Lumber piles disappeared

We drove over to the new house today and the first thing I noticed was that the piles of lumber were gone. I looked at the house and also noticed that the house was not finished, so what happened to all the lumber. Did it get stolen? You do hear of that happening. But that was not what happened to our lumber.

They got a crane and lifted all the lumber up to the second floor. So the only lumber left on the ground are the two big beams that will go up when the second floor is finished.

On another note we had holes drilled for the piles for the garage floor, the front sidewalk and steps and the back patio. Unfortunately with so much rain some of them have caved in and we are going to have to re-drill them and then get them filled with cement as soon as possible.

Lumber piles smaller

The piles of lumber are getting smaller. There are more walls. We were fortunate to be able to watch some of the work involved in getting the large back wall up. It was quite the job.

Lunber, piles and piles of lumber

We went to see the progress on the framing of the house today. There are piles and piles of lumber strewn all over. On the future driveway, on the sidewalk and even inside the house.

I am really glad someone knows what to do with all that lumber.

In the last picture Becky is seen looking out of her bedroom window.

Framing Begins

Over the last few days we have seen some nice progress on the house. Today they started framing.

Backfill and a secret room

This week the backfill was done. On the wall close to where Rob and Becky are standing is a sign on the foundation that says DO NOT BACKFILL VERANDA. While we were designing the house a friend suggested that we build a wine cellar underneath it. So the secret room, cold storage, or wine cellar evolved. It will not be much of a secret now.

The story gets a bit more interesting. When our neighbors house was being built they noticed that there was some useful space under the front veranda, but they were too late to do anything about it, since it had no doorway and it had already been backfilled. We spray painted the sign on the front to keep the dirt out!

As a result we will have a tornado shelter, a cold room, or maybe a wine cellar, but definitely not a secret room.

Rain

Rain, rain go away, come again some other day. Like September or October, once the outside of the house is complete.

Since May 1, or shortly before we started building our house we have had a total of 79.5mm of rain, and June is the wettest month of the year. So our house building is now waiting for back fill, but they can't do that until the ground dries up. It will take 3 days in a row of sunny weather before they can get in there and do the backfill.

In the meantime, we have made a bit of progress.

At various times throughout the building process we will be calling for the house to be inspected. When the inspector visits he will leave behind green stickers or red stickers. We were happy to see a green sticker with our first inspection. Hopefully the rest of them will have the same result.

The basement/foundation has been waterproofed, so weeping tile is in and the black tar sprayed on. Rob also pointed out that the rain water leaders (sp?) have been installed. This is a requirement because of where the house is being built. It means the rain water running off the roof will go directly into the sewer system, rather than running onto the yard.

But for now... we wait for the rain to stop.

Footings and Foundation

When the forms come off tomorrow the house will look big and green. Apparently fresh concrete initially looks green. Rob said he has never seen so many concrete trucks for pouring a foundation.