Windows for Christmas

Our windows came just in time for Christmas. They are aluminum clad exteriors with wood interiors made by Sierra Pacific. We got push out casement windows, which means they are casement windows that don't have the cranks at the bottom (we have those kind now and don't like them because the cranks break). To open the window you just have to unlock two locks and push.

Unfortunately now that they are installed, I think the kitchen window's 2nd lock is too high for me to reach, so I will have to get Sal if I want it open.

Dining Room

Back Exterior

Can someone stop the snow???

The weather has officially turned, and not in a good way. We waited to order our windows until we had framed all the openings just to be sure that they would be right. They thought it would take 4 weeks to get them here, but "we didn't want to fire anyone, but business has slowed down so everyone is working less" means that we are getting windows on Monday. 2 weeks ago would have been better, but I guess you go with what you've got.

Meanwhile, the HVAC guys that thought they would be done in 2 weeks are still not done. I think the plumbers are done and we are just getting started on electrical. I had hoped to insulate before the end of the year and maybe be able to install cabinets at the end of January. That isn't going to happen. :(

It is too cold to go and take pictures inside the house for the blog so I took this picture from my bedroom window.

2nd Floor

It is starting to look like a house! I think the framers still have at least one more week of work, maybe 2. It is a lot taller than we thought it would be. I am sure that when everything else is finished it won't feel so tall, but right now it is a little shocking. We ordered windows last week, but they won't be here until mid December, so I am hoping for no more precipitation until they get here!

Exterior 2nd floor walls

looking over the great room

roof trusses

front

back

view from the street

Framing at last

The construction loan finally closed last month!! Who knew that would be so hard. Maybe I should have consulted a professional?

After a window well saga, that I will tell you about later, we finally got to see the framing get started about 2 weeks ago. The framers have been here basically every day. The basement is framed, the first floor is mostly done and the 2nd floor is started. I am hoping that the roof goes on by next week, but the weather is starting to turn, so we will see how it goes.

1st wall in the basement

Floor trusses
Subfloor

Sienna got stuck!

Rear view

Slab

This was actually finished last Friday, but I am a blogging slacker. Before we poured the slab, they installed insulation for me. Hopefully this will make for a warmer basement floor. We wanted to do radiant heat, but I just don't think it is in the budget, so I settled for just insulating. Then they poured the slab. I wondered how they smoothed it out when there wasn't anywhere to stand, but apparently when it gets to a certain hardness they can kneel on top of it to finish it. This is probably obvious to most of you, but I had never seen it done.

Underslab insulation

Here comes the concrete
Smoothing out

Finished product.

Window wells and backfill next week?

Walls and subrough plumbing

They put up the forms on Thursday and poured the wall Friday. Plumbers came to do subrough plumbing yesterday. If everything stays on schedule we could be pouring the floor on Friday and ready to frame next week.

Forms for the walls

Pump truck
Forms coming off the walls

Finished walls

sub rough plumbing

Footings!!

They started putting the forms down on Tuesday only to find that they needed the hole a little bit bigger, so the excavator came back Tuesday night to give them one more foot. They came back yesterday finished the forms and poured in the afternoon.

Footings take 1

Take 2Here comes the pump truck.

(I took the picture so you could appreciate the tight space these guys are working in)The pump extended.

There is a hose at the end of the arm of the pump truck that they carry around to make the concrete go where it needs to go. Apparently it is about 300 lbs. Here is how the mixer gets the concrete into the pump truck.

Almost finished

Completed footings!!! They are here building the walls today!

No foundation yet, but progress?

I think these are the forms for pouring the foundation, they were delivered Monday.

However, I still have a big hole...

The big hole

We got our building permit on the 18th, so we were hoping to have everything ready to start the next week. There were delays on our construction loan (ok it might not be quite all the way done even yet) and delays on the excavator's schedule, one of their machines broke so we had to wait for the other one, but finally it looks like we have a hole!

They delivered tractors on Tuesday

and on Wednesday I came home to a big hole. They say foundation on Friday.

Demoltion complete?

We are patiently waiting for the city to grant us a building permit before we start excavation. Should be any day now. The demolition contractors seem to think they are done. What is it about contractors in particular but men in general that they think that the job is done when in reality it is just mostly done.

Just a couple more loads guys.

bye bye breezeway

The demolition begins

We are staying in our current house while the new house is being built. We have a garage and a guest house behind our house that we will demolish 1st, build the new house there and when it is done we will knock down our existing home and build a new garage. That is the plan anyway, we will see how it turns out.

We got our demolition permit as of Monday, it was suprisingly easy. An asbestos test and 2 goverment agencies had to sign off and there it was. The 1st delay of what I am sure will be many was that we had to wait for the gas company to come and take the meter off and kill the line. That happened yesterday so as of today we were good to go!

Before

Halfway done

One down

One to go

The breezeway still stands

Total destruction!

Hope they come back to clean up tomorrow.

It all began with the breezeway to nowhere...

The city we live in has a funny rule that you can only build as far back on your lot as the average of the 3 houses next to you. Because we have an existing home on the lot we could count ours in the calculation, however detatched structures don't count. So in order to build as far back on our very long (311 feet) lot as we wanted to (151 feet, only halfway back, not unreasonable right?), we attached the house to our garage.

So here are pictures of the breezeway construction.

View from the house

The finished product

The beginning of the breezeway

This is the really big tree stump and the guy that took it out for us.