Basement Floor

 The basement floor was poured a bit ago with all the plumbing put in.

This view is looking towards the front. 

The pipes on the far left of the photo are for the bathroom, the center ones are for the water hookup with the smaller one being for the future irrigation system so we can turn it all off for the winter from the basement utility room.

The closest pipe is for the kitchen that will run up the wall and then turn towards the kitchen for the sink and dishwasher.

These are for the three windows.  The two larger ones are 4' x 4' for the future family room and future guest room egress.  The center one is just 1' x 3' for the bathroom which will be above the tub for light and awning-style opening.

 The window wells are all full of gravel for the bottom.  The surround is made from steel painted with a very sturdy white paint.  The very top has a rubber lip so the edge doesn't chip.

Let there be Power

And on the second month of construction, he says "let there be power".  Lower Valley put in our transformer on the back corner of our front lot so that we can eventually hook up to Lot 46 if we decide to build back there some time.

Here is the transformer.  Before the transformer was put in, it was just a wire sticking out of the ground.

Here is the temporary hookup for when the house is being built that our builder will be able to hook up all the various tools needed.  Our back survey marker was almost knocked over.  The orange wires are for the phone and internet hookup.  They will run those wires in the same trench as our gas and electric to the house.

So cute! A electric meter that reads "00000".

Another view of the meter with the trench.  While they were digging, they hit the orange wire, so Silverstar will need to replace those pipes.  

Off the workers go. 

Garage!

During our time here in Wyoming, this is the only part of construction that we will get to see.  They are planning on framing out the house in September.  That will be very exciting to see.  Our neighbor to the north has volunteered to take some pictures for us so hopefully we will get to see some action shots!

They filled in the remaining cracks with some soil and tamped it all down.

Then it got a layer of gravel with rebar and little frames around the doorways.

They started very early in the morning with the pour. All of the construction equipment has been entering on our driveway directly from the street so it will be wonderfully compacted once it comes time for us to pave it.

Now comes the pour.

Then they did the first leveling with a 2 x 4 board.

It takes a bit to get it all smoothed out.

Then they go over the edges with hand trowels to get it extra smooth.

Our concrete guy was very friendly.  

Once the concrete was dry enough to walk on without making huge footprints, he went over it with a very cool trowel zambonie type of thing.

We got to make our mark!

Each of our hand prints and a 2013 penny.

Looks pretty dang good. The entry up to the interior garage door to the house will have three steps.

The Rocky, Dusty Yard

We are very fortunate to have a large lot, but then also have the back lot.  The back lot has an old irrigation ditch that has some water running in it now.  It is very cold water! We are planning a rather intricate irrigation system and garden to implement once we are actually living here.  We are also planning to have a couple beehives.

It all started with a lovely building permit.  Our address is 477 Rockbridge Drive!

Sunset looking over the house.

Thankfully, there was a lot of top soil that they were able to keep safe on our back lot.  Our neighbor across the street told us that there was hardly any top soil when they built their house so we are pretty pleased about the soil. We are going to let the soil settle for the winter and then spread around the topsoil in the spring.

These are the heavy equipment our builder brought in for all the basement digging and general soil moving. 

They are pretty big! 

This is the back lot.  Everything in the photo is pretty much our lot.  It is 0.6 acres.  The front lot where the house is located is 0.4 acres.  We are planning on having a rather amazing garden.  This will also be the future site of the dream shed/garage.

This is the yard behind the garage.  Lots of rocks! The plan for these next few weeks will be to take away as many as possible since we can see them easily before the top soil goes back down.  One of our neighbors behind us asked if he can have the smaller rocks and the bigger rocks are going to assist with a stream by the Meadow. 

This is the south yard and some of the back yard.  Once the toil soil is put back on, the average height of foundation showing should be around 16".  The far side of the foundation shown is where the french doors from the dining room will come out onto a deck that will have a couple steps going down to the yard. 

This is the south edge of the lots.  These wires  are a possible location for our power transformer and cable/internet hookup.  We are thinking to have it all come from the front lot junction box because there would be less trenching and wire needed.

Here is the street with the existing utility hookups.  The hill was steeper, but they used the basement soil to fill most of it in.  This will eventually have more topsoil, but probably lots of the rocks for the next couple years. 

Here is our driveway currently.  It sits on the flag portion of our back lot so we can eventually extend the driveway onto the back lot.  The mirror image back lot to the north has another 20' of access which eventually when he builds will be a 40' joined driveway space so we have plenty of space to pile the snow in the winter. 

This is the garage view from the driveway.  The driveway will be 12' wide and there is an additional straight portion coming from the garage that is 12' long so we have space to get into the doors. Most of the big rocks in front of the garage have been moved.

This is the front door entry.  There will be a total of 4 steps going up to the front door.  Hopefully in two 2 step platforms for a more comfortable entry. 

The whole front yard.  That topsoil pile in the back is pretty big!

This is from the south corner of the lot by the road.  

The whole front yard from the road.

This shows the utility boxes and our driveway.  The driveway will be moved a few feet closer to the utilities.

A view down the driveway and of the garage. 

Bremerton, Washington

Damon was stationed on the USS John C. Stennis from July 2011 until August 2013.  Here are some pictures from our outings while he was in port.