The weather continues to improve and grading is progressing well. We are a few days behind schedule, but the crew worked Saturday to keep the momentum going. Right now they have begun grading from the bottom of the slope. They have constructed the first of three "benches" that are doing to ultimately form the 2-1 slope downhill from the flat building pad.
Lots of heavy machinery and lots of mixing and dirt and moving dirt around to make sure it dries out well enough to be compacted. We have a soils engineer on site as well and he regularly measures that the compaction of the dirt exceeds 90%. When we spoke to the crew they also mentioned that they have to mix dirt from different areas to create a uniform soil mix that compacts evenly.
The bottom bench has a drain in it and there will be one more drain halfway up the slope to provide enough drainage to protect the stability of the slope.
The plan for the coming week is to continue to work on the next two benches and to get up and start grading the flat part of the building envelope where the house, garage, second unit and deck is going to be. And I assume they will start carving out the pool as well since that sits on the edge of the deck.
Our General Contractor has promised us a schedule for the rest of the build in the next 1-2 weeks so we can start getting a sense for what happens when and when we can expect to move in. It is still a little unreal that the house is actually happening... Today we met with our new neighbors up the street from us - they are building a new modern home as well and it is fantastic to have met such a wonderful couple - and to be able to meet up and share our progress with someone who can appreciate looking at the building project.
On the window front, we have received the shop drawings for approval for all the Schuco windows, doors, sliders, etc. Our architect team is currently reviewing and we expect to be able to send back comments early next week. We have also picked out colors for window and slider hardware, thresholds and approved glass samples.
We have also started working with the various contractors on some change orders that we want implemented as part of the build. Solar heating for the pool, Miele appliances instead of Bosch, Legrand Adorne light switches and outlets, etc. Some small items here and there that we think is going to improve the overall quality and look of the house.
