Monday, July 15, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Building Barry, Day 72: Walls, wonderful walls!
Spent all morning packing up the house, and by the time I got out to the building site, it was already three o'clock. The guys had been busy in my absence (probably worked faster without me sitting there watching them from a lawn chair). All the forms were in place for the foundation walls, and the cement pumper truck was just maneuvering into position when we arrived. Score!
Liza and I hung around in the hot sun - SUN! Hallelujah! - so we could watch them start to pour the walls. It was every bit as exciting as it sounds:
And just like that, we have a basement. By the time Jason got to the site around 5:30, the tops of the walls were already hard enough that he couldn't even scratch his initials into one of them. Disappointment abounded.
I'll be out of town this weekend and won't be able to post pictures, but I'm hoping that by the time I return on Sunday they've removed the forms, finished the drainage around the foundation, and backfilled in the trenches around the outsides of the walls. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds for us so we can get caught up with the framing and such. And think good packing-and-moving thoughts for us for next week!
Liza and I hung around in the hot sun - SUN! Hallelujah! - so we could watch them start to pour the walls. It was every bit as exciting as it sounds:
And just like that, we have a basement. By the time Jason got to the site around 5:30, the tops of the walls were already hard enough that he couldn't even scratch his initials into one of them. Disappointment abounded.
I'll be out of town this weekend and won't be able to post pictures, but I'm hoping that by the time I return on Sunday they've removed the forms, finished the drainage around the foundation, and backfilled in the trenches around the outsides of the walls. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather holds for us so we can get caught up with the framing and such. And think good packing-and-moving thoughts for us for next week!
Building Barry, Day 71: The muddening
So, we got a little rain after the hole was dug. And by "a little," I actually mean "seriously, we need an ark over here." But that didn't stop our intrepid work crew from getting the footer forms ready to go:
By the end of the day, they had the footers in for the walls and support columns, and the crane had delivered the forms for the walls:
In other news, we walked around the extremely muddy neighborhood until our shoes got too heavy to drag out of the mud:
We also met our soon-to-be-down-the-street neighbors, whose names were (I think) Larry and Linda. They've got a son that's a year younger than Liza, and a daughter that's three. They're in addition to our other neighbors Jerry and Lona, and Brad and Britney, and Sheila and whatever her husband's name is that neither of us can remember and her son Austin. Looks like this time we might actually know the names of more than two neighbors on our street! Huzzah!
By the end of the day, they had the footers in for the walls and support columns, and the crane had delivered the forms for the walls:
In other news, we walked around the extremely muddy neighborhood until our shoes got too heavy to drag out of the mud:
Also: our neighborhood used to be a wheat field. Parts of it still are:
We also met our soon-to-be-down-the-street neighbors, whose names were (I think) Larry and Linda. They've got a son that's a year younger than Liza, and a daughter that's three. They're in addition to our other neighbors Jerry and Lona, and Brad and Britney, and Sheila and whatever her husband's name is that neither of us can remember and her son Austin. Looks like this time we might actually know the names of more than two neighbors on our street! Huzzah!
Tuesday, July 09, 2013
Building Barry, Day 70: Groundbreaking!
Jason and I are now the proud owners of a Big Damn Hole:
Now, as long as it doesn't rain so much that the whole thing caves in on itself overnight, they should be ready to put forms in and start pouring concrete later this week.
The house next door to us is virtually the same floorplan as ours (different front elevation, and they chose not to add on some of the options we picked), and they broke ground a couple of weeks ago. It's been fun watching their Big Damn Hole turn into Sort Of A House, especially as the Beard Brigade has been framing it during the past week.
When the workmen leave for the day, I have been known to go wander around their house, trying to picture where our furniture will fit in the various rooms that are the same as ours. And I marvel at the puddles you get on your floors when the storms hit before the roof goes up ...
Now, as long as it doesn't rain so much that the whole thing caves in on itself overnight, they should be ready to put forms in and start pouring concrete later this week.
The house next door to us is virtually the same floorplan as ours (different front elevation, and they chose not to add on some of the options we picked), and they broke ground a couple of weeks ago. It's been fun watching their Big Damn Hole turn into Sort Of A House, especially as the Beard Brigade has been framing it during the past week.
When the workmen leave for the day, I have been known to go wander around their house, trying to picture where our furniture will fit in the various rooms that are the same as ours. And I marvel at the puddles you get on your floors when the storms hit before the roof goes up ...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
