Almost Done

Kitchen cabinets installed.

Going to pickup the counter tops tomorrow.

Septic Tanks Installed.

Septic and Pump tanks on the truck.

 Tanks in the hole.

Need to connect the plumbing and then backfill.

Geothermal Earth Loops

Geothermal Earth loops trenches dug.

 The holes are 6' deep and 3' wide.

 300' of trench in the front yard.

We also dug the septic tank hole.

Sheet rock up.

Sheet rock on the walls.

Kitchen windows.

Master hallway.

Siding Almost Done

Exterior siding.

All exterior windows and doors are in.  Roof is on.  Plumbing and electrical rough-in will be completed next week.  Then interior wall insulation for sound and then drywall.

Roof Raised!

All roof panels are installed.

Timelapse of the roof install coming soon.

Exterior Walls

In less than 4 days the exterior walls of the house were delivered and installed.  

Time lapse of the SIPs delivery and wall install.

 Kitchen windows.

Andrew, Lauren, and Avery in Andrew's room.

Concrete Slab

The day started early with the pump truck arriving at 5:30 AM.  The first of four concrete trucks showed up around 6:00 AM. 

 Adding the color that Lauren chose.  (In actuality, she just happened to choose the same color that we had already selected, but she loves saying that she chose the color for our floors, so we'll give her those bragging rights.)

Pumping the concrete.

Power troweling the slab.

Time lapse video of the whole day.

Ready for concrete

Underfloor insulation and radiant tube down and ready for concrete.

Plumbing and insulation

Plumbing roughed in and getting ready for the slab.

Rainy Day

Despite a very drizzly, Pacific Northwest day, the crew got a lot of (wet! heavy!) dirt and sand moved and leveled yesterday.  Plumbing will be roughed in early next week, then electrical, and then we'll be ready to pour the slab.  Watch for William, our quality control duck, toward the end.

Foundation and Footings

Concrete pour complete for today.

 Ready for back-fill and slab preparation.

Foundation pour today

Foundation walls are ready for concrete.

Footings & crew

The footings are going in and there will be concrete this week.

And our crew keeps getting younger and younger.

 Lauren 3.5 years

Andrew 10 years

Foundation

The foundation work starts on Thursday!!!

Excavation weekend

Started early Saturday morning.

 After day one all stumps removed and site level.

 Started early again Sunday.  Got the foot print of the house laid out.

 Started to dig the foundation.

 Early afternoon all the digging is done and we are ready for the foundation.

Camera

Got the time lapse camera mounted and ready for the action Friday and this weekend.

Construction begins.

We are scheduled to start excavation on 5/24/2013.

Old Growth Trophy Stump

There is a very cool old growth stump on our property with a granddaughter cedar growing out of it.  The only problem is that it is in the middle of where our new house will be.  

We are going to try, with the help of our builder, to move it to a new location on the property where we can continue to enjoy it.  It will make a perfect "fort" where the kids can play and hide, and will also make a beautiful centerpiece for some natural landscaping.

The granddaughter tree had to be removed so we can attempt to move the stump.  The lower branches were more like roots, and the "trunk" portion that extends to the ground (on which the ladder is leaning in the photo below) is actually a cluster of branches that arched downward and into the ground as it grew.

 Putting the wedge cut in.  Kind of scary on the ladder.

Tree down.  Old growth stump ready to be moved and hopefully preserved as a piece of our property's history.

Stump removal

Removing the 80 year old fir stump.

Stump removed.