Make No Small Plans, Part II

Progress progresses, as is its nature.

This week marks the beginning of framing as it took four men to lay out the wall locations in the basement. The basement floor will be exposed stained concrete -- radiantly heated, of course. There are a small pile of six concrete samples at the left of the photo that will be used in testing out floor stain samples. The view to which the back of the house is oriented is spectacular and well worth the $250K cost of the two-acre site. However, all the area around the house footprint needed to be de-vegetated -- temporarily.

It may look small from this angle, but the basement is approximately 30' x 40' or 1,200 square feet. The first and second floors will also each be about 1,200 sq. ft. too, for a total usable area of 3,600 sq. ft., not counting about 800 sq. ft. of covered decks and patios, and not counting the 1,000 sq. ft. garage. Not so big, not so small.

While I was on site today, the four men shown here glued one of the wall plates down onto the finished concrete slab and then realized that it was in the wrong spot. So they quickly pulled it up and reglued it to the correct location. They decided to let the old glue dry before trying to remove it from the concrete. And all I could do was worry that they had messed up the floor finish. But did I make a stink? Not yet. I'll give them every chance to clean it up properly.

The front of the house faces to the right, towards the street, while the back of the house -- a walk-out basement -- faces left in the photo. Lots of decks and patios and Arts & Crafts touches, when finished. A three-car detached garage will be beyond and to the left of the house. I'll keep you posted...