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...

The EXCAVATION

And the excavation has begun!  We stopped by this morning, tried to look like we knew what was going on---what we were looking at, but we didn't have a clue. 

They dug the holes deep and wide and who knows why...the basement is actually a 'walk out' so I'm a little confused.  Anyone???

We talked to the digger machine guy...very nice...he knew we were clueless.

So basically what we have is a BIG PILE of dirt and some holes in the ground....

Views below are from the street above ours...at least the workers all have a great view!

The STAKES!

And the stakes are in! (orange sticks in photos below)
The land is ready for digging!

or so we thought....













Turns out the 'stake..er' (person who puts the stakes in?) put them in backwards so the front of the house now faces the hillside and the back of the house (closet/laundry room) faces the beautiful lake.

Yikes!

Not to worry...our builder caught the error and went out and 're-staked' everything before the digger could get his 'digging' machine off the trailer.  Whew!

Let the excavation begin!  GULP!

The DESIGN

It took longer than we expected but we came up with a design that we thought was cool, unique and SIMPLE.

Apparently as we look around, we have found that this design is becoming more the norm than unique.      Well, maybe we are late to the party but we still love it!

Our designer, Brian...

The LOT…

This is the view that sold us…Pineview Reservoir and Powder Mountain ski area in the distance.  Who wouldn't want to sit on a deck with morning coffee or evening beverages and enjoy this?  And it's even better in person!