March 28th (PM)

Oh, hey, did I mention, today it was 72°F at 10 AM when I drove by. It was still 66°F when we drove by again around 5PM. This is what we saw.


And here is the view I've shown most consistently. All the main roof is in...now, they just need to do the front gables, put in the wall between the dining and living rooms, cut out the holes for the windows and complete the front of the garage...to name a few things.


Can all of that happen by Friday? Maybe Saturday? The next crew needs to get in there and do their thing.

March 28th (AM)

OK, so, went by today after dropping Summer off at daycare...so at 10AM, they have 7 roof trusses in place. And I looked back at the blog (aint it handy that way) and see that they started on March 16th... They are given two weeks, and I figure we can give them 1 or 2 days extra due to the storm...so, they basically have until the end of the week to finish up. Anyway, here it is this morning:


And, I forgot that I took this picture with my camera phone last night. We walked through the house and that's Jess and Summer in the "kitchen door", taken from the backyard.


Will go by with Jess tonight after she picks up Summer and we'll get some more pics. I'll try posting them tonight, to keep up on the blog for a day. ha.

Another week...

Wednesday March 22nd:
OK, due to the snow no work got done Sunday or Monday. They finished the first floor interior on Tuesday and Wednesday.


That hole in the floor is for the stairway down to the basement, looking from the kitchen nook.


And this view is from the main entry looking at the coat closet/dining room area. Still missing the wall between the dining and living rooms.


Friday March 24th:
Making progress, but the progress seems slow to us. Only 3 guys on our framing crew. Here they are starting work on the second floor.


Saturday March 25th:
So, they worked on Saturday. This was just the exterior walls. Windows aren't cut out, to keep it a bit warmer/less windy inside.


Monday March 28th:
No pictures today to share. Since working on the interior upstairs, can't show that too well. Hard to say if they worked on Sunday or just got a lot done today, as most of the interior looked to be done.

We still feel these guys are slow, but our Superintendant says we're still OK...and their work is HIGH QUALITY...hmmm...we'll see. We just want to see our house looking like all of the neighbors that are near us, purchased at the same time. All of them have some roof joists in place; heck the 3 across the street have windows and one has siding going on. The next crews will have to try and catch up, maybe? Has seemed slow (said for the third time in this post...), but this is not a race. We'll keep updating when there is something that looks like a change.

A Lot can happen in 10 days!!!

Saturday March 11th:
So, the completed the backfill on Saturday. Ready to pour the Cement. I got a chance to walk around and see that the wet bar rough-in was not completed. So, I immediately go tell the sales consultant and fill out a concern form.

Looks like there should be time to get in the plumbing before the pour.


Monday March 13th:
However, they got out there and started pouring the concrete at 5:30AM, so my concern form was never read in time.


I couldn't tell, from looking at the tarps, though. In fact the wet-bar area looked OK, as there was a bump in the tarp. I only found out later it wasn't done.


Thursday March 16th:
Since it was cool and such, they let the cement cure for a few days, so not much happened. But, by the 16th they were back at work with the framers preparing the foundation walls for the sub-floor. Here is our wood, delivered and ready to go.

Here is a steel i-beam being installed for structural support.


Friday March 17th:
By Friday, the framers are installing the sub-floor. Here is the garage. Not much different from when we'll be moving in. They'll just be sweeping it clean.


Here is some of the sub-flooring in the morning.


And by the end of the day, the sub-floor was complete.


So, we were able to walk around the house. We got the feeling of WOW, this place is SMALL. It's amazing how a frame of reference can make the place go from looking large to small. When completed, hopefully it will seem roomy, again, like the model. Here is Jess holding Summer and looking out, almost where a window will be for the living room. So, it can be seen, we will have a nice view.


Saturday March 18th:
Friday is when I noted that the rough-in for the wet-bar was not completed. I walked back into the sales office and spoke with the counselor and, luckily, the superintendent. They told me the plan for how they were going to still work in the rough-in, and how they will be changing the process for the timing of the rough-in, so this won't happen again. There are half a dozen other people wanting the rough-in, that will be getting them, and getting them right, because of us. The superintendent is going to work outside the current process to make it happen. Wonder where that will leave us, monetarily. We'll see what happens. We have a meeting Monday with everyone and a meeting with the design center next Saturday. Hopefully they'll "make it right" so to speak.

Anyway, here is the place Saturday. The framers made it out to get a jump on the weather. Probably will not be able to work for a few days.


About an hour later, after hanging out in the model home, taking measurements for furniture we drove back and they had up a few more walls.


Later that night, we returned again. All of the exterior walls are completed. Missing a few internal details, but they can get there later.


Sunday March 19th:
We were wondering if the framers came out Sunday. It really didn't start snowing until later in the day, but they took the day off. We did drive out to see the house to see if they'd done anything and to see the place in the snow. I like this picture with the snowflakes reflecting off of the flash.


The last picture for this update. Snow in out house. Funny, you don't see that TOO often. At least not THAT much snow. They have to cut out some of the siding wood in the window frames. Hang some siding on the eastern walls and such, but the main walls are done. That hole on the right is the patio door coming off of the kitchen.


OK, so that's it. May take some more snow pictures tomorrow (the first day of Spring) but, we don't expect them to be back out working til maybe Wednesday. I'll try keeping the blog updated a bit better, so it's not such a long post each time.

March 9th - Backfill

So, I went by this morning, after dropping Summer off at daycare and running a few errands. There was a touch of snow still on the ground, as there was a light snow last night and it was still cold. The cold doesn't stop the workers. They just dress appropriately and keep at it. I'm glad I caught this moment, as it was being filled and the tamping machine was packing the dirt in firmly. Very cool moment!


Another simple front on shot for comparison to other pics on the blog. Compared to above you can see with just a bit of time and some Sun, the snow pretty much melted away. This image is missing some of the garage on the right, but it shows the fill all around a little bit, and hey, there's our neighbor's house! The mountain of dirt is being dismantled.


This next image is of those window-wells on the left side again, but, all back-filled with the dirt. That's where the tamping machine was working this morning.


Next up is the garage area. It wasn't completely filled in, yet. I guess they have to fill a bit more and pack it in, then fill some more. I'm guessing if they didn't finish today, they'll be done tomorrow...which should mean the concrete can be poured into the basement early next week.


Last one for tonight is the plumbing. The piping sticking up is the rough in for the basement bathroom. There were too many people still working around for me to walk around and get a shot/check for the rough-in for the wet bar. I'll check that out tomorrow, or this weekend when less people are around. But, for now, this is a nice image. Shows the sewer lines are in and the main copper plumbing lines are ready to go! Also can note the notation on the back wall. They mark the address (obliterated from the image) and hosue style, etc...and they even remind everyone that it is an 8 foot basement unfinished. I can make out some of the code. :-)

Snowy March 8th

Not sure what they could or couldn't do on our home on a snowy day like today...


But, there were workers in tractors and trucks moving dirt and getting work accomplished. I hope our wood doesn't need to dry out before being installed. We got our roof in so early. We still don't have any of the wall pieces lying around, anywhere.

So, nothing to see here, from today. Tomorrow I will be sure to get some more pics. Hopefully, most of this snow will be melted away and they can make some good progress before the weekend.

March 7th - More Plumbing And Base Work

OK, they had some sheething and a bit further progress on Monday, but nothing visually that different. On Tuesday, though, we took these three pictures.

First up, a corner of the house, which shows how they tack on some sheething and protect the footers/the entire basement from ground water leakage. Every little additional seal helps! They also tar over that tacked on strip to seal up the little holes from the tacking. I'm betting I'll post another picture later that will show the tarring, if they don't back-fill it too soon. Also, some copper piping can be seen in the image. The entire house is done in PVC and Copper. Copper in, PVC out, I imagine.


The next pic is semi-redundant, showing the sheething, again. However, this just shows how they wrap it around the wall supports and by the window wells.


Last picture does not really pertain to the day. If you look at some pictures from other days, you can see portions of this pile of wood in the images. However, today I decided to take a more full-on view picture of our roof rafters. This house is basically just a big puzzle, and the pieces are shipped in and assembled in place.

March 3rd - More Foundation Progress

OK, this first picture shows the sealing they do to the concrete on the filling side. Meaning they seal where they are going to back-fill with dirt. The break in the wall on the right is the main 2-car garage. They will back-fill up to the edge to allow room for a driveway to be put in. The hole in the center is the smaller opening for the 3rd car garage door. I am a little unsure why there is a hole underneath this area. Guess there has to be a break from a full lower footing for the basement and the higher footing for the garage.


This second picture is of the left side wall, as shown in the last post, just from the back of the house. The window wells are installed. The backfill covers the lower portion of these.


This picture shows the inside of the window wells. The pic is a little blurry, but you can see the ladder and how it hangs on the window well. I am unsure if those round things stay there, I have to get a closer look by getting out of the car soon.


The last picture for today shows the sewer being installed. This image is interesting in that it shows the hand labor involved. Not everything can be done with a large machine. There are hand shovels to get under the footers and lay the main pipe. A nice large PVC.


These pictures were from Friday. They worked on a house across the street a little on Saturday, but nothing happened to our house until Monday.

March 2nd - The Forms are Off

OK, so the next step, after the concrete dries, is to remove the forms, mark the walls with whatever everything means to the builders. This is basically how it looked right after the forms came off.

This view is comparable to the drive-by pic of the house with the forms in place.


This second picture shows the garage area. There is no basement here, but it's dug out to have room to work on the footers and the forms. This will be back-filled shortly. And speaking of the back-fill. Check out the ENORMOUS piles of dirt behind the house. They dug some BIG HOLES. Not all the dirt will go back in, since there is a house taking up a major portion of the hole. We wonder where it will all go...?


This next pic shows the footers and walls fairly well. The front area, that looks like a separate room is actually the support area for the patio. This entire "room" will be backfilled and covered in cement for the patio.


This last picture from today, just shows the left side wall. It again shows off the footers and basement walls. It also shows off how they install the windows before pouring the cement. These are escape/safety windows, large enough openings and they will have ladders built into the window wells to climb. They're built in place. Pretty cool. Also, note the walls of the basement, they are fresh from the forms. They get coated as part of the next step. Lastly, the "S" with arrows seen on the front and sides, here, are for the sewer line. The arrow pointing down is about where the sewer comes out from the basement.

The Forms - Feb 28th

So, we arrived in Colorado Springs on the 26th. We went to the site at night, but forgot the camera. Only the footings were in at that time, which would have been a good picture to show the progress, but alas, we don't have that. The next day the forms were up, but they weren't filled and it was rather uninteresting. So, we went back on the 28th (we go by once or twice a day) and took these pictures.

The first picture was from the car, with the window rolled down, as there were people working all around and we didn't want to get in anyone's way. The image shows the state of the homes behind us as well.


So, we went back at night. I didn't bring a tri-pod, since we rode there on our beach cruisers. I wonder how strange we looked to drivers we passed? Anyway, these next pics aren't the greatest quality, but they get the details across. This one is a close up of the forms which shows how the foundation/basement walls are just re-inforced concrete poured into the forms.


For this picture I put the camera down on the pile of dirt, so you can see the entire basement. Also shows across the street and the surrounding neighborhood.


This last picture is a view from our front yard. We will have a view between homes looking out at Pike's Peak, that tall snow covered mountain on the left, behind the tree covered hills/mountains. And, yeah, those are our beach cruisers.

The Land

This first picture was taken by our realtor back in the middle of January. I have highlighted the approximate location of our plot of land. You can also get a feel for our view, which is more visible in other posts which will be forthcoming.


I went to Colorado Springs on February 10th, for a preview of the design center to get information on some of our choices, to go apartment hunting and visit our site. Here is how I found the place. This first picture is the left side of the basement, which includes the 5th bedroom/media room and the main play area.


This last picture is the right side of the basement in the back of the hole. This is where the poker table, arcade cabinet(s) and wet bar will be located.

Floorplan

This post shows the floorplan of the house. This will help those of you who come to visit. :-)

This is the Upstairs. We chose the room nearest to us as the guest bedroom, since it has the smallest closet and will be occupied the least often. Summer gets the room with the largest closet. When/if we have a second child, they will remain further from our master bedroom, as well. We really liked this model option the best, due to the openness and the loft area.

The main floor is basically as shown here. We will be getting the media niche, but not any built in bookshelves or the like in the Study.


The basement is shown next. We are not paying to have this finished. I get to try my skills are framing and sheetrocking, and full bathroom finishing. This will be FUN FUN FUN!!! We will be putting in some sort of Wet Bar, but not necessarily like the one shown. We are having plumbing roughed-in so we can install a sink and such. The 5th bedroom will mostly be a media room. We want to get plush movie seating and put up a screen and get a good surround system, etc. That is quite a bit down the line. For now everything will just be in the family room, on the main floor.

That's about it for the floorplan. Very roomy at about 4000 square feet when the basement is finished.