Porch, Roof and more progress....

Progress continues on the house - we are behind schedule but it is looking fabulous and we are very pleased with the work our framer, Cliff is doing...

Looking like a real house now!  View from the study side.

Cliff suggested that we use tongue and groove boards above the rafters to achieve this old fashioned look for the porch.  We love it!

Dining room is almost framed out.

Entry

Front view

Progress ......

Jerry went to check out the house over lunch yesterday and took some pics of the incredible progress our framer and his crew are making.

Those who have gone before us....other Tideland builders

There have been quite a few others who have built this plan before us and also posted blogs about it and I want to publicly thank them all.  Your homes and blogs have really helped us in making decisions about things we like and insights into what our home will really look like.

Here are the blogs and sites I found.  If you have a blog or have found others, please comment and share them so I can compile a more complete list.

Butch and Barb - Ozark foothills of Arkansas
Butch and Barb's Blog

Randy and Amy - Texarkana, Texas
Randy and Amy's Blog

Alan and Ellen Jones - Kelso, Tennessee
Alan and Ellen's Blog

John and Ellen - Slidell, Louisiana
John and Ellen's Blog

Cleaning Up...and oopsies

This weekend we spent a LOT of time with the prints and plans.  During our Friday evening walk through we noticed a couple of things that just looked "off" and sure enough a few minor adjustments had to be brought to the builder's attention this morning.  Nothing huge now but thank goodness we walk through every single day.

We also did a lot of site cleanup this weekend working to fill in the electric ditch we dug so the builders don't have to jump over it all the time :)

Dad filling in the electrical ditch

 Riley learned to run the forklift this weekend moving boards.

Framing - Staring to look like a house!

Once the framers got started things went FAST...... this is a complicated build with lots of double cuts for boards, odd measurements (for this part of the country) and frankly, just "different".  We have been told time and again that people don't build houses like this around here.  Exactly.  We don't want a square box - we want light, windows, sun and angles.  :)

Our framer (Cliff Stahlbusch) is fabulous by the way.  After having one builder flat out refuse to even consider building this house and others tell us it would be very complicated and they didn't know about it..... Cliff told us our house was cool and he would be excited to build it.  That combined with his reputation = hired.  He has been great.  Very communicative, focused and thinking carefully about each step of the build, the architect recommendations and his experience to help us make the best decisions all the way. 

The sky was just so pretty this evening while we were looking at the builder progress today I had to take this shot

Study side of the house toward the back

Took this pic from our truck at lunch - didn't want to interrupt the builders but the progress was amazing

another pic from the truck - the far right is the living area / front of house

view of side of house - right hand is front / living area and left hand is master bedroom

started the roof this week....

Porch and Electric

This last week our new concrete guy was able to get our porch poured and Jerry and my Dad started working on the electric lines.

Riley holding the pickaxe for a Minecraft pose.

Screened in porch area - ready for pouring

 

side of house porch area - ready to pour

This is the area off the screened in porch.  The plans call for steps going out to the backyard.  Since our "backyard" is a downward hill, we have changed it to a outdoor patio area where we plan to put a hot tub spa someday.

side porch - the are of the house that "sticks out" into the porch is where the dining room will be.

front porch where we will be able to enjoy an outdoor fireplace next winter!

Main electric box is up thanks to my dad and husband.

deep ditch dug for electrical wires to main source.

lots and lots of lumber

and here are the pictures of the lumber.....

Four very full truck loads from the lumber company ....

Lumber arrives and sunset view

Yesterday our lumber was delivered... and delivered...and delivered... 

Four trucks and a forklift later, we have a yard full of lumber.

I went out to take pictures but it was getting dark and instead I got these amazing sunset views...so today I am sharing those and later will show you just how much lumber it takes to build this house.

foundation stand still....

We were warned repeatedly about how flaky concrete guys are in our area (I use guys because I haven't yet met any concrete gals). 

Sure enough, our first hire quit on us 24 hours before the initial pour so we hired another guy.  We managed to get the foundation and safe room poured (see below) and now seems to have disappeared. 

We have been calling repeatedly for over a week, contacted friends and his lead guy and no response whatsoever.  So, we are back in the market for the porch.  It has to be done next week to have it ready for the framer who is finishing up the new bank building in town.  If we miss our calendar deadline we will not be "in the dry" by Thanksgiving which is our current goal.

Having whined about concrete guys - here is where we are as of today.  

View of foundation from front of house.

footings for porch - view of front

  

safe room entrance (half of laundry room on plans - our pantry)

view of footings poured for screened in porch off master bedroom

The foundation comes together....

The foundation is coming together nicely....

After months and months of deliberation we decided to use a monolithic slab foundation instead of pier and beam (like the model) because of the stability and location in our area.  We are going to use post-tension cables in the slab though to add more stability and try to prevent movement of the walls and ceilings as much as possible.  All those years living in Texas taught us how much we hate wall and ceiling crack repair!

First the guys dug the footings all around and laid in the concrete base.

Now you know this is not professional photography as evidenced by my fingers :)

Then the boards for the actual floor of the foundation

The rebar you see sticking up here is where we are adding an above ground safe room into the pantry area.  Living on a hill in Oklahoma it just seemed wise. :)

 Better pic of the safe room area.


The guys then laid in the post-tension cables to go down into the foundation....

Then, when we were expecting them at 6am - the sound of trucks rolling in woke us at 4:30am (I do not complain about workers who show up early!)


The guys come in to pour the actual foundation.

The pump truck setting up

It was pretty cool watching how the truck would get the concrete to exactly where it was needed for the foundation

Our concrete guys working hard to spread and smooth the concrete floor.

Then - after the concrete set a couple of days, Stress-con came out to stretch the post tension cables that are inside the foundation.  This should act sort of like bungee-cords to keep the foundation tight and together so it won't crack.  Any shifting should occur as one large plate so the whole house moves preventing cracking in the walls, ceiling, floors.

I don't know why this pic keeps rotating - but you get the idea....

This is it. The home we fell in love with when Jerry and I decided to build our next house. After months and months of searching for a plan that had all of the key features we wanted we found this plan on Southern Living.  Tideland Haven features a gorgeous wraparound porch, fireplaces inside and out and a huge great room with kitchen set inside. As challenging as this first decision was, turns out this was only the beginning. 

Where to build became our first major decision  Luckily, that decision was narrowed down quite a bit by my more than generous parents who offered us space on their property. 

With Dad's help we picked a beautiful location on a hill with the most incredible views.

View from master bathroom

view from screened in porch toward back of house

view from porch on dining room side of house

Of course we are making some changes to the house (it seems everyone I have found who also built this house has done so).

A few of the changes that we know we are making now are
1.  change laundry room to half safe room (above ground tornado shelter) and half pantry / storage
2.  laundry will be in master bath instead of shelves that face the tub
3.  changes to master closet and shower / toilet area to make larger closet, shower and hide the toilet from the shower

Breaking ground and laying out the house was our first major step.....

The work began with lots of big equipment and rock moving.  Here is Riley (our 15 year old son) helping haul rock with his Papa's front end loader.

Jerry and Papa spent a lot of time leveling, measuring, leveling, measuring.....

At last - the stakes went in.  The stakes came out and went back in as we worked to get the house in exactly the right position on the hill for the best views, wind control, and layout.

Finally, the rock haulers started bringing in small, fine rock called screenings.  This is used to lay the base of the foundation.  It took a LOT of screenings.
 

YES - the sky is real and not photo shopped.