Construction Update

 A quick walk around the house this past weekend revealed that framing had indeed begun. “Walls” were laying around everywhere, in anticipation of being stood up pretty soon.  Then voila! Monday I was driving by incidentally when I noticed a hole torn in the roof. Just like that, Storm Form had started a new stage in the construction process.

Tuesday I made a special trip to check on the house. A  thunderstorm had kept me up most of Monday night and I realized that the rain God’s had answered the watery prayers of people all down the Front Range – People who were not named Dallice, apparently! I just had to see if the house had filled with water, soaked the flooring and seeped into the boxes that intended to protect the kitchen cabinets.

It was indeed a pleasant surprise to find that Boulder may have escaped the torrential downpour that Longmont got overnight. The house was damp for sure, but the crew had doubled in size and most of the walls were up and actually a bigger hole existed where a roof once sat – yesterday! They were going like gangbusters between the occasional shower, below soaring clouds and under the intermittently warm sunshine.

Flooring trusses had arrived and I watched for a bit as they passed them up by hand because the forklift was unable to get them safely around the lonely peach tree, mid front yard.  Dallice’s little miracle; Everyday is a near-miss beheading situation and yet it continues to thrive!

My goal this week is to stand on the second story and take a picture of the view. A vision that has kept me going for 4 years! (More about that in another blog post, eh?)

Framing begins at 285 Martin Drive

 The 285 Martin Drive pop-top event you have been waiting for... 

Ok, so it’s not like the roof has come off or anything, but I can smell it coming! This week marked the arrival of lumber and the beginning of the framing of our 285 Martin Dr pop-top.

The plan is to build most of the framing for the new walls and have them ready to just stand up and be. So if you are driving by and hear the sound of pounding nails and saws, that is what is happening. The roof will not be torn off until the first floor walls are a go. Then expect to see the second level floor go on top, more framing, something like a tarp roof if the weather acts up and that’s about it for the next couple of weeks, in a nutshell.

Getting closer to the first new room of the house!

Check it out! Increased ceiling height on the first floor is now apparent!

Things to be grateful for:

1. Super friendly and welcoming builders who don’t mind my frequent visits or being thrust into the spotlight on my blog.
2. Weather that has been unbelievably cooperative – touch wood. (Lots of wood!)
3. Neighborly visits. A genuine reminder that the amount I will pay for this project is worth it, to create a home that will bring me near these folks again. The Martin Drive neighbors stole my heart 10+ years ago and still have it!
4.  The build process is opening my mind, causing me to learn all sorts of things and exercising my creative side.
5. A job I love and my supportive clients. Without both, big dreams like these are so much tougher to make come true.

Easter Miracle @ 285 Martin Drive

 After weeks, dozens of phone calls, paperwork and fees, miscommunication, misunderstandings and mistakes, Xcel finally showed up to disconnect the power from my house and connect it to the temp pole that was erected in the back yard (and inspected by the city) in mid March. Hallelujah! I had all but given up hope.

What’s that? Oh yes, Xcel. Not the Q3, the company that Xcel had insisted was responsible for scheduling the appointment and doing the work. Can anyone say “back pedal” again?

To summarize:

Xcel was called in Feb and asked for the procedure for moving main power from house during construction. Ken was assured by an employee at Xcel that no paperwork was required for a little residence like mine, but just to erect the pole, have it inspected by the City and signed off. They would then send the work order from the inspection desk to Xcel and Xcel would send a person out to move the power. Easy peasy.

In reality, the pole was inspected and no work order was received by Xcel from the City. Xcel later blamed Ken for not filling out the appropriate paperwork and used that as an excuse for not being able to “see” the work order that the City had actually sent, at all. We were told on several occasions that once the work order was able to be seen (because it could be linked to an account that needed to be open, using the paperwork and a fee, of course) it would be passed to Q3, a subcontractor, because Xcel doesn’t do this type of work. A project manager at Q3 would assign the job to workman and at that time, more info on a timeline for getting the job done, would be forthcoming – if you called back again and asked! How many people did this work order have to go through? I believe it was 6, actually.

Time passed and while the house continued to be demo’d around the existing jerry-rigged power main, we were fast approaching the time when framing would have to be delayed to accommodate the now dodgy looking, power supply. As my grandfather used to say “too many chiefs and not enough indians!”  Lots of people delegating the power relocation to others, no-one actually doing it.

March 15th: Temp pole erected, inspected and ready for Xcel to move power from house.

March 30th: The job must go on, so the brick and frame wall of the back room came down and the power took up residence on a 2 x 4 at corner of original house. 

April 6th: The 2 x 4 had to be shored up as the ground under it was excavated and foundation poured around it.

April 15th: With crawlspace now complete, work began to frame for flooring and walls. Power meter still affixed to 2 x 4 and stabilized with construction leftovers!

April 17th: BINGO! Xcel arrives to move power to temp pole!

And so it is with great pleasure I announce… The ability to proceed! With that will come pics of framing and roof removal and all sorts of exciting milestones. 🙂

In the meantime, I’d like to award Gold Stars to my team;  Ken for his patience and persistence in the face of changing information and frustrating delays. Joe and Aaron, for McGyver-style genius in safely working around a very dodgy looking power supply. Good job chaps! 

3rd Time's for Charm

It's our 3rd date with the concrete mixer!

Let the face-lift begin! My Martin Acres pop-top is slowly making its way skyward. Yesterday marked the 3rd visit from the concrete truck and I would say, the first visit that added charm to what appears to be a very homely looking little pile of construction debris. 

Now that the foundation is done, the (almost) last piece of the concrete puzzle was to pour the front patio and the floor to the crawlspace under that back room : AKA the swimming pool.

The plan was to smooth the top of the patio, preparing it for the day when I have nothing else going on and can etch it with acid then stain it to somewhat match the flagstone that my imagination sees in the front yard. Well obviously that is not anytime soon – time and budget and priorities being what they are these days. But one day….

In the meantime, the obligatory pictures of the latest happenings at 285 Martin Drive: 

Among the debris and fill dirt, despite the lack of irrigation and constant pollution, life and beauty sustains itself. Side by side, my youthful peach tree and it’s colorful sidekick, a single red tulip have a front row seat to the ongoing project that is my Martin Acres pop-top. Together they have endured the snow, the wind, the dust and those 80 degree winter days in March, not to mention a flurry of construction vehicles and people. Now more than ever, I’m committed to watching them flower again next year.

The back yard. Well, the first thing you probably won’t notice, is Storm Mountain is gone. Don’t worry, it took me a while to figure it out too. Odd, right? An 5′ high pile of orange dirt that is taking up the entire yard is moved out and I have trouble determining what is missing! Most of it went to fill a hole somewhere far, far away, but a little bit is left in case I need it for landscaping.

I’m starting to plan and for the first time in forever am quite excited about the blank slate that is my yard. Yeah, I’ve been here before and it was tough physical labor to turn a mess into a beautiful garden, but I know I can do it again and that is all I need right now. I have a couple of months to hit the books and the internet for ideas and “how to” tutorials. It will probably take another year, but at some point in the future our dream house will also have a dream garden!

To finish out this week, the team is working on flooring joists for this back room. What? Building has begun? Uh-huh.  🙂

Foundation Work!

 After a month of watching my 285 Martin Drive come undone, it was pure joy to see the events begin that add to the value, rather than detract from it! 

On Friday, after days of excavation and preparation, the first of the concrete was poured. Not much to look at but these channels and footings become the anchors for building upwards again. Super important… and for me, super exciting. 

Of course, I didn’t have time to actually witness concrete going in, but the next day I took pictures:

April is one of our wettest months and while Boulder needs the rain, IMHO I have been “lucky” enough not to have more than a few showers and no big snow storms yet (touch wood). The guys made sure the concrete was protected from the elements a little over the weekend and on Monday they were back to work.

There are plenty of people better equipped to explain the next step in getting foundation poured, but you’re reading this blog and the price you pay for that is listening to my version of the process. It’s flawed and not very eloquent but here goes:

The concrete channels are uncovered and then some 2 by 4 looking lumber is fixed in place on top of it with some metal bolt-looking fasteners. To this can be attached the metal plates, which form the molds. There also appears to be re-bar that penetrates the channels and rises upward. Then more concrete can be poured, thereby making foundation walls  which will be required under the new wall at the front room/dining room and under the room that will cover that swimming pool looking hole in the back yard – my new living room @ 285 Martin Drive!

The concrete truck arrived Thursday around 3:30 pm. Once the wet concrete is poured out of the truck it enters a hopper looking device that feeds it into the flexible pipe you see on the ground here. That pipe is threaded through the house – yes, physically through the walls in this case – to the back yard, where it is pumped into the empty forms.

Jeter 2 (sorry I didn’t catch his name) stands on the pipe to keep it in position as the concrete fills the forms. Aaron, in the background, has a vibrating stick that he puts in the wet concrete to shake out any bubbles or pockets that might have gotten trapped in the newly forming foundation walls.

About 2″ from the top it’s done. Now Ken, Joe and Jeter 2 set about smoothing it off. Making sure its even and such.

The forms are removed in 24 hours. Apparently it could be done in as little as 8 hours!

The concrete for the base of this crawlspace is a project for another day.

And finally… Did I mention how much I appreciate Storm Form, LLC for letting me capture the entire process along the way? How do you think I knew to be at the house at 3:30 pm today? Ken, thoughtful as ever, gave me a heads up!

Thanks Ken, Joe and Aaron, for showing up each day to make our dreams a reality!