Here is how Gary smiles on pay day.
There were up to 14 people working on the site today at one time. We had the concrete prep men - the electric prep men - the stump grinder man - the termite sprayer man - and the Howdy Potty man.
I was shocked when Gary the builder said that he expects the house to be closed in within 2 to 3 weeks. They will pour the foundation and floor on Friday if the weather holds.
Today Lulu was almost complaining it was going too fast - she was being rushed to make decisions. It is a whole lot different than when you get a builder that is trying to juggle several jobs. Here today and gone tomorrow.
What was done today? Water and sewer pipes were inspected and covered up. Electrical mains were installed under the foundation. Floor level flat outlets were placed in the living room. Foundation footer were installed. The sand in the foundation was tamped down tight. 4 giant stumps were ground out by Dwayne because they were too close to the boundary lines to be pulled out - if they were pulled out they would have affected other trees. Lastly - a heavy sheet of plastic was placed over everything.
Thursday - steel rebar will be knitted together and place over placed over top the plastic sheet.
Friday about 70 yards of concrete will be poured into the foundation forms to make footer and a monolithic slab floor.
So far - every person working on the job has been very professional. To the man - they have all come to me and thanked me for the work.
This is Ben Gidden with Gary designing the heat - ventilation - and air conditioning. We have decided to use a Trane XR17 Heat Pump. It has an SEER rating of 18. The air handler will be in the attic. This unit has a variable fan that comes on slowly and goes off slowly - to prevent noise. You can vary temperature and humidity at the thermostat. It will also have an electrostatic filter system to catch dust - pollen - mold. Ben will place the air ducts above the ceiling but below the attic plywood floor. A heat pump is designed to suck heat out of the outside air in winter and put it into the home. In the summer is sucks heat and moisture out of the inside air and throws it outside. The vents will be in the 10 feet tall ceiling.
This picture shows the front porch. The porch is 10 x 60. there is a footer along the front of the porch and another where the front wall of the house sits. Steel rebar will be placed in those footers.
This is the master bathroom with a separate shower stall and tub. It will have 2 sinks and a toilet in a closet.
This gray conduit houses the main 200 amp power line. It travel south out of the house then eats to the street
The main power line goes to the circuit box in the laundry behind the door.
Lines will go form the main circuit box to - the pool - the garage - and the metal barn.
The two gray boxes are surface level outlets in the living room. The worker is using a tamper to pack the sand before pouring the floor.
Robert is digging out a small footer ledge for the brick layer that will cover the foundation.
Dwayne is grinding away the stump of a big old cherry tree that was too close to the new garage.
Dennis of Howdy Potties comes by once a week to suck out the outhouse. His dog Romeo rides along with him. His dog Boots died 2 weeks ago they rode together for 13 years.
Just that simple - they have a big vacumm you stick in the toilet - it suck everything dry quickly - then they put new fresh blue water in the toilet.
Howdy's Portable Toilets. I wish they smell like pineapples and coconuts.
This guy is spraying Premise - all over the sandy foundation. Premise is made by Bayer - the aspirin people. It is supposed to protect form termites for 5 years. One thing good about the monolithic slab we are pouring is that there are no cracks for the termites to come though. Since our home is going to be between one and two feet above ground level - termites should not be a problem. Nevertheless - the building code requires this treatment.
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