A Flurry of Activity

After the framing of the house was complete, the next step was to get the roof shingled. This is the one part of the process so far that didn't go well; not because of quality, but timing.

From prior conversations with the framer, he had indicated that he had the option of doing the shingling as well, or passing the job off to another crew. He ended up taking the job, and it seemed that his crew was overextended by doing so. They were trying to shingle our house, which has a pretty large footprint, and at the same time start another framing job elsewhere for Wayne Homes. Our roof got neglected, and some of the opportunities to get it done on sunny days passed by. Some of the weekends and other times they tried to finish were affected by rain. I spoke to the Field Manager about this, and he apparently told the crew to get it done. They did - almost, except they ran out of shingles and were trying to finish the last little bit this weekend as I write this entry.

Here is the framing prior to starting on the roof:




Electric Walk-Through
During the past two weeks things got really busy at the house. The electricians were set to come in, but before they did we met with the boss of the crew to do the Electrical Walk-through. I was impressed that he agreed to meet us on a Sunday, and also that I felt better about his crew just through the phone conversation he had while there with one of the guys who had just lost a loved one. He seemed liked the kind of boss who would inspire loyalty and good work from his crew.

The Walk-Through is one of the cool things about building your own house with Wayne Homes. We went through each room in the house, and he explained what their default install was for placing switches and outlets. We then had the opportunity to adjust the locations according to our individual needs. This was really useful for us in getting outlets installed high on the wall so that we could easily plug a wall-mounted TV in and hide the cords behind the TV. My wife HATES cords showing. We also were able to include coax cable for cable TV and Ethernet cable for wired internet connections in the bedrooms, Great Room and basement. This is a good idea if you have the new "smart" TVs and are concerned with your WIFI signal being strong enough for them. We also were able to have them wire a line for our in-wall ironing board in the bedroom and our whole house vacuum system. If you want to do some of these additional changes outside of the normal contracted items you can deal directly with the contractor on it.

Vacuum
As mentioned, we elected to get a whole house vacuum system installed as well, and our installation guy was able to coordinate with the electricians his needs for getting power to the system. This part was not done through Wayne Homes, but was easy to incorporate.

Security
In the same way, installation of a security system was easy to coordinate with Wayne Homes as well. The tech from Guardian came out during this phase and was able to do his wiring for the security system and the optional audio system we got wired in the Great Room. All the wiring will be in the walls. I also ordered some 25 foot HDMI cables and had the electrician drill a couple of holes to enable me to run those through the wall to the location of our wall mounted TV.

Plumbing
A crew showed up to do rough plumbing - putting in the lines for all the places water has to go, and for drainage of the house. Our Field Manager Steve mentioned that we could still get drains installed for the garage floor even though we hadn't put it in the original plans. When I found out it would only be another $600 total for two drains, I figured I'd kick myself later for not doing it, so they put the drains in in a couple of hours; it hooks into the drain for the overall foundation.

We also had a change of heart on the vanity in the master bath. We originally had opted for a single sink, but one Sunday morning while trying to brush my teeth while my wife was fixing her hair in the mirror, it dawned on me that a change was needed. Wayne Homes was flexible enough to make the change to a double sink vanity; this was a $600 change, but I think it will be well worth it.

We elected to purchase our own fixtures for the bathrooms and kitchen instead of the ones offered by Wayne Homes. The bathtub faucet set included a hand shower, and the stall shower also had an extra handheld unit; the valves needed for these were beyond my rudimentary skills to deal with, so we had the plumbing contractor install these for an added charge. For these kind of arrangements you deal directly with the plumber.

Basement and Garage Floors
During this same time frame the floor crew came to "pour" the basement, garage floor and front porch. They knocked these out in two days and did a really nice job. To access the basement they pulled the mixing truck alongside our exterior basement entrance; they knocked out two blocks of the stairwell to get their supply hose to the basement; they were required to get them replaced, which they did. When they were done, they left a decent sized glob of cement/concrete in the front yard of the house. The Wayne Homes Field Manager made them come back and dispose of the mess; well, they did - kinda. Instead of maybe putting them in the construction dumpster, I saw one of the guys breaking up the mass and dumping the chunks in some nearby weeds. I later took care of this myself and used the chunks to fill in ruts in another location.

Our garage floor:



HVAC
The crew also came in to do a rough install of the ventilation and heating ducts as well as the furnace in the basment. They cut some holes in the floor between the studs where ventilation and and air return will happen. All went smoothly here.

More Excavating and Trenching
My excavator dug a trench from the temporary electric line to the entry point of the house for electrical service, ran the rest of the conduit with a pull line ready to go for the wire. It took about 2 hours to locate the ground line which had earlier been buried. The Field Manager had put a 2x4 in the ground to mark the location, but it had been moved or destroyed during the backfill of the foundation. I ended up saving the day by looking at my pictures I had taken a few weeks earlier when the 2x4 was still in place. Another trench was dug from the water well we had dug last summer to the entry point at the house's foundation. This was easy to find since a section of pipe was installed through the foundation block. Trench #3 was dug from the gas well on the property to the entry point at the foundation. Trench #4 was the big one, for cable TV/Internet service, critical for my job. A path was first bulldozed through the woods, followed by the big excavating machine digging a 1200 foot trench. A day or 2 later Comcast showed up and pulled the cable (coax on steroids). They only sent 2 guys, so my neighbor and I had to give them a hand on the pulling.

The drainage from the foundation with the house in the background:


Lastly, my excavator installed the septic system. He dug a hole for the septic tank, had it delivered, dug and installed the leech field distribution system and seeded the ground after it was covered up. We ended up with a lot more open space than we thought we'd have in that area; it's really cleared away a lot of underbrush.

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Framing

Wow! A lot has happened in our building process and I'm pretty far behind in my blog. I'll attempt to get caught up in segments, pretty much in the order the building process has gone....

Foundation Snag...

After the waterproofing of the foundation was completed, we had a day or 2 of heavy rains. The exterior of the foundation had already been backfilled after the waterproofing. The weight of the wet soil against the back wall of the house made it bow in slightly, despite the bracing that had been done on the inside of the wall. The wall is about 60 ft long, so it was a lot of pressure on a long stretch of wall without the weight of the house above to strengthen it. You could see some small cracks along the mortar joints of a couple of blocks near one corner. We were assured that the waterproofing has a 30 year guarantee, so that made me breathe a little easier through all of this.

The solution for this was to once again excavate the dirt that was pushing against the wall. Luckily once this was done the wall was once again straight, and the waterproofing barrier had not been compromised. The cost of this was absorbed by Wayne Homes. After the framing had progressed for awhile and more supporting weight was present, the back wall was backfilled again with no ill effects. It had taken awhile to get the re-backfilling done due to the schedule of the excavator. Since my neighbor Tom is an excavator (and a good one), we arranged to have him do the backfilling since Wayne Homes would have had to pay their excavator extra to do the job outside of the normal contract, so they might as well pay Tom instead.

The framers showed up next. They were a 4-man crew, and a friendly bunch. More importantly, they did their job well. I had mentioned to our Field Manager that we had an upcoming family reunion on our property in a few weeks and were hoping to have significant progress to show everybody. He passed this info on to the framing crew, and they pushed a bit to get the floor laid and the exterior walls framed in time for the event. I ended up helping the crew a bit erect the first wall, which was 60 feet long; the wife was there to capture the moment on video. They ended up working some on the Saturday of the reunion so we invited them over for some barbeque and relaxation.

The framers were also really responsive to our extra little needs. We got the idea to get a fold down ironing board that is installed between the 16" framing studs. It stays out of the way until needed. Even though we hadn't planned for this in advance, the framers made a couple of adjustments to provide some support for the extra weight of the unit. They also got some extra 2x10 pieces and put them between the studs in some areas where we wanted to mount TV's on the wall. This will make mounting TV's a snap later on. We took pictures and made some measurements so we'd know exactly where they were later after the drywall went up. Another great suggestion which was made to us (not needed though) was to put extra blocks of wood on the outside edge of window frames where curtains might be mounted later. This will provide something other than drywall to mount on.

It was exciting to see the individual rooms laid out at last - our dream was taking form! Putting up the joists and the roof panels went pretty smoothly as well. We were relieved when the entire place was finally under roof and we didn't need to worry about rain as much.

The crew later discovered that they had made a mistake in the dimensions of the fireplace in the Great Room; they had to do some tearing down and reframing in that area. They later put in the stairs to the basement and later yet the framing for our basement bathroom (after the floor was poured).


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Foundation Work

A lot has happened since my last post; here's what has been going on....

Excavation

We'd run into a snag with a thick patch of rock hampering efforts to get a foundation drain line finished. My excavator said he had a special bucket for his excavator designed for rock. He gave that a go, but the rock was still resistant, so he ended up using a jackhammer attachment; it looks like this:




He was able to finish the job and also put the line in for the sewage system. The length of the drainage line was a bit further than anticipated, so we had to make an adjustment for the placement of the septic tank and leech field. Another positive which came out of this was that we have a firm foundation for our house. Also the dirt that was excavated had a lot of shale in it, which means that it will be great for the backfill material needed later; it won't hold water as much as clay or just plain dirt would. The water will be able to drain away instead of seeping into the foundation.

Foundation Work
I was warned in advance that this was the most weather critical part of the building process. The footer got poured for the foundation. This entailed a lot of hard manual labor on the part of the crew to hump load after load of concrete in wheelbarrows. I felt bad for the guys doing it. After they were done, the block layers came in and began working. Our basement is 12 courses of block. They had some challenges due to a good bit of rain one week, so things went more slowly than anticipated. The block laying took about 2/12 weeks due to weather. The waterproofing crew came in shortly after that.They spray the exterior walls of the foundation and add panels of some type of water barrier (OSB?). Here is what it looks like:


In the picture you can also see the braces which were placed on the inside of the foundation in anticipation of backfilling. They'll start with a layer of gravel at the bottom for drainage and then use the excess dirt from the excavation to fill in the rest of the area around the foundation.

Extra Dirt
I also could see that the huge amount of dirt from the excavation was an issue, and that some had to be moved to give better access to the construction site to the other crews that would be coming. Steve the Field Manager said that at least half of it would need to be moved to clear things up. This part wasn't clear to me at the beginning, and I think Wayne Homes should have communicated this part better. Their excavator was only getting paid for excavating, not moving the dirt far enough away to give workers access. Because of this I had to get my excavator to get rid of the excess dirt. He did a great job of using some of the dirt and rock to shore up a few places around the property and to fill in a lot of the hole which was created last summer when excavating rock for our road.


The basement entrance
Our original plan for a basement entrance was to have a gradually sloping walk leading away from the area, but the lay of the land would have entailed a huge amount of dirt to move to make that happen. We opted instead for a traditional stairwell to the area. After seeing the layout for it in the foundation blockwork, Sharon was concerned about water accumulating at the bottom of the stairwell, even though a drain into the foundation drain was included. We talked to our Field Manager Steve about the possibility of a roof over the stairwell to divert more water. He made some preliminary drawings and is having them sent to the CAD people and to their estimating people for an official estimate.

What's Next...
Things will begin to come fast and furious for awhile. The framing is due to begin in a few days. We're excited to see how our house will take shape.

Until next time.......

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Construction Begins...

Dig Day At Last...
Our surveyor got our lot staked out as required, and our new Field Manager Steve showed up at the lot along with our former Field Manager Jeff to mark the site. Wayne Homes was doing some realigning of territory and workload, which necessitated the change. I appreciated that they both showed up to ensure a smooth handoff of duties. The excavation site was spray painted to mark how many "courses" deep the excavator had to dig for the house, garage and porch areas. I also had the chance to finalize the plan for locating the drainage pipe away from the house, the sewage leech area and the line for cable service.

At long last our eagerly awaited Dig Date arrived! We got up early and headed over to our building lot so as not to miss the first breaking of ground. The excavator finally showed up, and we snapped a few pics to commemorate the moment...




The weather cooperated for half of the day before things got wet. The excavation was completed on the 2nd day. The excavator was one of Wayne Homes' choosing; the homeowner doesn't get a say. The thinking is that an outside excavator may not be familiar with the way Wayne Homes does things and cause complications.

The Drain Line
At the end of the 2nd day Steve, the Field Manager called to check on the status of our wishes for installing the drain line from the foundation. This is used to funnel any water away from the house and uses gravity to accomplish this. Somehow this part had escaped me - not exactly hard to do concerning matters of construction. Steve said that due to the lay of our lot the length of the line required to reach daylight was longer than what Wayne Homes included as a built in cost. (At this point I could envision a dollar bill sprouting wings and flying away...) He added that the excavator who did the lot could do it the next day - for the extra fee, of course. This made sense to me because he was already onsite with his equipment, even though I preferred my own guy for it. We had the choice of paying this out of pocket or subtracting it from our PPI (Purchaser Paid Items - our pool of money for infrastructure built into our financing). We elected to go the PPI route since our costs for electricity service installation were substantially below the estimate built into the PPI. Because of this we should have some extra "wiggle room" for just such an unanticipated cost such as this.

Our First Snag
While out for a walk the next day we wandered by the site and watched the excavator working on the trench and futilely scraping away at a big mass of rock he had encountered. He later informed me that he couldn't break through the rock with his bucket to get to the depth required to let gravity move water away from the house. He said that I would hear from Steve the next day on what my options were, but basically they would be a sump pump in the basement or additional cost to break through the uncooperative rock (like jackhammering). Again I saw additional airborne dollar bills winging their way away from me. He said he had a sump pump at his house and regretted the decision. Here is the patch of rock at the end of the trench...


A Possible Solution
I talked with the Field Manager today and he suggested that we proceed with the extra cost to finish the drain and coordinate with my excavator in using the same trench for the septic system line. This made sense to me since I didn't like the idea of a sump pump and was willing to take a hit on the extra costs to get things done correctly, not cheaply. I then provided my excavator's info to Steve to do the coordinating.

I'd also already talked with Tom, my excavator about coming over to have a look at things on the weekend anyway. I have a huge amount of dirt from the excavation that needs to be moved away from the construction site and wanted him to take care of it. I was told that after construction they would need about half of what was there for grading the lot.

Thinking Ahead
As an aside, Sharon pointed out some nicely colored large pieces of rock (shale / slate?) dug up in the excavation which might be good for landscaping a path later. I went over and grabbed two cartloads of them for potential use later; I'll probably get more as well.

Footer
While I was over getting the rock, much to my surprise a crew had been in and installed the forms for the footer. Pleasant surprises are always welcome.


OK - that's all for now. Until next time......

Prepping For Excavation

Lot Survey

Now that we're past the excitement of having temporary power installed and getting a tentative dig date, we've moved on to looking at more details. I heard from our Field Manager Jeff, who said we needed to get our lot surveyed prior to excavation. This survey is different from having our entire plot of land surveyed like we did before. They have to set some offset pins and other technical stuff I really don't get, but it's needed for us to move forward. I contacted a local surveyor who has worked with Wayne Homes before and arranged to have him take care of things.

More Stone
Our Field Manager also mentioned that the construction turnaround area we built at the lot looked a little soft due to the unusually harsh winter; he also mentioned that a small stretch of the access road may not hold up to construction traffic. That section had not had anything done to it when the rest of the road was upgraded last summer. We had two triaxle loads of #3 rock (fist sized) dropped in the two areas. It costs a bit more to have the truck slightly open the tailgate and spread the load over the area than it does to just have them dump it in one place. Unless you have the equipment to spread the stone out yourself it's better to pay the extra bucks.

Below is a picture of our building lot with the extra stone leading into it.





Below is our turnaround area in the building lot with extra stone dropped.



Until next time.....

Dig Date!

Just a short update here, but a big one for us - we have a Dig Date!!! I heard from Jeff, the Wayne Homes Field Manager for our project. He said that he would still be our Field Manager, and that we had a dig date scheduled for the last week of April. I'm sure in some ways the time will seem to drag for us until then since we've been so intensely anticipating this.

It's hard to express how excited we are about this since we've had some sizable delays getting to this point. Full speed ahead!

Progress - At Last!

It's been quite awhile since I've had anything to update you all about. It took much, much longer than I would have thought to get a few issues resolved that were delaying our construction start. With those now behind us I had recently spoken with the power company, and they scheduled an installation of our temporary power to the new home site for next week.

Today presented a nice sunny afternoon, so Sharon and I decided to take a long walk in the woods. We passed by our building lot on the way, and much to our amazement, the temporary power was already installed! Woohoo!

Here is the new transformer.



Here is the meter and the connection to the temporary power.




We're now checking in with Wayne Homes to see when we can get a dig date scheduled. We are super excited!

Until next time.....