Truss Staging

I'm off for a little bit of fun, work and R&R. Here's the before picture. Can't wait to see the progress in a week!

Truss Delivery

This is my narrow (10-foot wide) driveway to the back. Once the delivery guy realized that the parking lot to the side gate was empty, he came back with the loaded flatbed. This was the material shipment that worried me the most, so I am glad that it is done.

Concrete Pour

The concrete truck arrived shortly after I came back from my swim. They pumped the concrete to the back and up the ladders to fill up the lintels and reinforced columns.

Who hoo! I heard some commotion in the back and found the truss delivery guy pacing the distance from the gate to my yard. My neighbor's parking lot is empty right now, so I think they are going to bring the trusses over tonight. I'd definitely prefer that over a 5:30 AM wake-up call.

What's Next

We passed another inspection! The concrete guys should be back with their pump to fill the cells. That should be fun to watch. Floor truss delivery to follow...

We have walls!

SUPER Masonry...

One of the many bags that I picked up this weekend was for the Super Masonry mud mix. The name is so funny - like a superhero. SUPER Masonry is holding my house together!

We're all working

They're back!! The father and son team are super nice and are doing a great job. I didn't expect them to be working on a holiday, but as I got ready to run - yes, I did run - they drove up. So much for a day off. I guess we're all working, as I'm on my way to the office.

Masonry - Day 2

Day 2 of laying block isn't nearly as exciting as Day 1. It seems to go quicker when you are working close to ground level. =) They are working their way up on scaffolding. Funny how that blue water cooler is providing a good sense of scale.

There are two lintels in my driveway. Talk about a complicated and heavy return. Maybe that's why they haven't started on the wall with windows? It is a holiday weekend so I don't anticipate any more progress until Tuesday.

Masonry - Day 1

The walls are starting to come up. The left wall is the east wall that will have the hot water heater, washer and dryer. You can also see the 4" drop in the floor from the entry/laundry area to the garage. The wall on the right is the south wall of the garage. The block pattern is the running bond - where courses alternate instead of being right on top of each other.

Want to look inside a wall?

I peeked inside all of the low walls that were up. I was so happy to see that all of the cells were clean! One of my pet peeves at construction sites is when I see TRASH inside the structure. So, I try to be proactive by picking up bottles and cans daily and having plenty of garbage cans around. Workers also benefit from my extra gatorade stash (Thanks Disney 70.3!).

Can you see the clean out at the bottom? It is where the light is shining through. Once the grout is scraped out, they block the clean out with some plywood and filler up!

Block Delivery

I'm a morning person, but yesterday and today I woke up at 4 AM because I wanted to make sure that the deliveries went by smoothly. My street is really narrow and pretty busy. I had to strategical block my driveway and put a few cones out so the concrete trucks had room to park. My neighbor didn't notice the steel delivery last week, but the block delivery this morning took a little longer to finish.

I came back from the pool and this is what was waiting for me.

Concrete Day - The Cure

What a fun filled morning! When I got back from work, everything was done. I now have a concrete pad or if you want to be technical - a monolithic footer. Time to sit and cure.

Concrete Day - Part 2

It took a little bit of time to get started because the concrete was getting clogged up in the hoses. The hoses are pretty dry inside. So if they don't add enough slurry at the beginning, the concrete sticks and they have to disassemble the hoses and hit them with a pick ax. Once they got it going, it didn't take too long to fill in the forms.

It is supposed to be good luck to put money in the foundation. I dropped a few pennies at the entrance to the living space.

Concrete Day - Pouring the Foundation

All was quiet on Ferris Avenue until the concrete trucks arrived. Two trucks and one pump arrived a little bit after 8 AM.

Footing Rebar

They started to lay out and tie the rebar Saturday. Passed inspection this morning. Concrete comes tomorrow morning. I spent part of Sunday pricing out light fixtures at the local home improvement stores. I'd rather find some cool salvage ones, but the only local place I know of is U-save.

Foundation Prep

Can you see the plumbing to the kitchen and garage washer and dryer? I was home when the inspector came by and signed off on it. Passed the first plumbing inspection!

The steel was delivered and the soil was pretreated (for termites) Friday afternoon. Thank goodness the business next door agreed to let us do quick deliveries through the side gate! My 10-foot driveway can barely accommodate a car.

Demo Day

Bye, bye wood shed. It came down in a day. That dirt hasn't seen the light of day since 1925.

The Beginning

I started this project last year and got my permit just in time to miss the new increase in school impact fees ($7,000). Only one round of revisions! Not bad; however, I do pity the average person that tries to get their own building permit. Knitting while you wait in permitting certainly helps the nerves.

I thought that I would be able to get my finances together and select a contractor at the same time, but the shake up in the housing market made me rethink that. So, I took one month to refinance and then spent another month getting bids from contractors. Took the conservative route, but in the end it worked out.

All of those years on BZA, friends in planning, civil engineers from book club, and everyone I work with helped make this happen. I'm sure they are happy that they no longer have me bugging them with...."just one more question about this scissor truss".