Saturday, May 31, 2014

Day 55: In Formation

Saturday

The forms are in! We're excited to have the forms in and set up. They're ready for concrete to be poured into them. We've waited for a long time to get our basement finished, and this is a great step. It helps to have the forms in because it commits our contractor to our project: as long as his forms are here, he can't move on to the next project. I'm keeping my eye on a line of thunderstorms to the west. As long as they don't dump too much on us, and soften up the ground, we should be able to get the basement walls poured tomorrow.





Daily StatsHours Worked
Cost
DayTrevorFamily/FriendsContractors
Today550016
All Time553252278.5$13,496.75
Summary of 5/31/2014
Work Done Today
Final form set up, blocked out window and doors
Materials Used Today
Rebar, treated lumber
Who Helped Today
Contractors On Site
remley Construction

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Day 53: Basement Progress

Thursday

We've been anxiously awaiting for the day when we'd see some progress on the basement walls, and today was that day. Our contractor dropped off forms yesterday around noon. They sat out in our basement like Easter Isle statues or a modern version of Stonehenge. It was a sign of progress to come.


Today the crew arrived and started putting up the rebar. They attached the vertical pieces to the ones sticking up out of the footing concrete shown in the above picture. Then they attached the horizontal pieces to the vertical ones using metal ties. Once all the walls are tied in place, they will put the forms around them and be ready to pour.



Speaking of pouring - it did that today at our land. A small but potent storm cell just a few miles across blew in and dumped water for about ten minutes. Just long enough to make everything muddy. Then about thirty minutes later the same thing happened again. It dampened the soil and made it too slick for our contractor to unload the rest of his forms. He'll get to them tomorrow, provided it doesn't pour any more tonight. If all goes well, he'll be pouring concrete Saturday morning or Monday morning.




Daily StatsHours Worked
Cost
DayTrevorFamily/FriendsContractors
Today530032
All Time533252230.5$13,496.75
Summary of 5/29/2014
Work Done Today
Tied rebar for basement walls
Materials Used Today
Rebar
Who Helped Today
Contractors On Site
Remley Construction

Monday, May 26, 2014

Day 50: Building a Bridge

Monday

No progress on the house recently as our foundation contractor is running behind. However, we did make some progress on the accessibility front. There are two main ravines that pass through our property and, so some extent, separate our land from the other neighboring parcels. One of the ravines continues to the north, and separates Nate and Krista's lot from Steve and Kim's lot. There is a trail connecting the two properties, but it is rendered impassible by the creek.

We decided to tame the wilderness by building a bridge. Steve came up with the design, materials, and equipment. We provided some of the grunt labor. We had a lot of family in town, so we enlisted their help.

First, Steve drug two telephone poles that he bought off Craigslist down to the crossing. Matt used his winch to drag them across the creek. We lined them up where we wanted them, then we dug small trenches for the poles to rest in so that the top of the bridge would be flush with the ground.



Once the poles were set in the ground, leveled, and spaced correctly, we laid 2x6 boards 6' ft long across the bridge. We had a pretty good fire brigade set up for this part of the operation. 


We had a righty and a lefty working on the bridge at the same time, which worked out well for spacing, productivity, and camaraderie.


The nailing was pretty hard work. Fortunately, we had a lot of people standing around to cheer us on. Matt came to the rescue with a 5 lb sledge and helped finish them off.


Once we were finished, we decided to quality check our work. For the maiden crossing, we opted to get both mules on the bridge, loaded with passengers, just to show how confident we were in our work. 



Daily StatsHours Worked
Cost
DayTrevorFamily/FriendsContractors
Today504200
All Time503252194.5$13,496.75
Summary of 5/26/2014
Work Done Today
Built bridge across tractor trail to Nate's lot
Materials Used Today
2 telephone poles, 2x6 boards
Who Helped Today
Steve, Matt, Darwin, Nate, Max, Reed
Contractors On Site
None



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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Day 38: Back to Waiting

Wednesday

Well, we haven't made any progress yet this week. Monday we got rain, which slowed down our foundation subcontractor. He won't be able to finish up until next week with the walls, assuming weather cooperates. The rain gave us a few puddles at the site. On the positive side, the rain is really helping green up our meadow.


Saturday, May 10, 2014

Day 34: Trees, Trees, Trees

Saturday

We got quite a bit done today. We camped out the night before, so we were already up a the land, ready to work. Steve started us off by using the snow plow truck to smooth out the driveway ruts. It was a big help, as the cement trucks had made the ruts deep enough that the minivan was scrapping. I did a bit more smoothing of ruts and washboard with a rake later in the day.

We had a bit of a break in the morning, with Abby joining me for a quick trip to the farm store to pick up some hardware for the posthole digger. She talked her way into two more ducks for Grandma's farm. Cheese and Quackers. The other kids were a bit jealous.


We let the new ducks play with the other ducks and goats and kids for a bit. They all got along great. The ducklings were much more at home in the grass than in the box. The chummed right up to everyone, and followed the kids (human, not goat) like they were a mother duck. The fun of country life.

In the afternoon, I was a task master, putting the kids to work for hours on end. Two hours, to be exact. We planted three rows of nut trees in the back of the meadow near the camp site. All four kids helped, plus Steve and Kim. Once again, we had  a system going, or so we thought. Maybe it was just a good plan. We set up the mule with the post-hole digger, water, tape measure, and buckets of trees. We planned to stop, drill a hole, plant a tree, fill it in, water it, and move on.

Turns out we couldn't get the post hole digger to dig. Not sure if the auger blades were dull or if the ground was too hard. So we dug by hand. The rest of the plan went, well, as planned. The kids were great help. Will and Abby helped me measure. Reed and Emmy planted and watered. I think they all helped each other with everything. They were great help and hardly complained at all.


We did trees every 30 feet in a line, staggered the next row and set it 20 feet way. We did two rows of walnut and one row of pecan. Probably around 20 trees (twigs) total. In five years maybe they'll be as tall as Reed.


We were blessed with excellent working weather, and then were blessed with rain late in the afternoon. It rained just enough to give everything, including our new trees and grass seedlings, a good soaking. Then the rain turned to hail on our drive home. Don't worry, the kids weren't out during the hail storm, just after.




Daily StatsHours Worked
Cost
DayTrevorFamily/FriendsContractors
Today34480
All Time342832194.5$13,496.75
Summary of 5/10/2014
Work Done Today
Smoothed driveway, planted trees
Materials Used Today
Walnut and pecan trees
Who Helped Today
Steve, Kim, Reed, Emmy, Abby, Will
Contractors On Site
none

Friday, May 9, 2014

Day 33: Footings are In!

Friday

On Friday, the footings were poured. We had a great day of weather and the concrete trucks were able to get up there and get to pouring. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of the day so I don't have any "during" pictures, but I did get some "after" shots later Friday evening. We're really excited to get the footings in. Weather looks good for next week, and we should be getting the basement walls formed and poured.

The picture below shows the entire basement. Don't worry, it's not that curvy. Or curvy at all. It's the panoramic shot from my camera that warps it. Starting from top left and working clockwise, the rooms are: suspended garage, family room, exercise room, guest room and bath, safe room 1, mechanical room, safe room 2 (because you can never be too safe).

The pictures below show the rebar shooting up through the footings ready for the basement walls. The angled wall in the picture below is a retaining wall, which will be just south of the garage poured driveway slab.

This shot is taken from inside the lower level of the suspended garage, looking west.

We also have our electric meter in place. It's fun to see it reading 00000. If only it'd stay the way forever.


Friday night we had a campout on the land with Tom and Dan and his boys. It was the first campout on the land, though we've had several cookouts. Tom did his share by improving our firepit.




Daily StatsHours Worked
Cost
DayTrevorFamily/FriendsContractors
Today330124
All Time332832194.5$13,496.75
Summary of 5/9/2014
Work Done Today
Poured footings, dug firepit
Materials Used Today
Concrete
Who Helped Today
Tom
Contractors On Site
Remley Construction




Thursday, May 8, 2014

Day 32: Footings

Thursday

We've had a few good days of weather and were able to start our foundation. Wednesday around 11:00 AM Remley Construction arrived on site. I met with them and explained the layout and drawings, and they got started right away. They lined out the foundation footings and started laying out the 2x4's for the footings.


On another front, we made more progress on getting power to the site. PCEC was out Wednesday working on getting power from the overhead lines out to my underground conduit.

Daily StatsHours Worked
Cost
DayTrevorFamily/FriendsContractors
Today320024
All Time322423170.5$13,496.75
Summary of 5/8/2014
Work Done Today
Finished footing layout
Materials Used Today
2x4's
Who Helped Today
Contractors On Site
Remley Construction

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Day 30: Tree Planting

Tuesday

They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second best time is now.

"Now" finally came this afternoon as we planted some trees along our drive. The older kids helped briefly, and then were whisked away to Scouts and Activity Day Girls. Abby and Will stayed to help, along with Kim.

We had a pretty good system. Kim created ribbon labels for each tree, which we tied on to their trunks (i.e. twigs). We placed them in two buckets with a few inches of water to keep them moist. The buckets, and Abby, went in the back of the mule. I then hooked a tape measure to the mule and extended it 20ft perpendicular to the road. We drove the mule along the road, measuring the distance between the trees (30ft) with a walking tape. I'd start the hole and move the mule from hole to hole, placing the correct tree at each hole. Abby read the labels and handed out trees to me in the right order. Will held the tape. Kim came along behind and finished the hole digging and planting. It was quite the process, and it worked well.


The basement has been fully excavated and I have a few better pictures of the competed job. The extra dirt has really helped our backyard develop.

Will and Abby were great help, and they got to play with the goats afterward before heading home.


Daily StatsHours Worked
Cost
DayTrevorFamily/FriendsContractors
Today30220
All Time3023.522.5116.5$13,496.75
Summary of 5/6/2014
Work Done Today
Planted approx. 20 trees
Materials Used Today
Red Oak, Redbud, Tulip Maple, Dogwood trees
Who Helped Today
Kim
Contractors On Site
None