House Construction

Construction Begins!

Published on 2017-12-28

By Tracee

We purchased our property in February 2017, selected a builder and began working with an architect in March 2017, and began the process of planning our Net Zero, Passive home. One of our biggest challenges was to create a team around the objective of building a passive house. Building a passive home requires a custom builder not because it's a luxurious house, but because it's not common practice to make one. So, for various reasons, the summer was challenging and our construction date was pushed out.

BUT I'm happy to report that construction has started! It started the day after Thanksgiving 2017. The basement was dug, the footings and foundation walls poured, the driveway started and septic pump installed.

[caption id="attachment_237" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Excavator arrives and gets to work[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_236" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Excavator hits 'deadrock'[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_222" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Our site is on the Decorah Ridge (or Decorah Edge), which is a limestone geological formation around Rochester making digging and drilling challenging.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_223" align="aligncenter" width="225"]
image

Basement and footings excavated, forms put in[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_224" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Outline of footings. Max is standing in front of the drive-through garage.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_227" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Basement foundation walls prepped[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_228" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Foundation walls poured[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_229" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Forms taken off, revealing foundation walls[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_230" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Backfill around foundation walls[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_225" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Driveway[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_232" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Driveway[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_238" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Septic pump is installed[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_240" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Septic pump covered[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_239" align="aligncenter" width="225"]
image

Trench for electricity[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_221" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
image

Trench for pipes going to the well[/caption]

Construction will continue through the winter and our builders are getting creative with phasing it in a way that optimizes the work as it continues to get colder. Old Farmer's Almanac predicts a colder than average winter, so take the May 11th finish date with a huge grain of salt!