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Mary and Jerry Nasello's Gulf Coast DAC-ART waterfront house construction 2006-2008
Nasello Home Site Prep	Pilings	Foundation	1st Course	Slab Prep	Slab	2nd Course	3rd Course	4th Course	5th Course	Page 11
First Floor	7th Course	Porch#1	8th-9th row blocks	Weathershield	10,11,12th	Second Floor	16th Row blocks	17,18,19th row	19,20th row	Page 22
Cornice	Fireplace	Roof-1	Roof-2	Roof-3	Cornice-2	Arches	Garage Doors	Porch Arches	Roof Decking	Page 33
Tile Roof								Newspaper Castle Article	Magazine Coverage  DacArt in the News	FloorTile

Contact Jerry Nasello for sale info on this home ....ph 251-223-1234.  See also Previous  Home for Sale In Peninsula, Gulf Shores, AL 

Rows Eight and Nine--Window and Door Openings

The red thing is a small 
concrete mixer. We bought it since no one involved w/ this 
job had one already. The cost a little over 200 bucks. We 
had to buy a used gas powered concrete saw too. The 
blocks are just guaranteed w/ a tolerance of plus or minus 
on quarter inch so sometimes you have to use extra grout 
or cut a block if it is oversized for the opening. We were 
very frustrated about the fact that the electrical outlet 
openings were omitted that were suppose to have been 
cast in place. 

	Inside of the garage under the porch. The blocks that stand out are 24 inches thick and weigh over 1000 lbs each --before they  are backfilled with concrete in their core. The columns for the porches will sit on these blocks. They are sitting  on pilings that are 20 ft deep, capped by a 2 ft thick, 5 ft  wide reinforced concrete piling cap.

The windows will be recessed so that there will be some  sill on both the inside and outside. Here, on the left,  you can see the molded-in raised trim that goes around the perimeter of  the openings. There is a small piece, a bull nosed trim  piece, yet to come that will fit between the sides and the  sill. We just realized that we need to ck to be sure that this  small piece is delivered as we build, and not all towards the  end, as this might require the scaffolding to be moved and  set up all around the house one extra time. That would be  very time consuming ! We spoke to our builder, and found out that since this  small piece has a history of being broken on the job, it is  best to wait a bit to install them.

This raised edging will go all around the outside edges of the windows.

Because the crane operator cannot see up onto the tops of the rows of blocks to know how to set the next blocks, we are using video cameras. This stand has a camera mounted on it and can be moved about. It is plugged into a regular 110v outlet. The monitor is in the cab of the crane. There is a second camera mounted on the ball that hangs from the crane cables.
	This house will have a lot of light. The size of these window openings is over 5 feet wide. They also start low on the wall. All of these windows are to be casement windows and all functional except for the ones in the elevator/stair tower.

*******

This window is in the wall of the stair / elevator tower.	First time we were able to take a photo of this corner of the  house without a boom truck or crane in the shot.
	The sub-flooring on this floor is oriented strand particle board and has a 50 year warranty. The porch floor is conventional exterior 3/4 in  plywood because it will be covered w/ something like Durarock and will get a poured in place 4 inch concrete slab on top. The OSPB is more expensive than the conventional plywood.
	As you can see, we are having excellent weather for building. The carpenters have their own saws and drills, the table is  just a work table for plans, etc.. We have a list of supplies  that was given to us by Ted Dial of DAC-ART that are  necessary to keep handy for this type of construction. One  thing is on that list is this thing like a extra long crowbar to  slide under the edge of a block to make slight position  adjustments. An interesting fact is that you never use the  bar to push, but swing around and use it to pull a block  towards you. A 16 pound sledgehammer with a plastic  handle. To bump a block in and out of alignment for  flushness on a wall, this tools bumped against the face of  the block w/ THE HANDLE....you hold on to the heavy head  of the tool. This is just for slight adjustments.

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