Day 56 : Richtfest

"Richtfest" is a major milestone in Germany when building a house. It means that the roof framing is complete, also known under the term "topping out". It is usually celebrated by installing a little fir tree or wreath, decorated with colorful ribbons, on top of the roof frame and entertaining the construction crew, friends and neighbors with speeches, toasts, and food. There is candy for the kids ("distributed" parade-like, meaning thrown into the crowd from the roof). And of course there's beer for the adults.

This is how a "Richtfest" may look like:

 

We did not have an elaborate ceremony like that, but I brought a case of beer for the crew and we will celebrate the occasion in private later today. I managed to get on site while the crane was there between 6:00-8:30am. There was another major rain shower last night, so the ground (and the lumber) was soaking wet and there was fog in the valley. The fog was a nice backdrop to the sunny skies, but it made for some dirty boots.

Another team from GMP pulled power cables from the road through the pipes to the site. The meter sits half way along the driveway. Otherwise it would have been too long of a distance for a single run. Power is not hooked up yet, though.  

Here are some photos of the truss installation in the morning fog:

Day 55 : Garage

Due to some weather-related delays, the crane for the lifting the roof trusses into place will be on site on Tuesday. Until then, the framing crew worked on the garage.

This is where the porch will be located

We met with the builder today at the site to (a) discover that the hobby room window has been repositioned and (b) to discuss the issue with the main floor ceiling height. There's no chance to change the exterior walls now, but he agreed to install a lowered ceiling (changing some interior walls to 8') with the cellulose insulation sitting right on top of the ceiling as before. The only drawback is that there is some extra lumber that goes into the design and that the house is 1' taller than necessary. This means that the exterior look is different. Still better than having to heat those extra 1200+ cubic feet!
  

Day 54 : Main floor exterior and interior walls

Well, technically this is the status as of day 52. We went on our annual canoe camping trip (last Thursday morning to Sunday), so we did not have the chance to check on Friday. Here's what happened: The fourth main floor wall is up now, plus most of the main floor interior walls. There are some additional walls in the lower floor as well. The crew is also getting ready for the main floor ceiling and roof trusses to be installed. I hope I can catch the crane lifting the trusses into place!

However, we also noticed that a window is not in the proper place and that the main floor ceiling height is not right. Will have to talk to the builder tomorrow to get a few things straightened out...

Approaching the house from the south, along our driveway

West wall installed!

Main floor interior framing

Dining and living room area

Dining room view!

Day 50 : Three out of four main floor walls are up

This crew is incredible... they worked from dawn today until past sunset. After a long day in the office, we only got up there around 8pm. The guys were still hard at work setting up the south wall.

Only the West wall still missing on the main floor

Master Bathroom corner of the house

From what I have been told, they may have installed the roof trusses by the time we come back from our weekend camping trip. I almost hope that this will not happen before Monday, so that I can watch the trusses being lifted onto the main floor joists.

At any rate, by the end of next week we may have something that looks like a real house!

Day 49 : We have a main floor!

It was a miserable day yesterday with pouring rain basically all day. So we did not bother to check the progress. But today (Tuesday, day 2 of framing work), we were very curious and went to the site again.

What a surprise: the crew installed the outside basement walls, some interior walls and even the main floor. So construction is moving along again and if the pace of framing continues, the structure should resemble a real house within a few days. This is exciting!

Reference photo, 2014-07-28

View from the main floor (master bedroom)

In the lower floor, looking west

Looking into the lower floor area from the southwest corner

Day 45 : Framing material on site

Not much to report for today except that the framing material is on site now, waiting for the big day on Monday...

Day 39 : Basement slab and deck footings poured

The basement slab has been poured on Saturday. They also poured the footings for the porch posts as they could not use the precast ones due to more ledges in the ground.

One big work package is out of the way and the crew can start framing. Our builder told us this will start one week from Monday, so we are about to enter the really exciting phase of construction.  Can't wait for that...