Front foundation wall

This week the front frost wall was poured! This is the foundation wall below the ground floor upon which a standard wood wall will be built. Now we can see the outline of the front of the house: Kitchen to left, dining and great room in middle, and master suite to right. Next week, the back wall will be poured. Amazing that this can be done in weather below freezing. The first image is an overall site from above. The second is the view out the bedroom side, and the third is looking at the view from the great room.

Foundation excavation underway

Despite winter in NH, foundation work for our house has begun! While we are vacationing in the Bahamas, we received these photos of excavation work this week. The trench is for the lower foundation wall, with cementwork scheduled to begin next week!

Groundbreaking

We were very excited to see excavation equipment now on site, preparing to dig the foundation hole for our house! Although it is winter here, and the upper level of ground is frozen, this does not disuade our builder, Jay Tucker of Old Hampshire Designs from getting this project started. The top picture is looking south across the house site, toward the frozen lake behind the trees. The lower picture is looking from a shared driveway west toward the lake and house site. The last picture represents us on the site after deciding to rotate the house slightly at the last minute before the foundation was poured. Here we are all bundled up on a cold day trying to align our view!

Planning

We've been working with architect Jeremy Bonin and partner Kim Bonin this fall to fulfill a lifelong dream, namely construction of a new house! We decided on a timberframe style, with first floor living for us, and a walkout basement below for guest bedrooms, etc. The sloping lot that we found on the lake is perfect for this design, although it does present some driveway challenges! Here is a sketch of the front of our planned house.