Slowly But Surely

It's been a while since the last update.  The house is coming along, but more slowly than we would like.  The builder's initial estimate was 6 weeks to finish it after it was set.  6 weeks was today, and my estimate is there's at least another two weeks of work left yet.  The downstairs has all been trimmed out and painted.  The only remaining item is the floor, but the builder will install that when all the upstairs work is finished.   The well was drilled last week, the well pump was installed and the pressure tank connected this week.  The garage floor was poured last week.  This was holding up final trim and siding on the garage, that is supposed to be completed this week.  

The upstairs rooms are framed in. The electrical and plumbing still needs to be roughed in and the HVAC needs to be installed.  Once that is done, drywall can be hung and taped out.  The septic also needs to be installed, but that at least can happen in parallel with the upstairs.  The septic also should only take a day to do. 

Some recent pictures.  I held this blog post from last week.  I hoped to have pictures of the completed outside  but there is still a bit more work to do trimming the porch and garage.  

Here's the upstairs before any framing.  The wall straight  ahead goes down the stairs.  I will eventually be finishing all the space on the other side of the stairs.

Here is a shot standing in the same spot  early last week.  The builder is finishing out about half the space.  There will be two rooms and a bathroom.  The bathroom will be closest to the stairs.  

 Standing in the middle room.  The bathroom is on the other side of the wall looking straight ahead. 

Here's the garage floor.  This was holding up the trim-out and siding because they can't install the doors until the floor is poured and they can't trim and side until the doors are in.  The floor was delayed 4 days after the inspector decided the strings they set the elevation (thickness) on the concrete were 1/2" too low. One of many delays by the inspectors.

The fake rock over the well.  Eventually I will replace it with an actual well house. 

And the well pump is installed.  My county requires galvanized well casing to bedrock.  Other counties in the area allow PVC.  I've got 156' of well casing and an overall depth of 262'.   that's not as deep as I expected.  They trenched and installed the line back to the pressure tank today.  They tried last week, apparently there are too many rocks for the trencher and they had to bring back a min-excavator.

The Shed

I built a shed this summer at my dad's farm.  It is about a mile from the new house. It was easier to build it there than try to build onsite.  I had power so didn't have to haul a generator and tools up to the house site every weekend.   I also could just walk outside and work weeknights on it if I wanted to.   Of course when I got done building it we had to move it up the road.    It is a 12x12 shed and I should have taken more pictures during construction.

Anyway, here it is on the trailer ready to move. We picked it up with two tractors, one on each side and backed the trailer under it.  We did this on Saturday, just so we'd have time to engineer a new solution if it didn't work.  On the first lift I didn't have it perfectly balanced and it tipped some and one of the front wheels on the tractor came off the ground.  Do you know how hard it is to get a tractor wheel off the ground?

Here it is from the other side.

Moving day was early Monday morning, this was about 7:00 AM.  We figured there wouldn't be any other traffic that early on Labor Day.   You can't see the straps running over the roof but they are there.

Here it is at the new house.  It made the trip up ok.  

Here it is delivered.   We got it off the trailer in reverse of how we put it on.  Get the tractors to lift it up, then drove the trailer out from underneath.  My dad and I were on the tractors and couldn't see each other.  My wife acted as a load master and did a wonderful job  co-ordinating us both on lifting at the same rate and moving the tractors back and forth to get the shed set on the blocks.

A side view.  Once we are in the new house I will jack up the corners and set them on proper poured concrete footings.  

The House Is Set

The house was set yesterday.   They got started early while I was doing other things and got one section in before I got there.   Here's what it looked like when I got there.  the roof is shipped flat and then raised up by the crane after the section is set on the foundation.

 

I wondered how the roof wasn't wider then the house when it is laying down.  Here's why.  The last 4' or so is raised up and over to form the peak. 

 

Here's the other half  its way up the hill.  I didn't appreciate the size of these until I saw one moving.  The trailers are 70' long.   slight technical difficulties here, the back end of the trailer grounded out.

  

Here's how you get a house unstuck.  The dozer had to help all the way up the hill. 

A very tight squeeze but they made it. This section was harder than the other, since the eaves weren't sticking out on this side.

It made it to the top of the hill.  They are getting ready for the crane.  They are doing all the unwrapping.

Here's the crane.  The operator said it will lift 90 tons, but you've gotta have that weight really close to the base.

 Here's why it can lift a house and not fall over.  That's 30 tons of weight sitting there behind the cab.

Here's how they lift it.  There are 4 cables, run under the house through holes drilled in the band joists.

Here's the rigging the cables get attached to. 

 

Ready to lift.

A quick time lapse video of the lift and set.  I should have decreased the interval to 2 or 3 seconds.

 I had to leave after the section was set.  When  I got back, they were setting the gable ends.  They are built at the factory and trucked in.  The smaller sections that go on each side of the window are craned into the opening in the roof before it is closed up.  Then they are set by hand.

Another quick video of one of the dormers going in.

The dried-in house.  A pan shot I took today.   There's still a lot to do, the upstairs needs to be built out, HVAC installed, well, septic, etc.  As you can see the porch is missing as well.

Deliverance

Hmmm, that's probably not the best title.  How about Delivery, or Delivered?  Anyway, the house was delivered today.  It was supposed to be set as well but there was some more grading that needed to be done on driveway up the hill.  By the time they got the equipment in to do it it was too late to start setting the house.

Here are the two main sections.  The roof is hinged.  The sections will be picked up off the trailers and craned onto the foundation, then the roof is raised. 

Here's a shot from further away.  The truck with the dormers, the gable ends and some other assorted pieces had just shown up.

The crane is ready to go.  The house will be set in the morning.  I'm amazed they got that flat bed in there, the space is really tight for a 50' trailer.

Still Waiting

The house was supposed to arrive from the factory and be set last week.  Last week the builder told us it had slipped a week due to delays at the factory.  As of this morning it was confirmed for today and they would set it tomorrow. An hour ago I got a text from the builder that it would be delivered tomorrow.  Needless to say we are disappointed.  This new delay is not supposed to affect them setting it tomorrow, but we shall see.

The House Factory Tour

We toured the factory today and got to see our house.  It was pretty far along in the process - the walls inside had all been rocked, insulation was in, plumbing was in.  They haven't gotten sheathing on the outside yet.  I am told they do that at the same time they are doing all the taping.  They do as much as they can in parallel.  So they have a crew building the floors complete with all electrical and plumbing at the same time other crews are building walls.  All the interior walls go on starting from the center of the house out, they also install water heaters, bathtubs, etc.  After each house section is built and dried in (including siding) they tow it to another building to do all the finish interior work - trim, painting etc. 



The biggest dust collector I've ever seen.

Because precision matters.  cut to 1/8".   I've seen rough framing where 1/4" is good enough.

Here's a floor being built - most of these  pictures are not my house.  It's sitting on a jig.  The decking is glued and nailed after all wiring, plumbing, etc is pulled.  This factory builds the house off-frame.  The jig is perfectly flat, and the dollies can be adjusted for any imperfections in the floor.   You can't do this with a frame. 

Dead center, and a doubled band joist.  Over 30' of house every joist was dead on.

Here's how they lift the floor to set it on dollies:

And here are the dollies.  The house will roll on these until it is lifted onto the frame.

Interior walls being built.

Here's one half of my roof.  At the same time they are doing interior walls, insulating and doing sheathing they are building a roof. The roof is lifted and the house is moved under it. The house section it goes to is off to the left.  Notice the drywall on it already.

Moving a house, this is half of my house.  It's all manpower (lots of it).

Here's a closeup of the roof hinge system.  The house is shipped with the roof down.  After the house section is set on the foundation, the roof is craned up into place.  They will sheath and mostly shingle the roof at the factory.

 

Here's a jack they use to lift the house off the dollies to get the frame under it.  Once it's on the frame they put sheathing and siding on the outside, shingle the roof and then it goes to final finishing. 

 

The Foundation Is Complete

 The foundation is finished.  The color coat is on, mud plate is on.   I am told that the house will be delivered on the 14th.  This week they are supposed to back fill everything and pour the garage floor.   The last picture is a close-up of the color coat on the foundation.