Can't believe a week has gone by so fast!  Monday was a rain day.  Tuesday the sun came out so the crew waterproofed the outside footing with a tar substance that is painted on, then a mesh is layed over that, then more tar.

Wednesday they started the second-step waterproofing which is a sticky back plastiky fiber sheet that goes on like contact paper.











On the inside they cut away 6 inches of styrofoam from the bottom and drilled holes for rebar to make a solid connection between the walls and the slab floor.


We also passed the basement plumbing inspection for the floor drains and sump pump.


I helped Mom move firewood!  I took pieces from her pile and made my own pile!

We had no power or phone for 24 hours from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon from a wind storm that knocked down trees around the region.

Early Monday morning the pumper truck set up, then 5 concrete trucks cycled through to fill the ICF walls.  The crew was done and out by noon!  You can hardly see all the rocks we dumped on the driveway--the trucks squished them deep into the mud.  It's a mess.

Tuesday the scaffolding and bracing was taken down.  Next is to waterproof the outside, finish the basement floor plumbing, and pour the slab floor.  All of those jobs require a little drying out which does not seem to be in the forecast.

Until next time!

The ICF walls are up, stabilized, and plumbed.  The only way into the basement is over this narrow gangplank and down a ladder!

We had 3.5 inches of rain last week so our driveway into the site became quite soft.  We've already put many loads of rock on the road and didn't want to buy more rock so we spent some time on the weekend loading rocks into the tractor and moving them to the road.

The round, green thing is a sump pump and the black pipe is part of the basement floor drain system.





Violets are blooming in the grass!

Here are our new chicks!  An Americauna and a Plymouth Barred Rock.  Mom thinks I'll learn to coexist with them, but they look like fun little snacks to me!

I saw the turkeys this morning!!  They're big!  They're spooky!


I knocked Mom off her feet again (second time) this morning.  75 lbs running full out--we both thought the other would move--hit right at the knees.  She went flying into the mud.  Hey, she said "come"!  She thinks I should work for the NFL.

We had to get special permission from the engineer to leave a section of rebar off the footing allowing easy access to the inside.  Now it's time to finish the walls so they drilled 12 inch holes in the footing  and epoxied the rebar into those holes.  The engineer helped set the rebar and signed off on another inspection!

This is how far they got last week.  The walls are about 6 ft high.  The blocks fit together like legos!










Ok, so sometimes when I'm sleeping my tongue sticks out.  Big deal.  I have no privacy.

Yesterday we finished filling the footers with DG, leveled it and compacted it.  It's a bit wet, but sure looked good after all that shoveling!

I graduated from Intermediate Training!!  Passed the test!  Got a certificate!  Still have to keep practicing though.

The ICFs (insulated concrete forms) arrived today!  They're laying out the first layer.