The Great Wall

We accomplished our weekend project! We built a retaining wall around the area that was excavated to the left of the driveway. They will pour a concrete pad in this area when they pour the driveway so that we have a nice level area to store our trash and recycle cans. The electrical and cable boxes are over on this side of the house as well. The big cement box in the ground is for the controls for the driveway heating system (for when we're old and can't shovel the driveway anymore!).

First step was to finish the excavation. This involved lots of shoveling and the electric jackhammer that Steve loaned us.

Once the hole was large enough, we could work on filling in the trench with crushed rock (out of spec ABC was the fill material of choice). Steve loaned us his large truck with a load of ABC. Many more hours with the shovel and wheelbarrow. Getting a level base was quite tedious, but Andy did a great job leveling and compacting.

Saturday morning we took Steve's truck to the local block place and picked up 64 landscape blocks and 30 caps. This was over 6000 lbs...Steve's truck handled it much better than the Toyota would have! It was easy loading with the fork lift, but unloading was another story... The driveway is too steep (and full of gravel) to be able to pull up so that meant walking each block up from the road.

A few more rounds of leveling the base and measuring with the transit and we were ready to start building with the block! Of course we had to pick a complicated shaped wall with a corner and an inside curve. We agreed on the placement of the first level and then it was supposed to be cake just stacking the blocks up from there. But of course the blocks didn't fit perfectly with the funny curve and corner. Luckily Steve loaned us his masonry saw so Andy had the tools to cut the blocks easily and make them all fit.



Joe stopped by and helped carry some blocks up the hill. He enjoyed seeing the progress and lending a hand...especially since it wasn't his project to worry about!

Deciding on the stair step pattern down with the top caps and the amount of back fill required was complicated, but I think we did a pretty good job guessing and planning. We finished up Sunday afternoon and had some daylight to spare for once! Now the excavator can finish back filling behind the wall and all along the south side of the house to get our positive drainage away from the house.

Pot of gold

So what does it mean when our rainbow ends in a dumpster instead of a pot of gold?
Sorry for the long break from posts. The house construction has continued...we kept taking photos, but I like sleep more than staying awake to do late night blog postings! Here are a few photos of what it looks like now. The cement board and metal siding are almost done. The roof is done. The windows are all in. The house is officially "dried in" so there is much less worry about weather now. The driveway and front stairs will be coming soon.

The metal siding is starting to rust!

We started landscaping... borrowed a few trees from our rental house yard to start our own aspen farm in the back yard.

The wood pile is growing...

Details, details and more details

It takes forever to pick out fixtures, outlet locations, cabinets, lights and all of the many details of the house! We did manage to finish installing the central vacuum system last weekend. The unit will be in the garage and we have two neat hose magic hose storage systems upstairs as well as a vac pan in the kitchen and in the mudroom. We drilled quite a few holes, cut many pieces of PVC and glued many parts together. We tested the vacuum and weren't overly impressed with the suction, but hopefully that's just because the outlets were all open...typically you only vacuum at one location at a time!
The Tyvek is being covered up with Hardiboard siding...no the greenish color is not the final color, it still needs to all be painted! We are going to go with a similarly light cream color but with less green. They worked on the front porch so that they could finish up the roof. The stairs down from the front porch to the driveway will come later. The trim is being installed around the windows and then the siding goes on. Next is the metal roof and then the asphalt shingle part of the roof.

The little windows in the shed dormer look pretty small from the inside, but they add some extra light and ventilation.

Shingle and gutter choices

Heather Blend with the darkest brown gutter color on the right are the winners!

Look we are protected by a sound and security company even though we don't all of our doors and windows and don't have any locks!

The Hose Magic System in the laundry room. There will be a little door panel that sticks through the drywall where you access the hose.

The second unit is in the front guest bedroom.

They started modifying the roof for the little gable over the master bedroom. A little protection from the rain.

Siding around the big back deck area.

Still missing the block window for the garage (the dog needs some light in the back of his big garage!).

More windows, more roof and the driveway

The framers put up the front deck (without the stairs still) so that the roof and sheathing could be finished on the front of the house. The remaining windows were put in. It feels much darker and more still in the house now!

The trench for water and gas on the north side of the house.

Deck progress and driveway grading progress day 1

The stairs will come off at an angle between the large post and the other post which is still missing (cement block column base visible).

The patio doors and windows in the back of the house.

The angled wall windows are in, and our view still looks pretty nice!

More windows and doors

Hopefully we finish up the central vacuum system this weekend!