Eugene New Home Builder Day 45

This week they started framing the second story. They finished last week by putting up the floor joists. Monday they put the sub floors in and started the second story walls.

We were able to check out the second story without walls earlier in the week, but had to use a rickety extension ladder to get up because the material for the stairs was buried under other material. They brought in a fork lift and moved the rest of the framing material and our bath and shower to the second floor. Once they were able to get to the material the stairs were built, so now we have exterior walls and stairs for the second floor.

They also worked on our back patio cover. It will end up being 18 feet x 20 feet and when I first saw the footings for the posts it looked small, but now that the posts and headers are in it looks like it will be a good sized area.

One issue that I noticed was that one of the posts was partially off the concrete footing. I asked the site superintendent about this and he told me that it wasn’t a problem, as it was the middle post. I’m not sure if it was an actual concern or not, but the foundation contractor did come back and made the footing larger.

It’s a little concerning for a couple of reasons. First, why was the foundation guy so far off? If he was off on the footing for the patio cover post was he off on the actual foundation? I know he had to come back at least once before to fix part of the foundation. Second, our site superintendent said it wasn’t a problem, but they ended up adding concrete to the post to make it bigger to fit the bracket for the post. If it wasn’t a problem why did they fix it? Also, why would he say that it wasn’t a problem, if it was a problem?

I’m hoping that in reality he wasn’t concerned about it and they just added concrete for my piece of mind. I still question why it was off, but hopefully it doesn’t cause problems later. I asked the framers about it and they didn’t seem to be concerned.

The trusses are scheduled to be delivered next week, so the framing should all be done by then. Once the trusses go up they’ll sheet it and then roofing and siding are next.

I’ve been a little unnerved by the weather forecast lately. When we first set our site ready date with Adair Homes, it was for July and I thought we would have plenty of time to get a roof up before the rainy season. We were told that they would start foundation right after that if everything was ready to go. Well, it took a couple of weeks longer for the foundation guy to come out and then a couple more weeks for the framers to come. So, instead of doing the framing all in August it’s getting done in September… and there is rain in the forecast next week.

I continue to speak to people who say that it’s not that big of a concern because we are supposed to have warmer weather, so as long as it stays warm and the rain stops for a bit then it should dry out quick. There’s not a lot we can do about the rain, but it is a little annoying that we didn’t start as soon as we thought, so now we have to deal with it. I’d really like to avoid having to do a dry out on the house.

Things are continuing to progress and it has been exciting to see the walls going up. It will be really fun to see the trusses up there next week! Thanks for following along on our Eugene, Oregon new home builder journey.