A 360 View of the First Floor!

Here is a view that you see when you walk in the front door. The larger hole is for the entryway from the garage that houses a locker unit to hang up coats and put your shoes. The other two openings are kitchen windows! We have a large - 9' island that will be in front of the windows!


This is a view as you look to the right as you step in the front door. There will be 4 large windows in the living room. The ceiling will be 19' tall with hopefully wood beams across the ceiling.


Here is a view a little further back to see some of the living room and kitchen. There will be 3 arch openings from the living room to the kitchen to keep the space nice and open! Arches will be throughout the house. There will be an arched doorway into the dining room as well and the cabinetry we have picked out has arches on the bottom cabinets.

This is the view that you see if you look left from the front door. This is a our dining room. It isn't huge, but we like to have formal dinners so we wanted to be sure to have a dining room and it is away from the kitchen so we can have our mess there and not have to look at it when we eat!

The "L" shaped hole is the steps. This will eventually lead to the basement and to the upstairs. Both sets bend with a landing. It will open throughout with rod iron railing. To the left of the large opening is our bedroom. We will have a master bath and a closet inside the bathroom with our washer and dryer as well.

This is a better view looking at the dining room and bedroom/master bath. See Dave working hard!

This view is mostly of the bedroom/master bath area.

First Floor Walls!

It's been a while since I updated and I've had people asking about the progress. It definitely seems slow, but things are changing. Dave has the walls on the first floor almost complete and ready to start bracing so he can pour them. You can walk inside on the first floor now so it is easier to invision what the actual house is going to look like now.





The front of our house! The tree stays too. The bigger hole is our front door and we decided to put a transom on top of the door so I think that will look cool! The windows are 3'x5', so nice and big. This is the west side of the house. The wrap around porch will extend down this side of the house so we can watch the horses. Dave's truck is at the west side door that leads into the kitchen and out onto the porch. The two windows left of the door surround the fireplace and then there is one window on the right that is part of the kitchen.Here's another picture from the west side. The window at the bottom right is one of the basement windows. Here is the Back side of the house. The concrete sticking out the back is the stairwell for the basement steps from the garage. Here is a picture of the East side of the house. You can see our existing house from this shot. Eventually there will be a 2 car garage on the side where you don't see any windows. The first two windows on the left are in our bedroom and then a smaller window for the bathroom and one in the dining room at the front of the house. This is where our driveway will come up to the house.

Floor Joists and Dave's New Toy!

Dave purchased a new toy! We are now the proud owners of a "used" JLG! If anyone needs to purchase one in a few months just let us know! Here is a shot of our floor joists (exciting huh)!

Here is the first wall in our new house. This will be the "utility" room in the basement, but directly above this will be the dining room. It is a load bearing wall so it had to be built to install the floor joists.

Here's another shot of the floor joists. Notice the ladder leading to the window. That is how we get in and out right now!

Here is a shot of the main beam in our house. The floor joists are complete now and the first floor flooring is installed....pictures to come hopefully this week!

Getting Ready to Pour!

Here's an update of where we are at.....looks like a big old mess huh!!! Here is a shot of the front of our house.The opening is where the front door will be located. This is a shot from the back where the basement windows are.

This is the only way in the house right now until it gets backfilled.

Here's another picture of the back windows and the metal forms are of the stairs leading to the basement from the garage.

Here's another shot of the back side of the house, the garage will go here - someday!

This is the back of the house. You can see our existing house in the back of the picture.

Here's an up close shot at what the blocks actually look like on the inside before they are filled with concrete and rebar.

Tomorrow (Saturday, October 16th) we are pouring the remainder of the basement walls and just above where the first floor elevation is. This will allow us to set the beam and floor joists and then backfill the house. It will be so much easier to access our house from this point on. We are still hoping to have it under roof by winter!

Basement Walls - FINALLY!

I've had several people asking for an update, so here it is! It isn't much to look at from a picture, but we "finally" poured 6 foot of our basement walls last Monday, September 20, 2010. It was a total of 34 yards and we did it with a telebelt. Dave, my Dad, my father-in-law, and myself made the pour. That is probably one of the last times I will run a vibrator....I was sore for about 3 days! Now Dave is gearing up for the next pour to just above the 1st floor. We are having 9 foot walls in the basement, so we still have another 4 to 5 feet to pour before we get that high, then we can set the floor joists and put on the subfloor and backfill in the basement. It will be much easier to get in and out of then.

There is a ton of bracing as you can probably imagine.

Here's a picture of the telebelt. It makes these pours so much easier!

Here's a shot of all the bracing and the "mess" inside the hole! It's hard to get around, but once the next few layers are set it should clear out some! We are hoping to pour in about a week and a half. Dave just framed up the first window for our house! Pretty Exciting!

Blocks have arrived!

The semi-truck arrived about 8:15 a.m. Saturday morning.

Dave unloaded the blocks with the skidster. Our pile of blocks sitting in the yard!

Kale hanging out in his playpen while we clear the forms from the basement floor pour.

Here's a shot of the floor....see Ava helping her Daddy in the corner and Kale still hanging out in the middle!

Ava helping Daddy...note the pink hello kitty boots!

The blocks have begun! The hardest part was getting the first row set.

Most of the blocks have been set in preparation for the 1st wall pour.

Basement Floor

Picture of the geo-thermal and plumbing pipes.Getting Ready for the basement floor pour (with Ava's help!) Rebar has been set and they are ready to pour.

The tele-belt has arrived and they are about to start.

They poured a 4000 psi mix with some fly-ash, a total of 28 yards on Friday Sept 3rd.

Finishing the floor.

Papa and Kale watching the concrete truck!

The finished product!

Mounds of dirt that surround the house site!

ICF blocks should be arriving Saturday morning via a semi-truck from Omaha, Nebraska.

Footing Pour

Most of the week was spent getting the basement footings ready for the pour on August 30th. You can see the view we will eventually have from our porch out to the barn.


Here is a shot of all the rebar and formadrain in place. The footings look great. The rain held off and only sprinkled a tiny bit during the pour. We poured a total of 23.5 yards.

Here is a shot of the driveway leading up to the garage. The hole towards the back of the house is for the steps leading to the basement from the garage. This will allow for Dave to get into the house after working with the horses and will lead straight to a bathroom.