Warm Toes and Somewhere for the Flushes to Go

The forms set for several days and were removed, leaving us with bea-u-ti-ful concrete walls!  The plumbers laid some pipe (ha ha) and then we were ready for some insulation in the floor. 

I am amazed that they know where to put things! 

Pretty sure this is the floor drain in what will become our mechanical room.

And the ever-important sump pump.  

The two lines that jut off to the right run over to the bathroom.

The basement floor was insulated with foam then the water lines were laid for the in-floor radiant heat. 

By this point, we'd already realized this house-building process would include a lot of changes, edits, adjustments...call them what you will...they would be plentiful.  :)
Although we'd mentioned our long-term plan to finish additional square footage in the basement, they hadn't run the tubing in the future space (the dirt section at the bottom of the picture below).  

We also learned that any suck edit, change, adjustment causes delays in the schedule.  So, instead of pouring the following day, the tubing guys had to return and add more orange stuff.  

The following Monday, a huge Mack truck arrived with a huge pump and dumped a huge amount of concrete.  Huge.    

After the floor was finished and smoothed, they poured the stoop and the garage floors. 

Pouring the stoop.

If I were to do it over, I would've left the stoop hollow and utilized the space for more storage.  It would've cost us another door and we probably don't need more space...but being as I'm so obsessed with space utilization, it'll forever bug me that we 'wasted' this space. 

I'll get over it.  I hope.  ;)

Let the Pouring Begin.

I enjoy learning about how things work and how things fit together. And I've been learning a lot! After Bob finished the excavation, he dug around the perimeter of the walk-out basement.  In the photo below, they've set some forms in preparation for the concrete footers.  Footers provide a foundation for the walls. 

The footers have been poured and they've delivered stacks of forms for the walls.

The sections that are poured within the perimeter will be a foundation for interior walls.

The forms are all set up for the exterior walls. Including the radius wall that I am in love with.

And filled with concrete. This wall, next to my handsome hubby and beautiful daughter, had to be removed and replaced. Ack!

Next up...plumbing and radiant heating tubes in the basement floor!

Day One. The Dig.

The beginning. It was a Thursday. A dream, nine years in the making, was beginning.  

This is Bob. It is his job to excavate home sites. He does this every day. No big whoop, to him.  But to us, this was his most important day of work. Because it is ours!

After school, Maeve and I went to check out the progress. We popped a squat on the neighbor's lawn and watched. Here's her reaction to the hole.

Lots of progress since morning! Bob was able to get half of the basement dug before he ran out of daylight.  

By the end of the following day, Bob was almost done! In this photo, below, he is packing the dirt by going back and forth, over and over and over. I brought Bob his first-ever cup of Starbucks coffee! I don't know about you, but to me, Starbucks is the ultimate way to say, Thank You!  ;)

In my next post...pouring the footers and setting the forms for the basement walls. 

We're Building a House!

I've put the Etsy shop on vacation and have begun to pack up the house to get it ready to sell...we've begun the house. I'm planning to document it here and hope you'll weigh in with your thoughts along the way!

Let me introduce you to our lot. We purchased it on September 19, 2010. It's about two miles from our current home. We love her. She's two parcels. A building lot of about .40 acres and an outlot of about 1.53 acres for a total of just under two acres. Love.

This pic was taken the month we purchased, September 2010.

In the Fall.  A house has since been built on the other side of the trees to the left.

Winter.

 Isn't she pretty?  This has been our dream for more than a decade.

"We're really doin' it, aren't we, buddy!"