The last two weeks have been torture waiting for progress on the property and the house. Our builder decided that we needed to move forward and had his team start framing out the garage, which seemed like a good strategic move. It kept things moving and, when they are done, we will have a base for storing tools and his team can work in relative warmth over the next few weeks before the snows hit.

The issue has been that the concrete floor needs a window of dry weather to cure and, despite Stowe and the surrounding area being in a drought situation for months, the last two weeks have been wall-to-wall rain. They weren’t torrential rains but there was enough of a chance every day that it prevented them from taking the risk of pouring the floor slab and having major problems.

Today there was a window in the weather and the builder and the concrete company took advantage of it. Starting early we started getting pictures of machinery from our builder and we were extremely excited to see things moving. As his team banged away on the garage, creating its rough form as well as defining the angle that will point up to, and connect to, the house structure, the concrete crew worked to get the slab formed.

Once the pour was complete, according to our neighbor Chuck, they polished the concrete floor area and applied a sealer. While that was going on, there was a team attaching thick foam insulation to the outer walls of the foundation, no doubt in preparation for the excavator to come in tomorrow and backfill all around the foundation once the concrete forms are stripped off.

Today marks a huge milestone. Once the slab is cured (in a few days) the builder’s team will attach sill plates and then begin the framing of the house itself.

As all of this goes on, we are working with the architect, the builder, his project manager, and the window fabricator to complete the shop drawings for all of the windows and doors. These are currently being produced as the details are finalized and hopefully this all comes together when the framing of the house is complete. It is a balancing act but it doesn’t sit well with someone as risk averse as my wife and I are but as long as we keep moving forward, its all we can ask for.