Day 4 of framing

First floor framing is almost done. They had all of the exterior walls up and 1/2 of the interior walls up. Tomorrow we should have a finished first floor and maybe some roof trusses in place.

View from the front yard.
View from the back yard.
Hard to see but this is where the kitchen will be.
Looking at the one of the bedrooms.

Day 3 of framing

Before taking Winter to dance today we stopped by to check out the house. They got the sub floor down and part of the garage walls up.

Day 2 of framing

After picking up Winter today from school, we headed over to the house to check and see what got done today. The floor trusses were installed and they started framing in the basement. You can actually see how the rooms will look now. I am hoping tomorrow we will see some walls on the main floor.

Winter showing off the newly installed floor trusses.
Basement framing in progress.
They started hauling off the excess dirt (not pleased).

Day 1 of framing

They got a good start today on the framing. You can start to see how the basement will look from the back yard. The floor trusses and main trusses were also delivered today.

Lumber has arrived

Winter and I stopped by the house on our way home today to see if anything had changed. They told us they planned on starting the framing on Monday so we thought maybe they would have delivered some supplies. Sure enough they dropped off a bunch of stuff. A nice large job box, a fork lift, and some lumber.

Winter having some fun in the fork lift.
Some of the lumber for the house. One item that we did upgrade was the sub-floor material. We went with AdvanTech sub-floor to help with deflection and noise. I am hoping that I can see and hear a difference once installed.
On a side note the concrete floors look great. Weather is great with it being in the mid to high 70's. I would have hoped for a few days of rain to help water cure the concrete but with the lower temperatures I am still happy.

Concrete Slabs

They poured the garage floor and basement floor first thing Friday morning. I showed up at 7:30 and they had already started on the garage floor. I stayed until 8 am and by then they had finished pouring the garage floor and began on the basement floor. Before heading back to Nebraska for a wedding, we stopped by to see if they were finished. They were just finishing up with the basement floor and were cleaning up. For what we could see they did a great job.

Basement Concrete Prep

Today they prepped the basement for concrete. They plan on pouring the concrete tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. I am going to head over in the morning to watch them for a bit and to take some pictures of their work. May stop by around lunch time to get finished concrete pictures.

Basement Rough In Plumbing

Went by the house this evening to see what they got done today and it looks like they have finished up the rough in plumbing for the house. Next up will be pouring the concrete for the basement floor.

Granite Shopping

Lisa wanted to see what color choices they offered for granite so we stopped by Quality Granite over lunch today. After looking at all the samples we decided on a few that would work with the color of cabinets we might use in the kitchen. Since it was such a nice day we went ahead and checked out the remnant selection to see if they had any thing that would work in the bathrooms. We ended up finding several pieces that we liked and had them put them on hold for us.

For those that don't know, remnants are left over pieces from other projects that are available for a fraction of the cost. You can actual get some pretty exotic stuff for the same price or cheaper then the builder grade stuff. Since we don't mind using remnants we were able to upgrade the kid's bathrooms from laminate tops to granite. Not only do you get the added value but you also get an under mount sink which for cleaning purposes is great.

For the kid's bathrooms, Lisa wanted the two tops to match so we needed to find one large piece or two matching pieces. We were lucky to find one large piece that we will be able to get two counter tops out of. A lighter color stone that has some wild veins and odd color pattern. Some people hate that look but we like it and so it is our gain.

For the master bathroom we liked this piece of granite. A bit darker in color but Lisa and I both agreed on it.

Just a different look we both liked but weren't sure if the color was to much. We are waiting for the quote on the kitchen granite to see where we fall since we most likely will have to buy by the slab since the island is so big. I am sure it will look good since Lisa is picking it out.

Nothing

Nothing happened on Monday September 19, 2011. Not sure if it was meant to be that way or if it was a weather issue. Over the weekend we got just over .5 inches of rain. Well needed but might have scared away the subcontractors.

Backfill

Basement is now backfilled! They even started to bring in some rock and sand for the concrete flatwork. I was busy this week running to the suppliers to look at some of the materials we will be using in our house. They were all very helpful and gave us a ton of literature to read up on. Some of the places I visited besides the cabinet makers were Quality Granite, Acme Brick and Ferguson plumbing center.

Cabinets

Met with the cabinet designers (Custom Cupboards) today and wow they make it tough. I think he said they have over 132 styles and just as many colors. For the price I think you get a good quality cabinet that is custom made for your kitchen. We had several ideas for the island and I am sure at some point we will get it figured out. Was wishing to see the new layout but haven't seen it yet but will post a picture when I get it.

Waterproofing

They waterproofed the foundation walls and even did some work on the french drain system today. Sort of boring but at least it is progress. I am guessing it will be early next week before they back fill. Then we should start to see what the home will look like.

Stripped

We'll they went ahead and stripped the forms this Friday. Water proofing and utilities should start this week. We meet with the cabinet design people on Wednesday to go over layout and cabinet colors. We have a general idea of what we want but it never hurts to see what else is out there. Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Lisa and the kids showing off the new basement.
Here is a view out the back bedroom window well. You can see the brick texture that I was talking about in the previous post. Might look even better if I stained it.
Winter playing on one of the dirt piles.

Appliances

Finally picked out appliances today after two long days of tough deliberations. There are so many choices of appliances that sometimes it is overwhelming. The toughest choice was what kind of cooking element did we want. You have gas, electric, and even the flashy induction system. In the end we went with a smooth top electric cook top.

We ended up shopping at Metro Appliances and they did a great job of selling us what we needed. They happened to be having a great sale for contractors so we lucked out with our timing. They told us they usually give 5% discounts to contractors but for some reason they had a sale going on which gave us 11% any appliance and 15% off any energy star rated appliance.

So with the budget we set we ended up getting some pretty nice appliances for our money. I ended up under budget which allowed me to add 4 years of additional warranty. We thought we would do this since this is the first time owning Frigidaire appliances and you are putting big money into all of this that spending the extra amount seems like the smart thing to do. Now onto what we picked for the new kitchen.

We decided to give a stand alone cook top a try. We ended up going with a 36" wide unit which will give us plenty of cabinet space below to hold pots and pans.

Going with a cook top meant we also went with a wall oven. A double unit was out of our price range and seemed like a waste of money since we only have to cook for 4. However, Winter will be very excited since the oven has a preset for chicken nuggets.
The microwave is a wall unit that will be mounted just above the oven.
This dishwasher should help Lisa out in the kitchen.
Just a boring side by side. We almost went with a french style refrigerator but the deal breaker was the weak ice maker and the extremely high prices for such poor reviews. Also we didn't need little Weston getting into the freezer or putting something in there that shouldn't be in there.Overall very happy with what we picked out and can't wait to see them installed in March.

Walls are poured!

Decided to stop over at the house after dinner to see what they had gotten done today. Well they got all the walls poured and finished up a small section of footing that was left out last week. To our surprise, Nies had poured faux brick walls where the window wells are. So now you won't have to look out at a flat boring concrete wall. I might even stain the concrete to make it look even better. Here is Winter showing us the new walls.


Just a overview of the whole basement.

Half Walls

Half of the walls have been formed up at this point. From the looks of it they will finish up forming the walls tomorrow and then pour concrete on Thursday. Once again I think Nies Homes is doing a great job at scheduling this out to give the concrete time to cure over the weekends. Overall the job stile has been really clean and easy for the kids to walk around safely. I think the kids are loving this and it gives them an idea of what Daddy used to do. Lisa and I have been busy trying to figure out what we need done in order to keep this process going smoothly. We might meet up with the appliance people tomorrow to see what we can order for appliances. I am sure we will have pictures of what we pick once we get everything ordered. Now here is what a half formed basement looks like.

Footings poured on 9/2/2011

They poured the footings at 11:30 just like they said they would. Lisa and Weston got to see them pour the footings but didn't have any good photos to share. I ended up taking these pictures before leaving town that afternoon.

Pre-footing inspection

Stopped by the house this evening to find that they had most of the footings formed up. They plan on finishing on the forming in the morning and then pouring the footings at 11:30 tomorrow. Lisa is planning on taking Weston over to let him watch them pour the concrete. My guess is they will have a small pump truck set up which I am sure Weston will love. It is nice to have them pour the footings now just before a nice long holiday weekend. It will give the footings a good 4 days to cure before they begin setting wall forms. And no, I did not move the forms out to make the house bigger, even though Lisa had mentioned it.