Opening Shot: This is the area that we plan to build our house.

Note: Temporary Power Panel is already setup.

The first order of business was to remove all tree stumps and Mesquite bushes sprouting up. Unfortunately, there was also on large tree that would sit directly in front of the garage that would have to be removed. We kept the firewood and will use it for the first fire in our fireplace. Maybe I'll make something out of a piece of it, just to give it a legacy place in our new home!

Just in case your wondering...  I used 3 cans of fluorescent paint to mark all of the cedar stumps and Mesquite bushes sprouting up.

We rented an excavator to quickly and easily rip out all of stumps and of course this large tree.

There are thick layers of rock about 12 inches under the ground. This huge tree had a root ball that was only about 14 inches deep but over  5 feet wide! It was actually pretty tough to remove.

Here is the firewood that we saved from the large tree.

Installed the temporary electrical panel for power during construction. I rented a rock saw and cut through 24 inches of rock to create a 130 foot trench to the home site. We used 250MCM aluminum cable run in 2.5 inch pipe from the Main Panel to the temporary power panel. There is also an external 4 AWG copper ground connecting the Main Panel to the temporary panel.

Main Panel shortly after installation.

Side shot showing the ground wires. Note the ground rod was cut into 2 - 4ft. pieces. After trying multiple locations, we found that the rock was just too dense. Even driving it in diagonally proved impossible. The power utility allowed us to finally drive 2 separate 4 ft. deep, but bonded together stakes.

Back of the panel. I created a plywood box to protect the extra wire needed to complete the run to the house later.

Back of the temporary panel. The wires are fed into the temporary panel on the front. Note the ground wire that also runs through the trench to the power panel. I wanted to ensure a really GOOD ground.

Front of the temporary panel. There are 2 - 120v 20A circuits, 1 - 120v 30A plug and 1 - 240v 50A plug.

The back of the panel is screwed on to protect the cables inside.

All 120v circuits are GFCI protected. ($$$)

Breaking Ground

Batter Boards and strings are setup to establish square and correct levels.

A Bobcat skid steer is used to clear the top soil from the area. We took off about 8-10 inches of top soil.

The back form is setup. Note: The top of the form is not the top of the slab.

Back corner of the house. The kitchen is located in this corner.

This shows the foundation fill going in (6" lifts) and being compacted. This is the front of the house. The Master Bath is located in this corner.

Most of the house is sitting on a rock layer. The stakes for the forms had to be drilled first and then driven into the rock.

Workers had to use a hammer drill to drill 1.5" hole through the rock for the stakes.

Back of house. This is Gilbert of Lopez Construction & Concrete Design compacting the fill.

Back of the garage. Gilbert continuing to compact the foundation fill. You can see the excavator that was used to dig the trenches for the beams in the background.

The is the front of the house. Looking at the office. You can see the trenches have been dug and the remaining pads have been covered with plastic sheeting.

This is the front of the house. Looking into what will eventually be the courtyard.

The excavator was used to dig trenches through the Master Bath area.

NE back corner of the house. This will be Alyson's Sewing Room. Workers continue to add fill to the forms.

This shows the 12" wide beam trenches and the rock layer that we encountered throughout most of the house.

The excavator is cutting trenches through the Sewing Room area. Some pads have already covered.

The excavator had to be returned the next morning, so workers continued digging beams and plumbing trenches through the night.

This shows some of the plumbing installed and we are continuing to dig the beams and finish for the night.

Gilbert and his crew worked pretty hard that night!

Gilbert's crew cleaning out the beam trenches.

Pouring the slab. 130 cubic yards of concrete was scheduled for 4:30am (Who picked that time? IDK?) So, I arrived at 3:30am to make sure all was in order and to fix a few last minute problems. At 4:30am, 2 concrete trucks arrived. No one else was here!!!! Apparently, Gilbert overslept a little. He was 30 minutes behind. I had the trucks backup and began pouring the first 2 loads into the beams... By myself! Gilbert and his finishing subs showed up about 30mins later. I actually poured and directed 6 trucks (1/2 of the concrete) myself. That's some serious owner participation.

This is the front of the house. Looking at the office area. The slab and beams have been filled with concrete.

Another closeup. We used 3000PSI concrete. All cement. No fly-ash fillers. This makes it stronger and smoother. 

Workers walking in the mix.

I'm standing in the garage area. The beams have been filled. Workers are moving concrete in the background.

This is the front of the house, near the office. Gilbert (in the brown jacket) is assessing the pour.

Front of the house.

Scenic shot of the sun coming up. It was actually freezing when we began the pour, but it warmed up quickly.

Back of the house. Daylight finally arrived. 3 more trucks to go.

Standing in front of the garage. Workers are screeding the concrete flat. Beautiful sunrise!

Back of the house. Workers are filling the Master Suite.

Back of the house, showing the Living area and Sewing room. We are letting the concrete setup before smoothing it.

Another shot.

Standing at the back of the house, behind the Living area. Workers are now filling in the Master suite.

Another shot.

Workers are smoothing the edges. The concrete is starting to bleed out water.

East side of house, near the Guest Wing. Workers are adding the last of the concrete to the Master suite.

Back of house.

Back of house, near the kitchen. Workers are smoothing the edges and starting to fill the garage.

East end of the house, near the Sewing Room. Filling in the garage slab.

Workers are filling in the garage slab.

Workers are smoothing out concrete in the garage.

Uh oh! Red (the neighbor's dog) wandered over to take a closer look at the Dining Room floor.

The concrete finally setup enough to begin troweling around 10:30 am. He is smoothing over the dog prints!

Workers continue to work on the edges... smoothing. troweling, edging, etc...

This is a shot of the front door and the courtyard patio. What a beautiful broom finish! I was really pleased with how this turned out.

One of the workers is finishing up the courtyard patio. We placed J bolts (spaced every 3 ft) along the walls to prevent uplift of the walls. The square boards with J Bolts along the patio are for the patio columns.

Front of the house, near the Master Bath. The concrete is being continually troweled smoother and smoother.

You can see the swirl patterns left by the trowel. Those will disappear after the concrete has fully cured.

This is a shot from the driveway, looking toward the house.

This is the front of the garage. I placed some "sweeps" here to allow the water to be piped into the house and some electrical lines to run out for later. Notice the slope that we placed in the garage to allow water to drain toward the overhead doors.

This is a picture of the garage floor. Not quite smooth yet.

You can see the slopes (along the wall) that we added to the front and rear of the garage.

This shows the "lugs" that we placed to allow the overhead garage doors to sit in (when they are closed). The 2x10 will be removed later.

This is a picture of the floor drain pipe penetration. All pipe penetrations have to be sleeved.

The Master Suite is smoothing out nicely.

This is the Master Shower. We will fill and slope it with mortar later during the tile work.

This shows how smooth the concrete is becoming. The workers keep polishing it until it is mirror smooth.

This is the trowel that was used for the majority of the slab.

Finally, the workers have just left and the slab is smooth and dry. It looks wet because it is soooo smoooooth!

I've been up since 3am for the concrete pour, but now (at 7:30pm) it's time for me to apply the curing agent with a pump sprayer.

Like the hair?  Ha!

This took about 2 hours to apply. I finally finished around 9:45pm. It had been a loooong day. I was really tired.