Step by step, Moving forward

It's been exactly one month since our last post and we're happy to report that the construction of the house has been moving right along.

The second floor was framed ...

...followed by the roof ...

... including the chimney.

Here are a couple of shots of the kitchen bar, one from the first floor level and the other from up on the second floor east gallery.

The whole house was wrapped in Tyvek ...

... and then the Hardieboard work started, beginning with the soffits going into the eaves first, .....

... and then the Hardieplanks,
going first onto the chimney ....

... and then the walls.

After the sheathing on the roof was completed, then most of the windows and exterior doors were installed.

Hooray! We're almost weather tight!
Looking pretty impressive, huh?

On Friday the 21st, the felt went onto the roof, just in time before a rainy weekend! And all put on by one worker, all by his onesy. What a lonely job.

Some oopsies were discovered in the framing and they got corrected along the way to balance the sizes of the clothes closets in the master bedroom suite and to narrow the top of the fireplace.

And you can see here that during the past week much of the mechanical work was done like the duct work for HVAC and also the plumbing.
And then the electricians had a go at it and there were wires EVERYWHERE!

And the front door was installed (YIPPEEEEE!) but it was all wrapped in plastic so there wasn't much point in posting a picture of it here now. So you'll just have to be patient.


So as you can see there's been a lot of progress, but there's still a long way to go.
Patience .... we must practice patience. But that's no fun at all, is it?

We're Being Framed!

We're being framed ....

.... but not in a legal sense, but rather in the form of lumber that goes into place and and really is starting to look like a house. The carpenters began work on Tuesday and by Friday it was surprising to see how much was accomplished.

Most of the first floor was finished by Thursday.....

.... and Friday they began work on the second floor,

which is beginning to give it an impressive look from down at the road.

Of Concrete and Carpenters

Well, it was a busy week at the ranch.
Tuesday the 21st,with the moon in the early morning sky to supervise,
the concrete for the house slab was poured. Truck after truck made their way up the steep driveway to fill the hopper on the pumper truck while the boom was worked over all of the 152 foot length of the structure, distributing the concrete.

And the workers put in a long day doing all the floating and smoothing of the concrete.

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Meanwhile in the barn, what was once just an empty shell, began to be transformed as the carpenters began framing the stud walls and the bathroom.
On Wednesday, more carpentry work included rafters for the bathroom ceiling and the decking for storage space above it, and on Thursday the barn's electrical and plumbing work began while the forms were being removed from the house slab.
Looking from south to north it's hard to see everything in the slab, but standing behind the studio and looking to the south you can see the wrap-around patio areas.

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Friday the weather here in central Texas turned rather nasty with on and off combinations of rain, sleet and even snow, along with freezing temperature, so the delivery of the framing material for the house which had been scheduled for that day was postponed until next Monday the 27th. House framing should be close at hand.

Getting Ready for Concrete

Not much progress this week. All the cables that will tension the slab were put in place ...

... and the three electrical connections that must be in the slab were installed, but it was discovered that one of the plumbing connections had been damaged and would have to be redone.

A supervisor from the concrete pumper made a visit on Thursday to determine the best place to park the pumper truck and how long a boom would be needed, so we're expecting(?) hoping(?) that the slab will be poured in the coming week.
I have a small 3x6 form outside the barn's walk-in door with wire mesh and re-bar installed ready for left over concrete from the house slab pour.

The electrician for the house has installed a temorary pole with service to make electric available to the trades, so...
Work on the barn interior is also scheduled to start this week as well, with framing the bathroom first, followed by the electrical. The plumbing should be close behind. Once we have electrical to the barn, the water service equipment can be installed in the well house and then I'll be able to pressure wash the barn floor before I paint it. Then it'll be time to start moving in! When? Who knows? One step at a time.

... to be continued ...

Powered UP!

The electric service was installed this week, so now the electrician for the house just needs to make it available to the tradesmen that are working on the house and barn. It kind of spoils the view a bit but it's necessary so it has to be done.

There will be a separate breaker panel in the well house that will power the well equipment and supply all the outlets in the barn too. Finishing off the interior of the barn is expected to start soon.
The last of the forms for the concrete were added in the garage area on Saturday ...

... and one of the workers told me that the tension cables that will become a part of the slab will be installed on Monday.
For those who don't know, this kind of system makes the traditional wire mesh and reinforcing rods old fashioned by comparison. Those will only hold a slab together if it cracks while the post tension system is meant to keep the slab from ever cracking in the first place.
I spent some "quality time" with the tractor on Saturday cleaning up what was brought up from underground and spewed all around when the well was drilled. I put it where it could form a base on which we'll later build a fuel shed just outside the barn. With all the tools that will be needed to keep the ranch looking ship shape and all the different fuels they'll need including diesel, gasoline and mixed fuels for chain saws etc, well, lets just say I'm just not too keen on storing them inside the barn!
Week by week, things are happening. OH! And I was able to get a couple of nice shots of some neighbors who live down the road that I thought some of you might enjoy seeing.

Holiday Progress

We've been making progress in the past two weeks since our last post!

The meter rack for the electric service was installed on Dec 23rd and 24th. The electric company inspected the site on December 30th and although the rack was acceptable, the engineer from the electric company called to say he was not satisfied with the tree clearing that we had done months ago. He said he could do a reinspect in three days if we could get it done by then. I asked him to tag what he wanted removed.

On the 31st, work began on cutting trenches in the foundation for the concrete beams that will be under the slab while I had a meeting with the carpenter that will be working on the interior of the barn.

In the afternoon the two of us were back to work on clearing more trees on the lower levels, and back again in the morning on New Year's Day to finish the job. On New Year's Day, during a break for lunch, one of the workers showed up to work on the foundation trenching, with his family along for a picnic and to enjoy the view. Jeesh! This place is already getting a reputation for its view! After lunch it was tough going working on the steep slope, but it's that slope that gives us our great view!

Unfortunately we also had to take out some persimmon trees as well, but there are still plenty more of 'em on the ranch.

On January 2nd I met the electric engineer again and this time we passed with his approval....Hooray!
So now we're in their installation schedule with an estimated 10 to 15 days to completion.

And when I arrived that day the plumbers were just leaving after having installed the rough-in plumbing that goes into the slab.
Moving right along!




On Monday I'll be having one of the older tires replaced on the tractor. The wear that was showing on the inside sidewall was causing it to go flat to the point where the whole tractor was listing to starboard so it will have to be retired, no pun intended, I think.
A new tire, installed, on site ... $665. The happiness of having a tractor that works ... priceless. :)

Water and Sunsets

Well since our last post, progress on the house has been blazing along at the blistering speed of "zero". More than anything else we need to get the electricians on site to build the meter rack so the electric company can begin installing the service line and that hasn't happened yet.
But the big news at the ranch this week is that our water well has been drilled. Final depth: 875 feet. Struck water before that of course, but kept on going to make sure we could depend on it for many years to come.

As soon as we get electric service to the property we'll actually be able to pump water up from the aquifer and once we have a supply of water I'll be able to pressure wash the barn floor and then paint it and then I can start moving in. Won't that be the cat's meow?!

We had our "winter solstice party" on Friday evening. Just the two of us with a little wine to watch the setting sun. We did the same thing on 12/21 last year too. But this year the sky was quite overcast with clouds and there was hardly any sun so we guessed (and rightly so) that there wouldn't be much to see so we left early.

Last year we were also there to watch the sunset for the summer solstice and it was quite surprising to see the difference in points on the horizon where the sun went down at those two different times of the year.

We're Off and Running

We haven't posted in a while because not much was happening, but lately lots of things have been moving along all at once.

The barn pad was created, holes were augered to set the steel uprights in concrete, drain lines were installed for the bath room, entries for water and electric into the wellhouse and then the slab was poured.
After time for the concrete to cure (plus several rainy days) work began on the steel framing.
On Tuesday the 3rd the site for the house was scraped level (or so it was thought) and the exact position for the house was staked out.

All that while the work continued on the barn framing.

As the forms were being built some more ground leveling was found to be needed.
Once the forms were finished, delivery for the sub-base for the slab began. Eight loads the first day.....
....and three more the next and then it was all leveled.
With the barn framing completed, on Thursday most of the exterior skin went on.

The barn shell should be finished this weekend all but one roll up door. Work on the interior begins soon with walls being framed first, followed by the plumbing and electric. All of the plumbing fixtures and many of the electrical fixtures are scheduled to arrive December 23rd.
Unfortunately Christmas comes two days later. (sigh)

The well drilling is scheduled to start Monday the 16th, (if the weather is agreeable) but septic will probably not start before the first of the year.

But at least we're finally off and running! Now, when we get the electric service installed the barn will be usable.

Ready to Start

Well it's been a lot like trying to herd cats to make things happen, but we finally got all four contracts (house, barn, well and septic) in place and this week we had the closing on our construction loan, so ... we're ready to begin constructing.

The barn will be first, which will include the housing for all the well equipment in a room attached to it. It will be a Mueller Steel building on a concrete slab and the barn will have a bathroom in it, so as soon as the well and the septic system are complete, visits to the ranch can be longer than they have been.

Having the wellhouse attached to the barn not only eliminated building a fourth wall for it, but created an opportunity to have a nice 10x26' porch on the front of the barn facing west. Might be a good place to sit and paint sunsets! We'll see.

So the first of many decisions has to be made. What color should we paint the barn floor?