Gravel, More Dirt and Rocks

Due to rain Sunday night, we had a muddy drive up to the house site Moday and Tuesday and nobody worked.  Harry, our contractor says it was time for some road bond to go down on the road, so the trucks could get up the hill.  See this truck trying to back up our road.  It wasn't too muddy as the wind tried most of it out on Tuesday and he backed up pretty good....for a while.

Couldn't get up the hill so he started raising the bed to move the gravel to the back for weight.  got up the hill.

He tried dumping gravel and it is supposed to come out as he drives down the hill.  But he told us it was just made and it was very wet road bond.  It was stuck at the back and wouldn't come out.

Had to just open the back up wide and let it all out.  The bulldozers spread it up the hill.  Took 2 loads to make somewhat of a road.

Uphill, we are moving dirt, using two bulldozers.  One digs the dirt and dumps it over the big cliff into our basement site.  The second bulldozer pushes it over the bank down to the next level.  It is extending our yard.

Making progress.

The bulldozers worked Wednesday Thursday and Friday.  Friday, they hit a problem.

ROCKS, VERY BIG SOLID ROCKS

That big hump in the middle of the 2 previous pictures is solid rock.  The bulldozers couldn't budge it.  To try would have ruined the bucket and blade of the 2 dozers.  We are told that the removal of the rock will require a hammer bulldozer.  A very big machine with a giant hammer kind of drill that breaks up the rock so the other dozers can remove it.  We are told it costs $2500 a day to rent it.  Fortunately, it should break up this big rock in one day.  This is where our garage will sit, so it must go!!!   

Friends and Neighbors

Lynn and I are standing in front of her basement level.  See the pretty view behind us. Quite a few trees will come down to open up the view, mostly little tiny trees.  The big ones will stay. This was taken last weekend.  They poured the footings last week for Lynn's house and started builing the basement level last Saturday.  You saw a little over half a days work in the last blog about Lynn's house.

Nobody worked on Sunday.  It rained Sunday night so nobody worked on Monday or Tuesday.  It stayed dry the rest of the week, so I got daily pictures. Wednesday afternoon here is what I found.  Just a little higher up on the back wall and going up the sides and front.

                                         By Thursday, they were this far.  Building higher and everywhere.

By Friday noon it looked like this and they were ready to pour 15 tons of concrete in the back wall and left side to make sure those walls go nowhere.  Building codes require the block wall to be poured full of concrete if dirt will be pushed up against the wall.

The back and sides were almost done, 16 blocks high against the back wall and stepping down on the sides toward the front.  And they clean up after each step.

By Saturday, the concrete was poured and the sill plates were laid.  Maybe you can tell that in this picture below.  There is a 2 x 8" salt treated board down first.  On top of that is a 2 x 6 board for the foundation of the house.

By Saturday, they were putting thoroseal on the outside of the blocks and building the walls in the front.  Hulio alone remains, sending all the workers home Saturday morning when the block was all finished.  You can see 2 colors on the block.  The light grey on the left is a coat of mortar spread out to cover up the seams.  The right darker color is a coat of thoroseal for waterproofing.  Hulio says there will be 2-3 coats before he is done.  He will finish this Monday.

Here, they ae making sure everything is plumb and level.  you can some openings for picture windows.

See Michael here measuring against the middle support beam.  This beam has a cut-out area at the top.  A steel beam will sit there so that the basement area will be free of posts.

So that is Lynn's update for the past week.  Monday and Tuesday, the framing crew will complete the build up of the rest of the walls with lumber, that will not be up against dirt.  It is much cheaper to build with wood, than blocks and concrete.  The plan for this week is that Tuesday afternoon Lynns modular house will be delivered but will not be installed until Wednesday morning.  Will try to get pictures of that. 

I am so glad to have Lynns house to blog about because our construction loan is held up in underwriting.  Waiting for one lone document.  But I will update on the grading next.

Our Friend Lynn

Meet our friend Lynn.  Lynn is building a house right next to ours.  In fact we bought the first property from her and then a neighbor offered us both some more land up behind our property and we bought it together, combined the land and split it in half.  We each have about 3.25 acres right next to each other.

Lynn's house is getting started before ours.  Her bank moved faster than ours so she started building first.  The footings to her house got poured this week and the block layers started today.  Her house is 28' wide by 34' long over a basement.  She will have a garage connected to her house 20 x 24' long and another level over her garage, where she will put an apartment.  Here are some views of the work that happened today on her house.

Standing from Lynn's garage area and looking down into the basement area.  The workmen got started today at 8:00 am.  The hardest part was getting the first row of block all level before you go up with the wall.  They completed 7 rows of the back wall before stopping for lunch.

This view is from up behind Lynn's house area.  See the little bay window area on the left of the back row.  The block masons say it has been giving them a hard time, as they have to cut the block to make the bay window support in this curve.  See the big pile of bloks in the middle of the area.  The basement will be 10' tall when it is done.

A lot of supplies go into putting up a basement wall.  12" wide blocks are required if dirt will be pushed up against the blocks.  They blocks are   12" deep x 18" long  x 8" high.  To make the mortor it requires a big pile of sand and in front of it on the left is a pallot of mortar mix and a mixing machine.  And see the white square to the left of the pickup truck.  That is a big plastic square of water to mix everything with.

Meet GB Gonzalez of Gonzalez Masonry.  Everyone calls him "Hulio" as the G in his name stands for something nobody can pronounce.  He is a perfectionist and you see him here shooting the levels to make sure the front and the back levels all come out at the same height, so it all comes together perfectly.  Hulio says he has built 36 schools, the Buncombe County parking deck where I park for work every day, a Haywood College building and many houses.  Hulio and his crew will build part of our basement too that will be block.

Another corner getting startted.

Here, one of Hulio's workers is working on Lynn's bay window area.  Everything must be perfectly level.

Working on the bay window corner.

The blocks that are special sizes around that bay window must be cut with this heavy duty masonry saw.

Meet Michael Giezentanner.  He is the project manager and will oversee much of the work that is done.  His father Harry Giezentanner is our general contractor.

The Views

Here are some views we will have from the new house, Pisgah Mountain to the West and the Biltmore House looking South.

.Views of Pisgah through a haze.












Lots of skinny trees to cut down to improve the view of Pisgah.

Looking south towards Biltmore Estate.  But can't see it from this level.

You can vaguely see the Biltmore House from this view.

Biltmore House to the left.  I need to find a sunny day and get some better pictures.

Is this any better?  Taken from the first floor level of the house site, showing our road coming up.

Below is updated view of the house site with more dirt and trees removed.  Garbage trees removed from the house site and more trees gone from uphill where the garage will be.

                                                Caught the workers on a break!

And one more.

The Property

Our property is located in West Asheville up a hill and has views of Pisgah and the Biltmore House.  Of course it's very hard to tell much just looking at the bare dirt.  We have split  6.5 acres with our friend Lynn, who is also building a new house not far from us.  Her house is getting started first, but we won't be far behind her.  At this point, we have sort of a road going up the hill that has to be big enough to pull the modular home boxes up the hill.  So the road wraps around the right side of our property and up and past our home spot and up to the left toward Lynns acreage.  I hope you can see that in these pictures.

This picture shows the road going up to the property.  It's a grey day but maybe another day we can get some sunshine that better displays the property and it's views, which are incredible.

This picture shows the property up to the right of the road.  Pictures below show the road that wraps around and Scott trying to get the truck up the road.  However, the logging road was a little slippery after some snow.

This picture shows the logging road going up the property and the first curve to go up.  You can kind of see how steep the road starts to get.

This picture shows "Big D" our truck, rounding that first cure.  The bulldozer is in the background down at the bottom of the road.

Here's Big D coming up the road.

In this picture Scott has just finished walking up the hill as poor Big D just couldn't get up the muddy road.  Scott just crested the top of the hill and to his left is the area where the basement will begin.  He is standing on the road but the basement will also cover the area that he is standing on.  The cut into the hill is just enough to help the modular home come up the hill and make the turn toward Lynn's property.

You can see the scope of the size with Scott being only half as tall as the cut out.  Our garage will go up the hill behind the house.  More pictures of that below.

In this picture you can see me in the basement area and the hump behind me will be cut off and our garage will go up behind the house.

Another view of the hump that has to come off behind our house.   When the sun comes out, we will get you some views!!

 

Getting Started

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Hi Friends and Family. We are building our new house, finally. Everything is approved after a year of working on plans and loans and getting everything pulled together. It has been an interesting adventure and not one I care to repeat. But we are ready to go. Hallelujah!!

This blog is created to post pictures and keep loved ones up to date, even if you can't be here to see it happen. So, we will get some beginning pictures of the property and keep you updated with the ups and downs, problems and solutions and hopefully a beautiful new home for our retirement years! I am laughing as I say that, as retirement is probably still a long way away. But hope reigns eternal. We are on our way.  Scott and Shirley

Our Pride and Joy

Audrey and Lance

Adam and Nora

Nathan and Heather