Floor Joists & the first studs

This week saw the installation of the floor joists. They are double 2x12's that are necessary due to the load capacity requirements for a place of assembly. As you can see that makes for a LOT of wood. Also the front "king studs" were set in place as the week ended on Thursday due to the New Years Holiday. With these studs in place you can really see how tall the building will be. At first glance when I got home on Thursday I thought they had the wrong plans and were building a church!

Thursday night we had to scramble to get everything covered before the impending ice/snow storm anticipated for Friday. Fortunately we only got about an inch of snow which we spent the weekend shoveling out of the new basement. We will be glad when the building is covered in and we can stop shoveling snow out.

Things are getting exciting as every new day this week should bring a new "visual" of the winery as framing continues.

After a break the Construction Continues

Well it has been nearly 2 weeks since something noticeable was accomplished. Actually in that time period a lot of materials have been brought on sight including the steel support beams, floor joists, roof trusses and more. Unfortunately while trying to install the steel beams last week the framers noticed some problems with the beam pockets and anchor bolts the concrete folks put in. One set of beam pockets wasn't made deep enough for the steel beam - a 14" tall beam doesn't work well in a 12" tall pocket! As a result I had to have the concrete folks come back and cut the pocket deeper and order some steel shims to use for some other corrections. The fun life of the general contractor!

So today they were finally able to place the 2 steel beams and progress begins to crank up again. You will note the 2 beams - one spans the entire 60' length of the building and has 2 columns of support. The other "just" spans 25' and is beefy enough to need no columns. Amy was home and was able to get some action shots of the work.

Basement floor is in

This past week we scrambled to beat the incoming winter weather. The plumber put in all the below grade plumbing. Including the trench drains for the cellar. As the plumbers were finishing up their work the guys that were putting in the basement floor were busy at work getting the dirt prepped to pour the concrete. Fortunately we had 2 really nice days last Thursday and Friday with temps in the 50's. They got the rock base down late on Thursday and we rented a ground heater to heat the soil and covered that with insulating blankets. With the ground already frozen to about 6" they were worried about pouring a slab on already frozen ground, so that is where the heater came in. Friday morning the floor was poured so when I got back from work late Friday we had a basement floor! They came on Saturday morning to cut the joints and cover it up with insulating blankets to keep it warm as we had highs in the low teens on Sat and Sunday and lows below zero - ahh a wonderful Nebraska winter day!

This week will be a bit slow as my framer can only get in next Monday, but I will be busy behind the scenes making sure the steel beams, roof trusses, lumber and windows get scheduled.

The basement Walls Are Up!

The walls got poured on Wednesday and the crew started removing the forms on Thursday and into Friday. Also on Friday they added waterproofing and drain tile. It is starting to look like a building. This coming week the underground rough in plumbing goes in and maybe the basement floor will get poured.

The basement walls go up

This week the crew set up the forms for the basement and poured the walls on Wednesday. Here are some of the pre-pour set up pictures. With the days so short it is hard to get pics during the week before or after work, so we will take plenty of pictures of the finished basement this weekend.

Footings Poured

The footings are in and are awaiting the walls! On Tuesday the crews came in and dug for the footings and Wednesday, before some light drizzle came, they poured the concrete for them. Next up the forms for the basement wall will get set and the basement walls will get poured. It was a good Thanksgiving knowing progress is being made.

Construction Begins

Last Thursday we finally kicked off construction of our new winery and tasting room facility. The hole for the basement was dug. It changed the landscaped quite a bit on the site. Then Sunday Richard's brother Bob stopped by to help survey in the corners of the building. This is in preparation of the pouring of the footings on Tuesday.

It is great to finally be moving forward and get our building going.