Week Two: Footings begin

The highlight from the weekend is the wind really came up Saturday night, and when I went to check the site Sunday morning the tarps were all blown into a pile.  I wish I could have taken video of myself setting them back in the wind.  It was comical for me, but probably not as comical as it was for the neighbors if they were watching.  I only partially restored them, and finished securing them once the wind died down today.  I'm not sure if I secured them any better this time, but I hope I did.   Time will tell as there are wind warnings for tonight too.

This morning I met Chuck from Merrygait Construction at the site.   Using the offsets the surveyor set a few weeks back, along with the building plans he established the corners for the building.   While that was occurring Mount Vernon Building Supply delivered the wood and rebar for the footing forms.  At this point I had to go back to my real job, and I left Chuck and his crew to do their thing.  I returned later in the afternoon to check on the progress.  The outline and forms are starting to come together.  The step downs slow things down a bit, but hopefully by end of day tomorrow or Wednesday the forms will be set.  Once they are set the city will come out and inspect them.  If they meet the requirements the concrete truck will come out.  Target is to have the footings poured by the end of the week.

Here are a few pics I took today.  I probably won't post any more until it's time to pour the footings as this is really not a very exciting part of the process.

 

The hole is dug

The excavator is done.  Next step is putting in the footings.  That is scheduled to start on Monday the 29th.   Here are some pics.

Looking up the driveway at the big pile.  Feel free to admire the fabulous job done covering the pile.  The primary reason for covering the piles is to keep the city of Anacortes happy, and I really don't want all that soil washing away when it rains.  I'm going to need it for backfill in a few weeks.



This next pic is looking at the step down cuts for the east side of the foundation.   With the slope of the lot the footings for the front of the house need to be cut lower to find undisturbed soil. The first cut is 2 feet and the next one 1 foot.  This means the foundation along the front will be 3 feet higher than the back, and when we backfill inside for the slab that section will need to be filled in.  Thus the big dirt pile.   Watching the excavator figure all this out with their laser level was very educational.



Next pic is looking towards the west at the cut for the step down footing along the front of the house.


Last one is the northwest corner this is the deepest cut.  It's about 7 feet.

Day One. February 22nd 2016

The day has finally come.   February 22nd 2016 the excavator ( Catapult out of Sedro Wooley ) showed up and started digging a hole for our new house.  It was pretty exciting.   They graded out the driveway took out a couple of trees and put in a big hole.   Here are some pics.   Next week we move on to footings and foundation.

Cutting the driveway

First cut for the foundation

The hole got bigger.

Site prep work. Before digging starts

Here we are.  Groundhog Day 2016.   In 2-3 weeks an excavator is coming to my lot and digging a hole for the new house.  We are fairly excited.   It's been a long planning process and we are ready to start checking things off.

The house will be a daylight basement house with a drive-under garage, and the front door entry on the upper level on the left/West side.  We wanted to have a very energy efficient home and ditched traditional building practices in order to go with a more advanced system.  The daylight basement level will be constructed using Quadlock ICFs.  Combining this with and insulated slab and radiant floor heating the basement should be extremely comfortable and energy efficient.  The main living level will be framed in with SIP ( Structurally Insulated Panels ).   These are basically pre-fab walls, with the main advantage being that you eliminate all of the thermal breaks associated with standard stick frame construction.  The roof will be more standard, but will include a heeled truss in order to allow room for insulation to reach the edges.

So where are we at?   The surveyor has staked the foundation locations, I've installed the temporary electrical panel, and we put a silt fence over the weekend.  Having a small issue loading pics right now, but will get them up soon.

Next week we are headed to St. Thomas for some beach time with friends.   When we return the fun begins.