Penngrove Construction Progress

Gus & Mary's new home at 1915 William Drive Penngrove California

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	This is the first view of our new lot in Penngrove. The for sale sign in at the front of the lot
	This picture is from the back of the lot looking out towards William Drive.
	While the road was under construction we put in a chase for the gas line. The green stake is the new sewer stub. The white box on the left is the water meter.
	Our neighbor Bill, from up the block, used his backhoe to dig trenches for the soils report.
	The first mowing of the spring of 2007. The grass is so high I needed a special mower from the rental company. My tool box and tent are at the back of the lot.
	My "new" trailer. It was from Craig's List. FREE and worth every cent.
	The lot is ready for the action to begin. Monday September 10, 2007
	First equipment arrives at the site. Western Construction is doing the site work.
	The only plant on the site is uprooted. It was in the kitchen and had to go.
	The road grader takes up the grass on the building site.
	Leveling the building pad. One worker uses a rod with a beeper activated by a laser level (out of sight), and another wets down the site to minimize the dust and help compact the soil.
	Starting the sewer trench.
	The sewer trench from another angle.
	Almost to the street. Laser level is on the left.
	Adding a 6 inch layer of sand to the trench.
	The sewer pipe lays the sand and will be covered after inspection with 10 more inches of sand.
	Starting to dig the trench for the water line.
	End of the day. Small red/orange flags are pier locations.
	Filling the water line trench with base rock under the future driveway.
	My first plumbing pipe. This goes under the deck and foundation wall. Vertical pipe is the cleanout. It will be shortened to deck level later on.
	Sept. 18th The first few holes are drilled for the foundation grade beam and porch posts.
	Starting on the middle row, supporting the girder under the floor joists.
	This is a very dusty, dirty job. Maybe I should have called Mike Rowe.
	OK, the piers are drilled and I've cleaned off one outside porch pier and installed the rebar cage.
	Mile of Western Construction is starting the driveway. Sonoma County Fire Safe Standards require 12" of base rock.
	All of the rebar cages are installed waiting for the building inspector. Sept. 19th
	PG&E requires a special type of sand around their pipes. Three loads are delivered Thursday morning Sept. 20th.
	Hand digging reveals telephone cables and under them a 12KV conduit.
	The trench has to be dug 3 feet from the water main at the edge of the pavement. The ditch is just above the flow line of the culvert. Notice how clean they keep the street.
	Late in the day shot so lighting is not good. Notice the new conduit and the black phone cables and yellow gas line. All hand digging around these parts.
	Here the crew is compacting the base rock in my neighbor's driveway.
	The trench takes a jog here to get out of the culvert. The angle part is all hand dug. Phone, gas and high voltage lines run thru this part of the trench. The Phone box is the gray thing to the left.
	This picture shows the trench from start to finish today. Before the crew was done for the day they had put barricades up along the street and washed the street with the water truck spray.
	September 21st, PG&E sand covers the pipes in the trench. Mike is compacting the dirt cover. The green pipe is Lance's sewer cleanout, the gray pipes are my electrical, cable and phone conduits.
	Close-up of the transition ditch from street edge, to the other side of the drainage ditch. Sheep's foot compactor on the excavator. Lots of hand work involved here.
	Base rock is tamped over the PG&E sand here since the location is in the drainage ditch.
	I'm ready for concrete, it is getting close to the 2:00 time, but no truck is in site. It won't be this still in 30 minutes.
	The first 9 yards are poured. It came so fast that I did not get pictures of the pouring or of the first truck. There is always too much work during a pour.
	The crew has almost finished the street-side ditch backfill. It looks like new, but actually better than it was before the dig.
	The second truck has arrived, Jorg is walking it in, Jim Pedone is leaving . He was a surprise helper during the first pour.
	The second Shamrock truck is backing up to the edge of the foundation piers. I was very tired after this second pour, with Mike's laborer's help we were done by 4:30.
	I finished up on Saturday around 1:00 PM with a half a yard is a small mixer. Two holes needed to be filled in and re-drilled.
	I set string lines over the holes to determine the location of the foundation walls and deck piers. At this point on Saturday I had cleared the dirt from the hole drilling off of one side only.
	Sunday I finished clearing the dirt from under the floor and actually set the first foundation stakes. Mary came to the lot and helped me check square.
	Monday September 24th I put up the first foundation wall.
	Mike's skid steer tractor saved me three days work by moving two piles of lumber inside the foundation area. He is digging out the driveway in the background.
	Mike's crew is laying out the filter cloth. A 3 inch layer of rock will be spread over this and then watered and rolled. The process will repeat until there is 12 inches of rock in the driveway.
	Base rock is stockpiled along side of the driveway. A dump truck cannot yet drive over the cloth. After this is rolled out and another layer applied then base rock can be dumped directly on the driveway.
	Starting to build the second foundation wall. This goes fast as I am using both 12 and 24 foot long boards.
	End of the driveway and beginning of the garage pad. The garage will be built later, much later.
	End of today's work. Second wall is finished and the third wall started. The drill rig returned this afternoon and three new holes were dug. I cleaned up most of the dirt, but there is still lots of shoveling left to do.
	On September 25th I finished the outside of the forms. Lupe is on the vibrating roller compacting the driveway gravel.
	I bent the steel that came out of the piers so that it will be at the top of the grade beam. Thanks to Jeff Millerick for the tip on bending.
	September 26th. I've started to double the forms making up the grade beams.
	Late in the day shot, long shadows. Two walls are doubled. The heat today was almost unbearable.
	Lots of gravel was dumped in the driveway today.
	September 28th, all the forms are doubled, bolts are installed and I am waiting for the Inspectors. Both the soils engineer and county building inspector have to sign off the work before I can pour concrete.
	Both inspectors passed the work. Jorg will be here later today, to pick up the rebar bender sitting on the wall. I've installed the bracing and am now ready to go. I will have help next Tuesday to pour.
	On October 1st I poured some of the piers. I got 3/4 of a yard on mix in a trailer.
	This picture shows the piers with the concrete and anchors done.
	October 2nd; the day started with the driveway being smoothed out.
	Here the concrete pour is complete. We vibrated the walls with the tool shown on the ground in this picture.
	Close-up of the grade beams full of concrete.
	Almost the end of the day. I still have to break up the concrete that is against the form boards. I worked till the sun set tonight.
	October 4th. The walls are stripped and the ties bent down (saves the skin on my legs). I still have to clean the concrete from the form boards and stack them up for later use.
	October 5th. The mudsills (brown/red boards) are in place, I've cleaned up the concrete from the inside of the foundation. This will make crawling under the floor so much easier.
	I am ready for Mary to show up and we can check the elevation of the top of the forms. It threatened rain late this afternoon, but only a few drops fell.
	Looking down the driveway from the street. Ominous clouds fill the sky.
	The center piers and girder have been installed, the last of the deck piers are poured and the roof drainage pipe is installed. 10-9-07
	The first two floor joists are installed. After I set the girder I decided to grout the mudsills to within a 3/16" tolerance. October 11th I finally got to the floor joists.
	End of the first day of floor joists. This is the master bathroom; the next joist will be 3 1/2" away for the wall and plumbing will be in between the joists.
	It rained all day Friday. Saturday was a Caboose Work day so I only installed a few joists, but on Sunday the weather cooperated and I got past the half way mark. End of the day 10-14-07, first joists of the entry and kitchen are installed.
	Picture taken on 10-18-07. All but the last two floor joists are installed. They arrived while I was working at the NWPRRHS Library.
	Later that day I installed the last two I Joists and the rim joist.
	This is the first of two under-floor access points. It is in the master bedroom closet.
	This is the first of the siding; it will be under the ledger joist of the deck. I installed galvanized screen mesh over the rim to make the vents.
	I installed 1x4 boards to keep the I joists straight and to stiffen them up. The black vertical poles are the frame for the electrical meter.
	10-23-07 started the plumbing in earnest today. This is the work area for the main bathroom. I finished the laundry and kitchen and started on the bath today.
	Under-floor shot of the plumbing. I have to re-do the pipes on the far left. My neighbor (a retired plumber) spotted a rookie mistake. The pipe coming towards you is the line for the kitchen sink
	The front or South wall of the house. The deck ledger is bolted to the rim, and the drainage pipe is installed, all I need now is backfill.