Inspection Day

Today was inspection day by the City for the foundations, ground level framing, bracing and plumbing. Everything seemed to go smoothly and the work passed inspection.

Here's Paul the Inspector who was checking out the foundations and framing/bracing work:

Here's the cantilever support structure for the breakfast nook. The nook is part of the kitchen area and projects out behind the house providing (hopefully) a lovely view into the oak grove while eating breakfast cereal!

I had originally assumed the 12 x 6 composite beam across the middle of the house was a load bearing beam, but it turns out I was wrong. It is in fact a Drag Beam and although it will provide some load support, it's principal role is to provide lateral seismic stability to the structure in the event of an earthquake. Here it is:

It seems a lot of the engineering that has gone into the foundation design has been to address seismic concerns, which are much higher on the agenda than I had anticipated for this region, as well as the sloping ground and soil composition. I have been assured by Richard the builder as well as Paul the inspector that our house "is not going anywhere... ever!" It looks as though if anyone wants to put our house in the Corvallis Outdoor Historic Museum a couple of hundred years hence, then they are going to have to build the museum around the house.