Once we closed on our construction loan, we were ready to form our building footprint slabs and within a couple of weeks pour our foundation. Next, the blocks were delivered and the crew began to stack. Just before Christmas, most of the main house was stacked and rough openings of windows hinted at our future views. And when we came back from Christmas break, half of the casita had also been stacked. Except for the soft whirling of the mortar machine, it has been a relatively quiet and peaceful process, so says our neighbors.
Speaking of neighbors, to one side, our neighbors erected a fence along the entire length of our property, for which we shouted with glee. That’s significantly less fence that we have to install. They also began landscaping along the fence line to create some additional privacy. We can’t wait to get started with landscaping, especially now that we can appreciate the change of grade across our site. There is no plans except perhaps a 3D model based on a fancy geotechnical survey that could prepare you for exactly what the grade and slope of the property would be. It turns out, our grade changes much more than we expected, so we have been researching terraced landscape solutions. This represents one of the most fun parts of the build, which is finding new solutions to design for as we better understand our site.
We are about a month away from having interior walls framed after which the roof quickly follows. Friends have remarked that it looks like we’re building a house backwards, but having never built a house, I thought nothing of the sequence of building first exterior envelope walls and then the interior!
One one of the most memorable moments of the process so far was the day we poured the slab foundation. I didn’t realize how emotionally charged this moment would be…I wept with joy as the team of men pushed, scooped, smoothed, shook concrete poured from three trucks throughout the day. By nightfall, all was set & quiet; we had truly begun.
considerafield 
How exciting!
LikeLike