Driveway

The driveway is in! Kip shoveled the snow off of the roof and the sun melted the remaining ice. We were worried about the roof dripping onto the driveway since we don't have gutters yet! We left the black plastic down onto of the XPS foam insulation as an extra moisture barrier.Once things dried out, we were able to put down the wire mesh that we planned to use to tie the PEX tubing to. It was pretty easy to cut to the right size and wire together.

 

Ted (the guy doing the in-floor heating system for the house) supervised us while we laid the tubing down on the driveway. The PEX was a bit stiff and hard to wrestle, but we managed to get it all down. The trick was to figure out what spacing we needed to cover the entire driveway but not have extra tubing left over. In the end we had a mix of 18" apart in the middle and 12" apart on the top and bottom. Hopefully that's enough to heat the driveway!
All of the neighbors driving by were jealous to see that we plan to heat the driveway. They'll probably laugh at us when they see us out there shoveling since we don't actually plan to buy the rest of the system components necessary to hook it all up. Those items aren't in the budget right now, plus we're young and enjoy shoveling, right?

After getting the tubes all down and connected to the manifold with Ted's help, we did a pressure test and all looked good. We finished up tying the tubes every 2' as the sun set and covered it all back up with the concrete blankets to keep it warm. The driveway sure was slippery with the black plastic and concrete blankets. I think everyone took a spill and slid partway down the driveway. Hopefully it's less slippery with the concrete!

The concrete company arrived bright and early Thursday morning. It was a cold morning, but the sun was out and it wasn't very windy.

They put thicker mesh onto of the tubes and tied them together in order to keep the tubes from floating in the concrete and to give the slab more strength. They used an overhead pump to get the concrete up the driveway. Pretty big piece of equipment for our size driveway! 3 truck loads (26yds) of concrete to do the driveway. It's a 6" thick slab...which looked pretty thick! They worked for a while to smooth out and finish the driveway surface. They covered it with plastic and concrete blankets.

 

The concrete company came back Friday morning to do the washing step to make the surface exposed aggregate. All looked good. They covered it up again with blankets. Monday they came and rolled up the blankets (guess it's cured enough that frost is okay now!)

 

I thought this was a cool shot where you can see the pink foam. We'll fill in along the sides of the driveway with dirt/rock/landscaping so that it's all hidden. 

Slip and slide

The forecast was correct this time! 3-4 inches of snow fell last night and it's pretty cold out today. Look at the snowy roof, we have a well insulated roof since there are no melted parts...or we don't have any heat in the house to leak out! We spent a vacation day on Friday to prep the driveway. Since the fill had been put down and compacted, we wanted to make sure the ground stayed dry and relatively warm.

Thursday afternoon after the sidewalk was poured and the driveway was covered with concrete blankets.

 Friday morning we uncovered the driveway and put the drains and PVC in the fill for gutters and a few extra runs for irrigation, electrical wiring or dog fences. Was sunny and warm for most of the day. Then we put down 1" thick sheets of pink Dow extruded polystyrene foam (they have the pink panther on them!). We taped the seams between the sheets with packaging tape. The rocks are key (good think we bought a huge pile of rocks for landscaping!). The winds were super gusty Friday so we had to weigh everything down or it would fly away. One gust got us and several sheets blew across the yard. After that I learned to dive quickly on top of anything that wanted to blow away. Took about 3 hours to put all of the foam down, a pretty easy task.

Next we covered the driveway with thick black plastic. This was even more entertaining with the wind 20' wide strips can get quite a bit of lift! More rocks to weigh it down... And then on top we put the concrete blankets back to help keep the driveway warm. So the driveway looks pretty much identical to how it did on Friday morning, but it's even more slippery with the foam and black plastic under the blankets. Everyone had a few near slips trying to walk down the steep part. And then add 3" of snow on top and you have a great slip and slide! But watch all of the hidden rocks, they can hurt!

The landscapers were busy all day Friday. They enjoyed watching me wrestle with the foam, plastic and blankets for the driveway. I don't make manual labor tasks look quite as easy as they do (guess I'm cut out for that desk job)! At least I could provide entertainment at no additional charge.

 

 Plenty of activity in the front yard. 

 The river swale on the south side is nearly done, but it runs into the porta potty at the bottom of the hill.

 3 out of 10 truck loads of large malapai boulders. 

 A truck load of topsoil was delivered Friday. The guys were impressive pushing the wheel barrows up the wooden ramp to get up the hill. 

 A nice start to the 3' high boulder wall along the sidewalk. Three guys move all of the boulders and place them carefully to make a nice looking wall. 

Moving dirt and installing the irrigation system.

Building the irrigation system on the north side of the house. 

 

Looks like a muddy mess. They were out there this morning finishing shoveling the dirt and rock out of the street so that the plow could come by. 

From sledding hill to luge track

The neighborhood kids were disappointed that we built a house on their sledding hill, so we decided to put in a luge track on the sides of the house! 

Well not quite… We are having a landscape company put in some drainage swales (essentially rocky river beds) on each side of the house to help with drainage from the backyard down to the street. We were worried about the winter precipitation and the amount of damage the runoff could do if we didn’t control it. 

  

The south side of the house yesterday afternoon. 

 

 The south side of the house this afternoon.

The north side of the house yesterday afternoon.

 The north side of the house at lunch today. 

 

 

The north side of the house this afternoon. They work quickly! They mixed some malapai boulders and larger rocks in with the granite...looks good! The black weed fabric will keep the river from getting muddy and weeds from growing up through the rocks.

The landscape company is also putting in a few rock walls in the front yard to make our dirt bank a little more exciting. We will wait until the spring to put in trees, bushes, flowers, gravel, etc. They work quickly and are good at using picks to move all of the pesky rocks that we have in the yard.

Plenty of activity in the front yard!

 

The big pile on the sidewalk is the granite rip rap for the river swales that was delivered this morning. 

 

 

 The little trough is for the irrigation system. More work with the pick! 

We went from practically nothing happening on the house Tuesday to at least 10 guys working on various projects on Wednesday. That makes it feel like the construction is progressing much faster! The concrete company seemed to be motivated by the approaching winter weather and decided to start the driveway this week after all. They scraped the driveway to get down to the right level and agree on the layout with us. They brought in a load of ABC as fill for under the concrete and compacted it all.

They poured the sidewalk and approach this morning. This has to be a separate pour because the city require special concrete for their sidewalk!  

 

 

 Was warm and sunny during the pour, so hopefully all goes well! It's a different company doing the driveway; the guys who did the garage slab didn't really want to come back and do the driveway for us.

 They covered the sidewalk and driveway for the evening to keep it warm and let the concrete cure properly. The PVC for gutter downspouts under the driveway will go in tomorrow, then the insulation and PEX tubing can go in over the weekend (if it doesn't snow too much!). We will cover the driveway with blankets to keep the ground from freezing, and with plastic to keep it dry from the snow and rain. Hopefully it clears up next week and we can pour the driveway!

The painters finally started caulking the outside of the house. But it's slow work because they have to wait for the sun to hit the spots they want to do since it's so cold out now! 

 

They guys were back today finishing up some of the stone work. They added the little cap row of stones on the top of the columns. 

The painters sprayed primer on the drywall so that we could find all of the spots that still needed sanding or drywall touch up. It's amazing how much more you can see when it's primed and you have a bright light! They whole house looks pretty white now...maybe that's a good color to pick for the walls and ceiling:)

We designed our closet layouts the other day and Marcus started building the shelves. Looks like it'll take a few more days and fine tuning!