Exterior Colors…choices

We will have to make our final choices on the exterior color scheme for The “L” Shaped House right away. The windows and trim will be white. The roofing a dark slate. The first Hardie Board siding needs to be installed on the face of the floor trusses before the front porch is framed. We will probably put a couple of samples up and make our final choice very soon.

We have narrowed down the siding color to… Evening Blue

and Iron Grey

The house sketch with Iron Grey siding placed on the site (with reasonable accuracy).

Framing…week one

The fireplace and music room…

The dining room bay window…

The living room doorway to the screen porch…

The front entry, dining room, and living room…

The foyer, living room, music room (from the dining room)…

The kitchen…

The front entry closet…

 

The Mudroom entry, and the laundry room/pantry (both shot from the breezeway)…

The back of the house (from the Northwest)…

The front of the house (from the Southeast)…

The Garage…

Plumbing…The plan

Digging up the basement floor confirmed that the existing sewer connection is in nice shape. We knew the sewer had been upgraded sometime after the home was built in 1942 but before The Danielson’s bought it in 1978. The main line goes out the front of the house as a 4 inch PVC pipe and looks good. Paul and the plumbers have put together a plan that will look something like the sketch below (I’ll update it as soon as Paul corrects my work and Helen is done complaining that she is out of the decision making loop).

The dungeon-like atmosphere that is the basement today (this will make a great “before” picture).

Oh!…for those of you paying really close attention to the blog…Happy 100th Posting !!!

Framing…Day 4

The noon report finds that the Tappe crew has been busy finishing up the framing on the first floor and attaching sheeting to the ends of the open web floor trusses all morning. The trusses for the second floor are due to be delivered this afternoon. The panoramic photo shows the abundance of windows that will allow us to enjoy the beautiful view out the front of The “L” Shaped House.

Barry has started framing walls in the garage as well (more photos tonight).

This evening most of the garage wall framing is up. The remaining three walls around the stairway are going to be nearly 20 feet high and will have to be put in place with a crane.

The four 9 foot (wide) by 8 foot (high) garage doors are going to be a big upgrade from the (2) 8’ by 6’ 8” doors on our current garage (photo taken with a wide angle lens to get the quadruplets in the frame).

The Tappe guys also got the wall sheeting installed all the around the back…including the basement walk-out doorway.

Plumbing…Day 1

The Plumbing work started today. The first order of business…digging up the existing main line in the basement to see what kind of pipe was used and gauge it’s condition. Next…digging the trenches for the new sewer lines below the basement floor. Paul’s efforts to dry up the basement last night worked pretty well..but it still feels a little like a dungeon (especially with a guy sentenced to hard labor down there).

Framing…Day 3 (evening report)

The first floor framing of The “L” Shaped House is mostly in place tonight. I stopped by at about 6 pm and found Paul working trying to dry up the basement (he’s placed a couple of big fans down there). The first photo shows the house from the top of the dirt pile in the front yard.

The second photo is taken from the doorway into the kitchen looking toward the bay window and front door. It’s really fun to walk around in the actual spaces after 10 months of organizing, planning and waiting!

Framing…Day 3

These photos from today’s quick noon visit show the framing progress from the front (South East) and back (North West) corners of the house. It looks like the first floor walls will be complete tonight!

Framing…Day 2

By noon today the Tappe crew had the first floor sheeting installed. They will start framing the walls later today. The inside walls are laid out with red snap lines on the floor making it easy to see the floor plan as you wander around on the first floor…really fun stuff!

The framing crew then carefully draws all of the interior and exterior walls on the flooring as a guide for setting the framing in place. This also makes it really easy for the home owners to visualize what it’s going to look like when they are done.

The photo below shows the “L” Shaped House at about 8:30 last night. The wall from the mud room to the garage is the first section standing. The Tappe guys have a bunch of the first floor walls built and ready to tip up into place. It’s exciting to see the house starting to take shape.

Framing…Day 1 (5:30 report)

It seems that a big day like this deserves both a noon and 5:30 pm report. The Tappe crew installed all of the first floor open web trusses and framed up the basement walk-out and guest bedroom walls. The first photo shows a panoramic view of the house from a lumber pile in the front yard.

The second photo shows the open web trusses over-hanging the front foundation wall. The “bump out” for the dining room bay window is also evident in the shot.

 

The next two show an inside and outside view of the basement walk-out and guest bedroom walls.

 

This last photo shows the stairwell opening in the first floor trusses.

Framing…Day 1 (noon report)

The Tappe crew started framing the “L” Shaped House this morning. By noon they had open web trusses over the crawl space and had about half of the first floor covered. The whole work site feels different as the carpentry begins. Scherer Brothers dropped off a big load of lumber and the Tappe crew is spread out all around the foundation. It feels good to hear hammers pounding (OK…power nailers) around the site.

Kid’s Eye View…The Mud Monster!

Hey people of the internet…Helen here…

First things first…I got a haircut and people say it looks cute!

Anyway so…Sonja & I went to the house yesterday. Sonja jumped in the crawlspace and I accidently fell in behind her. My dad would not let us climb up the crawlspace walls so we jumped in the hole and started walking out “the way of doom” (otherwise known as the basement walk-out) . Sonja leaped for safety and almost made it but the Mud Monster grabbed her but could not hold on! I was not so lucky. As I ran across  it sucked me in. Dance has made my legs so strong I broke free after battling the monster of mud for what seemed like an hour. I finally made it out safe.

Thanks for listening to this Helen and Sonja Story*

That's it for this kids eye view…bye

* A reference to a Camille story. That is; a true story…with a little a tad I mean a LOT of exaggeration!

The Weekend Report…

The site is SLOWLY drying out after the big storm Thursday and Friday but there's still plenty of mud in the basement and the freshly excavated walk-out. The Tappe Construction folks plan to be working on the “L” Shaped House framing Monday morning (their tool box and construction fork lift are already here).

Helen and Sonja decided that they just had to tour the basement despite the water puddles and mud. They jumped in at the East end and and walked out through the walk-out door. I tried to tell them that they would have to walk through the mud to get out but they had a foolproof plan of their own…

The big rains have helped to compact the back-filling around the footings and foundation walls. The  fill has dropped at least a few inches almost everywhere and probably more like 6-8 inches  around the basement walk-out doorway. I continue to think that the rains have actually been a big help on the project…so far.

Matt Sletten removed the plastic from the garage floor Friday afternoon after one week covering the new concrete.  The new floor looks awesome.

Rough Grading and Basement floor…

I did not make it to the “L” Shaped House yesterday (it rained all day and looks like it will rain all day today as well). We got almost 2 inches of rain with this storm (so far) that also included tornados in downtown Minneapolis (KARE Link).  Surprisingly…somewhere during that time the excavators showed up and removed the basement floor. The soaking rain is second blessing because it will (again) help to settle the newly back-filled foundation walls. The panoramic photo (and the one below it) show the rough grading around the North West corner of the house a little better than pictures from the other night.

The machinery entered the house through the basement walk-out doorway. The site is a slippery, muddy mess. The clay in the soil sticks to your shoes making them into clown shoes after just a few steps.

The basement with the floor removed and the bracing for the back-filling operation in place. We took the floor out to provide complete access for the new plumbing and to facilitate installation of the drain tile waterproofing system we have opted to include. The heavy rains and resulting puddles (lakes?) make this decision seem appropriate. It will also be comforting to have a really good look at the water and sewer connections to the house.

 

The old basement floor in a pile at the top of the driveway.