Foundation & Framing with a (LARGE) side of mud

I am so behind on posting! It has been 2 months since I last posted picks of the house & it is coming along quickly! These pictures are actually from April & May ( yes, I know.. its now June). I have had the pics uploaded but no time to caption them. So here they are. It took a little waiting due to our wonderful Washington weather, but the sun finally made an appearance long enough to dry out the dirt so that the basement slap could be poured. We are lucky enough to have clay in our dirt (read this with a very sarcastic tone), which means it absorbs & holds onto to water. It became a waiting game. For almost 3 weeks I could tell you exactly what the weather forecast was & what was the percent chance of rain. Our waiting finally ended with a beautiful sunny & warm week. The concrete guys were ready to go & the basement was poured & even had a chance to set/dry before the rain came back. Next in, the framers. Now these guys will work in the sun or rain (& with rain unfortunately came lots of mud!). And so the house is taking form. Katie & Cassie are finally starting to "see" the house & are so excited (have I mentioned apartment life doesn't agree with us?) As I post this, the framers are finishing 2nd floor framing walls & our contractor is ordering trusses (I know! I'm a whole floor behind on posting!) so I'm going to try hard to get our blog up to date this weekend.

Concrete guy working on pouring walls



Wall forms in place. (I love that they poured their own stairs on the hill)







Walls poured



Now we wait for them to set








Beautiful foundation/ basement walls



That "tube" in the middle of the picture is actually the post support for front porch... poured 10 feet deep!





Checking out the basement



Family pic (with our wonderful 10ft basement walls)







Those poured steps made a perfect photo op.






Katie & Cassie hiding on the side on the house








We officially have power! (ok..it's just temporary power, but it's still power)




The foundation that will be underground got covered with this heavy black felt like material that covers a sheet that is plastic-egg crate-ish. That's my technical term, not the contractors, its a moisture barrier & lets walls breath. (or something like that)



Back-filling the basement




Katie & Cassie in the garage









Basement gets dirt & gravel before floor is poured






Katie climbing the dirt hill (with a little help from Dave)







Just poured basement floor





Concrete guys smoothing floor









The beginning of framing!





Framer hard at work









The basement exterior framing went very fast, then came the 1st floor I-beams. Also garage is now back-filled.






Checking out the framing.









View from the back.








1st floor now has all I-beams installed.








Katie & Cassie looking down into basement.







Lumber delivery means sub-floors will soon be in.








Daylight basement.








Basement interior walls are now framed.








Dave & girls trying out basement stairs.







Katie had to try out the stairs many (many) times.








1st floor sub-floor is in place & more lumber means more framing.





Katie & Cassie looking out to back yard from 1st floor.








Katie is super excited to have the basement framed.






1st floor (Dave is standing at the top of basement stairs)







Girls posing.

Welcome Home????

Every construction site is required to have owners name, property address, and contractor name posted somewhere visible. This is to identify the property for inspections (and it also helps with deliveries). Unfortunately, we removed all of the trees in the front prior to the start of construction. Next best option? Apparently our contractor's thought it was the Honey Bucket. Yes it does the job, but it just doesn't seem right to label the potty like its home.
(street name was photo-shopped to keep strangers away)

Dirt work

Construction has officially started! Our contractor's have been out at the property any day that it isn't pouring rain, and seeing how its March... in Washington, we're amazed at what they've been able to accomplish. They started with getting the house location spot cleared and dug out to prepare for our daylight basement. Once the area was dug out enough, they began putting up the foundation wall forms. They have now started pouring the foundation walls. It's wonderful to slowly see the shape of our home take form. It may just be a ton of dirt, lots of mud, and a foundation outline, but its home (or at least the promise of a home in the near-ish future).


This is how you know when construction has officially began, the all important Honey Bucket

We now have water! Meet our $10,000 water meter

The start of clearing.

Contractor's Digging out foundation hole

More digging... in the mud

I'm sure this would be easier if it wasn't raining

Construction has officially started!

Our first materials delivery

Materials to start making foundation wall forms


Lots of dirt & Mud, but also the outline of home

The beginning of the foundation wall forms

Quick tour: The mound of dirt on the right will be the garage. That puddle on the left is storage room, behind it is bathroom then mechanical room. Behind all of that is open space. (unsure of use but Dave has claimed this space as "Man Cave")

View from NW corner

Our first foundation pour- bottom initial layer for walls (view from back)

Contractor's hard at work preparing wall forms

Foundation wall forms going up

North side of house

View from the NW corner

South side of house

Basement wall foundation forms

Basement walls are going to be 9ft high, per the request of David. (Apparently if you are 6ft ish, the finished height of the basement is a big deal)