January 2 - Two more loads of fill (the 3rd & 4th 10 cubic yard loads) dirt are under your house. This is being used to fill the low spots.
January 2 - The foundation subs are smoothing the fill dirt. Probably with the rain and snow(!) forecast for tomorrow, no work will get done.
January 4 - Snow in South Carolina! January 4 brought several inches of snow. We also had some very cold (for this part of the country) temperatures. Construction was halted for several days due to the weather.
January 8 - The guest house framing continues. Within a few days, it will be completed and the framers will begin on the garage.
January 8 - This is how the guest house looks from the rear of the main house. The main house is just about ready for the walls to be poured with concrete.
January 8 - Five days ago snow fell. There are still small patches of snow on the ground. Until today, the temperature did not get above the middle 30s. Today, the temperature reached the mid 50s, so perhaps 'winter' is over here in South Carolina.
January 9 - The roof sheathing is going on the guest house. The right side (from the driveway) is covered. Once the roof is covered, the ice and water underlayment will be placed on the roof.
January 9 - The rear of the guest house has the roof sheathed.
January 9 - This is how the guest house looks from the temporary drive. There is a temporary toe board on the roof for safety.
January 9 - The dirt under the house has been smoothed. It will be termite treated this afternoon. The steel in the stem walls will be inspected tomorrow and poly will be put down on the ground. Friday, concrete is scheduled to be poured in the block walls and for the rat slab.
January 10 - The roof is on the guest house. It still needs the ice and water underlayment. It also needs tie down hardware.
January 10 - Framing on the garage has begun. It should be finished within a week or so weather permitting.
January 10 - This is the west side of the garage. The dark plywood is pressure treated to resist rot and termites.
January 10 - The termite treatment contractor was back out to finish treating under the rat slab. The house is large enough he ran out of chemical yesterday.
January 11 - The stem wall around the north service yard has been lowered two blocks below the house foundation walls. The inverted red 'V' marks are where a tie down rod will be anchored.
January 11 - The garage is being framed. It should be pretty well complete in a few days.
January 11 - This is the view out the sitting room window of the guest house.
January 11 - The garage will begin to get roof sheathing very soon. The weather is overcast with an occasional light shower, so work may get delayed a bit.
January 11 - This is how the garage looks from the front door of the main house. Obviously, the main house will be built on the stem wall, so it will block a little of the right side of the garage.
January 11 - This is how the guest house looks from the front door. Again, once the house is built on the foundation, a small part of the guest house will be blocked from view. As you walk down the stairs, both should be very visible.
January 12 - It is rainy and muddy, but the framers are making progress. The front of the garage is being built. The header over the auto bay doors is temporary. The LVLs for the actual headers should be delivered today.
January 15 - The sheathing is on the roof and walls of the garage. The tie down hard is not installed yet. Plywood has not been cut out of the auto bay doors yet.
January 15 - This is the western side of the garage. The dark colored plywood has been pressure treated to resist termites and rot.
January 15 - The inside of the garage is nice and large. Temporary diagonal braces help keep everything straight and plumb. The two vertical supports on the left are temporary. A steel support that will be installed between them is being fabricated. When it is installed, the temporary braces will come out.
January 15 - The earth under the house has been covered with plastic in preparation for pouring a rat slab. Cold (freezing) temperatures are delaying things a bit.
January 16 - Concrete mixers arrived about 9am to start pouring the stem walls and rat slab.
January 16 - The stem wall in the foreground has been poured solid with concrete. 'J' bolts have been inserted in the fresh concrete. These will be used to tie the house to the massive foundation.
January 16 - The rat slab is being poured in the back. The long striker board will be used to level and smooth the rat slab.
January 16 - A good bit of the rat slab has been poured. Notice the steel straps embedded in the piers. These are to tie the beams and joists to the foundation.
January 16 - The area under the house is large and it takes a number of loads of concrete to cover it. Since the rat slab is basically a moisture barrier and to prevent animals from digging, it is only 2 or 3 inches thick.
January 16 - Much of the slab has been poured and smoothed.
January 16 - The garage framing is near completion. The roof needs to be covered with underlayment and house wrap has to be installed. Tie down hardware is being installed. Framing inspection will be in a few days.
January 16 - Notice the 1/2in steel tie down rods on either side of the window. These rods tie the top plate (horizontal 2x6s) to the foundation. Other brackets will tie the rafters to the top plates. There is a steel rod in each corner and beside each opening. On walls with no openings (windows or doors), the rods are no more than 8 feet apart. (The diagonal brace is temporary.)
January 18 - The Garage framing is about complete. Left over material is covered or stored in the garage. Note the plywood over the auto bay doors has not been trimmed yet. The two temporary beam supports are in place. The permanent pipe support is being fabricated and should be installed this coming week.
January 18 - The guest house now has the roof covered. This will make the roof water tight so it should remain relatively dry in rainstorms (rain can blow in window openings).
January 18 - This is how the guest house looks from the area in front of the main house. Notice not all of the wall plywood sheathing has been trimmed yet.
January 18 - The garage roof is also covered and water tight. The auto bay doors look low because the plywood has not been trimmed yet.
January 24 am - The girders are being assembled and installed. The rim joists (around the perimeter) are in place.
January 24 am - The south access hole has been cut in the foundation wall.
The house has some very sturdy beams to hold the floor joists.
January 24 am - The service yard has been taken down two blocks. It will be filled with dirt and then a slab poured on it.
January 24 am - The north access door has also been cut. The north and south access doors are below double windows.
January 24 am - There is also an access door from the crawlspace to the outdoor kitchen crawlspace.
January 24 pm - More beams are in place.
January 24 pm - When the house is built, rain water will not collect in the crawlspace.
January 24 pm - Floor joists are being laid across the home. Notice the straps that will be used to tie the floor solidly to the foundation.
January 24 pm - The subfloor will be put on the flooring within a few days. We use DryPly a water resistant plywood, for the subfloor so if (when) it rains, the flooring will not be damaged.
January 24 pm - Just a few more joists and this area will be complete.
January 24 pm - Only the north end of the house lacks joists when this photo was taken (about 4 pm).
January 24 pm - Here, the north service yard is visible. Bedroom #3 is beyond the service yard. Bedroom #2 is over by the access door. Bedroom #4 is in the foreground.
January 26 - The floor joists are in place and tied down.
January 26 - This is a large house. The workers are tying short pieces of tie down rods to the foundation 'J' bolts. These will connect to rods up through the top plate to hold the house secure in strong winds.
January 26 - Here is how the short rods look. They will go up through the sub floor so a longer rod can tie to them.
January 26 - The steel support post for the garage was custom fabricated and primed. It will be put in place in a day or so and the stiff legs (one is in the background to the right of the post) will be removed. The post will be bolted to the floor and to the beam.
January 26 - Wall material is arriving. It came on two trucks (note the two fork lifts). Work on the walls will begin once the sub floor is down (early next week).
January 26 - The recessed areas are where showers will be built. There are two on the north end of the house and one on the south (master) end of the house.
January 26 - Here is part of the wall package. Some materials were put behind the house. All of the material will be covered with plastic to protect it from the rain on Sunday.
January 29 - The sub flooring is being installed. We use Georgia Pacific's Dry Ply, a water resistant sub flooring. If it gets wet, it normally does not delaminate like normal plywood sub floor does. The square hole near the center of the photo is where the master shower is located.
January 30 - Part of the sub floor has been back ordered, so we are starting on the walls at the south end of the home. The balance of the sub flooring should be here Friday or Monday.
January 31 - This is looking towards the back kitchen and the kitchen. Obviously, not all of the walls are erected yet.
January 31 - This is the south vestibule. The openings on the right will have windows with transoms.
January 31 - This is his dressing room. There is a high window on the left (east) side. The door on the right goes to the master bath.
January 31 - This is the master bath from his dressing room door.
January 31 - The floor joists are dropped for the shower floor here in the master shower.
January 31 - This is the master bedroom. It will have a vaulted ceiling. There are large windows on two walls.
January 31 - There is a nice view of the lake from the tv & sitting room. The far wall has three large windows.
January 31 - This is looking from the south vestibule to the to the master vestibule.
January 31 - We still have a good deal of flooring to put down. It is due to arrive late this week.