Safe Room cap has been poured

This is an 8" concrete cap so the room is tornado resistant.

Well well well

Here is a nice shot of the well truck.
Last week the well drilling company started on the first of two geothermal wells. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_heat_pump#Open_loop)
Bill, the well guy had to go a little farther than planned, and came upon an unexpected surprise. He found that a prehistoric river bed once flowed through our land by evidence of a layer of rocky deposit about 214 feet below. According to him, this is what well guys dream of. Its rocky sandy composition tends to be a better filter thus, allowing water to flow through it much easier.




Jim, admiring the view from a basement window well

Water water everywhere...

I am referring to this past week in Springfield as Monsoon season, luckily the awesome guys at Moore Brothers Construction were able to get their crew in there and get our walls poured, before the Monsoons hit. The picture above is the water in our basement, I have a feeling that it won't be going anywhere any time soon.



Now, on to the business of waterproofing the basement.

Bubble-wrap like stuff that channels the water down and away from the foundation, into the drain tile, into the sump pump.






I've tried to label the house as best I could with the foundation that we have.

Our house is oriented 30° West of due South, in order to take advantage of the benefits of passive solar design. (The back of the house where the dining room, kitchen and family room are, face South-west.)
Passive solar heating is a part of passive solar building design. It uses the features of the building to absorb and release heat. These features are called thermal mass. Thermal mass includes windows, masonry and other architectural features in the building. With passive solar heating, the actual design of the structure is created to trap the heat of the sun and distribute it slowly over time. For example, large windows are often placed along the south facing walls of the structure because this is the sunniest part of a building year round. The sun would shine through those windows and be absorbed by thermal mass such as a brick wall. The brick wall would store that heat inside it naturally and when it is no longer sunny, the brick wall will radiate that heat and help warm the room. Occasionally, a mechanical device like a fan will be needed to help distribute the heat stored in the thermal mass throughout the building. From http://homeimprovement.superpages.com/heating+and+air/benefits-of-passive-solar-heating.html

Footings & Foundation Walls

Basement footings - These are poured and reinforced with re-bar so the basement walls will be strong enough to support the weight from the rest of the house.



Jim's panic room, he's very excited about this part of the house, solid cement walls, floor and ceiling along with a bank vault door. (overkill?)




From this angle, if the house was completely built, I would be standing on the front porch, looking into the living room windows at the front of the house.




Side view of the house, if this were built out I would be standing just off of of the side porch looking into the dining room doors.

Here we go...

The before picture taken May 6th 2010
This is the place that our future home will be, we're looking due West.