We Have Flooring

Today they put down some plywood floors. I was able to get Ella up on them and she was so excited. She had a grin from ear to ear and was thrilled to be the first one in our family on them. Anything that makes her happy to move is good. Wyatt got up there with her and I couldn't get them down.

You can also see the hole where the stairwell is going to be. Things are really moving now.

More Floor Joists and Framing

More progress was made today on the framing. Much thanks goes to Brad and the students who are spending some extra time on our house.

Things are quite busy right now with our family. I may not have time in the next little while to write very much about the progress but I will definitely make sure to continue posting pictures.

Floor Joists!!

Things are rolling now. We have some floor joists! Aren't they beautiful? There should be even more tomorrow. The students will be working on Friday so by the weekend the house should look a lot different.

The first picture is of the house without any framing done. I thought it would be good to have a picture of the house without the framing as a point of reference over the next few weeks.

The Framing Has Begun

The framing has started. They spent most of the day lining up where the walls will be in order to make sure our house is square. Always an important thing Brad tells me!

Crawl Space and Sewer

Yay! The sewer is finally hooked up. Now things can move forward and they have. Dave and Pete poured the floor of the crawl space today and were able to fill in the big hole that had been dug for the sewer line.

Thanks Dave and Pete for all your hard work the last few days.

Our View

It turns out things have been quiet this week because we are waiting for our services to be hooked up. I think it happened late today but I wasn't able to get there to check it out. The students will be back on Tuesday so the framing won't start until then. They will be pouring the floor to the crawl space before then I believe.

In the absence of action shots today I thought I would post some pictures of our view. We are next to the house in the first picture. I can't wait to see what the view will be like from our top floor. John and I will have our bedroom at the back facing the view, with a balcony off of it. I imagine we will spend a lot of time there.

We are both enjoying the process of building the house, but sometimes when everything seems overwhelming I think about the view and how great it will be and it makes it all worth it.

Filling in Around the Foundation

The lot was quiet today so I thought I would post some pictures from last week when they were filling in the sides of the foundation.

Getting Ready for Framing

The wood has arrived! Tomorrow the students will be back and start the framing. I am so excited to see this part begin.

The digger has also dug out an area for a small patio right outside the basement doors. A ditch has also been dug for what I assume will be where the pipes are laid for the services going from the house to the lot line.

Adding the Cistern

One thing we really wanted to do with our house was collect rain water and use it in the garden. Brian and Dave have been really supportive of this idea. Our cistern will collect rainwater off the roof and we are hoping to attach it to our sprinkler system and use it for watering our garden.

Today the cistern arrived! As you can see there were three machines working at Ocean Oasis today putting the dirt back against the house and taking away the extra dirt. The lot will look very different tomorrow. While they were working they were able to dig the hole for the cistern and have it put into place. It will be mostly buried with two access caps on the top. They already have some of the outside pipes in place for the rainwater collection and will be attaching them soon to the cistern.

The students will be back on Wednesday to start the framing.

Drainage

Here are the pipes that are surrounding the perimeter of the house to keep water from pooling around it. It's quite a set-up!

The blog will most likely be quiet for the rest of the week. There are a few things that will be taking me away here. Next week the framing should begin and everyday there should be a lot of changes happening that I will be posting.

Damp Proofing

As you can see the outside of our foundation is black. This is the damp proofing so that the water from the perimeter of the house doesn't seep through the walls into the house. Wow - does it ever stink!















The school has also put up a sign so that people driving by can see who is building the house. We are happy that they have done this; it is great advertising for their program. If you are interested in being involved in a project like this next year please contact the school.

Foundation Forms are Stripped!

Here are the first pictures of the fresh new foundation walls. The students spent the day stripping the forms. The cement looks terrific and very professional.

I finally had a chance today to actually go inside the structure. It is still hard to believe this is going to be a house. The rooms look small with nothing inside them to give them some scale. Even the opening for the garage door looks too small to drive our vehicles through!

Next up - the drainage tile.

Twas a Dark and Stormy Day...

The day the foundation was poured. Wow! It was definitely different weather for the cement pouring today than the day when the footings were poured. Today was cold and very, very wet. It did get done though. They had to scrape and level the cement once it was poured into the forms. Then they will be putting boards embedded with nails in the top of the cement foundation walls while they are still wet (upside down so that the nails are set into the concrete). These boards are what the floor joists will be nailed to; it makes for a very sturdy base.

It was a great day for the kids at Muddy Paradise. I had to drag them away they were having so much fun.

Finishing Up the Foundation Forms

Tomorrow the foundation walls will be poured so today was spent finishing up the forms so that everything will go smoothly tomorrow.

We stopped by Ocean Oasis aka Muddy Paradise at the end of the day when everyone would normally have left. Brad, the teacher, and two of the students were still working. From what I understand the students are happy to stay late with Brad when there is a deadline coming up. It is great to see them so enthustiastic about the house - it definitely makes this project special.

Here's Brad and his daughter Eleanor, whom I had the pleasure of meeting today.

April 1st Update

The students are still working on getting the forms ready for the cement pouring. The pouring date has been changed to Wednesday, April 7th. This is a good thing as on Friday, April 2nd there was a huge wind and rain storm here. We lost our internet connection as a result, hence the late post.

On Thursday two of the students, Tyler and Harley, asked Wyatt to help them build a ladder. He was pretty excited and helped them haul the wood and was able to help put it together and do a bit of nailing. Ella did some nailing too and they talked about it all night. Thanks guys!

I am still working on learning the names of all the students - hopefully by the end of the project I will know them all.