Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Foundation!

     Sorry for the long wait.  Our foundation was supposed to be done before Thanksgiving but for various reasons it was not.  So, it was poured on Monday and we just got the chance to get out there today to see it all done. We currently live about 35 minutes away from the lot so it's not easy to get out there a lot.  We had to go back to the Adair office anyways today because we got a call from Jill at Adair that our carpet we had chosen was no longer available, and we needed to come in and choose another.  We ended up going with one that was a shade or two darker than the original we had chosen.  We are also looking into the costs of adding a second window in the living room, like in the 2432 virtual tour with the white kitchen.  The second window makes the living room seem more open and bright.  We'll find out the pricing by Friday probably.  As far as the foundation, they poured the garage pad as well, it looked really fresh, maybe from this morning.
     The next step is getting the floor joists in and the rough in plumbing then inspection on all that, THEN the framing can begin.  Chris the construction manager said that the guys will probably be out there on Friday to do the floor or Monday depending on when they finish another job on the coast.
    We have decided that it will be necessary to install french drains around the house and maybe along the edge of the property that the hill is on.  There is a lot of runoff from construction up on the hillside.  A neighbor was telling us that it was flooding his backyard.  So we are going to try to be proactive and stop it before it can begin.  More on this later... Now for the pics!

The foundation, facing the front of the house, with my back to the driveway. Look we have a portapotty!! :)
Looking at the side of the house that the kitchen and dining room is on.
Looking at the side of the house with the garage and the living room.  Kevin was walking around planning his french drains.
Standing in the kitchen looking toward the front door, dining room, and den.
Standing at the front door looking across the garage to the living room.
Floor joists waiting to be installed. :)
In this shot you can see the opening for the side garage exterior door we added. It will lead into our dogs side yard. You can also see the downgrade in the garage for any runoff.


My amazing husband Kevin and our eldest daughter Kenna, posing by the front door.  (It's almost impossible to get her to smile for the camera. Lol.)

Friday, November 2, 2012

Building Permits and Site Inspection!

Today, I practically skipped into the city's building department to pay for and pick up our building permits. Afterward, Kevin, the girls and I headed out to the lot to meet with the construction manager Chris to do our final lot inspection before construction begins.  We staked out where the house will sit and realized that the excavator excavated the wrong house plan for us. We were wondering why it was so big! Originally we had decided to go with the two story 2432, then we thought because of our budget we would have to change it to the one story 1952, but in the end went with the 2432. Apparently, both of those plans were given to the excavator by Adair and he didn't do a final check before he started to see which one we had decided to go with. Needless to say our bill from him just for the housepad is now nearly double what he originally quoted us! We are not happy about this. Hopefully, between Adair and the excavator something can be worked out. We are not going to pay thousands more for a mistake that wasn't ours.
According to Chris, he can get his guys out there to pour the foundation in about a week and a half. On a side note we decided to push the house back about 3 feet, because the driveway seemed too short the way it was, and we need an adequate amount of space to be able to have a turnaround.
We are very excited to finally be at this point. Here are a couple pictures I snapped today. One is of the temporary power pole all hooked up and electrified :) and the others are the stakes for the final position of the house and of course the wonderful building permits! The next post will be pics of the foundation, woohoo!!

The building permit!!
The temp power pole all hooked up and ready to go!
The left side of the house stakes. I took these pics with my iphone so I couldn't get it all in with one shot! See how much extra shale was put down on the left?
The right side of the house stakes.