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Today was Cherie’s birthday, and we spent the whole weekend in Portland to celebrate. (Feel free to send presents!) So instead of a real update, here’ s the beginning of the site work. It’s very cold right now, too cold to pour the rat slab, so this is where we’re at until a warm spell hits.
First dig:
Forms for the frost wall:
And from the other side:
Things are a bit hectic around here, so there’s no time right now for a real post. But look! This is the finished driveway (with Michael’s truck proving that yep, it works) and the forms for the footings.
A full show and tell will follow this weekend, including the answer to that pressing question: what happened to the giant Rock of Gibraltar that was in the middle of the driveway?
Hey! What’s that truck doing to our perfectly nice tree stumpy driveway?!?!
Heh.
The driveway’s halfway done. Things are moving fast.
We are taking the advice of our contractor and putting in a frost wall. A slab actually came in slightly cheaper on the estimate, but we spoke to several folks-in-the-know and they recommended the frost wall.
In addition, we will be pouring a (unfortunately named) "rat slab" inside the frost wall*. A bonus feature is that with the concrete floor in the crawlspace, which should be about four feet deep at the lowest point, we should be able to put some of the utilities down there. That will free up space on the first floor.
But the really best part? The contractor can start tomorrow. Because he doesn’t have to truck in fill, the mushy roads aren’t a problem and he can fit us in-between other jobs. He hopes to be done by next Friday. Yowee. When things happen around here, they happen fast!
Stay tuned for pictures!
*A rat slab consists of lining the hollowed-out interior with gravel, then pouring several inches of concrete over it. Originally intended to keep rats and other rodents out of the crawlspace, it also helps keep moisture out of the foundation.
Was someone around here complaining about winter? Was someone actually complaining about rain instead of snow and 40 degrees instead of below zero? Because that was stupid.
Last weekend was the blizzard. This weekend was subarctic. Single digit temperatures and 60 MPH winds. It meant that, once again, nothing got done. But it does at least make us feel better about the winter. Mild winters in Maine get everyone a little off kilter. If we aren’t suffering, it’s like we’ve lost a little bit of our identity. At the very least, we’ve lost our ability to lord our toughness over everyone in Florida.
There is another silver lining to the weather that made us hide inside for two days. The ground refroze. All the rain and mild weather have resulted in the already-complained-about mud, but also roads that can’t handle trucks. In a normal winter, there are a few weeks in March and April when melting snow and softening ground result in weight restrictions on back roads in order to protect them from excessive erosion during this vulnerable time. Unfortunately, the roads think it is already March, and the road one has to take to get to our lot is already posted. That means that, though we are very close to hiring a contractor to put in the driveway, foundation, and septic, he may not be able to get to our lot until the ground dries. That could be as late as April.
So, that considered, we are okay with freezing. Today it’s in the mid-20s. Hey winter, is that really all you’ve got?
Nothing accomplished this weekend because there was a weather event….you may have heard about it. We only got about 6 or 7 inches, but the wind was unbelievable.
So, no visible accomplishments, but we did make more decisions. We will be moving the house over about 15 feet in order to not back up so close to the hill. This will also provide a slightly more level building site.
Michael finally met with one of our potential site work contractors. The news isn’t great. Even with building on the most level spot, we will require about four feet of fill to level the site enough for a slab. Another option is to build a frost wall and forget the slab, which might be cheaper but may not be as efficient for the radiant heat since we then won’t have the concrete to retain heat. With a frostwall, we will just have insulation and subfloor, with the radiant heat running between the subfloor and the flooring. If anyone has experience with radiant heat and a suggestion, please let us know!
We won’t know ultimately which we will go with, fill and slab or frostwall, until we get the estimates. This is a cost-conscious project, and the budget provides the ultimate answer.
Mud. Mudmudmudmud. Unusual to have mud this time of year–normally we are buried under a good foot of snow by now–but it’s been that freaky kind of winter. For the last week, it’s been raining and in the 40s. The result is an unbelievable amount of mud usually reserved for Maine’s infamous Mud Season, which is normally in March and April and, oh heck, May for good measure.
Slogging through all this mud, even in these mild temperatures, was not appealing. So not much got done this weekend. We did start some research for the less exciting parts of the house.
We are both interested in the architectural and interior elements of the house, picking out windows, flooring, and dining room trim, but there’s a whole lot of more pedestrian decisions to be made as well. What type of furnace? What’s the most efficient hot water heating system? How are we going to heat this thing?
Anyone only interested in stupid poetry by Cherie should skip the rest of this as it contains (*gasp*) actual housebuilding information.
We will be pouring a radiant slab, which is an extremely efficient way to heat. Tubing runs through the cement slab, in order to circulate hot water through the slab. The tubing heats up the entire slab, which transmits the heat up through the flooring. Because solids conduct heat much more efficiently than air, less energy is needed to keep the house warm. In addition, you have warm floors, which means no more cold feet! We will be using wood flooring, which will transmit the heat nicely. There are some concerns about the heating and cooling damaging the wood and causing warping, but most experts agree that it shouldn’t be a major problem as long as 1) everything (slab, subfloor, floor) is completely dry when installed and 2) the heat is turned on gradually in the fall, allowing the slab to warm up slowly, and turned off equally gradually in the spring. (Anyone interested in more detail about radiant heat can go here and there’s an excellent discussion about radiant heat and wood floors here.)
Of course, that will only heat the first floor. We will have a wood stove in the living room as a secondary heat source, placed near the stairwell so the heat will rise upstairs. We are planning on radiant heat below the subfloor in the bathroom to keep it warmer. We may cut some openings in between floors for grates, allowing passive heating of the second floor. We are also considering putting some baseboard heat in a second zone upstairs for the coldest nights.
And, of course, as much insulation as we can possibly cram in. Because we know that not all winters will be like this one.
When the trees they need to clear
The tools the others hold so dear
Are saws that rumble and choke
tossing up ugly clouds of smoke.
But it is then I turn to you
for that smoke you never do spew
For instead with one quick snip
You take the branches with an easy clip.
So elegant, lean and mean,
cleaving a line so clean
That the branches they go with a smile
Off to the dreaded burn pile.
Oh Great Loppers, I love you so
That my affection I truly must show
And court public ridicule
and perhaps, for your honor, fight a duel?
(P.S. Please do not judge Cherie, for she has a cold. She is so pumped full of Airborne(TM) and echinacea and other immune support substances that she is, frankly, expecting her immune system to lift up out of her body and march out of the house singing “We Shall Overcome.” So she may be slightly delusional today.)
(P.P.S. And if you are an old writing teacher of Cherie’s, don’t worry. You did teach her better than this.)
