All the wooden forms have been removed and it now looks like we have the start of a house. Here is the view as you come up the driveway.
Akash was very excited to run around the slab.
Here is a view from the top terrace looking down.
Here is a shot to show the cantilevered slab at the front of the house.
It’s now been seven days so the concrete should be sufficiently cured to start the steel and wooden framing.
Since the weather is so hot, a sprinkler system was setup to help the concrete cure properly and evenly.
After lots of delay due to weather, the foundation finally got poured today. Due to space constrictions on the top of the site, the concrete had to be pumped up in two stages. Here is a video that shows the top pump truck and the line pipe that goes down the drive to another pump truck where the concrete was initially loaded.
The whole process took about 160 cubic yards of concrete and started at 6:00am. When we went back after lunch, the crew was wrapping up the garage and car port area. Here are a few shots of the finished product.
This was a major milestone and we are happy to have it finally done.
We are nearing the end of the site work before the foundation is poured early next week. The cardboard formwork is in and the steel is installed over it.
There are still a few more sections to wrap up. This is the guest suite that needs to be completed, but the beam work steel is in place and that’s the most time consuming. The horizontal slab steel goes in quickly.
By the end of next week, we should have the concrete poured and then the framing can start.
Work continues on the foundation now that the plumbing is inspected. I took a few photos but it is hard to tell a lot of difference but I decided to at least write a post to document another week.
Steel work begun.
Large pile of cardboard forms for the foundation at the base of the site.
We are back from a week in Orlando over the 4th of July holiday, and we visited the site this morning with the builder.
The good news is the plumbing is complete and inspected. Now that inspection has passed they can start tying in the rebar. Here is a shot from the upper terrace.
Some random shot of the plumbing work.
All the cardboard void forms are also onsite in preparation for the foundation pour. There is a pile up in the storage area and another large one at the bottom of the property.
They are working this weekend and hopefully will get to a point of pouring the foundation at the end of next week.
Austin got lots of rain over the weekend and into Monday evening so I’m sure that impacted the work done early in the week. I went by at lunch, and it looks like the plumber has been hard at work.
We made it out to the site before the thunderstorms hit. Here is a panoramic shot from where the auto-court will be facing south.
Here is a side by side comparison with the June 15th shot on the left and today’s on the right. You can see the plumbing work on what will be the downstairs master suite and a lot more trenches dug.
Here is a close-up of the plumbing work.
Here is a shot where you can see the trenches with the black plastic forms that will eventually have plumbing and rebar.
There has already been one big thunderstorm today with more in the forecast so we will have to see what that does to the schedule.
We’ve had no rain in the past week so I stopped by at lunch to check on things and was greeted by a giant pile of dirt at the bottom of the lot.
There has been lots of excavation work digging trenches for beams and plumbing and it being moved to the bottom of the site to be hauled away.
Lots of dirt is being moved at what will be the front of the house.
You can really see the progress from the upper terrace of the lot.
And finally, this bamboo wasn’t here last week which just goes to show you how quickly this stuff can grow. Luckily it is only in a small section of the upper terrace but we will have our work cut out for us making sure we keep this invasive plant at bay.
Most of the heavy rain occurred over the Memorial Day Holiday weekend and even though there was rain chances every day this week, we didn’t get any significant rainfall.
We now have some significant progress on setting up the forms for the foundation pour. Here is a view from the bottom of the drive.
Here is another at an angle about half way up the drive.
Lots of activity getting the outline of the foundation formed up.
Another shot of the work.
In addition to the work on the foundation, the upper terrace portion has been cleared out up to the fence line.
At the bottom of the property, the crew removed at lot of invasive species of trees and shrubs and just left the native trees.
It is nice to see some significant progress after the past weeks of rain. Hopefully we can continue this momentum and get this foundation poured by mid-June.
3800 Balcones 