change in plans

Walton met w/ Mike the flat concrete man (the concrete is flat, not Mike....) yesterday a.m. He said he prefers all of the backfill around the house to be done before he starts on the slab. So, we will have to wait for Terry to do his work before Mike can start. It's like putting together a giant puzzle!

3 days later...

The inspector finally stopped by to check the rough plumbing today. It passed with flying colors. On to the gravel and wire mesh under the basement floor.

on the schedule for this week...

...we have the county building inspector, then Andy the plumber to come in and cover the rough plumbing, then Mike the flat concrete man to prepare the basement for the slab, the ProCare termite folks, the building inspector AGAIN, and then Mike to pour the slab. (And somewhere in there Terry Echols will be back to backfill under the garage and around the exterior basement walls.) Wonder how much will get done? And, I get to go back to work this week.

back online at last!

We have been offline for almost a week due to problems with our Charter connection. They finally sent a tech out tonight and he was able to fix the problem in about half an hour. So without delay...here is an update on everything that's been happening at 777 North Ola Road.

First, the Sound Foundations crew marked the height of the walls that were to be poured on top of each section of the footers:

Then, they put the things on this truck together like a big puzzle to create forms for the basement walls. (Allen - I don't know what the pieces are called - help me out here!)

The boys got a big laugh as we were leaving after I took the pictures of the crew forming up the walls. As we were backing up to leave, I accidentally hit the car horn (more than just a little beep...) All of the guys stood up and waved like we were their best friends. I guess they think we liked their work. ;-)

Last Thursday (the 13th), the big pumper truck and the concrete trucks came and poured the walls. It was a blazing hot day.

On Friday the crew came back and took the forms down to reveal our new basement walls.

The section that looks like an open rectangle will be under our front porch. It will be a tornado shelter in the basement! (Will and I do not enjoy a tornado, so this will be one of our favorite features of the house. We will be in the shelter while Walton & Kyle stand above us on the porch to watch the storm. Ha.) Here is Walton looking into the tornado shelter:

You can also see that Andy the plumber did the rough plumbing on Monday the 17th. After the building inspector approves his work, Andy will cover up the pipes. Then the guy who is doing the basement floor will come in and smooth it out before he starts his part of the job. (And the pest control people will do a termite prevention treatment.)

We have a company called Dri-Tech coming out to put moisture barriers on the exterior of the basement walls tomorrow, then Terry will come back to do the backfill. It's starting to look like something now!

candy cane lane

The rebar sticking up out of the concrete reminded us of candy cane decorations at Christmas time. They poured all of the footers today. The concrete will dry (or is cure the construction term for that?) over the weekend. Provided the weather cooperates, Arturo and his crew will form the basement walls on top of the footers beginning on Monday. They will pour the walls as soon as they get them formed.

rainy day again

We have had lovely, much needed rain all day. Therefore, no pouring of concrete.

nothing to report

No work happened today. Just waiting for the inspector to show up and o.k. the depth of the trenches or whatever it is he is going to look at. Hopefully he'll show up in the a.m. and they'll be able to pour the concrete in the afternoon.

Walton did meet with the plumber at the site today to figure out where the drainage pipes need to go.

Footers on the Fourth

Walton went over to check how the digging was coming along at about 1 o'clock this afternoon, and was surprised to find this:

The crew was already done digging and had all of the rebar in place, too. They must have started really early this morning, or else they are bionic. Notice all of the empty gallon water jugs lying around!

Here is a chunk of that big vein of rock that Terry found when he dug the basement. Hmmmm...wonder if it's granite? Maybe we could mine it and have it polished to make our kitchen countertops. Not.

They are digging it the old-fashioned way!

Wow! We were surprised to see that the crew digging the footers is digging by hand. We really expected some kind of small excavator with the heavy, hard packed clay soil we have around here. I cannot imagine what hard work it is, especially as hot as it is now. Ugh. There were several empty gallon water bottles lying around the site, so they must drink lots and lots of water. Bob (the owner of Sound Foundations) told us that Arturo (the crew leader) said that they will probably work tomorrow. They don't celebrate the 4th of July since the crew doing the digging are all Hispanic. They said they will be ready for the building inspector to check their work by Wednesday - then the pest control people will come in with termite prevention treatment, then they'll pour the footers. I like progress. :-)

Dad - Walton says for you to come on down and pick up some firewood. We have it all stacked and ready to go:

no basement walls yet

The foundation guys have not started working yet. The crew leader's wife had a new baby this week, so he has been on "maternity leave". He will be back to work Monday (despite the holiday Tuesday) and they told us they will start work then. Walton was able to meet with the owner of the foundation company on Thursday and they worked out exactly how the house will sit. So, I guess that will save some time when they are ready to start work.

I was happy to get sketches of our kitchen cabinet layout in the mail from the kitchen planner today. The layout looks great on paper - I can't wait to see the real thing. Here is the style of cabinet door we chose:


A side note - Walton has been gone all day helping some friends tile their kitchen. While he was gone, the boys and I tiled our little tiny bathroom here at the rental house with some of those sticky tiles. (you can laugh now.) Woo-hoo! It was a once in a lifetime adventure! The tiles are supposed look like slate - a big huge improvement over the yucky linoleum that was in there - especially considering that it only cost about $30. Kyle was awesome with helping my non-mathematical mind figure out how to trim the tile to fit around the toilet. I can't wait for Walton to see it. Now, if I could just figure out how to camouflage the lovely baby blue tub.....