1. Home Projects

The New House

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Week 1<br />
9/26/09<br />
The stakes are set for the corners of the new house and carport, by builder Scott Rosenboom and Phil, who has the bulldozer and loader.<br />
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We will not miss the reclinata palm clump (at 3 o'clock) but are very sad that the big hop hornbeam behind it will have to go. It was just too big to move.
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Week 1
9/26/09
The stakes are set for the corners of the new house and carport, by builder Scott Rosenboom and Phil, who has the bulldozer and loader.

We will not miss the reclinata palm clump (at 3 o'clock) but are very sad that the big hop hornbeam behind it will have to go. It was just too big to move.

  • Week 1<br />
9/26/09<br />
The stakes are set for the corners of the new house and carport, by builder Scott Rosenboom and Phil, who has the bulldozer and loader.<br />
<br />
We will not miss the reclinata palm clump (at 3 o'clock) but are very sad that the big hop hornbeam behind it will have to go. It was just too big to move.
  • 9/26/09<br />
This view is from the roof of the front porch, looking down the hill. The stake marking the back corner of the house is just behind the man in the white shorts. The doomed hop hornbeam is just a few feet off to the right. <br />
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For the time being, we'll leave the big clump of sago palms in the foreground.
  • 9/26/09<br />
By mid-afternoon we have a cleared homesite. The trees have been piled down the hill to the left of the equipment, to be burned as soon as we can get to it.  The space looks huge, but there is an apron around the actual footprint of the house (see next picture).<br />
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A number of sago palm that were part of the landscape row have been dug and dumped in a different pile. We'll spend the next few days getting them heeled in somewhere for future landscaping.
  • 9/26/09 - Saturday<br />
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The magic of Photoshop connects the dots, or stakes. This house is really going to happen!
  • 9/30/09 - Wednesday<br />
I added a ladder to our flat roof so I could climb up on the second story for future recording of the new site.<br />
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Today, batterboards laid out and string stretched everywhere to define the lines for the footer trench. The first floor will be one block (about 8-9 inches) taller than the top of the batterboards.<br />
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We were astounded at how much the land slopes, as there is nearly a 3 foot drop from front to rear of the house. What that means, is that the front porch floor will be about chest high making a very imposing front elevation and view.<br />
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Footer trench laid out and dug by the end of day.
  • 10/1/09 - Thursday<br />
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Chris at front corner of the house. The front porch, first floor will be 9 inches above the horizontal batter board.<br />
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The golden rain tree on the right is in full bloom.
  • 10/1/09 - Thursday<br />
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Footer trench dug for the carport, and 3 rows of rebar were placed in all the trenches. <br />
Everything was wired together, and bars that will go upright when the footer is poured, were fastened into place every few feet..<br />
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New additions to the landscape are the porta-potty and the big blue construction dumpster.<br />
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End of Week 1
  • Week 2<br />
10/6/09 - Tuesday<br />
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The cement truck arrives very early. The first things poured in the footer trenches are dams near the places where the trench steps down. By the time the long sections are poured, the dams have set up .
  • 10/6/09 - Tuesday<br />
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One truckload isn't enough. the second one is close behind.<br />
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By the end of the day, the whole footer was done.
  • 10/7/09 - Wednesday<br />
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Masonry supplies delivered at the crack of dawn. With the footer in place, the house outline is a lot more obvious.
  • 10/7/09 - Wednesday<br />
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The future dog room back porch.<br />
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By the end of the day, the front wall and porch walls are up as well as the carport and kitchen jpint wall. Masonry guys say the whole stem wall and carport piers will be complete by end of the next day.<br />
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The upright rebar is tied to the horizontal rebar in the footer, and fits through the black spaces in the block. Everything is lined up with tight string that was laid out on day 2 according to the house plans.
  • 10/7/09 - Wednesday<br />
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By the end of the day, the front wall and porch walls are up as well as the carport and kitchen jpint wall. Masonry guys say the whole stem wall and carport piers will be complete by end of the next day.
  • 10/7/09 - Wednesday<br />
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By the end of the day, the front wall and porch walls are up as well as the carport and kitchen joint wall. Masonry guys say the whole stem wall and carport piers will be complete by end of the next day.<br />
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The ladder on the flat roof of the old house gets me to thetop of the main roof to photograph the new site.
  • 10/8/09 - Thursday<br />
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True to their word, the stem wall is pretty much complete by end of day. There is an incomplete area  on the left by the dining room wall. We are assuming that it is left open for heavy equipment to come in for the slab pour.<br />
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The piers for the carport look SO tall, without the context of the whole house. It will be tall enough to house the Sprinter with its AC unit on top.<br />
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Concrete will be pumped into the block wall openings and the piers to give them more strength soon.<br />
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End of Week 2
  • Week 3<br />
10/12/09 - Monday<br />
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The backhoe/loader arrives in the afternoon to be ready for the fill dirt in the morning.
  • 10/13/109 - Tuesday<br />
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The first project of the day was to move the dark earth that had been scraped in to a pile on day one, up against the foundation for support.<br />
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The smell that filled the air for the next two days was that of cider, or sour mash, from the fermentation of the sod that had been piled up for two weeks. The pile was actually smoking inside when it was broken up.
  • 10/13/09 - Tuesday<br />
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The dump trucks full of builder's sand delivered load after load all day to the center of the site through the east wall. Phil uses the loader to dump the sand into the front porch, while his son smooths out the sand on the dog room porch.
  • 10/13/09 - Tuesday<br />
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Phil has just delivered the heavy tamping machine to the back porch. It was attached to the bucket of the loader on a chain, and swung in to the center of the porch to his son who will use it to compact the sand
  • 10/13/09 - Tuesday<br />
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The dump trucks full of builder's sand delivered load after load all day to the center of the site through the east wall. IT took about 25 loads to fill up the site.
  • 10/13/09 - Tuesday<br />
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The bulldozer is equipped with a laser leveling unit that communicates with the unit on the tripod to the right. This way, the surface can be made perfectly level.<br />
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The work took the entire day, until too dark to photograph. The dump trucks just couldn't come fast enough to keep up with Phil.
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