Leafwood home elevations

I thought it would be interesting at this point to post a picture of the architectural drawings depicting the plans for the house, to give an idea of what it will look like as it is built. But drawings do not do it justice...

Framing begins on Monday, December 12..temperature predicted to be-41 degrees...

 The I-beams are installed...USA steel...

The lumber package is delivered...

 Beautiful 4 x 6's

 I like what it says.."for a quiet, stiff floor"...great byline!

Just found out from Robert our builder that our sewer extension was approved by OEPA! Yay!

The basement floor is now poured-Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, temperature 39 degrees

The pumper truck was needed again due to the muddy conditions...one of the concrete trucks got stuck in the mud and could not get close enough to dump in the concrete...

 Pouring in the concrete, then evening and smoothing it out, making sure it is perfectly even and flat is a labor intensive process...

The piece of machinery is a large trowel the workers use to get a smooth finish on the concrete. Accelerant has been added so the wet concrete will set up quickly, before the rain comes..

The plumbing is in-

 Kitchen on the east side

 Master bath and laundry room?

This is the part of the plumbing that will be buried under the basement slab.

Pouring of the foundation i.e. basement walls

Aluminum molds the height of the 9 foot walls are used to shape the concrete into the foundation/basement walls.

The equipment used in the pouring of the footers and the foundation walls is huge, complicated, impressive.

Beautiful sunset in the West, another day of progress...

The person actually controlling the flow of concrete is the guy with  the remote control box standing above the action...

The pouring of the footers is very labor intensive, with one worker directing the tube that delivers the cement while other workers even it out, then smooth it out and place a trough down the middle which will recieve the walls of the foundation.

Drilling through solid rock to place the molds for the footers...

Gravel delivery for the foundation

Lots of heavy equipment...big trucks....on the land...the gravel will go on the floor of the excavated area that will become the foundation and the basement floor.

Here you can see the gravel has been spread on the floor of the basement and will become the first layer, upon which will be poured concrete.

Now the reality begins to take shape...

Work on the house was delayed for months due to red tape-a sewer permit was needed from Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) which had to also be submitted for approval by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA). Finally Pam could not take it any more and had a melt down, which builder Robert bore the brunt of, and-Voila! the following week a waiver was obtained so we could start work on the house while the application proceeded...much like the transition phase of any birth process...we broke ground on Tuesday, November 1, 2016..

Temporary address sign so workers and contractors know they are in the right place.

Temporary electric pole installed by Duke Energy...

Virgin soil marked for excavation...

PJ and wife make quick work-excavation for house, porch and garage completed in one (very long)Day! The job was made more difficult by the fact that we are building on solid rock!

The building of a house on an unused (virgin) piece of land involves, at first, a very destructive process...the bobcat that our builder Robert rented and a man named Chis operates, can chew through a 6 inch round tree in a matter of seconds. It makes quick work of honeysuckle, though it still abounds...here are some pictures, you can see for yourself...

Looks like a tornado struck....

One era ends, a new one begins...

As I said before, before we can build our dream home, we had to sell our dream home....

Now we live in the Gantry, the brand new apartment building in Northside in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a 907 sq. ft. apartment. It is just right for us..and the sunsets are spectacular!

That's our apartment up on the fifth floor. If you could zoom in you could see our Hillary sign...

Sunset view....

Of course, before you can build your dream home you have to sell the most beautiful home you have ever owned to wonderful buyers who will love it as much as you have....

sale pending....

Setting the points of the house

We met today with Stephanie our architect and Doug our surveyor to set the points of the house. This is a more or less rough estimate of where the corners of the house and garage will be located. This may change and will have to be nailed down before the excavation of the site starts, but this lets the guys doing the clearing get an idea of how far back and to the sides they must remove trees, brush, and undergrowth. I bet the mulch pile is going to get much bigger when the chipper comes back!

Doug our surveyor taking charge

the merry crew-Deb, Stephanie our architect, Pam and Doug

woodland view

looking toward the pin oak and the street-quite secluded

Clearing goes on...and on

The guys are clearing out tons of honeysuckle (a friend suggested a name for our site-Honeysuckle Acres!) dead trees and underbrush, have not seen any nests disturbed yet and no serious injuries other than a few scratches. We are meeting today with our surveyor Doug Spreen, our builder Robert Blick and architect Stephanie Labbe to establish the corners of the house. From there the clearing will go 70' back beyond the house, on the east side to the hillside and 60' on the west side. The main objective is to make sure there are no large trees that could fall on and damage the house. We are making the down payments on the lumber and windows today so we can lock in at the lowest price Robert and Nasse could find for us.
After the clearing is done Robert will start establishing the driveway, which will ultimately be gravel with concrete for a section for parking near the entrance of the garage and a small apron at the entrance to the street. Having a gravel driveway gets us LEED points!
I should say a word here about the land. We acquired 3.82 acres at the dead end of Leafwood Drive in June 2015, purchased from the Church of the Way. The church had owned the land since the 60s, they were going to build a church there but then the pastor died, it looked like it would not be a cost-effective site for them as time went on, so they put it on the market in the winter of 2014. Our son, Matthew and his Fiance Tara had moved home from Boston and were looking on Zillow for a place when they came across it. We went together to look at the property, the kids were not interested so Deb and I immediately snapped it up.
The land: it is incredible. It is ruined urban land just crying out for help to grow new healthy trees, rid it of invasive plant species and restore it to its native state. It is bordered by Spring Grove Cemetary/Arboretum  on one side and on the other sides by Hamilton County Parks land, so there will be no development anywhere near us.
Building LEED means to disturb the land as little as possible, use landscaping that requires little or no watering, plant grasses that do not require mowing. We have the work of the rest of our lives ahead of us, and we will do this while living in a passive solar house with solar energy keeping us off the grid as much as possible.

From death to chipper to new life as mulch for the landscaping for the house....

Day one of clearing the land....

Harry, Chris and Robert prepare the Husquvarnas.

The guys found this skull of an 8 point in the woods. Chris is a bow hunter.

The chipper has arrived.

 
A good day's work.