Front Corner At Last!

There it is. The corner steel is in place and the block courses have begun. It would be a great Christmas present if the shell of the house could get done by Friday. We will see how it progresses.

Concrete was poured! Finally.

I was happy to see that the concrete foundations for all the steel columns at the front of the house and carport have finally been poured. Now we will see if the steel will go up this week. You can see the steel plates and how they are embedded into the concrete.

Waiting for some steel... 11.30.06

Some views from the front and the back. The front of the house is not done taking shape yet due to the missing steel beams. We are anxiously waiting for the concrete foundations to be poured so that the rest of the steel can be placed allowing the front corner of the house to be blocked out. The back of the house is complete so the actual scale and form is now apparent. Hopefully the project starts to advance as it has been rather slow this month.

Progress is being made. I hope.

After a site meeting with the contractor yesterday, I felt much better that things are starting to progress. The project has been rather slow for the past couple of weeks but now it is starting to go forward. A few structural details were discussed and as you can see we continued a block wall within the master wing to support the second floor. Trenching has begun again for the foundations necessary for the steel to be erected. Without the steel in place the block cannot be completed. Hopefully we will start to see signs of formwork by the end of the week. I am very excited to start to see the steel go up.

From the Back.

The walls continue to rise. Here is a view from the back of the house area. Still keeps raining making the project about a month behind...

Slowly but Surely.

The last few weeks have been a bit slow due to the rain...but the walls keep going up. The mass of the building is starting to take shape as the walls to the second floor start to go up. 

The first floor...almost done.

The Back.

The Front.

IPE or Redwood?

The wood samples from Victory Building arrived. Both woods are really nice We will need to see all the tones of wood that are going in the house to make the best decision. (the kitchen cabinets, the parklex panels, the bamboo floors, the stain for the interior doors and client furniture)...I personally like the color of the IPE best with the bamboo floors. The Brazillian Redwood has a definite red tone to it. Frank also marked the location for the wall vent at the storage building. Things seem to be a bit slow due to all the rain these last couple of days.

Time to pour.

We were at the site today and met again with the Head of the concrete block crew. He let us know that they will be pouring concrete tomorrow and asked if everything was set for this. We gave him the go ahead to start filling. All the walls are up to a certain level now where a row of cells is filled for reinforcement. During this phase they also add more rebar to tie to the rows that will set above.

Front Perspective

The first course is served.

The first course of the block walls has started. We will definitely see the house start to take shape this week.

Piles of block everywhere...

Small, manageable piles of block were spread out around the site today. There is a whole lot of block out on the slab, we will see how long it takes for them to finish. Hopefully the walls will start tomorrow.

The BLOCK has arrived! {Aug 23}

The block was on site yesterday afternoon. Erick and I ran into the block layer last night while he was preparing his site. He said that he might take a while because the layout was "unusual". I am in the process of confirming whether low-e glass is required by the city or not so that other glass choices can be used on the project. We will see what progress has been made with the block in the afternoon.

dig, dig, dig

Some more digging occured at the site today...exactly what they are digging i'm not sure. The trenches are scattered about the carport area...we will see what their purpose is tomorrow.

This slab is going nowhere.

The slab of the house and the storage area were poured. The depression in the slab is for areas of gravel that will be inside the house under the open stairway.

{Aug 16} Termite mesh is put on...

...and all the crews tie up loose ends before the slab is poured.

It's Ready to Pour!

We walked the site last night with Frank to make sure everything was in order for the pouring of the concrete today. The electricians were there late putting in the electrical conduits that were needed in the slab. I will be heading out to the site in a bit to watch the concrete pour and make sure the termite mesh is put in. Frank says the block should start to go up on monday and the footings for the perimeter walls and steel columns will start tomorrow.

Rebar goes down.

Plumbing Changes.

The location of the sink was moved to adjust to the kitchen island changes. And apparently one of the neighbors put in a new toilet, cause we are definitely not at that stage yet. Everyone's trash comes out when there is a construction site nearby.

HOW COMFORTING...

How comforting to work with such great architects. Erick and Caro are so patient and knowledgeable. They have been such a blessing. They are very energetic and never tire when faced with our indecision.
Today we looked at different siding for the home. I think we have chosen well. The combination of metal, stucco and wood will be modern and interesting. Can't wait to see it!

Foundation Preparation

The foundation is taking shape today...the polyethylene vapor barrier has been put down and the reinforcing steel has been set in the trenches. Looks like we will being seeing some concrete sometime next week.
We need to verify the location of the sink along the island before next week. Electrical rough-in for the floor outlets in the hobby room and the kitchen island is still not done. This should be done once the top layer of rebar is put down.

Who let this guy on the site?

Not much to see {Aug 10}

There has not been much of a change in the last two days. The trenches have been cleaned out today and some of the site dirt at the rear was moved around. Yesterday was a bit muggy and muddy. Lots of mosquitoes, too!

I'm so excited! {Aug 08}

Just got back from Houston and I am so excited to see how the project has progressed. The rough-in plumbing is in and the temporary power was being set-up when I arrived at the site this afternoon.

Is anyone else excited?

While in Houston we made it to RAM industries to see some window and sliding door samples. Pretty nice... Will go see what the local manufacturer has to offer in the morning.

You put some fill in, you take some fill out... {Aug 4}

Trenching has begun! All of this soon to be filled with rebar and concrete.

The outline. {Aug 2}

Little by little the project will start to take shape. With the outline in place we can now have a virtual walk on site. Still hard to get a good sense...but when the walls will go up and we will have a much better feel for the spaces.

A whole LOTTA fill. {July 27}

Not much to see yet but the excitement begins here.

A future glimpse...

How close to the renderings will it turn out? I guess we can only wait and see. Things tend to change when construction begins.

What's this house all about?

Design began and went through its phases and its changes. There is no wonderful sentence or paragraph to describe what the design "means" but hopefully we captured the needs and the wants of the family in some way. The view of Lake James is of course a major asset of the site and a large factor on the layout of the house. Heres the site when we began last year.

Design Begins : 1 year ago

It all began about 1 year ago at the site of our first residential project. On a search for modern design, Toni and Oscar ran across a house like no other around. After a tour of our project they asked us to design their future residence.