We didn’t get a chance to go to our lot last evening to see where the progress of the cinder block construction had stopped. So, as we pulled into the neighborhood this morning, we both looked at each other and smiled as in just one day the workers had managed to finish the entire first floor cinder block construction!
We knew from other houses being built in the area that as soon as the cinder blocks are delivered on site, block assembly starts immediately. We woke up early and decided to go check out our site in the morning. When we arrived, to our surprise about 14-16 constructions workers were already there and what seemed like had been there for a few hours. Our home was finally coming into shape!
We needed to check out some granite options for our kitchen and bathrooms so we headed to south Tampa to visit some granite yards to get an idea of what styles we like. These yards are located outdoors and it was so hot today. Just walking around the yard was unbearable. The temperature was around 35°C (95°F), but with the humidity it felt close to 40°C (104°F)!
On our way home, we were talking about the heat when we realized that the construction workers who have been working on our home all day must feel 100 times worse since they are doing work involving heavy lifting instead of just walking around like us. We decided to stop by a grocery store and pickup a large box of popsicles for all the workers.
When we arrived at the home site, we weren’t sure how to get the workers attention since technically we’re not allowed to step foot on the construction site while construction is happening. We stood at the curb with our cooler bag filled with popsicles. Finally we got someone’s attention and the “head” construction worker approached us. Initially he seemed upset since we aren’t supposed to be there, but soon was overjoyed when we explained to him that we brought everyone popsicles to help cool them down on this extremely hot day. He started to hand out popsicles to all the other construction workers. Everyone was all very thankful and waved to us as we drove away.
Here are the pictures of today’s progress:
As we do every evening, we went to check out our lot yet again today and saw what seemed like a field of cinder blocks sitting on our concrete foundation. Cinder blocks are concrete blocks that are used for the outer load bearing walls. In Florida, homes cannot have basements due to the high water content in the ground. Because of this all homes are constructed with cinder block on the first floor to ensure a house can withstand the force of a hurricane. These blocks are laid in a brick like pattern surrounding the home after which a long iron rod called a “rebar” is placed vertically into the hollow chambers. Concrete is then poured into the hollow chambers and once the concrete is dry, the whole structure is solid.
Yesterday, we finally had a chance to take advantage of the Starbucks Happy Hour Frappuccino special which we have been meaning to go to ever since it started on May 4.
Side note: If you haven’t heard, the Starbucks special runs until May 13 and all frappuccinos are 1/2 off during 3pm-5pm!
After that refreshing frappuccino break, we on our way to check out furniture options for our new place, specifically our grand room. We consciously opted out for a living room in our house since its one of those rooms that rarely ever gets used. Instead we came up with the grand room concept which we will be using as both our family and living room space.
Since our house is a custom home, one of the many challenges is imagining how big or small our spaces really are since there is no model home to reference. Because of this its tricky coming up with furniture configurations that work for this room. We have been using programs such as Sketchup to play around with 3D interpretations of the furniture placements. We want the furniture to fit properly into the 26’x28′ space without the sitting area looking too empty or over crowded.
Below is a picture of our layout in the kitchen and grand room. We essentially have no walls in our grand room and as such will be floating our furniture in the center of the room in the 18’x18′ space. The entertainment center will be sitting right across the sitting area (opposite to the kitchen cabinets wall). On one side of the sitting area is our formal dining room and on the other side we have a large 16′ sliding pocket door which oversees the covered lanai/patio and backyard. Directly behind the sitting area is our kitchen and eat-in dining area with another sliding door that leads to our outdoor kitchen.
The kitchen and grand room area will share a double tray ceiling. This means the space around the dotted lines will be 10′ in height and the space inside the dotted lines will be 12′ in height. Because of the high ceilings and tile/hardwood floors we are a little concerned about echo in the room especially when we have a large gathering or when we are watching movies. My thought is to furnish the space with upholstered sofas, a large shaggy rug, upholstered kitchen/dining chairs and fabric window coverings in both the grand room and kitchen. Satpreet wants to go with a leather furniture due to its comfort. I agree that the leather sofas we saw were extremely comfortable, but I’m not sure how much sound they will dampen. We have narrowed down our choices to about 4 potential sofas (upholstered and leather) each with different configurations. The grand room is still a work in progress.
On our way home, we drove by our lot to see if any further work had been done that day. The area is a gated community which at the moment is left open during the day due to construction, but locked at night. We don’t get the code to enter the community until our house closing, so if we want to see progress we have to go during the day. However, since our lot is on the corner we were able to shine the car’s high beams onto our house, but unfortunately we didn’t see any further work done on it.
On our way out, I took a quick picture of our community sign at night.
I had to run an errand in the afternoon and decided to make a detour to go check out our lot for any further progress. There were a whole bunch of trucks and people on our lot :-D. This is what I saw:
The concrete had already been poured and the contractors were what looked like polishing the surface to get the foundation smooth.
Satpreet and I went again to the lot later in the evening to see what exactly had been completed by the end of the day.
It is almost time for the concrete foundation to be poured. However, before that can happen the house is raised with dirt and covered with a vapor barrier. In the pictures there are some portions that appear to indent into the ground. These indents appear around the outside of the house and there are some along the master bedroom, office and laundry room area. This represents the load bearing walls. Because these areas will be holding up the weight of the house, more concrete is required here than other parts.
The plumbing rough in has started on our lot. We can now roughly see where our kitchen sink, bathroom vanities, showers/bathtubs as well as the toilets and sewer drains will be in relation to our home. We noted that the fresh water pipes (used for drinking and washing/showering) ranged from 1/2″ to 2″ in diameter. The sewer pipes (from the toilet and drain water from the shower or bathtub) were around 3″ in diameter.
We also know that the city’s water supply comes into our home on the right hand side close to the laundry room side.
There has been action on our lot! We saw a “digger” (or whatever that machinery is called :-P) on our lot and soon after our foundation forming started. This is basically the low wooden structure surrounding the lot in the pictures. The wooden structure outlines the location of where the outer walls of the house will sit. The concrete foundation will eventually be poured inside this “mold”.
During the permitting phase, the lot grading and the structural integrity of the house is being verified by the county (I’m assuming :-)). At the beginning of permitting, and before any construction is started on the lot, the lot is surrounded by black plastic. This black plastic is kept up during the remainder of the construction. The purpose of the plastic is to keep dirt from shifting from our lot to other lots once construction starts.
My husband, Satpreet, and I are getting our dream custom home built! We designed the floor plan ourselves to accommodate all our wants and needs into our dream home. We like the feeling of openness and an abundance of light and our floor plan reflects just that. The plan is a very open concept design where the kitchen, eating area, grand room and dining room are all one big room. We will get plenty of light with the only wall in the common area being essential a wall of glass that slides open to make the indoor and outdoor one. The house will consist of 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a bonus room and an office space. The master suite and guest suite each with a bathroom will be located on the main floor. The two bedrooms on the second floor will share a bathroom. The bonus room which we will be using as a prayer/meditation room will also be located on the second floor.
Construction on our home has started. I’m a little late in getting my blog up and running, however Satpreet insists that its never too late.
Over the next several days I’ll update what’s happened on the site up to this point in time.
Our lot is a corner lot where our house will be the very first house on the left upon entering the neighborhood. When looking at the lot from the front, we will have no neighbours on the left, behind or directly in front of us. Below are some pictures: