Not much today

Its Friday.  We've been officially involved in the house-building process for 3 weeks now.  It was the first day that the builders were not working from 7 am to 5 pm.  Really, there wasn't so, so much for them to do today, as they didn't want to walk on the slab too much.  They did remove a lot of the framing for the slab, and tomorrow, we'll probably go take some good pictures.
There is a lot of insulation up, and they did put gravel all around the entire house perimeter.
The guys worked from about 10 to 4.  I don't care.  They work damn hard, I have to say.  They deserve this one day, as long as they don't make it a habit :)

Thank you for listening, Mr. Weather!

Dear Weather,
Thank you so very much for cooperating today!  It was so kind of you to make the decision to keep the rain today, even though you did send by a few threating clouds.  The slab was poured this morning in our garages, and it looks beautiful! 
Thank you so much for your help.
Your friend,
Allison

As I drove to work this morning, I saw the concrete truck in the driveway.  Concrete truck in driveway could only mean one thing- concrete slab!  Joern called me a few seconds later to confirm my suspicion, that indeed the slab for the garages and foyer were being poured!  I have to admit, I am a little sad that I missed it, although seemingly boring, I would have loved to have witnessed the event.  But, it was exciting to come home and see my garage all finished.  By the time I got home, Joern's garage was not only completed, but also covered already. 

The finished garages.

A few pictures from earlier in the day.

Because the garages do not have any more covering over the floor, they were finished with a very smooth finish. 

Once the slabs were finished, they were covered with a plastic cover, and then sprayed with some water.  The cover not only protects the slab while it is curing, but it also keeps moisture in the concrete throughout the drying process.  If the slab dries too quickly, cracks can form really easily.

An open letter to the weather

Dear Weather,
The builders have been working so very hard to prepare the foundation for the slab.  Because you were so indecisive today, raining a little, and then not, the builders didn't want to play games, so they did not pour the slab today.  PLEASE, PLEASE show your good side and let the builders pour our concrete slab tomorrow.  I'm getting a little antsy!

Despite the setbacks with the weather, there was quite a bit of preparation for the slab under the house  that was completed today.  See for yourself!



The end of the day on Tuesday

The middle of the day today.

 Sadly, we didn't take a picture from above of the scene at the end of the day today.  We have rebar covering the entire "H" shaped footing.  Also, on the  left side of the house, quite a bit of insulation was laid on top of the ballast stones and then covered with the plastic covering and stones. 

Hopefully, weather-wise, we'll be good to go tomorrow for the garages' concrete slab!

Preparing for the slab!

It looks like tomorrow, we'll be the proud owners of two concrete floor slabs, one in my garage and the foyer, and the other in Joern's garage.  It is so exciting!

This morning

Later in the day, the garages are covered with steel mesh and are ready for lots and lots of concrete!

Under the concrete is a thin layer of plastic material, under that is a lot (will measure tomorrow) of gravel, under the gravel is another layer of material, and then the ground.  They also put insulation underneath the foyer before covering it. The only non-insulated part of our floor slab will be the garages.

Photo of the day

They builders are getting ready to pour the concrete slab for the garages!

Wow, we had a weekend full of visitors!

We have finally had visitors come by to check out our house!  I guess we could say they were our first "house guests."
Our first visitor was on Friday, when Mr. Petermann , who lives in the neighborhood, came to visit.  He's in his 70s, and has known Joern ever since he was a little boy.  He came and chatted with us a bit about the house, and his experiences with home owning.  A little while later Joern's friend Fabio stopped by with his family.  I guess it was good that we stayed at the house site so long on Friday!

Saturday was also awesome.  A few friends of ours, Heidi and Julie, and their son stopped over for a while.  Joern's friend Georg also stopped by too.  They toured our "house."  It was really fun to be able to explain things in English, instead of passively sitting by listening to Joern explain everything in German.   We even toured one half of the duplex next door. What an excellent afternoon! 

And there you have it.  We've already had guests come to our house.  Two weeks into construction. Hooray!

I finally found an American equivalent!

After months, and months of writing about things I couldn't translate into English, I finally found tons of information on German-type concrete houses built in the US! 
It turns out that we are building an Insulated Concrete Form house.  Even Bob Vila talks about them on his website!  The use of Insulated Concrete Forms as building material seems to be growing in North America.  Insulated Concrete is being touted for it's energy efficiency, resistance to fire and to natural disasters, as well as its ability to retain its strength over time. 
Funny enough, these were the reasons I wanted to go with a concrete house before I even read them.  I liked the feel of concrete homes here, as well as the fact that they are cooler in the summer.  

In my search for building terms, like footer and rebar, which I had heard, but never knew their meaning, I found this webpage as well. I love this page, because it follows the building of an Insulated Concrete Form home in the US.  So exciting!

Well, there you have it.  I know I still haven't updated from Friday, I need to, because there was so much completed on Friday.  If the wait is too excruciating, you can always head over to our Share Site, to see the pictures :)