Concrete work part one

Friday last week our site retaining wall was poured. It will be between 3 and 6 feet above grade. They also installed the conduit and boxes for the built-in landscaping lights that are going to illuminate the driveway. Here are some pictures from last week's progress. The plan for next week is to begin forming the main foundation for the house and then run the in-slab electrical and plumbing wire and pipes so that we can pour the foundation in a few weeks.

The top of the wall is finished with a smooth concrete top.

fThe pool piers and the piers for the lower deck are also done.

Inside of pool - ready for the pool guys to come in and start the pool build.

All the deck piers have now been poured.

And the area by the well where our water storage tank and electric meter and main panels will be located.

Here is the crew preparing the form and rebar in Thursday.

And here is the poured wall and water tank pad. This area is located relatively close to where I am thinking the large solar array will go, so Ill be mounting the inverters up ere as well.

Forming the retaining wall - and first version of the build schedule

All the piers for the deck, pool and retaining wall have now been drilled. It took approximately 3 days. After the drilling, they started forming the retaining wall that will run along the driveway.

Looks like it's almost ready for the pour.

The retaining wall will have a board-finish and be a neutral concrete color. We will probably plant something that will cover some of the wall to make it blend into the surroundings more.

A couple of days ago we also received the first version of the build schedule that lays out the plan for the next 10-12 weeks roughly. That allows us to better follow the progress and see what work is planned in the upcoming weeks. Here is a glimpse of the activities for the next 10 weeks. 

Looks like we will be pouring the foundation on Jule 13th if everything goes according to schedule. Since it is a slab foundation there is some work that needs to go in before the pour but after the foundation has been formed. All the necessary plumbing and electrical work that runs through the slab needs to be completed.

Framing the first floor will start July 20th and the second floor framing will begin in early August. I assume that the line items that says "Shear" is to cover the structure with the Huber Zip panels. According to this schedule we should be ready for window install early September, and we are currently working with our architect and window supplier on finalizing shop drawings and window details so we can get the windows into the production line-up and get a confirmed shipping and installation date from them.

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.