Lisa & Adam Goldberg Deer Hill Blog #3

Well, um there has been a lot going on over the past week. 

Since the last entry we have gone to NH to visit with Paul from Brooks Post & Beam to discuss our electrical plan. 

The lot has finished being stumped, the fill for the driveway is in, the topsoil has been stripped from the lot, the surveyors have come out and flagged the house site and the septic site and the solar people came out to take readings to see if solar panels was a possibility. 

The trip to Boston/NH was awesome as always.  We dog sat for Willow, ate some amazing food and discussed our timber frame.  Unfortunately, we left our camera in Boston so the pictures of that weekend will have to wait till the next installment. 

Those big oak trees had some really big stumps, but those pictures are in my camera in Boston.  We also spent the week getting our final quotes from the subs and now we are making our final choices.  We have chosen our excavator (same company who cleared the lot), foundation company, timber frame company, foundation company, framer, lumber company and HVAC company.  We are still working on plumber, electrician, asphalt company, company to install propane tank, well driller/pounder and gutter company.The framer is also our advisor.  Basically, we hired him on a per hour basis to act as an advisor so when we have questions, get stuck or need advice we have a "go to" person.  He has general contracted a lot of projects so it is working out really well. 

On Thursday we got our final drawings with the engineers stamp.  I will attach a copy for everyone's viewing pleasure.  We also received our bldg. permit so we are now actually allowed to build.  Also on Thursday Susan from PVsquared came for a site visit to see photovoltaic panels would work on our house.  We do not think it will happens as there is too much shading on the lot.  Even with the amount of trees we cut down we still have a huge canopy.  When we walked the lot this morning we counted 8 large oaks that are still standing on our property.  That made us feel better about cutting down the other 4. 

Anyway, this weekend we spent most of our time at Direct Buy finishing our research on lighting, plumbing fixtures, wood stoves etc.  We also started ordering quite a bit of stuff.  On Monday and Tuesday of this week they will dig the hole for the foundation and on Wednesday Bruce Fulton Foundations will build the forms for the footings.  We have an inspection for the forms setup on Wednesday @ 2:15.  As long as we do not hit ledge we will be alright.  Then comes the foundation. Here are some pictures.  These pictures were taken with Peter & Bettylou's camera.  Oh, by the way any questions, comments or suggestions are always welcome.

10/10/09 - Big rocks dug from the site.	10/10/09 - corner stake of our house	10/10/09 - stakes from the surveyors	10/11/09 - Oz & Raz playing on the driveway
10/11/09 - Oz being a good boy and sitting	10/11/09 - picture of the lot	10/11/09 - wood chip pile smoking	10/11/09 - wood chip pile smoking in the morning
10/5/09 - The start of the log pile at the bldg. site with Peter & Bettylou house in the background.	10/5/09 - completing the shot	10/5/09 - Jay is building our pile for us. We are keeping all of the wood that was cut from the lot for fire wood.	10/5/09 - Jay the moving logs
10/5/09 - logs being moved with picture of big stump.	10/5/09 - logs in the air	10/6/09 - Fill for driveway is complete and Adam is driving his truck off of the bldg. site.	10/6/09 - Jay spread mulch along right of driveway.
10/6/09 - Peter & Bettylou close up in front of log pile	10/6/09 - Peter & Bettylou with the big oaks behind them. Kyle from Earth Tones is coming to pick them up to mill them for us.	10/6/09 - Peter & Bettylou with wood and their house in background	10/7/09 - Cleared bldg. lot
10/7/09 - Empty bldg. lot	10/7/09 - Hole where big rock came from. Right corner.	10/7/09 - Jay finishing driveway	10/7/09 - Lot is stumped. It is time to remove topsoil.
10/9/09 - Big Rock	10/9/09 - Good picture of driveway from bldg. lot towards road.	10/9/09 - He is real happy as it's just starting to rain.	10/9/09 - Here she is again. It was raining and muddy so it was not a fun outing for her.
10/9/09 - Peter pointing @ "Big Logs"	10/9/09 - Peter pointing @ "Big Rock"	10/9/09 - Raspberry is checking to make sure that they are doing the surveying correctly.	10/9/09 - Surveyors are setting the points for the house and the septic system. I forget their names
10/9/09 - Susan from PV squared is checking for shading on our sight to see if we qualify for a state run program for solar panels.	10/9/09 - They do very meticulous work	10/9/09 - tying a ribbon onto a stake that is used as a control point for the foundation.