Well they have finished clearing the building site, spread the chipped trees and by lunch time were 1/2 to 2/3 the way done digging the footings. Where the digging was complete they have started with the three courses of #4 rebar with Chairs and driven anchors of rod holding it positioned roughly in the middle of the pour. According to the PM they will finish digging and setting rebar this afternoon. Current plans are for the county inspector and the project manager to inspect in the AM with a concrete pour late morning or early afternoon.
The footing crew are Latinos (Mexican I think) and they spoke politely to Mrs. Paratus and I and then were back to work...only paying enough attention to us to make sure we were out of the swing arc of the excavator. Hard working dudes. The 10-12000# Kubota excavator had a 24" wide 6-8 cubic foot bucket on it and every 20 seconds or so here came another scoop of dirt. I had helped hand digging some footers in the past...Shovels, pick maddoxs, wheel barrows, optical transits and witness sticks...heck of a lot better with this crew. Especially since I was not on the dumb end of a shovel.

Footings poured. Pinning on Monday with block and brick delivery.

So, the main framing will be Block & Stucco, as opposed to all Wood with that special sheeting (I forget what it's called)?

tyvek??

No, not Tyvek. I'm talking about some sort of thin "shingle" like substance that becomes the outside face of the unit. I think they're made of synthetic stone or something. When I was looking at building a place, they had mentioned this type of construction as being a whole lot cheaper than block & stucco. Supposedly strong enough to withstand a Cat-5 hurricane.



No thanks. I wanted "block & stucco." And I got it in the house I bought.

Well in this case this is simply the crawl space walls to support the frame house above. One of the building techniques that I looked at is Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF). The forms are built with insulation on them and then reinforced with rebar and poured. The outer surface is then veneered with what ever is desirable...stone, siding, brick etc. It produces a 4-6" thick reinforced concrete wall that is essentially bullet proof and storm proof. The only problem is that locally, when I researched it it was in the vicinity of $200+/SF and that is nothing but the poured walls and weather tight. No internal fixings, kitchens etc, no well and no septic. Not many local providers. If I was in tornado alley or in the hurricane prone coastal area ICF would have merited further consideration. Very few tornado totals here locally and the hurricane problems tend to be flooding or trees down on the structure. Site selection has remediated the flooding risk and the site prep has remediated the trees across structure risk.

I have thought about doing a small cabin using reinforced concrete blocks with a log "veneer" on the outside and paneling on the inside from my own trees. Gable-less sturdy metal roof.
I'd probably need a contractor to prepare the slab, but after that I can lay the concrete blocks myself as I have time and put in the rebar and pour concrete into the hollows.

Years ago our plans were for a small 2ish BR 2 bath house. Life has a funny way of changing things. My son is 36YO with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and can live semi independently...so he needed a place (his own on site apartment). Then over the past several years my wife has become friends with a younger woman with Cerebral Palsy. She is incapable of independent living due to the severity of the disorder and has an, at times, difficult relationship with her parents so she needs an occasional respite location. Then there is my daughter...Funny how things keep growing to consume available money....

Man, pictures of the progress would be cool.

Once I refigure posting pictures I will post some.