Author: David Boufford

This week was more framing, steel ring and septic drainfield installation. The framing continued all week. Monday the floor joists and subflooring for the great room was installed. (You’ll see a photo of me sitting on the great room floor with Koko and Kuma, our Japanese Spitz pups) The floor joists and subflooring for the kitchen bridge was built too, and more subflooring was added. More walls appeared in the primary suite area and by the end of the week, the sill plate was complete on the lower level, just awaiting the construction of the lower walls! It’s so fun to watch Henrik and Lonnie and their crew create this masterpiece!

The septic system was completed with pipes installed to the drainfield (that part is still under construction). In preparation for this, on Tuesday, we relocated more than 30 giant ferns from the area where the upper drainfield will be installed. Thanks for Valentin for helping with the ferns, and to Mike and CLS Septic for the excavation and piping. 

Tuesday, the metal subcontractor started prep for the installation of the steel ring, to be located about 5’ down from the top of the 27’ concrete column. Plates need to be set on the floor of the staircase, and vertical steel beams will then be attached to support the 2400 pounds of the steel ring. It’s supported by two tall steel posts that will be buried in future walls on the lower level, as well as braces on the turret concrete wall. Tricky engineering, but wait until you see the finished product!

This was the biggest project of the week and was required now, as this semi-circle steel ring will support the glulam ceiling sunrise beams. It was a bit trickier than anticipated and wasn’t completed until Friday. Thanks to Phil, Josh, Patrick, Geoff and Garrett as well as the engineers at CT Engineering for making this happen!

The week ended with running the electrical conduit and plumbing lines to the house. It seems that one of the hiccups we had to resolve was the fact that there was no water on the property on Friday afternoon, until we resolved the problem on Sunday morning. We found the solution, or at least we think we have!

Now that the slabs are poured, this week was busy with stones, finish grading and delivery of lumber, lumber and more lumber. 

The stone steps that go from the front of the house underneath the kitchen bridge and down to the level below were completed. 

By midweek, the concrete columns had dried and the framing boards and sonotubes were removed, to reveal the columns that will support the great room deck above. Eventually they will be covered with bark, just like the treehouses at Snow Bear Chalets.

Patrick, our project manager, joined our team this Monday. We’re grateful to have his assistance.

The highlight of the week was that the framers started on Monday. YAY! Thank you to Henrik and Lonnie for installing the sill plate in the primary suite side of the house, and to Victor and Jose for joining us later in the week to hang the joists for the greatroom floor. By Thursday, we had our first vertical wall!

Framing s my favorite part of the building process as it’s amazing to see the vision take shape. I can’t wait to walk in the main level of the house! We have the SIPS panels being delivered in just over three weeks from now, so the framing team will be working fast to get the house ready!

By the end of the day Friday, they had one sheet of plywood installed on top of the joists in the greatroom. I know it’s only one piece, but the rest of the floor will be added quickly next Monday. Can you tell I’m excited!?

Thank you to the great team that worked hard onsite this week to move this project forward. Also, a big THANK YOU to my friend David who posts my photos and handles the website, and to Darryl for all the errands and assistance to the entire team. I appreciate each one of you!

This week started with Janes laying the radiant heat in the slabs for the primary bedroom suite and the two lower guest suites. You’ll see them as bright red tubes. (Thank you Janes!)

Then, the concrete was poured for the foundation of the footings for the support columns to hold up the deck off of the great room. (thank you Foundation Specialists!)

With the completion of all of the concrete work, lumber shipments arrived, and our team is ready to begin framing next Monday.  My favorite part of the build is the scent of the wood as the house is taking shape. Should be a fun month coming up!

This week was busy with the completion of the prep for the pouring of the slabs in the primary suite, in the two lower suites and in the garage. It was also a week of rocks and dirt. The drainage pipes around the perimeter of the foundation were laid and the drainfield was completed.  The end of the week brought more prep to pour the slabs, with rebar and insulation being installed, to be ready for the pour of the two slabs (primary suite and the two suites in the lower level). 

It was also a week of moving dirt- a lot of dirt. Mike and Braydon completed the preliminary grading around the entire house and WOW what a difference! Mid-week, Mike and I went to choose rocks and found some gorgeous grey/blue/green boulders. The week was topped off with these rocks being installed to create a passway from the front of the house underneath the kitchen floating overhead to the back of the house. 

Check out the stone heart! When the stones were dumped on the property, two of them collided and this rock chip broke off. I thought it was a beautiful heart, again, confirming this is a house that love built! This is going to be a beautiful home!

This was a short week as many of our subs took off early for the 4th of July holiday weekend. We were lucky enough to get the plumbing drainage laid out in the primary suite slab and in the slab for the two guest suites on the lower level. The underslab plumbing was inspected and approved by the King County Health Department.  

The rest of the week was spent installing the downspout drainage on the exterior of the foundation and backfilling as needed. Many truckloads of dirt needed to be trucked in to fill to the proper grade. By the end of Thursday (7/3), it’s started to look like a house!

A special thank you to Brayden and Mike from Mike Carlson Excavation for keeping us on schedule, and to Darry,l who can be seen in a video moving dirt with the bulldozer. 

See you next week! Slabs and then framing are coming very soon….that’s my favorite part when we get sticks in the air!

I started this week early on Sunday morning at the property and was greeted by a beautiful deer and a bobcat! Check out the photos! 

Early Monday morning, we poured another 87 yards of concrete to fill the turret tower (27’ center pole) and the walls throughout the house.  After the concrete dried for a day, Javier and the guys started to remove all of the heavy wall forms and clean up the site so that the backfill can begin. A big thank you to Javier and his team at JB Concrete for the great job with all the concrete work.

Thursday and Friday were busy with waterproofing and Mike (Mike Carlson Excavating) started to backfill the space. Thanks to Mike, Braden, Logan and Garrett for all your help this week!

This house will look a lot different in the next week or so when the slabs are poured and we can actually walk into the house. Each week brings something wonderful for us to look forward to!

Check out the 3:00-minute video if you want a “tour” of the house, including a conversation with a deer, who even left heart shaped footprints (see photo below).

This week Javier, Filimon and the guys from JB Concrete finished forming the walls for the concrete to be poured on the 23rd (next Monday). Take notice of the tall “pole”. That will be the “tree” wrapped in bark which will serve as the center of the spiral staircase leaving up to the top of the turret. The actual meditation room on the top of the turret will sit on top of this pole, high up in the air with amazing views in all directions. I can’t wait to see this completed! Thanks for all your hard work guys!

It’s always exciting to see the concrete being poured! This week, the footings were poured. JB Concrete did an incredible job with this house- thank you guys! As you can see from the photos, we poured the concrete into the footing forms at the beginning of the week, then the guys started to frame the vertical walls. What a difference a week makes. If you look closely at the photos, you’ll also see I added a heart to the footings, as this is a house built on a foundation of love and kindness, so it seemed only fitting to memorialize this into the physical foundation of the house.

This week the house started to take shape- literally! Thanks to Javier and Filimon from JB Concrete and their incredible team for all of your help. These guys turned a bunch of dirt into the beginning of a home. This week was spent laying out the forms, then placing the rebar inside the forms to reinforce and hold the future concrete in place. Also, thanks to Darryl and Mike for installing a time-lapse camera to take one photo every 15 minutes throughout the build. These photos will be compiled into a video to show the progress to date. Thanks guys!

Now that the septic tank has been installed, we can move forward with the foundation. This week we focused on final site prep and relocation of dirt (piled on the property), to allow the survey to be completed, which marks the perimeter walls of the house. Thank you to Eastside Surveying! Now that the dirt has been relocated and the site is marked, we can start the excavation for the footings and foundation walls. We also removed a tree that was too close to the foundation wall, but since the tree was so big and beautiful, we kept the lower 25’ of the tree. This fall it will be carved into a bear and some cubs, by a local artist.