All Formed up!

All the forms are set. The blue cables you see are the post tension cables. http://www.concretenetwork.com/post-tension/ -Post-tensioned concrete means that the concrete is poured and then the tension is applied—Shower looks nice Huh..... The black box contains the drain pipe.

More forms with Clay.
Looking toward the back porch.












Tomorrow the slab will be poured. So for now The Moon has gone up and the sun has gone down.

Since the last post the well has been completed. We had to have a temporary tank set up so that water is available for the crew to use when the slab is poured. So we now have running water. We also now have an electric meter.















The work has continued on the slab prep, most of the beams have been dug and we are hoping the weather will hold out so the next post will have the slab poured.

Barry Schwartz of Caliber Group our general contractor. He has been quite busy this week between us and the bank with questions/requests.

There are some pictures of the local wild life. Clay isn't sure what to make of the deer but we are hoping he'll keep them out of our future gardens.














There are several areas on the house where the rafter tails will be exposed. Our current house plan has these as a rounded end vs. the more modern one's shown below. We are looking for some ideas on this so please post in the comments if you have a suggestion. If we get multiple ideas we'll set up a vote so everyone can assist.

Form Setting and Well Drilling

This past couple of days a lot of behind the scenes work has been done
- Paper work with the bank
- Decided the location of the garage (thus changing our paper plans)
- Location of the well (yummy sulfur smelling water)
- Window bid finalization
- Searching for a front door

And the most exciting news of all
- We official have a street number (we are no longer zero)

Getting a street number was not as easy as you might think. I had to call around and send my sick wife to the post office (for nothing). Who would you guess to be the final arbitrator of street numbers is? 911. At least someone will know where our house is in the event of an emergency.

The form work was continued, most of the forms are set and almost ready for a plumbing rough in.














Here are Christie & Clay on the high side of the forms; you might notice Clay is not interested in being photographed today. That's because he wanted to meet one of the neighbors (see below). This one is always out there keeping watch at a distance.

Here is Christie in the new master bed room. Its a little dirty. She really needs a dirt devil.











The other major work started this week is the well drilling. Bee Cave Drilling made it out to start this afternoon and hopefully in 2 days we'll have a well. They have to drill more than 800ft down to the Trinity Aquifer.
Note: To anyone walking near the the drilling location the mud that looks dry might not be. I stuck one foot right in the middle of the quick sand.
























My muddy shoe.

The well drilling bit.



The setting sun and the end of this post.

Early Stages

Finally we have begun constructing the house.  Out lot was cleared on Sunday and the builder has been out there almost everyday getting things lined up with his crew.  We had 18 yards of rock delivered today, not for the house just for workers to drive their trucks over.  If we didn't have the rock it would be a giant mud pit as noted in the pictures below.

The forms were started for the foundation today as well.  Jeremy and I were on site to instruct the guys  where to situate the house.  It was certainly a learning experience for me but well worth it to be there.  It was the one thing our builder requested from us so that we wouldn't "bitch" at him later on if the location wasn't right. 
We had to make some decisions on the fly today regarding location of said forms.  This created a change to our plan that made things somewhat confusing.  Per the plan the garage is connected to the house by a large covered breezeway.  The door to the garage was in line with the door to the house.  This blocked a large section of the house from view of the street, but once we set the house on the lot it placed the garage smack dab in the middle of the lot.  It was no bueno to say the least.   After several hours on site we finally agreed on a location for the garage but it completely changes how the breezeway will work.  We haven't come up with a solution as of today on how to address the change in flow there but hope to do so in the near future. 

Photo of our cleared lot.

Mud Pit (to be covered w/ rocks)

More mud/cleared lot

Remains from cleared lot (unfortunately it was over the property line so it will need to be moved)

We have electricity, but no meter. 

Sunset view from the front of the house.

 

 

Beginnings of construction.

Our front door and a view of the shitter, what could be better?

 View from rock driveway to forms. 

Background On This Blog

To all that are reading this we have decided to begin a blog chronicling the building of our house.  We previously lived in a nice 2 story home in a brand new subdivision that allowed us to see our neighbors daily activities if all the blinds were opened just so.  As pleasant as that was, we longed for the ability to sit outside and enjoy the stars and maybe a little peace and quiet vs the rumbling of motorcycles and suped up old 80's mustangs.  So we sold our house, and moved into a much smaller apartment, with our three cats and one dog.  It's just like in college, except suckier and no all night partying.  

Going forward we will share with you the trials and tribulations of building a home, making agonizing choices that will stick with us for years to come and possibly asking for your input if we can't make a decision.