Almost Framed

Like I said in my previous post, there was rain in the forecast all week this week so I was skeptical that any of the framing would get started at all. Well, I drove by the lot after work on Wednesday (it rained that morning as well) and the framers were about 70% done with the framing. So, it seems that we are right back on schedule. After they get the roof and shingles on, rain or shine, work can be done. You will notice quite a few pictures but most of them are for the benefit of my home inspector (who is a custom home builder), who will take a look and give me his personal assessments. Two weeks ago, we were still moving out of our old house and they had not poured the foundation yet. If we follow the builder's time table, there are 2.5 months remaining for them to finish from this point forward.


Pictured above is from the front of the house.

Pictured above is from the back corner of the house.

Right above the bay window in the living room.

Side of the house closest to the street.

The front door/front porch.

Looking into the garage.

Looking in from the front door.

Lumber Drop Off

After the foundation is poured and dry, the next milestone in my mind is when the lumber/wood is dropped off onto your property. This means that the foundation has passed inspection by the city and the builder is ready to start framing the house. I was told that it is possible that by next weekend, the framing will be done and there might even be a roof on top of it all. It's very possible but there seems to be rain in the forecast all week long. We'll see I guess.

The Foundation is Poured

All the rain the last few weeks just happened to be exactly on the days the concrete was scheduled to be poured for the foundation. Last Friday was the promised day...again but then it rained. Well, they finally got to pour on Monday so we now have a foundation. Finally! Let the framing and dry out process begin!

This is from the front on the right of the driveway looking at the house. The garage is straight ahead.

This is the view from in front of the garage looking at the front porch.

This is from the left of the house in front.

This is looking at the back of the house. The patio slab is in the center.

This is the view from the back of the house looking to the front.

SOLD and Moved

So on the weekend before our closing, we decide to go ahead and start moving to our new temporary housing. I will post some pictures of the interior soon but for safety reasons, I will not post the address or outside pics. You can ask us in person and we will tell you where we are located now.

So on Saturday morning, I rent this 15 foot box truck (diesel). The cool thing about this truck is that it has a mechanical lift in the back. That makes loading heavy objects a lot easier as you can put it on the platform and lift it to truck level and just slide the object in. The kids had some fun getting lifted up and down. This truck cost me about $58 for the day including all mileage. Places like UHaul and Budget advertise lower flat rates of $20 a day but then they charge $0.79 per mile. I was only charged $0.15 per mile for my truck. Not only did that make it a much better deal but the truck was brand new and had a lift. The other rental places don't have little trucks with lifts.

Also, for those of you wondering...it really is hard to see your blindspot and you have virtually no visibility behind you as there is no way to see what is behind you. I have a new respect now for truck drivers as it was a very scary feeling not being able to see behind while driving a much larger vehicle. So, the truck drivers aren't kidding when you see the signs on their truck saying that they are not able to see you if you drive too close to them! Just an FYI.


So here's the interesting part of the story. I drive it home and back it into my driveway. Even with all my truck driving skills (no rear view mirror, only side mirrors), I underestimated the length of the truck and suddenly hear this bad sound of metal being crushed. I stop immediately and jump out. I backed into the gutter above the garage! Luckily for me, that was all the damage and I stopped fast enough to not actually hit the house part of the roof. Nonetheless, I was quite pissed off at what I had done as it was Saturday and the final walk through for the buyer was on Monday morning. Oh well, the important thing at the time was to start loading up the truck with stuff that we would be using for the next 3 months and all the stuff that we would be storing at my sister and brother in law's place, as well as stuff we were donating to charity. To minimize the mileage, I planned on making one trip to be efficient. So back to the crushed gutter. I assessed the damage and realized that I had damaged the gutter beyond repair. It had to be replaced. I searched on Craigslist for handymen who could fix/install gutters. I called five of them and only one picked up the phone (This was on Sunday). I said that I needed it fixed this afternoon and that was the only choice. He said he would come out to take a look and give me an estimate. I ran some quick numbers as to what the material might cost and the cost of labor. Material cost would be around $90. Labor, I estimated, would be around $150 for 3 hours of work. At least that was what I was wanting to pay. So the estimate came in at $93 for material and $125 for labor. I said that if he could get it done this afternoon, I'd pay him $225. He accepted. One thing I forgot to estimate in was that the gutters don't come painted so they still had to paint it. Lucky for me, it was part of their estimate. Also lucky for me was that I had similar looking paint already in my garage so there was no additional paint cost. They finished the job, cleaned up, and I paid them and extra $25 to bring the total to $250. Everyone was happy and there were no worries going into the closing on Monday.



(the kids playing inside the truck)

Finally, as we were done moving to the new apartment, we returned the truck and headed back to the house to finish cleaning up and throw away the remaining trash. Pictured above is the final picture that the kids took with the Sesame Street picture that I painted on my son's wall when he was born. I left some paint for the new owner in case he wants to paint over it. My kids hugged all the remaining fixtures in the house and said goodbye to our first house.

Done Packing

After one week of loading up the storage unit, we have finally loaded it to it's fullest potential. The unit is finally ready to be moved into storage until the new house is finished. I describe all the packing and loading as if I had two jobs. I'd go to my day job and then come home and pack and load until past midnight every night it seemed. I'm encouraged to never move again. We're not completely done yet though. We still have to move all the stuff we need for the next 3 months over to the new place and then clean the house and clear out. After Monday, we will no longer own this house.

The POD truck arriving to take the unit away.

Another look at how they load it onto the truck.

If you notice in the picture to the left side, my neighbor across the street is also very curious as to how these things are moved.

Portable On Demand Storage

So, not only do we have to close on the sale of the house soon, but we have to move out quickly as well. I'll talk more about our temporary home in a later post so for now, I will show you how we are moving our stuff. We opted for a storage unit to be dropped off on our driveway on Good Friday. Since most of our belongings are already out in the garage, it would be a short move into the unit. We went with a company called "PODS." The title of this post spells out what the acronyms stand for. Portable On Demand Storage. They drop off the unit, you pack it, they come back and pick it up, put it inside their storage facility (the Austin storage is off Dessau and Howard), and you tell them when to deliver it to your new address. The unit you see below is their largest (16 ft long).


I've always wondered how they dropped these things off. I thought the truck would back into your driveway and then slide it off like a dump truck would. I was wrong. This lift thingy with wheels drives off the truck and lowers it while your unit stays stationary. It's kinda like a forklift but not.

(click on photos to enlarge)

The driver then controls it back onto the truck while the truck just sits on the street.

This is the inside of our unit as we load it. You can't tell but there is a lot of stuff behind the stuff that you see in the picture. Our couches, dressers and some mattresses are way in the back. Now you know how "PODS" work.

Last Hurdle

So today we got some pretty good news. The buyer's home inspection was last Friday and we had not heard anything back since then. Today (Wednesday), we finally found out the results and got the inspection report. So overall, they really didn't find anything wrong with the house. In fact, almost everything that was listed was really stuff that was there when we moved in. There were some boards that I put in the attic to make it easier for myself to walk around up there that were kinda just "thrown" together for my own sake that the inspection pointed out and the buyer wanted fixed. It was some cheap plywood leftovers that I just nailed down with what I had at the time. Now they want it fixed and done correctly. That means use better plywood and to nail them down snug to the rafters. Plus, they also want the stairs that go into the attic secured with better bolts. Plus, they want some lag bolts to secure a beam to the posts on my deck cover. No big deal. However, they want a professional carpenter to do it so I can't just do it myself. I need to provide a receipt. My estimate is that it will cost about $15 for material/parts and about $50 labor. Okay, I'll put it at an even $100 for now. Also, they want a checkup of my A/C system by and HVAC guy and to clean the coils on the A/C. I have a coupon for that so it should cost me about $70. Finally, there is a $250 allowance the buyer wants to replace a few roof shingles, caulk around the chimney, and replace a rubber flashing. I should have it done in a few days. That's it. No more. I think the buyer paid more for the home inspection than the cost of all the fixes. Not bad right? So this is the last hurdle before closing. Now I can finally say that I'm extremely confident of the whole situation and can start packing up and get ready to move out.

Plumbing Lines are in

The sand inside the foundation form has been leveled and compacted...the rough plumbing is done for the water lines. Now it seems, the cement is ready to be poured. Should happen the first part of this week.

If you notice, there is a lot of sand inside the foundation. The compacted sand is the building pad in which the cement will be poured on top of. Because of the grade/level of our corner lot, the foundation will be a lot thicker/higher on the side towards the side street. It starts to drop down towards the street so from the side of the house so you'll be able to see over the fence from the first floor on that side.

Notice the sand bags and wonder what they are for? They are basically used to further "stabilize" the compacted sand inside the forms. Although there is a lot of sand inside, the sides are all trenched. The sandbags serve to hold the compacted sand from getting into the trenches along the side. If you can visualize, there will be cement on top and around the sides of the sand. There will also be some piers placed inside the treches for support of the thick foundation as well. You see, cement is very expensive. Structurally, you put cement in where it needs to be but if a slab is too thick, it will crack and break when the ground underneath contracts or shifts. Some of the compacted sand serves to balance this but also serves as filler to get the ground to the level you need it to be. There is a lot of clay and rock in the ground here in central Texas. That's why they do what they do here with foundations.

Above: This area is the concrete slab in the back for the covered patio.

Above: Bay window area in living room

Leveling with dirt and sand

This is how the lot looked today before the plumber came to put in the rough plumbing. The plumbing must be in place before the cement is poured. Notice the porta-potty on the bottom right of the picture? When the restroom is in place, you know the real work is about to begin!

Home Inspection

So today was the home inspection set up by the buyer. For those who aren't familiar with what a home inspector does, they are basically hired to do an independent "inspection" on the property/house to make sure that the buyer doesn't overlook anything and is getting what they are paying for. They basically go over the property with a fine tooth comb and look at everything...foundation, structures, roof, plumbing, electrical, mechanical...
For the new house, I will be on the flip side of things where I would want someone to come make sure the builder didn't overlook anything and that everything is being done correctly. The inspection started at 9am and ended at 12:30pm. The inspector, the buyer, and the buyer's agent were all there. Naturally, none of us could be there. That way they can talk about everything they like and don't like and make the list of everything they think is a problem and will need to be fixed. The jury is still out but hopefully, the list won't be long at all. There is a misconception that everything the buyer wants fixed will get fixed. Contractually, the buyer and seller are to come to an agreement about what will get fixed before closing. Both parties must come to an agreement. We'll see. I will post the findings as soon as I get the list.

House Design / Floor Plan

This is an example of what our new house will look like. It's the same model/floorplan. The main differences are that we will have nicotine limestone with redish brick accent above the garage. The stucco on the second level is similar as well. This house is also a corner lot and it sits similarly to how ours will sit with the driveway being on the right side. This plan is called the "Boerne."


You can "click" to expand any pictures. The floorplan above is slightly different than the final plans but it is all I have to use to show you. The bay window will go in the living room instead of the master bedroom. The second water heater will go upstairs and run parallel with the first.



The builders don't let you have the blueprints so I secretly took a picture of them.






Exterior stone...Nicotine Flagstone.



Interior choices. Not pictured are the iron rail posts, glass accent backsplash tiles, lighting, brushed nickel hardware, stainless steel appliances...etc. I will post when I get pictures of all the details.

A detailed look at the forms before the cement goes in.

Front view from driveway. As you can see, we are a corner lot that backs into a greenbelt surrounded by many trees.

Looking in from the front porch.

Side of house from left side.

Front view from the driveway.

Getting the Lot Ready to Pour Foundation

The original lot full of trees.

The lot cleared of most trees.

The lot cleared of all trees in the way of the foundation. The forms are up for the main foundation. If you notice, there is one tree in the middle, right in front of the house. Sadly, it must be cut down as well. We don't like our trees that close to the house.