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.