Laying out the basement...

The framing of the basement continues, with George first laying out the rooms with chalk lines on the floor, then building the walls. George is a meticulous craftsman, making sure of the smallest details before proceeding.


The first section of floor joists has been installed on the west side of the house above the vault lid. I will now install the water lines and drains for the utility room and the half bath over the next two days while George is gone. As soon as I am finished with that, we will install the decking over the joists.


Yesterday we observed a small wildfire about 20 miles to our north in an area known as Indian Valley. Today it looked as if it was almost out, until a strong storm cell moved through the area bringing high winds. This brought about just the right conditions to cause a sudden reignition, or explosion, of the fire. These conditions present extreme danger to the firefighters working to contain the blaze. The "explosion" lasted for approximately 1 hour before returning to a normal plume of smoke. We volunteers are on standby as more thunderstorms are forecast for tonight.

Walls & windows...

Yesterday George and his helper laid out and installed the sill plates for the basement exterior wall panels. Today they installed the panels using George's crane truck. They made it look easy, even though there was a considerable amount of adjusting and fine tuning to get everything to match up exactly level and plumb. It's really exciting to finally see a significant change in the appearance of the house.


OOPS!!!
Once the panels were in place, we discovered that an error had been made by Precision Panel when they measured for the placement of the windows. Evidently they failed to take into consideration that the panels are sitting on a stem wall that is 5 1/2 inches above the floor level - exactly the amount that the window openings are set too high in the panels. Our man Gus from Precision Panels assures us that it's an easy fix and he will be out next week to take care of it.



I shot this picture of the moon tonight as it came up from behind the mountain. Just another reminder of why we love this place so much.

Close encounters of the furred kind...

As I was driving up the driveway a few days ago, I noticed a mule deer fawn hopping excitedly back and forth in the draw below the driveway. When mulies sense danger or become alarmed, they run away by hopping with all four feet off the ground, as if they were using a pogo stick. What was strange about this fawn's behavior was that it was not running away, but rather hopping back and forth, working its way closer to the road below.


I stopped the truck and grabbed my camera. I then saw that there were several cows and one calf on the road. This was obviously the first time the fawn had ever seen a cow, and its curiosity was getting the better of it.


The fawn inched ever closed to the road and finally went through the fence and right up to the calf to check it out. After satisfying its curiosity, the fawn returned to grazing in the draw.

Back in action...

After almost a week of delays, work has resumed on the house. Renewable Energy Resources arrived to install the coils for the geothermal heat source pump. There is now approximately 1 1/2 miles of tubing in the giant pit we dug in the hillside below the house. They will return on Monday to charge and pressure test the system before I can begin to carefully backfill the dirt over the coils and fill in the 6-foot deep ditch running from the house to the pit.


We also received the first installment of our Precision Panel SIP (structurally integrated panel) walls for the garage and the daylight basement. George Holomshek brought up his 57' crane truck up to unload and stage the panels. He will return on Monday to begin the framing of the basement and installation of the panels.
These are exciting times.

Boards & Birds...

Friday was a landmark day in our project, as the first building materials were delivered from Franklin Building Supply. The basement framing package, which includes the main floor joists, decking, sill plates and basement framing is now on site. The basement walls are scheduled to arrive from Precision Panel on Monday. Framing was scheduled to begin on Monday, but our framer's father died yesterday, and George Holomshek, our framer, is on his way to PA as I write this. Looks like we will be delayed about a week. Speaking of delays, the tubing for the geothermal source heat pump is still somewhere in transit, so that part of the project is also on hold.


As I was moving dirt around the foundation of the house on Thursday, I looked down the hillside into the meadow east of the house. I saw over 50 turkeys making their way across the meadow searching for food. This is the first turkey sighting since springtime, when they move up into the timber to have their babies. The flock looks healthier than ever. Remember - clicking on the pictures will enlarge them for a better view.

A peach of a pit...

Now that the concrete work has all been done and the forms removed, we are getting ready for the framing of the basement and garage to begin next week. In the meantime, we have to dig a pit for the geothermal ground source heat pump coils. We staked off an area on the hillside just south of the garage, and Harvey went to work with his Caterpillar D7.


A day later he had dug a pit 100' x 40' x 8'. That's roughly 1185 cubic yards of dirt, or about 100 dump trucks worth. The geothermal guys will be here Friday morning to install the approximately 7900' of 1 1/4" coolant lines which will be buried in the bottom of the pit. Then Harvey will push all that dirt back into the hole.

Putting a lid on it...

Vault lid before concrete.


Vault lid after concrete.


Garage floor (note rising sun).


Back patio.

Today Betty Baker and her crew finished up the concrete work for this year. Before sunrise, the concrete trucks began arriving, bringing concrete to pour the vault lid, the garage floor, and the patio outside the entrance to the daylight basement. This is a real milestone for us, as we can now begin framing in the basement and erecting the basement walls and building the garage. Finally the house will begin to take shape. The basement framing package, basement walls, and garage package are scheduled to arrive on August 20.


The window package for the house arrived this afternoon. We will store it in the shop for the time being. After carefully checking them in, we discovered that there was one window missing. Susan will follow up with Pella in the morning.

In addition to everything else, our friend Harvey Church arrived with his bulldozer to dig the pit for our geothermal heat source coils. More on that in future posts.

It's a setup...

Susan and I got an extra early start to avoid the heat and smoke that filled the valley yesterday. By the time the sun began to light up the clouds, we were well underway backfilling and leveling the garage floor and digging a trench for forms for the patio which will be poured in front of the daylight basement.


While we were busy moving dirt, Betty and her crew arrived to set up the forms for the 7 1/2" reinforced concrete vault roof. To bear the weight of the steel reinforcement and wet concrete, the pour requires a specialized support system, consisting of interlocking beams and twelve adjustable jack screw columns. The plan is that the vault lid, the garage floor and the patio will all be poured this coming Tuesday.