Building a new Home: from foundation to frame

Anyone out there?
Hello!

We're back from a three-week trip to California and Chicago and slowly getting back in the swing of things.  And in the overload of KID Shorts ideas  (sorry, hope you're not sick of shorts.  There's more still to come....) well some of you have asked, "What's happening with your new house??"

Excellent question!
We're still building one!  You can read my first post about it Here and my second post about it Here.

When we last talked it looked like this (a big ole frame ready for a big ole pile of cement):

At least that's how I thought it worked.
Call me naive.
Yes.
 In fact, this whole custom-home-building thing has been a series of naive assumptions and learning as we go.  But that's all part of the fun.

So, my thought was: build a wood frame, pour in the cement, let it set, take off the wood frame...and then start building a house.
I'm sure some foundations are built like that.  Every builder and every situation is different.  But because our foundation would be so tall, they did it in series of steps and layers, with most of the foundation being filled with: Dirt!

The kids loved that. 
New playground.   Even now (WITH a frame on the house) they still love to play out in the dirt in front of the house.  They've created different names for every part of the dirt yard, with different lands for their rock and stick toys, and when it's time to leave they're always bummed (and super dirty).
Creating fun---out of nothing---makes me and Casey happier than they'll know.

So.  Here's how the foundation went....
First they filled sandbags, and sandbags, and more bags with dirt.  Then they stacked the bags around the perimeter of the foundation, building a wall, and leaving a gap between the frame and the bags.   Then they filled the center of the foundation 1/2 way up, with dirt, 

 they placed rebar along the wall of the empty perimeter,

and then poured cement around the entire perimeter.
So I guess our foundation is like an M&M....A cement candy coating, with yummy dirt inside.

And that was phase 1.
The next day they filled the rest of the foundation to the top with....wait for it....more dirt!

Bored yet?
A staring contest will liven things up.

And maybe an appearance by Clara (who is super difficult to have at the property since all she wants to do is run to the 8 foot foundation edge)

Well, after pouring all that dirt, they partitioned it off to make room for pipes and other stuff.

(other stuff = naive things I still don't know about)

And the kids really loved this grid phase.  They were like mice in a maze, carefully walking between the sections and jumping whenever possible.

Then finally, finally, one day, after plumbing inspections and weather complications.....a bazillion cement trucks showed up!

 And they poured the heck out of that dirt M&M foundation.

Yay!
Clara took a break for her jazzercise class to join the festivities.

 And seriously, I never thought I'd enjoy watching this process so much. 

Have you ever watched the big elephant-snout-cement-hose-thingy before?  It's really cool!  And it's amazing how quickly the guys work to smooth it out and spread it around. 

And well.  There you go.
A poured and dried foundation:

It seemed like months and months to get to this point.
But then just like that, they started framing!

 On day 1, they framed tons of the first floor.

And soon after.....we had two floors.

 with stairs!

And see-thru ceilings.

 I sorta wish the home would always stay this open and airy.  Imagine the photography possibilities.

I suppose a roof has it's advantages.
And at the end of the day, you can always escape the roof and enjoy the beautiful view from the back deck.

Ah.  This totally makes it all worth it.

And there you have it.
More info than you ever thought I could blog about re: Foundations.
I promise the future posts will have prettier things, like white trim and gray stucco options.  But today we'll enjoy the nerdy elements.  And I also promise to update the house stuff more frequently!  Because things are happening, and not happening.  It's a funny process.
Have a great weekend!