Previously on “Charles and Jes Build a House” we had just started pouring the concrete for the foundation footings and stem wall. Since then, well, a lot has happened in our lives and we just haven’t had time to take a step back yet. The good news about having a builder though is that the house keeps moving towards completion, even when we don’t have time for it ourselves. With that in mind, the week of November 10th the builder was busy building our foundation walls and pillars out of cinder blocks. This will obviously serve as the support for our entire house, so it has to be done and done well. One thing that I learned in this process is that the way you ensure the top of the foundation wall is level all the way around is to vary the thickness of the mortar between the blocks ever so slightly.
The other thing that we learned is that our house is going to be taller than we anticipated. We went with the crawlspace at first because we knew that we didn’t want the house, and more importantly the porch, to sit right at on the ground. What we didn’t take into consideration 100% though was that the land slopes down from the back of the house to the front by about three feet. This means that the back of the house is the desired 2 feet off the ground, and the front of the house is about 5 feet off the ground. I think we always knew that would be the case, without ever really knowing it, but it doesn’t really sink in how tall that is until you can see it. We always wanted a regal looking house, and we will certainly have one when it’s done.
The following week, after the cinder block walls and pillars were built, the next step was to put the bricks around the exterior of the foundation walls. This was the first “design decision” that has been built, and we both LOVE the bricks we chose.
Next up is framing, when the house will start to look like a house. They started framing this past Tuesday and are already moving quickly. It is slated to take 3 weeks, so we are holding out hope for good weather for the next three weeks, at which point the weather won’t have as much of an effect on the timeline.