Construction Woes

The last post that we talked about our own project, instead of Lynn's, we had encountered rocks. All grading came to a complete stop until our loan closed.  The hammer bulldozer was to cost $2500 a day and we didn't know if it would take one day or two, depending on what we found in the ground.

We closed on our loan on Wednesday, March 7th and then went on vacation the 8th, returning on the 17th.  We had talkd to Harry, our contractor and found out that the hammer bulldozer came to work on our lot on Thursday, the 15th.  Here is what the dozer looks like.

The Hammer Bulldozer, a CAT 320.

And the hammer bit that did the drilling on the rock.

Here is what the property looked like on the 18th when we returned.  That is from one side, looks pretty good and flat.  As we come up our driveway and turn left, the garage will be tucked into the corner on the left and we drive straight in.  The grey area on the right side is where the big rock was. I am told it was about 10 feet wide, 30 feet long and 8 feet high.  It actually took that hammer 2 1/2 days to get that rock out of there.

Lots of rock and dirt resulted from the bulldozer work and here are several pictures from another angle that shows the massive amount of dirt and rock that came out of this hill.

A picture of Scott with some dirt showing on the left.  Scott is on the upper level where the garage is to go.  The house's main floor is supposed to be level with this site.  The basement area is on the left and the pile of dirt is sitting where the basement is supposed to be but rises above the level of the house.  One more picture says it all.

.Very bit pile of rocks and dirt.  See Scott in the lower right hand pointing at the pile.  It must be 15 feet high.

Doesn't look so bad from this view though.  As soon as we get this big pile of dirt out of the house site, we can start building.

Don't you just love this bulldozer!!

Raising the Roof

On Feb. 29th, the day after the house was delivered, the Crane remained on the hill for the next phase of the home setting, Raising the Roof.









Lifting the day's supplies on top the roof.

The crane wires that had been hooking below the boxes yesterday, were now hooked to the roof, and the crane began lifting one side of the roof, very slowly. 

See the wood laying under the roof on the right.  Those are the pre-built walls, which they take one at a time and insert under the roof, upright, to hold the weight of the roof.  The crane is still holding it at this point.

The walls are placed carefully in place, as there are pre-marked blue lines on the floor where each wall needs to go.  It is measured and leveled as they put each one in place.

With the half walls in place holding the roof, they put up several posts to temporarily hold the roof, and they start raising the second side of the roof.

With both of the half-roof sides up and properly braced, up goes supplies and the end walls for the front and back..

See the walls being set in place to the right and below.

One side of the roof up and then the other.

With both sides of the roof put together, up comes the dormers.  A single dormer and a double dormer for one side and a double size dormer for the other.

At the end of this day, the 3 dormers were in and then the crane lifted the roofing supplies up to the roof and set them on top of the dormers.  the contractor says from here on out, things will go slower.   The crane went home at the end of the day.

Lynn's Making Progress

You saw on the last blog about Lynn's house that her foundation was ready for her home.  On Feb. 27th, Lynn's main floor boxes were delivered.  Here are the 2 sides of her home coming up the road below the house site.

A third trailer came behind bringing her dormers and other supplies.  The trucks could not pull the heavy load up our driveway, so the bulldozer got behind it and pushed it up the hill.








The next picture shows the first box pulling up in front of Lynn's house with a crane sitting there waiting to do the heavy work.  You don't see the bulldozer behind the house, but it is there.

All ready!

There are heavy wires picking up the house and keeping it level, while the crane picks it up and sits it on the house.  Guys working below help swing the home into the right spot and line up the corners.  the wires are through the foundation joists and can be easily pulled out when the home is set.

First, they line up only one corner, the one on the left and make sure it is in the exact right spot, then they let down the right side of the back.  Next they make sure when they put the front down, that everything is in the right spot.  they had to move it a half an inch or so to make it perfect.

Here's Lynn's daughter Kristie and sseveral of Lynn's grandchildren, Olivia and Sophie, watching the grand parade.  Zeb was there too watching but off exploring something.  Lynn got the kids out of school early to watch this.

Here's the second box coming up the hill.

The second side of the house being gently lifted over the first side, because they brought the wrong one up the hill first.

And the sescond side being carefully set in place.  The guys said they do this all the time and promised they wouldn't drop it.  It's amazing how they can push that heavy box into place.  They used a crowbar to move it micro amounts of space to get a corner at the right spot and then let down the other side of the box.

They unwrapped the plastic from the top and behold the roof is on top the boxes and all ready to raise.  But that is another story for another day.