Exterior Bracing Comes Down

The exterior bracing for the concrete pour was taken down on Friday. The exterior walls are now completely visible and awaiting for framing to start.

Feel free to come by and "push" on the walls to feel how strong they are. Once the exterior stucco and limestone are added, there will be no way to tell on the exterior that the walls are made of styrofoam and concrete.

Caught in the Act: Rick Vinyard on the Jobsite

Rick Vinyard takes a moment to lean on his shovel from cleaning up the concrete falling from the top of the frame. This guy is a master project manager, he had his whole team working flawlessly to get the concrete poured, respond to the necessary trouble spots and keep our interior floors from getting stained or mucked up. Rick knew exactly where his resources were today and when/where they needed to be deployed, which is exactly what makes a great project manager.

I can't say enough good things about our builder. Not only is he a great builder/contractor, he's fun to work with because he knows he has everything in order when he shows up at the site.

Concrete Pour!

Here's some video of how the pour went today on the job site. The pour went off really well and Rick was out to supervise the crew along with Brian who directed the pour team. The bracing will remain up for a few more days as the concrete cures, but the exterior walls are essentially done!

There were a lot of visitors today to see the site, especially with the pump truck visible from Nicholson. The weather was really great, not too hot, sunny with a light breeze. We've had some excellent karma leading Kerry to tell me this morning he thought our house was "blessed."

I couldn't agree more!

(What you see in this footage is the pump truck hose pumping the concrete in while Brian taps on the wall forms to ensure the concrete has settled into the right location. The guy walking around with the joysticks looking up at the pump is Roger, he's controlling how the pump hose moves. And the guy in the gray shirt just standing around looking smart, that's Rick our builder.)

Pictures from Thursday, May 1, 2008

On Thursday they were almost finished with the wall forms and doing the final preparations for Tuesday's pour. Here are some pictures from Thursday.

Pictures from Tuesday

Brian and his crew should be done with the foam blocking by today and will spend tomorrow and maybe Friday finishing the seals and putting up the rest of the walking planks. The weather has really cooperated with us and we're looking forward to next Tuesday's pour.

In these pictures you can see how the foam is actually going together, in the first picture, Kerry is sliding a piece of foam block over the re-bar sticking up from the slab. See the rest of Tuesday's pictures in the slideshow by clicking on the picture under slideshow below.

Pictures from Friday

With a 2008 Parade of Homes house just down the street, we are sure to get our drive-bys this weekend. I talked with Brian yesterday and told him how great it was coming along and he said they'd be done by now if so many people hadn't stopped by to ask him what he was doing!

Still, the walls are going up great and yesterday Rick and Brian scheduled the wall pour for Tuesday, May 6. Here are some pictures from Friday (top to bottom): The garage where the driveway door will be; the front of the house facing the street; inside the living room/game room where the assembled block has been.

Walls Going Up!

As other contractors drive slowly by our house with their heads turned to the side, this man and his crew work steadily on getting the ECO-Block forms for our walls done.

Meet Brian. He's been an international trainer for ECO-Block installations and he recently went back to doing what he loves, building ICF houses. Brian and his crew have been working hard since last week with excellent weather supporting their work. With all of our windows and doors selected he has just about everything (sorry, we're still working on that rough opening for window C) to finish building the forms for our house. See the picture gallery for more pictures of the walls going up.

At last, this theoretical thing we've been working on for three years is finally starting to look like an actual house. I would be remiss without mentioning that each day when they finish their work, the site looks neater than my house will probably look when it's finished.

More Pictures of the Exterior Wall Framing

On the left: The string I was talking about to line up the walls. On the right: The window openings being built for the ICF framing to go around them.

Exterior Wall Framing Starts

Here's our ECO-Block walls flat and ready to be pieced together. We went by the house Friday evening after it had rained and had the opportunity to get muddy for the first time!

The lines were drawn for the block to be put up and string had been run to keep the walls straight as they are being constructed.

It should be neat to watch the walls being assembled over the next couple of weeks.

ECO-Block Materials Being Delivered Today

Our ECO-Block materials are being delivered this morning and the wall forms will start going up very soon! For details on how the walls are going together, visit our January post on ICF. It explains how the walls are assembled and then filled with concrete.

Because so many people have started asking, I'll be posting a list of vendors on the right side of this blog shortly. Starting of course with our brillant contractor, Rick Vinyard.