We are proud to be breaking ground on a new home in Brunswick near Bowdoin College. The owners who coincidentally live in the neighborhood a couple of blocks away came to us early in the summer and expressed an interest in having us design their house. Using Softplan (A CAD program that allows for both 2D and 3D representation of plans) we worked out a design that incorporated a open floor plan on the first floor with a living/dining area, kitchen, office, mudroom and bedrooms upstairs. The main building is connected to the two car garage by an ell. There will be a full height basement for the main house and connector. Using attic trusses on the connector and the garage allows for future liveable space with minimal framing costs. The exterior of the house will feature two covered porches facing the street and a patio for the backyard.
We broke ground at the end of September. The first step was to clear the lot of the undergrowth and trees. Once this was done and we had the building envelope positioned to everyone’s satisfaction it was time to start digging. With the soil in the area being mostly sand our excavator had to oversize his hole. Next up comes the footing and foundation walls. Because of the width of the building we’ve had to dig the foundation in two stages. If we did it all at once we would not have a way to get the excavator into the backyard to back fill once concrete had set up. So instead we will excavate and pour the garage foundation once we have back filled the main house.
