Playing in the dirt

We have spent the last week preparing our yard for the driveway, sidewalk and sod! Let me show you some before and after pictures.

Here is our house with overgrown weeds. You can see the orange stakes that mark out the driveway and sidewalk. This is what the concrete guys used to give us a price for their work.


We rented a tiller to break up existing grass/weeds. You can see the front yard is about halfway done.

This is what the ground looks like after it’s tilled – very soft.


This is the tiller.


We brought in three loads of dirt on Friday and we were able to barrow a Bobcat from Adam’s cousin Rusty (thanks, Rusty!). Adam moved dirt around Friday and Saturday to get the grading right for our lawn (make water run away from the foundation).


Adam was inspired by his baseball days and hooked us this contraption to smooth out the dirt. It worked pretty well.


The concrete guys put up the form boards on Monday. It’s really great to be able to define the yard and see what the finished product is going to look like.


The form boards up close. We had hoped to get concrete today, but ran into some problems with permitting, bonds, etc with the county. We are getting everything worked out and should have concrete (and sod for that matter) this week. We’re very excited!


As for the inside of the house, we got the baseboards in the areas with carpet the weekend before last. Here is the guest room.


This is what our window sills look like with the base.


We also received the rest of our kitchen appliances. Here is the refrigerator. We love it – much more high-tech than what we would typically buy, but we got it on sale – yay!


The microwave and range. Just so you know, I did everything to install the microwave myself (while Adam was moving dirt). I did have to get Adam’s assistance to lift it in place, but the rest was all me.

We passed our electrical and plumbing finals. Like I said before, we should get concrete and sod this week and hope to get the landscaping plants/trees in this weekend. Then, we just need to finish up flooring and trim. We are getting SO CLOSE!!

We Have Our PERMIT!!

Adam met the the Plans Reviewer for Duval County for a couple of hours yesterday. We had to make the changes he noted last week and get a new set together to submit - and we GOT OUR PERMIT! I'm a little excited, in case you can't tell. There are still a couple of things we need to change, but it wasn't big enough to reject us. He was also able to submit our Notice of Commencement - which we officially need to do to begin construction. He also got the Plumbing permit. They didn't even need to see the drawings for that - so, that process was a lot easier. Now we don't have the county holding us back - ONWARD!

Adam and his dad spent most of Saturday working on the footings. They still need to be cleaned up a little and compacted, but they're coming along. We also spent a good amount of time searching for the sewer conection. There is an "s" marked in the curb, and we dug all around that "s" to try and find the connection - but, it wasn't there. So, Adam's been in touch with everyone you can think of to try and get that information. We used the excavator to help dig some, but we turned it back in on Monday. Now, we just have shovels and a wheelbarrow.

After we finish the footings, we'll do the form boards and underground plumbing. However, Adam and I will be out of town this weekend and then we leave on a 4-night cruise on Sunday . . . so, it'll be a week before we do any more work on the house. We're going to enjoy our break and relax on the beach. Then, we'll get back to it next Thursday. That's all for now. Sorry I don't have pictures - I left the camera at home. I hope you had a nice Easter.

More Site Work

We have certainly been working hard this week! Adam spent most of the day on Monday putting our new load of dirt in the right places. Then, I compacted it. The equipment renters gave us a break a let us keep the Track Skid an extra day, so they picked it up early Tuesday morning.


We tested the elevations of our slab using this laser level. It spins around and puts out an invisible laser in every direction. Then, you put a sensor on a large ruler and it beeps when the laser hits at the correct elevation. It's pretty handy!


Like I said earlier, it was my job to compact the ground. This is what I used - it vibrates and makes the ground pretty dense. By code, we have to have 95% compaction.


Adam was out their with his dad, Brian, and Clint on Tuesday. They made quite the team and dug over half of the footers. We got out their again on Thursday and dug the rest of them. In our house, almost every wall is structural - so now the foundation looks like a maze with all the trenches running through it. A couple of them need to shift over slightly, but other than that, they're in the right place. I realize this isn't the best picture, but it's the only one I had of the footers.


Clint was enjoying his seat in the excavator again . . . but this time, Adam got up there with him and showed him which buttons/levers to push so he could pick up dirt! Clint had a blast.


We are back to it this weekend. We need to finish the footers, compact the dirt again, then we're starting on the form boards. These are the peices of wood that outline the house to keep the concrete in. Then, it's time to do the underground plumbing.

We finally heard back from the county today . . . they gave us a list of comments that they want us to fix on our drawings. We are making the changes and should meet with them on Monday to give them everything they requested and get our permit. Then, we have to immeadiately submit for a plumbing permit and Notice of Commencement. Then, we can legally do the plumbing work and continue on our house. Fun and exciting stuff!

I hope you have a wonderful Easter, Praise Jesus for all he has given us!

Starting "Real Work"

Well, we still haven't heard from good ole Duval county about our permit, but we are going to move on with our work anyway and do some site work this weekend. Adam has ordered two different pieces of equipment and four loads of dirt to arrive at our land today (it should already be there). He plans to scab off the top soil from the house footprint (you do not want organics under your foundation) and then add dirt to get it to the right elevation. He's gonna compact it, grade it, and dig trenches for the footings and underground plumbing. Then comes putting in the form work for the foundation.

I consider this the "real work" because you will now begin to see actual progress. We'll be sure to take pictures and I'll post them early next week. It will probably be a few weeks to complete this process, but we'll update you along the way.

Adam has decided to do his own plumbing. As the owner, he does not need to take a test to pull a permit or put in the plumbing for his own house. I will be ordering the plumbing materials (with my company discount) next week and we will put them in place when the ground is prepped. Exciting stuff!

Waiting on Permit & Condo for Sale

Today, we officially submitted our set to Duval County for approval. Our set met the preliminary requirements to be reviewed, now they will sit through about a week's worth of reviewing at the county. If all goes well, we'll get a permit next week. YAY!

I don't know if we'll get any other work done on the land in the mean time, but this is a pretty big step forward . . . so, I'm excited.

In other news, we decided to sell our condo ourselves instead of going through a realtor. It has been on the market since the beginning of October with only 2 or 3 people even looking at it. Selling it ourselves will save us a fair chunk of change, but means more work for me. So, if you would like a lovely 1,118 sq ft, 2 bed / 2 bath condo in the Jacksonville area - or know anyone else that would - please let me know and I'd be happy to show it or send pictures.

Product Approval Sheet

We have everything ready to submit for permit . . . except the Product Approval Sheet. Because we live in the sunny state of Florida, we have an extra form to fill out due to the risk of hurricanes. This form lists every single product that will be on the exterior of our home - from windows to brick, doors to roof . . . everything must be listed. We have to select exactly what we will be putting on our house and specify the manufacturer and Florida Product Approval Number. This seems to be rather hard to find and is taking us a bit longer than expected. Hopefully we'll finish up this last form very quickly and then submit our set to the county. I've added the first sheet of this form for your viewing pleasure. We'll let you know when we get our permit - then we'll really start moving.

We have also completed all the engineering - the mechanical, plumbing, and electrical sheets are 100%, so those permits should be attained quickly when the time comes. Adam is toying with the idea of getting a licence to do his own plumbing for the house. This requires taking a test for the county. I'll let you know what happens.

Schedule

This is the schedule that Adam created for our house. It has the completion date in August. Things got pushed back with the delay in closing and truss design. Hopefully, we can stay on track and finish the house according to the schedule. Some things should move more quickly - like the County Approvals. However, other things will inevitably take longer than expected. We still hope to finish this before the summers out. We're getting very close to submitting for permit. The truss design is complete as of today and the structural engineer just has to complete his design, then we'll be putting together everything for permit. At that point, we should be able to move along much quicker.

Checklist for Building Permit

We are currently gathering all the information we need to submit for permit with the county. This is an important step, because it means we will be able to begin construction of our house. We are not allowed to do any work without a permit. There is a fair bit of paper work we need to submit to be approved for our permit. I have posted a checklist (3 pages long) that Duval county gave us. We are using this to make sure we have everything we need to submit and have the greatest chance of being approved the first go round. You can click on the images to see what our county requires. I know it doesn't seem like much is happening right now, but all of this needs to happen in order to start building and see progress. Once we submit, it shouldn't take any longer than one week to hear back from them. Supposedly, Duval county is one of the more difficult counties to work with, I hope we don't have any problems with them. We hope to submit for permit very soon - hopefully by next week. I will keep you posted on our progress and will have pictures once we break ground.