2nd Floor SIPs and snow

After the first floor SIPs were up, it looked like things were really starting to come together. The interior walls on the first floor were framed out so we started to get a sense of how the floor plan was going to feel. After that, the second floor was framed and completed, giving us a chance to walk around upstairs.

Upstairs (Click image for more photos.)

First Floor Walls

Well it's been a few weeks since my last entry. A lot has happened since then but much of it was not terribly exciting.  Necessary, but not worth writing home (blogging) about.  Immediately after the foundation was complete, the first floor was constructed. Next, the basement was completed, holes were drilled in the basement walls for the geothermal system, drainage pipes were put in by the basement windows, and underground conduit was put in for electrical cables. After that, a whole lot of back-filling around the walls made the site look much more "presentable."

Basement covered (Click image for more photos.)

Foundation

On Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2009, the foundation went in.  This was really quite something to see.  Bridlewood (our builder) opted to go with a Superior Walls foundation.  These are pre-fabricated insulated concrete panels that are engineered specifically for each foundation plan.  Thus, they arrive ready to be pieced together, a little like Lincoln logs.  Of course, they are big and heavy which requires the use of a crane.  Did I say that the whole process was quite something to see?  Wow!  This was the most exciting day so far!

A panel gets moved (Click image for more photos.)

Excavation

On Monday, January 4, excavation began.  We opted for a partial basement to save a little money and because rock is known to be a problem in Carlisle.  While full basements are common in this area, we figured the less digging we do, the better our chances of not running into a significant rock problem.  The plan was to dig down about nine feet for the basement area and about three feet along the perimeter of the garage and the rest of the house.  The basement/foundation walls were due to arrive on Friday, January 8 so the excavation needed to be finished by then.

House Plans

Earlier, I posted two entries on the design process we went through for this house, but I never included any house plans, nor did I discuss any of the basic principles that went into the design.  So, here is a post that discusses what we were after, the constraints we faced, and provides a few pictures of the finished plans.  There's probably more detail than necessary in this post, but once I got writing, it was hard to stop (I'm pretty excited about this house).