On 08/18/2011, the framing was officially complete! It only took the crew 4 days. Wow.
The next day 08/16/2011. The framers were done with the second floor! I can't believe how incredibly fast they work. Basically they work from sun up to sun down.
Framing officially began on 08/15/11. The framers were there bright and early about 7:30 am. I was there to see when they arrived. I felt like a stalker but hey,,,,,this is my first home building experience so I don't want to miss a beat :-)
About midday, I went back again (I currently live very close to the new site) and to my surprise, they were almost done with the first floor!
PICTURE ABOVE: Side View
PICTURE ABOVE: Front View
PICTURE ABOVE: Back view from street
When we sit in our morning room or in our backyard, this is the beautiful view that we will see across the street. It is so peaceful! What a blessing!
We opted to have a full bath in the finished basement. Here are a few pictures of the rough ins for the basement bath.
The wood was delivered on 08/09/2011. The framer that we requested was already working on another house when our wood arrived, so the framing did not actually start until 08/15/2011.
According to our schedule (which is only a rough draft), the upcoming week should consist of pouring the basement & garage, and starting the framing. Our lumber is supposed to be delivered on Tuesday so I will post pictures when it arrives. We ran into a little snafu this past week with a few questions we had about the waterproofing, but other than that, things seem to be going pretty well.
Here are a few more pictures:
Our future backyard!
The future driveway and garage with the rocks.
Here are a few pictures of the waterproofing:
Here are a few pictures of the foundation after it has dried:
The Problem
I stated in the beginning of my blog that I would be totally honest about our experience so I will be doing just that. The other day my husband drove by our home site and snapped a few pictures of the foundation. I immediately noticed that something wasn't right when I looked at the picture. We immediately drove back over to the lot and sure enough I was correct. The guys that poured the foundation did not place my basement window in the right place! The window should have been on the side of the basement but instead it was placed on the back of the basement. Some of you may ask....Why does this matter? Well the answer is simple...Natural Light! The spot in which the window was incorrectly placed would be in the unfinished part of the basement, in which we plan to have that door closed at all times. This would mean that if the window was not corrected we would have no source of natural light in the finished part of the basement at all.
Here is an illustration of the incorrect and correct placement of the windows:
The Resolution
Upon seeing the error, I immediately went home and emailed my project manager. It was a Friday night so I did not expect to hear from him until Monday morning. I sent a long drawn out email to my project manager about the error and the reasons why I needed to have the window in the correct place. To my surprise, he responded Saturday! His answer was short and sweet...."No problem Tarra, the window is in the wrong place. I will have the company come back out and add another window in the correct place before the end of the week. Also, instead of one window, you will now have two!" I was so impressed and happy that he got back to me so quickly. I was also glad that the resolution was simple and painless. I wasn't sure if it was going to be an easy fix since the concrete had already been poured and dried. Apparently, it's as easy as cutting a new one! I am satisfied with the outcome. Thanks "C", your the man!
Update 08/05/2011
The window has been installed in the correct location, and insted of having one window, I now have two! :-)
Here is a picture of the new window:
We drive by the house nearly every day so it was inevitable that we would soon meet some of our new neighbors. In the cul-de-sac we have met two of four neighbors and everyone is very nice! The thing that I am most excited about regarding my neighbors is the fact that they all have children! To my surprise the cul-de-sac is full of kids. I believe in total there are about 7 or 8 kids between all the neighbors and it's a good mixture of boys and girls so both my sons and daughter will have friends to play with. The fact that we are on a cul-de-sac is great because there is very minimal traffic and the kids can safely ride their bikes and play outside without constant traffic up and down the street. I am very satisfied with the lot we chose.
