We're in week 15 since clearing. Lots to report.

This week marked the 14th week since we began clearing on June 2nd.  Monday marked that last day we had the bobcat we rented to build the retaining wall and the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee came in about mid-day and then continued through Tuesday (see the previous post).  While the house wasn't quite dried-in, we took very little water.  On Tuesday morning we took advantage of the light rain to put up some house-wrap over the open gable end and clean up what little water did infiltrate.  We also found that the raccoon had returned to his comfortable home on Monday - but by Wednesday he appeared to have had enough of the noise and commotion that he left.  We moved the burlap out and now there's no food source, water, or comfy "beds" for him to sleep in so hopefully he's found another place to live.

  Tuesday the only folks who worked were the electricians - they needed the work light we had just to see in the house because of the dark wet day.  Overnight there was about 4" of rain that fell again and the backfill area settled some more - which is all good since that means less settling in the future.

The framing crew returned to work on Wednesday to put in the deck roof (and support columns) as well as the gable end wall.  Unfortunately we weren't able to get sufficient quantity of the Zip Roofing system locally so they could not complete dry in the roof on that end but the majority is done.  They also were able to finish the sheathing on the clerestory and do some of the punch-list items inside the house (niche's over the panty closets, niche at the end of the hall, bathroom "bump-out" to account for the plumbing being 3" off the 12" rough-in required, removal of the bathroom knee-wall due to a new design whereby a cabinet goes in that space instead).  We also moved the closet from the "office" to the workout room due to the larger size and ability to place a bed more readily in the bedroom created by that move (resale value item).

 Wednesday also saw the concrete crew return to prep the garage for the concrete footing inspection and pour.  We also made a slight modification to the front area by adding a walkway that extends from the breezeway past the front door. It makes a good flow and since it's 5' wide we'll be able to display items there without fear of water damage (dripline from the overhang is beyond the concrete by a slight bit).    The prep took 3 full loads of ABC (crush and run) plus about 3/4 of another.  The crew compacted it with a plate tamper, set the forms, and doweled the rebar into the concrete walls of the house to prevent any sinking of the "porch." in the future.

  Friday was another "quiet" day on the site - only the electricians and your's truly were on site.  I was basically cleaning up and moving the remaining ABC from the front of the garage pad area out in the run-up so it was ready for the Monday inspection and the pour early on Tuesday.

We also received a call from the state inspection folks regarding the location of the geothermal well.  They will visit the site on Tuesday to ensure we've got the appropriate set-back from the house, the water well (proposed location) and the like.  Part of this appears to be that the contractor we plan to have drill the new wells has a Virginia business address so they have to be "sure."

Our final activity this week was a visit by the engineering firm to ensure the footings and doweling planned for the porch/breezeway will be sufficient to prevent settling in the future.

Driveway view as of the end of the day on Thursday

Garage footings in, final adjustments being made to rebar, leveling, and marking for the pour. And yes, that is "Patrona" as the framers call the lady of the house walking by on her clean-up run.

 View of the house from the Northwest corner - note the clerestory is "almost finished" and the deck roof is there.

Straight-on view of the deck area.  The deck will sit on the 'lugs' on the side of the house - decking will be 3/4" below the opening of the french door.  That middle post will be gone and a tie-rod system will pull the two LVLs in and be suspended from the peak of the deck.  Initially this will be an open deck but future plans will be to screen it in as far out as the posts - there will remain an open walkway along the West side of the deck that won't be under screen.

The prepared footing for the garage - rebar along the house but not necessary for the floor due to the fiber in the concrete.

The breezeway is marked off the the orange line, and you can see the porch runs to the front door.  This also shows the drip-line outside the porch.  One note is there will be gutters that will catch the water so there really won't be a "drip" anyway.

This is the beefed up section of concrete where the breezeway meets the deck.

Looking from East to West - Front door is on the left, porch runs into breezeway and will be poured at the same time as the garage.

This shows a view of the niche above the pantry - there's one on the other side as well.  

Yep, another picture of the beams running down the hallway. This week with the electricians working, we found that the concept was great but getting the electrics installed and having the slats is tougher than initially thought.  We won't wait for our site-milled hickory since we need to get this done soon.  We have the concept and now have to execute it.

Footings - and our first overnight guest!

Today we had the county inspection for the garage and deck post footings which went well. The concrete pour was a "will-call" scheduled for 12:00 and it showed up as scheduled so we poured and finished those footings.

The footings for the garage - pre install of the rebar

The footing on the West side of the garage

This is what happens when you place footings in the overdig area - we had to go down about 5' to get to virgin soil and actually decided to move the garage 1' further from the house to avoid having to dig down another 5' or more (the bottom of this photo is the house end of the footer on the East side of the garage)

After the pour - footings were set to level using a transit and "pinning" a leveling mark on the sides of the footer.  

These are the footings for the deck - the closest and furthest will support the posts that will bear the load of the roof (carried on LVLs that run from the sill of the wall to the beam).

A different view of the garage footing - looking from the West.  

After that we had our neighbor once again help with digging - this time it was for the footings for the retaining wall.  He made quick work of digging even though the placement of the pallets with the block were making the job a bit more difficult.  At the end of the day we had a good pad for the gravel and first course of the retaining wall so tomorrow will entail moving lots of gravel, leveling it and then setting the base course as well as the drainage tile that runs through the drainage aggregate (which makes up the 12" immediately behind the blocks.  We're still waiting for the engineer to provide cut-sections of the wall and to ensure that the drawings we have will suffice for county approval.

The electricians also showed up today to start rough-in and got the majority of the basement finished but pulled off at the end of the day due to the house not being quite ready for the complete wiring. We're hoping that the schedule of events will include finishing the deck and West end gable wall this week. That hinges on the NC State approval of the geothermal well and water well locations so we can get those wells drilled.

Cans for lights installed in the basement hallway ceiling - 4 of them.

The utility room - breaker panel will go against far wall - just to the right of the box.  Two florescent fixtures will light this room.

The closet in the office

Desk nook in the office with one can over it - switched separately from the rest of the room

Two cans light the main portion of the office

The space bedroom - 4 can lights here.

Workout room - wall outlet for TV.  Lighting will be 3 cable lights on the ceiling.

  Our surprise for the day was an overnight visitor who stayed through lunch.  Late last week we found telltale signs that a raccoon had been wandering about on the property and had left his pawprints on the griddle the framing crew uses for their lunch.  Well, after lunch today one of the framing crew discovered that a juvenile raccoon had decided that the nice cool basement was perfect for a nap.  Laughingly he used a piece of the I-Joist as his bed which is a technique our framing crew uses to catch a few winks at the end of their lunch (the flex helps soften the "bed").

Our baby raccoon - at this point we thought he was sick since he wasn't moving much and didn't  seem bothered by all the humans gathering around him.

Shortly after this picture he decided to move to the other side of the room and then he departed the basement (with a little encouragement).

Once we finished the retaining wall footings, we recalled Jack so we could dig a trench to stub out the septic line under the deck.  Tomorrow the plumbers will finish that drainage line and then we'll start on the deck and gable end wall in a day or two.  Also scheduled for tomorrow is the rough-in for the HVAC (geothermal units) throughout the house.