Checking, leveling, bracing - all around the house

Today the last of the foam blocks were set in place. The last pieces of steel rebar were secured. THe engineer came to check everything over and gave us the thumbs up to proceed. The rest of the day was spent with all hands making sure everything is level and plumb and braced securely. Each window buck needs to be thoroughly strapped to withstand the extreme forces that will be exerted upon them when the concrete is poured. Here's a shot of Peter woirking on one of the big windows. I'm not quite sure why he needed four ladders to do the task.

There's one more day to make sure everything is right. Concrete arrives Friday morning at 7:30 am. Another 40 cubic meters (52 cubic yards) will be pumped into the LOGIX insulated forms of the house. The big mass of the concrete combined with the foam insulation will make for a very comfortable and quiet house without a doubt.

-grampa dan

Almost to the top!

We've almost finished stacking up the LOGIX ICF blocks in preparation for the next concrete pour. Harold's crew have done the bulk of the work with our crew helping out as we are able. Today they almost finished putting up the last of the blocks on the gable ends of the vaulted portion of the house. It is high! I'm sure it will look spectacular when it is done.

The large front window suddenly looks a lot more in scale with the house from the outside.

Inside we get a sense of how the living room will look with the vaulted ceiling. The block still needs to be trimmed to shape on this end.

On the dining room side of the vault it is all ready to be buttoned up for the pour. A few more braces will be aded to keep everything secure.

Going around back one gets a true sense of just how high the walls really are. The ground level will be brought up to the base of the door openings in the next weeks, as soon as the weather dries up enough to bring in the fill. Some of the back filling has to wait until the old house is removed. Each row of blocks is sixteen inches tall. Plus the eight inch thick footing. This means the wall is a little over twenty eight feet to the top from the ground.  

The next step once the concrete is in the walls is the roof trusses. Things are proceeding quickly!

-grampa dan

The fun begins

Things are finally proceeding to the point where we can begin the truly creative work on the house. On the east side the ground slopes away from the house making for a very tall, plain wall. It needed some special attention. The solution was to create some faux pilasters. They would sport some carved 'stone' featuring the same heart detail that will be carved into the 'wood' trim on the upper portion.

The bulk of the pilasters will be fabricated from carved fiberglass reinforced concrete that will be fashioned over a pressure treated plywood form that will be attached to the wall. The feature center sections will be routed from Precision Board high density urethane. I routed the first pieces today.

The crew cut and assembled the treated plywood forms this afternoon. They will be put in place in the next couple of days.

The fun has begun for real. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan