Pictures

Framing begins!

Little Helper!

Basement stairs side view

Basement stairs front view

Starting to look like a house!

Sticks & Stones...well...concrete, anyway.

Sorry, no pictures in this post. I don't have my camera with me and my regular computer is in the shop. So, you're stuck with my ramblings. The basement floor was poured at the end of last week, and the framing started yesterday and will continue today and the rest of the week. The garage floor is also going in today. It's pretty amazing to see this part of the process. We can see where windows are going and what the views will be out of each of them. It's becoming a lot easier to visualize how the house will look too. It's finally jumping off of the paper!

The basement floor is all insulated from the bottom. They use an expanded foam 'blanket' of sorts that almost looks like a pool cover. I has a reflective coating and altogether has an R-value of 10, which is pretty darn good for just a basement floor. It will not only keep the basement warmer, it will keep it dryer which will, in turn, make it feel warmer when we finish it off in the distant future. They also put 1-1/2" foam sheets around the subterranean portions of the exterior of the foundation which serves the same purpose and has the same effect as the insulation under the floor.

By the end of yesterday, all of the basement walls and openings were framed. I met the framers too, which was kind of nice. Seems like a good group of guys - five in all. They are technically independent contractors, but are busy mostly just working for True North Homes. Rich is really good at finding quality contractors and then keeping them busy so that he gets a very consistent product in all the homes he builds. We really like that about him.

We did hit one small snag in the layout of our basement level storage area and its relation to the garage level workshop. It's a long story, but for a while there it looked like we would have had two steps leading in to the workshop and unnecessary 9' ceilings in the storage area. I think it just boiled down to a little miscommunication, but regardless, Rich got it fixed right away and we're all set now. We'll be able to drop the floor in the workshop so that it's a straight walk in. That will result in a shorter ceiling in the storage area, but that's ok. That area is really going to work more like a shed for garden tools, lawn furniture storage, etc... so lower ceilings are ok. And by lower, I mean nearly 8' - so it's not like you'll have to duck your head or anything.

Today, they'll be putting the garage floor and floor drains in and framing the first floor. That's REALLY exciting! The floor joists - which are 14" engineered wood "I" beams should arrive early this morning. Once they are set and the basement walls are squared up, they'll deck the first floor and go up with the walls. That and the second floor will take the rest of the week and into next week with roof truss installation some time next week. This is the part that goes really fast (refer to the "homeowners emotional roller coaster that I posted earlier). Then the slow-down begins while all the little things are taken care of.

That's all for now! Don't forget to leave a comment - but know that all requests for guest-suites and special freeloading accommodations will not be posted. You know who you are! ;-)

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Shopping, Backfilling, & Planning!

Ok - sorry it's been a while since I posted. Not much to write about when you're waiting for concrete to cure. W gave it about 10 days or so...which isn't too bad when you consider that by some estimates the concrete at the center of the Hoover Dam is still curing...70 years after it was poured!

Nonetheless, here are some pictures of the foundation right after they pulled the forms off and waterproofed the outside (that's the black stuff you see sprayed on). After that, you'll see some after everything was backfilled to near finished grade (there will be one more bulldozer visit later on after the heavy traffic is done in the yard).

The other exciting thing we did recently was to travel around with our interior designer, Kristy, who works for True North Homes. She's fantastic - has a great eye for what works together and is very in-tune with what we want our house to look like. She also goes to our church and has a little boy Alex's age, so that doesn't hurt either! We visited T.A. Gentry Kitchen and Bath for our plumbing fixtures (sinks, faucets, showers, toilets, etc...). There we met Susan who helped us work through our selections with a health dose of humor...mostly at my expense, since it was Carol, Kristy, and Susan against me. Apparently they just don't understand how important the flushing power of a toilet really is. Anyhow, we had a lot of fun and picked out all 'Gerber' brand faucets as they are the best quality for their moderate price range. Everything on the second floor will be chrome (actually the cheapest finish you can get) while the downstairs will be 'brushed-nickel' which is a touch more pricey but really nice looking. The tub/shower combos are all 'Lasco' brand one-piece fiberglass units. No caulking or grout to worry about with these, which will be awfully nice. And yes, we got the 'power flush' toilets (extra tall even!) for me. Guys, you know what I'm talking about...Next we visited Rachel at West Michigan Kitchen and Interiors. She helped us pick out our kitchen and bathroom cabinetry and Kristy's expertise was very valuable here. Before she worked for True North she was a custom cabinetry designer! For the kitchen we selected cherry finished shaker style cabinets made by 'Pioneer' which is based out of Michigan of all places, which makes us really happy. The finish is going to be cherry colored (see picture below) but the actual wood might wind up being maple rather than cherry to save a little $$$. The two types of wood look very similar, but maple is much more readily available and therefore less expensive.For our last stop of the day, we met Cindy at the Lighting Corner to select our light fixtures. You wouldn't believe how much you can spend on lights! Needless to say, we told Cindy upfront that we wanted to stay relatively inexpensive! She was right on board with that and showed us a lot of lower-priced fixtures that looked remarkably similar to the sickeningly expensive ones. Funny thing is, they all use the same light bulbs...hmm... Anyhow, we picked out everything but our ceiling fans and exterior lights. The majority of the fixtures will be brushed nickel like the downstairs faucets (funny thing is that a brushed nickel faucet is $90 more expensive than a chrome one, but a brushed nickel light fixture is the same price as a chrome one...hmmm...). The glass in our fixtures is called 'alabaster' not because its made of the famous pure-white mineral used for carving and referenced in the bible, but rather because it's glass coated to look like the famous mineral. We just call it the swirly white stuff.
Looking forward, the basement floor will be poured Monday and the framing should start shortly afterward. Rich is still analyzing our 4 lumber bids, but it looks like the choice will be pretty clear.

We had a long budget and planning meeting with Rich and Kristy too where we got some sobering news about the cost of this project. I think we'll be able to make it work though. We kind of had a feeling that this would happen!

We also decided to change a couple of features that we had been planning on. First, rather than the house being made out of those cool SIPs (structurally insulated foam panels) it will actually be built using the traditional stud & sheathing technique. The cost comes out pretty much the same between the two, but there is a 6 week waiting list for getting SIPs from the manufacturer. We can't afford to wait that long! Instead, we'll have stud walls with spray-foam insulation that acts as a stellar sound, air, and temperature barrier so our energy efficiency will not be greatly impacted.

We're also going with a tank-type water heater rather than a tankless. We can always upgrade later and the price difference between the two is quite substantial.

We will, however, be spending a little extra $$$ on a zoned heating and AC system. That allows us to control the temperature of all three levels of the house independently with only one furnace and one AC unit. It will pay for itself over time and will allow for more even heat and air conditioning for different parts of the house. For instance, if the fireplace is going for a winter-time party that we're having on the main level, the forced-air heat won't be needed to heat that level, but the bedrooms where the kids are sleeping will need hot air. Pretty neat if you ask me!

We're also leaning toward having the deck built right away. We were going to do that ourselves, but the labor cost is only $1,000 and we'd have to buy the materials regardless. I think that it will be money well-spent as I'll have to spend most of next summer just doing yard and landscaping work!

Well, that's all for now. Framing should start soon and go really fast. Lots of pictures to come!

Forming a plan

Today, the concrete forms went up and the foundation was poured. We have the outline of a house! The guys from Custom Concrete out of Holland did a great job from the looks of it. Looking at it, I had a couple of questions, which were quickly answered by a quick call to Rich. There is no footing or foundation wall under one stall of the garage. Rich explained to me that that is so they can get a bulldozer or other machinery in to backfill before the garage floor is poured. Makes sense, now that I know that! The other question was about the walls under what will eventually be my workshop (off the back of the garage). I had assumed all along that the concrete would go all the way up to the floor of the shop. However, concrete poured walls are a lot more expensive than framed walls, and framed walls are plenty strong enough for what we need them for. So, the foundation walls are only as tall as they need to be above the ground. Again, makes sense when I think about it...and that's why we're using a builder!

The forms will come off tomorrow (Friday) and the foundation will be waterproofed. Then it sits while the concrete cures for about 10 days.
During the 10 days, we'll be pretty busy though. We have siding, shingles, cabinets, fixtures, and countless other things to select. And, the bids are almost all in, so we need to go through those with Rich and get our budget finalized (scary...) The goal right from the start is to eliminate any "allowances". In other words, we'll be selecting and pricing everything right from the start so that we can nail down the budget right off the bat. That way we can avoid any financial surprises and make sure the house is what we want for what we're willing to pay. That's the way Rich prefers to do it, and we are 100% behind it.

More to come once the forms come off!

Sound Footing...

The footings were completed yesterday, and the water hookup was run to the mechanical room in the basement. It took me a little while to figure out what all the footings were for. I was expecting just an outline of the house, but there was one running front-to-back through the center of the house and three right next to each other on one side of the house. Eventually, after a phone call or two to my dad, I realized that the one bisecting the basement was for a supporting wall that will hold the first floor up, and the three off to one side are to support the stairs...3 flights of the darn things!

Carol snapped some pretty cool pictures of them working on the footings...complete with the concrete pumping truck. Wish I could have been there!



Also, I stopped by the site this morning on the way to work because I saw a truck from the concrete company parked out front. They are finishing the prep on the footings today and are having the forms delivered today as well. He thought they would probably pour the walls tomorrow (Thursday) and possibly remove the forms by Friday! Soon after that, they'll waterproof the walls. Then, as early as the end of next week (the 15th) they could potentially insulate and backfill. Holy cow this is going fast - everyone tells us that this part goes fast and is really exciting - something new everyday. We're already mentally preparing ourselves for the slowdown that will inevitably come when the details start to happen inside. Below is a diagram Rich - our builder - gave us which gauges the progress of the build against the emotional state of the owner. Funny...but frighteningly accurate!

A Hole to Call Home

The rain didn't slow us down a bit yesterday! Woo Hoo! Miss Dig showed up in time for Ken Hoekwater (the excavator) to do what he needed to do on the front half of the property so that's good to. Check out the video:

The soil turned out to be in really good shape for building a house. There was a little bit of topsoil/fill on the crest of the hill that Ken had to dig through to get to original clay for the footings to sit on - maybe 5 feet or so. But for the most part, the clay is solid and uniform which is exactly what you want for a foundation to sit on. Ken is an absolute artist with the excavator. It looks like the foundation was dug with a spoon. The basement floor is as smooth and even as can be without being covered in concrete. The footing trenches are uniform and clean. It's really quite impressive.




They also didn't have to truck out as much dirt as they thought they might, which will save us some money. The house sits back a little further than they envisioned, so not as much of the hill had to be removed as they thought.

Today, if the rain continues to hold, we'll have footings and maybe foundation walls by the end of the week!

Last night we had a long meeting with Rich from True North Homes and went through a TON of paperwork paragraph by paragraph. It wasn't terribly exciting, but to us, it was evidence that Rich is REALLY thorough. That's one of the things we really like about True North - they pay attention to the details and make sure all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed before they do anything. That makes us MUCH more comfortable with the whole process. We covered the warranty that comes with the home (which is really good), a lot of process details about how the money is transfered from us to the title company to True North, details about the bid process and how we'll select certain options as the bids come in.

We even picked out our windows (energy star rated, of course!). They are JELD-WEN all vinyl with low-e glass. Vinyl is a SIGNIFICANT cost savings over wood (40%) and are lower maintenance. We wanted white trim anyway and now we'll never have to keep up with painting them.