First let me thank my friend Gary for covering my next couple of topics in a comment. I'll touch on them for completeness. Once the foundation was completed a couple other things that you can't see occurred quickly thereafter: (1) Waterproofing of the subterranean portion of the Foundation (that's the black you can see at ground level on one prior picture) - then (2) Backfilling of the foundation - which first lays a base of porous rock around the perimeter of the foundation to create a "Positive Drain" that keeps moisture away from the house (water is always BAD and you always want to get RID of it!), and then fills in dirt around the base of the foundation and over top of the positive drain to bring the base back up to the initial ground level - (simply replacing what was dug out for the footings). I also added about 35 tons of rock to backfill inside the garage. This provides a solid base for the slab of concrete that will later be poured there and keeps things a little cleaner and level in-process until then. And finally (3) direct treatment of the soil around the entire perimeter of the house for Termites. This is a 10-year protection that keeps them at bay - another large problem in the south. All three of those items ran me close to another $2 Grand to the excavation contractor and bug-guy combined. Now on to sexier topics!
By Friday May 6th I was ready to start with the framing contractor at 8am sharp. By 11:30, we had our first show-stopper. The framers had discovered that the front of the foundation was off by 5" in three places and they couldn't complete the first floor decking in a manner that would pass the foundation inspection. All I see are dollar $igns about now. By 2pm the foundation contractor had returned to the site to spec out the situation. How could this happen? - you ask? Like this: The blueprints were drawn to use natural stone on the front exterior which has a depth of 5". We instead chose to use "Cultured" stone, which has a depth half that (2.5"). Although the plans specified to adjust the foundation accordingly if "Cultured" stone were used, the Masons measured the base for Natural anyhow, and thus were off on each corner in the front by 2.5 inches on 6 corners, which comes out to 5 inches in 3 places (note the LACK of flooring at the far left corner of the house in the picture above). Now What!? The only "next right thing" to do was send the framers home and have the mason's come back over the weekend, bust down the front cinder-block foundation and re-form it to the correct spec. Luckily, they did this at their expense not mine and we were back in business ready to continue framing come Monday Morning.
So first thing Monday morning Ed calls the County Inspector to come out and do the foundation inspection while the framers start to lay plywood ("Advantech") flooring down on the 1st floor deck. By 11:30 we're dead in the water AGAIN! WTF!??? of course was my reaction. All I knew at this point was the Inspector came to the site and issued a STOP-WORK-ORDER on the project, demanding all construction cease and all workers leave the premises. The notice posted on the Inspections board cited North Carolina General Statutes so-and-so and all was quite official. The short of it was that the framers had covered up part of the foundation with plywood flooring that was supposed to get inspected, so work had to stop until the REAL inspector - who was off work that day - could get in to inspect the foundation properly. The next morning, Ed showed up, met the REAL inspector onsite, apologized profusely for the oversight and helped show the foundation to the satisfaction of the inspector. The Inspector was happy (very important to keep him that way!) and the Foundation passed inspection. Back in business by 11:00 a.m. Framers returned and started going to town.
At this point, truckloads of materials are getting delivered to the site almost daily, Duke Power showed up on Tuesday to hang a transformer on the pole nearby, install a permanent service pole, and hook up temporary power to the site, and the City is due out any day to tear up the road and connect the water & sewer. It's all quite overwhelming and exciting at the same time. The site is constantly a-buzz with activity, saws are whirring, power-hammers are hammering, and a friggin' house is going up! More later.
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