A New House-Update #4 Long-With Pix

[Karl Laustrup]

Well gang, here's the Friday update. Not a whole lot different than that of yesterday afternoon, except all the big equipment is gone.

When I arrived about 7:30 this morning the excavation crew was already working removing the concrete footings and block from the area that used to be my computer room. They then got that area dug out for the footings, the west side having been completed yesterday [Thursday].

I have included a picture of a section of the footing that was under this addition to the original house. We were all amazed at the size of these footings. They were approximately 24" deep and about 1' wide. In the picture the part that is vertical and facing the back of the bucket was the top where the block was placed. It just seemed like a lot of footing for a 10'x20' room.

The other pix are of the new footings with their blankets on so they don't get cold tonight. ;) The 50 degree weather is gone I guess. Today was about 34 with a 15-20 MPH north wind that just went right through you. It was also gloomy and dark until late this afternoon.

Now some rest for the weekend. :)

The foundation walls will be formed and poured Monday. One week later the excavation people will be back and back fill the foundation and the framing will begin.

Looks like I'll get a wee bit of time to clean up the garage/shop so maybe I can start a project. That's if I remember how to measure and cut wood.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=29228

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=29229

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=29329

Above are the previous posts concerning our new home, in case anyone wants to start at the beginning.

By the way, I'm posting these updates as separate posts so that one post doesn't get so long that it takes forever to download for those of you with dial up connections.

Thanks Jim B. for all the info on the Cat5 cableing. I will definately try to get that done as you say, so maybe our granddaughter won't be saying stuff like, "Man Grandpa sure messed this up when he got the wiring done". "I can't get any of the new stuff unless I tear out everything and start over."

Thanks again for the support and comments. :) And I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

Karl

[Bruce Page]

Boy, they are moving right along aren't they! Get some rest, next week sounds like it is going to be busy!

[Jerry Olexa]

Karl: Looking good. That is a huge boulder they moved. This is the exciting part of an addition I think. Once the concrete walls are up then, you change over to the wood construction which moves much quicker. Enjoy the journey and take lots of pics. Maybe Spring will come over and inspect..:D

[Jim Becker]

Yea, what Bruce said...rare to see a contractor move that fast!!

[Kevin Herber]

Good advice from everyone. Regarding Jim's ideas for the telecom/IT cabling, one step further would be to install some sort of conduit. In the tech business it seems the only sure thing is obsolescence. Conduit will allow you to pull the new stuff, whatever it is, when it becomes the norm.

Of course, the focus now is wireless so this may be moot...

Great project and great progress. Congrats!

[Bill Lewis]

Karl,
I may have missed the discussion on the whole house wiring, but I can tell you from experience it is worth it. My wife and I wired our house during the construction. I bought a 500' spool with bundled wrapped (2) cat 5e, and (2) RG-6. We ran it to every room we wanted to: top floor included 4 BR's and a finished Storage/play room over the garage. Main lever included the master BR, office, kitchen and family room. I also ran individual Cat 5e for separate phone and network connections to a couple of places. Lastly, I ran two runs of RG-6 to the attic for a TV antennae and and 2 separate 1 1/4" conduits runs for future expansion.
The bundled wire was the way to go, we probably did most of that wiring in a day. Just put "mud rings" where the termination is to be in each room. A mud ring is basicly an outlet box with out a back. We used metal outlet covers for 4x4 metallic boxes.
As for everything going wireless, well hard wiring is definately more reliable. Plus my wife works at home and isn't allowed by her company to be on a wireless network for security reasons anyway. If I wanted to use it, I can alway add it later.