Footing Forms

This week was working on the forms for the foundation footings. The footings are the wider, shorter parts of the foundation that sit directly on the ground. Once they are poured and set, the foundation walls will be started.

The forms are looking pretty good. I don't know if they are quite complete yet, but they look like they are getting close. You can also see some of the rebar being set to make the foundation stronger. They'll need another survey/inspection to verify everything is right on cue, and then the concrete can be poured.



The beginning of the timelapse video doesn't show a lot, since it wasn't able to capture much within the excavation. Part-way through the week it was moved to the top of the pile of dirt beyond the bottom of the house, and the visibility improves quite a bit. It will stay there until the dirt is needed for backfill.



Since it is the end of October, I've compiled a sped-up timelapse of the entire month:

Why Design Is Not Done

Now that construction has started, we've been asked: "Oh, now you just get to sit back and watch, right?" The answer is "No, not at all."

We work with the principle: "design only what we need". Some major design elements are needed from the beginning. The floor plan and building structure determine everything else. Details such as windows were required for permitting. The kitchen needs to be ordered early. Since the colors in the kitchen are closely related to the colors of the floor and counter, we've chosen those too. These major decisions are the ones that we have finished.

But there are many more decisions that are still to be made. We have delayed some decisions simply because they are not needed earlier. For example, we've just started talking to a craftsman about the front door.  This class of decisions follow the construction schedule. A few of the many other items in this category are hardscaping (driveway, outside walkways, etc.), landscaping, deck material and railings, stair railings, interior doors and hardware, kitchen backsplash, shelving, and light fixtures.

We intentionally delay other decisions until we have more information and context. For example, many of the colors will be finalized once we can test them on the building. We have a general color scheme chosen, but once the siding is up we can apply some paint swatches and choose the exact colors. We haven't even begun to think about carpet and interior wall colors. Another example is wiring. Once the frame is up, we can walk through the structure and decide on exact positions for light switches, electrical outlets, and any additional wiring such as Ethernet cabling and speaker wiring.

We delay other decisions because we do not know they are needed. Some decisions have unintended consequences that we have to take into account later. We discovered one example recently. Our island is 11' long, but CaesarStone comes in slabs up to 10' in length. We can live with it and have a seam in the counter where two pieces of stone join together. We can attempt to shorten the island to 10'. We can tweak the counter design to avoid or integrate the seam. We could even change the counter to another material. Luckily, we learned about this issue early enough that we have time to address it (though shortening the counter would affect the imminent cabinet order). Not everything will be so accommodating.

The early stages of construction are interesting to watch but don't require a lot of input from us. We don't really have anything useful to say about the size of the foundation hole or the concrete being poured. As construction progresses more elements will need our input, and we will be more involved in the construction process. Some of these decisions will be minor, but some will be required to allow construction to move forward. We will be kept busy designing throughout the entire construction period. In fact, this may be our slow period!

Excavation & Foundation

Last week excavation was finished and the foundation was started.

Yuval took a great composite picture of the completed excavation:


Then surveyors were brought back for a very precise placement of the foundation. The precision is to within a small fraction of an inch; apparently the city can hassle you if the foundation is off by even one inch.

Then the forms for the footings were started. All these forms will be put in, then precisely aligned, and then the footings will be poured. Much of that will take place over the next week.

I captured a few pictures of the lower parts of the form.


And the timelapse:


The position isn't so great for capturing the foundation work, so there's not a lot to see later in the week. However, since the dirt-moving is finished for now, Yuval will move the camera to a better position. It will be at the top or bottom of the site, so it can get a nice view of the foundation as it goes in.

Excavation (Almost) Complete

This past week was all about moving dirt. The majority of our site was excavated, resulting in a big hole in the ground. Some of the dirt was piled at the bottom of the construction zone, some was moved to the lot just up-hill of us, and some of trucked off-site.

Quite a bit of dirt has been removed compared to the ground level:

A bit more action this week on the timelapse (note the back-hoe sinking in to the dirt pile at the end of the day!):

There is maybe one day left on excavation, and then the forms for the foundation will start going in.

Construction Started

After many months of work, we have finally broken ground on our new house! Last week excavation equipment was brought in to start work. The first task was to clear the lot and grade it in preparation for digging space for the foundation.

Up until recently, our lot looked something like this:

But with more cut-down trees and some blackberry and grass growing all around.

When we stopped by last weekend, it looked like this:

All the junk and extra dirt in the main area of the lot has been cleared away. The lines sketched in are roughly were the foundation will be. The first picture in particular shows where the stair tower will jut out at the bottom of the slope.

We also have a timelapse camera set up to record the construction process. Here's the video of the first few days of work.

As you can see, our camera placement was sub-optimal, and it was nearly buried! We moved it south, so it will hopefully stay out of the way, and get better footage.

Now that construction is under way, we'll try to provide more regular posts. Every week or so we'll post a few pictures, a short description of what has happened, and a short timelapse video of the work. We hope you enjoy following along with us.

Trees

A small part of getting the site ready for construction was dealing with any trees that might get in the way of the building. There were only two trees to consider, a pair of tall pine trees near the top of the lot that we were hoping to keep. They would be right near the entrance, and looked quite nice together. Yuval had a botanist come to check them out before making a decision on whether to keep them or not. The results were that one tree was healthy, but the other was only in OK condition. However, the healthy one was about half-way into our planned entry!

These two trees supported each other via their root systems, so either both had to stay or both had to go. We decided it would be safest and easiest to remove both of them now. A couple weeks ago, they were carefully taken down. Yuval snapped a few pictures during the process, and allowed us to share them.

Some of the wood from various trees on site is being saved and cured. We hope to be able to use some of it later for pieces of furniture.