Day 6 | Fill 'em Up!

House Day: 6
Loan Day: 23

[Warning: Picture overload!]

Tony and I went up to Chelsea Lumber today to go over the Materials List, Windows order and to get the account set up to order. They did change recommendations in how the beam placement should go, and will actually save us money in beams. They will just have to add one extra pad to the foundation, which means now two poles in the basement. I'm not too fond of these poles in the basement, but maybe we can put one or two of them within the wall when we decide to finish the basement off. We also need to sit down and try to figure out how we would like to finish the basement, so we can see where we want the plumbing for a bathroom to be at.

So today on the property... All the forms were done and completed yesterday. I gave a call to Kerry after we left Chelsea Lumber so I could let him know about the beam pocket size they needed for the walls, and I guess he was actually going to call me about our basement windows. There was some discrepancy about the tall 5.5' windows I have in the basement on the walkout side. They were planning to build a 4 foot wall there to set the windows on, well that doesn't work when the windows are 5.5' feet and not the normal 3-4' tall basement windows are. I started to think that I would have to change my choice, but then he said he could just put in a 1' wall and that would be okay with the walkout side.

The retaining wall also had to be dug up between the back of the house and the side walkout area, at a 45 degree angle. So John Tylutki came out today to dig that and also dig back more dirt away from the walkout, since we are now seeing the far window is a low window and needs the dirt away from the window. Kerry told me that they would just be filling the footings and retaining wall then tomorrow instead of today.

John leveled out the driveway and area next to the house, made it a lot smoother.

I was on my out around 4:45 to meet Tracey from Fox & Boley Well Drillers at the property to go over time frame and location, and look what I ended up following down the road next to our neighborhood...

Could it really be headed to my property?? I knew it was gonna be Willbee that is pouring it, they work closely with Cooks, but my goodness, I wasn't expecting this today! And sure enough, as I turn down the street into the neighborhood, another concrete mixer is leaving the neighborhood! This must be the second batch coming in!

I pulled up and could see John Tylutki also added a layer of crushed asphalt from the road up to the top of the drive. It was getting really mucky and muddy and would be hard for the trucks to get up there.

And yep, they were almost done filling the footings! Kerry was there with them and directing it all. I'm wondering if since the original plan was for Willbee to do it today, and since John Tylutki got it all dug out and ready, they figured "Hey, why not do it today!" I LOVE this crew already!

We stopped in later that evening after Brady's baseball game, around 8:00 to show my Mom, Jim, and Ana the new house going on since they haven't seen it yet. I think they are pretty excited for us too and also realized how much deeper the hole is than it seems in pics. We got to enjoy a little sunset thru the trees too. We did notice that all the footings and pads were filled except for one. I can't imagine they forgot it or didn't see it. I know we added the other stationary pad in earlier this morning, but I didn't think he misunderstood me that it was an ADD, not a replacement. Hopefully they are taking care of this tomorrow morning. I can also see that he must have had to pull the form-a-drain back a little bit for the walkout area. It was a smaller short opening there before, and now its wider. I feel bad they had to change it, and didn't realize until writing this Wednesday night that he did indeed have to redo the form there.

This is the retaining wall they built for the walkout area.

The garage area:

Our back yard:

Garage:

That's it for today! They let this set for 1-2 days and then will start the wall forms for the basement walls. I'm hoping on Thursday!

Day 5 | Let's Form a Drain!

House Day: 5
Loan Day: 22

We got a call from our framer James Zehr of Dutch Craft Construction (Amish builders) this morning, and he wanted to meet us on the property for the first time at 11:00. I also then got a call before leaving, at about 10:40 from Kerry at Cooks Foundation that had a couple questions since they were on site this morning starting the footing forms. Perfect timing! I'll be right out there!

We pulled up to the property and James (and his driver) was there. We walked up to the house, pulled out the plans and went over a few things. He told us that there is another house he thought he would be framing first, but because we are starting our footings today, we are actually ahead of them! He said if we could actually get the plumber in right away to do the rough plumbing, then James would be able to take on our framing job first! The Challenge is ON!!

Kerry and a couple guys from Cooks was there pulling the forms down into the basement hole and getting things measured and squared up.

After James left, I went down and talked to Kerry, nice guy, very easy to talk to. That was one of my fears about doing the general contracting myself, is since I'm not educated in this and each step by step decision, I'm hoping the contractors that we hire to do the jobs are helpful and nice to me, lol. And so far, so good with the professionals we've had so far. A couple questions Kerry had that we will have to get the answers on:

-Does the well driller want Cooks to leave a hole/sleeve thru the wall for the water well?
(eta: Well driller will drill their own hole.)

-Does the electrician want a ground rod sticking up thru the top of the basement wall, or in the footing?
(eta: ground rod outside the footing)

-What is the beam size for the beam pockets that Cooks needs to form?
(eta: i gave him the beam size pocket after we got the info from Chelsea Lumber the next day)

We came back later Monday evening to check out the done job of the fitting forms. Impressive! It's all set and ready to go! The square pad in the middle there is where a pad of concrete will go to hold one of those vertical basement poles that help support the steel beams. The other one is hidden in the wall steps. Thats what you see there, the forms to help support for the stairs of two levels.

There is the opening for the walkout basement.

A panoramic... no its not a curved front to the house, lol.

Annnnnd, my tree stump that I wanted to stand on every day to be able to take my pics, is occupied by a back hoe today. I'm pretty much gonna have to give up on this spot.. but I'm going to persist, it just might still work out.

Day 2 | Basement hole has been dug!

House Day: 2
Loan Day: 19

I have a feeling every post title from here on out will probably have an exclamation point on it. I just couldn't believe how awesome it looked today.. a hole! haha!! I got out to the property around 5:30pm this evening and Tylutki was out there working on it still. But it looked really good! I was really impressed with how fast he went in one day. He said this was probably the best basement they have ever did before, because of the sand at the bottom. Normally he hits a lot of clay and its hard to smooth it out, but they hit sand and its leveled out so nicely for them. Oh, you've got to give credit to his good machinery too, he made mention of that. :)

So here's my tree stump I'm standing on.. pile of top soil still there.. and I'm pretty that will stay there till the end now until final grading.  If you look closely to the left of the backhoe, you can see they are actually still working right now.

That's John Tylutki in the green shirt. I don't recall the shirtless guy's name. But both were raving about how easy a basement this one was because of the sand.

And here is the beautiful basement! I am just in awe of how smooth this is.

Here is some orientation on how things will lay out. Of course the basement will be left unfinished with just the walkout (under the master bedroom, on the right side). Here is the first floor plan. Bear with me, because I'm going off of memory. The great room is a two-story room, and also the foyer is two story. The stairs that go up, lead to a balcony that you can see down into the great room.

Bedroom 4 has a dormer at the front of the house, in case you couldn't tell.

Some other views, back to the first floor plan. The garage is accessed thru the laundry/mud room.

And now a view from the walkout basement side..

John Tylutki said he talked to Brian Olsen today and Brian asked about coming and starting the footings today, but John wasn't quite ready. So Monday it will be! We plan to go to Chelsea Lumber on Tuesday and finalize our materials order and get that ready to pull the trigger. It won't take long for materials list, but it will take time for the windows to be made. I also need to start watching the stores for my light fixtures, plumbing fixtures and appliances to see when they are on sale. I'm not sure where in this rental house I'm going to store everything?!! 

Day 1 | Official Ground-Breaking Day!

House Day: 1
Loan Day: 18

We have officially broke ground on Day 18! And remember I call this Day 18 because its been 18 days since our loan closing, and we have 365 days to get this done! --according to the bank, or you pay extension penalties. I know some might consider this Day 1, but I like knowing that its taken us 18 days now to officially break ground.

ETA: I'm changing to Ground-Breaking Day to Day 1. 

John Tylutki from Tylutki Excavating said it would take him Thursday and Friday to get the basement dug. Then Brian Olsen at Cook Concrete & Foundation has us on the schedule then for Monday to start the footings.

So far today it looks like he got rid of the leftover burn pile. He talked about burying that somewhere, not sure where he chose to bury it. But he knew to keep it out of the drain field and water well area. Looks like today he did some rough grading around the garage area and then also got the grading started for the basement. He dug a hole on the walkout basement side and you can see an orange stake there that is labeled GRADE. So I'm thinking that he will dig the rest of the basement on Friday based off of that grading that he started today.

Okay so if you remember, this was before he came on the land... I found myself a nice big round tree stump that I would take all my pictures from. The port-a-potty is to my right and out of my way... perfect!

So I come in today to get pics in the same place.. and I have THIS big pile of dirt now in my way, lol.

oh well, hopefully it won't stay there too long, or I'll have to pick a new place for my large-whole-project pictures. No big deal, right!

Alright, moving on.. Once I step on the other side of the dirt pile, we can get a better view. A lot is graded, and you can see a little bit of where the hole is dug on the walkout basement entrance.

This is now the side of the house that faces the back of the neighbors houses. I'll have to try to remember to take a picture of that view on Friday so we can see the privacy on that. Since things have really greened up, its looking a lot better for privacy. The winter time will be a little more bare than I want, but we plan to do some evergreen trees.

This picture is taken further back away from the house, its about half way from the garage to the road at this point.

Well that's it for today! I can't wait to see what we get on Friday!

We have a potty

Loan Day: 12


We've got something new on the property... We have a port-a-potty delivered today on Day 12! We were told that excavating could start as early as Day 12, so we wanted it have it there and ready. Its probably a good thing excavating didn't come out today, because the portable toilet didn't get delivered until later in the afternoon. The driver called me around 2:30pm to ask where to put it. I had him put it near the house building site, so it can't be seen from the road. Now maybe kids/teens would be less likely to mess with it since they can't see. It would also be easier to access being closer to the actual work project.

So here it is, what you've been waiting for... pictures of the port-a-john. The house will be situated on the left side.

I made a post on Facebook in the morning about it being delivered today, and a friend that lives down the street from the new house actually was driving behind the delivery truck! She snapped a picture of it and posted on my Facebook wall.. I thought that was too funny. Thanks for this pic Jenny Soltis!

Loan Closing and the Stakes are in

Loan Day: 1-3

We closed on our new construction loan on Monday afternoon. Went pretty quick and smoothly. Our loan officer from the credit union even picked up the cashiers check for us before he left the credit union. The clock has been started and now we have 1 year to complete our build! I know typically most people might start Day One on breaking ground, some start Day One on the day supplies are brought in, I'm going to start Day One on Monday, when we closed on the loan. Because that is the first day of the next 365 we have to get this done. And it will also help me remember how long it took before ground was broke and digging started, etc.

So after we left closing, we headed over to the property to work on starting the stake the house out. I called our excavator earlier in the day and told him we were closing, and to find out when he can start on his schedule. He is estimating the end, maybe middle of next week (around Day 12ish), but will call at the end of this week to touch base again.

I don't know what I was thinking, but I wasn't prepared at all, with all the house measurements and square numbers to make the house square. So I pulled up the blue print pictures I had saved on my phone and was trying to do the math from the iPhone screen. We got about 75% of the way and realized on one measurement it was about 5 ft off. Gahhh! We just decided to head home so I could draw out the house, foundation measurements and have the numbers ready to make sure it was square. Which by the way, this is with the 3-4-5 rule. Well if you've ever done this yourself on a new house foundation, its tough to make sure its right. But I found this website that will do it for you based on your two measurements, it will give you the diagonal to make sure its square. Perfect! I entered in all my corners and got the numbers I needed. Here is the website I used: http://www.construction-resource.com/calculators/square-forms.php

We tried to get it all straight on Day 2 and I still ran into an issue, because we made our garage 2 feet bigger in both directions than the original plan. So back home we went and I did the math a third time. We went back out after school today and got it all done, its all correct and square! Well within 6 inches... I'm hoping that's fine, since the excavator will actually be taking it all down next week when he does rough grading. It's SO uneven right now from natural contour and the work that was done with the timber guys. So I guess we will see if WE have to re-stake again, or he will, after its rough graded.

And of course, I'll be adding pictures along the way. I want to remember this just as much as I want to share with you. :)

Stakes are in place

Building Permit and Notice of Commencement are posted

Leftover burn pile from the timber guys

We are viewing the future front of the house.

Front porch in front and the left side. Garage in the back left. Walkout basement on the right side of house.

This is from the left side of the house, you are facing the side porch, with garage on the left.

Did someone yell TIMBER??

Fodor Timbers have been at the property the last few days, clearing the area for the house, and also taking a few other trees worth money in exchange for their clearing. I finally got to go out there this morning and see for myself. It's SO awesome!! I love seeing all the space for the house but still having woods around us. It is a little thin on the neighbors house side, even without them touching that area, but I think it will be better once things get green.















They will burn the brush and stumps this week and then should be about done after they move their pile of timbers out. We thought we could get right into having excavating come, since we have cash that we will be using first before we start drawing from the construction loan. But it doesn't work that way. We can't spend any money right now, until we actually close on the construction loan. Once it's closed, then when we go to make draws from it, the bank will actually draw from the cash first, for us. So we still need to bring the cash to closing, like you would for buying a regular house. Soooo we wait now, till closing. Our Loan Officer is setting the date for May 22, and will get it done sooner if it goes quicker. The time all depends on the Appraiser, in finding the value of what the house will be on our property. I'm hoping the process of approval and finding comps will go fast! Having to wait to break ground put us back another 3-4 weeks. Oh well, it's all coming together now anyhow. And it will be worth the wait!

-Blogged from my IPhone

Frost Laws are off!

Okay the moment we've been waiting for.. Frost Laws are off! Don't know what that means, you can read more HERE.. but basically its during the spring time where there are weight restrictions on the roads as they thaw from the winter. And the logger didn't want to deal with that, so we decided to wait until they have been cleared. Now I'm just waiting for the logger to call me, any day now! Hopefully he gets out there and clears this week or next.

We are almost done with all the bids too. Mainly waiting for the excavating, foundation and concrete work, and drywall installer. I'm planning to make a call to the credit union tomorrow and get an appt or things rolling with them. Just to make sure we have everything squared on our end other than the few bids we need back.

As far as things I have picked out for the house, well you're just gonna have to wait and see as it goes in. ;) I will definitely post pics and links of all that I can as we go along! So if you want to follow along on our build, its probably best to subscribe by email! I'll put the link on the right. :)
G'night!

So it starts

So shortly after getting our accepted counter-offer on our house, we started to also pursue the building plans. We ordered the blueprints (wow, pricey!), made LOTS of appointments with General Contractors to talk our plans over and start to get some estimates/bids. But also keeping in the back of our mind that we know a couple people that have been their own General Contractor and was able to save a lot of money. 20-30% to be more precise. But we thought we would see where the numbers would come in.. Well the bids we are getting are about $50k more than our budget cap on what we wanted to see. So after talking to one couple, D + O, we definitely got the bug to do our own General Contracting. We are meeting tonight with the other couple K + M to walk thru their 2 year old house in the same area as ours. He was also kind enough to share his budget spreadsheet of all his sub-contractors and the several bids that he got from the area. This has been very helpful in seeing how it all came together.
We met with Chelsea Lumber twice this week, turned in a copy of prints to get a bid for materials list on the lumber and for the windows. I also have a hardwood flooring picked out that I will get an estimate on. I'm looking forward to seeing all the numbers come together and see what ticket price we can get on this project.