Heating & Plumbing ducks ... or ducts...

What do I know...show up today at the site...no longer calling it the 'lot'...I think we have finally graduated to something more substantial so, the 'site' it is!....

So I show up at the 'site' today and I find a maze of tubing of all shapes and sizes.   These are the tubes/pipes for the plumbing and the heating, I know (because our builder told us). The bigger ones are the heating ducts and the smaller ones are for plumbing.

Anyway....we will have heat!  and running water!  and power...although I don't think that has been run to the house yet.  You will be comfortable when you come to visit...promise!!

Notice the flattener machine...still on the job!

Sewer hook up (I got this one!)

This maze is for two bedrooms and a bathroom in the middle but

I can't figure out what is what

or what goes where?  

About to panic, I call Mike...he says 'don't panic'...(easy for him)

Even from up above looking down, I got nothin...

Learning to trust, I leave the tubes and maze behind..

Sun setting on the 'site' (from the road)

Hook-ups, Backfill & Compacting

Okay so not out of the 'dirt' yet.  Work is getting done but still feels painfully slow.

We were up on Monday and the Weber County inspector was there.  He was giving us approval for power…and as the week went on for water & sewer.  He had very nice things to say about our builder and how well respected he is.  He said "Weber County has the reputation for having the 'worst' or 'best' (depending on your perspective) inspection qualifications in the State"  While we are happy to know that our home will definitely meet code (when finished) we hope that we can always make the 'inspectors happy' when they come a callin'!

Backfill and Compacting was underway while the hook-ups were being done.  The post holes were filled in and the garage and basement filled and leveled and flattened by the 'flattener'!

Posts are mostly buried!  Flattener machine works pretty well!

Basement floor settling out

View from what I think will be the upper level (main)

Driveway...sort of….not as steep as we thought which is a relief!

Street view

Taking a moment to Give Thanks

This is a 'shout out' to my sister, Susie, who reminded me when I was most frustrated about all the delays and the soil tests and clay and bad dirt…

"Have you thought about stopping to give thanks?"

No we hadn't.

"The land is being torn and plowed.  It's giving up it's outer shell…so you can put your home on it…, shouldn't you say 'thank you'?"

So we did.

And then it was buried in the midst of the foundation to hold us up and always know how very grateful we are.  

Thank you!!

(and you too Susie!)

Okay...so back to excavation...sort of...

I'm sure you are with me on this one...I'm SICK OF DIRT!!  I'm so tired of seeing dirt, gravel, clay...all things brown and dirty!  We aren't really back to excavation but it feels like it to me.  We are now in the process of filling in the basement, garage, footings with ...what else...dirt!  Fill dirt to be accurate...gravel really...

Sorry for the jumble...took a lot of photos to try to give you a good view of what's going on.

Next week we are hoping that we will finish up with the dirt and be prepared to move on to the fun stuff....framing!!!

the tube in the foreground is for the 'french drain' that goes around the house to drain moisture

the forgotten post platform has been poured! Post coming soon!

This guy is a cool little remote control compactor...don't want him rolling over your toes!

Hi ya! from the back of the house looking down on it

the driveway  is still piled high with dirt to right of foundation...hope that clears & levels out soon!

view from the car

view from the basement gravel to the car

probably just me but the garage seems a lot bigger than the house!

Basement view...still have a nice view of the lake!

Foundation poured!

It's been a long road but finally it's beginning to look like a house...or is it?  We still can't figure it all out and have found a few (not big) errors, but that reminds us to be ever diligent throughout this process!

Checking out the garage

Retaining wall filled in

Basement, bedroom in foreground, then small family room then unfinished space

Mike standing where one post should be but isn't...1st oops!

Mike standing where door is but shouldn't be...#2 oops!

Front bedroom foundation ready!

Mini 'sportmobile' in the soon to be driveway.

Excavation over!! Footings In!! Foundation in Progress!! YAAAAYYY!!!

At long last we got the call we were waiting for...after soil tests, soil dumping, new structural soil brought in, packed down, flattened out...we finally have the 'green light' from the geologist to move forward!  

From the road...trailers with 'stuff' for foundation
building on our lot...what a lovely sight!

And that we have done!

Our footings were poured last week and this week the foundation has begun.

these are footings for the retaining wall

Basement layout can be deciphered here...
guest bedroom to the left (pokes out)
Imagine yourself here...

with this view!!

Mike walked over these beams to have a look around....
I wanted to join him but couldn't brave the wobbly boards!

Driveway & Garage...we aren't sure how this will work 
out but feeling confident that our builder is...

View from the street 

Our neighbors house...similar look ...we like it!

The Excavation...Part 3

It's been almost a month that has gone by and basically nothing (that the eye can see) has been done. However, there have been visits from the geologist and soil tests and nothing in the way of great news...EXCEPT!... we are (dare I say it?) finally moving forward!

The digger machines are back...but not to dig...to fill.  We are filling up the big hole but now with 'structural fill' dirt that will then be compacted and become what we place our foundation on.

More photos may not look different to you than previous ones but they show the dirt filling in (a bit) and soon...hopefully next week ????? we will start the footings!

The Excavation...part 2

A few weeks have gone by and nothing has been done on our lot...we have a hole, a very big hole, a very big hole that's getting bigger...but not in a good way.

Apparently we have clay...not just clay, very bad clay...the worst kind of clay you want when you are digging a hole, a very big hole for a foundation.

So we are now digging deeper, to find out what's below that clay (and hopefully not more clay!) in order to make decisions on what our next steps are.  Gulp!

Mike stopped by today (as he was riding around the lake) to check out the hole and the 'digging deeper'.    

Fingers...toes....eyes all crossed that we can get through this and be in home building mode soon!

PS  Mike told me he ran into a builder that we almost hired and he told Mike that all over the Valley builders are having the same issue.  The City is holding up everything for these soil and geology tests.  I guess we should feel a little better that we are not alone...