Another day. . . . . .

Well, another day of housebuilding is over. Dan got the footers dug this week. Today we had to shovel out the dirt he couldn't reach with the tractor, compact the dirt, fill the trench with gravel, make sure it was level, and compact it again! Whew! No wonder I'm so tired! Sunday we will be putting all the rebar in the trench to get ready for the concrete. Didn't get any good pics today, but I will post some on Sunday after we finish!

Done backfilling!

We finished backfilling the basement today. So it is officially finished until we get ready to pour the concrete in the footers. We will put the poly deck on (those are the blocks that make the roof of the basement-they are styrofoam blocks like the walls). They have deep grooves in them that, when filled with concrete, form big concrete I-beams to support the floor. So we will pour the first few inches over the poly deck when we pour the footers, then we'll finish the foundation. So much to do! We had to mark everything out again since we had to move most of the strings to get the tractor around the basement. But we got it all straight and Dan started digging the footers!


Tune in next week. . . . . . . . .

Krystal riding along with Dad. : )

Backfilling

Started backfilling the basement today. So ALL that dirt that came out of the hole now has to go back IN! And it seems like an easy enough thing to do, but we had to screen out all the big rocks so that they wouldn't fall in and break the plastic. We also had to compact the dirt every few feet to make sure everything is good and solid. We got a little over half way up the walls today. We have to wait for the termite guy to come spray again on Sunday morning before we finish the rest. There will be absolutely NO BUGS and NO WATER in our basement!! : )

Waterproofing

Well, we got the plastic up around the basement. I am learning so much with this house!! The plastic was in a ten foot high roll and about 70 feet long. And it wasn't like garbage bag plastic, but more like floor mat plastic! It was so heavy and hard to work with! We had to recruit some help for the first time just to get it up and screwed down! Here are some pics of it going up. There is also one of the stairs that are going in.

Slow but steady

Well, things have been a little slow this week. We are waiting for the plastic from PolySteel to put around the basement to keep water out. It should be in today. Dan tried to use this other sealer stuff that you paint on, but I guess it was a disaster and made quite a mess! It took poor Krystal 3 days to completely get it off her hands! We have all been sick, so it's kind of a welcome break, but Dan worries constantly about falling behind schedule. Funny, I thought I would be the one worried about the time since I'm so impatient to move in! I can feel the walls of the mobile home closing in around me. . . . . . . .AAAAAHHHHHH! ; ) But once we get the plastic on we can start backfilling around the basement and get right back on track. I'll be back with more pics when we do!

The walls are done!

Hooray, the walls are done! We poured the concrete in them on Monday and WHEW! What a job that was! We had this 2" hose that pumped the concrete to where we needed it. And that thing was SO HEAVY when it was full of concrete! Thanks to Brad (the pump guy) for his help or I would have been in trouble! I'm including pics of the walls all the way up, a side view so you can see it from ground level, and Dan with the hose. There is also a shot of the concrete inside the wall. Now we have to wrap the outside of the blocks in plastic to waterproof it before we can start backfilling. Moving right along. . . . . . .

Basement walls

Well, the basement walls are almost finished! My camera battery ran out, so I'll have to post the finished ones later, but here are some pics of the walls going up! It may not look like much, but it was a ton of work! The first layer of blocks had to be measured all the way around to make sure it was straight and level, then they had to be glued to the floor. Then, if you look closely, you can see that we had to extend the rebar to about 12-13 feet high. The rest of the blocks had to be lifted up over the top and slid down onto the bars! Thanks to Bill and Winnie for the use of their scaffolding--made it SO much easier for us!

Had the best time at the property yesterday! Spent the whole day working, then decided to build a fire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows at the end of the day. It was perfect!! The stars were so beautiful! Can't wait to live there!!!!! : )

Update

Wow! I hadn't realized how far behind I am in posting updates!! Digging the basement turned out to be a much bigger project than we realized! I couldn't believe all the dirt that came out of that hole!! But we finally got it done, despite several days of yucky weather. Of course, we would have to build our house in the coldest and wettest winter I can remember for quite some time!

Progress at last!!

Well, we have finally made some real progress! The last few weeks have been kind of tedious with not much exciting going on. We had to scrape the basement, remove all the rocks, put gravel down, compact it, scrape the footers out and compact those. . . . .Then we put down plastic, foam insulation and wire to hold the radiant floor tubing in place. And today, after a LOT of prep work, we poured the footers and foundation for the basement!!! Hooray! Here are some photos so you can see the progress. (pics 1 and 2 are backwards!) Now, on to the walls. . . . . . . . .