End of Week 3 - We now have a slab

Once again I am playing catch up with my blog entry...Having a very lively 19month old to entertain keeps me busy and away from the house site AND my computer these days.

When I last left off my blog, they had prepped for the slab to be poured...So Early Wed morning I popped over to the site to try and get a photo of the work they did the day before, not realizing though the sun was barely over the horizon they had already arrived and were getting set to for the cement trucks to arrive.

What is even more impressive, it was only 34 degrees in the sun that morning (that is roughly 2 degrees for you metric folk)..But once the sun was fully up, it did not take long for it to start to warm up for the day.

As much as I was looking forward to watching the slab being poured, I was not able to be there so Leon was super nice and took lots of stills and video for me instead. So a BIG KUDOS and THNX to Leon for providing me with so many great shots and wonderful footage...It was hard to narrow it down to which one to include on the blog...May have to set up an online photo album so everyone can get to enjoy them too.

Here are Carl and his boys getting the pour started. You can watch them in action in the videos at the end of this entry...I wish I could share more than 2 video but I am concerned about bandwidth usage...These guys have this down to such a fine art, it is like watching a very well coordinated, very manly ballet.

By the end of the day the slab was dry enough for them to score the cement, this is done so when the house shifts and he slab cracks, it does not go every which way it likes, but has guiding lines to follow and therefore maintaining its integrity.

I was not able to get over to the site Thursday night or Friday to take any good pix of the end result so after the rain stopped today (hence why the slab is so wet) and Sara was down for her nap I popped over and snapped these couple of pix.

This first one is from the back of the house. You can see both back entrances. One into the dining room and the other the laundry/mud room. You can also see the driveway in the background.


Then the second one I took while standing on the front porch looking at the spot the front door will go..






Now for the Video...

You get a good feel for the size of the house when you see the cement trucks either side of it.


"What a fun toy this would be.."

So far this week...

Just a little catch you up on the progress so far this week...which honestly to me does not feel like it is much at all...A little frustrated at the delays caused by the plumbing issue...Which was corrected Monday and passed inspection...Thank Goodness

Small amount of prep work done on Tuesday, for the bug guy to come do the termite spray this morning. Then the slab crew came back out and finished prepping for the slab to be poured tomorrow...yay.

I will try and get over to the site in the morning to take pix of the work they did today.

Like I said, not much to report right now...

Sharing the vision - Floor Plan and Rendering

I have had a few inquiries about the style of house etc, so figures I would share a colored rendering of the front of our "little cottage" and the floor plan with yall...
Don't forget you can click on either image to see enlargements of them.

We want to stay true to the area in which we live and also to the family history on the property, so lacking a real photograph of the original homestead, we are going for a Florida Cracker/Cottage Style home, with white on white finish and a porch with railing.

As you can see from the floor plan, it is a 3x2 with open concept living area. it is just shy of 1800 square feet...a little over if you include the porch. The "Den" is going to be my doll/work space with french doors opening into the family room, allowing me to keep an eye on Sara while I work...The rectangle in the family room is a ceiling tray which I love, help to marry the old and the new style features together...the french doors off of the dining will give us a gorgeous view of the open fields behind the house and the wonderful sunsets we are blessed with here in Florida.

At the end of week 2....

Wow it is hard to believe it is just 2 weeks since we broke ground...So much seems to have happened in such a short amount of time..Though it still is not moving quick enough for me...I want walls and fixtures and painting and MOVING IN to begin...yesterday lol.

Thursday nothing really happened on site since we had pouring rain and tornado watches all day...The wind just blew and blew and all in all a very unproductive day....Except the inspector did come by and look at the plumbing...Then took issue with my bathroom floor drains...After much mulling and discussion and thinking about our options...We found a solution we can all live with...I will not go into it...Just happy that come Monday the plumber will return to correct the problem and we can get on with pouring the slab (weather permitting) ASAP.

Friday Carl and his crew were back to close out the gap in the foundation wall and frame out the front porch...Can't wait to see those cement trucks start arriving next week...One more step closer to the dream.

The electrician was also out on Friday to rough in the power running to the kitchen island and the "fridge wall"....I can't properly express how excited I am to see how this kitchen turns out.

Talking of electric, the engineer from the power company came by and marked out a few small trees David needed to remove before Monday morning so they can come hook up the temp power pole.

So with that and a few other small jobs to do, David got out his gardening tools and did some yard work on his day off...

Plumbing roughed in...

It does not sound like much happened at the site today, but it was lots of work for them to get all the plumbing roughed in...It is quite exciting now, because instead of a big square of dirt, I can actually envision where some of the rooms and spaces will be...

It was just a little thing but that makes this house finally feel real to me, and that was seeing the floor drains in both baths and the utility rooms, a feature I have missed since moving to the USA...Now I can slop water around my bathroom and not worry about how to clean it all up lol....Oh and I will have a utility sink again *happy dance*

Picture was taken from the SW corner of the house...Don't forget you can click to see it bigger.

Off to an early start...

Have to say how impressed I was Monday morning at 6.30am to hear rumbling of a truck over at the work site dropping of a large dirt/diggy machine (yup getting technical now...hey what do you expect, I am an artist not a machine identifier)...Then once the sun was up the dirt began to arrive...Truck after Truck after Truck full...Amazing how much dirt is needed...Turns out the hole left in the foundation was for the truck to be able to drive in and dump the dirt...(well duh Kelsie)

By the time they wrapped it up for the day my future house pad looked like a giant sandbox. lol...Picture taken from the NE corner..As you can see in the background we still have Uncle GB's old carport to tear down.

The plumbers were also over at the site and used a mini dirt/diggy machine to create the trench all the way to the well and hook it up...So now they have water on the site which I am sure will make it much easier for them.



Not sure what the game plan for today is, but it is 7.26am and I can already hear the dump truck delivering more dirt....One of the biggest challenges seems to be keeping Nadia off the site...She is very curious about everything going on over there and spends most of her day "supervising" the action...Do they sell doggy hard hats?

Duel Flush Toilet Found at Home Depot = More Savings

What could be more exciting than saving hundreds of dollars and being Eco friendly at the same time. This is what Home Depot has done for me.

I had expected to pay $466 or more per unit for a toilet with a Duel Flush system from our local "Green" store...But good thing for me we stopped at Home Depot and while wondering around in the kitchen and bath department (as you do) I thought it would not hurt to ask if they carried them yet...Even though just a few months ago they did not have any on their website. (that I could find)

Sure enough Glacier Bay make one for just $158 and it comes with great reviews on the Home Depot site...To read the specs and the reviews Click Here

Other house news...The temp power pole is in place, waiting on inspection and then will be connected up by the power company...

Kitchen changes have been decided upon...The new layout will make the space more functional, allow me to include the pantry and give the entire Great Room a more modern and updated feel...Now I am getting very excited to see how it looks in real life v's in my head lol

Foundation Laid and Last Chance for Kitchen Changes

By lunchtime yesterday the foundation was laid...Not sure what the purpose of the gap is at the side but I know it is supposed to be there...Either today or Monday they will begin filling the interior with dirt, at some point the plumbing etc will be added and once that is all finished the slab will get laid over the top of the dirt.

Meaning I have this weekend only to decide if I would like to make any changes to the kitchen layout...I know I left it a little late but inspiration did not hit me until Wed night lol....I am thinking that instead of the galley style kitchen I would like to have a large floating island with breakfast bar...This would also allow us to turn the fridge and create space for a pantry to be added in the kitchen instead of around the corner in the utility room....I think it would also make the kitchen look more modern and custom...and after all if I am having custom cabinets built, they should LOOK custom instead like they are just "out of the box"

I think you can all tell which way I am leaning about the kitchen huh ;)

Now we know it is serious....

How you can tell that work is well and truly started?..The BlueLoo is on site...and the phone is ringing at 7.24am with questions about where the temp power pole is going to go.

Seems there was lots of coming and going over at the work site today, the inspector came by and passed the footer trench/ rebar. This was a big surprise to us, as we did not expect it to happen so quickly...Yay 4 Quick Inspections (lets hope it continues to be that way)

The Little Foreman got to come check out the progress this afternoon too..Here she is checking the wooden stake marking the future location of the temp power pole...Once the house is built all the power lines will be underground...This is for a number of reasons.

1: No unsightly power lines or poles in our yard..Preserving the old cottage look we eventually hope to achieve.

2: Will not have to trim anymore of our mature trees to make way for power lines.

3: And of course living in FL with year round risk of severe weather, the less likely hood of anything falling on the power lines and taking out our power.


This of course is a picture which was the total highlight of my day...The actual pouring of the cement footers and the delivery of the cinder blocks, which I guess will begin getting laid in the next couple of days after the cement has hardened depending on the weather.

TODAY WE BROKE GROUND

Despite the cold today we finally have physical proof we are building a house....I am to exhausted to write much but just had to share the exciting news

After carefully marking and squaring off the house's foot print, the official ground breaking happened as they dug the footers.

So now I have a giant rectangle trench where my house will soon stand...To say I am happy is an understatement...I think now we wait for the inspector before the next step towards getting the slab poured.



I believe the BlueLoo (port-a-potty) was supposed to be delivered today also, but did not get a chance to go over later this afternoon to check.

Permits

The permit board has been posted for over a month...Well FINALLY today the county gave us the nod and we get to start using it, because WE HAVE BUILDING PERMITS...You have NO idea how happy this makes me...I was starting to worry that it was just not going to happen..