Frame Time

27 April 2013

We drive by the house every day between 5:30 and 6:00 on our way home from work. Normally the construction crew is just finishing up for the day.

fyi you can "click" on the photos to make them bigger.

Here are more elevations of the house. Gives you an idea on how much the basement is actually above ground. I think the side elevations look cool. See Stacey's covered deck?

Construction dropped off literally a TON(s) of rock in the drive way so truck can drop off material and not worry about getting stuck in the mud and clay. I wonder what that rock cost me.

 Floor joists and two large steel I-beams are the first to arrive. The sub floor is the white box on the right. Giant waste receptacle on the left. We met the neighbor on the right. His name is Scott. Scott's fence is getting installed. They got the fence post in.

and it snows...

Back wall of the basement is starting to get framed and the two large I-beams are installed and welded.

More material is dropped off.

Scott's fence is installed. Not much room between the window wells and the fence. This will all be river rock.

Floor joists and sub floor are getting installed.

Garage view.

Standing in the backyard. This is one of our windows. A lot of 2x4's are around this window.

In the basement. 9ft ceilings except under the beam, it will only be 8ft.

 The two I-beams are different sizes.

A wall is up on the main floor!!!!

View over the front office looking back towards the street. Dodge is out for day. I see the stairs are pre-made and delivered.

Crack in the basement slab.

Not sure what is going on here. These are in the back corner of the garage foundation.

 The construction crew lay out the design of the house in 2x4's and mark it. Then they start framing. They make the wall frames in the garage.



Here are the two down stair bedrooms.  All the walls in the basement aren't attached to the floor. They are hung from the joists above. There are 2x4's attached to the floor below the wall and a penny nail is holds it laterally. The slab can move up and down the penny nail and not move the wall.

 

Walk out slider and window. See Stacey's indoor/outdoor fireplace box? Scott's fence is painted. All the fences are painted the same color.

   


 More Snow and more main floor framing.

We have to follow these OSHA rules too. Saddletree gave us sweet hardhats.

Snow is gone and back siding going on, see the deck joist hangers are on.

Relationship to the other houses. I think the house should have been pushed back 5 feet. Stacey says "don't worry about it, big back yard!"

New day, new delivery. Roof rafters! These are built in northern Colorado.

 Deck starting to be built and a rafter jigsaw puzzle in the back yard.

Pretty view of the floor joists. Pretty huh?

More main floor framing.

Friday 4/26/20013 Garage starting to get framed.

Flooring, Tiles and Foundation!

13 April 2013

This is the flooring, tiles, and colors Stacey and I chose for the house. We spent hours at Guys Flooring coordinating these colors and styles. The photo looks like a lot of basic neutral colors, but trust me HOURS of work went into picking this color scheme.

More foundation work the last couple of weeks. First the footers were poured (last blog photos) next comes the foundation forms. A small crane sets the forms, then the concrete guys set it all up.

Not the best day to be working outside. Foggy, misty and cold.

Two days later and BAM!!! Foundation! Stacey and I have a theory. See how high foundation is compare to the "monster" house next door? Since Stacey and I have a ittybitty house. The builder is setting the house as high as possible to make it "look" taller and bigger. Just a theory.

The foundation forms are back in their cradles and ready for pick up.

Colorado has expansive soils and steps are needed to prevent damage to the foundation and house. Swelling soil contains clay and absorbs water and shrinks when it dries. Home builders need to design the homes to defend against expansive soils and landscape to properly drain surface water. If you look at the bottom of the photo below you will see a trough. I large PVC pipe with holes on the top is laid along the foundation footers to collect water (hopefully water never makes it down that far) and drains it into the sump pit.

Heavy duty plastic was also used as a barrier from water. All this got filled in before I could see exactly what they did with the plastic.

9ft ceilings in the basement. This space will be unfinished and is below the upstairs bedroom. It will have the furnace, water heater and storage.

Next day they started back filling the dirt around the foundation. I have no idea how they got the backhoe in out from behind the foundation.

Not sure what the PVC pipes and caps are, I'm guessing its part of the drain system. I will ask Saddletree.

Garage and basement cement was poured. Driveway looks like it could be kind of steep.

3rd care garage, notice it is a couple feet shorter than the main garage. No Stacey and I did not carve our love for each other in the wet concrete.

Lots of natural light will be in the basement since these windows are above ground (mostly). Stacey's fireplace will be between these two windows.

Basement view looking back toward the street. Right side are 2 bedrooms, center is the bath room (see the plumb in the back) and left is the rec. room. The center\front pipe is the drain for the wet bar.