothly. We had the floors in the basement poured and then the plumbing was roughed in down there. Then the framers arrived! Matt Marker and his crew have been doing a great job. The walls are going up and it is starting to look like a house...finally! In the meantime, Paul and I decided on which type of windows we want to use and also on the materials for the exterior of the home. Those were really tough decisions!!! The garage floors were poured and the trusses ordered. I believe the truss guy should come to the site this week. I also finalized all the appliances at Orson Gygi...and came in under budget!!! Yippee!!! We also decided to add a small deck off the master bedroom...I was not totally sold on it at first, but now that it is there, I really love it. I think it will be a great place for me to catch some rays... And, Bella will love sitting out there as well.

We are just waiting for one more cabinet bid to come in before we decided on which company to use. I need to be making that decision soon since we are getting to the point where we can take the measurements for the cabinets. I am really starting to get excited. I know this home will be a wonderful change for our family. We are all looking forward to all the fun we will have once we move in.

Foundation Walls and Backfilling

The foundation walls were poured before we headed to Lake Powell. Then the concrete had to cure a little. Dirt was brought back in to fill in the footing area...and the basement plumbing was put in place. The heater/AC vents are now in the basement. The steel beams are now in place so that the garage floor can be poured next week. The basement floor will also be poured next week. Then the framers will be able to come! We are getting really excited. The house is starting to take shape and we can really see the shape of it. I plan to meet with the cabinet designer this next week to finalize our plans and then I will meet with Dave at Orson Gygi to finalize the appliances.

A Few Side Notes

Right after the footings were poured, Paul headed to Alaska for a Dall sheep hunt. He traveled to Prudhoe Bay and hunted in the Brooks Range. He had a great time. He loves being out in that untouched country. He got a nice ram the second day of his hunt. He was thrilled and so was I because that meant he could come home earlier than we had originally planned. The week after he got home, we loaded up the boat and car with kids and friends, and headed to Lake Powell for our annual "End of Summer" trip! It was a blast! The kids jumped off cliffs, surfed, tubed and wakeboarded to their hearts' content. Paul and I love being with them on the boat...it is a great way to bond because there aren't any cell phones or TV or anything...just family. We traveled down with our good friends, Joe and Lisa Rich and their kids, and also Mark and Melissa Nichols and their kids. We always make great memories their and the kids look forward to this trip every year. So, I thought I would post a few pics of these two events.

The Footing

Well, I was pleasantly surprised when Paul told me that the footings would be poured on Friday - last Friday! So, shortly after all the rebar was tied, the truck came with the cement for the footing. Bailey went down with Paul to watch since it is pretty cool how they pump all that concrete all the way down! We had Paul's company summer party Friday, so when we returned home Saturday, the forms had been removed from the footing! It looks pretty awesome! I finally can see exactly where the house will be. I was a little confused before. Paul kept trying to tell me, and of course I just nodded, but I really didn't have much of a clue!

They should begin forming the foundation Monday or Tuesday. We are really excited to see it all finally moving along. I have to get rolling on the kitchen and tile now.

Forming the Footings and Tying The Rebar

Monday the guys from Rock Structures began removing the sur-charge soil. Then they dug out trenched for the footings. There were a few changes that needed to be made to the footing plans...that we noticed once the digging started. Thankfully, the structural engineer was able to make the changes in just one day! Thursday - yesterday - KMad Footing came and began forming the footings and setting in the rebar. Today they will finish the forms and tying in the rebar. Then we are ready to pour the footings. That will happen the first of next week.

I forgot to mention that we also located our sewer and water connections and are now tied in to those! It was quite the challenge to locate the sewer. Unfortunately the sewer marker was knocked down a year or so ago when another home was being built. We had Roto-Rooter help to search for the lines. Finally we found them, and the guys at Rock Structures got us all tied in...our sewer line is about 30 feet down, so it was quite a project.

We Closed On The Loan!!!

Well, today we closed on our construction/mortgage loan. We were supposed to close 4 weeks ago, but things have not been going in our favor lately. However, today life is good. We have the money we need to get things rolling. Hopefully we will have workers on our lot in a day or two...

The Waiting May Soon Be Over

Well, the past month or so has been very frustrating and stressful. We have been waiting for the ground to settle, and also for a certain stream permit - which is required since our property is on a stream. The state wants to make sure we are responsible in the way we clean up and maintain the stream beds. However, the most frustrating part has been the financing! We have had a terrible time finding comparable homes to use as an estimate to the value of ours. We have moved to a different bank, hoping that things would be easier, but were met with the same problems. It looks like we are just about there, though. Unfortunately, our home and lot are still under valued, but we think after the home is built we will be able to get an accurate value. It is funny to us that when we built the office for Great Basin, we just took in the bid from the contractor and that is what the bank used as the value of the building and lent the money based on those bids. However, I guess for a new home construction, that is not the way things work. So we are at the mercy of an appraiser who just looks at our plans, completely unaware of the type of finish work we have budgeted for the home. And, since our home will be a rambler, the entire downstairs is considered a basement and valued at less than half per square foot finished than the rest of the home. We are hoping to close this coming week and have the footings poured sometime that same week. Keep your fingers crossed. I am about to forget about the whole mess, and just pay for the work that has been completed...and maybe we will build in a year. The housing and mortgage crisis have really gotten the appraisers and banks very gun shy.

Still Waiting

Well, another week has gone by...and we did notice a little settling. We have decided to wait still one more week and see how much more settling occurs before we decide when to pour the footings. In the meantime, Rock Structures has completed all the work they can until we pour footings and cut in the driveway. The terraces look great and we have a nice pathway down through the backyard. It is difficult for us to get a good picture of the whole backyard right now. We would have to cross the creek and stand in a neighbor's backyard. Hopefully we will be able to do that in the future... We plan to clean up some of the area along the creek this summer, and also to plant some ferns from the yard of our current home in the trees here at our new home. We do plan to leave much of the area along the creek very natural. There are some birds that live down there, and we don't want to displace them. We will just clear an area where we can access the creek and also find a spot to put in a fire pit down there. We also have noticed that there is a hawk nesting in one of the big trees in the "woods". We think that is pretty cool!

While all of this waiting is going on, I am meeting with kitchen designers. I am really excited about the kitchen - since it is basically my office! We want the kitchen/great room area to be the focus of the home! I am looking forward to choosing a design! Then it will be on to the tile...

The Waiting Game

Rock Structures have been working so hard on the lot. Our rock walls are almost completed. The terraces are beginning to take shape...and it is looking like we will have a fabulous backyard! I can't wait to plant new trees and plants on the terraces. Maybe we will have room for a garden! For now, we are surcharging the dirt on one of the corners. They have piled a lot of extra dirt on the corner, and we are waiting to see how much settling occurs. In the past week we had about a quarter of an inch, so we will leave the dirt there and measure again next week. In the meantime, we are getting bids for our kitchen cabinets.

The Rock Walls

We are really happy with all the hard work the crew from Rock Structures has been doing on the site! They have taken out all the necessary trees and have hauled in tons of new dirt. Now they are beginning the rock walls that will terrace our backyard. The survey crews from Great Basin have also helped us so much, staking the walls. It is so important that they walls are in the right location and that they are drained properly. Paul is also checking the site with Kasey daily to make sure everything during this vital stage of site preparation goes down without a hitch!

Removing Trees and Moving Dirt

The Floor Plans

The Exterior Elevations

The Site Plan

The Lot