Time for a roof!

The last few days we've seen them begin to put the finished roof on....

First up was the tar paper that lays underneath the roofing shingles. 

Robin looking down over the newly installed front porch trusses

While the tar paper was going on the roof, the framers were also finishing up the truss work. At this same time they also added the plywood subflooring in the future bonus room (that's about as far toward "finished" that the builder will take it, once it's all enclosed).

Robin climbing around in the roof trusses over the garage

Thursday saw the roof shingles begin to go up on the roof. They have numerous packages of shingles sitting up there waiting to be nailed down and they began on the west side (master bedroom) side of the roof. Alot of the back side shingles are in place too.

With our contractor walkthrough looming on June 4th we've come to realize that that means they'll have to have the house all "buttoned-up" by then;  that means the doors and windows will be in place so that they can lock the house up while the interior work is being done for the next 2-3 months.

The next week should see alot of changes!

I hope everyone has a good holiday weekend!

Paul

It's been busy!

....both at the building site and at home!

Early last week we'd asked our builder to compile a list as completely as he could (now that 3/4's of the purchase orders are in from the various suppliers) on how we're doing budget-wise on all of our allowance items.

We need that information to be able to figure out just where we stand so that we can make the one big supplier-related decision still needed at this point in construction:  the material to be used for the kitchen cabinets.

Both Robin and I really want granite countertops (we originally wanted some sort of "solid-surface" countertop, but after weighing the pro's and con's -- and prices -- of all the available types and materials {{and there's quite a few we found out!}} we settled on granite), but we aren't about to kill our budget to get that material.

We finally received the last supplier's numbers last night (well, other than lighting and hvac {{heating and a/c}}, who we haven't had our initial meetings with yet, and won't for another 1-2 weeks), and after spending several hours (yeah it was a late night for me.. lol) crunching numbers it was determined that we'll be able to afford the granite countertops rather than the laminate countertops!

Due to all the various Parade discounts given out by about half of the suppliers (about half of them don't offer Parade discounts any more..), the total numbers came out basically the same with the few (but in some cases large) upgrades we requested.

So now that that issue is figured out, we can inform the plumbing supplier of our sink choices in the master bathroom (laminate countertops in there) and the kitchen (granite countertops), as the sinks in both areas can vary depending on the material used for the countertops.

Out at the construction site, alot was happening since last Friday... (we didn't take any photos yesterday as there wasn't alot different that would show up in photos, so I'll combine Monday and Tuesday's photos/progress in this one post)

Almost all the roof trusses are now in place, with the exception of a few of the more specific trusses for things like the front porch and a couple valley trusses. All the large, main trusses are done.

This next photo is over the garage, in the future bonus room area. You can see the attic trusses in place, and they'll eventually put down a plywood subfloor in this area. At the end of construction the bonus room won't be finished, but it will be usable space nonetheless.

Now that the basement floor slab has been poured, Robin and I went down there and nosed around a bit :)

concrete floor slab with saw cut joints to control the cracking

stairwell wall framing..

We were out there taking these photos on Saturday, while the excavator was out there doing most of the "rough grading". ("rough" grading is when the excavator takes the massive piles of dirt, and using Global Positioning Satellite - GPS - equipment does a "rough" job of filling in the grade levels so that the ground slopes to the proper areas for drainage purposes) In the following photo you can see him carefully clearing the dirt that had been piled around the two trees in the front of the house for the last month or so (the smallish pile that was around these trees in the first photo of those post is now gone).

Monday came along and saw more progress on the roof sheathing. The entry canopy has been framed up with the trusses (no front porch roof yet) and the rough grading is basically done.

Entryway canopy is up

I went around the house and took some photos now that the massive piles of dirt are almost all gone....

backyard, as seen from the path in the woods.

The area between the house and the trees on the right will be lawn

The last of the piles of dirt in the background

The last photo for this update is from the ground in back of the garage looking up at the attic trusses/future bonus room roof framing.

We finally have all the required paperwork in to the bank and they've done almost all their internal work. We're "officially" good to go on our loan to build the house (lol) and should hopefully be closing on the construction loan early next week.

June 4th is the much-anticipated "contractor walk-through" day;  almost all the sub contractors/suppliers will be there that day. It'll take most of the day for Robin and I as we walk thru the entire house with each of the suppliers who need our input (i.e. - electrical, pointing out exactly where we want outlets located, etc., etc)

This Memorial day weekend we'll be out at the lot on Saturday. I have a bunch of small scrub trees to clear out along the front edge of the woods, in a plow furrow, so that the excavator can fill in the furrow so that there won't be a pond there (and mosquito haven) every time it rains.

Paul

Roof trusses!

Thursday arrived and we were not disappointed, the roof trusses went up today...

(note: I added two posts today.. this one and the one before it, so please check out both of them... thanks!)

I took off of work around 11:00 and sat our at the site and took photos and shot a video of the trusses going up. It was pretty cool to watch.

This is the first time we've been at the site while there's been activity going on since way back when they were first digging the hole for the basement.

In the above photo you can begin to see the roof lines taking shape. It's starting to really look like a house now.

In the next series of photos, they're installed a small-ish truss that will live at the entry to the future bonus room.

The crane grabbing the truss from the pile on the right

Moving the truss into position

Installing the truss in its new home.

One of the garage / bonus room trusses being installed is the next photo.

You can find a 3 minute long video shot about this time here at youtube:

http://youtu.be/c6LXTgudJV8

You can see how many vehicles are around when there's activity going on.

Here's some photos from inside the house now, with the trusses mostly installed.

Trusses over the master bedroom (viewed from upstairs)

..over the living room (from "overlook" upstairs)

Bonus room trusses over the garage

Some closer-up views for the exterior of the house with almost all of the trusses in place.

Just before we left today Lyndsey did some exploring and found these items:

She dubbed this one her "baby truss"

..and this is the hole that they'll dump the concrete down for pouring the basement floor

As I was watching them today I had the chance to talk to two of the concrete guys, who were working in the basement at the same time as the framing crews were installing the roof trusses. They told me that tomorrow (Friday), while the plywood roof sheathing is being installed over the roof trusses, they'll be pouring the basement floor slab.

You can see in the following photo that they poured a portion of the slab beneath what will eventually be the stairway from the garage to the basement (so that they have somewhere stable to place their ladder tomorrow).

They've also poured the portion of the basement slab that's directly beneath what will be the stairway from the first floor down. I can only assume that means that stairway will be built soon as well.

So by the end of the day tomorrow we should have the beginnings of a rooftop and a basement floor slab in the house. The day after that, the slab will be fit for walking on.

Also, in news of our current home, we have our first open house this Sunday since putting the house back on the market. Wish us luck everyone!

Paul

Framing is complete!

Wow! Alot has happened in the last few days.. so I'm going to break it into two posts;  one for Tuesday and Wednesday (when not as much visibly was happening), and today.

On Tuesday the framing crews were working on the wall framing... by the end of the day they had it mostly complete.

You can see above that most of the walls that are framed up now also have the plywood sheathing on them as well... it's a small step closer to having the house all enclosed.

...but... the biggest addition of the day was the stairway to get us upstairs! The girls have been itching to walk in their new rooms since the floor framing went up....

The girls jumped at the chance to finally see out their windows....

Lyndsey with her window looking into the woods...

Rachel with her window looking out in front of the house...

Here's a couple more photos from the second floor....

From the "overlook" looking down into the living room

 Above you can see Robin's "Wall of Windows" on the left and one of the small transom windows in the wall on the right that'll be above the built-in cabinets and on either side of the fireplace.

From the other "overlook" down into the main entry foyer

The photo above has two large openings;  the bottom one is for the entry doorway and the top one is for the large window that will go above it.

Wednesday brings along two new developments....  the roof trusses have arrived on-site in preparation for installation on Thursday, and the house is seeing the beginnings of the vapor barrier wrapping on the exterior of the plywood sheathing.

First, the wrapping.. You can see it's the light blue paper wrapped about the right side of the house. It's there to kind of regulate the transmission of air and moisture within the wall structure.

The view from the back of the house with wrapping...

From inside the patio doors... one of the workers has a sense of humor!

The trusses, stacked up and awaiting the arrival of the crane. Joe (Dennis' construction manager on-site) told me on Wednesday that the trusses would have been installed on Wednesday except that they couldn't get the crane that day. 

The trusses are scheduled to be installed on Thursday. The house will look tons different when that happens!

Also, I'd spoken with the plumbing sub a couple days ago and he'd said he was down in the basement (and the garage) installed the underfloor plumbing. Things like the piping for a future bathroom, the part of the septic system that is inside the house, and floor drains.

floor drain and water heater/softener hookups

the "sewage ejector"

plumbing rough-ins for the future bathroom

More to come in the next post... Thursday will be a big day!

Paul