New House Construction- Week Two

Week Two of construction and we have a basement! 

The construction crew was back this week, and they really worked quickly to get things done!  They spent the first part of the week setting up the wall forms.

There were 3-4 guys working and it took them several days to get it all sent up.

Once they got the wall forms secured, they added vertical and horizontal re-bar to reinforce the back fill.  Then they placed support beams to hold the forms in place. 

On thursday they brought in the cement trucks, and began pouring! It took a lot longer than i expected, and they brought in many trucks to get it all done.

Once the concrete had been poured the crew began smoothing it and adding anchors.

On Friday the crew came back and began removing the forms.  It took them several hours to get it all removed and cleaned up.  It was pretty neat to see a basement now standing where a last week there was only a hole.  There are 2 windows, a large french door and main entrance doors that have been framed in.  We were unable to see them until the forms came down.

A square hole was cut in the front wall  where the downstairs chimney thimble will be placed.  They will be leveling off the driveway so that we will have a walk in basement.   The basement is very similar to what we had before, but it will be a full basement rather than a half basement.  We will have a space for cellar type/cold storage,  a family room, a utility room and enough space for Kenan to move his glass shop back home. 

The french doors will walk out towards the woods, and as you come out the doors our chicken coop is to the right. Above this will be the wrap around deck, providing a nice shady hang out with a view of the woods and chicken yard.  i think it going to be a really nice space. It is very much what we had envisioned for our old house.

The concrete needs to cure for a week or two, and the house is scheduled to be delivered on Sept. 10th. Once the house is set on the basement there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before we can move in. We were originally told we would be in by Thanksgiving, but the house was constructed earlier than originally anticipated, so i'm not sure what that means for our estimated move in date. This entire year has been such a whirlwind of crazy. It's hard to even comprehend the amount of change we have experienced this year, and i honestly do not know how we are still sane.

We are really looking forward for all of this to be over, so we can just go back to normal life again.