73 yards of concrete and it is just the beginning!?

April 29^th

The Footings were poured yesterday!! I have some before and after concrete pictures below.

The first three are of the corner of the garage where the utilities come into the house. The large pipe is the for the electricity and the two smaller are for the water and phone lines. 

The pictures below are of the stair area between the garage and the front entry. Tom said they use 7-8 yards of concrete in this area alone. 

The next two shots are of the kitchen and dining room. the two black pipes are the drains for the sink and dishwasher in the kitchen island.

This is the opposite view from the pictures above. 

 This is the garage. Most of the rocks and soil in the foreground will be used to backfill the garage area.

This is the living room. You can see the area for the fireplace on the right.

The picture below is of the front porch. The front door will be on the left side of the porch as you walk up to the house. you would be walking from right to left in the picture to enter the house.

 The picture below is the pile of Decomposed Granite that Tom and Lee will use to fill in the void between the concrete footings.

Tom our foundation contractor was telling me today that as the inspector was walking around looking at the re-bar and the forms he and Tom were talking about the project and the inspector was commenting on how nice the area was and at that moment a family of three deer walked through the lot. As Tom put it “Paul (our inspector) was in the middle of saying how nice this area is and it was like 'Que the deer!' and they walked through! Paul got so excited and couldn't stop talking about it.” The inspector signed off on all the work that had been done and Tom poured concrete footings three days later (yesterday). If all goes quickly (unlikely) the remaining work (filling the interior areas with sand) to prepare for the slab and garage will be done by Friday. If not it will be early next week and then we can call for the last foundation inspection before the rest of the concrete is poured. So we may have a finished foundation by the weekend of the 10^th! Crazy! :)

My pinky is doing very well. I can type and do most everything with it. If I tap the end of it there some slight pain but it seems to be diminishing.

Last week was very eventful and involved another trip to the Urgent Care and a semi-emergency visit to the Dentist. The good part was that these two visits were not for the same family member (that is good news isn't it...).

Wednesday night at 3 am K got up to nurse E. As she took her first step she was unaware that her lower right leg was totally asleep and mostly limp. She took the step but her foot didn't lift off the ground and she caught her toes under her and then put all her weight on the backward facing foot. She didn't know what was happening until she was falling to the ground. She then knew instantly that something was really wrong. We waited until the kids got up at 7 and we all took her to the Urgent Care for x-rays. The PA on call didn't manipulate her foot or even look at the left foot to compare the swollen foot with the other. He told her she needed to compress it to keep the swelling down?! Needless to say, we are not impressed nor totally sure the diagnosis of a sprain is correct.

While she was waiting for the results I took C and the rest of the kids to the Dentist. One of C's teeth had a chunk missing. The missing piece was about 10% of the size of the tooth. The piece fell out a few days before but it had not been bothering her. So we decided to wait until her scheduled appointment for cavity work the following week. But two nights before K fell she was complaining that she could all of sudden feel the tooth when she brushed. We were both praying that she would not wake up in the middle of the night with searing nerve pain from an exposed nerve. K called the following morning to see if we could move up the cavity work appointment. They had a cancellation so we took it. It just happened to be the same morning that we needed to make the Urgent Care visit for K. The adventure continues! :)

L (K's stepmom who lives locally) met K at the Urgent Care after I dropped her off and gave her a ride to the dentist after her appoint was finished. She then came to the house to help the following morning. She prepped food, kept the kids entertained and made K breakfast. Thank you L! T (K's sister) has been here to help over night for four nights in the last week and has been a life (or should I say foot?) saver! If it hadn't been for these two women helping in such tangible ways, K would not be recovering so well!

So now that C's tooth is fixed and K's foot is starting to get better, we are waiting with eyes wide open for the next broken bone or stitches or who knows what to happen...

:)

First Inspection Passed!!!

 Pics are of the rough plumbing prior to the rebar being put down.

 The inspector arrived at 12:30 and spent the first 15 minutes talking with Tom La Duke our foundation contractor. They have apparently known each other for 20 years. After looking at the rough plumbing, he signed the card! We passed!!! He and I chit-chatted as I walked him out to his car. He got in and closed the door and looked up at me through the open window with a very serious face and said “where did you find these guys?”

My heart sank.

I told him that they were a recommendation from our designer Jim Irvin.

His face got even more serious and he said “These guys are the best...there are others that are as good but these guys are old school and really know what they are doing. You have some really good foundation guys!”

Talk about going from a valley to a mountain top! I was so relieved!! He smiled and drove off.

I walked a bit lighter back to the house after that conversation.

On Friday, I talked to Tom about the schedule and if he and Mike Mark had finished setting out the bolt pattern. He said yes and that he was very impressed with Mike Mark. He said “Mike is really knowledgeable and is really good at what he does.” So with those two conversations I am feeling really good about our choice of contractors.  

My pinky is healing very well. K pulled the three stitches out for me last night and there is very little swelling!

4 more weeks and the bone should be healed!! Just in time for me to start working again. The framing should be almost finished and we can start laying out our electrical. :)

Lessons from a Jack Hammer

April 6^th

We (Lee La Duke and I) were able to finish jack hammering out 60% of the problem rocks that the backhoe could not move on Friday. The jack hammer rental was not due back until Monday. So on Sunday afternoon I went back to the lot by myself (first mistake) to finish up before I had to go back to teaching on Monday. It was going well and I was almost done with the work when the jack hammer broke through the rock and fell sideways. It had done this many times before but this time my left pinky finger was crushed between the remaining rock and the steel handle of the 90 lb hammer. It turns out I not only split open the skin from the bed of the nail up and around the tip, but I also broke the tip of the bone into 4 pieces. At the moment I first looked at my pinky outside the glove it became very clear that what I was doing was really dumb! I was working by myself with heavy equipment, in an area where the cell coverage is spotty, the closest neighbors are a half mile away, and the van I drove had all the car seats that K would need to use to come get me. L

So lesson learned. before I decide to operate heavy equipment by myself to save money,I will ask the professionals what they would charge. Most likely it will be cheaper to have the pros do it. But it wont be as good a story though! ;)

Morning of...

These pictures were taken Friday before the backhoe arrived. the scene is a little more "disturbed" now. We are going to finish digging the footings tomorrow (Wednesday) and then Tom LaDuke, the foundation contractor, will be building the forms for the foundation!!! :)

Artsy Photo editing using Microsoft Word!

 Since we don't have Photoshop I decided I would try and change some of our photo from color to black and white with Microsoft Word 2010. I was pleasantly surprised with the result! As you may notice not one stayed just black and white. :)

Birthday and approved conditions!

March 11^th

C’s 7^th Birthday was yesterday! Aunt T came over with a HUGE bouquet of balloons and a gift that was wrapped in 7 successive boxes. So fun! Can't believe that she is so grown up! K made some incredible rainbow cupcakes! So festive!

We received clearance for the school fees, Grading and from the Fire Authority yesterday!  All we have left is the septic system! The design/report for the Microfast system should be done soon (by the end of the week) and then we can submit it. I am anticipating some problems because we are using the perc report from Mark Sweeney and not from the new engineer. Which means it may or may not be approved by the end of the month. 

Putting down Stakes!

March 4^th

K and I decided that we would shift gears and not use the septic design as Mark Sweeney designed (JetInc) and hire Michael Mark and his engineer to design a system using Microfast. The cost savings using Microfast offsets the additional cost of redesigning. The Microfast system doesn’t have any moving parts inside the tank which is also a maintenance bonus.

I picked up the paperwork from the water district so I can now turn in the remaining paperwork that is required for the Fire Authority authorization. We asked Tom to write a letter certifying that our lot will not be moving a total of more than 50 yards of soil. He said he will get that to us before I head to the county offices on Monday the 10^th. Talked with Tom La Duke about next steps and he said we would have to meet at the lot and put down official markers for the corners of the house. We are planning on meeting him Saturday the 15^th! Can’t wait to start moving dirt!