Slab & Concrete Flatwork

We made the trip up to Breckenridge this morning with the whole family.  We had thought we were going to see some of the early framing work but as it turns out the framing material has been delivered but there hasn't yet been any actual framing completed.

The picture below shows a picture of the foundation slab taken from a spot inside the back half of the garage.  Natalie is running through the middle of the garage and Isabel is standing roughly where the guest bathroom will be downstairs.

In the last site visit, I had worked with Greg to lay out the perimeter of the back patio where the hot tub and fire pit will sit.  In the picture below you can see that the concrete has been poured based on the layout that we did last week.  The steps to the deck will come down roughly at the edge of the patio.  The hot tub will sit on the square section which extends furthest into the backyard.  The fire pit will be in the middle of the half circle with chairs around it.

This last picture shows the girls all standing where the door between the garage and the mudroom will be.  We are enjoying a beautiful Indian Summer in Colorado.  Today (September 25th) it was nearly 87 degrees in Denver and up the home site it was sunny and in the high 60s.

Final grading & heat tubing

I spent about an hour on the job site today.  Greg was hoping to have the foundation and garage concrete slabs poured but the rain late this week has pushed the pour out to next Tuesday.  He did finish all the site grading (see picture below showing the driveway and front of the lot taken from the street :

It's amazing how much dirt was moved from the front of the foundation to the backyard and also how much had to be trucked out.  When we first bought this land, we figured it was pretty flat.  Now, it's REALLY flat in the front and quite hilly in the back.  We're pretty happy with the way it turned out.  You can see the water well in the front yard to the left of the driveway.  Before the lot was final graded, that pipe was only about 12" out of the ground.  Now it's maybe 5 feet.

I also took the below picture to show where the back deck is going to lay out.  You can see the concrete that will support the deck piers running parallel to the back of the foundation.  The deck will be L shaped with most of it being behind the house and a little wrapping around the dining room towards the garage.

The main reason I went up today was to have a chance to make sure the back patio (concrete off the site of the deck) was going to be big enough before it was formed & poured this week.  Greg and I measured out space for an 8 foot square hot tub and a 42" round fire pit.  You can see in the picture below the orange spray paint is showing the shape of the patio for when the concrete gets poured later this week.

The other thing that I got to see today was the heat tubing that's tied down along the wire mesh on top of the insulation.  This will be for our in-floor radiant heating.  On the main level, we'll have separate zones for our master bedroom, master bathroom, great room, utility room & garage.  Each of these will be controlled by it's own thermostat.

Next time we go up there, there should be a whole lot of framing lumber on the job site and the main floor should be on it's way to getting framed!

Plumbing Rough In

What a difference a few weeks makes.  I drove up to the site today to see how things were going and it's really exciting to start to see the structure take shape.  So far, the lot has been graded, the foundation walls built & insulated, the well has been installed and the plumbing has been roughed in (at least the plumbing that needs to be below the slab).  I took the picture below standing in front of the house between the breakfast area on the left and the corner of the garage on the right.

Now that we have the foundation walls, it's cool to see what some of the views are going to be from the main floor of the house.  The picture below is a little washed out with the sun but it shows the view to Red Peak from the great room.  I took this picture standing on the foundation wall at the back of the house roughly where the large great room windows will be when the house is framed.  Can't wait to see what the views are going to look like from the catwalk and the second floor!

Next week the foundation slab will be poured & insulated along with the tubing for the in floor radiant heating.  Greg expects to start framing shortly after, probably the week of 9/19.

We have foundation walls

Claudia sent us some new pictures this afternoon that show the foundation walls in place.  I think this one is pretty good since it shows the overall footprint of the house.  This is shot from in front of the  garage looking towards the master bedroom at the very end of the house.

As I understand it this is already a little outdated, the backfilling has been done and today they're working on the plumbing rough-in.  I'll head up there sometime in the next few days so I can show some pictures of the well that's been drilled (190') and the temporary pump.

Are you ready for some Foot(ball)ers!

Everybody has been worried about the potential NFL lockout and whether or not we're going to have a football seasons this year.  We have been more worried about when we were going to get our foot-ers formed and poured up in the mountains.  Good news, Greg has made huge progress since we got the permit last Friday and we now have a lot that has been cleared of (gulp) many trees and we have the excavation complete for our footers.  The forms are almost 100% in place and the concrete should be poured tomorrow.  Below is a picture of the hole with a form in it.

To get a sense for the scale of this, here's another picture that shows the twins standing in the front part of the lot.  This is taken with the girls standing next to the concrete piers for the deck and looking towards the front of the lot.

We have a lot of wood to use for firewood after the house is built.  Looks like we'll have to find a friend with a chainsaw who likes to chop and split wood :

Dirt is a flyin'

Well, the mountain house is finally happening after all this time.  We got the building permit yesterday and trees are coming down today!  Here are some photos our builder took for us of all the action:

1) Material for some serious blazing fires in the wintertime:

2)  The makings of our driveway (we think....).  The backhoe is where the house will sit on the lot.

3)  View from the back deck looking east out to Red Mountain 

4)  A girlfriend for Bailey perhaps??

5)  Serious equipment!!  

6)  View from our front porch looking West to Mt. Quandary - the only 14,000 foot peak in Summit County.  The car you see in the picture is on our street - Kimmes Lane

We're hoping to make it up there next week and check it out for ourselves.

Let's get the dirt flying!

Permit. Almost. Done.  We are told that all the departments have approved the building permit and it's being typed up while we wait anxiously.  Meanwhile, on the job site, the silt fence is going up today and the builder is going to start with some topsoil and tree removal tomorrow.  He's also going to have some of the older 'debris' (brush, cut down trees, etc) pulled out of the lot so that we have a clean building area.  We are very excited!

We've closed in on some decisions as well for our windows.  We are going to go with the Weathershield Encurashield product that will look roughly like this from the inside :

We have done a bunch of research and decided that a fiberglass window with wood cladding on the inside would be the best way to have a long lasting, non rotting product that would still look good from inside the house.

We are closing in on our kitchen design and our appliances as well, hopefully we'll have some real decisions there pretty soon.

We expect to have excavation under way for real on Monday and get the footers poured by the end of the week.  Things should start getting pretty real here!