You Need A Good Foundation

Progress. We have footings. While walking around the footings today, we came away with the feeling that they made a mistake. They just don't look big enough, but we'll see. Now, a surveyor needs to verify that the footings are accurately placed before the City of Oak Ridge will grant a building permit.

Next comes the "short wall build-up" on a portion of the footings on the back side of the basement where the basement floor is 5 feet above the grade of the next door neighbor. I know it sounds complicated, but the footings at the back right corner had to go down to the original grade level so a 5 foot concrete block wall will be layed up to the basement floor level (it will eventually be covered with brick). While this is going on, the front basement walls will be poured. After these two items are done, the basement floor will be poured. But for now, nothing can now be done until we get the official building permit.

We've Finally Started!

Yes! We've finally started. We've started a blog AND we've started building our new home in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In late September, the trees along the front where cut down and in early October the builder began hauling in fill dirt totalling around 1000 cubic yards. A Bobcat was used to fill what will eventually be the back right corner of the basement floor where it required about 5 feet of fill. This picture is taken from the back of the lot. October 19th was the planned date to dig the footings but we've had nearly a week of on-and-off rain. East Tennessee has experienced the worst draught in 150 years so this rain was a blessing even though it has delayed the house somewhat. The schedule calls for digging and pouring the footings and then a double-check by a surveyor to be sure they are exactly right. Once the City of Oak Ridge accepts the surveyor's report, we can apply for a building permit. Our builder says that from that point the house will be completed in 6 months.