Week 12: WALLS & Balloon Project #3

Exciting week! Walls are up this week along with some beams. The house feels much more spacious now with all the walls up. We did a walk through and it feels great! Visualizing is now much easier.


We did another balloon project which was a complete success. The secret is to double the amount of balloons used to counter the small breeze. We finally got some good shots. The balloons went up about 200 feet.

Week 11: Concrete Floors

Biggest item this week was the concrete floors. 5 inches thick and fully dried. We are ready for walls to go up.
Received news this week that the well pump and lines would cost double than we originally thought...bummer! The Distance is more than 450 feet to run the electrical lines from well to the house, and we need a constant pressure pump since we have a low flow rate.

Concrete Pour!

Today, the concrete for the main living areas were poured!
Everything went smooth. These are pictures Matt took. Hopefully the animals stay off the concrete while it dries!

Week 10: Rebar & Balloon Project 2

The last preparations were done this week for the concrete pour coming Monday. Additional Rebar recommended by Matt cost $3000 more to prevent the floor from cracking. We also attempted our 2nd balloon project. Too bad it was way too windy and only managed to get a few usable pictures. Next time we would have to go to the land first before filling the balloons.
Han planted carrots and spread the rye seeds everywhere as a cover crop. Will we regret it later..maybe...or we could be eating lots of rye.
Also "realestate" Steve stopped by...try to give us some advice and sell us services... annoying.
Additional backfill cost us $3000, ouch!

Week 9: Radiant Flooring

Major item tackled this week is Radiant Flooring. Our plumber is an expert in this type of installation. He carefully marked and tested all the tubing, a very important step since we're pouring concrete right over the top.
The cost of the Radiant is very expensive, we have total 3 zones covering the all the living spaces.
Coming up is the concrete pouring.

Week 8: Mechanicals & Gardening

More plumbing and electrical were laid this week in preparation for the concrete slab pouring. Planning is crucial at this stage since there's no way to correct it afterwards.
We were planning to do another balloon project, couldn't fit it in the car after filling with helium, thought we would be OK with hanging it out the sunroof....not a good idea. One balloon popped immediately after the car started and the other had a small hole that ruptured. Will try again when the kit starts to get assembled.
My parents did some light gardening to see how the seeds would do with the native soil, just a test really.
While we were on site, some neigbors stopped by to check out the property. They were really nice and told us some history of the land. It was farm land about 20 years ago.
We found a lot of rounded rocks, this place must have been under water at one point in time.

THE BIG DAY: 10/15/09 - KIT DELIVERY

We had our Kit delivered on Thursday 10/15/09. Truck arrived promptly at 9:00AM. Was unloaded in about 4 hours. The weather was cooperative right till the finish line, then it started pouring, so we are super lucky in this aspect.
Unloading took a lot longer than expected because the factory didn't load it up with unloading in mind. A lot of maneuvering needed to safely unload each pack.
After everything was unloaded, plastic tarp was used to cover up the wood to protect it from the elements.
Also, opened an account with Porco, the propane supplier to start the 1000 gallon tank installation.