SNOW...

Well, this is not very good. We got 4 to 5 inches of snow on Sat night/Sun morning. Some of it melted off Sunday afternoon, but basically it's here to stay. About 3 weeks early which makes getting my house walls up a bit more of a pain.


Here are a few pics from Sunday afternoon...



















You can see in this one, that the heat from the curing concrete has melted the snow directly above it. I'm pretty sure this isn't good for the curing process.
























Crawlspace side or guest room 'wing'.


















Walk out basement side - under the living room/kitchen/master bedroom.

Picture from 100108

And here is a photo Valda took for me on Thursday. Side 2 has the footers poured so the crawl space should go up shortly. Hopefully it doesn't start raining, but there there is a big storm headed in from Russia.

New Kitchen Layout

I think we've made the final layout changes for the kitchen. Moved the refrigerator to the end wall, just down from the sink. And then moved the cooktop & hood to the right wall next to the double ovens. This should give me a nice cooking area, with plenty of counter space on either side of the cooktop. And I can use the island behind the cook space for prep work.

Here is a scan of the new layout. Any ideas or suggestions?

Snow Squall

We've had a couple of heavy snow squalls this morning. No wind, so it's really quiet and pretty. But the snow is piling up a bit.

And here are 2 more from last Thursday, when we had our first real snow fall where the snow stayed on the ramp instead of melting off right away.

These were all taken from my office window.

Finally some good news!

Well, it finally dried up enough to get my basement slab poured, and even the back fill done around the basement. Looks like the compacting is getting done so the footers for the crawlspace can be poured next....

Thanks Valda, for the pics.

First Snow

Well, I woke up to snow on the ground today. It was fairly light snow at 5:30 am, but we had a couple of heavy snow showers between 8 am and 10 am. Then after lunch a short sun break so the snow melted off the ramp. But not off the tundra. Winter is setting in...YUCK!

This photo was taken about 7:30 this morning from my office window.

Rain, Rain, Rain

It just keeps raining so progress on my house is very slow. The guys have done some more excavating, they're trying to get the footers in so the can start the crawl space. But the whole area is ankle deep in mud. My poor driveways is a mess. I don't know when it will dry out enough to get the basement slab poured.

Valda took a couple of pictures for me last night.

No Progress

Well, after 5 days of torrential rain, it cleared up for few hours mid morning. Penny & Virginia were here visiting, so we went up to the house site to look around. The guys were scheduled to start back filling and getting the basement ready so the slab could be poured, on Monday. Today is Wed and it was just way too wet to get started. And it was raining again by 3 pm. Looks like lots of rain for another week. YUCK, I'm sick of the rain.

This is Valda standing in front of the cistern tanks and Penny is taking a picture.




And Virginia is trying to stay out of the mud!

Basement Drain

It's really raining hard today, but the plumbing guys are up at the house site, digging a small trench and putting in the basement drain line. This rain is supposed to continue all weekend, but dry up a bit on Monday & Tuesday. I hope it dries up enough so they can get the basement area compacted and the slab poured.

Also, the 2 big cistern tanks were delivered.

And they cut away a bit of the Styrofoam to check the cement. This is where the crawl space footers will attach to the basement wall.

Basement Walls Are Poured

This morning the cement was poured inside the insulated foam panels, so the basement is getting done. 3 Trucks of cement, and about 1.5 hours. The guy operating the boom on the cement truck, ran it from a remote control he had strapped around his waist.



















No rain yet today, but it's dark & cloudy. Had some fog this morning too.























And, as you can see, no tie offs for the crew once they were up over 6 feet. They seemed to be pretty sure of themselves up there, but I was a bit nervous.

Driveway Extension - Parking Area

Yesterday the guys extended my driveway, making a parking area. Hopefully this will keep their trucks out of the mud as they keep working on my basement.

And here is a picture of Darlene's house. She's my next door neighbor. Her house is about done. The outside is painted but still needs the deck put on and some landscaping. She has the heat turned on and is hoping to get the water hooked up this week.

Basement

The insulated foam panels are going up on top of the footers. They'll get filled with cement later this week to form the basement walls. Then the plumbing guys will come in to do some work and the ground will get compacted so that the slab can be poured.






























And, we know the french drain is working, here is water running out of it. There was a lot of rain over the weekend, these photo's were taken on Sunday.

Footers and French Drain Installation

I'm back home, it's pouring rain today. But Patty took a few pictures for me when the drain was being installed and footers poured. This all took place last week.

Another Coast Guard Visit

The Coast Guard is back for a short visit today. Looks like they're just loading up some equipment to take back to Kodiak. Boy is that C-130 loud when it's parked outside my window. Even the APU is loud.

As you can see, it's pretty gray and cloudy today. Cold too.

Outside Drawings

And here are some drawings, looking at the house from the outside. Too bad I can't just post the CAD file here and let you mess around with it. You can move around the house, and change view points, walk through walls, etc. It really is fun :-).

This is the view of the back of the house from the driveway. From Hutler Road, you'll drive down the driveway a short way. You can see the carport at the end of the house. This will eventually become the breezeway and connect the house to the garage. But that's phase 2 and a few years away.

This is still the back of the house, but looking at the back of the kitchen & master bedroom. You can see the side door. It's 2 steps down from the kitchen and provdes access to the side yard. Also from this landing, the steps go down into the basement.

This side view shows the windows in the master bedroom & master bath. You can also see the daylight basement under the main part of the house. The guest rooms will have a crawl space under them, but the rest of the house has a full basement. Most of it will be taken up with my water cistern & filtering system, plus the boiler for the in floor heat. But the section under the master bedroom will be a storage room, and also have room for my exercise equipment. Someday I might even get around to putting a hot tub outside under the overhang.

And this last view is of the front of the house. You can really see the big windows in the living room, and the covered portion of the deck, then the 2 guest bedrooms. Also the window in the guest bathroom. It should be a great view. I'll have to put a mirror in the guest bathroom someplace, but standing at the double sinks you'll have a window to look out of.

New Drawings - Plan & Inside

When I posted the pictures this morning, I filtered out all the 'other stuff' and reviewed all my House Building posts. I realized that I haven't posted any new drawings. The plans for my house have been through a couple of revisions, so here are some updated drawings.

This is the new general lay out, not too different. Still 2 guest rooms sharing a bath, then the main living space, and then the master bedroom & bath. You can also see the small roof covering part of the deck. But the deck will extend down in front of the 2 bedrooms to the carport, so it can be accessed from the living room, both bedrooms and carport area.


















Let me know if you have comments or suggestions. We haven't started building yet, so now is the time to incorporate any changes.

This view is from the entrance to the master bedroom, looking back into the kitchen and to the main entrance. I keep wanting to call it the front door, but it's really the back door. And you can see the framing for the back hallway behind the 2 guest rooms. The north wall of this hallway will be all closets, so I'll have lots of storage upstairs. I'm also going to put the washer & dryer in these closets so I don't have to drag laundry up & down the stairs to the basement.

You can also see how the ceiling in the kitchen area will be flat, and then slope up in the living room, to open up the view. I really have to decide if I'm going to leave the beams exposed in the living room or sheet rock over them so it's a smooth ceiling.

















This last inside drawing is from the kitchen looking out the front windows, and the exit doors out onto the deck. You can see lines of the floor where the island, and then the cabinets holding the wall ovens & fridge will be. And you can see a bit of the opening for the stairs to the basement.

Hole in the ground.

Well, it's finally starting. Ray's crew started excavating my foundation on Monday, 8/25. I'm now the proud owner of a large hole in the ground. Soon to be filled in by concrete for the foundation.

Here are some pictures taken Monday, Tue and Wed nights.

Silver (Coho) Fishing

I like to go fishing, particularly on a nice day. Just goofing off and enjoying the beach. But I rarely catch anything. Today I took Jemmy to the beach with me, caught this nice Silver, I'm guess in the 12 to 14 lb range. Jemmy wasn't thrilled with fishing, or with the fish. The water kept moving and the fish flopping around was too weird for her.

Coast Guard Visit

Last month it was the National Guard, and this month we have Coast Guard visitors. They've been in and out the past few days. Too bad it's been so rainy & gloomy.

From what I've read in the papers, they'll be around a lot. Trying to get ready for the Northwest Passage to be open in the summers and all the increased ship traffic that will entail.

I do like their Dolphin helicopters. These are the same model they brought with them on the icebreakers to McMurdo.