Getting Ready for the Floor

The plumber and the electrician have been at the building site to place what they need under the floor before it is poured this Friday.  Late last week, the footings were poured that will support the deck and porch areas. In the first photo, the area that is being poured is where a main support beam will be placed in the center of the house.  Our builder said this base needs to be very strong, as it will be supporting 40,000 pounds. The two steel bars sticking up through the concrete in the second photo will be the base of the main support beam. The beam will be inside one of the walls once the house is built so it won't be visible.

 This third photo is the wall panels that were delivered the other day.  They are stored at the nearby gravel pit for a few more days until the floor is done. The balance of the roof trusses are supposed to come this week also and will be stored at the same area.

Here are just a couple more photos - it was a nice evening (Aug. 27th).  Here's the left side of the house (septic filters are the green objects in the corner of the photo):

The right side of the house - (the builder's trailer is parked in what will be the garage):

More later!

~Herman & Mary Lou

Walls & Roof Arrive Tomorrow

We aren't quite ready for them, but the walls and roof panels are arriving tomorrow from Iowa.  As I mentioned previously, they will be off-loaded at a nearby gravel pit, and the builder will get them when all is ready.  The foundation is basically done.  This first photo shows the metal braces around the foundation that provided stability as the cement was inserted in between the foundation walls. 

After the cement was inserted, the foundation was waterproofed with the black material (I think I had this part mistakenly reversed in the last update).  Another layer of styrofoam is placed flat at the base on the outside of the foundation  to insulate, then it is backfilled. The excavator is at the building site today (August 19), adding the fill around most of the house as well as inside the interior sections.  The top of the foundation is where the floor of the house will start. At this point the electrician and plumber will also start some of their work making the initial water and electrical connections to the house before the foundation is completely backfilled.  The well is yet to be dug.  The excavator is removing a large brush pile today that will allow the well driller access to the site for the well which is off to the side of the garage about 50 ft. 

This section shown in the photo with the concrete base is the mechanical room behind the garage. You can also see part of one of the pieces of styrofoam insulation that is yet to be covered up at the base on the exterior of the foundation.

That's about it for now.  We will post another update when there is more to see.  Maybe next time there will be some WALLS to see.  Thanks for reading our blog! 

~Herman & Mary Lou

Getting the Foundation Ready

The footings are in and now the styrofoam foundation walls are almost ready for the cement to be inserted in between them.  The builder will waterproof the styrofoam walls of the foundation before adding the cement in the next few days.  Today (August 9) Herman and I went out there at noon and they were adding  metal braces to the foundation walls, to prevent any bowing or buckling when the cement is added. The first photo shows the area where the front door will be.  Where the foundation zig zags is the front door area.

The second photo is the lakeside wall of the master bedroom.  There will be a small patio door (where the discolored piece of styrofoam is) from the master bedroom out on to the covered porch.  The design of this house includes covered porches all across both the front and back sides of the house.  We opted not to have a screened in porch, but instead extended the kitchen/dining room area and added a picture window at the end of that room. I'll try and add pictures of that later as more progress is made.

Here also is a photo of our beach.  We are fortunate to have a level sandy beach, which is somewhat unusual up here where there are alot of rocks and actual cliffs on some lakefront properties on the same lake (Shagawa), as is also the case with most other lakes. Our end of the lake is actually a fairly large bay, very quiet. We see lots of eagles, ducks, deer,and have a loon family in our bay with two chicks - very fun to watch.

More Later!  Thanks for checking our blog!

Herman & Mary Lou

Progress on the House

Yes, we have started the bulding process!  It is a little behind schedule perhaps, but not too much. Our lot is 2.7 miles SW of Ely directly off Highway 169 and is located about 200 feet or so back from our lakeshore on Shagawa Lake.  The site is prepped, the road, electric & septic is in.  The site for the house has been excavated, and the trenches for the footings are ready - the footings will be poured on August 3rd.( We will not have a basement). The well site has been determined, and the well will be dug soon.

I will post updates and new pictures as there are things to see, which hopefully will give you a better idea of what the house looks like as progress is made.  The BIG day will be on or about August 20th, when we are expecting the SIP panels to be delivered. (These are the super-insulated panel walls that have already been constructed at a company in LaGrange Iowa).  The panel walls will come on 5 semi trucks, and will be off-loaded 1/2 mile from our property at a neighbor's gravel pit.  Our builder will then transport them one at a time down our road (which is 2 tenths of a mile off Highway169).  The trucks simply cannot turn around at the end of our road, nor would there be room to store all the panels on the site and still have space for the builder to maneuver.
More to come...hope you enjoy the updates!  Email me if you have any questions...thanks for viewing our blog!