So, we made another trip out to the house today to see the changes.

This will be the older kids bedrooms, over the kitchen and garage.

This is a shot through our bedroom wall into the family room.

North facing two car garage

West facing one car garage

What's in the box?

Walls & Trusses

Well, there's been plenty of action since the last post. The basement is completely poured. The framers move very quickly. They've got all the walls up now, and they're starting the trusses tonight.



Tonight, the crane arrived and they starting attaching the trusses. It was very exciting, especially for the kids.









This is the balcony in the backyard, or "Erin's balcony" as she describes it.



This is the view to the east, currently with a nice view of the neighbor's RV.

A Few Updates

Signs of building

Now that we've got the blessing from the city, our builder is going fast. He had the lot staked the next day, and the hole dug a couple days later.

After digging the hole, we found that the water table was once again being obnoxious. The next morning, the hole had about 12 inches of water.




The engineer says the dirt is too fine, and recommended getting softball sized rocks, called cobble, and pounding them into the ground until they won't pound any more. Next, gravel was dumped and spread.



Finally, they've been pouring footings and foundations. It's a beautiful thing.

(Yeah, I know the formatting of the page is bad)

Building Permit (finally)

Well, the plans were submitted to the city around June 1st. 4 weeks later, they reviewed them and sent back 3 pages of revisions. These were done and resubmitted. Finally, July 16th, the building permit was issued.

They've got the ground staked out and ready to dig. It looks like progress, very very slow progress.

The New Home Process Begins

So, we moved up to the Salt Lake Valley from southern Utah at the first of the year. I started a new job. We're leasing for a year, while we look for a house to buy or build. Despite the fact that the housing market is in the toilet and there are something like 8 million houses for sale in the valley, there are apparently none that will meet our requirements. Stephanie wants an attic truss house, which is a rambler, with a bonus room (or three) above the garage. A sort of hybrid between a two story and a rambler.

So, I'm starting this blog to document the process and our progress. I don't really care if anyone follows it. It's mostly for us.

We've met with the builder several times, usually over lunch. He's paid some of the time. I expect the dinner cost will show up in the miscellaneous charges when the contract is completed. ;-)

After a number of visits to the architect and the engineer, the plans are finalized and have been submitted to Draper City. By the way, Draper really prides themselves on some of their building codes, and the "greenness" thereof. For example, they have a program that analyzes your completes plans and regurgitates the specifications for your furnace and A/C unit. You can't put in a beefier unit, because then you'd be wasting energy.

As soon as the building permit is issued, we can start digging holes in the ground.