I hope you enjoyed the intermission...

It has been two months since my last post, and I am sad to say very little has happened since then until today!  The pool/spa were done to gunite stage, and we had some issues with the measurements of the property, house and pool/spa being off somewhere by about 3'.  Three feet is an issue when you are talking about zoning setbacks, foundation cost and, most importantly, the master bedroom and closet.  

After some reworking, FraserCon (www.frasercon.com) have started our foundation.  Here's some interesting construction details:

1) We are using a post-tension slab foundation (http://www.northpointehavasu.com/Post-Tension_Foundations.html).  Essentially, it uses pre-stressed concrete that handles the expansive and contractive soil conditions like we have in Dallas.  Remember, in winter it can freeze here and in summer it can be over 105 degrees for weeks.  

2) Based on engineers recommendation, there will be a 4' deep beam around the entire foundation.  For the back half right side of the house, there will be a 4'-7' retaining wall/beam around the foundation.  Basically, we are using a crap load of concrete under this house.

You can see the guys digging the trenches that will be filled with concrete.  It looks like a war zone on-site.  We are holding everyone to task to get this sucker done!