What a great last few weeks of construction. A lot has happened at Herons House although most of the activity has been below ground.
For the home owner (us) as owner/builders, one of the biggest sources of sleeplessness is the budget. That picture is becoming clearer with bids for major components coming in as expected. The cost of material has taken a 5% to 6% jump in the past few months, most of that due to fuel prices and some due to the hurricanes. 5% may not seem like much but on a project like ours, it can add 30k to the bottom line.
Ron our concrete artist has done a fabulous job. He estimated 6 weeks for the cellar slab/house slab and that's just about where we will end up. The wine cellar added three weeks to what typically is a three week foundation schedule for a custom house. But the wine cellar is awesome and worth every moment and dime. Julie and I have already entertained in the cellar! What a blast! We are planning now for our racking and equipment installation.
It was amazing to see the excavation and then the foundations and walls being built. On Oct. 2, the walls were grouted solid forming a 60ft long, 9ft high, 12in thick solid wall of concrete with an enormous amount of steel inside. That wall, and the steel moment frame will act as the backbone of Heron's House. Yesterday the waterproofing of the walls and the installation of a drain began. Later this week, after the walls cure for 72 hours, backfilling and compaction will happen. After that the footings/slab will be poured for Herons house, the southerly most footing, right on top of the wall!
The footings for Herons House have been dug, 70% of the foundation has been formed. This Saturday, our plumber brings in a back hoe and cuts his trench and laterals for all the plumbing needs. Monday he roughs in his plumbing and the rest of the week will be taken up with inspections by both the city and soils engineer.
Our elevator contractor will also inspect the "elevator pit" forming, to make sure everything is a-o-k. We expect the following week to pour the concrete.
To date we have poured 23 yards in the footing for the cellar, 12 yards grouting the cellar wall, we expect to pour 45 yards in the house foundation/slab and 5 yards in the cellar slab. Two grade beams, one for the moment frame and one in the slab will use another 10 yards of 3000psi (six bag mix) concrete.
All in all, it looks to be 100 yards of concrete. Concrete is running $100 a yard and the pumpers are around $400 a day.
Our framing contractor is all set to go and we anticipate framing to begin in three weeks.
As far as the schedule goes, remarkably, we are on schedule. We began this project by purchasing the lot last November. Begin in January with our architect we laid out a construction time line matrix and we are within two weeks at this point. If you know anything about construction, you will know what a miracle that is!
We expect to be weather tight by the end of November and construction should be completed by April/May.
In a following writing, I will go into the decision to be an owner/builder as opposed to hiring a contractor. There are pros and cons to both and it is huge decision to build it yourself. My family will tell you and for those that know me, I am a a creative soul and rather persnickity at times. I don't think a contractor would last so I better build it myself. I can't fire myself!
Fall is here! Herons House is a dream jumping off paper into reality!
Peder