Framing has started

The framing has taken shape this week and is going at a quick pace. We thought we would take a trip to the site this evening to take a few pictures as the weather was pretty nice. First of all, we were pleased to see that the house seems bigger. I think there is something about a foundation without anything on top of it that makes the house seem smaller than it actually is. Now that the walls are taking shape, its seeming a lot bigger, and we can start to visualize what our 'view' may look like.

We started by photographing a plan which we found on the ground of the site which shows what is completed, which is limited right now to the first floor:

Here's a good picture of the interior of the house. I'm standing just inside the house next to where the back sliding glass door will be facing the living room. In this picture the living room is on the left, and the kitchen is on the right-hand side:Finally, you can see the view from the inside out, as i took a picture from the same spot facing the other direction. You can see the angle includes a view of the greenbelt behind the property as well as Brian, who eagerly posed for a picture:


More updates to come soon....

Dave and Brian

The Walkthrough

We had our official ‘walkthrough’ today which included an overview of the construction process, and a Q and A period. It was nice to meet with Tony and (the builders) to get a feel for the process and the what the next steps are.

As far as the site is concerned, a few things have been completed including the water and sewer lines being plumbed in (you can see the water line in the picture below, its the curly black thing coming out of the ground on the right side) and some drainage being put in. The garage floor has also been poured, and the front slab of the porch has been finished which includes the 'pebbling' texture that looks much different from the smooth texture of the garage floor. Apparently the process for achieving the pebbled finish is not much different that the w

ay they poor smooth concrete. The only difference is that they add an extra step after they have trowled the concrete where they poor a sugary solution to the top of the concrete, which erodes away the top layer of the cement and exposes the rocks beneath.

The other nice change was the addition of my last name to the homesite sign. Brian's name should be added soon as well.

We're excited about the rest of the process and are pleased with the progress that has been made so far. The only remaining decisions that we have are for the fencing layout and the size of the back porch of the house, which we will have to make in 5 weeks once the frami

ng is done and the drywall is ready to go in.

We will continue to update the blog through the framing process. However, there may be less frequent updates as there may not be as much to share.

Dave and Brian

Cement!

The cement for the foundation has been poured as of today, so we were excited to take some more pictures at the site, and to upload an additional shot of the mold for the foundation being set in place. Its exciting too see the work progress a little, and to see the neighboring homes that are a bit ahead of ours, so we know what to expect as we move forward with the process.

The first picture shows the mold being set in place which happened late last Friday.

The cement was poured into the mold early this week which you can see in the picture below has dried. There are a number of vertical rebar pieces that protrue out from the foundation which are foreseeably there to attach the wood framing to the foundation securely. The strange white circular foundation piece is meant to butress the staircase which is located directly above (presumably).

We talked with the site manager, and have a walkthrough scheduled for May 24, which also coincides with the date that the "lumber is dropped".

The other exciting thing that we saw today was the length of the driveway, which is actually a bit longer that we had expected. It'll be nice to have extra room for visitors to park, as most of the driveways in the neighborhood are pretty short. We've tried to take a picture of the driveway next to our site number, but its kinda hard to see...

Pre-Foundation

Brian stopped by the construction site yesterday to discover that the ground for the foundation had been excavated. We were excited to see some progress as we didnt expect this process to start until May 23rd so needless to say, we were rather excited.

Upon visiting the site we were pleased to see that the driveway appears to be very long, which is something that will be unique. We are also excited to see that the view behind the property, and to understand what the backyard may look like. It looks a little smaller than we had hoped, but thats probably ok considering that we'll have a large front yard, and there will be less for us to mow :)

Other than that, not much here to see yet. We hope that the project will be complete by the end of September so we can sell the townhouse without being homeless this summer.

Dave and Brian