Monday, August 29, 2011

walls. brush.

Wow - this weekend was no joke.  We rented a chipper and hauled it up to the mountain to start breaking down all of the brush left from AEP's power line install.  Saturday dad joined us and we knocked out a heavy chunk of the brush as the wind from Hurricane Irene blasted the mountain.  The cloud cover and constant wind keep the temps down but the chipper but beating on each of us for sure. 

On Sunday, Steph and I started where we left off and called it a day around 3:00pm.  At 90F and little to no wind, we wore down pretty quickly.  Needless to say, we've got more work to do, but we'll wait for the cooler temps that the fall season will bring before we revisit that kind of work.

I decided to make a trip over the mountain after talking with Rob, Aaron, Jim and Adam at Structures today.  Rob had mentioned that the walls are officially on the rise and we can expect a lot of changes on the mountain this week.  I arrived at the driveway to discover what looked like to be a house slowly forming before my eyes.

[Panels and walls.]

[Between the slab and wall panels.]

[And a closer look.]

[Door and window frames to be cut out after the first air tightness test.]

slab

With a doubt, last week was a busy week on the mountain.  The slab was poured, the septic system was installed and the drain field was completed.  Honestly, its nice to see the slab finally.  We were a bit concerned at first.  The house seemed so small with just the foam forms laid out.  Now that the slab has cured, things are looking a lot better and bigger!

[A view of the front patio and first floor.]
 

[A view of the back patio.]

[Got garage?]

[Septic and drain field installed.]

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

chores

The house is coming along - the gravel has be poured, the plumbing rough-in is nearly complete and the slab is scheduled for this week.  On the other hand, Steph and I have A LOT of work left cleaning up the brush.

I set up camp on the mountain Saturday and spent the entire weekend watching flames.  Steph and Dad came up Sunday to lend a hand and we got a bunch done.

[Time lapse - Saturday on the mountain.]

Saturday, August 13, 2011

burn baby burn

Up on the mountain tonight burning brush before the slab gets poured next week. Just me and Barley hanging out watching sparks fly but Steph is on her way with dinner shortly; Subway - yum!

Damn. Just discovered I can't upload pictures to Blogger from my iPhone.

Right now I've got the perfect recipe for an evening bonfire; a bulldozer, chords upon chords of wood, matches and Yuengling. Cheers!

Friday, August 5, 2011

pick a color

Which colors would you choose?

We never thought picking out an exterior paint scheme for the house would be that hard until we visited Sherwin Williams; wow - colors, colors and more colors!  Steph and I had an idea for what we wanted, but we couldn't get the colors to make sense.

That's when we went to my close friend Anne Moore for some guidance.  She's an interior designer and we knew she could steer us in the right direction.   

After a meeting and a few emails, here are the 17 color combinations Anne put together for us - Which one(s) do you like?

If you're up for giving some input, simply hit the Comments link at the bottom and tell us which combinations you like best.  For closer look, click on a picture if you want to see a full-size version of it.

Thanks a million Anne; let's see what the peanut gallery has to say.

[color concept 1]

[color concept 2]

[color concept 3]

[color concept 4]

[color concept 5]

[color concept 6]

[color concept 7]

[color concept 8]

[color concept 9]

[color concept 10]
[color concept 11]
[color concept 12]
[color concept 13]

[color concept 14]

[color concept 15]

[color concept 16]

[color concept 17]
 

Thursday, August 4, 2011

foam forms

I was up at the mountain last night - cleaning ditches and leveling the road with the loader.  I got a chance to visit with some of Structures' sub-contractors as well; nice bunch of guys.

It looks like the foam forms for the foundation are set and sealed.  Each form section was laid individually and the space between them was filled with dense spray foam.  Here's a closer look...

[Each form measures about 6' long by 3' wide by 2' tall.]
 

[Next, gravel then concrete.]
 

[Concrete will be poured level with the top of the forms.]