Pool is taking shape

Work on the pool has begun. Monday they outlined the pool perimeter and location. They staked the corners and prepared for the excavation crew to come in.

Tuesday they excavated the pool. The pool will be 12' x 30' when it is done and will have an infinity edge to the left in the picture. To the right of the pool will be the deck and the house. The pool will have a shallow end with 4' depth and a deeper end of 5.5'

Wednesday they drilled the piers for the pool. Pretty impressive piece of machinery needed to drill those babies 20 feet into the ground.

Picture below shows the piers that were drilled for the retaining wall along the driveway.

The plan now is to drill the piers for the deck and to start forming the foundation, retaining walls, etc.

Ready for foundation

The grading crew has made very good progress in the last week and the building pad is now ready for detailed staking and foundation work.

The pad has two levels right now. One for the main house and one where the piers for the patio and pool will be drilled.

Next week they will bring in some engineered fill that the foundation will sit on - we are looking forward to seeing something being built and poured so we have more than just soil to look at.

We can ow also begin to get a sense for the orientation of the house and what the view will be like. The picture below is taken from where the main dining area will be.

Septic tanks and grading

Grading continues to make really good progress - they are now estimating less than a week to finish the site work so that the retaining walls and foundation work can begin. When we stopped by the lot yesterday they were working with 3 people: one digging into the soil and mixing up wet soil with drier top soil, one bulldozing the soil down on the bench to keep building it and the last person running the large compaction machine to compact the soil. They have been getting good compaction values so the house should stay in place :-)

Today they also installed the septic tank system. We really like where they have placed the tanks on the lot - it's over to a side and completely out of sight from the house and deck.

The hole for the septic tanks.

Both septic tanks lifted in place. The large one weighs 16,000 pounds (or 8 tons). They are both made of concrete and super sturdy.

The site and grading work continues

After a small break our grading contractor is now back on site. They had to take a break to let the soil dry out a bit. 

They have now completed the second key and bench and installed another drain further up the slope. The two drains are there to protect the steep slope from sliding or moving in the future.

The weather has warmed up and while the soil on the surface is very dry, they still have to spend a lot of time mixing soil to get the correct moisture content so they can compact the soil to more than 90% compaction.

I also spoke to our general contractor about the progress and he has now put the foundation contractor in alert so they can be ready to start in about two weeks.

As part of the foundation work they will also drill and pout the piers for the pool. It will be super exciting to see real construction with concrete and pool work beginning very soon

They have started working on the building pad

As grading continues and we still fight the weather a bit, they have now started cutting out the flat building pad that the house will eventually sit on.

 And at the bottom of the hill they keep compacting the first bench to make sure that nothing can move down the hill over time. We had some rain earlier today and there is some more in the forecast for tonight so that will probably slow us down a bit. According to the crew on site they hope to be done with grading by mid May so that the foundation can start then.

Grading the bottom of the slope, window shop drawings and change orders

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.

Grading has begun

Finally! Now that it seems like the rain has stopped, we have begun grading. They have started digging out the "bench" that the house will sit on. There is still a fair amount of moisture in the soil, but with the warmer and drier weather, the plan is to open everything up and then wait for the moisture to evaporate so they can compact the soil to support the slab foundation. 

It feels fantastic to be able to get a sense for how the house will sit on the lot and how it will be oriented. We are super excited to see activity on the lot - it seems like it was ages ago that we met with our architect and started sketching the house on a piece of paper. We hope to be able to update the blog weekly from now on.

Some photos from grading activity: