Construction Begins

So I'm going to do a lot of the work on the house myself. I've hired my friend, Andrew, to be my prime contractor (if you want to call it that). He's one of those guys that knows how to do pretty much everything and he works as hard as two men. It's still going to be a learning experience for both of us. I don't think he realizes that I hired him mostly because he'll stop me from doing stupid things. Besides, you can't build a house alone. Here's our address - up in the photo behind the menacing sign.

We debated using structural foam forms and doing the foundation ourselves. It's a great new technology but I really balked at this because excavation and concrete are the two things I've never really had any experience with. You can't start with a messed up foundation so I hired Ron Fokkens, the most highly recommended guy around. He's busy but we managed to schedule him for almost the same day that I received the building permit so that worked out really well. The excavators were busy so we started a week late but I'm just glad to be rolling. I was getting pretty anxious to break ground and it feels like someone just removed a kink in my neck that I didn't even know I had. The sunrise sure seemed brighter the day they started digging. We shared this monumental day with another little event - the US presidential election.

There were a few things we were really worried about. First, nobody in this town was able to tell us where the utilities hook-ups were. The excavator warned me that they could spend all day poking holes in the lot, just looking for that. we found the water right away but had no idea where the sewer line was. The nice thing about living in a small town is that you can walk right into the town facilities shop and round up a couple of guys to help you out. They said the sewer should be within 3' on either side of the water and sure enough, there it was. More good luck! There was also storm drain in there so we can tie that into the weeping tile. In this photo you see me with Ron, the cement head, and the excavator's dog (the supervisor).

The second thing we were worried about was this big chunk of rock that is right next to our property. Everyone else in the area had rock problems and they said this shelf probably would get in the way of the basement. By the time the excavator was done, he had just scraped the edge of it. Horseshoes up our butts! There was hardly a boulder in the dig, much to the annoyance of my neighbors who suffered through that. They also put in the sewer, storm drain and fresh water pipe before they left. Don and Otis, the excavators, were a lot of fun but I was sure glad to see them finish their part.

Or so I thought. They didn't cut the north wall of the hole back far enough so they had to come back today. I don't think they wanted to see me either. I have to get them something nice for their trouble.

I have a 6' deep hole, I have tools, I just need a foundation to build on. The concrete man cometh. Ron says he'll be here on Monday to pour the footings and, considering the warm weather we're still enjoying, he should have the entire foundation poured by Wednesday. Suddenly I'm the weak link; I have the hardware store quoting on materials so I hope they get back to me... like... now...

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