A Solid Foundation

We went from a big hole in the ground to a foundation pretty quick.  They started setting up the concrete forms on Monday, it's Wednesday night and they are already taken down.  Now we wait for the cement to harden, and then they will pack the dirt back in around it.

I wonder what the HOA would say if we saved that sign for the house number on the front of our house?

Hey! Where'd My Yard Go?

Whose thaaat lady?

Things are definitely moving along quickly, but don't worry, I'll keep you guys up to speed, even if I have to post here every day!  We went for a run by the property on Sunday and ran into Jesse as he was riding his BMW motorcycle by (maybe we ARE paying him too much?).  He put our fears aside in that yes, the foundation is dug out bigger than the actual house, so we will have at least a few feet more of yard on each side.  Apparently we won't get a good perspective on size until the house is framed, which I can understand.  Perception is so weird, especially when you've got giant mountains in the background - they make everything look small.  I also found out that the black tarps were to keep the ground warm so that when they poured the concrete footers they would set up properly.  Looks like there poured some today, I'll see if I can catch some of the guys in action tomorrow - man, they are going to be so sick of seeing me by the time they are done :)

In other news, Big Sky is getting hammered with snow all week. They've already got a base of 20-30", so anything on top of that is great news for after Thanksgiving skiing!

So Many Questions

Patrick, the biggest fan of this blog, had a lot of questions after my last post.  They tie into the second phase of the foundation, so I'm going to answer them in this post.  Patrick asked:


So where's your cellar going to be?


There isn't going to be one.  I guess the water table is too high in this area to have a basement or anything like it.




What's going on top of the black tarps?


Those are just to keep the snow out of the pit.  Keeps it neat, tidy, and dry.  They'll be taken out when they are actually working on the project.  Or... they are the vapor barrier to keep moisture from rising up out of the ground into the crawl space.  More will be revealed, those pics were taken at the end of the day and the only guy there was a worker I didn't know, so I didn't ask too many questions.




What's up next? 


This stuff:

They put this in today, must have been early in the morning because they were done when I got there mid-afternoon.  It's kind of ironic, but they dig a big hole, then partially fill it back in with this gravel/sand mixture.  Apparently it provides a more solid foundation - keeps the house from settling too much or something like that.


Monday should be an interesting day - I heard they are going to get started on the concrete footers.  The frames haven't even been started yet, but as you can already tell, once these guys get rolling they move fast!

Ground Breaking

The first scoop.

I was chatting with my realtor yesterday and she said that she had just gotten off of the phone with Jesse, our builder, and he was starting the foundation today.  Talk about short notice!  Limei and I got up early and were there for the ground breaking.

That pile of dirt appeared out of nowhere!

We chatted with Jesse a little bit, and it's a good thing we did - he's ordering the windows tomorrow morning (we had decided to get some picture windows to take full advantage of the stellar view to the north). We also decided to add a couple of knee braces to "hold" the roof up.

Apparently he's going to do the framing this fall too, so we'll have something that looks like a house pretty soon.  We should be way ahead of schedule, leaving me plenty of time to get my sweat equity in.  We could have the house done sooner, but I think we're going to stick to the original game plan and shoot for next spring.  This way we'll have a nice down payment and money in the bank to cover emergencies.

7 hours later, our foundation is dug.  The green thing in the bottom right corner is either an
electric box or a contractor's table, I'm not sure which :)