Sept. 26--Clerestory window wall

Remember the 48 foot beam? It's time to put it to work! This wall will have 5 large windows to let in light all year round, and hopefully give us some solar gain in the winter time. They face south or pretty close to it. The SkyTrak really helps make jobs like this much easier.

Truss Truck Excitement

Also on Sept 26, we had the delivery of the largest of the roof trusses. They were extra long, which required that the truck have an "escort" truck as well. Turned out to be handy. The driver had already been here several times, so he knew that he would need to use Jim's driveway which is a bit wider than ours. He made a first attempt, but didn't make it, so the escort truck was able to pull him out. 

The 2nd attempt was probably worse, and this time I arrived with camera in hand. The truck was going to take out the electric pole if it continued. The trailer was off the side of the driveway, and the two left-most wheels of the trailer were actually off the ground!

So the driver asked Sam if the framers would come and bring the SkyTrak to see if they could help straighten out the trailer. They came right away, and were able to work a miracle. The next video shows them getting it moved.

And here are the tracks in the driveway!

The truss truck is able to just roll the trusses off the back. Pretty impressive.

We are eager to have these trusses installed, but it will be a while as they will do others first. There will be another load of garage trusses tomorrow, and that will be the last delivery. We are very happy with NOW Structures and glad they were able to deliver the trusses!

Sept 24 More beams and more housewrap

We have more porch beams including some that are at the top of the 2nd story.

Sept 19 Porch beams and housewrap

Progress has been very slow in September. Some hot days, some rain, and lack of workers all contributed.

Beams have been added to the west porch posts.

And today, they started on the housewrap.

August 31--2nd floor emerges!

The second floor has started to emerge! 

These are the posts on the west side of the house, where some porches will be. 

More steel

We will have 3 different porch areas, and the roof trusses will be supported by laminated beams and steel posts. Jim ordered the steel, drilled the holes, and then did all the welding to assemble the parts. Deb gave them a couple of coats of primer to keep them from rusting. Then the guys took turns helping Sam put them into place. Sam rented a hammer drill and they went to town! The entire process took a couple of weeks but it will be worth the effort. 

To set the three largest posts, Jim drove the lift to set them into place. I was very impressed with his ability to operate it with no previous practice! Jim got more of the mechanical genes than the other brothers, although they are both pretty good too!

Brick Delivery

The bricks have arrived in town, and even though we don't need them yet, we have room to store them, so once the ground dried up from the various rains we've had, we took the opportunity to have the bricks delivered. We have bricks for the entire exterior as well as split pavers for a large portion of the interior. We plan to put carpet in the bedrooms, but most of the living area will have brick floors. We enjoyed laying brick for patios and sidewalks at our home in Albuquerque, and we liked various neighbor's houses that had brick floors.

Unloading the truck

Stacking them so we can move them with the tractor later

Sam and David inspect the bricks

Great Room Beam

On the south side of the house, we'll have 5 clerestory windows, which will let in a lot of light, and hopefully give us some passive solar heat in the winter. This wall will contain a large beam, 48 feet long. Justin and his crew used the SkyTrak to hoist this beam up over the walls and into place.

Getting ready to go

Getting closer!

Up and over!

Into the yoke... Will it fit?

Sitting pretty

2nd floor trusses are installed!

More rain

We had a lot of rain on August 10, and so the house was really holding water. Took a few days to dry out!

And now the garage is taking shape, and some of the sheeting is up on the walls. More trusses are already here, trying to stay dry under the plastic. This was taken on August 22.

Walls!

It was very exciting to start seeing the walls begin to emerge! The first wall went up on August 4. 

Ricky says "Here is the front door. Come on in!"

Ricky is somewhat concerned as he can't find his doggie door yet. Sam told him he'd have to wait a while for that. We plan to put it to the right of the back door which you see in the center of the next photo.

And now the first floor is starting to take shape!

HOT

It's been very hot here. On August 2 it was 109 degrees here! At least the humidity was low: 19%

 

Our framing crew would start work at 6:00 am, and have to stop by 1pm or so, as it was just too hot to work out in the hot sun. We were thankful that they could make progress, even if it was slower than we'd like. 

Floor trusses!

Finally it was time to set the floor trusses that hold up the first floor. These were assembled by the good folks at NOW Structures in Nevada, Missouri, and traveled by truck to our site. July 22

Next the sheeting went on the trusses so we were finally able to walk on the first floor. July 26

Steel Beams hold up the house

Because our house will have extra-heavy floors, we need to support them with steel beams. Sam had Kyle, our architect friend, ensure that we had sufficient support, and the result is 2 long beams from front to back, with steel columns supporting them in the middles, and the ends rest in "beam pockets" on the concrete walls. These were set on July 2, 2011.

The steel was assembled in the barnyard behind our house, and then set into place with a large "lift". The shorter beam went in first.

 

 The longer beam had to go in in two pieces.

 

Jim helped us in many ways with the steel, as he has had a lot of experience in this area.

 

All done!

Pouring the Basement Floor

On June 13, Vince and his crew had finished preparing the wire mesh and rebar for the basement floor. We again had the pumper truck. It was really intriguing to watch them pour and smooth the basement floor. Eight guys, each with various jobs to do, and all working hard. I was amazed at how fast they finished it. 

 

Then later after the top had set up a bit, Vince and David used large machines to finish the surface. 

And, no, I didn't write my name in the floor!

Our brick and roofing colors

We spent a lot of time making the decision on the brick and the shingles, but we finally made up our minds. These photos are of houses in our area with the brick AND shingles we are going to use.

The brick is from Interpace, and its name is "Mount Woodson". The shingles are from Tamko and the name is "Black Walnut". Appropriate, since this house is named "Walnut Springs".

Pouring the Basement Walls

Well, we had a tornado on May 22, 2011, which was an EF-5 and pretty much leveled a large swath through the middle of Joplin. So it took a bit longer than usual to get our forms up and ready to pour the basement walls. Our crew was great, though, and amazing to watch. Vince is the boss, and he is there working as hard as his guys. 

This is the day after the tornado--the forms are started but not yet completed. May 23. Luckily, we didn't have any damage from the storm.

 

They poured the walls on June 1, 2011. In the video below, Vince is standing on the top of the walls as he directs the concrete into the forms. Chris is keeping an eye on the flow and making sure the form fills without any air gaps. Another guy is monitoring the forms for leakage on the outside, and there's probably another guy doing the same on the inside. The pumper truck driver is running the pump with his remote control, and Sam and Jim are on the sidelines analyzing the job.

Here is another shot, up close and personal!

Joplin Tornado May 22

On May 22, 2011, at 5:41pm, an EF-5 tornado ripped through the middle of Joplin, levelling many homes, killing 161 people (at last count) and injuring many more. We were very fortunate that everyone in our family was safe, no property was lost or damaged, including our construction site. It certainly changed many aspects of life as we knew it. There are many photos and videos you can find on the web, but I have a few I want to post here that we found interesting or unusual.

My elementary school, Irving, was hit hard, and is considered to be a total loss. It is unlikely that they will rebuild on the same property due to the lack of parking and busy streets. Most of the homes and businesses in this area have been completely cleared away.

Irving School (where I went grades 1-6)

This is all that remained of the Greenbriar, which was a nursing home. Wheelchairs are parked in the area that used to be the parking lot for cars. A number of residents died there, but it was amazing how many survived. Thankfully, my mother did not live there.

Greenbriar Nursing Home

Sam saw the UPS man attempting to deliver a box on May 24, 2 days after the storm. We wondered what he did with the box. 

UPS driver--What did he do with the box?

This is a house as seen on Google Street View before the storm.

House at 24th & Moffet before the storm

This is the same house after the tornado. Check out the position of the front door relative to the steps leading up to it.

House at 24th and Moffet after the storm

There are also many other locations with major damage, including Mercy St. John's Hospital and the Joplin High School.

Deer sighting

Just 2 days after the tornado, in the early morning, I saw two deer exploring near our porta-potty! I figured they were wondering just what that purple building was for.

Basement Footings!

The forms for the basement footings went in after the swimming pool had dried up sufficiently. Vince and his crew are pouring the footings for our basement. May 10, 2011.

The square pads are support for the columns that will hold up 2 steel beams. Those are needed because we'll have light-weight concrete in the floors, and brick pavers on a good part of the main floor. We enjoyed watching the pumper-truck driver standing on the edge, controlling the crane and the flow of concrete! The crew really worked well together to get the job done in very short order.

Basement Swimming Pool

After recent rains, the basement has collected almost enough water to go swimming! Well, it's not too deep, but the bottom is totally covered. Sam's drain is working so that will help clear the water out. This was shot on April 26, 2011. It didn't take too long to drain out, but the bottom was muddy for a while. We have to wait for it to dry out some before the dozer can clean up the cave-ins. Then the concrete folks can begin to work on the footings. It's kind of nice to have a little break in the action.

Lakefront Property!

Jim and Dianne had some visitors swimming in the pasture just north of their house! This was on April 26, 2011.

Flooded Pastures

Both the middle and lower pastures are flooded this day. This was shot on April 25, 2011. This was taken from Jim's back porch, and you can see his fenced-in backyard. Ricky enjoys their yard when he goes to visit Mindy & Lil'Bit. The water has been in these pastures before, and even higher than this, so we weren't too surprised at this. Shoal Creek runs along our property, and when it gets out of its banks, the pastures get watered!

Day 4

Day 4 (yesterday) was the end of the basement excavation! He finished by about noon, and then it puckered up and rained in the afternoon. We were thankful that the basement digging was done. Next another guy will bring a backhoe and dig a long trench so Sam can put in a "drain to daylight". Rain forecast for today (Day 5) but so far, things are looking like no rain for a while, and hopefully we can get this trench opened and shut today.

Day 3

Day 3 of the excavation went well. He has a large part of the basement dug but more to go. Sure looks like rain tomorrow--80% chance! Maybe we will all get a day off? This photo is looking to the north.