How Do You Put an Oval Window in a Square Opening

Ever since the ICF blocks were put up and the concrete poured, I have been wondering how the windows that we had selected would be installed since all the openings were square.

This is a window that goes on the front of the house.  Notice the top is a full radius oval. 

The installer uses a template and then cuts plywood to match the template so that the window will fit perfectly in the opening.  

  

There are two pieces of plywood and then small pieces of wood is nailed in between the two.  This is necessary since the walls are twelve inches thick.  

This is how it looks from the inside.  The wood will be covered.

The windows on the back of the house have square tops so they fit right in without having to build a form.

This is the view as you walk in the front door.

A weatherproofing contractor will come out and put some kind of membrane and a special caulking around the windows.  The caulking is apparently different since the house is ICF.  

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a House

The roof joists have now been built and the plywood base for the roof has been delivered so we should be dried in soon.

Front View

Another Front View

Part of the Covered Patio and above is a balcony that is accessed from a guest bedroom and the rec room.

 The plywood on the front right corner is where the outside fireplace will be.  The plywood on the back right is where the outdoor kitchen will be.  The three square blocks that you see will be columns.  To the left where the opening is will be all glass doors opening onto the patio.  In the front is the pool edge.

Rear View  This block retaining wall will be stucco.

 Another rear view.  The edge of this retaining wall is 50 feet from the bay.  That distance is required by code in Walton County.

Happy New Year Ya'll.

ICF walls and First Floor Framing Are Complete

We have built a few houses but I always seem to forget how long it takes to build.  I do think it takes longer in Florida though;  we are on island time here.

There has  been a lot of progress since my last post though.    After the first floor walls were poured, the framers came in and framed the first floor, put the stairs in and the sub-floor for the second floor.

More framing

The ICF Blocks were placed for the second floor walls

The concrete trucks returned and poured the walls

You can barely see the concrete equipment here.

Bay view from second floor.

Dwight and our builder, Frank, checking out the view from upstairs.

View toward the street from the second floor.

The roof joists will go up next, and the upstairs framing will be done, then the roof will go on.  The windows are in and will also be installed.  While the contractors have been working on the house we have been meeting with cabinet makers.  We have selected one and the final design is in process.  We have to get the cabinet design completed so the electrician will know where to wire for lights and outlets.  We have also been trying to choose a front door.  While in Houston for Thanksgiving, we went to several lighting stores to look at light fixtures but made no progress there.  Our taste usually are pretty similar but light fixtures are a different story so we have to figure out this one.  

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  

Concrete Walls

Buiding a concrete house is interesting and different from building a typical frame house.  The first level ICF walls are 12 inches thick, are now in place and the concrete has been poured in them.   It took about 6 weeks to finish installing the blocks, bracing with a lot of steel braces and building wood frames around the window and door openings.

This is the inside of one of the ICF blocks.  The area in the center is where the concrete is poured.

The concrete trucks arrive.  It took quite about 10 truck loads for this project..

The mixer truck dumps the cement into a hopper and it is pumped up through the arm that they use to put the cement into the blocks.

This 

A cement specialist makes sure that the mixture goes down into the block.  

They pour about 2 feet into the block and then they use a vibrator to vibrate it so that the cement settles into the blocks properly.  Then they move around the house doing this and back around with another 2 feet until the blocks are filled.

This is looking on the inside of the house and you can see al the metal bracing that they have to use to secure the blocks before pouring the concrete.

The next step is to remove all the metal bracing and then the framers will be in to install framing and the floor for the second level.  After the floor is in the ICF Block installers will be back to put the blocks in place for the second level.  They have to have the floor in place to stand on.  The second level should not take as long as the first because there aren't as many window and door openings.

Thanks for stopping by.

Birthday Card and Gift Card Holder Set

As many of you know, one of my hobbies is stamping and paper crafting and that I will be posting some of my projects on this blog.  

Today I have a birthday card and a birthday gift card holder set to share.  The card is an A2 size  (4.25" x 5.5").  I used the Stampin Up set Secret Garden and the coordinating dies for cutting to create this set.  

I stamped the background white flowers with Versamark ink onto Stampin Up Smoky Gray cardstock and embossed with white detail embossing powder.   I also stamped the red flowers with Versamark ink onto the Smoky Gray cardstock and embossed them with white detail embossing powder.  I then used a sponge and Strawberry Slush Stampin Up dye ink to sponge the color onto the red flowers.  I did this instead of using red cardstock and embossing the red because the red has more depth and also has some gray undertones which looks good with the gray background.  The leaves are cut from Stampin Up Wild Wasabi cardstock using one of the coordinating dies.  I then sponged a darker green ink on the leaves to add interest.  I used a Stampin Up scallop edge punch to cut the white scallops and cut the sentiment banner freehand, used Smoky Slate ink to sponge the edges and stamp the sentiment. 

I assembled the card using Tombow Mono Multi and popped up the scallop layer and the red flowers using Stampin Dimensionals then added rhinestones to the centers of the flowers.

The gift card holder started with a 4.25 x 11" piece of Smoky Slate cardstock scored at 3", 5.5", and 8" and folded in the shape of an M.

Using the Word Window punch from Stampin Up punch it twice on the edge of the center fold.  Then punch out the center with the petit Curly Label punch ( or a circle punch) Use Redline tape to finish the card pocket and add the ribbon to keep the card closed.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

The Walls Go Up and the Pool Takes Shape

After doing a lot of research, we decided to build an ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) home.  There are many advantages to building with ICF especially in coastal areas.  The walls will be about 12 inches thick and are actually concrete.  The forms are put together and with rebar in them and then concrete is poured inside.  Some of the advantages of an ICF home are:  Energy efficiency, 32% less energy required for cooling and 42% less for heating.   This also means the HVAC units can be sized smaller.   Protection during storms, both tornadoes and hurricanes.  This is a big plus when building on a bay in the Florida Panhandle.  Insect resistance Termites don't like to eat concrete.  Fire resistance,   Concrete doesn't burn.  All of these features also help to reduce insurance costs.  From what we hear, ICF homes are also really quiet. 

Materials are delivered.  These are the ICF Blocks made by Fox Blocks

The wood is for framing around window and door openings

Assembling the walls reminds me of putting Legos together

View from the driveway of the walls going up.

The gunite (a concrete mixture) gets sprayed on layer by layer to construct the pool.  They are working on the spa in this picture.

The pool will be finished when the house is near completion.

Progress Between The Rains

Rain, rain go away and come again another day!

According to Frank, our builder, it rained for 58 days (about 40 inches) after we started clearing the lot for building so this made progress really slow because it was too wet to do much and even when you could the dirt yard would be closed because it was too wet to haul sand and we need a lot of fill sand.  In between the rains they did manage to get enough sand.

They leveled it and then dug the trench for the footings

The concrete trucks arrived and poured the footings.

 Then the block layers arrived and laid the blocks for the foundation

Then hauled in more sand to fill in the blocks and then it was leveled again.

 The plumbers and electricians installed the pipes and wire that need to be in the floor and then the rebar was laid before the concrete trucks returned with more loads of concrete.

There are 2 miles of rebar in this foundation.  One thing that surprised me is they ran sprinklers on the concrete over night to keep it wet for the curing process.  This is supposed to minimize the cracking.

In the mean time the pool company dug the hole for the pool and it promptly filled up with rain water.

The pumps came in handy to empty it so that the pool company could set the forms for the pool.

There has been progress every day since the rains stopped.