Water and sewage

Over the last 2 weeks there has been major work trenching and laying pipes for incoming water, outgoing sewage, and rainwater.

The plumber, Gary Parham, dug massive ditches with the backhoe.  Here a worker is welding together the pipe coming out of the slab (foreground) with the pipe connected to the water main.

This is a picture of our water coming off the main.  This is about 5 feet below the sidewalk.

This is a picture of our sewer pipe connecting to the large sewer under the middle of the street.  The workers had to cut away a big chunk of street pavement, then burrow down about 15 feet!  I was amazed at how deep it was.

Once the plumbers finished and back-filled their trenches, Greg's crew could come back and work on the walls.  As of 10/30/12 they are about 3 feet high and the windows are roughed.  This is Ella standing in her future room.  She has been playing a game with gravel in her room.

Today they poured the cement for the slab foundation.

Progress on the foundation

There's been a lot of progress on the house over the last week!

First, the men working on plumbing, electricity and hvac all placed pipes and tubes that will be under the slab.  This includes electric conduits to every room, incoming water and outgoing sewage, and a pipe for the ground source heat pump.  Here is Frida posing with some electric conduits and water pipes in the kitchen.

 After all the pipes were placed and checked by the city inspector, a truck with a gravel shooter sprayed rocks in and around the house.  They deposited several inches of gravel.

 Here's Ella playing with the gravel.

 Once the gravel was all placed, then Jeff and Jimmy spent all day placing 2 layers of R20 high density foam.  It took a long time because they had to cut little holes for every pipe and tube sticking out of the floor.

This foam is one way that our house is different from most homes.  In typical home construction there is no foam under the floor, but insulation here actually makes a big difference in how a house performs from an energy standpoint.

Carlos growing up

Carlos is growing quickly. He is 8 pounds 14 ounces today. He enjoys keeping mom and dad up so he can feed all night. Big sister Ella has been great with him.

We also went to visit his 99 year old great grandmother Mema.

Profiles in Building: Anthony Garavaglia

Anthony Garavaglia is working as the general contractor on our house through Trumpet Construction where he has worked for the last 5 years.  Shortly after he started working with Trumpet he had a daughter named Brianna (4) followed by a son named Eligio (3) together with his wife, Stephanie.

Anthony was born and raised in St. Louis within the 63139 zip code (the same one we are building in).  He went to college in Indiana, but returned to St. Louis to work with a large construction firm with over a billion dollars in revenue.  He was one of the first people in St. Louis to become a LEED AP.  He earned this distinction by managing the construction of an award winning LEED Platinum office building in St. Louis.  Since moving over to Trumpet, a much smaller company, he has built over half of the 5 most environmentally friendly buildings in the region according to the St. Louis Business Journal.

Enter the Dragon

Carlos Gene Berg was born on 9/25/12 at 1:13 am and weighed in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces, 20.5 inches in length.  He's already 8 days old and up to 7 pounds 11 ounces now.

Carlos has already been out visiting the site a few times to help out with his big sister.

There was a mild setback with the rain as water and mud caused the icf's to float up out of place.  Greg and his crew had to dis-assemble, then re-assemble the entire 3 foot wall and then successfully got cement into it before another rain.  Here they are pouring the cement into the walls.  Greg is on the right.

Yesterday, the plumbers spent all day setting up the drainage pipes and the bringing in the pipes where the fresh water will flow.  This all had to be done before the foam and cement is set for the slab.  They also placed a plastic "pex" tube 3 feet underground around the entire inner perimeter of the foundation for the HVAC.  Fresh incoming air will run through the tube to moderate its temperature before it goes through the heat exchanger.