The Wrath of Sandy

I'm kind of sick to my stomach looking at the pictures Joe sent to me. What really concerns me is the potential problems we could run into later. We currently have about 4" to 6" of standing water in our basement. There is a window floating in the water.  It really is a shame they couldn't get the sump pump in before Sandy hit.

It looks like some of the floor joists were ripped out by the strong winds.  I'm sure this is an easy fix though. I really hope they didn't do any damage to our neighbor's houses.

What about the wood?  It's saturated!  The rain isn't supposed to stop until Friday.  Will this cause damage that won't show up until later?  Is this something that I should be worried about?

Day 19 | Hurricane Sandy Preparations

We're getting a little bit nervous watching Hurricane Sandy.  At the very least we'll see heavy rain and strong wind in Cleveland (where we're building our house).  Here in WV (where the kids and I are located until the house is finished) we're going to see a LOT more rain, flooding, winds and possible snow.  Thankfully we aren't in the high Appalachian mountains where the predictions are calling for heavy wet snow.

Joe drove down here to WV to spend the weekend with us.  Before he left Cleveland he drove by the house to take pictures of yesterday's progress.  It looks like they're preparing the house for Hurricane Sandy.

All of the windows on our main floor have been installed.  The roof has also been put on the morning room.  They were in the process of putting in the floor joists for the second floor. 

I wonder if they're trying to get the floor joists for the second floor finished up so they can put the sheeting down and cover it with plastic?  I'm really worried about our basement flooding too.  The drainage is in but we don't have a sump pump installed yet.

Our PM calls us every Friday with updates.  He didn't call yesterday (Friday).  I'm sure he's really busy with storm preparations. 

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you that are closer to the east coast.  Let's hope Sandy fizzles out before she makes landfall.

Day 18 (evening) | We have a main floor!

I can't believe how fast these guys work. They framed up the main floor in just one day! Joe is going back out there today after work to take pictures of today's progress.  In the meantime, here's what they completed yesterday.

Here is the garage.  You can see the entry that leads into the laundry room.  The kitchen and morning room are behind that.

This was taken standing in the great room looking at where the staircases will go up to the 2nd floor and down to the basement.  The garage is on the other side.

Standing at the front door looking in.  You can see where the stairs going down to the basement will be located.  It looks like a big scary hole right now!

Taken from the back of the house.  This is the great room and the morning room.  Our sliding glass door is laying on the ground along with our windows.

Check out the view that I'll have looking out of the windows in my morning room!  We hesitated on this lot at first because it was on water.  Our 2.5 year old son is very curious and energetic.

This is back at the front of the house.  You can see the hole for the front entrance along with the holes for the windows.

The steel beams are in place.  I love that they use steel beams.  We lived in two older homes with upstairs floors that sloped.  Not fun!

My birthday is on Nov. 6th... Ryan Homes is wrapping a big present for me ;)

One of our staircases that should be going in today.

I'm getting a little bit nervous watching Hurricane Sandy on the Weather Channel.  They're expecting to see effects from it in Cleveland.  I know some of you are closer to the east coast and you'll probably see worse effect from it than we will.  I hope it stays waaaaay out to sea!

Day 18 (morning) | Framing begins

Joe called me about an hour ago to tell me that they started framing! He only had time to send one picture though. From what I can tell, the floor joists are in and a wall is up. Yippee!

I'm posting this from the Blogger app on my iPhone. I hope the formatting is ok.

Days 4 - 11 | Catching Up - Progress on our Florence

I've realized something... living with family when you're in your 30's and have 4 kids in tow is no picnic. We're all learning lessons in patience, kindness, generosity, gratefulness, frugality and chipping in to help when needed. This past week was a little trying, but we made it through. Now I have to get you caught up on where we're at with our house!

Here we go.....  

There has been so much progress! It's hard to believe that it's only been 11 days since we broke ground on October 9, 2012. Things really do move quickly after the ground breaking.

Day 4 | 10-12-12 | Poured Basement Walls

Joe did not have a chance to drive out to take pictures this day. The basement walls were poured though. Our PM called for our weekly update. He said they would be wrapping the basement on 16th, deliveries for supplies should start on the 19th and framing is expected to start on the 26th.

Day 5 | 10-13-2012 | Basement Walls & Steel Beams

Joe drove out after work. The basement walls had been poured and the frames were removed. He also saw a delivery of the steel beams.

Joe was standing at the front of the house when he took this one. The front porch is directly in front with the soon to be finished basement behind it. The garage is off to the left with the unfinished part of the basement behind it.

The orange spray paint marks are for the waterproofing. That's how far up the wrapping comes.

I think these are the pipes for the sump pump?

Day 8 | 10-16-2012 | Basement wrapped

After Joe got off of work, he drove out to see the progress. It's looking great so far!

Day 10 | 10-18-2012 | Deliveries Have Started!

Joe decided to drive by the house to see if they had done anything while waiting for the deliveries to start. Look at what he saw....

Our front door, sliding glass door, and windows have been delivered! Our front door will be black, which reminds me, I need to update our selections page.

I couldn't see it in the first photo that Joe sent to me (the one above), but we have wood too. It doesn't look like very much. Maybe there's more hiding behind it or another delivery is scheduled?

This guy was there delivering our shower/tubs. I can't wait to use city water again!

Day 11 | 10-19-2012 | Weekly PM Call

Our PM called for our weekly update. He said that we're scheduled to start the framing on the 24th or the 25th.  He said that puts us about 2 weeks ahead of schedule right now. Of course that could all change, depending the the weather. 

So, that's where we're at right now. I'm so excited and happy with how fast things are moving! My fingers are crossed that the weather stays nice long enough for them to finish all of the outside work.

Day 3 (evening) | Basement walls are ready to be poured

Joe drove back out to the site after work yesterday (day 3 of the build).  Just look at the sky!  Isn't it beautiful?

They worked fast getting everything ready to pour the basement walls.  Here are a few more pictures that Joe sent to me.....

Today was day 4 of the build.  Joe didn't have time after work to run by the site to take pics of the progress.  I hope they were able to pour the walls.  I'm a little bit worried because there is a freeze warning for tonight.  Does anyone know if that matters when pouring the walls?  I'm sure it doesn't... they build all winter long in below freezing temperatures.

Day 3 (morning) | Footers and Basement Walls

Joe (my husband) drove out to the site this morning and look what he saw!  They're working on our basement walls as I type this.  I'm really hoping the weather holds out for the workers.  Do you see the clouds in the background?

Here's a picture that Joe took standing at the back of house.  The morning room will be right in front of where he's standing.  It appears that the footers are all done.  They're dropping some sort of wood in... I'm not sure what that's for.  Maybe it was the wood they used to frame the footers and they're taking it out?  

Here's a view of the wood from up by the truck.  I'll have to ask Joe if they were taking it out or putting it in. 

There's the wood again!  You can also see the footers in this picture.  Is the white tubing next to the footers for the basement waterproofing system?  I have no clue.  I think the white tube sticking out of the ground is for our powder room rough in.. I could be wrong though.  Maybe it's the angle the picture was taken from, but this space looks a lot smaller than it should.  It's so hard to look at these pictures and get a feel for the size!

  

This is where our future garage will be.  We have the reverse layout of the Florence floor plan.

Here's another shot of the footers around the garage.  It's so exciting to see how far they've come in just just 2 full days of work.  One of the workers told Joe that the basement walls should be up today.  I'm curious to know how much they got done!  I wish I could just jump in the car and drive out there.  

Day 1 | We broke ground on our Florence!

I'm excited to announce that we broke ground yesterday, October 8th!!  I can't believe this day has finally arrived.  We've worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get to this point.  It won't be long until our family is back together... in our brand new HOME.

I haven't had a chance to update the blog since before our pre-construction meeting.  That meeting took place on September 10th.  I was able to travel to Cleveland to attend with my husband.  Nothing too exciting happened in the meeting.  We met our Project Manager, Robb.  We've heard very good things about him from our new neighbors (super nice people that come out to talk to us whenever we stop by our lot)!  He walked us through the plans and explained the whole process from here on out.  It all seems pretty straightforward.

At the meeting, they told us they'd break ground in about 2 weeks.  It took exactly 4 weeks.  Our projected end date is December 20th.  I have my fingers crossed that it will be sooner.  Can you imagine how hectic it will be trying to close on a house and move in just days before Christmas?  I'm having visions of us sitting in an empty house, on the floor, around a Christmas tree.  I guess we could always go out for Chinese dinner like Ralphie.  That wouldn't be so bad, would it?

Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me show you a few pictures from the ground breaking....

The kids (minus our 15 year old) and I drove up to Cleveland on Sunday and stayed the night.  After we checked into the hotel, we drove over to the site to take our final 'before' pictures.  We were excited to see an excavator parked on our lot as we came around the corner!

See what I mean?  ... excitement!  I'm so happy the kids are getting to go through this experience.  They're all learning so much from this whole process, but most of all.... PATIENCE.

We walked around the lot taking pictures.  My daughter and I are standing where our kitchen will be.  Can see the morning room staked out behind us?  So exciting!

After we finished taking pictures, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the hotel.  Our 12 year old invited his best friend to go swimming with us.  He came over to the hotel with his mom (a good friend of mine).  It was so nice to relax with the kids and visit with friends!

We got up around 6am, got dressed, ate breakfast and headed over to the site.  On the way to the site, our PM called to let us know they were getting ready to break ground.  We arrived just a little after 8am.  The guys had just started working!  The excavator was hard at work, smoothing out the big pile of gravel that had been dumped earlier.  It was VERY exciting to finally see work happening on our home!

We parked across the street and got out of the car.  We stood directly across the street for a few minutes, taking pictures and talking excitedly.  The guy working on the excavator saw us and waved.  He shut the excavator off, climbed down and walked over to say hello.  Then, he asked our 2.5 year old if he wanted to 'drive' the excavator.  What do you think he said?

I thought it was so cool that he let all 3 kids 'drive'.  These are special memories that we'll cherish for a long time!  Thank you Mr. Excavator driver!!

There was another guy working at our site too.  He even took time to come over and say hello.  I'm not sure what his job was, but he was working on the sewer and water lines.

These guys work fast!  Even Madeline was surprised how much progress they made after just 2 hours.  We ended up hanging around until about 1pm (we did leave 2 times to get something to eat and use the restroom).  The kids and I had to head back to WV, so we couldn't stay too much longer.

I'm pretty sure they got us hooked into the sewer and water lines.  I saw the one guy laying copper piping down as the excavator was digging.

I took this picture right before we had to leave at 1pm.  In just 5 hours they had about 3/4 of the basement dug out!  It's amazing how fast and proficiently they work.

I won't be able to get back up to the site for about 2 weeks.  My husband will be driving by after work as much as he can to take pictures of the progress.  It's killing me that I'm not able to drive out there every day to document things!  I don't know... maybe things will seem to go faster this way?