Concrete Pour Begins

Right on time, the concrete footings were poured today. Four truckloads were pumped up and over into the forms for the foundation footings. Walls & slab are going to be a big pour indeed!

Inspection went fine & Robert actually wanted to move the pour up by an hour. Alas, the pump truck couldn't find the address right away - the first casualty of many I'm afraid.

Props to Kincaid for some last minute wee hours coordination work to insure everything goes in the right places. The coordination work on a lot like this with a house as big as this one results in a set of extremely complicated calculations. There have been a few surprises - my Billiards room (the living room on the plan) has lost a corner. This was to comply with setback requirements. I hope I can still play some pool in there! On the good side, Robert is providing 10-foot ceilings on the upper floor - this will be really nice. The second floor will feel spacious with 9-foot ceilings - definitely better than 8-foot ceilings for the that theater space (Family room on plans).

Here's some pics of the finished footings from today. Tomorrow, they'll form up the concrete walls, including the 12' tall monster that sits on top of that big footing in this first pic:

Foundation Work Begins

The concrete guys started building forms on Friday and they made a lot of progress!


They'll finish building forms on Monday - inspection is set for later in the day.


Check out this footing - its six feet wide and will tie into the upper garages' slab via a retaining wall.

So far the construction guys all agree - this house is engineered to be overbuilt. It should be very stout & resist problems from settling, etc. The soil is very sandy, so water drains off very quickly. The excavators said there are plenty of lots that they simply couldn't run their equipment on with the rain we had last week.

I started a new photo gallery for the foundation work too - those are on the left side of the page.

Foundation pour set for next week

Robert (Kincaid Homes) sent an update, so I thought I'd make another post before we have some pics of the foundation work:

The foundation hole was finished today.
Several loads of sand were taken out (I spoke to the Chad & Heath at Ground Contact excavation this morning & they said around 6 dumptrucks of dirt were hauled out.)

Foundation guy will be on site tomorrow about 7:30 in the morning. He is usually pretty quick, with cooperating weather we intend to pour next week for the footings and then start the walls.

The schedule of events:
1. Dig [a big] hole.
2. Pour foundation [footings & walls].
3. Backfill and compact soil.
4. Do underground plumbing.
5. Prepare for the basement slabs
6. Slab pour: This will be a pretty big pour because we would be doing the upper garage slab, the lower garage slab, lower living slab and the office/apartment slab.
7. After all of this we will start framing.

A couple pics from the dig this morning

Ready for foundation

Here the lot is prepped for the foundation. The concrete guy should be out this week to place forms - we should have the forms out of here and the finished foundation in a week or so, weather permitting.

Its hard to tell, but there are three levels to the lot. I'm standing at the 1st floor level, looking at the main level. Its easiest to see the dug out shape of the lowest level.

A big thanks to Chad & Heath at Ground Contact excavation for working through torrential downpours this week, in order to keep the project on schedule! They also did some great coordination work with Kincaid to insure the upper floor garage slab will line up properly with the level of the street - hugely important that this phase of the project.

More pics from Day 1...

This pic is from the upper floor level. I'm standing in front of the upper floor garages, looking down at the second floor level. The building lot is essentially a terraced hillside.

You can see power lines in this picture - those are actually on power poles along the Interurban Trail down below. We'll be able to watch walkers and bikers go by from our deck.

They have to dig down for the lowest level (third floor). They'll be taking out tons of dirt on Monday and setting the forms for the foundation. The concrete pour is set for Wednesday!

Edit: the concrete pour is not Wednesday - the concrete prep begins. They'll place the forms first, then pour concrete next week-ish.

We are finally underway!

It's been over a year since we first contacted Kincaid Construction. I noticed a home being built along the Interurban Bike Trail I rode each day to and from work. The style of construction was really unique and I liked the look. I made a mental note to bring Dorrinda by the site. We really weren't thinking about building our next home. We weren't even that serious about a "next" home! That was then...

Posted full house plans

If you are interested in checking out the floorplans, elevations or sketches - go to the photo albums. I also posted a link to them on the left sidebar.

Why the name?

I named this blog "Our House (in the middle of the street)", because when City of Everett came out to survey our lot, one edge of it extends right about to the middle of the little lane that provides access to the houses along Interurban Trail. Imagine their surprise when I build my fence!

If you look close at the lot layout image (lots 19, 20 & 21), you can actually see the little bump out from the adjacent property.

For additional wierdness, the lot plan shows 48th Street angling past our property. This isn't the case at all. 48th Street dead-ends at our lower level driveway entrance, leaving only trees & other natural surroundings next to our lot. This is because Commercial Ave was never extended through here (where you see "4-035" on the plan). The right of way was sold to the PUD and turned into Interurban Trail.

We are addressed off a street that technically doesn't exist, next to a street that also doesn't exist. Our apologies in advance to the UPS guy!

8-24-07

I added the pic below to show where the property line is. If you look closely, you can see the pink spray paint marking the edges that form the corner of the lot.

(click the pic for the bigger version)