A Chronicle of our Family's Adventure in Real Estate.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Start and Stop



Things have been moving along just swimmingly.  Last Friday the concrete was poured into the walls.  This is where we will eventually put a window (I hope).

Girls looking out of future French doors.








It's great to see some form coming to the building.  We are learning that building a home is like a waltz (I'm guessing since I've never actually waltzed before).  We are trying to coordinate supplies, excavators, and the contractor, as well as getting the weather to cooperate.  Now that I think about it, building is more like getting dinner ready.  You need to know what you're making, have the ingredients, and get it onto the table at a reasonably warm temperature while getting everyone to the table AND having them be nice to each other.  That's a metaphor I can relate to.  Everyone IS being nice to each other on the job, but schedules are not coordinating.  Our contractor had to help his brother move, then the excavator had a three day job in the middle of the week.  Now everyone is available.....BUT it rained last night and the ground is too wet for the heavy equipment to drive on to in order to bring in the gravel for the next part of the job.  oh well....  It is teaching me patience and I have a feeling that is a lesson I'm destined to have for the rest of my life.
   On a brighter note we did get our well dug!  They hit water and they didn't have to drill to China.  We actually stayed within our estimated budgeted and that is both shocking and pleasing all at the same time.

They drilled 160 ft.      
 
  So even though they haven't been building we have been making progress.

  We ordered 41 windows today. 

Colonial Style

  
  This isn't a very popular style of window, but it allowed us to add some architectural detail without blocking our view.  We ordered the windows from Eco Shield Window Systems.  It is a NY company and we we spent about 1/4 less than we would have if we went with a brand we could have gotten from Lowes or Home Depot.  Do you thing 41 windows is a lot of window?  We currently have 16 in our house, so it might be a bit of an adjustment for me.  If you see me wearing sun glasses in the house it's because I'm not used to so much sun light.

   We hope to be back on track on Monday.  I'll keep you updated.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Progress

   The Styrofoam cups,I mean blocks have been getting placed like Lego's over the past 2 days. 

Making sure the work is getting done.    
 The contractors cut the pieces with a chainsaw and then fit them together like...Legos.


Work in Progress  

These post stabilize the wall when the concrete is being poured.
Cut out is for basement doors. 


  So this is what Titus and the crew who have been up to for the past two days.  It's almost like a good ole' fashion barn raising (only they're using Styrofoam).









Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock

...The modern day wise man uses ICF aka insulated concrete forms.  It is like a concrete sandwich with Styrofoam  for the bread.  When I first heard Styrofoam for a foundation I figured it had to be some super duper builder grade Styrofoam. Styrofoam strong enough to handle enormous amounts of concrete. Concrete that  would be holding the house of my dreams. The house I would like to be standing until Jesus returns.  Apparently, when the builder grade Styrofoam is the same Styrofoam they use to make the cups you pour your coffee into during fellowship hour at church.  Styrofoam that you can rip apart with your bare fingers.  My house is going to built on this!?
This is the brand that the supplier who our builder works with recommended.

I was a little distressed at the haphazard way these were placed.

  I'm no expert on building.  I know there are people who are much much smarter than me who know what will work best, but aren't there about a million other materials one would think to use to put an entire house on that are a bit stronger than um....Styrofoam?  Oh well...everyone is doing it and I've always been one to follow the crowd.
     The contractor built a form this morning and had the code enforcers check it out before they came and poured concrete into earlier today.  This is how things looked.


Yes, we know that we shouldn't be taking pictures of the Amish, but Dan say's he's pretty sure they won't be reading the blog.

I'm told the house will somehow be attached to this.
  As you can probably tell, I haven't exactly caught onto the whole science of building.  I promise I will be much more informative when it comes to things like paint colors, wall treatments, and bathroom fixtures.  That will be a few months from now, but things are looking good!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

We have a hole!

It's been a  productive week on all of the home fronts.  It's late and a I'm tired so this post will be a little light on information, but hopefully pictures really are worth 1,000 words.
   Dan started refinishing the hardwood floors on my mom's apartment last weekend.  He sanded on Sat., we both stained after church on Sunday, and he polyurethaned in between appointments on Mon.  I don't have the before pics on my camera, but I do have one after. 





 The floors had carpet glue and a layer of brown paint on them before they were sanded.  We stained them a dark walnut color and applied 3 coats semi-gloss polyurethane. They look great.  I will try and have a before picture so you too can see the transformation!


   We took a quick trip to Lancaster, PA to visit with three of Dan's siblings. and their families.  It was great fun and I wish we could have stayed for the rest of the week.  The kids love playing with cousins and the adults had fun hanging out, eating, and eating some more.
The cousins are coming!

    









              







 
 We were sad to leave family, but we were excited to see this scene when we pulled up to the property on Friday morning.







   This is what we saw when we showed up in the afternoon.


This is the trench to keep the water from adding an unwanted water feature to our basement.

The site.

Our dear friends will also be our new neighbors!

   Progress is being made.  If the weather cooperates we will have footers tomorrow.   I will be sure to post and let you know how things are coming on the other home fronts. 

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Bring the Rubber Boots

  Good news first!  We got the building permit and we have an address.  We haven't gotten much farther on our to do list this week.  We've been too busy with pre-school sing a longs, field trips, and ballet recitals.  We did however manage to meet with our builder, excavator, and the contractor who will be doing the plumbing, heating, and electrical. Our Amish builder suggested (with a good amount humor) that we would be better off finding someone else to to do those trades considering he doesn't have a lot of experience with electric and plumbing. 
   We went up to the property on Tuesday and it was a glorious day, hot and humid.  This is why I showed up in shorts and sandals.  It took about 1.5 seconds and my foot sinking into the mud as soon as I stepped out of the car to realize that I was not properly attired for this outing.   Dan's work boots are now my new favorite fashion accessory.






  Our purpose for heading out to the property was to mark the foot print of the house with hopes that the excavation could be done this Friday and the footer for the foundation could be started on Monday.   Now for the bad news.  It didn't take us long to realize the property was much to wet to start excavation.   Not only have we had copious amounts of rain this spring, but it also look liked someone purposely tried to get the water from the hill above to run  pretty much to the dead center of where we would like to put the house.  It was suggested that we wait at least another week for the water to dry and to dig a trench to divert the water as it enters the top of the property line.  I'm all for a water feature, but I don't want it going through the center of my basement.  I was a little disappointed at first, but it doesn't hurt to have an extra week to get our ducks and then hopefully have them in the same room.  I'm not thinking they're going to cooperate and get all in a row.  I'm just hoping they're in close proximity to one another.
  We were able to stake out the property line.  I thought we could just decide where we wanted to put it based on the view and the slope of the property.  Apparently there are rules for the whole house placement business.  We have to be 50 feet away from our neighbors and and the septic has to be a certain distance away from the house and the road.  We also had to consider what proportion of the yard we wanted designated to the front and back.  We loved the idea of being further back from the road, but we didn't want to loose too much of the back yard.

This is Dan standing at what we hope eventually becomes the north east corner of the house.  


  The process consisted of looking at our survey and finding the pins that marked out our property lines.
We then took a super long measuring tape and measured approximately 115 feet back from the road and 60 feet away from our neighbors property line and put a stake to mark that as the corner.  Titus then came with surveying tools (I don't have any pictures of this part of the process because the Amish don't take pictures of themselves) and did precise measurements from our first corner to outline the rest of the house.  The excavators calculated how much of a grade they would have to make and how much dirt would have to be removed in order for the basement to be poured to code.  This was all very boring and completely beyond my comprehension.  I'm sure I could have figured it out if I tried, but I've never been much of an achiever.  I was to busy enjoying this view and trying not to loose my rubber boots in the mud.

After discussion about water diversion and asking everyone to pray for dry days filled with sun we decided that June 13 would be our next target date to start the foundation.  It's always good to have a goal to aim for right?  Goals are supposed to be set, and adjusted, and then they are reevaluated, and finally you realize it maybe isn't that goal that is the problem, but the person setting the goal.  That my friend, is a topic for another blog on another day.