Prelude to a Slab

You know what it's like the day before Christmas, or the day before your birthday (when birthdays meant going to Putt Putt, Showbiz Pizza, or Bowling and getting lots of cool things) or the day before vacation when you are waiting for 5:00? Well, that's what we feel like right now. Actually right now, Lura is not feeling like that. She's a little under the weather. But in the grand scheme of the house, that's how we feel. We are a day away from getting a slab!

When big high rise construction projects go up, sometimes the contractor will throw a party when the top floor is poured, but since we only have one floor to be poured, we will get excited. Probably won't actually be a party tomorrow, but have a beer or glass of wine wherever you are and toast to the final step in our future foundation! Cheers!

Here's a few pictures of the gravel and waterproofing. Not quite as interesting.

Signs of Change

The most exciting thing to happen since my last post was the fact that we have a nice BIG job sign now which explains all about our project to the passers-by. Not only do we advertise in big bold letters the Earthcraft designation which the house will have, but also big are the logos for Century Builders and for LDG Design (Lura's Company). We hope this will encourage people with design problems to call Lura to help them out.

Also new since last I posted are pipes! We have underground plumbing now to go with our concrete. This should get finallized today and be ready to have a slab poured on top by end of the week. If we are lucky, framing will follow next week. Here's to progress!

PS - We now have temporary power (woo hoo) and our future power will be able to be underground (WOO HOO!!!). Given the massive ice storms in Greenville's recent past, this is a good thing!

Going Vertical

Despite what some people may say, there is life after footings. The next logical step is to come out of the ground. To give a purpose to all that rebar sticking up by joining it to it's soulmate, the concrete stem wall and concrete retaining walls. As you can see, we have now given a form, an outline for what is to come. The foundation walls are in place so the next step will be fill in that concrete cookie cutter with gravel, putting in some underslab pipes for shower and toilet drain lines and then pouring a floor. The first floor will soon be a reality. I know, if you are like me, you can harly wait for those next pictures of gravel!

Side note: We have consulted with several of the who's who in upstate metal roofing and have realized that we will be able to afford to put it on our house. Why metal? some of you may be asking. This has been a dream of ours from the beginning for two reasons. 1) break the monotony of shingles, and 2) to create a "cool" roof which helps to reflect instead of absorb heat and helps to do our small part to reduce global warming. More on this to come...

Footing Follow-Up

I prefer now, at the present, to post a "post-previous post" (pegged presently as "the present post") to the post I had posted previously in the past. This post will proceed to paint the picture of the present proceedings at the parcel known as 313 W. Stone.

Concrete can be a concern if the conditions are cold. Coincidentally, concrete actually creates calde (Italian for "hot") conditions while curing. The conditions have been cold (caused by cold current coming from Canada) in the confines of the Carolinas, but the concrete keeping coming along.

Footings have been formed and the framework has been formulated for the foundation.

Rebar has been rightly relocated and rolls on regularly right toward the retaining ralls (er walls).

Pictures prohibit a perfect presentation, but possibly you will be pleased with the post.

Published by Pella

The proudest moment in some architects lives is the day they get their first project "published." We had such a moment yesterday even if it was sort of instigated by us. We got in touch several months ago with Pella to let them know we were using their product. We told them some interesting facts about our house, our neighborhood, and Greenville in general. They were interested and published a press release on their website. As I understand it, this also was sent to local media in the Greenville area and maybe the Southeast. So, theorectically, if could go to a larger audience. We'll see. In the meantime, bask in the glow of our star as it's on the rise.

http://pressroom.pella.com/news_releases/display.htm?section=2&release=176

Pomp & Concrete

When we all gathered at the site of our new home on Saturday, we had already officially broken ground on the property, but since we didn't have any time after work on Grading Day, we saved the Ceremonial aspects for the weekend. Also, we really wanted our parents to be there. So, Mom and Dad G came up from Columbia and Mom and Dad D came over from Keowee and we all met for some pomp and circumstance.

First I took more photos of the afore-mentioned Pile 'O Dirt, and then when everyone arrived, we did the official ground breaking photo shoot. Several of Lura and me with our hard hats and a shovel (below) and one of the whole group sharing a toast (also below). After photos, we said a group blessing for the site. Almost everyone was in tears by prayer's end. It is after all, a very emotional time. We've never done this before, and we thought it only natural to want to thank God! We really wish Tommy and Ann could have been there too, but they were off in Asheville for the weekend.

After photos and the prayer, we did the Pledge of Allegiance and then.... Okay, just kidding. We did however get a visit from the Viola Neighborhood Association president and vice president. No, they weren't campaigning for re-election, but they saw us out there and decided to stop by. Great folks! We talked for a while and we filled them in on the goings on. There are some really great people in the neighborhood and we can't wait to be a part of it. After saying goodbye to our future neighbors, we went down to what is sure to become our favorite neighborhood bar and grill. No, not Applebee's, but a little place called the Bohemian. Very ecclectic, and it has a cool used records and CD's store next door. They have excellent chips and really good soup, although they are a bit slow. But we weren't in a hurry so we just enjoyed our meal and spending time with our families!

It's now 4 days later and what we thought was going to happen late this week or early next week actually started today - concrete footings!!! Isn't this exciting?!? They dug out some footings today. Didn't actually pour any concrete, but since we are supposed to have some NASTY weather tomorrow (1 inch of snow/sleet/ice), this is probably a good thing. We still have pictures to show of our not-to-distant-future foundation. ENJOY!

Piles of Dirt

I would post pictures of this phenomenon online, but what would really be shown? Piles of dirt. But, to us these piles are mountains of gold, because we are officially started on our house!!! We met the builder and the grader on site today to talk a little grading strategy. Where to put dirt, where to cut brush, where to cut, where to fill. It was interesting in a "if this wasn't our house, we wouldn't care" kind of way.

The main thing is that something is being done. We thought this may be ontrack for last week, but due to the fake ice storm we had in Greenville, it was "not so fast!" The most interesting thing about the grading was the fact that they found an abandoned oil drum that someone at some point had used for heat or fuel or both. We need to find something to do with it, and we can't just take it to the landfill. They tend to frown on things with flammable liquid and vapors being dumped upon them.

Tomorrow, Lura is meeting the boring guy to talk holes. Yes, you read correctly. He's not actually boring. His job might be. We are doing a few borings in the ground to see if there are any pockets of trash or construction debris which may cause future problems with our foundation. This is a spend a little now to prevent spending a lot later kind of thing. I guess that's it for now. Concrete man is due late next week or early the following week. And after that....FRAMING!!! I know this is exciting for everyone!
Bye for now.

Happy New Year!!

Much will occur in the upcoming months. Much building, much drawing, much painting, much imagining. Hopefully, by the early fall, most of those things will be done and we will just be able to move in. Of course the thought of moving again makes me feel woozy. The thought of a new house is the cure for what ails me.

We have now closed on our loan. All the money is supposed to be in place and it will quickly be a reality that we will have to start making payments on our masterpiece. For all the sucky things about apartment living it is cheaper and a little more worry-free. But, there's nothing like living in your own house. We have missed it these past 9 months.

Pictures will be forthcoming very soon. We hope to have an actual groundbreaking ceremony with everything but silver shovels. Stay tuned.....it's about to get interesting!

House Plans Coming Together - Now in 3D!

We have been so busy after closing on the property figuring a way to make this whole process get jump started. We've finally had a breakthrough! We now have a new builder - Clyde Rector with Century Builders! He is EarthCraft certified and has been in business for over 30 years. We met Clyde through my aunt and uncle and are excited to get started. We expect to sign a contract next week, but due to Clyde's schedule, we won't break ground until after the first of the year.

Funny story - today, we got a letter from the City of Greenville that we are in violation of city ordinance by not cutting our grass! I guess we should be happy that we actually own grass now, or at least weeds!

Until there are studs and drywall, there are more images to show you. We talked to Pella Windows a few weeks ago about a possible publicity opportunity for us because we are using their Pella Impervia fiberglass windows. They are issuing a press release soon with some possible images. The images they are choosing from are below. We will post again once the article is released.

Land Barons

Sorry there have been no updates lately, but there really has been no updates lately. We closed on our property yesterday so we are now part of the landed gentry of the City of Greenville! We are still waiting to build until we figure out a) which contractor to use, b) how exactly to finance it, and c) when to start. The good news though is that we got notice yesterday that our rent on our apartment will not go up if we decide to renew our lease soon. We hoped to be out in January, but my current estimate involves us probably being finished around late spring, early summer 2007. Stay tuned for more soon!