January 29, 2009

The crew has been busy working this week. They set up the forms for the new garage foundation walls on Monday and had the cement poured. They skipped work on Tuesday. But have been back at it yesterday and today.

On Wednesday, pulled the forms out and backfilled most of the new garage area. Then they moved to the front door area of the house and tore out the concrete stoop for the front porch using their jackhammer on the front of the skidster. Chris worked from home that day and said that was pretty loud.

Today, Thursday, they started digging out where the stoop was and then further out a couple of feet. I was gone all day again but there appears to be wing walls already there and they are currently digging out the dirt within the wing walls. I don't know if they have to move those further out or not, but I guess we will see. There will be a crawl space under where they are bumping the bathroom out.

They also busted the outside spigot off this morning. Luckily Chris was home and they could get in the house to quickly turn the water off. They decided to cap it off in the basement instead of putting a new one up because they are going to be tearing off the brick there and installing stone.

I am anxious for them to start framing, but I imagine that won't be for another week or so. Partly so we can look like we are doing something rather than just building these big piles of dirt in the yard as we now have another one by the front porch. Our neighborhood must wonder what the heck is going on -- they are on their third area of digging. I did have one neighbor call me when we first started and were digging for the family room. She thought that we must be having sewer problems to be digging in the winter. I filled her in and apologized up front for all of the trucks and dirt on the street. Hopefully this part will get improve when they stop excavating.

Good night!

Jan. 24, 2009

Sorry for being deliquent in my updates lately. There hasn't been anything really exciting going on. They finished up with the foundation last week for the family room and then this week they insulated it, put drain tile around and backfilled around the new foundation walls. They also poured a layer of gravel on the floor. They will have to wait to pour the concrete floor until things warm up.

The guy in this picture below is here every day working, even when it has been 5 degrees.

The new family room backfilled and ready for framing!

On Wednesday they moved on to the garage. They started digging for the foundation and when I talked to one of the crew, he said they were still hitting ice 2 feet down. So the ground is pretty frozen. With the start of the garage foundation, we lost use of the garage this week and now have to park our cars outside. Now we can deal with frosty windows in the mornings.

It really seems to be slow going as they seem to keep having equipment issues in this cold weather. Plus they ended up having to go deeper than 4 feet for the garage footings in certain areas as they didn't hit solid soil at 4 feet. This will be our first of I am sure many change orders. They were able to pour the footings yesterday. I think they were hoping to pour the walls today but they had trouble getting one of the tractors started and they broke the digger bucket. So then they were using a jackhammar attached to a skidster to break up the soil. There is a lot of clay where the garage is going.

Our front yard has looked like a dirt yard this week with three tractors, a big dump truck and trailer, and a large mound of dirt piled in it. I am sure our neighbors are loving us! Especially with the mix of snow and dirt dragged out into the street.

Last Sunday Chris and I went to Great Indoors and picked out a nice Blanco stainless steel sink, kitchen faucet and door levers. I also met again with my kitchen guy and narrowed down the design. I have the colors and door style -- which I custom designed, all taken care of. Now I just need to finalize the layout and pick out appliances.

Also, we did have one casualty this week -- our mailbox. I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later seeing that we have a mailbox on either side of our driveway. At least it was ours and not the neighbors and the post was left intact, so our GC just had to replace the mailbox.

Here is the latest and how they left it today!

January 13, 2009

We were hoping the excavation crew was going to come back on Saturday and plow the driveway with the skidster, but they didn't! We got over 10 inches on Friday night into Saturday. Fun, Fun! But the crew came back this Monday and has been busy. They dug all of the snow out of the hole and got to work setting up the forms for the walls on top of the footings they poured on Friday. Today they had the inspection and then poured the walls. It was only 10 degrees today, but they still poured. With the additional snow expected tonight and tomorrow and potential blizzard conditions they won't be working tomorrow. And then Thursday we have a high of 2 so I doubt they will work then.

The next step is for them to move onto digging out for the garage and addition in the front of the house. So that means we won't have use of the garage for much longer and then the cars will have to sit outside for the rest of the winter. Bummer! It also means the only way to get in the house will be thru the service door in the current garage. This should be interesting.

Also on Saturday, Chris and I traveled thru the snow to a stone place to look at stone for the front of the house and scope out stone for the new fireplace. I think we narrowed it down to two. We really need a larger piece of siding and a few bricks to make the final decision so we are waiting on those.

Stay warm everyone! Except for Jim and Barb who are in Florida where the temperatures are in the 50s all week.

One more thing today!

We have a nice 5 foot long oak mantle shelf and beautiful brass fireplace doors available. And we will throw in the gas logs if needed for anyone interested.

January 9, 2009

The excavation crew has been pretty busy. Yesterday the slab for the sunroom was finally removed, by bringing in a skidster with a jackhammar on the front of it. Then they pretty much excavated the rest of the crawl space yesterday and were bringing in big dirt haulers to haul all of the the dirt away. They really know what they are doing and how to operate those machines. The crew is back at it today again and are finishing the digging and starting to frame the foundation. They are supposed to pour the footings today. Chris bet me a $1 that they wouldn't be pouring this week, and I guess I won that bet.

On Wednesday I went and looked at a couple of houses in Arlington Heights to check out the siding color I was interested in and I loved the color -- it is Cypress! So that is one decision down. Now onto the stone, trim, fascia and soffit and roofing!

Below are some recent pictures of the hole in the ground. I know, exciting huh!

The first picture is of the fire they were burning the other day. It had pretty much died down by the time Chris took the picture:

The concrete crew was finally back at work again today. Chris came home at lunch and they had a fire burning in our backyard, burning some plywood. I think they must have been trying to warm the ground to dig. The ground that was under the patio they removed last week had frozen in the last week with the colder weather.

When we got home they had dug out a small area, but still have not removed the concrete slab where the sunroom stood. They left a large air compressor parked in the yard, so maybe they are going to jackhammer the slab out. I guess we will see tomorrow! The GC said they should have the foundation poured for the family room by the end of the week and will start on the garage and front of the house next week.

On Saturday, Chris and I went to look at fireplaces. Of course, the one I like is 300% more than was in the contract. But I knew the allowance in there was low to begin with.

Tomorrow I am going to look at a couple of houses in Arlington Heights to check out the siding colors I like. Hopefully the color will be what I want or I start over.