Dear Friends,
Hey Ya’ll…man has it ever been hard to keep up with updating this blog…we began clearing and digging the middle of August I think…Greg Dew and Division Two Construction brought out all kinds of heavy equipment to build the driveway, put in the culvert, and dig the house site. I am hoping to get the video clips up on this web site very soon. We are in the process of updating the site.
Then we began with seed and straw…the storm water and erosion control department here in Mt. Juliet asked that we keep the ground stabilized. Our dear friend Jean Canida has been on the job site most everyday and has had her hands on most of the seed and straw. It is awesome to see the difference in the property…it is a rolling field of green now.
Next was the process of tearing up a bunch of that green by digging for the water line, then the sewer line. I just got done on the backhoe digging for the underground electrical conduit from the pole (that MTEMC set halfway back on our property line) to the house. We had to rent a bobcat to clear the property, then to fill in the various ditches, to bring gravel around to various places, to work on the gravel in the driveway. Did I mention gravel? It has taken so much gravel! for the driveway, for the bottom of the ditches, for the concrete slab, and SEVEN loads to go in behind the basement wall after we got the waterproofing done.
Vulcan Materials in Hermitage has graciously given us a special rate for all of our gravel…you know the gravel that we also had to have for the bottom of the pit where the grinder pump goes for our sewer.
That Backhoe that i mentioned earlier…well I have rented one of those several times and then Jeff Brown of Wentworth Plumbing has sent his Backhoe over for us to use. Our friend Jeff Page has let us use his Kabota tractor with a frontend loader and a rake on the back…it has been invaluable for all the misc. stuff on the job.
I also need to say a huge Thank You to Randy and Gigi Burgess. Randy and I met online and he very generously wrote and offered to draw our house plans. We were kinda stuck and needed new plans drawn that showed the basement because it was an add on. Randy drew up a great set of house plans per our design and even helped to correct some technicals that we had originally drawn. Gigi is currently helping me with a website for Greg McDougal.com. Please help me spread the word about Randy’s house plan service…the current economy has affected them too. These are great people!
The water proofing came by way of Gerdau/Ameristeel here in Nashville. Jackie Carter cut us a special rate on that…Thank you Jackie…he probably saved us 2 thousand of what would have been a 4 or 5 thousand dollar affair for materials. It is a special membrane that glues to the block wall down onto the footer.
Oh man the footer has been an education. we had to get an engineered plan for the footer…Thank you Mr. David Cartwright and Mr. Dan Moss. The city required an engineered plan to show the size and depth of the concrete…to show the configuration of steel rebar in the footer, retaining wall and basement wall.
Got the steel from John O Hill Materials in Nashville…they delivered it on pretty short notice. Once we got the steel to the job…it had to be laid in the footer and tied together with wire…we hired a crew of day laborers to help that day because we had to get it all done in order to pour concrete the next day.
For all you investors…BUY CONCRETE! We poured 30 yards in the footer alone at 96 dollars a yard…then we pumped 20 yards in the block walls. Thanks to Pepper’s Pump Truck. Wait til you see the video footage of that! It was amazing to see the boom truck operate overhead to get the concrete to where it needed to be. The owner of that company is a real class act!
We roughed in some plumbing in the basement and then had to bring in more gravel…wheel barrels full of gravel.
Oh, I can’t forget to mention my good friend James Cozart. He is the block laying guru. They came out and in 3 days time they laid alot of block!!! The walls are strait, level and built with the utmost care!
Randy Groce electric came out to put up our temporary electric pole and is due out anytime to put the breaker panel in on the house. He is a really good man.
John Fisher is a builder here in Mt. Juliet and he sent me an awesome framing crew. In five and a half days they framed up a little over 2500 square feet of house. It was remarkable to watch. Oh yeah, through all of this, I have not been standing and watching…about the time that I thought I could plan to do some specific task…the crew of the day would show up and would need another bag of mortar, boxes of a particular nail for their nail gun…or we would see some change to make to the windows and I would chase that down with builders first source…or we would realize that we were supposed to double up those engineered I joists where the load bearing wall is and the supply company didn’t send them out…had to run over to Hendersonville on a Saturday to buy extra floor joists from the only company open that day…
Painted the adhesive up on the basement walls to apply the waterproofing membrane and it started raining…had to go again the following week after cleaning off the footer…
Cleaning up the jobsite has been a full time thing! Thank you to Jean Canida, Brent Johnson, Christie Lannom, Jayc Harold, Karis Frieson, Carl Jones, and all of their assorted children. I hope and pray that I am not forgetting someone.
The above mentioned crew also were part of moving rock…you know…the rock that I rented the Bobcat again (but this time with the Jack Hammer attachment) to break up the rock out of the footer and various ditches…all of that rock went down to the bottom of the ravine and has created an incredible river bottom look…from the culvert pipe to the other side of the property.
Dale Insulation gave us a great deal on shooting the expaning foam on the inside of the framing. This is just a quarter of an inch layer to seal up everything and will raise the R factor on the regular insulation.
So many have offered to help…it is a real challenge to coordinate it all…Cappi Gibbs is helping with that and so much more…
I really need to get to the business of booking churches for next year…
Kent Heckman is working on creating a short DVD press kit if you will…a commercial that shows where we began and now we’re headed with all of this. God has called us through all of this to go out and be a witness to His redeeming power! To tell how through faith in Jesus Christ, He can take the ‘Years that the locusts have eaten and make them new’
How He can make everything worth something really good in our lives for His glory!
There is still so much to tell…I have to get Jeff’s tractor back to him…and then go to a funeral. Avonnia Alter’s Dad…Dan Ross…passed away this past weekend…I have the priviledge of sing ‘The Work of a Carpenter’ at the funeralhe was a really good man…built hundred’s of houses in his life…never printed up a business card…he was what the bible referred to as one of the ‘Men of reknown’…an artisan who worked with his hands. People waited for a year and a half at times to get him to build their house. Thank you Lord for a man like Dan Ross!
We love each of you and Thank you for being here. Stay tuned!
gregmcdougal@ahouseformykids.com
615 668-3908