Slab Done, Frame On!

Slab is done, complete the with requisite hand prints!

Mr. Chris (not me), and his two sons, Ivan and Joel, are framing the house for us. They're an awesome Father and Son(s) outfit. And, as you can see, are always ready to let the boys lend a hand.

Hand prints in the garage - we almost didn't make it in time! Had to get the kids out of school at the last minute to run over before it set.

Proud and excited kids. They've left their mark!

Time to frame! Once the slab was dry, the framers didn't waste any time. Now the house can really take shape.

The first day of framing got everything laid out and the lower level walls made. Now it was level all around for the floor/ceiling to be built.

Mr. Ivan, Chris' son, got Daniel trained on the nail gun.

Mr. Chris really enjoyed helping Aaron...who promptly shot almost the entire clip of nails into a piece of wood.

Matthew dove in too, and definitely enjoyed getting a chance to help build the house.

It seemed like just a couple days went by and the lower interior walls were in. This shot is standing from inside the family room looking west.

And like that, the "ceiling" was on. This shot is from the SW corner of the MIL, looking east.

This is from the NW corner, looking towards the MIL. The wall in front of you separates our side of the house and the MIL.

This is on the main level, looking NE from the SW corner of the house. Essentially where the front door will be.

 

Outside in the NW corner looking SE. It's pretty fun to walk up on the main floor and imagine the future layout.

This is looking S, with the garage to the right there. They'll frame the garage towards the end.

As of March 16! It's starting to look like a house! After this shot, a man and woman walked by and said to each other, "wow...looks like a lot of work."

One side project was breaking up the old concrete retaining walls in the back yard and using them as fill in the trench along the back wall of the house. The walls had been holding up an old garden bed that Auntie Bea had been in the house to see built. Ironically, Auntie Bea came by the day we were ripping it out!

With little kids breaking up the concrete junks with hammers, Daniel took on the skilled labor of prying out the blocks from the ground.

Matthew did a great job smashing concrete. He definitely was the hardest worker.

The boys' friend, Judah, came in at the end and used his super-strength to get some smaller chunks. The boys nicknamed the sled hammer he used the "DEMOLISHER".

The boys really did work hard. And as a reward, Auntie Bea got a feast of Spuds to have back at Grandma's. She loved the visit and the boys loved the fish n chips.

Insulated and Ready for Slab

After another long delay, we're happy to report that the house now has great water proofing on the foundation, properly installed plumbing under slab, some slab insulation (thanks Tim and Casey!) and some initial back-fill around the outside of the house.

The top layer of ultra blocks were removed - a feat which required a 60 ton crane - and rock has been blown in around the house. With this done, and some below-slab work complete, it's now time to pour the slab. That will occur tomorrow, with framing a few days later. Then things move fast again.

After our building site getting the nickname "Atlantis", the foundation crew decided to double seal everything, using both a sealant on the concrete, and installing this water mat over the top of the foam insulation. The water travels down between the ridges of the mat and directly to our footing drain.

To save some money, the contractor let us install the foundation insulation, which is large sheets of foam insulation, with 1" along the wall, and 2" on the floor/ground.

I was blessed to have to great buddies, Casey and Tim, come and help me lay everything out and install it. Tim and Casey have 100 times the experience I do. They also did about 100 times more "actual work" than I did.

Can't put foam on top of pipe that's above grade, so Casey was tasked with cutting out some odd shapes.

Working around the pipes wasn't too bad. After a morning working in the snow, rain and hail, we got about half the floor done.

Another expert cut by Casey.

Here I take job site management to new heights. And again, another photo of my friends working and me not.

It didn't take us long to get most of the floor done, though the final 10% was a little tricky managing the shape and step of the hall into the garage. Again, my friends are working and I am not.

My Dad showed up and got a great shot of us together. Thanks again, Tim and Casey. Huge help! And thanks to the Moms who managed 11 kids so we could get out to do this. BONUS: 10 points to whoever can catch the mistake we made.

The same day as insulation work, the excavators were on hand to install our catch basin. Ya, it's about 15' long...or I should say "deep". All the drain pipes run here before going to the sewer.

Here you can see the footing drains terminating at the basin. The height of the basin is a couple feet above the future soil level.

Ever seen deep inside your own sewer line? I have, butt I don't recommend it. ;)

After the insulation was down, my friends were back to work laying out the vapor barrier.

Good work team!, er, Casey and Tim!

With the job done, all that was left was a couple spots of vapor barrier and the rebar for the slab.

With the rebar down, the house is now officially ready for the slab to be poured. But weather's delayed us about a week.

A few days later, the 60 ton crane came to pluck out the 2,200lbs ultra blocks one at a time. Just the top row was taken, with the bottom two staying in the ground. Cheaper that way.

Cranes are amazing feats of physics. This was a shiny new crane, so even cooler!

If that fell on your toe, your toe would be no mo'.

With the blocks out, the crane took off. Pretty slick how it can fold back onto its rig for driving.

A few days later, Tim "stud" Kneier joined me at the house to pull out the beams. Remember those 105 year-old fir beams in our basement? Now they're going to become beautiful posts and beams in the new house.

Tim let me borrow his tool to cut a beam for a moment, but I had to promise to be really careful.

Back at home at the New Haller Lake Workshop, Tim helped me clean up some of the beams to prep them for install.

This 9' beauty here is going to be our exposed post in the entry way. We washed it in a bleach solution and pulled out all the nails. She's as good as new now.

After a stint in the sun, the beam dried nicely. Next, we'll lightly sand it to take out the rough splinters, but not so much as to erase the fantastic saw marks left in it from it's original milling 105 years ago. A few smaller beams will be used in the walls, and more still will be split to make the new mantel, exposed beams and shelving in the kitchen.

It's official, our water is hooked up again!