September 8, 2009: Staining and driveway begin

We made it out to the house on Monday, though not much visibly had been done (Dan was busy prepping for the seeding guy, but that was mostly smoothing out the soil). On Tuesday, however, floor staining and the driveway installation began.

The stained great room floor and stairs. The stain color is English Chestnut. This (and all the floor stain pictures) were taken leaning into the front door as we can't walk on the floor for a while.

The dining room floor.

Looking across the great room.

The driveway was graded and crushed stone began to be put down (by the garage), but then a rather large rain storm came up. Not so conveniently while I was there making a small change on a corner of the driveway.

From Monday - the ridge was stained and the dormer was painted.

The outside units for the air conditioners were installed on Tuesday (no inside pics - mud + stained floors),

On Monday, I also noticed that electrical boxes were put in on the kitchen island.

On Monday, we also took some "family" shots on the front porch. From left to right: Fritz, Preethi, Silver.

And here's Fritz, me, and Silver.

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April 22, 2009: Main Level Begins

We went back in the evening (previous post was from lunch pictures) after the workers were done for the day after completin some of the main level framing. The sun was setting and there are some ridges not too far to the West, so night falls quickly as you'll notice.

Looking at the house from the road. You can see that as the walls go up, so does the Tyvek.

View from the brushpile. We in general tried to line up the positions of windows and doors. Here the French doors on the west side of the great room on the the main level aligns with the window on the west side of the basement. Eventually, that will open out onto a deck. But not in this construction project. (Gotta prioritize spending expenses / times.)

Me in front of the basement. Nothing new was done in the basement, but this is when this picture was shot.

Night! Preethi inspects the wall on the South side of the great room that will be stood up tomorrow. If you look closely, you can see where that wall will have yet another French door.

The French door from the great room that will eventually lead to the deck. We're not adding the deck now, but it's on our 5-yr plan.

Window on the North side of the great room.

The main level staircase opening, In the back is the area for the kitchen.

Detail of the subfloor constuction in the kitchen where the fridge will sit. This was another hole in the morning.

View of the house from the tree at the Northeast corner.

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April 13, 2009: Garage filled, some work done around the foundation and some random pictures from the lot

On April 13, the garage was filled in with dirt and some work was done around the foundation. The next day it doesn't rain, concrete will be poured to finish the garage floor with a slope of a 2" drop slope over 20 ft towards the door. In case your curious, it doesn't snow so much in Lynchburg (the traditional reason for a garage drain in the center is so melting snow in the garage has somewhere to go) so I would rather have some inherent water ingress resistance.

Preethi and the dogs (Fritz in front, Silver in back) standing on the filled in garage viewed from the driveway.

Looking at the house from a tree at the front (North East) corner of the lot. There's also Preethi and the dogs. I think it gives you a good perspective on the relative level of the filled in garage.

The top of one of the now buried concrete piers in the garage.

We had hoped that from the second floor we would have a good view of the ridge (much larger than one in our backyard) that effectively borders our neighborhood. But looking out from on top of the garage, it looks like we'll still have a good view from the first floor (at least when the leaves are off the trees).

Here you can see the hole underneath the foundation and a trench that will lead to the septic tank.

You can see Spring coming to the lot here with the grass growing in (looking across the stream to the field). That's me in the front (left), Silver in the middle, and Fritz on the right.

Some time ago we planted several patches of tulips along the stream . While the deer ate one patch, several other patches survived (until now). And now we have our first bloom.

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March 30 - Concrete and Silt Fence

On Monday, the concrete for the basement walls was poured in the forms and the silt fence went up. Plus the amended permit was reposted (amended to clear up a confusion on the lien agent).

View near the main entrance. You can see a little bit of the rebar sticking up through the top.

Looking out over the dining room (closest) entrance (square in middle-right) and great room (farthest away).

To handle the slope of the land, the garage will be a couple feet lower than the rest of the main level.

View from the driveway over the forms.

My shadow extends onto some interior supports which were also poured on Monday.

View of the silt fence (southwest) from just outside of the soutwest corner of the basement.

Silt fence wrapping around the eventual drain field.

View from silt fence back towards the house and Preethi. The silt fence is actually set back quite a bit from the house (large drain field).

The permit as amended on 3/8/8 (click to enlarge I'm pretty certain that's an error, but it amuses me, so I posted it). The no trespassing sign (and others) was put up to discourage hunting after we found a pair of deer carcasses. Turns out its a neighbor kid who's been known to shoot deer in other neighbor's yards as well. Wouldn't have bothered us if he hadn't left the carcasses. There's a valuable insight there for dynamic spectrum access somewhere in there.

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March 23 - Gravel poured

On Monday (23rd) the gravel that was beside the port-a-john was spread out in the basement. This necessitated building a small ramp down to the front of the basement (there was an existing ramp on the back).

The basement filled with gravel. Except for the covered entryway area which is not.

Looking back towards the road (north). The dirt ramp can be seen in the top left and the gravel can be seen more clearly here.

Preethi poses in front of the gravel filled basement.

So much fun before, here's some more pics from around the lot.

Silver wades into the stream. Frequently, he'll lie down in the stream and start snapping at the water in an impression of what Preethi calls "Crocadog" and I call "Hippodogamus"

That random circular piece of concrete? That's a well. If we have a son, he will NOT be named Timmy.

Electrical hookup on the lot, it's kinda on the northwest corner of the lot (end of the cul-de-sac). Currently the electicity bill goes straight to the builder.

Fritz, Silver, and I walk down a trail that parallels the stream.

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Feb 26 - Basement Excavation Begins

On the way down the road, I startled Preethi with the cry, "We have dirt!" which was really quite exciting for me after the delays clearing the trees (mechanical issues with the track hoe). The hole was actually a little less than half done at this point. But ground had been broken.

View from the road (looking south). According to W.D. (the builder), we were fortunate with the dirt as the dense red clay is good for stabiltiy / minimizing settling.

Dan (W.D.'s son and lead on the excavation) next to the hole.

Me in the hole. I'm standing in the basement underneath where the main level bedroom will be. The wall of dirt to my left is where the main-level garage will be.

W.D. is amused by his customer scrambling into the basement hole to have his picture taken.

W.D., Dan, and me. I didn't hang around too much longer after this photo as having some fool where you need to dig is counterproductive for excavation.

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