What Leaning Oak is supposed to look like...

I have been asked by some viewers of the site for actual graphics instead of the background image.  I should have thought of this earlier.  The graphics below represent what the house is to look like using our selections for paint, brick, stone, roof, etc.  The landscaping and pool are not part of the plan.  We intend to do landscaping, and it might be similar, but there is no official plan at this point.

First, the front of the house:

In real life, there will be trees very close to the driveway which cuts in front of the house in this rendering.

Now, the rear of the house:

The woods will come very close to the edge of the casita (far right) so there will be much less lawn than shown here.

Thanks for coming along...

Slogging through the rain, but the forms are in...

Forms.  Not to be confused with "framing".  In this part of Texas, we build on "slab" foundations, as our water table is quite high and basements are not possible.  By "slab" I mean that the concrete (after installing rebar and utilities) is poured directly onto the ground and filling up its "form".  This is why building the pad is so critical because it must be level for the foundation.  Before the utilities and rebar are put in place, a formal survey must be taken of the forms to ensure the placement of the house and associated buildings do not violate any right-of-way rules for the property.

In the following pictures, I show different aspects of our pad and forms.  The entire pad will not be covered in cement, only the portions where there will be a structure.  The completion of the forms is a prelude to getting utilities (plumbing and electrical conduit) installed, as well as the rebar, which will give the foundations both flexibility and strength.  Within 24 to 48 hours of the concrete being poured, framing (putting up the 'sticks' for the walls and roof) can begin.

From the road, one can see the breadth of 

the forms -- over 140 feet

A picture shot across the front porch, conservatory, 

kitchen, lanai, to the casita

A shot from the outside of the master bedroom to the casita
(note the graded slope of the pad toward the woods)

This is shot from the Great Room 
at the center point of our 
14-foot picture window

Finally, ready to move to "construction"

After six months passing since we signed the construction load, four months after our construction company turned first dirt, enduring a wet spring and a less-than-motivated "dirt man" (the guy who prepares the site for building whose work is essential for a solid house foundation), we are finally ready to set the forms of the house foundations.  Yes, I wrote "foundations", plural.  There is the main house, the multi-purpose two-car garage, and the combo four-car garage and apartment, a.k.a. "the casita".  Everything is one-story, so our pad is quite large, nearly a half-acre in size.  No worries, we have 4 1/2 other acres to enjoy.

The pictures below give you some idea of what a pad looks like and the size of our pad.

 

We have already worked with the construction manager regarding how the house should be placed on the property.  As with the house design itself, everything flows from getting the centerline correct.  The centerline line to which I am referring is the centerline of the main house, which is the line from the front door to the large 14-foot picture window in the rear of the house.  The house's centerline will be aligned with the centerpoint of the front property line, and the house we be parallel to the property line.  When we lay the forms, we will confirm all the key house position measurements (corners, centerline, etc.), because once the forms are set and the foundation formed, the house is placed forever.

Hopefully, I will soon post pictures of the forms being set.  As in, within DAYS, not weeks.

See you then.

The area for the pad being cleared

One of the single most time-consuming tasks in house construction is preparing the pad on which to pour the foundation (we have "slab" foundations here).  The pad is  built up to create a level space for the foundation.  Our property slopes at a rate of 1 foot of drop per 30 linear feet.  The back part of our five-car garage, which represents the deepest construction element, will be about five feet above its natural 'ground'.

Why does it take so long?  It has a lot of variables.  It is weather dependent, it is "trades" dependent (can you get a contractor out there), and dirt dependent.  It is hard to work with mud, to smooth it, and avoid digging deep trenches in it when the soil is wet.  This is especially true when felling trees and pulling them out by the root-ball (we do not want tree roots trying to find their wat through our foundation).  Trade dependency includes their availability, the state of their equipment, and the health of both them and their families.  Sometimes you have to take off when mom needs to make an urgent run to the hospital.  The dirt has to be on order and qualified by specifications and available at the time we need it for the par.  All told, this one-week job, as advertised, has turned into a three-week job and counting.

Here are some pictures of the clearing efforts and debris removal:

Looking from the road and into the property, near the center of the house.

Hopefully, we will have the pad actually built by the end of next week.  At that point, the form of the foundation will be made, and we will tweak its position to make sure we are all satisfied with the placement of the house.  Initial utilities will then be placed, verified, then concrete will be poured.  Allegedly, after this point, things get moving very quickly.  We hope this is true.  We hope.

A dream becoming real...

The tree leaning near the center of this picture is why we call our property Leaning Oak, and the inspiration for the name of this blog.  The above picture was taken in January of 2014, after we had cleared the underbrush.  We bought the property in 2007, but waited to do any clearing until we were ready to build, which is this year.  The underbrush was so thick we could not examine but a small portion of the property via a trail along the left boundary line.  The clearing above represented the first time we could examine the property and begin to imagine how our house might be placed.  In actuality, only the front third of the property was cleared of underbrush.

The picture below is an aerial view courtesy of our surveyor and Google Maps.  The stars indicate the property corners and represents a lot of five acres.

The pictures and stories which follow in this blog will be about the progress my wife Pam and I make toward a dream that began a very long time ago. 

The house in the background of the blog is the architect's rendering of the house we designed together and now is coming to fruition.  We invite you along on this adventure.