December 20, 2011

After being out of town for a few days... some progress has happened.

Our second floor trusses are being placed, the patio poured, and blocks will begin to go up for our second floor on Monday 12/26.

After a little break...

We took a little break for the holiday, but work is starting back up on the house!

 Todd cleaned up the work site and took the boxes to our new Recycling Center.

This is the house on 12/8/2011
The dirt at the front of the house is being piled up to make room for the patio.
This is why we had to raise the house 4 feet to make room for our septic, therefore having to have all this fill dirt to go under the porch.
Scott (our cement guy) is scheduled to come today (12/9/) to see if everything is ready for our patio pour.
Our back patio was piled up also, but we are not sure if we will pour that soon, since we are planning a pool.

Tuesday 11/22/2011

 This is from (my usual spot) facing the front door. They are finishing pouring the first floor walls. All first floor windows and doors have been framed up. Tomorrow (Wednesday) they will take off all the bracing. The next step is to put in our second floor trusses, which are about 3 weeks out (approximately). During the mean time the patio should be poured and a few other projects will be tackled.

This is a close up of the right side of the house (facing the street). You can not really see, but the walls are dripping with water from the moisture in the cement.
The 2 sticks coming out of the wall at the top are the marker for where the top of our porch roof will be. The bend re-bar coming out of the ground is where the porch will start. The two large piles of sand/dirt will fill the space up to the bent bars (this is due to our septic system).

MOnday 11/21/2011

 

This picture was actually taken Tuesday 11/22 in the morning before work was started. 

Friday 11/18/2011

Even on a drizzly day the guys are out there working away!
As you can see the front door and window have been framed out along with the garage. The poles sticking up are rebar that will help to hold the cement when the pour on Monday. Then they will wait for that to dry and begin the second floor! Oh and the patio should be poured somewhere in there also ?!

Thursday 11/17/2011

The house has many workers frequenting it these days!! There was barely a spot to stop the car and take a pictures... but I did!!

This is from my usual spot facing the property from the front left (?)

Here, I am standing in front of the garage door. You can see the whole for the front door and window to the left of the picture. The guys are standing on the actual floor inside now. They are framing up all the first floor entry ways and windows. The first floor pour is scheduled for Monday 11/21.

Wednesday 11/16/2011

Much progress has been made today.
 Here is the house at 12:20 noon

... and this was at 6:00 PM

 

This is the garage

Todd and Larry are working on decking for the sub floor.

This is looking in from the garage into the kitchen. There will be a small hallway to the right leading to the bathroom.

I think they are getting tired of my pictures... but, "Hey this needs to be documented!"

Tuesday 11/15/2011

Things are moving along! They have started to build up the first floor walls and put in the trusses separating the crawl space from the first floor.

MOnday 11/14/2011

The dirt was dropped off today for our patio.

November 11, 2011

Things are moving quickly!! Our builders from Green Blocks decided they wanted to help out a little more and make sure we get in there as quick as possible... so look at the difference from day 1 to now!!

They just finished the final pour in the first section of walls here.

The portion of blocks you see here is our crawl space. The house had to be raised up 4 feet due to our septic system.

The front needed to be painted to allow for a moisture barrier when they bring the fill on Monday.

Our electricity poll thing will go in soon so we can have electricity on site.. instead of noisy, gas guzzling generators. Luckily our lovely neighbors have been generous enough to let us borrow a bit of their electricity to run a few of the machines. But as you can see there is little waste and minimal electricity necessary. 

On Monday we have 2 truckloads of fill dirt coming and our front porch will be formed up and to be poured on Tuesday. 

Tuesday or Wednesday our friends from Green Blocks will return to put the second set of blocks up to complete the first floor.

Day 5

Block Deliver Day!! Early this morning a man in a very large delivery truck was slowly making his way around our neighborhood. I began to wonder if maybe this was our blocks... well, it was!! Poor guy was nervous about backing up onto our property. Luckily Todd was able to run home and help guide him in!

They stacked them up on a truck to bring them to the back of the property.

This is the blocks at the back of the property, technically behind the garage.

The very large truck that delivered our blocks at 8:00 this morning.

The blocks inside the truck.

And by 5:00 this evening we had.............

A partial wall!!

Day 4

Work is moving along...
Today is Wednesday 11/9 and our blocks are being delivered. I already saw our worried delivery truck man sitting at our street waiting for Todd to get here to help guide him in.

Todd will remove all the dirt from our living room area into the front of the house since we had to raise the house up 4 feet due to our septic system. The footers look as if the house will be very small, but Todd has assured me that they always look that way. The slab to the right is our garage.

Day 3!!

The large boom that is preparing to pour our concrete.

Another angle of the boom. This is over where our garage will be.

Day 2 of work on the Property

 

Setting up the forms for the concrete footers and garage slab.

Finally An Update!!

After many, many months of waiting.. we finally have movement on our property. Permits were issued, drawings have been stamped, and the box is up on our property. Yesterday (11/3) our cement folks were out there marking for footers and digging for the crawl space under the house.

 

At 7:45 AM I drove past and work was already in progress. I will take a picture today to show how much they have completed. I do not want to put a schedule up, in case of any glitches.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting...

Okay so many promises were made and not a one of them were kept!! Our cement guys and block guys were all ready to come and start and then the County put a big stop to us!!

Now the health department has determined, after we have already submitted our drawings 4 or more times, that our house now needs to be brought up at least 2 feet.

What does that mean??
Basically back to the drawing board. Our drawings need to be re-done, permits need to be resubmitted, and we are sitting here waiting... again...

Will update with good news soon!

And the lots have been cleared!!

Things are starting to happen, I can hear the neighbors gabbing!! Our lots that, as of yesterday, were filled with trees are not totally empty and ready for the slab to go down... how exciting!!

Capri Lot

Alhambra Lot

Alhambra Lot

Capri Lot

Capri Lot

Judd & Associates Land Clearing, Excavating, Trucking, and Demolition did a fantastic job clearing our lots. They came to look at everything on Friday and were there bright and early this morning! They are fast and efficient.  Both Jim and Joe Messina were there taking care of business. If anyone needs any trees taken out I highly recommend them 239-370-5070

Decisons are happening!!

Todd met with our ICF guys today and finally made a final decision for our builders...

drum roll please...........

We are going with ....

Check our their website here

We are super excited to have this company build our home and cannot wait to see how the process goes. Their ICF blocks are made from 100% recycled materials.
From their website:

Benefits of Insulated Concrete Forms

ICFs are, quite simply, a superior construction method. They provide:

• Significant energy savings
• Superior acoustical insulation (low noise infiltration)
• Reduces or eliminates mold proliferation
• Compatible with any seismic or hurricane/storm standard.
• Superior fire protection

Savings of 50 – 80% can be achieved when ICFs are used as part of a system with other energy efficient components like windows and high performance insulation like spray foam insulation and these savings continue for the life of the building. They are one of the lowest maintenance materials available, and are strong enough to withstand some of the heaviest storms. ICFs also provide superior fire protection with an over four hour fire rating. Its no wonder many insurance companies offer significant discounts to the owners of homes built with ICF blocks.

ICF Facts

Energy efficiency

One of the many benefits of insulated concrete form construction is superior insulation performance and the resulting conservation of energy.

Green Product

ICFs have been certified as “green” products by almost all U.S. organizations attempting to regulate environmentally friendly design.

A stronger home

PATH partners are finding that poured concrete homes resist wind loads better than concrete block homes, with the additional benefits that poured concrete homes are faster to construct, require less onerous inspections, and provide a more easily installed, uninterrupted, thermal barrier of insulation.

Sound Barrier

Insulated Concrete Forms provide exceptional sound attenuation. ICF structures achieve documented levels of Sound Transmission Classifications (STC) 50 (inaudible) or higher. Wood frame structures typically rate an average of STC 25, meaning that voices can be heard outside the structure.

Consolidation of trades:

One ICF installation crew provides the services of masons, framing carpenters, and insulators combined. This 3-in-1 construction process simplifies project management and can reduce costly down time.

Benefits of Insulated Concrete Forms

ICFs are, quite simply, a superior construction method. They provide:

• Significant energy savings
• Superior acoustical insulation (low noise infiltration)
• Reduces or eliminates mold proliferation
• Compatible with any seismic or hurricane/storm standard.
• Superior fire protection

Savings of 50 – 80% can be achieved when ICFs are used as part of a system with other energy efficient components like windows and high performance insulation like spray foam insulation and these savings continue for the life of the building. They are one of the lowest maintenance materials available, and are strong enough to withstand some of the heaviest storms. ICFs also provide superior fire protection with an over four hour fire rating. Its no wonder many insurance companies offer significant discounts to the owners of homes built with ICF blocks.

So after weeks of waiting...

Again we were waiting for another set of drawings. After a long anticipated time we finally received everything we need to submit everything to the county.

What was holding us up???
* Our septic drawing  (this is not ours, but gives you an idea)

    due to our neighbors having wells in their yards (these are common for sprinkler systems) we had to flip
     flop our house around. So we were waiting on those drawings to be approved.
* Our truss drawings needed to be completed (this is not ours but it gives you the idea)

* and everything else in between!!

 So an update as of today...
*Final drawings are being submitted to county...

So as paperwork is submitted today (7/7/2011) our ICF system is due to arrive on August 1st, 2011!!

         **Update-- due to unforeseen circumstances our paperwork was finally submitted in whole on 7/13/2011***

Rock Solid (our concrete guys) will pour our foundation sometime in the next 2 weeks!!

Todd has assured me that now everything is in the blog updates should come fast and furious with updates. As everything goes up, he will be on site taking all the pictures. So no more Google searches for related images we will actually have images from the work site!!

Let the bidding begin...

Okay so it has taken our Engineer about 6 weeks or so to finally have our final drawings back to us, but here we are with drawings in hand and the bids are rolling in.

It's funny to think that there are businesses out there vying to make our home, but I guess it is a normal happening. So now we are waiting for the best deal to come through and whether we will need to modify our drawings due to which block system we choose. Then it is off to the county for permits and then I may be able to post some progress pictures soon!!

only time will tell how long this part of the process will take... Wish us luck!

 

In order to redeem this great coupon please visit my specific Green Irene store at www.greenirene.com/jessicanaples to ensure Green Irene connects you to me.  If you do not see the URL with my name or company as part of it, just reply and I will send you the link! It is a GREAT coupon and I encourage you to try any of our products. 

  __________________________________________________________________________

Grand Re-Opening Coupon For My Friends and Customers

Enter this in the coupon code section of the checkout page 

mytreat10 

to receive $10 off a purchase of at least $25

We have 100s of new products, a great new e commerce experience and NO SALES TAX is charged on shipments (except to NY state).  We have reduced our shipping charges as well!

Note: HURRY ! Expires Monday 5/23/11  12:01 AM EST. Cannot be used with any other coupon code.  Can only be used once per customer.  Subtotal in cart must equal $25.00 before shipping or tax for coupon to register.

FINALLY!! an update!!

Okay so it has been a while since I have last updated this page, but it has been a while since anything has happened!!

First it was our surveyor that was busy and did not get our drawings back to us very quickly. We waited an waited for those little stakes to be put in the ground... and finally after about 2 weeks those cute little guys were there and the paperwork was in our hands...

This is not from our property, but I thought it looked neat

All the stakes were in place and Todd took all that information to our Engineer.

And we waited...and waited...and waited until...

we finally got the call our blueprints are ready and waiting for us....

So today May 2, 2011 Todd will pick our blueprints up, email a copy to our builder, fill out all our paperwork for the county, and turn everything in tomorrow 5/3/2011.

Next...
1. We get all our blueprints and paperwork stamped, signed, and turned into the county
2. Start bidding our jobs
3. Set a date to clear the property of the the cacti that have made a home there
4. Set a date for pouring our initial slab!!

More to come as soon as we get it!!