Another Passing Inspection!

Today we had our second inspection and got another PASS!!!!  

Once the inspector left, John and the masons got right to work.    They used a tool to smooth the cement that dried on the blocks, which took about an hour.   Next they cleaned up the rocks and debris on the basement floor.  Then they put the wooden box in place for the final footing to be poured into.  This is the footing that was added last minute, which is next to the existing house. 

After it was laid, they began dumping gravel/stones over the entire floor in preparation for the concrete to be poured (hopefully tomorrow).

The last and final step of the day (which took a few hours)...was to get the excavator back to do the backfill.  He took that large pile of dirt that has been taking over my yard...and using the truck he filled around the back of the basement wall with the dirt and smoothed it around.  

So we had a very productive day, and hoping tomorrow is another good day!  John is meeting with my Dad first thing in the morning to discuss the steel column we are using and then I have no idea what happens next.  I am hoping the concrete truck shows up and fills the basement floor and the footing, so they can keep moving next week (before John goes on vacation)!


~Gianna~

Back from vacation with a week in review!

My family spent the past week at the beach (Long Beach Island).  We had a great time, and while we were enjoying our vacation, John was on a a church retreat, and the mason was on vacation.  But work at our house resumed......with more basement/foundation stuff!

More building blocks and waterproofing the basement walls.    Basically from what I can gather the waterproofing they did while we were gone, consisted of some black tar spread over the outside of the walls.  
Here is what it looks like...

And since Monday....they have gotten the rest of the blocks done, the cement spread over the entire outside wall and the waterproofing!  All for an inspection (#2) tomorrow!  Keep those fingers crossed!!!!  John also worked on constructing the footing for the the existing house.

Once inspection happens, they will do the backfill (pouring dirt behind the walls), and fill the final footing which will go next to the existing house (remember back to those bad surprises) and prepare for the steel beam to be laid by my Dad's company ISE and done by my brother! 

~Gianna~

Day 10 & 11 -- Building the basement!

I am combining the last 2 days because it's been pretty much the same thing.........building with concrete blocks!    Basically the 2 masons slap some cement onto a 12x8 concrete block and carefully line it up...tapping ever so carefully to fit it into place.  They use levels, ropes and wood planks.  It's a very tedious and long job (I think we counted about 500 that need to be laid), but with music playing and sun shining the workers don't seem to mind.  And they are doing a very nice job..not only on the building, but also keeping my girls entertained!   It rained a lot today so they only got 3 hours in....hoping they get more done tomorrow and the rain stays away! 

Also, Joe and I have been discussing siding colors!  This is one of the most difficult decisions we have to make!  What color house do we want?    We are pretty sure we want green or grey.  Leaning more toward green than grey.   And we are like 90% sure we are going with Hardie Siding.  So our color choices would be Mountain Sage, Heathered Moss, Monterey Taupe or Timber Bark..........with white trim!   You can see all the choices here:  http://www.jameshardie.com/developer/colorplus-palette.shtml

Soo that's where we are right now!  Hoping to have the rest of the blocks laid by the end of the week, and the steel ordered for the existing footings that need to be repaired!  We go away on vacation on Sunday..and so does John.  I'm not sure if anything will be happening while we are away, but we should know more by the end of the week. 

~Gianna~

Sunday Funday!

The 1st floor bathroom!   We've always had a full bathroom on the first floor, but with the addition we will be removing it completely (to create a hallway) and starting over in a new place.  Only differences.... it will be a bit bigger and there will not be a tub, just a shower. 

I did have a picture that inspired the color choices for this room....but of course I can't find it!  I can't remember if I saw it online or in one of my 100 magazines.   So you are going to have to use your imagination and see my vision!  ;o)

I want to do a chocolate brown/white/green combo.    I just want to show the colors together and a shower curtain was all I could find with them.....picture with white instead of cream.

I wanted to go with a darker floor to go off the hardwood that will be in the hallway.  I also wanted to take into consideration that this bathroom will be used a lot.  When the kids come in from outside, when we have guests and whenever we are downstairs (which is most of the day), so I wanted to go with a darker floor that doesn't show a ton of dirt....and I found the perfect tile at Wayne Tile.  It's made by LaFaenza and it's porcelain with a semi-matte finish.  The size is 13x13.    And will have a "coffee" colored grout. 

***photo taken from LaFaenza website***

In the shower and from the floor to halfway up the wall will be white 8 x 12 porcelain tiles.  There will be a boarder of glass mosaic tiles around the entire shower 3 rows wide.  I can't find a picture of the actual white tile, but the water glass mosaics are by SICIS.   I originally I liked the Nickle color which was more a grey/green, but I think I have since changed my mind and will be using "Spring".  This is still subject to change!  Ha Ha!

The toilet, shower and sink will all be white.....

The vanity itself, I am leaning toward a dark brown wood.  Something small and simple (haven't picked one out yet, but this is for idea's sake!) to keep some extra towels, soap, toilet paper in..and nothing too pricey for that bathroom.    The top will be white and I would do a large mirror (like below) and maybe some sconces on either side for light...as well as a regular light in the ceiling.

And painted with a very light green color like Benjamin Moore's "Crisp Green".

So that's what we have so far for the 1st floor bathroom......and end to Sunday Funday!   Hope everyone had a great weekend! 
  Goodnight!



~Gianna~

Day 9 -- $$$$

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window (like I do every day)....I saw a bright orangey red   $  and thought 1 of 2 things.....either we owed John a check today or he hid a lot of money in that spot and didn't think we'd see it.............welllllll.......We saw it!!!!    ;o)

THEN it dawned on me....This was John's way of subliminally stressing Joe out (even more than he already is)about the money aspect of the addition!   Genius!  I Love it!  But now guess who has to deal with a stressed out Joe?!!?!  ME!    If I didn't have to live with him, I'd be laughing right with you, John!

Honestly, I have no idea what the sign means.......

So after he left his mark (and his money), John was done and again made room for the mason! 

We got 2 more block deliveries, a sand delivery and they removed the wood from around the concrete that was poured yesterday!   Oh and a new machine showed up today too......I have no idea what it's for, but I guess I'll find out tomorrow! 

It was a rainy day and I wasn't outside much...so this is a bad picture from today!  But those were the blocks that came and you can kinda see where the wood was removed!  

Tomorrow's another day!
~Gianna~

Day 8 -- Inspection Day!

John was here briefly today....he came to meet with the inspector and to get stuff ready for the concrete delivery.    The inspector came and was here for all of 5 minutes, but did what he needed to to.......APPROVED!!!

YIPPPPPPEEEEE!!!!

One down and at least 4 more to go!

After the inspector was gone, John packed up for the day and made room for the mason and his crew to arrive. 

Around 12:30 the mason came and dropped off his crew and some blocks!   Then he returned around 1and they waited....and waited....and waited for the concrete to arrive to fill the footings.   They did get a little entertainment when the tree men came (unexpectedly) and cut down a tree in our yard.  They seemed to enjoy it and we have one less tree in our yard.

FINALLY around 2:30/2:45 the concrete truck came.   The footings were filled, the mason did what he does best.....I have no  idea what that is.... and by 3:45 they were gone.

~Gianna~

Day 7 -- It was an uneventful...footing kinda day!

Finally an uneventful day! There were events that happened, but everything went smoothly and there were NO bad surprises today!
Pretty much the whole day consisted of putting down (??)...errr...building (??)....errrr...laying (??) footings for the foundation. I'm not sure what the right term for that is! I think I missed that in the "footing lesson". So the mason (well 2 of his workers), John and Craig did this all day! And it looked pretty simple...simple in terms of it being easy for them/nothing bad happened..not simple in the fact that it was hot again today and they worked very hard!!
The electricians (Pete Horan Electric) showed up to do some work in the garage (adding a new line from the house to the garage) and if that wasn't enough....I gave them another job. They (along with John)had the task of filling the girl's pool up with air! Hey..they didn't look too busy, they were just standing around talking, they had an air pump...and I figured they'd be perfect for the job!  THEY WERE!!!!! OK ..OK..so the true story is...John offered, Pete and Keith (?) joined in (to prove they could do it better)..and within minutes we had a pool for the girls to swim!

"Thanks Mr. Bezold, Mr. Horan and crew..."

And when the day was done...the footings were all ready for our first inspection tomorrow!  I LOVE uneventful days of construction!  

And this is where that septic hole and railroad tracks used to be!

~Gianna~

Day 6 -- Hot Rails to Hell

Not only is that a song by Blue Oyster Cult....it's also exactly what happened today!

First off,  it was 100 degrees and HOT, HOT, HOT! 

Second, the concrete had settled all weekend and with jack-hammer in hand they started to break the top apart...only problem was some parts weren't coming apart very easily.   They did as much as they could when lo and behold they found the problem.....RAILROAD TRACKS!

 










Yup....just when the story/saga couldn't get any better..they found railroad tracks holding the concrete in place as a support to keep the top stronger!  So now what?  You can't break thru with a jack-hammer, a saw isn't going to cut thru them, but a torch (those tools steel workers use to cut thru steel) will....DING...DING...DING!!!!!   So on the phone I got with my Dad...he called my brother, Sandy who offered to come over and help.   And within 30 minutes the 1000 degree torch was fired up and Sandy was firing at the tracks!
 

After about 45 minutes and 4 tracks.....he was dripping in sweat (poor thing) but the tracks were gone..and construction could resume!  The excavator headed back....filled the rest of the hole, removed the walls from the septic hole and dug the rest of the basement!  Progress was being made!    After a long, interesting, HOT day.........it was over!

Hoping for a cooler..non eventful day tomorrow!



~Gianna~

Sunday Funday

I decided that every Sunday I will post about the fun stuff (not that dirt and septic tanks aren't fun)...like the things we are looking at to "furnish" our new space. Each week I will pick a certain room or "thing" and post about it and add some pictures! I thought this would be a great way to break up the weeks of actual construction with the stuff we are putting in the space once it's finished!


So this week I will talk about the appliances we will be getting in the kitchen! We did a lot of research on this, went and looked at a few places and got help from a friend of the family who works in an appliance store. We knew what we wanted, but we also had to keep a budget in mind. We wanted good appliances that would last long without dropping a ton of money. So as of right now we are going with the Electrolux brand. Some of it will be from their Icon series and some from their regular lines.


All of the appliances will be stainless steel and I really wanted the handles on everything to match....which is why we didn't stray from a certain line (except for the dishwasher which I will explain later).


Let's start with the fridge! It's the Electrolux Counter-Depth French Door Refrigerator with IQ-Touch™ Controls. I really just loved the look of it...it has the IQ-Touch controls and the lighting inside was so pretty (it's like a blue color)..it's Energy Star Qualified too! I decided against the water filter on the door, b/c I am a water snob and only like Poland Springs and since we have the water cooler already and get water delivered we opted out of that. It does have an ice maker in the freezer though.


Next up is the range....originally I wanted a Wolf, but then once I saw them I didn't really LOVE the look and Joe thought they were too big for the kitchen. I also decided that I really wanted everything to match and then the hefty price tag....the cons outweighed the pros...so we decided to go with the Electrolux Icon
36" Dual Fuel Range in the Professional series. I loved how it looked and then


coupled with this Electrolux 36" Chimney Wall-Mount Hood it was a perfect look!


The dishwasher was the toughest decision...I really wanted 1 single dishwasher drawer. For our family I thought it was the best option. We will have our dishwasher reinstalled in the butler's pantry, so we'd already have 1 full sized dishwasher in our house. In our daily lives we use more cups and silverware than anything else...the girls use paper dishes for breakfast and lunch and then we usually have 4 dinner plates and maybe 1 or 2 pots or pans (which I usually hand wash)...so right now..our top rack gets filled and our bottom rack just has a few dishes. It's never filled enough to run the dishwasher...BUT it's not a small enough load to wait for the next day. So we decided on a single dishwasher drawer...it seemed like the perfect addition to the appliances. I loved the look and the concept, but when we went to a cabinet store to have the kitchen designed he gave us a HUGE NO....and the reason was b/c the cabinets around it would actually cost more money and more headaches to make the single drawer fit than to have a regular sized dishwasher put in...so we decided to just get a 2nd regular sized dishwasher. I didn't like the Electrolux dishwashers, so we are looking at Bosch dishwashers...and the one in particular that we are look at is the 24" Ascenta Evolution.  We decided on Bosch b/c they don't have "handles" and it will match the other appliances.

We decided not to have a microwave built in..b/c there was really no practical place to put it..the range needed a larger hood/fan, so the micro couldn't go above it, I didn't want to put it down low under the counter b/c I was worried Ava would figure out a way to cook Muggsy (our 5 pound dog) or herself......and I didn't want to take up cabinet space. Sooooo we will get a smaller micro to put on the counter in the kitchen or butler's pantry. We haven't decided on that yet, and we really don't have to until out existing microwave dies!   Other options we are still toying with (and may/may not get now) are a drawer ice maker and a warming drawer.   The ice maker has been just about ruled out for now...but we are putting a small 15" cabinet  next to the sink in the butler's pantry that can eventually be replaced with the ice maker.  YAY!  And the warming drawer is something I go back and forth with!


So that's where we are with appliances!


 Hope everyone has a wonderful July 4th and is enjoying this beautiful weekend.....I am headed out now to enjoy mine and then to a family BBQ! 

~Gianna ~

Day 5 -- Answers..Finally!

This morning started off with the last of the siding removal....and we now have a yellow (and ugly) house! We won't be choosing yellow for our new siding!



Dan made it to our house at 10am..and got straight to work with John on a plan for the septic hole and the lack of footings on the house......they talked for about 40 minutes and a plan was set in place, Dan left.......the mason got right on the phone with a concrete company around 11am (figuring it was a long shot to get concrete so last minute) and they said they'd be able to get it here around 1pm..SCORE!!!! 4:30pm and 2 truck loads later the hole was filled.
Sorry for the poor quality......I took these from the upstairs window!




As for the footings..I'm not exactly sure. I think they are underpinning the existing house and then Dan is going to rework the plans, as far as framing goes, so the new house will hold more weight. I am normally a good listener when it's a subject interesting to me or that I understand. I am really trying to educate myself and listen to John when he talks, but sometimes he sounds like Miss Othmar (Charlie Brown's teacher). I think from now on I will walk around with a notebook! ;o)

So we did lose a bit of time.....digging should've been finished by now and we should've been ready for a Tuesday inspection, BUT we did get lucky with the concrete delivery. So by Tuesday the top of the hole should be removed (by jackhammer) and the digging can resume! Hoping for a Thursday inspection!

For those of you who don't know Miss Othmar, I will leave you with this.....Miss Othmar

Day 4 -- Surprise, Surprise!

So today was a bit stressful.......it started off with John and Greg (the excavator)coming to assess the situation more. They cleaned up the dirt around the septic and tried to see actually how big the hole was. What they found instead was a cover over the hole that was made out of steel, wood and concrete...8 inches thick! Apparently not all covers are made this way, usually a machine can lift them right up or break them apart....BUT not ours (surprise, surprise!). Ours is too heavy, too large, and in an awkward spot to move.....half in the new addition and half out of it (still underground). A call to the mason and a few more calls to Dan left many unanswered questions and everyone unsure of what will happen next. So we wait until tomorrow at 10am when Dan comes. In the meantime they got some more siding down and cleaned up the area around the hole, then called it a day (early).

The septic hole.....




And one more of what my yard looks like now.....after 4 days!