The House Part III

In case you have been missing out on the house building saga, you can catch up here and here.  A little bit of hitting-water-while-digging-the-basement-disaster, and then some start over and get started for real the next summer.

We are finally on our way!

After the land was prepared and the forms built and concrete poured for the foundation, it was time to start with some walls.

As you can see, we decided to build using concrete forms.  They consist of the styrofoam blocks that are stacked, joined together with rebar inside, and finally, filled with concrete to form very, very thick walls.  The styrofoam is amazing.  It sat in our yard over the summer until we were ready to start, and, even on the hottest days in full sun, it would feel cool to the touch.  When it got cold, the styrofoam felt warm.  It is an amazing insulator, and these walls give you the best insulating factor for your home.

They used the braces to keep everything together until the concrete gets poured.  The blocks go up quickly, but it is a lot of rebar to cut and bend.

Kind of like giant Lego, hey?

We then had to build the joists for the first floor after the first pour of concrete was put in for our crawlspace.

The hole is for the crawl space steps where the furnace room will be.  The back without subfloor is the golf room where, one day, we hope to put a golf simulator (my husband is crazy for golf and, let’s be honest, our season isn’t very long here) and on the right is the garage.

Here you can see the first floor up with the windows and doors.  That’s one thing with using the concrete forms- you realllllly have to be sure where your windows are going.  Ten inches of concrete is not going to be easy to get through, or fill, if you change your mind. See the snow on the ground while there are still leaves on the trees?  Welcome to September!  Another great thing about the forms is that it doesn’t matter if they get wet.

Here’s the inside view with all of the supports.

Next week, the second floor makes an appearance, as does the roof.