10 Year Check-In

Charlie excavating on either side of the bulkhead

We have a semi-vauge sense of when we "built the house" or "finished the house" because parts of the process lingered on for a good while--I'm thinking the exterior painting which feels like the last significant project to happen. Anyhow, it's been more or less 10 years since the house was under way and that's a nice excuse to check in.

I still think of the house as new, but in fact its gone through that first blush of newness and there are a few bumps and scratches here and there, nothing really big, but the usual wear that comes with use. 

One actual problem that's been on the list to deal with for a while is the retaining walls on either side of the bulkhead in the rear of the house. Joe and I built these early in the building process and I'm not sure what plan or experience we were working from, but within a few years of being built, the walls started to curl in towards the bulkhead. Whatever retaining system we schemed up really didn't work and it's been kind of an ugly mess for the last bunch of years. The prospect of excavating the old walls and deadmen was daunting enough that I kept putting it off until this summer when we finally bit the bullet. 

We hired our neighbor Charlie to come over and take care of a list of small excavation projects that we'd been wanting to do for a while. 

-Some settling had occurred in the back of the house along the foundation and water was pooling against it 

-The flow of rainwater on our property directed water straight into our garden, so we had some major swaleing done to redirect the water around the garden. When the original site work was done we still had the yurt right next to the garden, so it wasn't possible to do any work in this area 

-Our driveway was in need of a refresh

-We wanted to relocate our sugar shack/garden shed. 

This Spring has been unusually dry and the timing lined up for the work to happen, so we hustled to get ready before Charlie arrived, moving perimter drainage stone, pulling away the old retaining walls, getting the shed clear for moving, etc...

The first two layers of structure. I built, filled, packed and then repeated until the walls were completed

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Charlie dug out the old walls and I was surprised at how little there was supposedly holding the walls in place against the frost. I then spent the next week or so building a super-robust double wall retaining structure out of PT lumber. It was a lot of heavy work but I'm confident it'll do it's job well for a long time to come. 

Nearly done

In the photo above you can see how the earth has been carved out to the left and in front of the garden. Water used to enter at the corner and now flows in the valley made by the swale.

Along with regrading the earth against the back of the house we took the opportunity to clean and reinstall the french drain system. Dirt and debris tend to settle in the stone over time and a little maintenance goes a long way. The whole back of the house drains well and looks sharp and functions well now. Its very satisfying to see the water in a rain storm go AROUND the garden, rather than through it, and it's been great to have some extra fill to level out spots around the property. 

This is where we had pooling against the foundation. We pulled off all the crushed stone, filled, packed and graded the soil to flow away from the house and then rebuilt and reinstalled the perimeter stone drainage. Its so much better now!

Looking Back to When It All Began

Nancy here, who has been itching (just like Dave keeps scratching in this video) to submit this post!

We went to town meeting this morning. This is always a social occasion and several times we were able to respond positively and without any equivocation on our part to the question "are you in the house yet?" Funny how different a simple "yes" sounds as we've gotten so used to following it up with the qualifiers. As in "we are sleeping in the house, but everything else is still in the yurt" or my favorite, "but the kitchen isn't in yet!"

In celebration of this major milestone, we'd like to share a little clip from day one of construction. Now that we're living in the "after" here's a look back at the "before".

Although the house has been a team effort and we've had lots of help along the way from many friends and contractors, now is a good time for me to publicly recognize all of Dave's love and labor that has gone into these walls. I am very proud of all that you have accomplished Dave. With great humor, hard work, and a vision, we have a beautiful new home. Well done!

Much love,

Nancy

Home and Garden

Grading around the house

This is the water line coming through the basement wall running out the water supply in the garden

Nancy working with Scott to move the shed. We used 3" pvc pipe as rollers

Our new water supply in the garden, right near the compost pile

We've turned our attention to completing the site work and grading around the house--finally. For months I've been anticipating filling in all the hollowed out areas and leveling out the rough stuff and having real topsoil rather then hard clay for a lawn.

This work started off two evenings ago by moving our shed for the second time. We moved it back in the spring sometime and felt like that was a good decision, but have since decided to move it again to allow for easier parking. Our pal Scott from down the road came to our rescue with his Kubota tractor and pulled the shed to its new home between ourselves and our uphill neighbor. We need to tweak it, but its a good move.

This morning Mac -- excavator extraordinaire -- showed up to do complete the site work. The first project was digging a trench from the house to the garden so we could lay in a water line for a standpipe water supply in our garden. This went pretty smoothly and he spent the rest of the day clearing up the general area around the parking, the west wall and also took out the massive stump that was right near the yurt. Things are looking pretty slick.

The Week in Review

Its a little amazing to see what changes in just a few days. I look at the last post and think "Wow, we've made some progress". A few key steps:

-Toward the latter part of last week the Presby septic system was completed and then covered with sand and a layer of topsoil. The septic system then connects back to the house via a distribution box (actually a cylinder) and a large septic tank --visible in the first photo being placed in the ground-- just off the east end of the house. Once these pieces were in place the site crew were able to shape and grade the entire area around the house. It now feels like a barren but gentle landscape.

-Joe and I completed the sheathing of the first floor and then built two walls. We are waiting on the exterior siding material which will apply while the walls are still on the floor. We will then stand them up and move on to the next ones. An important aspect of this project is working to minimize the lumber used in the framing of the house. The less unnecessary lumber, the more room for insulation. In practice this means the wall are framed at 24" on center, rather then the more common 16". In hand with this is building so as to stack framing members one over another. This means that a stud in the wall on the first floor will have a joist directly above it and then the stud on the second floor directly above that.

-We had a big rainfall throughout Saturday that continued all day. Besides making things a little mucky around the house, it settled some of the newly shaped earth, which in turn allows us to see where the grading needs to be tweaked so that water is moving where it should be away from the house.

-We met with the Thermotec window representative and nailed down our order. Finally. Phew. A couple of minor adjustments go out tomorrow morning, but other then that, we've made our decisions.

I'm finding it a little harder to take photographs that encompass the whole house from above as I've been doing up til now because the house is quickly rising up towards the sky, while my vantage point from the peak of the nearby garage is stationary and able to encompass less and less in the view. The last two photos above show the first floor deck in two parts. Maybe I'll figure out the photo stitch feature on our camera soon so I can do some wide angle views.

More site work

Joe and I wrapped up the root cellar yesterday, moved the remaining lumber onto the completed portion of the deck last night, and the excavation crew was back this morning. They're here to back fill the foundation, cover the root cellar, and install the Presby septic mound system. Today went really well; Joe headed up the road to help our neighbor Aaron out and I spent the day clarifying my next big lumber order and getting it out. I also did a bit of catch-up with connecting an interior drain to the outside perimeter drains that I forgot to connect before the initial back fill went in.

The Presby septic system requires literally truck loads of a specific sand that has to come over the App gap from Hinesburg. It forms the bed for the pipes which will lay on top and then be covered with more sand. This all will be connected to septic tank that will sit just outside the foundation.

Finally!

Today we broke ground. Or should I say, a giant earth mover broke tons of ground. At around seven this morning Nancy and I were sipping our coffee and tea respectively and starting to think that it wouldn't be happening today... it was raining, damp, and calm and just didn't feel like anything active was going to happen. Then, at maybe 7:04, two white trucks show up and within minutes, the digger was coming down the drive way. After a short consultation about depth and site markers the project was suddenly made manifest by the powerful combination of hydraulics, steel, and human attention.

I asked Anna and Nancy today if they could imagine anyone being as fascinated with watching them do their work as it is to watch a skillful backhoe operator going at it. I swear, Dave, the operator could pick up a plate of fine china with his machine if he wanted. He could also crush a car. He reminded me of a limber skier as he turned, retracted, lifted, dumped, pulled, pushed and piled the earth.

Digging went smoothly and I was greatly relieved to see how much fill we were accumulating throughout the day. One of the harder elements for me to envision throughout the design process has been how the landscape will pan out. A good part of that is dependent on how much fill we have to work with. It looks now that we'll be in good shape to structure the landscape without any abrupt or sever drops. Phew.

I had called DigSafe last week in preparation for this work. They came and located the main power line coming to the existing garage with spray paint on the ground. Dave was aware of the location and was working away when suddenly the power went off. It turns out there was a loop of wire outside the marks on the ground and he hit it. Except for some lost time, there was no serious damage. Green Mountain Power came and got us back in shape in good time.

By the end of the day we were left with a massive, gaping hole in the yard. Its just so impressive to see what a powerful machine can do and also to see the empty space where the house will go. It is so exciting.

The countdown starts

We have scheduled the earth work to begin a week from tomorrow. Who hoo! In a sense, it feels like the project has already begun with all the prep work we've been doing in the last few weeks, especially with moving the yurt last weekend.

We've got the concrete company lined up as well, and if the weather works in our favor and there are no major hic-ups, Joe and I should be able to start on the first floor deck right about August 1. Its way later then we had hoped, but it still works for us and we'll make the best of it. I envision running the woodstove once the real cold sets in in order to do the wiring and plumbing with a measure of comfort.

(If you look closely in the photo, you'll notice that the gable end overhang has been cut off the end of the garage. That was done to make way for the bucket arm of the digger, since the new foundation will be very close to the existing building. The cut off parts were part of the fire.)